Karma, as well as Tiffany, is a bitch

Today, while the Christian world celebrates the birth of Santa Claus...err....Tiny Tim, I was struck by the news of a suspension bridge's failure in Nepal. Now, Nepal has been in the news for a lot of weird stuff in recent years -- the prince who machine-gunned most of the Royal Family a couple of years back, the continual problems with the Maoist rebels (at a time when the Chinese are no longer Maoists, and when copies of the Little Red Book are considered embarrassingly amusing, like your senile uncle pissing on the roses at high noon), the resurgence of the monarchy followed by the ultimate abdication of the monarch and the coming establishment of a more representative democracy. The Maoists take their inspiration from the Chairman and their ideology from Peru's Shining Path. Nothing says success in governance like the Great Leap Forward combined with Parliament and seasoned by the motto “Marxism-Leninism will open the shining path to revolution”...wasn't the idea to have a revolution to establish Marxism-Leninism? Mao of course added the idea of fulfilling Jefferson's dream of perpetual revolution. And, inspiration from Peru is about as sensible as seeking inspiration from Zaire. So, Nepal is certainly headed in the right direction.

However, what bothers the AXE this Christmas morning is that the bridge failed because there were too many people headed across the village for a Christmas Day Fair. We have a Buddhist country, a suspension bridge, and Christmas. I think Buddha and Tiffany went all Bridge of San Luis Rey on the poor bastards -- a sad commentary. On the surly and vicious nature of the divine. And with that...