JamesSavik

Pet Peeve: Multi-billion dollar insurance conglomerates that advertise using folk music like they a bunch of hippies sitting in a drum circle. < the truth < the lie

lol... Only the extremely lucky will find out

This practice invariably gives me a headache. I don't do it but, others can and do use the technique successfully. Coincidently, hop-head is rather archaic slang for druggies- usually the ones that used speed. The slang came about because hop-heads spoke in disjointed sentences which made them sound... pretty dumb. Again in those days the drugs were called bennies, dexies and goof-balls so you would expect them to make you sound pretty dumb.

New episode starts nao!

This piece was meant to be a short. A little glimpse into the horrors that a few mis-steps might take us.

The Inquisitor Anybody who wants this job shouldn't have it. They would just be thugs. The people who should have it burn out or flip out. Philip Baker was just trying to hang on to his retirement and self respect. Once being a special agent for the Bureau was a respectable job. That was the job he had signed on for twenty-seven years ago. That seemed like a long time ago. Before the wars. Before the genetically engineered plagues were released. Before the Night of the 13th Prophet when Islamic terrorists nuked Washington, Atlanta, Chicago, LA and Seattle and the great capitals of Europe from Moscow to London. Before the Great Crusade when Muslims were systematically slaughtered globally to the last toddler. Before a string of Christian religious fanatics had seized power and turned the United States of America into the Christian States of America. It was a very damaged nation and world. Summers were short. Global warming was replaced by nuclear winter. Millions of people worldwide were dying of radiation poisoning. Millions more were dying slowly of cancer. Plagues periodically flared up when the viruses released by the Jihadis re-emerged. The jury was still out on whether the ecological damage to the planet could ever be healed. The world population had crashed from a high of seven billion to a little less than three billion. The Bureau had became the Bureau of Purity- greatly expanded with wide latitude and new mandates. Instead of a special agent, he was now an inquisitor. In addition to the laws that the Bureau traditionally enforced, a new Uniform Code of Morality was enforced by every law enforcement officer in the land. The UCM was passed at a time of great fear. When things went bad, the Evangelicals claimed that the country was being punished for tolerating immorality. The laws were passed out of fear and were being expanded every year. Things that had not been a crime before were now capital offenses. Alcoholism, drug addiction, insanity, homosexuality were all grounds for summary execution. More than likely they would simply be conscripted in the slave labor gangs that were forced to clean up the radioactive waste lands that were once our largest cities. As Baker thought about the past, he tasted bile in the back of his throat. How many had it been? Once we thought of Hitler as a great villain of history. How would history judge the Christian States of America? Lady Liberty's white robes of piousness were dripping with the blood of billions. He was working inside the Atlanta restricted zone. Some parts were hotter than others and fugitives had taken to hiding in the fringes of the various hot zones around the country. He was after a bad one. Jason Sutter had been a gay activists back in the day. He wrote books and was a dissident leader according to his file. The Bureau had wanted him for years and a snitch had finally fingered him in the ruins of Norcross, Georgia. Sutter had been on the run for almost twenty years. What the Bureau really wanted him for was he obviously had information about the underground railroad for perverts that closet miscreants or the misguided had set up to get them out of the country. Baker entered the restricted zone from the East at the checkpoint at Duluth, GA on I-85. The main roads had been cleared and it was obvious that a great deal of clean up had already taken place. He slowed down and keyed the suspected address into the vehicles GPS. Working in the zones never failed to give Baker the creeps. When he got off the interstate at Beaver Run Road to drive into Norcross, he passed a shopping mall. On one side the mall was wrecked and burned. On the other side cars were still parked in neat rows. In the neatly landscaped parking lot, trees provided shade. The only thing that moved down there now were crows. Driving past the mall on the eerie deserted streets, businesses and homes sat still and deserted. Abandoned cars had been bulldozed out of the main roads. FEMA's spray painting was still clearly visible on the fronts of buildings. There appeared to be nothing visibly wrong except all of the windows facing West had been blown out in the shock wave. Of course he was ever mindful of the clicks of his vehicles geiger counter. In some places the radiation was so intense that a flat tire might be a death sentence. He took Buford Highway West and then turned North on Jimmy Carter Blvd and passed through the ghost town of Norcross. After crossing Peachtree Industrial, he turned off into the suburbs and came to a house on Summit Point Drive. While the rest of the neighborhood was deserted, the house and yard was well kept. When he got out of his vehicle, he noticed an old woman wearing a bright blue blouse with a kitten on her knee sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch. She raised her hand and waved in greeting. Red roses were blooming on trellises framing the porch. Baker approached the old lady cautiously and noticed that as he got closer, she was very obviously blind. The kitten in her lap eyed the approaching inquisitor suspiciously, hopped out of the old womans lap and vanished into the bushes. She said, "Welcome stranger. I get visitors so seldom that it makes my day. Would you like a cup of tea?" Astonished, Baker replied, "No thank you mam." She said, "Please, call me Meridith young man. No- you aren't that young. I can tell from your voice. You're from before." "Yes Mam. I'm Philip. How long have you been here?" "I've been here since the world ended Philip. I was in my late fifties when it happened. I didn't see much point in evacuating." "Meredith, I'm a policeman and I'm looking for a dangerous suspect." Meredith said, "Hump. Morality police?" Philip said, "Yes Mam." "You're looking for a boy that had the misfortune of being born gay?" "Just saying that is a violation of the Uniform Code of Morality mam. Homosexuals chose their perversion." Meredith laughed, "Don't try to bully me. I grew up in a time when we spoke our minds. Besides, my cancer will kill me soon enough. There's very little you can threaten me with." Baker sighed. This was going nowhere. "How do you live here?" "They help me. You know why I never left this huge grave yard?" "No Mam. Why are you still here?" "Because the Ayatollah's won. The evil men that destroyed our cities. They had morality police and morality laws. They had things you could say and things that you couldn't. We may have destroyed them but we became them. I had rather live out my days in the radioactive ruins than live in chains. I was free once and I chose to remain that way." Baker said, "Is there anything you need Mam?" The old woman sat on her rocking chair like an ancient monarch. She shook her head and said, "Leave those kids alone Mr. Morality Policeman. They're just trying to live. The preachers and the false prophets in power now have forgotten that the lord said live an let live." Baker got back in his car. He called into headquarters and told his supervisor that the lead in Norcross was a dead end. When he passed the checkpoint and left the restricted zone, he pulled out his badge and threw it out the window. He had grown up before. He remembered what it was like to be free and not live in constant fear. It was time to live again.

