CATCHING UP

I have been so deeply involved in preparing the first volume of my collected papers for e-publication that I have been neglecting this blog.  [I am now proof-reading the final version of volume I, and when all the permissions are in and a cover is produced, it will go up on Amazon.]  I will simply note with sadness that Mark Sanford won his by-election.  Oh well.  It was a good try.  As for the simply incredible story of the escape and rescue of three women held captive for ten years, there is obviously nothing I can add to the breathless rapportage of the cable news commentators.

On a very much more serious note, the escalation of calls for American military intervention in Syria frightens me, but it scarcely surprises me.  There is no question that the slaughter under way in that country is appalling, but to my uninformed eye, there is no plausible intervention that would have any hope of success, however one defines that.  Too many powerful and influential people in this country are eager for us to go to war anywhere, at any time, for any purpose whatsoever.

Since I am by nature a cheerful soul, my attention naturally turns to the most delightful conspiracy fantasy conjured up by the loonies of the right in quite some time.  I refer to the theory, now being urged on the floor of the Senate and the House, that the U. S. government is deliberately buying up all the bullets in America in order to deprive gun owners of the ammunition they need for their constitutionally protected guns.  This really is precious.  Can it possibly be an advertising ploy by the ammunition manufacturers?  Perhaps, but that would introduce far more rationality into the story than it deserves or can support.

I leave for Paris in ten days, and advance reports from that lovely city indicate that my sunny hopes for the new Socialist government of Francsois Hollande have already been dashed.  Intellectual honesty compels me to acknowledge that in many respects this really is an awful world.  Sigh.  At least there is a new Tom cruise/Morgan Freeman action movie.  Maybe I should try that.