Okay, so you've got a zit on your sit. Now what do you do? Do you take a crud-encrusted scalpel and slice it off to get rid of it, but continue to wear spandex rear-gear and sit on dirty barstools (or whatever it was you did to deserve that heinous hiney decoration in the first place - which we probably don't want to know)?

Uh, no. You treat it with something formulated to take down the inflammation, and then change your behavior (and your undies) to prevent further eruptions.

Like a great festering acne of the soul, terrorism and other such violence isn't the problem and as such, can't be treated as if you can simply get rid of it by attacking it directly. It's the final, visible symptom of a deeper condition, the pimple that forms when crap, crud and pressure builds up under the surface of an area beyond the ability of the overlying structure to keep things smooth and peachy. It's your "last chance for gas" sign that a pre-existing problem has gone septic and is about to explode very publicly and very messily. And puncturing that pustule, no matter how satisfying, macho and pro-active it feels, isn't going to do anything for the situation except make it worse. With luck, you'll get off with a nasty scar that will gnarl the surrounding area into a tough and unsightly mess that will always be there to remind you of your stupidity. More likely, however, is that you'll end up with a serious infection that will sicken the entire body and may never completely heal, causing illness, unbalance and pain throughout the entire organism for a very long time.

Playing "he hit me back first," eye for an eye, and other stupid tit-for-tat games of escalating violence and hatred, while turning a blind eye to what created the eruption in the first place (or deluding yourself that it's the people, and not the situations that motivate them, that are evil and therefore free game for righteous shoots) are no more of a solution to terrorism than a dirty blade is to unsightly butt-smut.

For one thing, no matter how deluded or how enmeshed in "the dark side" a person is, no one is ever completely without good and as such deserves all the compassion we can give them to bring them back from that sorry state. Yeah, I said compassion. Compassion, love, forgiveness and all that other namby-pamby Jesus-y/Buddhist crap. Sure, it's nowhere near as much fun as a good strafing run with a fighter jet, but infinitely more effective and long-lasting. And it does have the advantage that it's the one thing they really won't ever see coming, so you can score serious points for shock and awe.

For another thing, no one (not even "those people," whoever that happens to be this month) kills, maims or destroys themselves and others without what they consider to be a damn good reason. But, like all infectious concerns, the illness or problem itself can impair and twist reason. From the point of view of a terrorist, fevered and delusional by whatever circumstance has brought them to this point, their actions are reasonable and called for by the situation at hand. You may not buy it (I certainly don't - violence is never reasonable), but you do have to accept the fact that there is a strong and unarguable reason pushing them to this action, however wrong-headed, unless all the attackers are clearly and diagnosably insane (which they clearly aren't, all personal opinions aside - most terrorist attacks are brilliantly conceived, planned and executed. No pun intended.).

To cure the disease, you must find the reason for the disease and treat the source of the infection. Do that and the pimples will go away by themselves. Attack the outbreak, and you'll just elicit greater and greater reactions - until your left with nothing to sit on but a raw and gaping wound.

Addendum: And no, despite what you've been told on talk radio and other sources of such illuminating sources, "they" don't hate us because we're rich, skinny and God's real bestest-best friends. Don't believe everything you hear and don't insult people who are dedicated enough to a cause to blow themselves and others up by diminishing and belittling their grievences and motivations.

Willful blindness and arrogant patronizing attitudes just contribute to the problem. If you can't be bothered to explore the issues beyond the readily available, pre-filtered and easy-to-digest infotainment pablum (new and improved - boiled down to an easy-to-swallow content-free paste with all those pesky lumps of complexity strained out for you!) and form a truly educated opinion based on what's really going on in the grown-up world of complicated and layered issues, please just shut up, sit down and wait for the nice lady to come by with your free peanuts and movie headphones before you really piss off the big scary guy with the bomb and take the rest of us down with you. 'kay?

This just in...God has a podcast. Several hundred, in fact, and the number is growing according to PodcastAlley.com listings. making these spiritually-based podcasts (known as Godcasts) more popular than jazz, rock and streaming news.

Often edgy, commonly idiosyncratic and uniquely targeted, Godcasts (ranging from the top-listing Catholic Insider to the less well known shows like The Infidel Guy Show and ZenCast) are reaching a whole new population of free-range congregants who are either burned out on the standard fair, have an insatiable appetite for spiritual teachings or who just want a little virtual inspiration to go with their double-half-calf latte and croissant.

So get your earbuds out and your God jones on, 'cause the Big Guy's hit the blogosphere and he's leaving a vapor trail a mile wide and an MP3 deep. Woot!

From Early to Rise newsletter:

You may be familiar with the following motivational quote - one of Goethe's most famous couplets:

"What you can do or think you can do, begin it.
For boldness has genius, power, and magic in it."

We thought you'd be interested in seeing a longer version of these words. (Keep in mind that Goethe's original was written in German. Though the meaning still shines through, much of his poetry is lost in translation.)

