Maybe I should just volunteer to take him in here. It would involve a little more schedule juggling on my part, but it'd be worth it, I think. On a moral level, certainly, if not an emotional satisfaction level. I'd make it work somehow. It might take some doggie valium at first, but I think it'd be better for him to stay with people he knows. A new home will be bad enough without a new pack.
I was thinking this morning about the prevalence of gun imagery in many Leftist political messages. In particular, the interspersion of a rifle, pistol, ammo clips, and shells among the musical instruments in the Monument-Masses tour artwork. Which, despite my pacifist leanings, I find really really cool.
It has a lot to do with my upbringing, I'm sure. This is from an article in Harper's a few years ago: "I remember as a boy that there was nothing quite like the toys of war. Oh, the guns: how they aimed."
But similar images pervade a lot of the imagery that is associated with anti-war, pro-peace, pro-humanity agendas. The Plea for Peace patch on my jacket has a silhouette of man with AK-47 raised in air. The pervasiveness of army surplus wear in the punk scene. The deliberately paramilitary appearance of both the Clash and Anti-Flag, as well as many other bands in between who were anti-aggression/pro-peace in their political statements.
I don't know how much of this is a product of a cultural landscape that applauds the masculinity of strength, often exemplified - and mythologized - as the warrior ethic. This lead to the historical path of war as noble and courageous, of course. Unfortunately, with the advent of industrialized warfare (as well as its disruptive effects on industrial manufacturing, resource distribution and agriculture) the capacity for harm and death to innocents and noncombatants has increased exponentially, and what was often horrible has become that much worse.
I don't believe that the absence of force will ever occur; human beings are way too sociopathic overall. Well, maybe not, but at this point, with our population density and technological level, the probability of some sociopath doing intense amounts of damage approaches unity.
Witness King George II. Witness the fuckheads willing to blow up airplanes by mixing various innocuous liquids into explosives.
The other species of great apes, meanwhile, lack the population density and technology to really do serious damage to each other. Either ostracism or group attacks usually dispel any sociopathic members.
The way it was raining outside, it's literally like someone turns on a hose every few minutes. Talk about sporadic showers.
Dana and I went to dinner tonight and she wouldn't let me pay. I volunteered to make her dinner sometime to even the stakes. Not that I mind free food, but if I knew she was going to pay, I wouldn't have ordered so much. Still, the food was good (Irish pub grub) and the company and conversation were better. She made many predictions for my life, and hopefully some of them come true. She bolstered my confidence.
And apparently I'm a flirt. And I apparently went on a date with someone without realizing it. I thought I was just being friendly and, yeah, she was cute and I was probably attracted to her, but I don't consider a spontaneous trip to get burritos after school a date. I'm not sure how this relates to me being a flirt.
This afternoon, Schneider and I were sitting around, kind of reading research, when I asked what he plans to do when he retires next year. From this we get into discussing biomechanics, treatment modalities, research, biology, physiologic equilibrium of forces, and eventually into politics and religion. I love that guy. Hopefully he makes it out to Silberstein's barbeque so we can have a few beers. Im gonna miss him when he's gone.
