Adios, my Friends!

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. (President Abraham Lincoln, 2nd Inaugural Address)

We are not emerging from a civil war. Sadly, the cultural and political wars are far from over. Still, the quote is apt.

When I started blogging, I was a flag-waving rabid rightwinger, flaring with righteous anger at the Godless communists in our midst who dared call themselves Americans and who not only stubbornly refused to deport themselves to Cuba or North Korea where they belonged, but had the temerity to vote for an unqualified, Muslim-named street activist from the corrupt Democrat-dominated political sewers of Crook County Chicago.

Obama's election shattered my view of my nation and my fellow Americans, so I lashed out, flaming and blasting domestic enemies everywhere I found them. I was determined to smoke 'em out, chase 'em down, and blast their backsides as they ran like the cowardly poltroons they are. We would Change It Back, Take It Back, Restore America...

... and along the way, I developed a growing distaste for rightwing activism and the "religious right." The media-hogging activists and spokesmouths were ugly, mean, vindictive. Smug, sanctimonious pricks who would rather delight in trash-talking and demeaning than convert one soul. They unyoked Mercy and Justice, thundering the latter while selfishly hording the former for themselves. I could detect no Christian charity (love) there, so I rejected them.

I also gained a more-informed disgust for the putrid left (while gaining a new respect and appreciation for genuine old-fashioned liberalism), so I belong in neither camp.

So, like Frank Zappa, although I conduct my life in a conservative manner, I do not call myself a conservative. I became a libertarian, but still, over ten years of on-line arguing over politics has gotten me nowhere. It turned me bitter, and it corroded my soul. 😩

I also gained respect for opposing points of view and for those who state them with sincerity. I have enjoyed our discussions, I will miss them, but I am burned out on blogging. It takes up too much of my time and occupies too much of my head space.  I hate politics and I'm through discussing it.

God has blessed me with a rich, joyful life.  I still have all my teeth (despite quite a few fights), I'm on no meds, my family still loves me despite all I've done, it's a big, beautiful world out there and I enjoy living in it. On-line activities distract from all that so I'm leaving Right Blogistan behind.

In the end, putting aside all the philosophy, religion, governments and society, it all comes down to what Blondie says to Tuco at the end of that Sergio Leone classic, The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly:

"You see, in this world there's two kinds of people, my friend: Those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig."

So, with Donald J. Trump now the 45th President of the United States, Kurt Silverfiddle is riding off into the sunset. I'm off to Uruguay, el Paraíso de Mahoma, where I can have multiple wives, smoke pot to kill the back pain, and play guitar and sing to support myself.

With apologies to Ambrose Bierce...

"Good-bye — if you hear of my being stood up against a concrete wall somewhere in South America and shot to rags please know that I think that a pretty good way to depart this life. It beats old age, disease, or falling down the cellar stars. To be a Gringo in Latin America — ah, that is euthanasia!"

Viva La Reconquista!

* - Finntann gets the final word on Friday, so stay tuned...