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JamesSavik

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  1. JamesSavik
    jsmith: She (think of a name) hugged the tree as she looked down at the ground far below. How did she get in the tree? Why is she there? What happens next?
    _________________________________________________________
     

     
    Marta hugged the tree as she looked down at the ground far below.
     
    Her Siamese cat Smarty studied her plight with interest as he lounged like a lion, with his paws and tail hanging lazily from a branch just out of her reach.
     
    Now what is that silly girl up to this time?
     
    Smarty liked his spot in the ancient Oak. It was far out of reach of nosy, noisy or mean children. It was quiet and the birds and squirrels kept their distance. It also gave him a perfect view of the entire yard without being seen. He could keep see any intruders who might wander into his territory and then he could appear unexpectedly at a moments notice.
     
    Oh well. I suppose it's time to teach her how to get down now. he thought.
     
    Smarty stood, yawned and stretched. He looked at the path down from the old Oak. Silly Girl was inconsiderately blocking his usual route down which never took more than seven leaps.
     
    He crouched and leaped like an arrow, did a touch-and-go off the top of Silly Girl's head, and was on the ground in his usual seven leaps.
     
    Smarty strolled up to the patio and looked up in the tree. Silly Girl was still up the tree yelling damned cat! I'm going to choke you! whatever that meant. He had showed her the way down. What else did she want?
     
    It's a good thing that humans are able to open cans or they would be completely useless he grumped as he sat on the patio waiting for dinner.
  3. JamesSavik
    So the other day my mum says "Your Dad and I are going to drive to Dallas Monday."
     
    You see, this is really my Mum's tactic for getting me to drive them to Dallas.
     
    Two 80 year olds, 1 car, ~500 miles = recipe for disaster. Dad says he can drive just fine. The Parkingstons shakes and the inability to stay awake for longer than 20 minutes at a strech? Heck, I guess he'll walk it off. My Mom says she can drive just fine- despite being scheduled for cataract surgery in July and being unable to read street signs.
     
    OK- whatever- I give into the guilt trip. If I let them do it themselves... oh the horrors.
     
    How bad can it be right?
     
    As soon as we're on the road, my dad turns on his new toy- a CD changer full of classic country music.
     
    My Mom poits at every baby she sees and says Oh how darling!
     
    By the time we reached Shrevesport, I remembered why I did drugs in the first place and wondered why I ever stopped.
     
    We get to the concrete maze of Dallas finally about 3:00. They both tell me I'm going the wrong way- untill I finally pull up in my brothers front yard.
     
    They are playing with their grandchildren.
     
    I am hiding. And planning an unexpected glitch for a certian CD changer. I will fix later and appear heroic.
     
    Someone in Dallas owes me big time! Otherwise they would have been smashed into by a blind woman with cataracts or a 80 year old asleep at the wheel.
     
    Perhaps this is accumulating a little good karma?
     
     
    --------------------------------------------------------
     
    BTW- Boo the Cat is spending the week at Sargent Rock's Doggie Dicipline Summer Camp[/i]. Tune in next time as we see how Boo fared. Last time he came back with tats and a harmonica.
  4. JamesSavik

    New Nukes

    By JamesSavik,

    The Bush Administration has proposed creating a new generation of small, clean tactical nukes for use against super-hardened bunkers in places like Iran and North Korea.
     
    I've always thought that small, tactical nukes were a very bad idea. A small nuke that doesn't lay waste to a continent is much easier to justify using. How is an enemy going to respond to one?
     
    What is really sad is that so few people understand the science behind these beasts. Sure- there are significant engineering challenges to building them and nuclear fuel is difficult and dangerous to process. What we forget is that the original nukes were conceived in the twenties. A critical mass of uranium was achieved, at the cost of the lives of several brilliant physicists, in the 1930s. A working bomb was used in the 1940s.
     
    This technology is NOT that difficult to do- it is merely expensive.
     
    Below is a snip from a conversation between myself and someone with misconceptions about nukes.
    ____________________________________________________________________________
     
    The last serious redesign of the atomic bomb produced the fusion bomb, which gave off less radiation for the same bang.
     
