I've had a slight headache the last couple of days, and it might be one of those big "brain boils" I get occasionally. It's kind of like a thought I don't take the time to sit down and formulate all the way, and it ends up picking on other things in my brain until I do. So I get up this morning and read the headlines:

            Bank robberies on the rise

Bush seeks big Mideast arms sale

U.S. arms Iraqi residents

Congress OK's major security bill

What in hell is wrong here? The bank robbery story started out by feeding the fear of drugs and drug users. "A boom in bank robberies, many of them fueled by criminals in search of money for drugs…" The thinking goes something like this: Drug users are incapacitated and can't work, or they are lazy slobs, or they aren't like the rest of hard-working Americans, so they buy a gun and rob a bank. Out of their drug crazed haze they see banks as easy pickings with security guards, cameras, alarms, vaults, etc. Clever devils.

Bush wants Congress to approve increased sales of weapons to Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and other Persian Gulf nations. The Mideast appears to be one of the most volatile regions of the world. Do we send the Peace Corps? No. It's like walking up to a fist-fight between two kids and handing them pistols. Won't be long before someone dies. And of course there is the Saudi Arabia issue. SecDef Gates calls them moderates! Along with all of this is there is the famous Carlyle Group, the bunch who fund wars all over the world, but that is another headline.

Since we're at war in Iraq, and it seems to be a guerilla war, what better way to keep it going than to provide weapons to the guerillas! The theory is that arming the locals is a "component of counterinsurgency" that will quickly become better equipped than the militias or the Iraqi Army to deal with internal struggles. Or something like that. I guess since they don't have a lot of drunken parties, where the guns come out at the hint of an insult, it should not be a problem. Unless of course you consider that the Iraqis are an "honor culture", where honor is more important than almost anything else. Having a smaller gun than your neighbor could lead to shame which is the loss of honor. That is all beside the point, though. The real catch to this is we are arming the people who might be shooting us tonight.

So now we get to the "major security bill". It was a long time coming, but now we are going to ensure that the urban areas get the stuff that the rural areas have been getting. It makes some sense. Why do we need anti-tank weapons in Idaho? But then if I am Al-qaida, I'm reading the same news and sneaking across the border in Montana. Then I'm going to the nearest gun show with forged identification and pick up a few automatic weapons to use at the local laundromat or day care center. I mean, why pick on high profile targets like the World Trade center if all I really want to do is create "terror?" Striking at rural NASCAR loving America where they least expect it would do that better than blowing up a bunch of New York stock brokers.

So what is the common denominator in all this? Except for one bank robber who uses a knife, all of this has to do with guns. Quit making the fuckers.