Two Thoughts I've Been Saving for a Cold Day

It's cold out, so I'll pull out the two thoughts I've been saving for a cold day.

Thought #1

We were made for these times. Money quote: The reason is this: In my uttermost bones I know something, as do you. It is that there can be no despair when you remember why you came to Earth, who you serve, and who sent you here. The good words we say and the good deeds we do are not ours. They are the words and deeds of the One who brought us here. In that spirit, I hope you will write this on your wall: When a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. But that is not what great ships are built for.

Thought #2

The Pope's astronomer (I've met him, he's a really nice guy from South Detroit) has no patience for those who claim science and religion are at war.

Gunboats

I'm slated to be busy tomorrow, so have tomorrow's thought today:

A pair of USN gunboats (more like "ski boats with a machine gun") strayed into Iranian waters. The Iranians arrested our sailors, and one of them apologized for being in Iranian water while blaming a GPS failure. Various right-wing sources are comparing this to Carter's hostage crisis. Thoughts:

1) If a Cuban or Iranian gunboat strayed into US waters, you'd be damn sure we'd arrest everybody on the boat and haul them to shore.

2) If said boats had fired on our ships during the arrest, you'd be damn sure that an airstrike would be called in and those boats, plus anybody who got in the way, would be sunk.

3) Given the size of the boats, and presuming one of them needed to be towed, thus slowing both ships, the practical result of any armed resistance would be to get the resisting boats sunk and their crew dead.

4) Saying "we're sorry" is the quickest way to end the standoff. Armed resistance is the quickest way to start a war, and nobody on those boats is within a country mile of the paygrade that equals "get to start a war on my say-so."

In short, the right-wingers are pissed because we got treated exactly like we'd treat somebody else.