    Ummm, no. A fusion bomb is called a staged thermonuclear weapon. It uses a plutonium trigger to ignite a fusion reaction. The yield of the weapon is adjusted by manipulating the amount of deuterium injected into the weapons core milliseconds before the trigger is set off. It is in reality a fission bomb augmented with fusible hydrogen.
     
    Fission bombs typically yield in the kilo-ton range. They produce fallout of radioactive decay products (radioactive strontium, iodine, etc) and unspent plutonium. They also create what is known as an electro-magnetic pulse which is deadly to computers and electronics.
     
    H-bombs are every bit as dirty as fission bombs. They yield in the mega-ton range. As they are souped-up fission bombs, they have similar fall-out. As the fusion reaction is much more energetic than a fission reaction, there are even worse effects. If the H-bomb hits the ground, ordinary materials- dirt, bricks, motor, etc- is irradiated causing even more problems. The gamma-flash of an h-bomb will kill any exposed persons for a radius of many miles. The optical flash will blind anyone looking in its direction for 10s of miles. EMP effects from H-bombs are equally impressive creating massive power, electronic and computer disruptions.
     
    The biggest h-bomb ever set off was ~50 megatons by the Russians on a small island off Kamchatka. That particular bomb could theoretically yield as much as 100 megatons. They toned it down for testing purposes.
     
    There was a big difference in the design philosophy between nukes of the US and USSR. American missile technology was much more precise than the Soviets with the early ICBMs so the US made smaller, cleaner warheads. The Soviets on the other hand designed their nukes for the biggest possible bang. Although Soviet missile accuracy improved in the late 70s and 80s, their warheads were essentially the same- big, honking H-bombs.
     
    Another type of nuke was designed in the 70s called a neutron warhead. It was designed not for its explosive potential but the ability to cause a deadly pulse of radiation which would kill all humans (I've always wanted to work that into a conversation somehow.) who aren't in hardened shelters. This is a very "clean" but ghoulish weapon designed in anticipation of a super-power conflict in Europe. [since Europeans were tired of being bombed flat, I suppose being zapped like a frog in a microwave was an easier sell.]
     
     
    As an old Cold War era fossil, I hate nukes. They suck in every conceivable way. They are NOT a warrior's weapon. They are weapons of indiscriminate murder killing warrior and innocent alike. Their cost is obscene considering all the other uses that money could be put too.
     
    IMHO there is no such thing as a good nuke, only the ones necessary to make retaliation to an attack suicidal.
     
     
    It seems reasonable that another redesign would try to produce more efficient fusion bombs
     
    The nukes that are being considered are small: 20-60 kilotons. NOT fusion weapons. They are essentially bunker busters on steroids.
     
     
    which is only a good thing.
     
    I don't think it's a good thing at all. Creating a small, battlefield nuke makes using one more likely.
     
    Nukes aren't battlefield weapons. They are political weapons. Using one could start a chain reaction that no one could possibly predict.
  5. JamesSavik
    Here's an Idea:
     
    A lot of people don't know how many GLBT people there really are. Many of our brothers and sisters are shamed or intimidated into staying in the closet. Here's something that you can do without actually coming out and still make a serious statement.
     
    For every $1 bill you get, give ole George a stash and eyebrows.

     
    After we get a few zillion of these out there and everybody has seen them, we let it be know that these are GAYBUCKS.
  6. JamesSavik
    I take a look at a number of scientific jounals every month to see what is new. I thought I might share this as it might be of interest. The material is OK as I have cited it and created links to its source.
     
    Your thoughts and impressions are welcome of course.
     
    _____________________________________________________________________________
     
     
    Study: Sexual Desire is in Your Genes
     
    By LiveScience Staff
    May 29, 2006
    Source Link
     
    Your sexual desire or lack thereof could be in your genes, scientists announced today. The discovery might change how psychologists view sexuality.
     
    The researchers found that individual differences in human sexual desire can be attributed to genetic variations. The study is the first to provide data to show that common variations in the sequence of DNA impact on sexual desire, arousal and function, the researchers said.
     
    The scientists, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, examined the DNA of 148 healthy male and female university students and compared the results with questionnaires asking for the students' self-descriptions of their sexual desire, arousal and sexual function. They found a correlation between variants in a gene called the D4 receptor and the students' self-reports on sexuality.
     
