the rix mix

It's outrageous & insulting when rightwing clowns say Americans like me are like Taliban because we oppose the Iraq War. That war was based on a lie - on a series of deliberate lies, & thanks to us Iraq has become the terror capitol of the world, killing & maiming our young people. & a bottomless pit in which to dump our treasure; the overwhelming majority of the victims are Iraqis. This terrorism may eventually be suppressed by the oppressive, fundamentalist Sh'ite Islamic government we installed there in place of an oppressive, impoverished secular dictatorship that had posed no serious threat to the United States. If there's a Taliban in America, it's led by a cabal of heretical reactionary protestant pastors with big mouths & bigger bank accounts.

I've never complained in this blog about backpack checks in New York subways, or airport & railroad baggage screening. I have doubts about the effectiveness, & the potential for abuse of civil rights concerns me, but I let it slide. Rather, I look around & see unprotected ports, railroad yards, oil & propane tanks, refineries & chemical plants. I see the feds ordering women at airports to dump their carry-on cosmetics, & I know it's mainly to make everybody feel like something's being done, but there's a penny wise pound foolish sense about it. Because there's unscreened cargo going into the bellies of those jets that doesn't belong to the passengers flying on them. I'm surrounded by people whose presence in the United States is unknown to the governments of this city, county, state & nation. Yes, most of them are from points south on this continent & of no big concern to me, but if they managed to get here, smart terrorists certainly can.