Swords and coddling and other things.

Saw a weird item in the news – well yes I go trolling for them – I have on my Yahoo account a page set up to show up the odd stories of the day – the weird wire as I call it. And it’s been buzzing a bit these days.

One story I got per tbloog actually involves a guy who thought a woman in the upstairs apartment was getting raped so he grabbed his cavalry sword (and how many people have one of those about the house) and after he broke into the apartment demanded to know where the woman was, it turns out the guy was watching porn with the sound turned up – Just one more example proving that your worst nightmares can come true at any time. One moment indulging in technology assisted self abuse, the next face to face with a sword wielding lunatic. Arrests have been made and I guess it will all come out in the wash as these things do.

Was going to watch phantoms last night but at the last moment the thought of watching another bad movie was just too much to deal with. I was tired and beat and just not up to it. I will do so this weekend I promise. Also going this weekend to celebrate the Enemy Below’s Birthday on Saturday (along with bringing over Mai tai makings and playing city of heroes – I have a blaster I want to give to the world – gad I am such a geek) and on Sunday to see Lucio Fulci's Zombie on Sunday at Chavd SB’s house (he’s the lead singer/songwriter with Things Outside the Skin and fellow Godzilla fanatic) . Details to follow – I’m not sure if I’ve seen this if it did it was late night TV and butchered – so I expect this to have the bucket’s o’ blood and entrails look of Italian horror films (I know more about the dumbest things)

Got in a bit of a slanging contest with someone on the subway ride home yesterday – he was, a self impressed jerk who was convinced Rudy Giuliani was a great man and was going to be the next president and that he supported bush in Iraq. After I thanked him for giving me the best laugh I’ve had in days.

Normally I don’t like to get in these kind of arguments – I get my Irish up I can tend to say things that are a bit shall we say ‘heated’ and frankly brutally insulting.

My problem Giuliani is that he’s got really too much of a taste for authoritarian rule – and the last thing we need is a Caesar – especially after having Ethelred the Unready as president for 8 years. And while Rudy may be personally honest (there have been some odd things but nothing looking like outright theft) some of his close associates have been out and out thieves. (One Bernie Klerk comes to mind).

But one thing that stood out in this – two but I’ll get to other later was something he said when we were talking about things like welfare “I don’t like people being coddled” he said – at which point I just about lost it – I got right in his face and pointed out that in 1846-7 while the Irish were dying by the thousands, the British government organized relief but they were careful not to make relief too easy to get cause the Irish were naturally lazy and would stay on relief after the crisis was over unless the British were diligent. They didn’t coddle the Irish and about 3 million of them died because of that (and other factors I will admit). The poor always get this bs served to them. Not only is somebody standing on their neck, they lectured about why they should be ashamed for spoiling the finish of the shoes of the person standing on their neck. The moral failing of the poor, their laziness, is a constant, if depressing line of thought throughout history among folks with a vested interest in the status quo and not quite willing to see how much they personally owe to their own socioeconomic background – for example, I’m on the top of the food chain, white male, doors will open to me easier than to someone else – but that has nothing to do with my actual abilities, which impressive aren’t something that a million other people have as well.

Thinking more about it I find the term coddling to be loaded and stupid. The poor aren’t coddled – Paris Hilton is coddled, Steve Forbes is coddled, the Bush twins are coddled – not someone one welfare who is viewed pretty much as tax dollar stealing lazy criminal – although compared to the disappearance of tons (I forget how man tons but the number is mind boggling) of cash in Iraq even the most determined welfare scam artist is pretty damn small potatoes.

He was also certain we were staying in Iraq. I don’t think that’s going to be the case – the non-binding resolution as toothless as it was only a first step – there is a motion in the senate to rescind the 2002 authority they gave W to attack Iraq. It won’t pass but again it’s a step.

Notwithstanding the political pressure to get out, there is a simple practical case to be made that we can’t afford to stay – we are grinding the army down to a numb – every damn day we read stories that the army doesn’t have enough recruits, body armor, guns for the National guard, vehicles what have you – we may have been trying to attrit (to use an unlovely Viet Nam era word) whoever we’re fighting at the moment – Sunnis, Shiites what have you – they are effectively attriting us. The only way we are going to be able to maitain a presence in Iraq over the next few years is to a) instate a draft and b) raise taxes – on everybody – and nether of those paths will be taken so, dick Cheney Rhetoric aside – and how crazy is this gimp? – We are leaving – W will leave it to the next president cause that’s his way of ducking blame but we are out.

Random Neural Firings

Some odd signs of what may be the apocalypse have come over the wires –

1 – Chimps using spears – if not a sign of the end of the world maybe it should be. And there are all those planet of the apes links in my head.

2 – The sighting of the first beaver in New York City in 200 years – I knew the Brazilian wax was popular but --- oh never mind – it’s still weird. And who can resist making stupid beaver jokes. I mean really man would to be made of stone.

3 – Court has upheld the ban on social dancing in NYC bars and restaurants – a hold over from the 20's – now either the licensed dancing clubs had better lawyers or somehow Baptists have infiltrated the appellate court.

4 – I can’t get opening day tickets to the Mets – I’ve been going to opening day since 1986 – they did some kind of lotto thing that it looks like nobody except the scalpers won. While I will probably scalp – I don’t want to cause a) it’s a lotta money and b) the only other time I had to scalp was the year of the Mo Vaughn disaster so this isn’t sitting well with me.


Peace love, get yer tickets here.