Chechnya, for those who don't know, is and has been at war with Russia for centuries now. Its the Caucasus Mountains, where Caucasians come from. White people all started there, probably. The soil is crap so people mostly leave there. The best soil, which allows you to feed your babies, is fought over in bitter generation spanning wars, like Armenia vs Azerbaijan in the 1980s. They also have big nasty earthquakes and everybody builds out of stone because they burned all the trees for heat, so the stone buildings fall down and kill a hundred thousand people. America stays out of that. The Russians pretty much avoid it too, because the entire population of the whole region have ethnic blood feuds similar to those in Yugoslavia, but with fewer video cameras and better artillery. South Ossetia? Levelled? Yeah, like that.
I'm glad it wasn't a Saudi. I don't trust the Saudis as far as I can kick them. They lie about everything, and I still want revenge on them for 911. They are not forgotten or forgiven.
But we don't need another war. Our troops are exhausted and committing suicide left and right, they go into battle undermanned and outgunned with crappy tactics and lousy equipment expecting to die.
The best and worst thing America can do to the world is withdraw our troops from everywhere and focus on our own problems, our own borders and our own people. Wherever American troops go, money is lost. Lives are lost. Resources are wasted. We could be repairing roads and bridges in America instead of tending to potential terrorists and insuring they have a face to blame because we were there, possibly helping them. Remember, we're dealing with crazy people.
Back in the USA, I still believe in full employment. When everybody had jobs in the 1990s, we were relatively well off despite the end of the Military Industrial Complex everyone was so terrified of. We got jobs and worked and it was okay not to build planes and bombs and tanks. You could make toasters and wine and SUVs, even if they were stupid. During the housing boom 10 years ago, when prices went crazy, full employment was good. Full employment means a healthy nation.
I was a distance runner. I didn't have the energy to run marathons. Furthest I could go was 12 miles, and that was walking the last half mile. I was just too exhausted. I could do 11 miles okay. When I gave up running because my knees were shot, I took up hiking instead. I would hike in the rain or the heat, and I'd wear headphones and listen to music. It was good exercise and it was my meditation. I'd do that when I wanted time away from my novel(s) and the house. Come back a couple hours later with ideas formulated. Write another 4-10 pages. I used to write about 4 pages per hour, back when I could do it properly, had something to say. I'd often write for about 4 hours, so I'd write 16 pages per day. That's a proper chapter. So in a couple weeks, I'd have 14 chapters, enough to call a novel. Writing fiction is like that. I'd usually write a bit more, a few more chapters but it resulted in seven novels. My fan fiction, years later, was an experiment. Sadly, that has way more reads than my original fiction, 25,000 and counting. This is what you get when you apply a bit of realism and exhaustion to an unbelievable but largely likeable character and complete the unfinished mess his life was in the story because you're a more realiable writer than his creator. Meh.
Is there some happy outcome in this Boston Marathon mess? I don't know. They worry about an attack here in Sacramento for the marathon coming up. I doubt it. California is a weird place, but despite the serial killers and rapists in Oakland, its a pretty nice place to live for everyone else. It was 75'F in Roseville, almost sweaty, today, and it was 72'F here in Grass Valley. We have good wine, steak, and baked potatoes. I eat meat. I'm pro-Abortion. I try not to be a hypocrite. Live and love, friends. Be American and embrace the differences. They often result in good food or weird movies.
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