Hammer Mill Days

Interstellar Tour Log: March 25, 2014 Out in the Ort Cloud neighborhood. Hear that click? That was the sound of our spaceship doors locking. This Ort Cloud is a rough neighborhood, so best not to take any chances ... now on the last leg of our Interstellar Tour 2014, which we undertook to boost sales of our latest album, Cowboy Scat: Songs in the Key of Rick . A dubious endeavor, to be sure, but one worth at least a thimble of sweat, and we have certainly given it that - with the exception, of course, of Marvin (my personal robot assistant), who is incapable of perspiration. (Smoke comes out of that sucker, but only when it's very hot.) Anyway, we're taking a brief diversion from our tour schedule to lay claim to the recently discovered deep space object known simply as 2012 VP (or "Biden"), a dwarf planet in a very wide orbit around the sun, way out here in Ort-ville. Hey, so what the hell, we're staking out our claim, by virtue of the Extraterrestrial Homes...

I won't waste any breath on much of what's happened in politics this week ... that Hobby Lobby suit before the Supreme Court has got me hopping mad, but I'll hold that for another week while I take the President to task for his speech to "European youth" about the Crimean crisis. One particular passage is very worthy of attention: Russia has pointed to America’s decision to go into Iraq as an example of Western hypocrisy. Now, it is true that the Iraq War was a subject of vigorous debate not just around the world, but in the United States as well. I participated in that debate and I opposed our military intervention there. But even in Iraq, America sought to work within the international system. We did not claim or annex Iraq’s territory. We did not grab its resources for our own gain. Instead, we ended our war and left Iraq to its people and a fully sovereign Iraqi state that could make decisions about its own future. Here, Barry seems to be saying that it...