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Time to switch off?

I'm generally a pretty up-beat guy.

Give me a lemon and I'll make a Gin and Tonic out of it.

However, the state of the world right now leaves me searching for an up-side.

The latest piece of buffoonery is the China/Taiwan situation.

China told the USA not to allow Nanci Pelosi to visit the "breakaway" island of Taiwan or there would be serious military repercussions (I paraphrase).

So Nancy dropped in to Taiwan and shook a few hands, kissed a few babies and generally did the politician thing.

What was China's response?

Well they rolled out some of their finest military hardware and once they'd fixed the broken bits and peeled off the fake "QC" stickers, proceeded to conduct a bunch of "military exercises" just a few miles away from Taiwan's coast.

Part of me just has to laugh at all this grandstanding and sabre-rattling -- but another part of me realises that we're just one hiccup, mis-interpretation or knee-jerk away from a fully-fledged military engagement between these two nations (and yes, I do accord Taiwan "nation" status, because I choose to).

A similar situation is going on right now in the Ukraine... where Russia keeps mumbling about nukes and even the UN has woken from its regular slumber to suggest that we're playing a dangerous game of unfulfilled rhetoric over that conflict and the use of nukes.

Now I read that the USA has just assassinated the head of Al Qaeda using a fancy hi-tech drone-based missile attack. Ayman al-Zawahiri was allegedly one of the conspirators who organised the 9/11 attacks against the USA and President Biden was elated that finally this criminal had been brought to justice.

Sorry, did I miss the trial?

Or has the threshold for metering out capital punishment fallen somewhat in the USA of late?

Again, I'm kind of torn on this one because if he really was one of the masterminds of the 9/11 attacks then I really don't have much sympathy for the pieces of him that have been spread around what's left of his house in Afghanistan. However, the basic tenets of justice do require that when someone is accused, they face a trial and are able to present evidence in their defense.

Ah... sorry... I forgot... "War Against Terror"... that wonderful invention by the USA which allows every legal protection ever devised to be thrown under a bus. Even the all-powerful Constitution of the United States gets sidelined when there's a chance to use "The War Against Terror" as a factor.

As I watch all this tomfoolery and incredible wast of capital and resources (both financial and human), I wonder just how far further ahead we'd be if all that energy, money, time and resource was instead focused on doing *good* things.

Sadly however, we live in a world where even the most "advanced" nation on the planet still spends three quarters of a trillion dollars every year on defense, with much of that going into the design, construction and amassing of things that kill people really dead.

We are, sadly, still little more than savages.

To any alien species reading this from the comfort of orbit... just keep traveling guys, it's far to dangerous to pay us a visit right now. Maybe in another 1,000 years... if we're still here.

My own personal solution to this?

Bah... I'm just a spectator. I can't do anything about all this stupidity so I'll just carry on living one day at a time and frowning from time to time. Time to switch off the worries and just ignore this crap.

Carpe Diem folks!

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