I Had a Great Day on February 28, 2026

The hopeless romantic inside me has been screaming to get out for years. Since I told my friend Mary that I was thoroughly smitten with her, she's let me let him out by writing her love poems and saying really sweet things, especially when I'm high. Just the sweet things, I mean. I haven't yet attempted to write a poem while I'm high because that takes more effort than I usually feel like making. Mary is emotionally unavailable for various reasons that may or may not ever change, but at least she lets me express myself. I don't care if you think that's pathetic. I think it's sweet.

So this year, I asked if I could send her flowers for Valentine's Day. I would have done it without asking except that I had to get her address. She said she loved flowers, briefly exposing the sensitive soul beneath her tough exterior. Then I procrastinated because the trauma from years of poverty makes spending large amounts of money feels like cutting my fingers off. Then, two days before Valentine's Day, the store I'd picked to order from was too busy to take any more orders for Valentine's Day. I was horrified... until I remembered that her birthday was two weeks later. I asked if she would be crushed if the flowers were a few days late and apologized for letting her down. She said I hadn't let her down because I didn't owe her anything. Then I hoped she would forget about the whole thing and be surprised on her birthday, which was my brilliant plan all along.

I see the florist picked yellow because I selected "Friend" on the order form. There wasn't a "Friend who is vocally in love but respects boundaries" option. I knew that yellow was the apology color, and I used yellow flowers for that purpose once many years ago. I found out that it was also the color of friendship when a friend sent me a yellow heart emoji, which didn't make me think of friendship so much as cholesterol poisoning. My friendly little note was something like, "Happy birthday, Mary! You are a star shining in the darkness, and I am so blessed to have your light in my life." I gravitated toward that metaphor and once wrote an entire poem stretching it to the limit because she's one of the bright spots that makes living through these godawful times worth it. Not the only one, of course. I haven't made her solely responsible for my happiness because that would be unfair to her and unhealthy for me. See, I'm mature and stuff.

I felt like it was my birthday too, though, when Iran's "Supreme Leader" and several other vermin were removed from the planet. Now look, I hate the U.S. government. I hate the Israeli government. I don't think Trump should be allowed to unilaterally order strikes and bombings whenever he wants. I don't want another twenty-year war in the Middle East. Nonetheless, what's happened has happened, and the deaths of these dictators, torturers, and murderers are very good things, and certain leftists who can't see that really need to get their heads out of their asses. The Ayatollah was evil. The Islamic Republic is evil. Whoever needs to hear this, please stop saying stupid shit like "Iran has a right to defend itself" as if its brutal theocracy, which very recently murdered thousands of protesters, represents the people who are currently cheering, dancing in the streets, setting off fireworks, and writing "Rest in piss" on Reddit every time another member of it is reported dead. (Seriously, they love that phrase.) This. Is. What. Iranians. Wanted.

And again, I'm not unaware of the political problems with the circumstances under which it happened, the unacceptable collateral damage to civilians, or the risks for the future, but not wanting wars is not, in itself, a sufficient reason not to kill dictators. "No wars" is an ideal to strive for. It's not an absolute value like "No child porn." Given the choice between having a war and leaving generations of people to live in hell, I know what I find morally preferable. Oh, and in this instance, there's the little detail that the US is responsible for the current dictatorship in Iran because the CIA overthrew its democratic government in 1953 and installed a monarchy, which the Islamists overthrew in 1979. The US owes Iran. This is a form of restitution, though it won't do any good to the millions who have already lived out their lives under this regime. Oh, and this regime also supplies weapons to Russia, which just entered the fifth year of its three-day military operation against Ukraine. So that not happening anymore is another potential benefit.

I guess this regime also supports Palestine against Israel, which may be the sole reason why certain leftists are pretending it deserves to exist. Oh well. Evil people have their moments, as evidenced by Trump and Netanyahu having one this weekend, but that's still not a good enough reason for Khamenei and his cronies to stay alive and continue spreading misery and death. Byeatollah!*

*A leftist acquaintance on Facebook flipped me off for posting that. I told him (in Spanish, because he spoke Spanish), "If you like a murdering dictator, you can burn in hell with him." I know insulting people doesn't often change their minds, but he needed one hell of a reality check. And he said, "The same for pedophilic and genocidal idolaters." And I said, "Of course, Trump and Netanyahu are also pieces of shit. I'm just happy that they did a good thing." He didn't respond, perchance because his brain had exploded.