"And when you spread out your palms in prayer, I hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I am not listening, for your very hands are stained with blood." (Isaiah 1:15)

"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full." (Matthew 6:5)

We don't have a gun problem in America.  We don't have a mental health, godless liberalism, broken family, video game, or over-abundant doorway problem either.  America has a Republican problem, and until we get rid of every last one of those bloodsuckers, children will continue to die in our schools.

I've become very pessimistic about the state of the world - not just America, but the whole damn planet.  I've come to embrace the Tragic View - resolution to our myriad problems can only be found in the extinction of our species.  Humans, homo sapiens, descended from the same common ancestor as gorillas and chimpanzees - territorial, aggressive simians that hunt and fight in organized, patriarchal troops led by the strongest, most dominant members.  We did not descend from the common ancestor of bonobos, those friendly, communal simians who live in peaceful, matriarchal societies. Were that it was the other way around!

Aha!, you think.  Gotcha! Aren't you being just as bad as those warlike gorillas and chimpanzees by blaming the "other" tribe, in this case, the Republicans. on the world's problems? Yes, I am, and while I can make a logical, connect-the-dots case for assigning the blame, I can't help but be tribal about it.  I'm genetically hardwired that way, just as we all are.  It's our evolutionary "original sin."  It's who we are.

I guarantee you this: when some combination of catastrophic climate change, starvation, nuclear war, and infectious disease reduces the world's human population to just two individuals, those two individuals will be at war and would kill each other on sight.

Oh, did I mention catastrophic climate change?  It's only June 3 today, the third official day of the 2022 Hurricane Season, and we already have a "Potential Tropical Cyclone One" forecast to cross the Florida peninsula this weekend.  Considerable flash- and urban flooding is possible across South Florida and the Keys.  Life-threatening flooding and mudslides are possible across western Cuba.

Maybe we'll get lucky and the floods will clear the area of our loathsome species (that's the Tragic View talking). Maybe they will drown Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who today announced his intention to deny Medicare benefits to transgender children.  Think about it - the elected Governor of a state is using his political power not to benefit the people he represents, but to deny a minority portion access to affordable health care to gain political points from a majority portion.  That's some tribal simian shit right there.  And don't even get me started on denying women, fully half the population, access to safe abortion.  That's some hard-core patriarchal action.

In bonobo society, on the rare occasion that a large male individual is seen bullying, harrassing, or dominating a weaker female, all the females in the tribe will rally to her defense and stop the male aggression.  Wouldn't it be something if all the women and transgender youths of Florida all rallied in Tallahassee, and publicly castrated Ron DeSantis?  Not saying they should do that, but wouldn't it be something?  Just throwing some ideas out there. Something to think about.  Not a recommendation, just a suggestion.

"Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets." - Travis Bickle, Taxi  Driver (1976)