Aftermarket parts

The prolonged silence around this joint is largely because I'm pretty much in the terminal segment of the descending branch of my appointment with the MOPAR guy; I'm getting a total hip replacement next Tuesday. My right side has gotten so bad that just moving is painful and small children point at me and scream when I hobble past. Yes, I look like The Hunchback, you little bastards. I know.

I won't pretend I'm thrilled. Yes, the result will be better than my present crippled mess. No, it's not "good". It's just better than what I have. I am still resentful and angry that I've been dealt a shitty hand and can't do anything but play it out. There are also the risks attendant on any large surgery AND the time and effort that go into a painful recovery. Like a Republican voter, I'm angry that I have to deal with the painful and difficult present to get to the promised better future that may or may not arrive.

Speaking of those fucking idiots...is there anyone who can pretend that something like 15-20% of the U.S. electorate hasn't lost its fucking mind? I mean, here's a guy who is just a ridiculous buffoon, a raw, infiltered Id-iot demagogue that has openly espoused torture, racism, aggressive war and domestic espionage. Closing houses of worship? Seriously? You'd think that even a mouth-breathing cousin-marriage-spawned Christopath would have been out the door on THAT one.

Speaking of which...this year's Republican primaries have done a great job of reminding me why political Christianity - at least, as it commonly appears in the "conservative" spectrum of U.S. politics - appeals to me about as much as a solid dose of the clap.

Fred Clarke notes that it's not a matter of some sort of individual choice on the part of the bible-bangers as much as it is a complete failure of the Christian Right to include any sort of genuinely Christian ethics in their catechism;

"...the Christian moral formation of these supposed Christians they have not been offered an adequate inoculation against this kind of politics. What they needed was instruction in a version of Christianity with ironclad commitments to civility, solidarity, justice, mercy, compassion, rule of law, and human rights, commitments so strong and so well-engrained in believers that to support someone like Trump would be unthinkable. But they have not received that inoculation."

This isn't just Trump. His closest rival, Ted Cruz, spouts similar noxious bullshit, and the Jesus-pesterers eat it up.

The full effect appears to be that the "vulgar talking yam", as Pierce likes to call him, is all over the GOP like stank on an old gym shoe. Barring a complete disaster he will be the candidate this fall, and I cannot imagine a worse indictment of the goddamn U.S. public. The GOP cannot help this nation in any way if it is the Party of Trumpism. There is nothing that can be said other than what I've said here again and again; Ceterum censeo GOP esse delendam.

The GOP serves no real useful purpose at this point. And, worse, in its existing form it is destroying the political conventions that make U.S. governance possible. We’re rapidly approaching 1859, and for much the same reasons only instead of slavery the hothouse ideology “threatened” by change is some sort of hellbrew of racism, greed, and flopsweat panic fear of imaginary jihadi invasion.

And stupidity – if you’re voting for Republicans because you’re mad at the wealthy vulture capitalists shipping your job overseas you’re in the same position as a pig voting for Jimmy Dean. Racist, greedy, and stupid is no way to go through life, son, and yet it's pretty much the default Republican position on, well, everything.

Oh, yeah, and there's their take on the fucking Malheur Morons. Oddly, the only one of the clowns that hasn't openly embraced the Metal Mulisha is Trump. Probably because they lost, and losers lose; Trumps are winning winners that win! Christ on a fucking crutch.

Nuke it from space. Seriously. That’s the only fucking way to be sure.

Oh, one more thing since we've been talking about Il Douche; at least he gave someone the inspiration for this:

Gad, what a vile shitshow these people are.

Did I tell you that the Girl has taken up the ancient sport and combat skill of archery?

She and the Bride have been going to our local Trackers indoor range to shoot, and both of them have become damn proficient, the Amazons. Speaking of which, my inamorata - who is still abundantly endowed even after going through surgery to reduce the endowment - says that she has developed a whole ne appreciation for the old story about the women warriors being, um, monomammilary. She has to alter her stance fairly significantly to about getting slapped with the bowstring in a rather delicate place.

Sometimes I'm damn glad I'm not female. The discomfort setting seems pretty high.

Anyway, Trackers is pretty much made of awesome. We're talking a place where you can live-action roleplay, or learn to smithy a utility knife, or card wool and spin cloth, or find medicinal plants. I would have been all over Trackers if we'd had one whan I was a kid, and I love the Little Miss loves her some Trackers.

Here's a couple of snapshots of the two maenads firing away. Here's the Girl:

Mojo takes up a good kneeling unsupported firing position:

Contemplating the perforated foes:

Good shooting, ladies!

I've enjoyed all this Robin Hoody exercise, although my personal fantasy is as a Parthian horse-archer at Carrhae, and so as such I've tried to duplicate the tactic of starting with my back to the target, stringing, turning and firing.

Let's just say that the Parthians and I are lucky I was born 2,000 years too late.

But not late enough to have bionic hips. Dammit.