No kidding, I'm ready to fight.

 I'm not going to go into detail about this week's News. I'm just going to link to them. It was a decent week's worth of work, though. I'm feeling very squirrelly, so I want to lash something together, take a shower, and hell, I don't know.

 I'm so stressed out I can feel my blood pressure be high. That tooth that was working itself loose over the past month popped free yesterday. One of the back molars on my left side, it didn't look like what I figured. I guess this is the start of that bit of fun, but it upset Momma something off. "You're too young," she said. I don't know. My sciatic nerve has yet to cool down and I'm tired of being in pain. And I swear, I think my eyesight is getting worse. I'm wearing my glasses as I'm writing this.

 Not a happy bunny, nope. I've figured out why I've been so stressed and generally miserable lately. Everyone around me is stressed. The brother is stressed because of the new house and his wife is stressed because of her mom, which makes him more stressed. Momma's stressed because my uncle's heart is giving out on him and it's driving his wife, Momma's sister, even squirrelly than she is normal. My cousins are stressed, so talking to them is a landmine field.

 I shouldn't have any stress, but for whatever reason, this is making me a little nuts or, at the very least, exacerbating the already gloomy funk I've been in all summer. And pointing out I don't have anything to take the edge off is boring even me. Seriously, I would beat your momma's ass for a joint. Even some reggie, your grandmama would get a beating.

 It's getting weirder out there, y'all. The wingnut outrage machine has cranked up over claims that the COVID vaccination represents some sort of government control, like the entire world is in on this, all to make Trump look bad. I really don't get the endgame. We have actual U.S. Representatives arguing that getting a shot is equal to giving in to the communist hordes. The most-watched television talking head is claiming the shots are losing effectiveness. And the hoi polloi is more than willing to slit your throat if you disagree with them.

 I'll say it again, beloved, but I don't think it's a bad idea to learn how to defend yourself. It's getting to the point where they'll feel whatever they do is justified to "save the country" or "save the children" or "save religion." Nothing penetrates their field or shakes them from their faith. The goofy shit in Arizona is coming up snake eyes and they're convinced Trump will be put in the White House come August.

 The next two election cycles are going to be off the chain. Again, if you decide to buy a firearm, make sure you learn how to properly use and care for it, and the proper way to store it when not in use. Guns are toys. They're tools and their only purpose is to kill people. That may be how you have to defend yourself. You shoot to kill, shooting to wound only happens in movies. Keep that in mind and never fool yourself otherwise.

 Okay. On that cheery note, before we wrap things up, something that's been running through my mind the last day or so. This is a fiction conceit, so don't flip. Specifically, pre-historical civilizations, like in Robert Howard's Conan stores or Tolkien's Middle-Earth. Human beings as we recognize them have been around for 200,000 years but our recorded history only goes back at the most 10,000 years. That's a big whack of time unaccounted for, especially when you consider how much humanity has changed just in the past 1,000 years.

 We still have hunter-gatherer groups, what we've considered "primitive" societies for so long. There are islands in Asia and tribes in the Amazon that are protected from modern contact. We also know societies have changed from those types of societies to something we'd recognize as cities just to go back to the old ways because of this, that, or the other. Like the Mayans, they just... dispersed. Hell, even most of Europe changed greatly between the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the rise of nation-states.

 For all we know, for all we can say with any degree of certainty, what we recognize as "civilization" didn't happen until 6,000-10,000 years ago in Egypt, Sumer, and Crete, along with a handful of other places. Far as we know, for all we can say, that 290,000 years was spent with us being hunter-gatherers that really didn't move around a lot. We know the climate went through massive changes more than once and we know we almost died off as a species, willowed down to a little over 10,000 people. Or so some folks think.

 But I've been finding it diverting to think of pre-historical civilizations lately. People overestimate the durability of mankind's efforts. The pyramids survived because they're fucking huge. A large, vibrant civilization existed in North America well before 1619 but fell to European-born diseases caught by brief contact with Viking explorers, leaving almost nothing behind. Of course, by the time we got around to looking, we'd decided that only the white man could do "civilization" and were prepared to be a dick about it.

 So, what if there was a thriving civilization we'd recognize as such that's disappeared. What if there was more than one. It's not a new thought, of course. It's used a great deal in Lovecraftian fiction as well as Marvel Comics. Hell, half of Marvel's background is based on Conan stories.

