I haven’t been able to keep up with blogging for a few days. On Thursday, I went into Manhattan for a meeting with our investment bankers on an M&A matter. I found out when I got there that I was scheduled to make a presentation, and I got to practice my extemporaneous speaking skills. I took Good Friday off, and my home computer has had connectivity problems. What did I miss?
Over the weekend, I read the Sy Hersh article on the GOP plan to murder a lot of Iranians, and this continues to trouble me. There’s nothing I can do about it except to speak out against it, so I suppose that I should try not to get so worked up. A big part of what keeps me up at night is the realization that a lot of my countrymen will cheer on the murderers and use the occasion to stick even more patriotic magnets on their cars.
There is a base of slack jawed yahoos (“SJYs”) to whom the GOP panders and on whom the GOP relies. These people have no scruples about the use of violence either to compel their countrymen to conform to their will or to kill and maim foreigners with or without a stated reason. They listen to right wing talk radio and watch FOX cable news. I am resigned to the presence of the SJYs in the country. They don’t know any better.
What really disturbs me are the otherwise ordinary and decent people who, when the “government” starts murdering people, are fine with it. They will tsk tsk that it is regrettable that people have to die but they will assure me that it is necessary and unavoidable. Some of these people will sit next to me in church worship the Prince of Peace while condoning war. These folks trouble me deeply because they are capable of moral reasoning but eschew it.
I am beginning to like the proposition that Thomas Knapp discussed last Friday: http://knappster.blogspot.com/2006/04/friday-fights-1.html But I doubt that there are enough honorable officers left to form a junta.
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2 comments:
I was a SJY of sorts. Back during the first gulf war, I remember reveling in smart bombs and sortis. Our pilots listened to the most hard core death metal on their Walkmans before their missions. Wicked cool! I wasn't yet a Christian but I sure was a Republican. I judged almost everybody, domestic or foreign, on whether they were pro- or anti-American. Be friends with us and we're Mr. Nice Guy, but mess with us and we'll nuke your @$$.
Steve, The transformation that comes with Christianity is amazing. It was rediscovering my faith that led me to resign from the Army Reserve. My outlook on politics and life in general was turned upside down.
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