Iowa is granting permits to acquire or carry guns in public to people who are legally or completely blind.No one questions the legality of the permits. State law does not allow sheriffs to deny an Iowan the right to carry a weapon based on physical ability.

via Iowa grants permits for blind residents to carry guns in public | The Des Moines Register | desmoinesregister.com.

Blind Justice, indeed.

The poor embrace the military because every other cul-de-sac in their lives breaks their spirit and their dignity. Pick up Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front or James Jones’s From Here to Eternity. Read Henry IV. Turn to the Iliad. The allure of combat is a trap, a ploy, an old, dirty game of deception in which the powerful, who do not go to war, promise a mirage to those who do.

via War Is Betrayal | Boston Review.

War, what the hell is it good for?

We lost in Vietnam, but what changed. Did we lose what we were told we would?

We won in Iraq, but what changed. We can barely cross borders in the US, without an ID check. Been to the airport? Do you feel as though you won the war. All the enemy is dead, yet do we have a better life freer, or even, just as free?

That little mouse roared, and we have shackled ourselves to absolutely nothing.