Wayward Landlubber

     On May 24, 2022 at 11:30 AM, a gunman entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde Texas and began shooting. By this time he had already shot his grandmother in the face and fired at and missed two people near the school. He had also texted a German online friend, telling him that he was going to kill his grandmother and more could be expected. He had spent nine months obtaining the necessary equipment to do the deed. He was not yet 18 years-old when he started his quest. He first asked his sister and one other person to purchase the weapons for him. In spite of being Texans in good standing they both declined his request.      In November and December of 2021 he was able to purchase online several accessories necessary to carry out his grim deed; a rifle sling, a carrier vest, a snap-on trigger system and 60 rounds of ammunition. It is not clear from the Texas House committee report if the seller of these implements asked if he was yet 18 years-old, or wh...

     Mark Twain once said, "the radical of one century is the conservative of the next. Once the idea is worn out, the conservative adopts it as its own".      Being a conservative must be frustrating. It might be why conservatives have such a dour disposition. If you happen to be in one of those states that were once romantically described as, antebellum. A word that means, before the war. It did not originally refer to the Civil War in America but it has such an insousiant cache', making one feel that there was no misery before that miserable time when they suffered from that miserable "northern aggression". If you happened to be in one of those states, the conservative will be delivered from onesies to a cap and gown with the lesson drummed into them that " there are just things ya' shouldn't oughta do". A fellow writer of our acquaintances called it in a letter to a great grandchild, allowing yourself to "let the devil out"      L...

     Plato is said to have used the example of a ship to explain the weakness of Athenian democracy. I am no philosopher but I think about stuff. I'm pretty sure i can make a case that I think more about stuff than the Republican of today. Never-the-less, they would strenuously argue for their right to have an opinion, even though it is backed by nothing. Democracy has its weaknesses, which are on display today to a greater degree than at any time since we broke free from the monarchy.      In Plato's example the ship and the ship of state are beset by the same weaknesses. The ship, whether the trireme of Athens, the British war ship of Mutiny on the bounty, or the aircraft carrier of today, are populated by a fractious crew that is kept in line by laws  and customs, with the final control by the captain: in Moby Dick it is Ahab saying, "there is one God that is lord over the Earth, and one captain that is lord over the Pequod". Never-the less there is...