There was once a fine patriot.

[Michael Bailey]

> We're all so mellow,
> blowin up the mideast-o,
> who the fuck cares,o
> whether something higher is-o
> responsiblo-
>

the universe is very very big
maybe almost as big as the the set of all sets that do not include
themselves - well who can say
the lines that we draw, like Mason & Dixon,
do not preclude my somehow being responsible in part for bombs elsewhere
even though I'm ag'in it
and don't mind saying so
(and worry that they might indeed target me, thus fueling a strong
desire not to be -- after all, "What if it should hit *exactly* - ahh
no - for a split second you'd have to feel the very point, with the
terrible mass above, strike the top of the skull...." (GR, obviously,
p8 Penguin Classics deluxe edition) - and thus by a happy confluence
of the Golden Rule, reinforcing one's opposition to doing such to
other folk)

what more does one want
- if somehow defining - or, discerning, if one can truly trust one's
discerning - a larger entity responsible
(commerce? God? ancient thought forms unleashed during an
archaeological dig) would enable more cogent responses to horrors?
what is more cogent a response to horrors than being ag'in 'em?
worthwhile, isn't it, trying to express decency and a sense of humor -
like that Slothrop's quest,
there may be a huge bunch of rocket lore that he learned in the course
of the quest, but the quest wasn't for the rocket lore, it was for the
Slothrop qua Slothrop that Harvey Speed wasn't seeking, right?

> Just keep forgetting
> Jute keep forgetting.
> Act like an ass when someone reminds you.
> Just keep forgetting.
>

so that ancient Egyptians and doggies from Sirius may be running
things, or lizards from outer space, or mad German chemist Jamf, or
international gangs of shoe fetishists - Bush 43's incident in Iraq
actually just a quick hit from a fellow freek seeing him jonesing on
the podium for shoeleather, for which he was later actually thanked -
or psychological determinism a la Pointsman, or the electrical
potential of the epidermis, or the gators in the sewers, but,
well...hmmm...

the actions required by such beliefs are themselves open to debate at
least as much as the beliefs themselves...acting like an ass?  well,
Slothrop chose, at a critical juncture - rather wisely as it turned
out - to dress as a pig...