A Fine Line

In my army riot control training, we were told that there is often a fine line between a peaceful protest demonstration and a riot.  Keeping a peaceful demonstration peaceful requires leadership, planning, and discipline, while all that is required for a riot is mass hysteria.  Riots are generally thought to be spontaneous, but there is also such a thing as a planned riot, at least there was back in the 60s, I'm not sure if they're still doing that today.  What used to happen back in the day was communists, Marxists, or anybody with their own ax to grind would infiltrate a planned demonstration and try to turn it into a riot.  One of the tactics we were taught was to identify and isolate people like that, removing them from the scene.

While flipping through the channels this evening, I paused briefly on a news broadcast that comes out of New York City.  What made me pause was something that they said about radical elements "hijacking" the recent peaceful protests in their city.  The commentators were generally sympathetic to the protestors, so this didn't sound like Fox News paranoia.  They said that the smashers and looters were coming out after dark, giving the daytime protestors a bad name.  Then the news people went on to another subject and I continued flipping towards my original destination.

Meanwhile, back in Beaglesonia, where our most serious concern is the Empty Shelf Syndrome, I was looking over the bread selections after my most recent fruitless search for yeast, when I saw some bagels.  I have eaten bagels in the past and seemed to remember that I liked them, so I bought some instead of bread.  Turned out I liked them even better than my home made bread, so I plan to eat them for awhile, maybe forever.  I still need yeast, however, to keep my septic tank working properly.  I flush a packet of yeast down my toilet once a week, but some people recommend it only once a month, so I'm good for a couple more weeks yet.  There are several commercial products on the market that claim to have the same effect, but yeast works at least as well and is cheaper.