I have been remiss. I had intended to write about Free Hollow Books because they made one of the best selection of hollowed-out books for the private, sneaky, secretive, connoisseur in all of us.

This particular book, A History of Russia and the Soviet Union, is gorgeous, bold, bespoke, and is so dull to all but my most bookish friends.

It also fits a Glock 23 pistol perfectly. And the Glock 19, too. And the Glock 32, I believe. Yes, hollow books that are double-secret gun cases! Basically, it’ll fit most variants of the Glock compact pistol along with a couple spare magazines.

Fear of China and Russia? Fear of foreigners and the Islamic world?  Fear of commies and socialists who want to eat our American way of life the same way they’ll rape our women and eat out babies? Jesus!  Listen to yourselves!

With regards China, I guess I might be the only American who isn’t a China-worrier as I grew up in Hawaii, a place where Chinese culture is pretty well woven deeply into the fabric as much more more than US culture. Red gift envelopes and noodle bowls were more normal than anything else.

With regards Russia, I was scared shitless of the Soviet Union during the 80s; however, when I explored Russia a little bit, and the former Soviet Union, in terms of Russia, Estonia, Slovakia, etc, — and even deep into the heart of Russia as a flew to Nepal in 1990, including landing to refuel on a military airfield, I know that I was afraid of a paper tiger.  Yes, there were Nukes but there were no marauding hordes of blood-thirsty killers with The Communist Manifesto in one hand and a Death Wish For Liberty in the other.

To be honest, Russia has never been a prosperous nation and it only collapsed under the unsustainable weight of building, growing, and maintaining a strong and power defense and offense all at the cost of everything else. When I got there, Russia looked a lot like the front yard of that house that has 5 cars in the yard but only one ran, the rest were for parts.  With cracked sidewalks and a mottled burnt lawn — the country was largely not very Tony aside from a couple-few neighborhoods?

Beware the country that cannot feed and care for her own people and consider them to be parasitic entitled blood-suckers and I will show you a country that is sure to implode under its own vacuum.

Call me naive but none of what anyone has said with regards to our loss of liberty, our freedom, our American way of life, our our privacy has been ever forcibly taken from us by external forces — they have only been either willing relinquished by us in service of security and safety or they have been eroded by our own Federal and State governments, especially from January 20, 2001 – January 20, 2009.

So, before we start getting all McCarthy all over the place, we need to follow the money and see that the majority of the dangers and threats we experience and fear are not coming from a red menace or fr0m Islam, they’re coming from the debilitating fear, paranoia, and infighting that we’re having within our own borders.

It is seriously easier and simpler to blame others — Islam, illegal immigrants, Russia, China, European Socialism, or terrorism than it is to get our own house in order.  If we don’t get our house in order soon, we’re more likely to have a domestic United States civil war than we are going to have a foreign invasion of our sovereign shores.

I would say we’ll have some sort of civil unrest by nationwide members of the tea party before we as a nation ever become an Islamic Theocratic Socialist state.  If I were a betting man, I would say in 2012-2015 to start.

I spend a couple months in Helsinki in 1996, taking a trip out to Saint Petersburg, and was amazed. Not only is Finland AKA Suomi the home of Nokia and Linux Torvalds AKA Linux but it is a nation of futurists.

Not only do the Fins still fear Russia (rightfully so) and gather in dance halls prancing about to old-people music — even the whipper-snappers — but they also have a noble culture of the Sauna, 1st world socialism (a system of heavy taxes with a strong ROI to the citizens), strong feminist ideals and gender equality, a love of nature, a passion for life, a tendency towards heavy drinking, and a capitol city named world design capital for 2012!

Helsinki’s designers have always been central to its culture. But after the collapse of the neighboring Soviet Union, with whom Finland shared a special trade agreement, its economy faltered. Thanks to a new crop of cutting-edge designers–plus the rise of bigger technology companies like Nokia–the last few years have seen the city become a global center for design–in part thanks to the design district which was created to corral many of the rising fashion, furniture and graphic entrepreneurs. And today, the Scandinavian city beat out 46 other cities to be named as the World Design Capital for 2012, which is awarded every two years by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (Icsid) World Design Congress in Singapore.

