smacky and bucky

Over Christmas break I installed a new faucet in the kitchen at our place at the river. It's actually a simple process and with the right tools and supplies, not a big chore.

When I got home from work yesterday, L announced she wanted to get a new faucet for the bathroom in our weekday pad.

See? That's what happens when you show the least bit of skill at something! That's why men usually play dumb when you ask them to do something! So that's what I'll be doing this afternoon.

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Switching gears... I'm not what you would call a super patriot. I don't immediately think America is morally superior every time we get in a conflict (however small) with another country. And I believe it is possible to support the troops but not the war, regardless of how some people say that is insane (or treasonous! GASP!). I also think it's not unpatriotic to publicly state that your current leader is a douche. I can't stand the mindless drones that spout the empty rhetoric of "Love it or leave it!" and "Speak English!" and "There's a war on Christmas!"

That said, I have always had a soft spot for Captain America. Hero of World War II, frozen in a block of ice and reanimated in the present day, he's a man out of time. And he carries a shield, not a gun. The symbolism of that is lost on our current administration, who believe safety can only come with citizens willingly giving up more and more personal freedoms. And the things he can do with that shield. He's fought a raged-up Hulk with it and survived. And check out what he's about to do to Hitler (with scared shitless face in the reflection of the shield):

Yeah, they killed him recently in a well written but still annoying marketing ploy. Hopefully the original will be back. But I read Captain America when all the comics were embracing "dark and gritty" antiheroes like Punisher and Batman. He had a "never give up" spirit I admired. And he quit being Captain America on two occasions in the past when the government tried to rein him in and make him a puppet of the president. He quit and went vigilante, because he's no one's puppet. He loves the country, but doesn't blindly embrace the current administration. And they (Marvel Comics) killed him. You can argue the symbolism of that in a post 9/11 world forever.