Oh man. That goddamn billboard is from my college town. This isn't even the craziest thing that's ever been up on it. http://smeedonstate-ism.com/biography.htm http://www.idahopress.com/news/article_182a2ca6-bb17-11df-9810-001cc4c03286.html

As far as the billboard goes, I find a lot of truth in it. Two days after the shooting I was on the way to the beach when a friend of mine made a joke about the shooting - "What, too soon?" he said as I laughed and another friend blushed.

I think with this incident in Colorado it's been more cemented in my mind than in previous tragedies the cold reality of Americans (or maybe just myself): we (as in you and I) kill so many people so often around the world that the death of 12 people just isn't shocking any more. Or at least, 12 deaths should not be shocking any more. Keep in mind, the day of the violence in Colorado was shared by the single most violent day in the whole year in Iraq - over 100 innocent Iraqis were killed and 300 wounded through coordinated attacks. The murders in Iraq were a direct result of the insurgency that you and I (through actions of our government) started. The deaths in Iraq of 100 people received little attention about our national policies, but the deaths in Colorado became deeply political.

This hypocrisy...or cynicism...or ungodly lack of objective morality… extends to this “Good Morning News” post by Mirk. 7 people were killed in Pakistan via a drone strike the other day – and with a frank analysis of the information our government provides about the drone strikes, we have absolutely no reason to believe that these people were guilty of anything, and that it’s likely we had no idea of deceased’s name, or connections with violent extremists groups. These people in Pakistan were straight up murdered by our government, who we (as in you and I) should have direct control of. “Very boring” to be a murderer when you have a flag on your shoulder and you sit at a desk, but we should wait “a few months” before reflecting upon the violence that this country exports on a daily basis. On a side note, I heard recently that the United States manufactures 14 billion rounds of ammunition annually (no idea if that’s accurate) – how high do you suppose we could stack the bodies that those bullets have gone into?

Am I missing the big gushing report back from the BIG FLOAT?