How do we define the United States of America? We call it a country, but that just means a plot of land with established borders. Land certainly tells stories, but those tales are woven over millennia, and definitions within that context just don’t scale down for the convenience of our human time-frame.
Where is it, the rage? We should all be really, quite upset. Why aren't we marching in the streets, demanding accountability for the endless stream of corruption and criminality that has been unveiled on an almost daily basis for quite a few years? The French? Fuck, they're out in the street if anyone, anywhere sneezes on their rights! The Yellow Vests? You might have heard of them?
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT – ‘Not only did the FBI not report my abuse, but when they eventually documented my report 17 months later, they made entirely false claims about what I said,’ Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney told U.S. lawmakers https://t.co/J14eAYuVes pic.twitter.com/i1R9Ct0VJl
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 15, 2021
Today as I am writing these words... the Nassar child rape case that alleges this one asshole raped potentially hundreds of young gymnasts for decades with the apparent support of the Olympics committee people, U.S. gymnastics, and the Federal Bureau of Investigations.
I was a smoker of 30+ years. I smoked a pack a day and, for a few years, I smoked two packs a day. Almost two and a half years ago, I tried an e-cigarette and I stopped smoking and started vaping. Millions of smokers try to quit every year and fail. They try patches and gum and drugs, but none of it works effectively. Electronic cigarettes, however, have been exceedingly effective in smoking cessation. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to regulate e-cigs and I’m not keen on kids getting into vaping because of the candy-flavored juices, but that’s no reason to let a small group of puritanical zealots smash the one industry that smokers can count on to quit into little bits. After all, you don’t use a sledge hammer to put in a thumb tack. If anything, the e-cig industry has been looking for regulation, but you have to understand vaping is NOT smoking. You can’t just apply the same laws that are applied to cigarettes.
Dear Progressive Friends,
Look, I like you. I'm glad you're working to get the insane Citizen's United overturned and the entire raft of other things we'd all like to see. It makes me feel good to know that I'm not alone, and I appreciate that there are more than enough people to create all manner of organizations that champion our causes.