Three And A Quick Toddle

This is likely to be a day from my personal vision of Hell, so please excuse the following brevities.

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1. How serious is the Syrian matter, really?

Possibly not too serious, if one of the Senate's more notable "hawks" can treat it this way:

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was caught red-handed by a reporter playing a game on his iPhone as his Senate colleagues and top Obama administration officials discussed a strike on Syria at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Tuesday.

The Republican senator, who met with the White House Monday to discuss the conflict, admitted he was playing the poker game during the hearing after the Washington Post posted a photo of him doing so.

“Scandal!” McCain tweeted from his personal account. “Caught playing iPhone game at 3+ hour Senate hearing - worst of all I lost!”

McCain and fellow GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., announced conditional support for Obama’s plan on a strike on Syria at a Monday press conference, but said any U.S. military strike would need to have the goal of degrading the Assad regime.

Making light of being caught at such a thing doesn't excuse the offense to the seriousness of the subject under discussion...if, indeed, the subject itself is a serious one. But then, John McCain's ability to take anything seriously has been open to question since he first decided to pursue the presidency on the strength of two admittedly unique credentials:

• Having been shot out of the sky by North Vietnamese anti-aircraft fire;
• Spending several years in a North Vietnamese prison.

Gee, what an opportunity the American people missed, eh?

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2. Obeying the law is no excuse.

"Excuse me?" I hear you say. "Did you bungle that quote, Fran?"

Not a chance, bro:

SAN ANTONIO -- An "open carry" demonstration outside of a local Starbucks was broken up by police after passersby complained about the three men and their rifles.

The demonstrators, who posted a video of the entire encounter to YouTube, claim they were within their legal rights.

According to Texas law, this type of conduct isn't illegal as long as the weapon is not loaded.

However, San Antonio police Chief William McManus explained that the gun holder can still be charged with disorderly conduct if anyone, at any point, feels threatened.

"It's a disorderly offense that officers will address accordingly," McManus said.

[Citation courtesy of Sara Noble.]

Penal law was once based on a simple rule: Does the cited action cause harm, or a likelihood of harm, to unconsenting others? The modern tendency is to replace the word harm with offense.

That this should have happened in Texas, of all places, makes it plain how thoroughly the police have been mobilized against the citizenry and the rights of the private citizen...and how critically important it is to halt this progression and reverse it before it can go further.

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3. Well, we dodged one bullet, at least.

John Kerry came within about three million votes -- actually, more like 150,000 votes, as all he needed was to take Ohio -- of becoming president of these United States. We can be thankful that:

• He failed at that attempt;
• He's no longer a United States Senator;
• We have Rand Paul, one of the best men currently in public office, to show him for what he is.

Yes, yes, we have to endure his depressing puss and lugubrious ramblings as Obama's Secretary of State, but once you've installed Obama in the Oval Office, that's on the order of a mosquito bite to a machine-gunning victim. Besides, with a little luck we can arrange to have Kerry's "diplomatic" duties keep him out of the country most of the time, right? Right?

And that's all for today, Gentle Reader.