Don't Thank A Veteran This Memorial Day

I might as well get this out of the way. I promised I wouldn't rant any more so I'll keep it toned down.

This Memorial Day, don't thank a veteran for his service. It's an inane and insincere thing to say. And it's all about you.

Instead, apologize. Apologize that he had to serve and you didn't. That would be honest and sincere.

I have a friend who took two in the leg for the 4th Infantry division near An Loc. It negatively affected the rest of his life. I had a brother-in-law who won the Distinguished Service Cross with the 173d Airborne near Saigon. His life became a downward spiral to an early death.

Your thanks for that kind of suffering are meaningless. Your apology might not be.

Enjoy your burgers.

"What is learned in combat is never forgotten." - Jonathan Shay, Achilles in Vietnam

Home To What?

Home from the asphalt seas. Six days and 600 miles. Mobi, 240,000 miles and all, ran like a Formula One car the whole way. You just need faith, and one of the few things I believe in is Mobi.

Didn't catch any fish to speak of, but I had a great time and great company. I'll call that a success.

The question now is now what. I am officially retired. No more wage-slavery.

The actuaries say I have 18 more years. What to do? I have some ideas, but what I need is a plan.

Hopefully, that will take shape soon.

Stay tuned.

This Will Be Hard

A good friend pointed out that my rants are futile and tedious. That's what friends are for. In his honor, I will try to refrain from ranting. I can't promise complete cessation, but I'll try.

Hiatus

I'm travelling from the 14th to the 19th so the blog will be still for awhile.

I'll be hitting the road in my 97 Saturn, Mobi. She only has 240,000 miles on her so it should be no problem.

Stay tuned.

Mike

Usury

Usury is the most foul and destructive act of lending money at interest. It was forbidden by all major religions (until they discovered it could make them rich). Mainly, it was considered heresy, the creation of something from nothing, which rightly only God could do.

Pound referred to it as: "usury, age old and age thick."

"Dante puts the usurers in the lowest sub-circle of the seventh circle of hell, with others whose sins are regarded as doing violence against nature and nature's God; many people have noted that usurers are placed deeper into hell than violent murderers, violent suicides, blasphemers, and sodomites. Dante regards usurers as perverting art, i.e., productive skill, by means of which we are supposed to produce and create and thereby imitate the goodness of God. Usury is the anti-art: it produces nothing substantial, being just a set of multiplication games with money, and therefore does not really contribute anything to 'earning one's way and furthering humankind'. It merely gives the illusion of doing so, and is therefore a sort of mockery of both human reason and divine providence -- indeed, a sort of universal violence against neighbor, God, and one's own reason, an extraordinarily efficient form of violence by which you do the most damage with the least effort.

The Violent in Dante's hell suffer violent punishments; the punishment of the usurers is to sit while futilely and wearily trying to ward off with their hands the violent, whipping winds that sometimes shower them with burning sand and sometimes cover them with flaming fire."

The Koran says:  One who takes interest, his belly shall be filled with an equal quantity of fire by Allah. If he has earned more from the interest money, Allah will not accept any of his deeds. And till even a grain of interest remains with him, Allah and his angels will continue to curse this man.

It wasn't the telemarketers that Jesus attacked in the Temple, it was the money changers (usurers).

Even the Jews, infamous usurers, though not by choice, initially forbade the practice.

And yet there is hardly an Amerikan who is not in the usurers' thrall (aren't you)? Paying interest is another form of slavery which Amerikans have embraced. There will be a reckoning for this greed. Invented money does not last forever. Ask any Weimar German.

A Few People I'd Like To Have Lunch With When I'm Dead

Dead people are no doubt bored, so I'm sure these folks would be happy for free food and conversation. Of course, this is just a partial list, subject to addition and deletion. Feel free to add your own in comments.

• Buddha, but a light lunch.
• Hitler, come on, who wouldn't.
• James Joyce, just to mock him.
• Hemingway, but just drinks.
• Reagan, to deliver some Depends.
• Bakunin, for mutual aid.
• William Butler, my ancestor who survived most of the Civil War battles.
• Audrey Hepburn, but a date, not lunch.
• Ingmar Bergman, just to cheer me up.
• Ervin Schrödinger, about that cat.
• Shakespeare, because I've always wanted to meet an extra-terrestrial.
• Ezra Pound, to tell him he was right about usury.
• God, to let him know how disappointed I am.
• Richard Nixon, so I could drive a stake through his heart.
• Julia Child, just to hear her voice.
• Lenin, because he was a self-starter.
• Mozart, because he would be fun. 
• Emma Goldman, to dance.

Come on, I'm sure you can add to the list. Don't be shy. 

Fucking New Phone

My ancient cellphone died. Had to replace it with a smart phone. Samsung Galaxy. No Choice.

Smart phone my ass. It has been nothing but a hassle since I got it.

Phones should make phone calls. I don't want the weather in Ukraine. I don't want people emailing me on my phone. Don't want to play games or listen to music. Sure as hell don't want to watch movies. What kind of moron watches movies on a phone?

Ned Ludd where are you? Call me.