he built an empire out of the desert
out of the dust and the sand, just like las vegas
but he never took the rap that the mafia did

I’m not upset with you, personally, for your daring to succeed in your leading and following.

Collectively it might be a little different, but I know you and you know me. So if you can bring yourself to fail once, in being upset with me, for choosing the third way and being so vocal and militant about it, then maybe we can at least call things even and feel some peace.

and he thought the indians were some lost thirteen dudes
but he didn’t treat them any better
and they were never on his side

As for ‘letting’ my wife do what I thus far refuse to do, the depth of misunderstanding here is multi-layered and, well, amusing. I’m not interested in Letting, or holding the kind of lordship that letting necessitates, and that’s a good thing, because if I were, there would be no peace ever, under any terms, in a house like this.

they drove their pickup trucks out into the desert
into a ditch along the side of the road
and acted like they were drunk

all the time (source)

On this occasion I declare that this is the best and most rational response I can come up with, too.

It does require a pickup truck. It does require desert, and maybe a ditch. But that’s all, and I am blessed with both those things. If necessary the ditch can be arranged.

Maybe the hardest part is the acting drunk all the time without actually being a drunk, but I’ve practiced at that diligently as well. When you see the people cluck silently and start to shake their heads, start to think what a shame it is, you know you’ve done the job well.

Dirty hands, clean money.

***

Behold, the noble savage, stripped of his grace and stripped of his living, fallen so very low in this decadent time.

It’s a dirty old world, and there but for the grace of white jesus go every pale tie-wearing american one of us.