It's That Time Again

Release of the annual list of "best countries to be born in."

Here on planet We're Number One!, it's just one week after the latest mass shooting. One horrifying enough to still be in the news and public consciousness: a massacre of twenty 6-year olds, along with women school employees who must have reminded the guy of his mother.

But: a white loner guy, not terrorism, etc., etc., blah, blah to infinity.

Subtle marketing, this.

The usual crowd set out to prove how "Everything Except Guns Kills People." And to offer their solutions, like this.

Though the Right's newly discovered interest in mental health is quite touching.

An excellent business model; too bad about the sudden bad publicity.

And nice job, National Geographic: egging on deranged "preppers." One home stockpiler of an arsenal appears to have been the late Nancy Lanza.

To think: we geezers only needed to Duck and Cover against an abstract threat. Yes, it was assumed that at some time there would be a nuclear attack—and I think many of my contemporaries grew up assuming we wouldn't live long enough to become geezers. But no generation expects to become geezers, and this threat was deep in the background: something the authorities kept vague and "survivable," and certainly not something that was present daily in our lives.

Nope: civil defense drills were occasional, and nuclear holocaust was not a presence in our lives, as the terrifying images from Newton are for children now. And, if the noise machine gets its way, children will grow up with kindergarten teachers packing heat.

The NRA kept a low profile, until today's news dump no-questions event. Though Wayne Pierre with "bats flying out of both ears" could be a good thing, as far as attracting some public notice.

It remains to be seen if activism will overcome the longstanding absence of political will. And general public acceptance of a daily toll widely accepted as what "they" get for living in the wrong neighborhood.

The Newtown massacre followed last week's Michigan notch in ALEC's belt. Anti-union measures signed and sealed, Gov. Snyder dithered a few days over this. Evidently, Dick DeVos had no particular investment in this one.

One more state wrapped up and delivered for plutocrat Xmas. National austerity on the way, for deadbeat kids, disabled, and elderly. A bit hard to envision those armed guards being installed in every school, not when we don't fucking fund teachers or supplies.

"Best countries," indeed. Who would trade an ample safety net for our Freedom here, where any disturbed person is free to buy weapons of mass destruction, but health care, both physical and mental, is a privilege.