Hitler took away our gunz, no, wait it was Putin, no wait, we had gunz but decided not to fire them at Russian Spetnatz and fucking tanks, 'kay? thxbye.

Tell me that I'm just a bit behind the curve and other people have been trumpeting this loudly from the rooftops.

Crimea had LOTZAGUNZ when they got annexed by Putin.

This:

http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/cp/Ukraine

says that Ukraine (of which Crimea WAS a part) had something like 6+ gunz per person. And we're not talkin' bout single shot, bolt action .22 cal. "plinkerz*"; nosireebob, we're talkin' bout AK-47's and other military weppins--a fuckton or so of them.

I gotta do some more googlin' and Buddy the Wonderdog sez I need a walk** and so there's that. This might get more treatment later.







*    According to at least one FBI source the round used most frequently for killin' people. The source is several years (or more) old so it may have changed, still....


**  I have not, to date, had to kill anyone or even carry a Colt 1911 in my Kimber 4000183 CC holster. And Buddy never says "HooooooooooooooooooooAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!", neither.

Memorial Day is not Veterans' Day, homz.

I was over at Penigma's blog, just a few minutes ago. There is a post on there, thanking U.S. military veterans on this Memorial Day.

I can only speak for this veteran.

First; Thank you.

I am a veteran but I'm still alive. I appreciate that people want to thank U.S. soldiers, sailors, wingnuts* and marines. Please do it on Veteran's Day.  Memorial Day is for the fallen, either in battle as a result of wounds from battle or after their live is otherwise over. That's just my take, ymmv.

Second; I don't need praise or thanks for something that I did almost 50 years ago.

I enlisted in the AF (prolly one of the handful of genuinely thought out decisions I made in my life) and was lucky/smart enough to know that the AF sent far fewer troops into combat zones than the Army or Marines. I don't do large steel boats, very well.

I'm not a fighter (nor much of a lover--kvetching, though, I'm good at that, DAMNED GOOD!) so a non-killing job was good for me and my country. I don't need to be thanked for that, although I would not insult a person doing so--unless of course they are some political stuffed-shit** or a wingnut v 2.0 who is using the occasion to make political hay*** EXPESHLY if they're chicken hawks.

What I DO require from my country is that they honor the commitments made to me and other veterans in return for our service. Nothing more, nothing less.

It appears that the GOP is going to use the Phoenix VA scandal to push for privatization of the VA medical centers. If you want to do me and every veteran who uses or might use those services (just about everybody who has worn a uniform for the required time is potentially a client) make sure that your congress critters are aware of this AND opposed to it. And send that fucking asshole John Boehner a personal "Go FUCK Yourelf". Boehner did serve, sorta, eight weeks in he got an honorable discharge for a bad back. He looks remarkably good (although it appears that he could have been the original "Agent Orange" if he had gone into, say, the CIA). So, don't diss him. Thank him for his eight weeks of service--THEN tell him to go fuck himself.

Thank you, dear reader**** for taking the time to come and visit my blog.

Resume the parade of stuffed-shits (not a politician) with their faux patrioligiousness on Main St. USA! USA!! USA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




*   That term was used back in the early 70's by folks who disparaged USAF as "non-soldiers". I'm sorry it was stolen by people to use as a descriptor for the unhinged loonz that populate the ReiKKKwing of MurKKKan politics. Oh, btw, you guys that didn't like me and thought I was NOT a "REAL soldier"? Fuck you, very much.

**    NOT a typo.

***    Digressing for a moment from my current rambling incoherency. GOPinheadz like building strawmen and throwing crap against the wall to see what sticks. I'm not sure if they're aware that bricks can be made using straw and dung (Source: http://inhabitat.com/one-brick-two-bricks-lets-use-poo-bricks/). Indeed, I like to think of the modern GOPeabaggist Party of being built like a shitbrick house.

****   And yes, "reader", I know that I have "grate blog with much good idea for my think about." and I'm rushing out, first thing tomorrow to open a bank account so's I can send you some routing numbers and passwords to allow you to give me millions of dollaz so's I can buy Viagra at a HUGE discount that will only be small when viewed next to my enormous jo--, well, you know what I'm saying.

Today is Memorial Day

Today is Memorial Day.

Today is the day we honor and acknowledge those who died in military service on behalf of this country.

Today is the day we honor and acknowledge that sacrifice in defense of our nation, our form of government, our Constitution.

The core premise of our government, what is established by our Constitution, what was so beautifully articulated by Abraham Lincoln, president during the Civil War which inspired this holiday, is "government of the people, by the people, and for the people". 

That is what those men and women, all of them back to the American revolution died to protect and defend and to ensure continues.

That government of the people, by the people, takes place through the function of one man (or woman), and one vote.

That is NOT one vote ONLY for a few, special, privileged people who have the 'right' color, ethnicity or origins, the 'right' religion, or the 'right' economic status, or the 'right'  political ideology.

That is the opposite of one person/one vote.  That is the opposite of legitimate representative government - the form of government that defines our nation. 

That was what those wars where those people died we honor today were fought to oppose - to prevent control of government by the few, to prevent human beings from treatment as second class citizens.

I think about that every time I see an effort by conservatives to suppress or limit or restrict or in some way impair or make more difficult the right of people - American citizens - legally to exercise their right to vote.

The National Report recently ran this headline, reflecting an ugly moment of honesty and candor:

Secret McConnell Recording: Tea Party Lost Primaries Because It “hasn’t learned to conceal its racism”

“They have their strong base, their core. But, they don’t have success courting the middle. You know why? It’s their overt racism. The Tea Party hasn’t learned to conceal its racism. That’s where they fail. The Republican party knows better. Want to keep minority voters from the polls? Fine, set up hindrances to “prevent voter fraud”. Want to cut social services? Fine, but do it for “fiscal conservatism”. These Tea Party idiots and their supporters are out hollering the N word, calling Obama an ape, suggest Michelle is a transvestite. That alienates the middle. That’s what costs them. You want to think those things? Think them to yourselves. You want to legislate against that them? Come up with an excuse. The Tea Party will remain an also ran unless they work on their poker face a bit more”.

It should be obvious to Mitch McConnell and to all conservatives that keeping minority voters from the polls, or keeping anyone from voting as easily as others vote that he is dishonoring what those veterans fought and died to protect by voter suppression.

By voter suppression I mean

•  creating long lines by reducing polling places or making them inaccessible, 
• reducing early voter days, 
• not providing bathrooms to people who come to a location to vote, 
• purging legitimate voters from voting rolls, 
• voter ID when there is not a problem with voter fraud that would be solved by that solution-in-search-of-a-problem, 
• laws which disenfranchise criminals who have paid their debt to society so as to disproportionately disenfranchise minority ethnicities
• laws which make it more difficult or expensive for people to register to vote
• laws which privatize voting, and which require voting machines that result in 'hanging chads' or dubious electronic results vulnerable to tampering

Think of that today. Think about what people died to preserve, think about the ideal, think about Lincoln's words (a liberal), think about Jefferson's words (another liberal) in the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

All men (and women) are created equal, have equal rights, all men - and women - are NOT second class citizens.  Men and women have bled and died for that.