Monday, May 25, 2015

And Again



It’s another memorial day, a time to speak of men who “laid down their lives so we could be free,” and “made the ultimate sacrifice.”  I find this whole military pr day insulting to the folks who went to war for whatever reasons and didn’t make it back.  For starters I doubt they laid down their lives.  More likely their lives were taken away from them and not without a fight.  And certainly they didn’t do it so we could be free to play video games, become enslaved to cell phones and be unable to travel without a gps and incidentally allow our wasteful way of living to help degrade our habitat.  If they risked their lives, my guess is they had their own families and generations in mind, not the current one. 
                I further doubt that sacrifice was involved, unless referring to what the government does with its citizens.  Probably very few would have gone had they known they would be killed.  So how about we cut all the crap and just say, “Here’s to all those brave people whose lives were cut short because some rich bastards wanted to get us in a war.”  We can call it “Rich Bastards Day.”

                When we figure out a way to lay going to war to rest, let’s have a Memorial Day for that.

Friday, May 08, 2015

BREAKING NEWDS !!!

The literary event of the year, dare we say decade?  is coming up faster than a  gopher guts sandwich.  That's write.  The latest signing by that luminary auther and seller of grate English wurds, the man who puts the litter in litterature, the ok in book and the cash in pocket, well, we all know who we're talking about here - for those who've been on Mars or someplace and haven't caught the buzz, has been scheduled for May 16.

  See Tom's amazingly above average new novel, see Tom sell four books at once, just see Tom.   See you there.  Where?  Where else?  Winter Park's new and terrific bookstore - Writer's Block, 124 Welbourne Ave., 12-2 and probably a bit on both sides of that.  Be there or be a writer's blockhead.

Tuesday, May 05, 2015

Today's Revelation

Just watching a war movie and it got me wondering what is the purpose of the Geneva Conventions, which, I see by reading them, were violated during the George Bush era by the United States and no doubt are violated by any country anytime it’s deemed expeditious to do so. 

  They can’t exist out of concern for the welfare of captured soldiers because if the “powers that be” actually cared about soldiers, they wouldn’t have wars in the first place and then enlist those with the least stake in the outcome to kill and die in them.   Clearing away that advertised purpose left the true purpose  obvious.  It’s a military recruiting tool making it a little easier to swallow going out to kill or be killed if you think at least you won’t get tortured or you’ll get kind treatment once you’re blown apart.   Kind of a warm fuzzy from the big shots.  Makes war a civilized endeavor.  Heck.  If there's rules, how bad can it be?