Our sacred 2nd amendment right

Ned would like to ask those deranged individuals, 2nd amendment lunatics all, if they value their "right" to own a firearm more than the rights of those three dead kids at the Ohio school to life. The kids were murdered by an 'at risk' teen from a violent family, who somehow obtained a 22-caliber handgun and opened fire at a cafeteria table at 7.30 in the morning.
What about it pinheads?
Oh, and whatever your response, you are invited to kiss our a**.

Game Over?

This week's Economist contains a troubling article on the growth of coal as a fuel source by India and especially China. By 2050 the Chinese alone could be burning 8 billion tonnes of coal a year, and the Indians maybe 2 billion tonnes. It makes us wonder why we are spending so much angst and political capital trying to slow and eventually reverse the effects of climate change, due mainly to CO2 emissions from coal and oil burning. We are beginning to think it would be better, like Voltaire, to quietly cultivate our garden, and devote ourselves mainly to the mitigation of the inevitable warming of the planet by 3-4 degrees C, accompanied as it will surely be by catastrophic coastal flooding and other unpleasantness.
Could it be that the great cosmic experiment with big brains will prove to be a disaster? We fear so, and the GOP presidential field only cements this hypothesis in our mind.

"Love you"

Are Ned's friends as tired of hearing people speak in meaningless phrases as he is? Ned especially finds it tiresome and annoying when he hears people use sentences without subjects. His "favorite": Love you. Not "I love you." Not "We love you." But the meaningless "Love you." He also takes those to task who use the annoying and meaningless phrase "God bless." Not "God bless us every one." Not "God bless you", but just the meaningless "God bless." We suppose some would say that we should not be so churlish: after all, we are surrounded by persons who say things like "prayers go out for...," or some such twaddle.
We sometimes wonder if we should ask our friends to join us and lament the passing of the English language as a means of effective communication.

UPDATE, 3/1: Perhaps our friends will permit us to add that scintillating tribute to idiocy from our friends in the Dismal Science, "negative growth."

Destroying Scott Ridder

The destruction of Scott Ridder, just about the only influential American who vehemently argued that the "evidence" of WMD's from Iraq, used by the criminal Bush regime to justify the invasion, was a lie, is practically complete. He has been arrested and convicted of five felonies. And what were they? Going on chat rooms and trying to get women to watch him masturbate over his videocam. That's right- not murdering wedding parties with drone attacks, not killing children in Afghanistan by 'mistake', not destroying the life savings of millions of Americans through shady financial deals, not even kidnapping children. In fact, he didn't really commit any crime at all, since he was entrapped by a Deputy Dawg, who himself may have lied to access the web site. Now Ritter could get 5 years in jail instead of psychiatric help.
And, at the same time comes a report that some woman in a Pennsylvania town called the cops because she saw a man standing at a school bus stop. This in turn provoked a panic and the principal at the closest middle school kept all the kids in from recess! We are not making this up.
So this country once again proves itself the most mentally ill society this side of Pakistan.

The New American Economy

One of Ned's acquaintances observed, with a grimace, that jobs in the "new" America will be mainly found in "security" industries, in which persons of limited education and skills are hired to patrol abandoned buildings to keep homeless people and other undesirables off the property. Of course, he observed, most of these jobs will be offered to "veterans" since they have few if any skills other than pointing weapons at civilians in countries populated by persons of color.
We admonished him for his pessimism and offered that there were at least two other "growth" industries that would fuel the economy, and fill the McMansions, of tomorrow: dogs and "landscaping." That there is an immense industry catering to dogs can hardly be disputed, as most of us know at least one member of family or friends who is a dog walker, a dog "groomer" or who works in a pet store, etc. We also expect that thousands will be hired to patrol streets and parks to pick up dog shit, a leading cause now of water pollution, and a cause that can only grow in the future. And of course, there is "landscaping" which means of course immigrants and persons of little education making minimum wage mowing lawns and blowing leaves, cuttings etc around with gas-powered "leaf blowers."
What was it The Immortal Bard had one of his characters say in, was it, The Tempest?
"O Brave New World!"