    The results suggest that low sexual desire might be a normal biological condition rather than a psychological problem, the researchers say. Further, it might be possible to develop drugs to alter sexual desire based on the new findings.
     
    The research was led by Richard Ebstein and was published in the online version of the journal Molecular Psychiatry. [see abstract below]
     
     
    ___________________________________________________________________
     
    Molecular Psychiatry (2006) 11, 427
  7. JamesSavik
    Why is it that all the comedians that I like are dead?
     
    Sam Kinson, Rodney Dangerfield, Lenny Bruce: I mean WTF? I must be getting old. I know there are lots of younger people on the board who probably don't remember these guys. Do yourself a favor and look them up. You'll laugh your ballz off! Well, that's an exaggeration. OK, so you'll just laugh and in all probability, you will sustain no debilitating injuries.
     
    In other matters...
     
    After suffering with dial-up Internet access for a year and 2 months, DSL finally became available in my new neighborhood! I've got my broadband on and I'm loving online life again.
     
    Chuckles,
     
     
    JS
  8. JamesSavik

    Woo-hoo!

    By JamesSavik,

    I won! I won! I won!
     
    I have recently started hanging out on E-bay. It's a really cool place to pick up things at a bargain.
     
    I got a copy of IBM's DB2 for the PC for $25. A new purchase would cost me hundreds. Computer books , science and text books- always WAY overpriced new can be got for a song on E-bay. I got my Object Oriented Programming in C++ for $10 (90$ at the bookstore). College book stores- what a racket!
     
    What I'm really pleased about is the auction I won tonight. I found a Mitsubishi Integrated Amp (AV-3) for $30. That's the one I REALLY wanted when I settled for my Cheap-o Technics Amp a few years ago. OK more like a decade ago.
     
    I never, ever really understand business. Mitsubishi has always been a favorite of tekkie geeks. Great engineering, high quality control- they always make great stuff right? Then they just up and leave the consumer electronics business. They used to make practically everything- even if a product wasn't GREAT, it was pretty darned good. Now there are no more Mitsubishi TVs, computer monitors, stereos-- BOOOO! Now tekkies like me fight over the leftovers. Sad...
     
    I wish that companies that made good products would stay in business. The ones that are good at marketing crappy products would dry up and blow away. I guess you need an MBA to figure it out because it makes no sense at all. SIGH.
     
    Oh well- I've got a great Amp on the way! I can't wait to plug it in. What should I play on it first? Something old or something new? Tools new album or some old Doors or Rush... I love this sort of quandary.
     
    Help me out: What should I play first on my new Amp?
  11. JamesSavik
    Sumbloke is getting married! I am delighted for him. He is a sweet guy and deserves all the success and happiness that life offers. For this I am delighted.
     
    As much as this Sumbloke's news pleases me, I am stinging over the loss of Green. I thought very highly of him. Sure he had his issues but he was a bright guy, talented writer and a person of great promise. I am going to miss him.
     
    This my friends is life- joy and pain, success and loss, yin and yang. Treasure the ones you care about, hold them close.
  12. JamesSavik
    Ok the latest hoop of reality-show cheese to be rolled our way is a huge, reeking pile of crap called God or the Girl. In it, several young men try to decide on whether or not to enter the priesthood.
     
    Can you say very sad closet cases boys and girls?
     
    The Catholic Church, and Christianity in general, has been playing this idiotic head game with gay people for millinia. AND they have the NERVE to be surprised when the immature, sexually confused people that they bring on to be priests years later turn out to be really F**ked up??
     
    Why would anyone want to be a part of a religion that is more than happy to forgive murders, thieves and rapists but someone being gay and honest about it is a deal breaker?
     
    Religion is the biggest con game in the history of the world. It's rather brilliant if you think about it. Somewhere up in the sky is this omnipotent being that controls the universe but he is apparently a codependent bitch that needs to control your life on a micro level and can't handle money. He wants to be worshiped by beings of much less significance than ants in the grand scheme of the universe, constantly needs money but HE LOVES YOU as long as you aren't GAY! OH- and if you ask for proof, you are told that you are too small and insignificant to possibly understand.
     
    So- we get to watch 5 little brain-washed closet-queens vie for the position of alter-boy fondler on A&E????
     
