The Nossiter Net
The net that shall enmesh them all
Edited, Written, and Published by Josh Nossiter
The net that shall enmesh them all
Edited, Written, and Published by Josh Nossiter
| The Nossiter Net is cast to snare some of the riper rascalities of the day. Comments? Send a letter to the editor. |
| Features |
| Last Words |
| Now a Member of the Worldwide Communities of Blogs at Blogwise.com |
| VOL. IV, No. 111 |
| Dear Goldman Sachs |
Ultimate Gun Control
Monday, August 24th, 2009
Monday, August 24th, 2009
Crooks and Liars reports that travel book king Arthur
Frommer is boycotting Arizona. Apparently he refuses
to visit a place whose citizens are encouraged to carry
assault weapons to public events. This, Frommer
suggests, is not only terribly wrong but bloody
dangerous.
Of course he's right. But Arizona is hardly alone in
providing a safe haven for heavily armed citizens who
believe their liberties, or perhaps it's their manhoods,
depend on carrying a loaded firearm at all times. In fact
in the country at large there are more firearms than
people, suggesting that Arizonans have a great deal of
company. Company, it's no exaggeration to say, in the
millions.
By coincidence today's New York Times, echoing this
week's Economist, is painting a dire picture of
conditions in Afghanistan. Terrible and getting worse is
the consensus view of the situation in that benighted
spot. The Economist likens the place to Mad Max, the
movie about a time and place so irredeemably awful it
makes Mel Gibson look sane and good. The New York
Times says more or less the same though more stodgily.
Both agree that although it's probably futile in the long
run, far more NATO troops are needed to impose even
a semblance of order on the Afghanistanian chaos.
Unfortunately sending more forces into Afghanistan
means more casualties. And if the whole enterprise is
futile in the long run, that's a terrible waste of the lives
of the young men and women who are ordered there.
Especially because their involvement in the first place is
likely to have been through no fault of their own.
On the one hand, millions of heavily armed US citizens
in greater or lesser stages of derangement whose trigger
fingers are itching to water the tree of liberty with good
red blood. On the other, a total Central Asian anarchy
in which the innocent civilian majority is terrorized on
all sides by clueless foreign troops, corrupt domestic
security forces, and home-grown thugs. In the middle, a
man whose very name is a byword for flawless travel.
The solution is obvious. Have Frommer book passage
to Afghanistan for all our gun crazies. There they can
use their beloved weapons at will, with no pesky rules
and regulations or even criminal prosecutions to annoy
them. No one will care if they shoot each other, and if
they happen to hit some of the local bad guys in the
crossfire, so much the better. By return trip, send our
troops, along with any Afghan civilian who wants out,
to the US. The latter can take over the vacated homes
of the gun crazies as free lodging, there to tend their
goats and gardens unmolested.
Banish any fears these latest immigrants to our shores
might feel homesick. Used to living in one of the most
inhospitable regions on earth, by contrast even Arizona
will seem like the promised land. Especially once the
place is completely stripped of its amateur gunmen.
©Joshua C. Nossiter, 2009
* * * * *
A NOTE TO READERS ***Update***
Another three week plus hiatus, from April 30th until May 23rd, again
due to Yahoo Geocities dismal service.
There was nothing new at The Nossiter Net between March 3rd and
April 26th, 2007, nearly eight weeks. The reason: tech sabotage.
Yahoo Geocities, the host for this site, denied access for the entire
period. At one point, they even managed to lose all the files. In many
discussions with Yahoo staff, no clear explanation was forthcoming.
No one seemed able to fix the problem. Ruling out the possibility of
Dubbya’s revenge, I finally wrote to Mr. Terry Semel, Chairman and
CEO of Yahoo! Inc and described the ordeal the page had undergone
since the beginning of March. A week later, a helpful Yahooo engineer
named Jason called. He had my letter before him. Though he couldn’t
do the repairs on on the spot, he promised a fix by the next day. That
was April 26th, nearly two months after shutting me down in the first
place.
The Nossiter Net apologizes, which is more than I can say for Yahoo
Geocities.
Frommer is boycotting Arizona. Apparently he refuses
to visit a place whose citizens are encouraged to carry
assault weapons to public events. This, Frommer
suggests, is not only terribly wrong but bloody
dangerous.
Of course he's right. But Arizona is hardly alone in
providing a safe haven for heavily armed citizens who
believe their liberties, or perhaps it's their manhoods,
depend on carrying a loaded firearm at all times. In fact
in the country at large there are more firearms than
people, suggesting that Arizonans have a great deal of
company. Company, it's no exaggeration to say, in the
millions.
By coincidence today's New York Times, echoing this
week's Economist, is painting a dire picture of
conditions in Afghanistan. Terrible and getting worse is
the consensus view of the situation in that benighted
spot. The Economist likens the place to Mad Max, the
movie about a time and place so irredeemably awful it
makes Mel Gibson look sane and good. The New York
Times says more or less the same though more stodgily.
Both agree that although it's probably futile in the long
run, far more NATO troops are needed to impose even
a semblance of order on the Afghanistanian chaos.
Unfortunately sending more forces into Afghanistan
means more casualties. And if the whole enterprise is
futile in the long run, that's a terrible waste of the lives
of the young men and women who are ordered there.
Especially because their involvement in the first place is
likely to have been through no fault of their own.
On the one hand, millions of heavily armed US citizens
in greater or lesser stages of derangement whose trigger
fingers are itching to water the tree of liberty with good
red blood. On the other, a total Central Asian anarchy
in which the innocent civilian majority is terrorized on
all sides by clueless foreign troops, corrupt domestic
security forces, and home-grown thugs. In the middle, a
man whose very name is a byword for flawless travel.
The solution is obvious. Have Frommer book passage
to Afghanistan for all our gun crazies. There they can
use their beloved weapons at will, with no pesky rules
and regulations or even criminal prosecutions to annoy
them. No one will care if they shoot each other, and if
they happen to hit some of the local bad guys in the
crossfire, so much the better. By return trip, send our
troops, along with any Afghan civilian who wants out,
to the US. The latter can take over the vacated homes
of the gun crazies as free lodging, there to tend their
goats and gardens unmolested.
Banish any fears these latest immigrants to our shores
might feel homesick. Used to living in one of the most
inhospitable regions on earth, by contrast even Arizona
will seem like the promised land. Especially once the
place is completely stripped of its amateur gunmen.
©Joshua C. Nossiter, 2009
* * * * *
A NOTE TO READERS ***Update***
Another three week plus hiatus, from April 30th until May 23rd, again
due to Yahoo Geocities dismal service.
There was nothing new at The Nossiter Net between March 3rd and
April 26th, 2007, nearly eight weeks. The reason: tech sabotage.
Yahoo Geocities, the host for this site, denied access for the entire
period. At one point, they even managed to lose all the files. In many
discussions with Yahoo staff, no clear explanation was forthcoming.
No one seemed able to fix the problem. Ruling out the possibility of
Dubbya’s revenge, I finally wrote to Mr. Terry Semel, Chairman and
CEO of Yahoo! Inc and described the ordeal the page had undergone
since the beginning of March. A week later, a helpful Yahooo engineer
named Jason called. He had my letter before him. Though he couldn’t
do the repairs on on the spot, he promised a fix by the next day. That
was April 26th, nearly two months after shutting me down in the first
place.
The Nossiter Net apologizes, which is more than I can say for Yahoo
Geocities.