Helsinki is like that too-handsome National Merit Scholar cum Captain of the Football Team who also plays in the youth orchestra, sings in the church choir, and had a showing of his sculpture.  I must say, I love Finland and miss Helsinki (during the summer) something awful!

Image via Wikipedia

There is a study I heard reported this morning on NPR that explored the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) on New Yorkers and then on the rest of the nation. The most interesting aspect of the report was that the citizens of Greater Washington don’t seem to be exhibiting any signs of PTSD. There were a few theories, but I believe I know why from my experience living in the District for the last 14-years.

I was listening to NPR this morning while prepping for work and I heard a news story that discussed the following:

Doctors expected to see high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder in the months following the September 11th attacks. But a new study shows that while stress disorders have risen for those living in the New York City area, national levels haven’t changed much. NPR’s Joseph Shapiro reports.

Apparently, Washington, DC, is the least effected by PTSD in the entire nation, despite our obvious vulnerability and the unpopularity of the current administration abroad. Why is this? Well, I think I know the answer. Its in me.

When I arrived in DC in 1988 to become a Freshman at GW, I didn’t think about much at all. Over time, it began to become apparent to me, especially in Cold War America, that Washington, DC, was in fact Nuclear Ground Zero.

The truth of our impending doom, the actualized nature of self resulting, was certainly something that I had to struggle with, but that was a long time ago. I was more than done with my resignation to nuclear anihilation by 1991, when I had left DC to study in the UK, and then had to decide if I wanted to come back.

Of course I did. And of course I did, and I am still here. But I was not surprised at all by what happened on September 11, 2001; in fact, I was grateful that it wasn’t worse. I was grateful — and still am — that there hasn’t been a follow-up, that the Pentagon was the only successful target, and that the attack was conventional.

I think that the reason why so many people don’t like Washington, and don’t like Washingtonians, is that we are a little hardened. We are in a lot of ways war-weary, and we have seen a hell of a lot worse than this, by-in-large.

In the article sited on NPR, it was suggested that the number of people “in the business” had a lot to do with our insoucience regarding 9-11. Why yes, in so many ways. We are certainly in denial about a lot of things here. Certainly dating and the opposite sex and how to me Mr. or Miss Right, but there are a few things we understand.

We understand that we are a certain target, and we have known this from the days of the Cold War, when the little kiosk at the center of the Pentagon’s courtyard was known as Ground Zero; we understand that we are the Soldiers, we are the Secret Service, we are the Military, we are the Spies, we are the State Department, we are the Consultants, we are the Foreign Aid Consultants, we are the Specialists, we are the Travellers, and we are the Diplomats. There is quite a weight, a dignity, a seriousness, and a Professionalism in Washington that cannot really be replicated anywhere else.

We have seen worse; I have seen worse; I can conceive of much much worse. So, instead of becoming even remotely scared by the events of 9-11, I returned to much of what I had learned when I was a younger man: we Washingtonians are a juicy target for obvious reasons and anything less than Thermalnuclear War and Scorched Earth is a blessing that I am quite Grateful for.

I have chosen to live here and despite what anyone believes to the contrary, we are brothers-in-arms with New York city, instead of sisters, in this instance, because in many ways, we have always been co-icons for everything that America represents — to the Soviet Union in 1988 and to the Axis of Evil in 2002.

I think that maybe we thought about it more; I think we could think about it more; I think that by being less pretty and glamorous than New York, in general, we had more time to come to terms with the pro’s and con’s of living, breathing, breeding, loving, and thriving in a Rome of sorts. Some day — and I hope this will never happen — Rome will burn. Will I run to the hills as a direct result? No. Will I get married and have a couple kids? Hell yes!

Do I have hope that we will be able to weather this international storm unscathed? I am sorry, but to be honest, I am prepared to need to lash myself to the mast, but I am quite certain we will never sink.

And that is why I believe my city, Washington, DC, and I are not suffering undue stress post-911; that and New Yorkers are a Neurotic Mess by default. We might be dull and unfashionable here in the Nation’s Capital, but we also are not even remotely as nuts.

Joke.