    It is ridiculous, nauseating, vulgar, contemptible, vile, repulsive, idiotic, ignorant, immoral, incomprehensible and... just fine since it is done in the name of religion.
     
    Pardon me while I run off and puke.
  13. JamesSavik
    The Drunken Idiot Song
     
     
    I'm a drunken Idiot but that's OK,
    I drink all night and I sleep all day.
     
    chorus: He's a drunken Idiot buts that's OK,
    He'll drink all night and he'll sleep all day.
     
    I drink beer and I drink scotch and occasionally even gin.
    I go to the lavatory.
    And barf and drink agin.
     
    chorus: He drinks beer and he drinks scotch and occasionally even gin,
    He goes to the lavatory,
    And barfs and drinks agin.
    He's a drunken Idiot buts that's OK,
    He'll drink all night and he'll sleep all day.
     
    I drink in pubs and I drink in the park.
    I drink from the morning till well after dark.
    I wake up hung over and wearing high heels,
    I guess I lost a bet or made a bad deal.
     
    chorus: He drinks in pubs and He drinks in the park.
    He drinks from the morning till well after dark.
    He wakes up hung over and wearing high heels,
    He supposes he lost a bet or made a bad deal.
    He's a drunken idiot and that's OK,
    He drinks all night and he drinks all day.
     
    I wake up in strange places with strange people with strange faces,
    They say I'm friendly when I'm drunk and apparently nearsighted,
    Waking up is an adventure hung over in strange spaces,
    Now my favorite organ has a rash and is blighted.
     
    chorus: He's a drunken idiot but it's OK,
    He drinks all night and he pukes all day,
    He wakes up in strange places with strange people with strange faces,
    He says he's friendly when he's drunk and apparently nearsighted,
    Waking up is an adventure hung over in strange spaces,
    Now his favorite organ has a rash and is blighted.
     
     
    chorus: He used to be a drunken idiot but its OK,
    He sobered up and he joined AA,
    He's still and idiot and makes mistakes,
    But now he can remember the promises he makes.
     
     
    ___________________________________________________
     
    My apologies to Monty Python for butchering the Lumberjack Song.
  14. JamesSavik

    Side effects

    By JamesSavik,

    May cause cramps and bloating...
     
    If you have an erection lasting more that 4 hours...
     
    May cause diareah and nausea...
     
    May cause sexual side effects...
     
    May cause tremors, forgetfulness and hallicunations...
     
    Don't drive a car or operate heavy machinery for 4 to 6 hours after use...
     
    May cause sinus infection or nosebleeds...
     
    If you experience depression or suicidal thoughts please call your doctor...
     
    May cause delerium, euphoria or dementia...
     

     
    Screw it! I'll just walk it off.
     
     
    -JS
  15. JamesSavik
    I am working on a new story and I'd like to see if it sparks any interest.
     
    Ryan McCoy is an ordinary kid with ordinary problems. His folks are divorced, he's got ADD and, his Mom is tired of his crap. He has just run afoul of the juvinile justice system and the new draconian laws.
     
    He is destined to go to "Alternative school" and the story is about his journey.
     
    Interested?
     
     
    __________________________________________________________________
     
    The Alternative
     
     
    Ryan McCoy fidgeted on the bench outside of the Johnson County Youth Court in his best Sunday blazer beside his Mom.
     
    It wasn
  16. JamesSavik

    Fear & Loathing

    By JamesSavik,

    I've got this little problem. It's called Traumatic Glaucoma. Granted anything that can make you go blind is pretty traumatic in itself but this refurs to a specific type of glaucoma that occurs sometimes many years after blunt force type injury to the eyes.
     
    Like getting punched in the eyes.
     
    My teen years were particulary difficult. I was outted at the age of 13 the summer before 7th grade started in a redneck town in Mississippi. By my count I've had twenty something concussions, 6 broken bones, my right knee had to be reconstructed. There were a couple of times I came really close to dying. I live with pain all the time.
     
    Forgive me if I'm a little twitchy. I've got Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Whenever I'm in a room, I look for something that would serve as a weapon and an exit- just in case. I have nightmares so bad that I can't sleep in the same bed with another person.
     