 And those civilizations don't have to stop at a sword-&-sorcery level. I mean, it only took us at most 10,000 years to make it to the Moon. I've never come across any, but I'm sure there's fiction out there that touches on advanced civilizations that rise and fall before Gilgamesh. All sorts of stuff we haven't even thought of could've been developed. Hell, we could've achieved faster-than-light travel and left the planet, perhaps under the threat of devastating climate change.

 Just throwing it out there. My ideas are always great but my execution is crap. I've tried to sell them but never had any takers. I guess that tells me all I need to know.

All caught up in a landslide.

 Man, what in the hell is going on in Michigan? Don't they know these "protests" were AstroTurf by not just conservative groups, but conservative groups tied to Erik Price and Betsy DeVos? Is it just an excuse to cosplay armed loonies or what?

 Before we get started, I want to emphasize one thing because ammosexuals are the most delicate little flowers on the planet and cannot handle anything uncomplimentary said about their precious shooty-bang penis extensions. You may not believe it, but I don't care enough about your opinion to argue it.

 I don't have a problem with gun ownership. I don't have a problem with any reasoning one uses for owning a gun. You hunt? Fine, that's where my guns came from. You want to protect yourself and/or your family in this mean old world? Fair enough, it is a booger out there. You're defending freedoms from a government that's always just far from going full tyranny? Sure, pal, whatever you have to tell yourself. You just like guns and the noises they make? There are worse obsessions.

 That being said, I don't give a shit why you have guns, how many you have or what you do with them. I'd say all I care about is you making sure you store them properly and operate them wisely, but as long as you stay away from me, I don't really care. If I'm so inclined, I will make fun of you because I don't have any special respect for you and you will just have to suck it up, buttercup.

 I don't particularly care for people who decide they can't go to the grocery store without being loaded for bear, open or closed carry, but that's the world we live in. It's like knowing industrial companies will poison the environment for profit or that powerful men will use their weight to coerce sex out of subordinates. It's part of society and all we can do is legislation. Why we don't, I don't know.

 Frankly, gun worshipers, you pissed away your benefit of the doubt. The El Paso shooter, the Vegas shooter, the Sandy Hook shooter, all of them were behaving legally until they first pulled the trigger. And your reaction every time has been "don't take away my guns". Fair enough, that's what you care about. I'm just not obliged to respect you or act like you're anything but a joke. Deal with it and cry more. As the man said, you make no like it but you have to learn to love it. Besides, you're the one who's heavily armed, what are you crying for?

 Now that we've established that, I don't care about gun owners owning guns. The Second Amendment as interpreted by D.C. v Heller, I may not agree with it but it is the law of the land. Should there be more stringent gun control legislation? Man, we are way past the point of that in this country. When 20 preschoolers were gunned down by a guy mad at his mom and we had "serious political commentators" arguing that it was a "false flag" operation, that argument was done, son.

 I just don't understand why y'all get so butthurt about people thinking you bringing a high-powered instrument capable of dealing death on a large scale is a bit unhinged. If you're protesting the state's lockdown policies during this epidemic, why do you need to be heavily armed and wearing combat gear? And why do you get so pissy when someone suggests you're trying to intimidate your political opponents when there's no other reason to be so heavily armed for this fake protest designed mainly so rich folks can make even more money?

 You have the guns. Nut up, man. Quit your crying and convince me you're not a flea-brained dingbat. Or just deal with the fact that I'm going to point and laugh at you. Okay, well, enough of that. There are times when living far out in the boonies and fairly well set up so that I don't have to deal with the rest of this sick, twisted, pitiful, depressing culture. Glad I don't have kids, glad I don't have to interact with people to make my bread and salt, glad I'm not tied to anyone that would cause me to give more of a shit than I do.

 Yeah, I'm in a bad mood today. Sorry. Tried a new CPAP mask but still didn't sleep for shit. The weather's gorgeous, though, so me and my buddy Otis, the Jack Russell, had a pleasant constitutional. I've hit my groove with the XCOM games and have been thoroughly enjoying stomping a mudhole in it. I also just finished an enjoyable Weird Western called Skin Medicine by Tim Curran, which combined mountain folk magic with Lovecraft that worked very well.

 Anyhow. That's the night. Let's see what tomorrow brings. Keep the faith.