All Those Guns!

September 3, 2007

Hi Josh!

Thanks for the article showing how well prepared we Americans are – what with all those guns!

As you suggested in mentioning the Swiss defense system, more mountains would be good too, but the only place with 2,000 miles of contiguous mountains would be the SciFi Channel.

So, we’ll just have to be glad all those extra firearms seem to be compensating. I think the last time the continental US was invaded was in 1812?

And I know you’re probably a bit frightened by Canada, being so close to the border and all, but it’s Mexico and their “take back by birth what we lost by war” strategy that scares the you-know-what out of me! Of course, that’s much better than Daisy Cutters, C-130s, Abrams tanks and Abu Ghraib.

Of course, while, unlike Switzerland, we don’t have to worry TOO much about our immediate neighbors, “we’ve” apparently been quite paranoid about those folks FURTHER away – having invaded various of them over the years. At least 130 times as of 1988 according to Carl Sagan based on the Congressional Record.

And of course, just to keep “our” hand in, that number has been seriously “improved” in the 19 years since Sagan’s article. Under both Democratic and Republican administrations.

And just so “we” don’t get rusty, it looks like “we’re” going to put another mid-eastern country, Iran, in its place. Namely back into the stone age – as James Baker III also put it to Tariq Aziz of Iraq just before the 1st Iraq so-called “War.” What IS this obsession with Iraq anyway?

Also Clinton (the “Bill” variety) warned that well-known hotbed of terrorists, Serbia, the same thing just before bombing it, well, ah, back to the stone age. And, it seems, “we” are quite worried about “ourselves” as well, what with the Democratic-controlled Congress passing that bill a couple of weeks ago making it easier than even “our” pillar of freedom, Dubya, wanted – to spy on “ourselves.”

Which brings me back to those firearms and Switzerland. Despite “our” predilection to “worry” about our distant neighbors, most folks worry more about their CLOSEST potential enemy instead:

As Americans we must always remember that we all have a common enemy, an enemy that is dangerous, powerful, and relentless. I refer, of course, to the federal government.

~ Columnist Dave Barry

And, of course, our first President seemed to recognize the danger too.

Government is not eloquence, it is not reason. It is force. And like fire, makes a dangerous servant and a fearful master.

~ George Washington

And, it seems, “our” Dubya concurs.

The United States is at war with America. And we have been for 60 years.

~ President George W. Bush, June 29, 2006

Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.

~ President George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004

So, given the fabled armaments sported by our closest enemy, we might want to be thinking more like the Swiss (military grade weapons) and even the Iraqis, who at least have RPGs!!

September 3, 2007

The Best of L. Reichard White

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$bio: L. Reichard White [send him mail] taught physics, designed and built a house, ran for Nevada State Senate, served two terms on the Libertarian National Committee, managed a theater company, etc. For the next few decades, he supported his writing habit by beating casinos at their own games. His hobby, though, is explaining things he wishes someone had explained to him. You can find a few of his other explanations listed here.

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L. Reichard White [send him mail] taught physics, designed and built a house, ran for Nevada State Senate, served two terms on the Libertarian National Committee, managed a theater company, etc. For the next few decades, he supported his writing habit by beating casinos at their own games. His hobby, though, is explaining things he wishes someone had explained to him. You can find a few of his other explanations listed here.

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