    I try not to get too caught up in this crap. It's depressing and painful to think about it. For years I drank or smoked enough weed to pass out every night. I've been clean and sober since the October before last. I've been taking better care of myself.
     
    That's how my eye condition was diagnosed. A little background.
     
    What's bugging me is that Jan. 4th I have another appointment to see how my eyes are doing and I'm just plain scared.
     
    That's hard for me. The way I survived for many years was to NOT show fear. If I did, I was a goner. I learned to survive by fighting dirtier than the people that were tormenting me. I learned to ignore a tremendous amount of pain so that I could dish it out.
     
    I hate being afraid. It sucks big time. What's worse is that it makes me angry to think of WHY I've got this problem. I don't like how I feel and I'm not sure what to do about it.
     
    I want to get high but I can't. That shit was slowly destroying my life. I want to drink myself into a stupor but that isn't going to help either.
     
    It's hard to carry this kind of stuff around inside this time of year with the holidays and all. I don't like what I'm feeling but all I can do is let it ride.
  17. JamesSavik

    Cat Parole

    By JamesSavik,

    I decided to board my cat during my Thank giving trip to Texas at the vet but I waited too late. My usual vet was full. I had to shop around to find him a space. He doesn't travel well and gets horrible gas when he's anxious.
     
    I was down to the wire and desperate. I begged my usual Vet for a referral list. Tuesday I went down the list. Animal Medical Center? No vacancy. Sullivan's Animal Hospital? No Vacancy. Cat Hospital? No vacancy.
     
    OK it's closing in on 4:00 and I'm getting desperate. No way am I driving to Dallas with flatulent kitty. Two 80 year olds are enough of a challenge.
     
    I arrive unceremoniously at the Bottom of the List: The Doggie Discipline Academy.
     
    When I show up, I go inside with cat in carrier and am met by a gung-ho guy with short hair and entirely too much energy.
     
    I say, "I'm going away for Thanksgiving and need to board my cat until Monday. Can you hook me up"
     
    "Sir Yes Sir! We run $15 bucks a day."
     
    I fork over the cash and the cat carrier and I'm off.
     
    Monday Morning- 5 days later
     
    I picked up Boo this morning. He was playing a harmonica. I'm not sure whether it is the dragon tattoo or his cold, hard stair that is most unnerving. It'll be quite a while before his tail is unpuffed.
  18. JamesSavik
    A friend and fellow author that I have a great deal of respect and admiration for is having a crisis of confidence. I will not name him but I too have suffered from this type of criticism. Some people can not tell a plot element from an endorsement.
     
    When a murder occurs in a story, is the author endorsing murder?
     
    When drug use happens in a story, is the author glorifying it?
     
    Silly questions?
     
    As authors, I believe that the interesting stories are told on the edge. Somewhere on the border of normalcy and madness there is a place where drama comes from. That place can be mundane or high brow. It can be common or rare. It is about people in conflict facing adversity and without it our stories are just so much soggy granola.
     
    I have read stories that glorify drug use. I know what they are when I see 'em. Yawn. I have read stories that are nothing more than a common masturbation fantasy typed with one hand. Snore. You know what they have in common? They are simply not interesting.
     
    Touchy subjects can be addressed if the author handles it right. If you start reading a story and stop four chapters in because a character smokes a joint, then you don't know what happens in the other umpteen chapters. You miss the character suffering negative consequences like failed relationships and hanging out with a lower class of people. You miss him getting busted and asking himself what's wrong with me. You miss out on that characters chance at redemption or his fall into jails, institutions or death.
     
    So you see something about a story that makes you uncomfortable. GET OVER IT.
     
    Here's YOUR chance to look at situations that you would never chose to face without getting your hands dirty. Here's your chance to experience things vicariously that would cost you body, soul or life to experience and maybe... avoid, identify with or recover from or perhaps have empathy for people who have actually been there.
     
    An author is NOT his work. At his best an author is a catalyst to help the reader see and understand with different eyes. At his worst he is a propagandist or a pornographer. It is up to the reader to make this determination for himself. If there is truth in his work and an author has applied his craft with heart, then the work will stand or fall on its own merit. As an author all that I ask is that you think for yourself.
     
