righteous lightning

the US—this supposed nation under god—was formed not by god but by humans like benjamin franklin.

franklin was born in boston in 1706. religionists of the day, when lightning set a house ablaze, had their fire brigades wet down surrounding houses as the lightning-struck house burned to the ground.

when franklin was 42 he retired as a printer and became a full-time scientist. 4 years later he invented the lightning rod.

religionists complained that he had usurped a prerogative of the almighty. [i mean, that is really WEIRD, man! how could true believers imagine any mere mortal could possibly usurp ANYTHING from the ALMIGHTY?!!]

in 2002, g w bush invented the axis of evil, and he and his fellow religionists cut the US donation to the world food program.

that same year, bush and his fellow religionists began beating their wardrums over iraq, a nation of no known nuclear capability, but a "member" of bush's invented evil axis. the following year, they invaded.

north korea depended heavily on the world food program. when bush included them in his invented axis, they worried. when he cut their food ration, they got alarmed. but when he beat the iraq drum, they didn't freak out, they went to work.

even before he invaded they took his actions as a warning. they reasoned that if a country on his hit list with no atomic bombs gets attacked, prudence would suggest nukes might deter another attack.

they took the precaution of pulling out of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty so they wouldn't be charged with violating it. then they slowly and deliberately took steps to restart their 8-years-dormant nuclear weapons program, informing the world at each step.

bush's fellow religionists called north korea's leader a madman.

when we invented the atomic bomb, we used it—twice—within a month of completing it.

since then we've fought 4 major wars and several small ones.

north korea now has atomic bombs but hasn't attacked anyone in 50 years.

i'm looking around for a madman.

all i see is a coven of old witches in an oval cavern, stirring troubled global cauldrons, staring into shiny axes of evil, chanting "mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest one of all?"