< Oh God the republican primaries suck < the frontrunner (BARFs) ____________________________________________ Thanks to tetrefine

The best stories combine these elements in equal parts. Plot without character is narrative. Character without plot is... Lost.

HISS!

I miss Vance. He was good people.

Way back in 8th grade, (or the late seventies) I did a whole semester on the Metric System (SI). We were told that its adoption was imminent. The jolly old US was the only major country still using the old English system. I've been waiting ever since. The metric system is so elegant. Grams, meters, liters. Milli, centi, deci, hecto, kilo, mega, giga, tera- it all makes so much sense. Factors of 10. It just doesn't get any better or easier than that. Not so arbitrary as 16 ounces in a pound or 1760 yards in a mile. Sigh. I've been waiting a long time. I've used the metric system in chemistry and physics and even professionally. What is the problem? It works so much better but there so damned many ignorant people in the United States. Whats worse than ignorant is they don't give a damn about learning anything new. Every time the metric system makes gains, it was attacked by hordes of ignorant, dickless hillbillies to whom using the metric system was the first step to the new world order. Well screw it. I like the metric system. Hence forth, I'm going to USE the metric system. Have meter stick will travel. I will drink by the liter and have my kilo-gram of flesh. I'd walk 1.609 kilometers for a Camel. Granted- the temperature in Celsius will take some getting used to but its worth it. What is it with this fucking country and progress? We go to the moon. We build super carriers. We build supersonic stealth fighters but we're either too arrogant or scared to make changes that will amount to real social and scientific progress. How much time, money and productivity is lost to business and industry because we sell in English tons and the rest of the world deals in metric tons? How many people have been scared away from the sciences because the first thing they are taught are English unit conversion factors? It's time to join the world.

