SOMETIMES I WRITE THE ENTRY SOMETIMES IT WRITES ITSELF

As usual the entry took control and I ended up in Newport instead of Bend. So to speak. LOL So I'll come back to the fundies tomorrow. 

I know that Ken Ham will never see this but what the heck. To give the man his due, he does have BA in environmental biology. Whatever the heck that is. And everybody is entitled to their own opinion about just about anything that comes up the freeway. But, I have to ask you sir. Do you really believe this young earth bullshit or do you really belong in a carny sideshow somewhere peddling snake oil. Because that’s just exactly what you’re doing.

For starters give that tree it’s full name. It isn’t the Tree of Knowledge, it’s the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Makes a really big difference doesn’t it? The knowledge of how the universe works is neutral It’s how we use that knowledge that makes one hell of the difference. We learn how to split the atom and harness the energy and right off the bat, what do we do? We build bombs. We use those bombs to obliterate two cities.

I’ll be honest here. We actually managed to kill more civilians firebombing Tokyo with conventional weapons than we did at Hiroshima. Sidenote. The Japanese and Canadians turned out a damn fine miniseries awhile back about the run up to the bombings. One excuse for targeting Hiroshima was the location of plants producing arms and munitions. Too bad about all those civilians. I forget which brass hat laid the blame on the Japanese for locating those plants where they were.

Excuse me, general so and so. Yeah you. Where were the Japanese supposed to build their industrial plants? This isn’t the Midwest of North America. Flat land is mighty scarce in the those islands. You aren’t going to sacrifice farmland to build factories.

And argument could be made that Japan was on the ropes. Supply lines gone, Population already on near starvation rations. There was no way the allies could have invaded before the spring of 1946 and the army was planning on arming civilians with bamboo spears and launching them at the beach heads. An argument could be made that there were fewer casualties caused by using the atomic weapons than if we’d gone with conventional warfare. In this case. I repeat in this one, limited case.

But what did we do after the war? We entered an arms race with the Soviets. Both sides spent billions, perhaps trillions of dollars, rubles, whatever the Chinese use building bigger, “better”, more terrifying warheads. God/dess you do have to admire our ingenuity when it comes to planning how to off our neighbors. Especially after a successful revolution on an island ninety miles from the Florida coast.

We managed to assemble an arsenal that if used, would knock life on this planet back to the multicelled critter stage. Guess taking that bite out of that piece of fruit didn’t do us a whole lot of good because somehow keep allowing our fear, hate and greed to influence our choices for the worst, rather than the best.

There’s a sort of gag song that came out in the sixties, written by Tom Lehrer. Can you imagine what the segregationists could have done with tactical nukes back then?

One of the big news items of the past year concerned the fact that China, which we called "Red China," exploded a nuclear bomb, which we called a device. Then Indonesia announced that it was going to have one soon, and proliferation became the word of the day. Here's a song about that:

First we got the bomb, and that was good,
'Cause we love peace and motherhood.
Then Russia got the bomb, but that's okay,
'Cause the balance of power's maintained that way.
Who's next?

France got the bomb, but don't you grieve,
'Cause they're on our side (I believe).
China got the bomb, but have no fears,
They can't wipe us out for at least five years.
Who's next?

Then Indonesia claimed that they
Were gonna get one any day.
South Africa wants two, that's right:
One for the black and one for the white.
Who's next?

Egypt's gonna get one too,
Just to use on you know who.
So Israel's getting tense.
Wants one in self defense.
"The Lord's our shepherd," says the psalm,
But just in case, we better get a bomb.
Who's next?

Luxembourg is next to go,
And (who knows?) maybe Monaco.
We'll try to stay serene and calm
When Alabama gets the bomb.
Who's next?
Who's next?
Who's next?
Who's next?

I remember when this came out.