    -JS
  19. JamesSavik

    Dear Hunter's - The Color Spectrum

    By JamesSavik,


    progressive rock
    In 2011 The Dear Hunter, a progressive rock band, released an album that intrigued me since I heard its premise.
    The Color Spectrum is a concept album composed of nine EPs each corresponding to the colors black, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet and white. Each color is interpreted in a series of four songs that invoke the flavor, emotion and feel of those colors. It was so unique I've been curious about it for years. I finally found a copy of it on eBay and have been jamming on it all day. Well... most of the day. It runs over two and a half hours.
     
    "Deny it All" comes from "Red". They're four songs per the nine colors explored and comes on three CDs.
    Finding something unique is like picking the winning lottery. The corporate muzak environment where everything sounds alike. I'm looking for the road less traveled. The whole thing is on YouTube if you're curious to hear more.
     
  21. JamesSavik
    As a public service, I am going to show you how to detect bullshit. When you hear these phrases, you know that you are in the presence of major league bullshit.
     
    We offer an upwardly mobile career path with competitive compensation.
     
    Bullshit! You'll get laid off before you can make any real money unless management likes you.
     
    Management will only like you if you are a sociopath on par with a concentration camp guard and would cut your own mother's throat to get ahead.
     
    If they want you, they'll make a decent offer for the position you are actually qualified for.
     
    If they want to jerk you off they'll offer an entry level position for chicken feed and *jerk, jerk, jerk* promise after a short probationary period, you can quickly advance into the position. You will be doing the job without the title or the money. You will never get the title or the money.
     

  22. JamesSavik
    As a public service, I am going to show you how to detect bullshit. When you hear these phrases, you know that you are in the presence of some major league bullshit.
     
    "It's nothing personal..."
     
    When you hear this you've already been screwed without lube and, it's the worst kind of dishonest bullshit.
     
    NOTHING could get more personal than a layoff or a firing. NOTHING gets more personal than a bad performance review or a screwing over via office politics.
     
    So if you plan on using this one, schedule getting shot by a disgruntled former employee you bastard because you really f-ing deserve it.
     
    There are ways of delivering bad news. Telling a bald faced lie isn't a great start.
     
    Try telling the truth:
     
    Boss: I'm sorry but I've got to lay off someone. Nobody likes you so, you're fooked.
     
    or
     
    Boss: I'm sorry but I've got to lay off someone. Since I'm not sleeping with you, buh-bye.
     
    See how easy it is? If you're going to be a prick, you might as well be an honest prick.
     

  23. JamesSavik
    Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thy .45 and thy ka-bar they comfort me. For I am one of Uncle Sam’s misguided children and I am the worse thing out here on this dark cold night.
     


  24. JamesSavik
    The King of Swords
     

    '
     
    "Where on earth did you find that?" Andy pulled a card out of the file. It was Tarot card with an Arabic looking man's face and name. The card was the King of Swords.
     
    Gorman got a far away look in his eye. Andy knew that look. For a just moment he was somewhere else.
     
    "It was in 2004 in the big sandbox. Do you remember Saddam's mutts on the playing cards?"
     
    "I was in grade school but, yeah. I remember."
     
    "Saddam was the ace of spades. Uday was the ace of clubs. It was all bullshit of course for the media- political targets. We had a different list that nobody else saw. People deemed too dangerous to walk away."
     
    Andy handed him the card and asked, "So who was the King of Swords?"
     
    "He was as evil a bastard as you would ever hope to meet. Before the Soviet Union fell, he was a GRU agent recruited from Kazakhstan. They used him as a liaison with their client states in the Persian Gulf. When the Soviet Union fell, he went to work for Saddam."
     
    "I'm guessing he was important being a face card."
     
    "You might say that. His relationship with Saddam went back to the Iran-Iraq War in the eighties. He managed to get the Soviets to give the Iraqi Army their then top of the line AT-8 and AT-11 anti-tank missiles. It was enough to stop the Iranians cold. A few years later when senior Soviet intelligence operatives were looking for work, Saddam jumped at the chance to hire him."
     
    "So... what made this guy so bad?"
     
    "You remember how everybody used to wonder why Saddam seemed to be coup proof?"
     
    "Yeah. That never did make sense. Everybody took a run at him at one time or another: the Iranians, the Syrians, the French, the Saudis..."
     
