Sleepless Hunters
For several months, at all times of the day and night, there have been sounds of distant shots being fired. Seems to be hunters – probably of quail. On my walks, I’ve never seen or met a hunter, which leads me to imagine that these are deeply personal men, hiding somewhere in the undergrowth, unseen, vigilant, harboring a passion for killing things that keeps them up even through the summer night.
Gaza campaign
On our morning walk, distant sirens heralded a flurry of nearer-sounding bangs and booms, as the Iron Dome system intercepted incoming rockets. Another dumb and useless round in the violence has reached a tense ceasefire. More than 40 Palestinians have been killed, helping an Israeli leader’s election run. War is a triumph of a certain kind of imagination over the common sense peace that sane people desire. Peace does not require imagination. The opposite is true. Peace is boringly simple; it means that my life and your life are worth as much, that we are all ordinary people struggling to make a living, raise our children, live our lives. Imagination comes along to encourage us to make sacrifices and agree to a reduction in the quality of life on behalf of patriotism and national identity. Domestic and external threats are conjured up in order to cow us into obedience. Violent solutions are invented for issues that can only be solved by peaceful means. 
Nations are parasitical entities that live off the backs of their citizens, finding uses for their tax money that no normal person would wish to support if they had time to think about it. We are encouraged not to think – as if spending the money that I have entrusted to the government, in the form of taxes, for the benefit of my fellow citizens, is beyond my concern. It can be used to build palaces, make bombs, bankroll oppression, surveil me, or whatever other schemes that politicians and bureaucrats can dream up.