"Are You Still Alive?"

Last week I received a phone call from my friend, The Hobo Brasser, asking if I was still alive.

Good question.

His point was that I haven't been attending IPSC matches locally, haven't been in touch with my Usual Suspect friends, and haven't posted anything on this blog since ... Whew!

Independence Day!

When I responded to the effect that I THINK I'm still alive, he responded with the emphatic suggestion that I ought to, at least .. "Write Something!"


Good Idea.

The thing is, there is SO much going on (Norway and El Presidente being two very good examples) that it's difficult for me to write without blood dripping from my well-bitten tongue.

I don't know what to write about first, given that my sense of outrage over The World's increasing propensity for outrageous can't begin to keep up!

SOooo ... forgive me if I don't try to Keep Up.

For example:Norway's modern-day pseudo Viking slaughters 6+ random strangers with a bomb and goes on to slaughter 86 (+/-) teens on an isolated island ... and NOBODY raises a hand to stop him for hours? I cannot begin to express an opinion here. I don't know whether to comment on the increasingly virulent anger of "non-socialized" sociopathic predators, or the society which denies that they exist, have ALWAYS existed, WILL always exist ... and in their liberally blindered home-made society refuses to acknowledge the continuing existence of evil; or whether to comment on an American President who seems determined to spend-and-tax the richest nation in the history of the world into bankruptcy.

God knows I'm incapable of properly addressing either phenomenon, let alone both.

I've resolved to allow other writers, who are capable of dissecting sociopathic abnormalities more eruditely than me, to address these immediate stories.

The truth is that I am so absolutely appalled that I cannot fathom either phenomena, let alone dissect either with the hope of providing some profundities for your erudition.

There was a time when the worst we could imagine was the total destruction of the world in a whirlwind of Atomic Fire.

At the time, we thought that was The Worst Thing That Could Happen.

Now we imagine that the world will end, as T.S. Eliot suggests, " ... not with a Bang, but with a Whimper".


Forgive me if I seem excessively negative, but for me; I would vote for the Big Bang Theory of TEOTWAWKI ("The End Of The World As We Know It")


Note: I also thought that the best world I could leave to my children was one in which my children would NOT have to go to war. Now my son is in the Navy, and is a Master At Arms ... essentially, a Navy Cop. As it happens, this is among the brighter hopes for tomorrow, as I see it now.


"A Penny for The Old Guy".

One of the Good Things about growing old, is how much we can learn about our changing world. I'm glad that my Gentle Ben is learning to be aggressive, skilled, reactive and proficient in the ways of personal combat .. and most recently he's gone to Armorer's School. This may be one of the most positive influences on my personal Next Generation.

Well, along with the cranky Black Irishmen that my daughter had the presence of mind to marry.

Anyone who prefers 18 year old Jameson is okay in my book.