Fire Good?

As if there aren't enough things to fret about, how's this? Pistachios can spontaneously combust.

It's true, at least according to this source: Pistachios catch fire

Nuclear war is always a threat. Crime and violence seem on the rise. Hurricane season is upon us. And now the pistachios in your kitchen cabinet may catch fire on their own. Is there no end to the cruelty of this world?

But that won't happen once I've eaten them right? No chance of pistachios mixing with stomach acids and - bam - I'm on Ripley's Believe It Or Not?

I'm only passing this along so that you can be as paranoid about it as I am. Have a great three day weekend.

Peace and Love

Ah, peace. Let's be for it, shall we?

And in the meantime, let's also be for happiness and sunshine and, and, unicorns. Yes, unicorns, because it all makes about as much sense, doesn't it?

Aren't we all for peace? Happiness? Sunshine? Of course; but then all those bugbears get in the way, don't they? All those nasty facts such as that there are members of the human race who do not and will not support us. All those who will use war and propaganda against all of our very trendy ideas about peace will work against us despite our lofty ideals.

But we will win, our ideals will win, won't they? Because they are ideal and everyone will see them, will they not?

They will not. Why? Simply and obviously because some folks will, simply and obviously, choose not to accept them. The curse of a vapid individualism is that it must allow that the feelings of every individual deserves to be heard. Every faction, it seems, deserves its day in court.

At what cost? The millions who died during World War II or the Great Leap Forward? Would they share a general and vacuous feeling that: 'all we are saying, is give peace a chance?'

We doubt it.

The President and the Peace Prize

Barack Obama has accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, but says that he will use war as necessary. Oh what a tangled web we weave.

If he uses force, liberal supporters can gore him as a hypocrite. If he doesn't conservatives will say he is bowing to liberal and world pressure. Oh what a tangled web we weave.

It's not that we can find fault with some of what he said to the Nobel people. When the President says:

"I face the world as it is, and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people. For make no mistake: Evil does exist in the world, A nonviolent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince al-Qaida's leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force is sometimes necessary is not a call to cynicism; it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason."

it is difficult to criticize. Indeed, it sounded almost Reaganesque. Evil does exist in the world? Kudos, Mr. Obama. Take that, peaceniks. Because he is as right as Reagan was: The Soviet Union was an evil empire, and evil exists and must be countered.

Though when the President asks for, "alternatives to violence that are tough enough to change behavior" I am not sure that such things exist. At some point in given situations, in our imperfect world, violence will be in need. There's simply no way around that.

But to hear a defense of force from a darling of the left?

Oh, what a tangled web we weave.