It's never stated just how Naomi's husband and her sons died in the land of Moab, but she cries the tears of every woman who loses the men of her life; her husband, her sons, to war.

Through using the recoil of the gun to discharge spent ammunition, the Maxim Machine Gun, capable of firing 600 rounds per minute, was the state of the art in late 19th Century firearms. It's first military deployment (in the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition into Equatoria, Sudan) was not specifically as a weapon but as deterrent since it was claimed that "merely exhibiting" the Maxim Gun to the natives would "prove a great peace producer". How much more productive might this "exhibition" have been had they strapped a flamingo to the gun's muzzle?

The Flamingo is a question mark that blushes with conscience as it implores one to examine motives. Whilst exotic, it also seems a part of the self as though we all have an innate part of our being that is essentially "flamingo" in nature - i.e.; Ego, id, libido, ergo; flamingo! This innate "flamingularity" gives rise to the concept of "conflamingulation" as a psychological condition. Somewhere in between "conflagration" and "confabulation" - a state of grace, the inner flamingo of "Conflamingulation".

The skunk is the Mujahideen of the animal kingdom. Much stronger animals live in dread of the stink bomb that only the lowly skunk can release. Yet the skunk is an amiable, well mannered creature when undisturbed. I know because I have let skunks into my house before and they have never caused any problem, they only help themselves to my cat's food and then leave quietly. It makes one wonder how preyed upon they have been to have evolved such a ruthless self defense.

Reaching ever so gingerly for his battle ax, in an unlikely alliance with his Muslim brother, this gentleman personifies the nail-biting political anger of the arm-chair extremist boiling over into irrational frenzy. It is this cocktail of complacency matched by indignation that makes the such asses drunk with nationalistic fear and eagerness for war in foreign lands of which they know nothing and will never visit. His ax, an unwieldly show piece possibly from a costume shop, is emblazoned with crosses.

The Rhinoceros Hornbill has been mistakenly identified as the symbol of the Borneo Iban tribe's god of war, "Sengalong Burong". This is not the case! The gentle hornbill's plumage seems to correspond to ostentation in military costumes. This is the "General Hornbill" who represents the sensuality of the military man who dazzlingly uniformed is the very emblem of gallantry, causing women to swoon with his polished heroism. Yet the oversized beak especially suggests an anatomical deficiency in "manly virtue" that no amount of medals, brocades, epaulettes and rattling sabers can compensate for.

"Moai" Statues from Easter Island (Rapa Nui). The unfeeling visages of these idols compliments the inhumanity of the machine gun. Remnants of a lost civilization that exhausting its resources found itself trapped on the island with no escape. The idols, objects of status the construction of which the chieftains of the island lavished all of their resources upon, looked on emptily as the Rapa Nui Islanders descended into cannibalism, eating one another for sustenance (so it has been said). No rites of magic or sacrifice to their monolithic stone masters could reverse the fate.

Dr. Richard J. Gatling invented the original machine gun, the eponymous, "Gatling Gun". Later he claimed, "If I could invent a machine--a gun-- which could by its rapidity of fire, enable one man to do as much battle duty as a hundred, that it would, to a great extent, supersede the necessity of large armies, and consequently, exposure to battle and disease be greatly diminished."