Stepped on it again

I think the US is the most warlike country on Earth...

Can't argue with that thought, Uncle Ken.  It seems that if we're not out there blowing shit up we are selling stuff so other folks can blow shit up, often on our behalf.  If I recall correctly, the US is near the top of the weapons export trade.  For a so-called world leader, the US doesn't lead in much besides military spending and, I think, percentage of population that is incarcerated.  War is our business, and business is good; a sad thought as we approach Memorial Day and start the summer season of flag waving.  There was a time in my youth when the sight of Old Glory would make my chest swell with pride, maybe it was in Boy Scouts or the army, but no longer.

I keep thinking of one of the old Sunday School lessons, where some guy gets all worked up about the mote in another guy's eye while ignoring the beam in his own eye, something like that.  And that's where we are today, always messing with somebody else's business while our own house is in disorder.  We are, in barracks parlance, stepping on our dicks.

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I suspect it was the Pueblo, not Navajo, Indians that made the cool buildings of Uncle Ken"s recollection.  The traditional Navajo dwelling was the hogan, something I remembered from sixth grade, and it was a squat little thing.  I always thought the dandiest place to live would be the cliff dwellings of the Anasazi people.  No elevator, but who wouldn't want to live on a cliff side?  If somebody unwanted tried to climb up you could pee on them and maybe they'd go away. but maybe not.  Some of those southwestern tribes were pretty tough and a little piss wouldn't stop them.

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The story of the second grade humiliation will have to wait while I reframe it for the written word, if I get to it at all.  But I distinctly remember relating the tale at a seminar within the past year.  My, how time flies!  Uncle Ken has forgotten it already.