With God on our side

Just some early morning brain droppings:

          First: Darwin and justice collided in Orlando last week, when a pair of house burglars were caught in the act. One fled in the conventional manner (on foot, on land) and was captured. The second however, apparently unencumbered by an IQ of greater than 50, fled into a lake. Let's make sure we understand - he went into a fairly large Central Florida lake at night. Days later, authorities recovered what the gator(s) didn't eat. Sometimes justice is served a la carte!

          Second: On the homemade dog biscuit front. This morning I stumbled on a "hack" (a term I swore I'd never use in this context) which made it sooo much easier, so here it is. If you have a standard sized food processor, put the nylon dough blade in (preferably, but the normal steel one will probably work) and dump in: 1 cup rolled oats. 2 cups whole wheat flour, i cup peanut butter, one small can (15 oz) of sweet potatoes in syrup, liquid and all. Blend until the dough comes together, It'll take a bit and I had to scrape down the sides several times (turn off the machine first!!!) The dough was perfect and blended far better and with much less mess than by hand. Put down some bench flour and flour a rolling pin. If you have spacers for the rolling pin use about 1/4 inch, but eyeballing it is fine. Roll and cut out the biscuits. Line a baking sheet with foil, spray with Pam, bake for 35 minutes at 350. Turn the oven off after 35 min. and let them cool in the oven. Belle will change the oil in the car for one of these. No preservatives, so store in the fridge. This makes about 30-32 biscuits, and at two per day, they are still fine when they are gone.

Third: I am so tired of political hacks appealing to the worst side of human nature (xenophobia and race/religious hatred) that I could puke. Having lived through the Civil Rights era I was hopeful that we were getting better. Now I'm not so sure. And yet, there are those on the far right, in such cesspools of hate speech and ignorance as Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma who would re- write history books as if we had always been the poster children for freedom and equality. 

     We should never forget, as we are being urged by some to  discriminate based, not on actions, but on religion and nationality that, once upon a time, Americans committed genocide on Indians for those same reasons, and Filipinos for even fewer reasons.  Christian Britons massacred Hindus, Irish Catholics, Maoris, and Zulus, to name but a few, in the name of empire. Christian Europeans slaughtered Jews, Christians and Muslims in the Crusades, Protestants slaughtered  Catholics, and vice versa, in the 30 years' war. It should be remembered that in many cases, the principal sin of the slaughtered was simply existing. All of this is apparently forgotten in light of current radical Islamic threats, which while abhorrent and brutal, are at least a response, however heinous, to a real stimulus.  Those who will not learn from history....... you know the rest!

Finally: From America's great poet of the 20th century, since much of the previous and current killing evinces the imprimatur of the messianic zeal of true believers:

Oh my name it is nothin’
My age it means less.
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I’s taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that the land that I live in
Has God on its side

Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side

Oh the Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
l’s made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side

Oh the First World War, boys
It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting
I never got straight
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don’t count the dead
When God’s on your side

When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side

I’ve learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war starts
It’s them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side

But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we’re forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God’s on your side

Through many dark hour
I’ve been thinkin’ about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can’t think for you
You’ll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side

So now as I’m leavin’
I’m weary as Hell
The confusion I’m feelin’
Ain’t no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God’s on our side
He’ll stop the next war

Bob Dylan (freely adapted from "The patriot game" by Dominic Behan)