UPDATE: Thursday

It is worse than we thought. Today's NYT has a piece on how much people, er-'pet parents,' spend on their mangy dogs. Those whose incomes exceed $70 grand spend most of the money on such things as gourmet meals. And, worse, half the households in this benighted country have a dog, and 4 of ten have a cat. No wonder they don't want to pay more in taxes--those gourmet meals for Fido are taking up much of that disposable income. We hold cats to be less of an issue if owners keep them indoors where they cannot kill birds, etc.

Defunding mass transit? Wha-?

We admit to being puzzled, with no irony or sarcasm consciously intended: what on earth is the matter with the collective mentality of the House and Senate GOP? Now they have proposed a bill, which of course has NO chance of being approved, of completely defunding mass transit. This represents to us a manifestation of some sort of collective mental illness, one which we are confident will prompt some group of psychiatrists or psychologists to support awarding disability payments to any individual who espouses such a position. Here's why: the position makes no logical sense. Take DC for example. Here upwards of ten million tourists, riff-raff and otherwise, descend on the city each year, and most of them ride the metro. Residents know that fares cover about 1/2 of the cost of each trip, with the rest being made up by contributions from local governments (read, local taxpayers) and some pittance of federal support. So, when the fresh-faced kids from some Iowa high school come to DC and ride the metro, they are being subsidized by the locals, and many of them come from GOP families. And so it is across the country: New York, New Orleans, San francisco, Denver, LA, Portland, et al.
So what could these idiots be playing at? We confess to be in a daze just contemplating it, but wonder, is it yet more tiresome hatred of the black man in the White House?

Winning the Hearts and Minds: Afghanistan

In the latest attempt on the part of "NATO" to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan peasantry, "NATO" (read: American) mercenaries "mistakenly" murdered at least 8, and probably more, Afghan children in an incident this week. This is of course only the latest in a seemingly unending series of such brutal murders, oops, "accidents", and will no doubt not be the last.
In a completely unrelated incident, an enraged Afghan shot dead 4 French soldiers and an American.
The mercenary high command says it is "investigating" the first incident, and, if it turns out to be true, is sorry.
How's that hearts and minds campaign coming along so far?

UPDATE: Wednesday "NATO" (read, the US military) announced that, yes, they were responsible for the deaths of these kids, it was an accident, they are sorry, here's ten bucks each, and can we please now get back to the "war on terror?"

UPDATE 2: On the 22nd we learned that American mercenaries had burned copies of the Koran in Afghanistan, precipitating the obligatory riots and leading eventually to the murder of two mercenaries by an unnamed Afghani. All in the name of 'winning the hearts and minds' so we can 'win the war on terror.'

Okinawa

Apparently the U.S. is still refusing to get out of Okinawa, contrary to the wishes of its inhabitants. In 1996, some American mercenaries gang-raped an Okinawan schoolgirl, and that was not the first such incident. Now, the American mercenaries are demanding that the Japanese pay for the removal of some marines to Guam to the tune of $10 billion, and agree to allow the US military to keep an air base on Okinawa. Disgusting and infuriating, is all we can say. But it is only in keeping with a mercenary, soul-less empire that also refuses to end its illegal occupation of Cuba and get its murdering troops out of Afghanistan.
Ned curses the lot of them, and damns them to hell.

A New Executive Order? God Forbid!

An individual with the unlikely name of F. W. Lee Badgett, or something similar, and an even unlikelier title, has written an op-ed in the NYT decrying "workplace discrimination" against gays, lesbians, transgenders, transponders, and just about anyone else with an "alternate lifestyle." This individual also calls upon Obama to sign an executive order to "ban" such practices.
Ned respectfully hopes Obama hasn't taken complete leave of his senses and ignores such cockamamie advice. It goes without saying that we wish the best for our alternate friends, but we call upon our many readers to imagine what the rabid dogs of the evangelical nutcase Christianist wing of the GOP would make of such a thing? They would immediately forget their obsession with Romney's cult membership, and the fracas over abortion funding. They would immediately pick up their pitchforks, stir up every troll-like creature from under their rocks and march (figuratively) on Washington. Obama would galvanize these creatures like nothing else he could do. Remember Clinton and 'don't ask, don't tell?'
So God help the Dems if Obama does any such thing.