"Lose this day loitering - twill be the same story
To-morrow - and the next more dilatory;
Each indecision brings its own delays,
And days are lost lamenting o'er lost days.
Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute -
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.
Only engage, and then the mind grows heated -
Begin it, and then the work will be completed."

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Mmmmm. Nothing like a little crunchy germanic goodness first thing in the morning. Still and all, it's pretty good stuff, and right on the money. The present you let slide by today creates the tomorrow you're going to be whining about later. Just so you know.

Oh, and for those who've always wondered, it's pronounced "ger'-teh".

Wohooo! I'm finally finished with my 2-year course in auto mechanics at the local vocational/technical school (it's an "anxiety disorder manifesting as need for competancy in case of Armeggedon" thing...and I made straight "A"s, so no one is kicking me off the island). And apparently my graduation gift from hubby is...*drumroll*

...a horse-choking, teeth-rotting, monster family-sized pack of Twizzlers (which all my tightest buds know is my own personal Kryptonite)!!!

Heeheeheeheeheee...

*rattle rattle rip*

Mine! All mine...my sweet, sweet precious...mghgggmm ghpphhhg gmmggn

Welcome to the future, kiddies! Welcome to the world of Fluff.

And before you ask, I'm all for closing the circle. I have no emotional issues with living in and around recycled waste. I mean, where do you think the stuff your living in/on/under now came from - some hermetically sealed parallel universe where the atoms have never been exposed to hard reality before landing in your house.

NOT!

Everything you eat, wear, sleep on, drink, breathe and get freaky with was, at some point in time, built from the ground up with stuff that has been around the cosmic block more times than a string of beads at Mardi Gras. Get past it and get with the program, and start turning those Pop-Tart wrappers into a wrap-around porch.

God, I love this century.

PS - Shout out to the Blogfather, John Scalzi, for bringing this to my attention.

Definition of "rogue nation" from Wikipedia. For those with an irony deficiency, compare the requirements for "rogue nation" status to our current actions as seen from outside the US. Ouchie.

Link to a video graphically representing the size of the current US nuclear arsenal, and a place to sign your name if the result bothers you. That is all. (Edit: the 'sign your name' thing didn't 'submit' for me, although it could be a server thing - your mileage may vary.)

High school student builds hydrogen powered model car that never needs refueling.

Good grief. My high school science projects all involved construction paper diagrams and relied substantially on coathangers for their structural integrity. Where do they get these kids?

Under the "your body is a temple" heading, this article is hitting the airwaves just in time for the summer cook-out season:

The University of Hawaii has released a new study that shows people who consume processed meats have a 6700% increased risk of pancreatic cancer over those who consume little or no meat products.

Now, that's the sort of info that makes for truly awkward grill-side conversation.

Edit: note the altered figure. Apparently a lot of publications made this error, and it got passed on to me in that erroneous form. Still a hair-raising figure, but not nearly so heart-stopping. :-)

Tonight's Law & Order proposed an interesting quandry - what do you do if the person who committed the crime years ago has since done a complete 180 and is now the poster child for the sort of spiritually-centered, service-oriented community-enhancing do-gooder that every justice system dreams of resulting in?

The two arguments pretty much boil down to this:

"A" says that if the whole point of incarceration is rehabilitation and keeping the general public safe from offenders who are likely to present a future menace, then there's no justice in sending this person to prison - especially given that prisons today are notorious for taking in peope who might be criminal minded or dangerous in limited circumstances (and sometimes unique cirucumstances) and turning them into violently sociopathic monsters by the end of their sentence.

"B" says that true spiritual redemtion requires that you own up to your responsibility and do the time, even if that's the only purpose for sending someone up. It also references closure for the victim's family, etc. This argument additionally makes clear note of the danger of combining the carrying out of governance with the influence of religion (Taliban membership applications, anyone?)

Where do I stand? Undecided, but leaning slightly toward "A," as reality currently stands. In the set up we have now, prisons do little if anything to deter criminals. Iin fact, in many circles they are looked upon as badges of honor and even mandatory requirements of gang membership - rather like finishing school. They do little to nothing to prevent criminals from re-offending - if the dehumanization doesn't actually make the situation far worse, which is often the case. And they do not protect the community from the criminal - they only defer such interaction until a later date, often with tragic consequences since our present prison system is notorious for taking in those who present little to no danger, or danger only limited or unique circumstances, and spitting out fully-formed sociopathic monsters with a big beef against the outside world they perceive (sometimes rightly) as having treated them like animals.

Also, I fear that victim closure too often morphs into socially-supported retribution and revenge, which helps neither the victim, nor the offender, nor the society in which they both will end up living.

I am a big fan of the restorative justice movement, which brings offenders, victims and the community they live in together with trained facilitators to work together to come to an equitable solution that works for everyone. So far, their success in rehabilitating criminals, restricting recitivism and restoring a sense of peace to the victims are impressive and have apparent longevity. Check it out for yourself by typing the phrase "restorative justice" into your search engine of choice.

So what's your take? Where do you fall on the continuum of the ends versus the means?