Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Into the breach again, dear friends

After a break of about three years or so, I figured I should dust this blog off again.

According to Google, there have been 2,102 pageviews of this blog, one as recently as October 11, my birthday. I wonder what that person--who MAY have been from Russia, according to Google's tracking page--was reading? What did they think about my observations, certainly long outdated, about the world situation?

Last thing I ranted about was the unfortunate business in Libya, resulting in the destruction of a consulate and the deaths of four Americans, including our Ambassador. Now, I was probably quite mistaken in that rant, since I was blaming the idiot preacher out of Gainesville, who decided he just HAD to burn a Koran, despite the many warnings that other deeply religious folks MIGHT take offense. Seems now that the best information is that it was probably some of the usual terrorist-types in the area who took advantage of the situation to put a hurting on us. Of course, we're still talking about Libya, because the House Committee, taking longer to investigate that mess than the Watergate Committee took to take down Nixon, is still not done (though seven other committees have looked into it and released their reports). Now they've decided that the e-mails of former Secretary of State Clinton have something to do with a bunch of terrorists attacking our consulate; I guess the theory is that Hillary, using her private e-mail server, tipped off the fanatics and told them about our Ambassador being there and being vulnerable to attack, since she'd already called off any attempt to send troops there.

We're back in an election with multitudes of GOP candidates (more than four years ago, some of the same faces, some new) all trying to outdo themselves in pandering to the Religious Right, the NRA/Gun-Worshippers/2nd Amendment crazies and the 2% or so who control most of the wealth of this country. The Democrats are trying to figure out how to keep from offending just about everyone except the same ones the GOP folks are pandering to. Trump is trying to (and massively succeeding) in offending everyone and may possibly win the GOP nomination. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Now, I've turned 60. I know, I know, it's not exactly an earth-shaking event. But, it does mean I'm less than two years away from retiring and that's a bit scary, since my job has become part of my identity. You also get into a weird pattern of trying to bet on when you're going to kick the bucket, since that's what the guys and gals in the insurance business are laying bets on as well.

Well, maybe I'll remember my password for a while this time (or put it where I can find it) and will rant a bit more.