Happy Relevant Patriotic Holiday to All

"How does one hate a country, or love one? I lack the trick of it. I know people, I know towns, farms, hills and rivers and rocks, I know how the sun at sunset in autumn falls on the side of a certain plowland in the hills; but what is the sense of giving a boundary to all that, of giving it a name and ceasing to love where the name ceases to apply? What is the love of one's country; is it the hate of one's uncountry? Then it's not a good thing. Is it simply self-love? That's a good thing, but one mustn't make a virtue of it, or a profession...Insofar as I love life, I love the hills...but that sort of love does not have a boundary-line of hate. And beyond that, I am ignorant, I hope." ~ Ursula K Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness

Reading Firefly's shout-out to her sisters reminded me of what happened at the drugstore today. I popped in after work to grab my favorite new snack (Scooby Doo rainbow sherbet push-up pops) and I was leaving when this man went through the door at the same instant I did. The anti-theft alarm thingy went off, and before I had a chance to even wonder if I'd forgotten to pay (again), the guy tossed "Enjoy" over his shoulder, ran to his bicycle and pedaled off! That's when I noticed the giant bag of drugstore goodies he was holding. I was so miffed I yelled, "In my country you'd have your hand chopped off!" He laughed, the onlookers behind me laughed, and I couldn't help chuckling--after I walked back into the store and then out again to show that I wasn't the culprit.

So you see, a vigilante is handy sometimes. Imagine if Firefly's big sister was standing in line in that store, instead of sheepish middle-aged middle class white folk who left their SUV's idling and didn't want to get involved. That man would've been brought to justice in the form of a flying tackle.

Modest Mouse - Missed The Boat

My favorite tune on their new album. This is a video made by a fan, I think it fits exactly.

It's a circus in there

You know when you've been in a fight with someone? Well, after the fight, does it sometimes seem like you reserved most of the arguments for yourself? Your own head can get so crowded with a thousand different voices. Every two minutes one voice jumps up, declares something and then urges you to act on it before it's too late. Just as you reach for the phone another voice sidles over and explains how the previous voice is now wearing a straitjacket and locked in a padded cell, and how no one in their right minds would do what you were about to do. Instead--uh uh, says voice #3, don't listen to that silly twit, when's the last time you got sound advice from it? Voice #4 muses out loud that it saw voice #3 on America's Most Wanted the other night, something about conning old people out of their pensions... obviously nothing good is going to come out of listening to those who harm the elderly. Wouldn't it be a better idea to just--oh please, drawls #5, that would be a good idea if humiliating failure was the goal. Just listen to me...

Really, I wish I could use all that vicious incisiveness on others instead of reserving it for my poor overcrowded brain.

Audioslave - Be Yourself