Then only Batman is Michael Keaton and the only Joker is Jack Nicholson. Skip the rest.

Battlestar 2003 did something unique in its remake of the original Battlestar (1978). They improved it in every way- writing, cast, production quality. Unlike most remakes, they actually improved it rather than simply regurgitating it. I'm not excited about the upcoming Dune and BSG 3.0. Unless you are fixing a very flawed production or making a MUCH better mousetrap, remakes are a sign of a lack of imagination. Why remake something mediocre when screenplays for classics like Citizen of the Galaxy or Neuromancer are sitting around gathering dust.

Tired of remakes. Spiderman, et al has been done to death. Please God, give it a rest. I don't want to see re-made, re-packaged, re-imagined, regurgitated films. If it wasn't a classic the first time, why the hell would you do it again? The Hunger Games looks interesting. Prometheus by Ridley Scott will be awesome. Really looking forward to Peter Jackson's two part rendition of the Hobbit. World War Z should be interesting if the production company doesn't screw it up.

Explains it all.

I think that the Patriots receivers drops were the difference in the game. All in all- one of the closest, most competitive super-bowls. One of the few that went down to the last play.

People can be too beautiful for me to rationally deal with. For instance: were Rupert Grint to ask me hand me the soap in the shower at the gym, my reply would be something like...

Sorry. I don't do religion.

Actually- you are barking up the wrong tree. They are two different schools: one bulkshit and the other corporate music.

The super bowl is a excuse for a huge party: good fattening food, good drink, lots of friends. If its a good game, great. If not, shut up and have another plate!

Soundgarden: rusty cage Black Hole Sun Staind: So Far Away Puddle of Mudd Blurry Pearl Jam Light Years Green Day Wake Me Up When September Ends Stone Temple Pilots Plush Interstate Love Song ________________________________ This music clusters around 2004 and would be typical of an FM rock stations play list.

This is an ugly one that has nailed a lot of people who should know better. It is difficult to get rid of and can make a real mess of your system. Be careful about what you download or agree to load on the net. If it seems too good to be true, it is.

I went to see Red Tails Saturday and was impressed by what I saw. George Lucas has made an excellent film that does a very good job of telling the story of the Tuskegee Airmen without trying to rewrite history. The Tuskegee Airmen were all college educated men who participated in the Army Air Corps great experiment: could black men perform as pilots? They answered that question with a resounding yes. There was a great deal the film actually left out. Operation Shingle- the units "Big Break" that gave the brass the confidence to use them was a little affair called the Anzio Landings. You may have heard of it. It started in January 1944 and fighting continued almost all year. It was the backbone of the Italian Campaign. Where the Red Tails actually earned their fame was when they were given P-51 Mustangs and allowed to fly bomber escort missions. They excelled at this role and brought home more bombers than any other escort group. It was during the raids of 1944-45 that the Red Tails escorted B-17 bombers of the 15th Air Force based in Foggia, Italy. My father was a flight engineer on one of those planes. The integration of the American Armed forces is a much longer story but the Tuskegee Airmen were the pioneers that proved that blacks could excel even in highly technical realm of flying. There would be more tests to come in places like Korea and Vietnam and even into modern times as we settle the question that men should have a right to fight for their country regardless of their color or sexual orientation. The one and only one factor isn't race or sexuality but heart.

YES!

The Naked Lunch is awesome. I like Burroughs stuff. He's one of the original gay hippies that had the guts to write about his sexuality- WAY before Stonewall and it cost him. He lived outside the United States for many years before it was safe to live here.