    "And US. Well... Kozlov, also known as Mohammad Omari, was the reason no one got him. Back in 1994 just after the first Gulf War, a bunch of Iraqi Colonels planned to take Saddam out. They had a building in the suburbs of Baghdad where they were gathering their forces. Kozlov's intelligence team got wind of it. They watched the building and when all the key players were there, they threw grenades of VX Nerve Gas through the windows and chained the doors shut."
     
    "Jesus."
     
    "Jesus didn't have anything to do with it. Kozlov was just that kind of guy. He didn't just take action. Every action was an unambiguous statement. There were dozens of stories about the guy. He killed more people that a lot of diseases."
     
    "How did you get him?"
     
    "It was well after they nabbed Saddam. Everybody was busy fighting the insurgency and it looked like we were done looking for high value targets. Kozlov/Omari wasn't on the cards we let everybody see. We did it to make some of the guys we really wanted think they were off the hook. One day he fucked up. He came out of his bunker, went to a sidewalk cafe and had breakfast. One of our spotters got a picture of him. We managed to follow him back to where he was hiding."
     
    "To last that long after the fall, it must have been some hide."
     
    "It was. He had a bunker with an access through an apartment buildings basement. We hit it at 3am with a full TAC team with Marine backup. It was one of the nastiest fire fights I ever saw. He wasn't alone in that hole. He had a dozen of his own in there with him. They all went down fighting. It was what we found afterwards that made me glad we killed the rotten fuck rather than the catch and release bullshit."
     
    "What was down there boss?"
     
    Gorman was quiet for a moment. "At some point over the course of his career, Kozlov crossed the line from killing for a purpose to killing for pleasure. He had a torture chamber. We found the bodies of a dozen teens and young adults that had disappeared from the city. They did stuff to those kids that would make a Billy goat puke. You asked me what we found down there Andy. We found evil."
     
    Andy was quiet for a while and asked, "The rest of the list: did you get them?"
     
    "Most of them but as far as we know, a few of them are still out there."
     

     
    ________________________________________________________________________________________________
     
    Why is the card inverted?
     
    When a tarot card is inverted, it emphasizes the negative aspects of the card. In this case the usual aspects of the card-: just and ethical are quite the opposite: unjust and unethical.
     
    Is there some truth behind the fiction?
     
    Yes. It is known that there were deep ties between the Soviets and Saddam's Iraq. After the Soviet Union collapsed, there were a number of former Soviet soldiers and operatives that would NOT be welcome with open arms by a new government in Moscow. They went to work all over the Middle East and Africa.
     
    Yes- Saddam had a lot of sick sadistic bastards working for him. The better to terrify the population.
     
    In the story VX Nerve gas was used. Isn't that bullshit?
     
    Nope. Iraq literally had tons of chemical and biological weapons prior to the 1st Gulf War in 1991. After getting beaten by the UN Coalition, they promised that they had sworn off chemical and bio weapons and played footsie with UN Inspectors until 2003 when the new Coalition kicked over the anthill. Even after 2003, small amounts of chemical weapons, including VX nerve gas were found- just not large stockpiles. Use of VX in 1994 is plausible and, covered under my dramatic license.
  25. JamesSavik
    I don't care for the collectivism of the left or the religious fuk-tardery of the right.
     
    Party must be responsible and consistent with American values and traditions.
     
    Perpetrators of violent protests, race baiting and war mongering need not apply.
     
    Twelve point that are non-negotiable:
     
    1. Constitution is paramount- highest law in the land. Messing with it is a bad idea and denying anybody's rights based on race, gender or orientation is a non-starter.
    2. National Security- A strong professional military and intelligence community under responsible civilian control
    3. Rule of Law- Law & Order and due Process
    4. Encourage business, prosperity, economic growth
    5. Support Education
    6. Free and Fair Trade (with the option of tariffs to avoid product dumping in our markets)
    7. Support Communications (highways, ports and satellites)
    8. Encourage Scientific Research and Advancement
    9. A smart, responsive, efficient but small and professional central government
    10. Foreign Policy: Be a good neighbor and honorable treaty partner.
    11. Responsible Environmental Stewardship (not hysterical)
    12. Immigration reform
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