Just another day: For we are many

Let's see what's grinding away in the gristmill today.

• Rumble beat!  Did you hear about the quake in California?  If you lived there, I'm sure you did.  I remember getting onto an elevator in Vegas one morning, and before the elevator started moving, it started moving.  Side to side and up and down vice simply up or simply down. Four-point-something if I remember correctly.  When I returned to my then-home in Phoenix, my bride who had still been abed at the time of the trembler, said she felt it, too.  Anyway, the earth keeps shakin'.
• When you're not a racist.  Please tell me, when are we going to stop including ethnic heritage on applications, etc?  The only real African-American is the dude who just immigrated here from Libya, South Africa, or any point in between.  Like an Irish-American just got off the boat (or the plane (can you say that without parroting Herve' Villechaize?))  from Dublin.  I contend that both would be more likely to simply refer to themselves as "American" and with great glee.  Why must you refer to yourself as an African-American?
  
  Which takes me to the second classification question, why can certain people expose their utter ignorance with racist pigeon-holing and not be ostracized from public discourse while others get excoriated?  Why do we still hear from Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and their ilk, but Trent Lott and Jimmie the Greek get an immediate sentence to Siberia?  Why does Harry Reid get a "tsk-tsk" as opposed to joining Trent in his yurt?  Why does past racial oppression give you a right to be racist today?  Should northeastern America hate the Brits?  Should the French hate the Germans?  Interestingly, it seems there's a greater loathing from east to west than from west to east?  Should Hawaiians hate the Japanese?  And why can Democrats get a pass (Robert Byrd), but Republicans get held to account?  Grrr...
  
  Should there be a law against racist remarks?  Should there be hate crimes?  NOOOOOO!!!!  Should it matter that I murder you because I hate you or that I murder you because I racially hate you?  Nope.  Gimme the chair on both accounts.  What if I'm at work and I make an ass of myself by referring to whitie as "cracker?"  My boss should have the freedom to fire me for not wanting such filth in his establishment.  As John Stossel is so fond of saying, folks will come to learn if your place of business is inhospitable to racist filth.  You will attract the kind of clientele you hope to attract.  Let the masses police the masses.
  
  In other words, let Harry Reid's constituents impeach the slime.
• More darkness.  Have you heard about the new movie "Legion?"  Here's the premise:  demons have to save mankind from an angelic host.  I will keep my eyes peeled to see how it does at the box office.  It says alot about what we have become that such a film would even be made.  What if it's a blockbuster?
• Scylla and Charybdis.  No doubt you've heard of the oppressive Israelis being mean to the displaced, peace-loving Palestinians of Gaza, right?  Did you know that Egypt's got nothing for them either?  Yeah.  They're building a wall between Egypt and Gaza.  Pretty cool.  It's not that their Palestinian.  It's because of the cancer, Hamas, and the fact that they hate peace.  Israel could offer Hamas all the sea front property along the Galillee with ready built estates, and Hamas would reject.  Hamas wants only the demise of Israel, and they have nothing for those allied with that nation.  Read it here.

• Things that go boom.  Many empathize with terrorists self-detonate in crowded marketplaces or attempt to ignite their knickers on crowded planes.  Why?  They feel that these folks have been economically oppressed by American oil, that they simply haven't had the advantage of a Berkley education, that if we just offered them sympathy and trust abounding then love would steer the stars.  Not so much.  Seems doctors do it, too (here).  And army majors.  And TV station owners.  Now, what was the common thread? 
• Bummer.  Saw on FoxNews this morning where a 104-year old man died when he was hit by a car.  Somehow that would be like Michael Phelps drowning.  Sad.
• 'Roids.  Mark McGwire admitted to using performance enhancing drugs.  I'm shocked, shocked I tell you.  You mean he didn't go from pencil-statured Oakland A to bridge-piling St. Louis Cardinal by doing more reps on the bench???  Shocked, shocked.

That's probably all you can stand for one day. At least the Vikings are still in the playoffs. But then, they haven't yet played, and Dallas looms like Legion.  Come on, Fran Tarkenton!!