Of Rubbers and Riots

I just looked up "condoms" in my old- fashioned dictionary, you know, the kind that is made out of real paper.  It says that the origin of the word is unknown, but that it has been part of our language since the1760s.  Funny that I never heard of it until the 1960s, but that wouldn't be the first time that I was a day late and a dollar short about something.  I posted that old propaganda poster from World War II to show that rubbers were called "prophylactics" before they were called "condoms".  Although it did not exactly prove my point, I posted it anyway because I thought it was better than nothing.  I am now willing to concede that rubbers have been called condoms for a really long time, maybe even longer than they have been called either rubbers or prophylactics, but not by anybody that I knew.  

Politics and other belief systems are kind of like that.  As the old saying goes, "Birds of a feather flock together".   When you hang out, either online or in real life, only with like-minded individuals, you come to think that everybody believes the same way you do. It's like when that kid on my school bus said, "That's the way everybody is."  I responded, "Everybody in the world or just everybody in Michigan?"  After a brief pause, the kid said, "Everybody in Michigan."  I came back with, "Do you know everybody in Michigan?"  The kid admitted that he did not, but I'm not sure that he got my point because he was shaking his head as he got off at his stop. 

Although the media keeps referring to the January 6 incident as an insurrection, I still think it was more like a riot.  An insurrection would have been more effectively planned, and they would have brought their guns.  I think it started out as a peaceful demonstration and then, as often happens with peaceful demonstrations, mass hysteria set in, and it escalated into a riot.

Speaking of guns, why didn't the cops use theirs?  I think that any court in the land would have ruled that it was justified because a reasonable person in their position would certainly be in fear of death or great bodily harm.