This week the news has been awful. More police violence. And now, shooters at a Black Lives Matter protest in Dallas. I don't even know what to say except...I'm so sorry for those harmed and/or killed. I wish none of it had happened. I wish people--no matter their skin tone or religious beliefs or sexual orientation or gender status--could be safe and live their lives. Most of all, I wish we could do something about the obvious gun problem in this country. There's a reason the GOP doesn't want to permit the study of gun statistics by the CDC or any other governmental organization. It's because the image that information would portray would not be favorable to the NRA. It would gut the profits of the entire gun industry. But it's time. It's long past time. Something has to be done. The common citizen does not need military grade weapons. They don't need semi-automatic guns with huge magazines. They do not need a gun to protect themselves. That's what the police are for. As for the police, they don't need military grade weapons either. They need to clean up their act and be held accountable. They need to earn our fucking trust again. Because I don't know if y'all have noticed? We. Don't. Trust. You. Any. More. Police? You're the violent, out of control, paranoid, drunken parent. People don't want to come forward with evidence lest it be tampered with. Do you understand what that fucking means? You've undercut yourselves. You can't do your fucking job without the trust of the public. When that happens, chaos reigns, not law. Power without accountability is a bad, bad combination, and it's long time that stopped too.

The prison industrial complex needs to end. Jailing people for debt needs to end. 

Dear "Fiscal Conservatives": this is what happens when you squeeze and squeeze and squeeze every dime out of an economy for the sake of a limited few. Humanity already knows where this is headed. We've done it before. Multiple times. This is when the guillotines get sharpened and the pitchforks come out of the barn. It's when the oppressed slap back full force because their pleas for change were ignored and ignored and ignored. The top wealthiest people need to put the fucking money back into the country. People need stable, reliable jobs--and not the kind one has in a fast food restaurant. People need to make a living wage. People need healthcare. People need access to libraries and education. Without these things, society devolves into barbarism. That's what I learned from studying Northern Ireland.

OMG, all this shit has to stop.

Have a nice feel-good story. Also, a hug, if you'd like one. Thanks for reading! I know everyone is busy and has lives and stuff. Have a wonderful Wednesday, if you'd like, of course. Some people prefer the dark stuff. Nothing wrong with that. ;)

So, yesterday was a holiday. It isn't one of my favorites because the 4th of July brings up a conflicting set of emotions. On one hand, I believe I'm fortunate that I live in this country for a whole host of reasons involving the hard work of human rights groups of varying stripes. On the other, I'm not a fan of Nationalism, and flag waving makes me uncomfortable--more so the older I get. So, I spent my time with friends. We ate food. We crushed a Trump piñata full of Mexican candy. (And while I felt bad about destroying the effigy of a political 

candidate...well...Trump is not a reasonable political candidate by any reasoning person's standards. He can't possibly run the country. He's ill-informed, unaware, and a bigot. He is the epitome of what ancient critics of democracy referred to as "mob rule." And "mob rule" is precisely why we have limits on democracy like super delegates and the Electoral College. These limits are why our democracy has lasted and hasn't become a dictatorship. Nonetheless, I'm not generally in favor of defacing effigies...it creeps me out because it's so dehumanizing...I do feel that strongly about Trump being a danger. Ah, conflicting feelings. :)

And now...those links.
​Today's video is not safe for work:

Never mind. I just lost four hours of work because of fumble fingers and... Weebly. [sigh] Sorry. I just can't go back and redo all that work today. The thought makes me want to scream.

There are some people who don't feel history is important. I can only assume that they haven't had anything significant happen to them personally--no broken hearts, no near death moments, no...nothing. The past informs the future. As the saying goes: mistakes are experience, and experience brings wisdom. The past programs us. It teaches us whether we're aware of it or not.[1] So, what came out of WWI besides a great deal of death?

The EU for one thing.

I've a friend who insists that localization is the only way to live--that the US should dissolve because the Union is too unwieldy to be effective. Personally, I've always felt that his opinion was based entirely upon three things: a blinkered view that the world operates the same for everyone regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or class when it very much doesn't; a devout belief in the holy myth of the self-made man; and a willful blindness toward the benefits of centralized government. I've never had a lengthy discussion with him on the issue because I've never sensed his position was genuinely reasonable in spite of his claims to the contrary. He's quite set in his political stance to the point of religious dogma. There's no discussion with someone speaking from that place. There is only proselytizing. There's nothing wrong with criticizing political systems. It's the only way they become more refined--and we do want them to become more efficient. And this is why upon the advent of Brexit, I did almost respond when he asked what was wrong with localization? (And then I remembered it wasn't a genuine question.) Still, the question hung in my mind as often happens. I am an inquisitive person,[2] after all, and I love to discuss politics and other more serious issues. The above story gave me my answer.