well

the train is taking forever to come, and then, when it does come, it is crowded, because it took forever to come. more people are taking the train because of the cost of gas, and the train fare will soon go up, also because of the cost of gas. but our salaries will not go up at the same rate, so that the cost of living will continue to out race any pay raises we may get. but none of this will change anything. people won't start walking or riding bikes, especially in a city like boston, where to ride a bike in the street is akin to setting yourself on fire.

speaking of setting yourself on fire, when are pro-lifers gonna start using this as a protest tactic? there is no reason to let the monks in vietnam hoard all of the good tactics.

yes, mccain fought in vietnam. therefore, someone should be attempting to arrest him. instead, he is a free man running for president. he is even thought by some to be a hero. and in a way, he is, although, when it comes to courage, what about those nazi soldiers freezing in the moscow winter, bravely serving their country? now, those were the real heroes! they too, gave their lives for their "country."

yeah, people always say that..."he gave his life for his country" but that's not it. in order to do that, you would have to be in your country at the time. you would actually have to be defending it against attack. no, what mccain did, and what other murderers are currently doing is "fighting for their government." and that is something very different. as zinn would say, never confuse the government with the country. the country is a mass of land filled with 300 million people, while the government is an artificial creation, a structure that has formed over time. in fact, even the idea of a country is somewhat bizarre. half of what was once mexico has been the u.s. since the mid 1840's, and all of this "country" once belonged to the indigenous. so, that begs the question; why should someone fight for either the country or the government? to fight for the country, one must think it is worth fighting for, but all in all, what is there about this nation that makes it worth fighting for? is it our schools, our health care system, our prisons, our foreign policy? i suppose i would be willing to "fight" for our library system, but i certainly wouldn't drop bombs on people 10000 miles away to "defend" our libraries. in reality, all that is worth defending is yourself and those that matter to you, and that would be the case wherever you happened to be. and by defending yourself, i mean that you also have the right to fight for your needs; the right to food, housing, clothing, health care, valid education, meaningful recreation, leisure. but again, this has nothing to do with the country you happen to live in.

in other words, to hell with the usual bullshit about "defending our way of live" and "protecting our freedom." when you hear these words, run.

or defend your country by fighting the nonsense we call patriotism, nationalism, and heroism.

and while you are at it, get the war crime trials started.