JamesSavik

This is one of those situations were less is more. Give the reader a few details and let their imaginations fill in the blanks. There are situations where you might have to be graphic to get your point across but those are rare. Are you writing text-porn? If that is your objective, then have at it. If you strive for something more, then use the tools of the craft. Read and see how different authors handle things. Comsie, Dom, Freethinker and Driver 9, writers that I consider good, will all handle things differently. Another idea is to insert humor into the scene. Imagine two red hot lovers... one with a hopelessly jammed zipper.

Never cared for turd-burglar myself.

perhaps we should do a collaboration to fill "the Void".

The main characters name is Kevin Sawyer.

The Cure When I arrived home Dr. Hess's information was still downloading. I walked across the street and picked up a sandwich for supper and when I got back the download had finished at a cool 27.3 Gigabytes. When I Unzipped the file, I found that I had sixty Gbytes of data meticulously organized into folders cross referenced with scanned images of the source material in the original German and Russian. I scanned the list of patients that Dr. Hess had given me and then ran a backup routine that sent copies of all the files to the Herald's mainframe and my online backup company. After getting everything squared away I sat down and began to go through Hess's information from the beginning. I was ready to puke twenty minutes into the Auschwitz files. The things that they did to those poor people read like a hellish nightmare. They did every inhumane thing imaginable to their test subjects. Sensory deprivation, shock treatment, low protein diet, just plain torment for weeks and months over and over until the patient breaks. The Soviet methodology wasn't any better. The core of the process was to destroy the personality and replace it with whatever cover the case officer decided to give the sleeper. As I read through this horror, I had the nagging feeling that I was missing something. The method called for using long periods of sensory deprivation and then using a voice to guide the subject. After months and months of isolation, the subject would crave human contact and would comply with the first voice that they heard. The original personality wasn't destroyed. It was simply deeply submerged and could be instantly recalled using a word or phrase as a trigger. There was absolutely nothing in the material regarding sexual orientation. No mention at all. If the Freedom Clinic was using this to cure homosexuality, it didn't add up. I looked up from my work and the clock was closing in on 1 am. Time had gotten away from me again. I put the computer in sleep mode and collapsed on my couch. * * * * My sleep was fitful. The images of those people being tortured haunted me. Someone beating on my front door at a little after 5 am woke me up. I shook off the cobwebs and went to get the door. A big, grim faced detective was standing at my door flanked by his partner. "Mr. Sawyer, I'm Lt. Brenner New Orleans PD Homicide. I need to speak to you for a minute." I said, "Sure. Come on in. I'll put on some coffee and we'll talk at my kitchen table." The hulking detective and his partner followed me into my kitchen. I turned on the coffee pot and said, "Please. Have a seat. How can I help you?" Brenner asked, "Where were you at 7:30 last night?" I said, "Right here having a po-boy for supper." Brenner's partner said, "Can anybody back that up?" I reached into the trash can and retrieved the bag my sandwich had come in. I pulled out the receipt that was time stamped 19:33. I handed it to the detective and asked, "Good enough?" Brenner nodded. "I didn't really consider you a suspect but it's best to eliminate you early. Dr. Hess of Tulane was murdered at his home early last night. I understand you saw him yesterday." "George is dead?" "I'm afraid so. I understand that you've been friends for years." I was shocked into silence. I couldn't imaging anyone harming old George. He had always been a soft-touch for students and soft-spoken with everyone else. "Dr. Hess has been a friend since I was an undergraduate. I try to get by to see him every few weeks." Brenner asked, "When you spoke to him yesterday, was he nervous about anything?" "We talked about his latest work. He was talking about his studies of Cold War era manuscripts." Brenner's partner asked, "Have you even known him to gamble or have money problems?" I said, "No. His family owns a number of small oil refineries here and in Mississippi. He was comfortably well off and I've never known him to set foot in a casino." Brenner said, "Whoever killed him was looking for something. They tore his place apart and there's evidence that they tortured him. Does he ever have valuable manuscripts or artifacts?" "He would never take any of that stuff outside the controlled conditions of the archives at Tulane." Brenner said, "I know that you're a reporter but we would appreciate it if you kept quiet about any details of the murder. If we get some mutt in the interrogation room it might help us trip them up." I said, "I won't be on this story since I know the victim. If I can help in any way, give me a call on my cell." Brenner and I exchanged cards and the detectives left me drinking coffee and looking for answers.

Some of the 1 in 10 are out and proud, many of them are so far in the closet they are living in Narnia. Just ask Senator Craig, Larry Haggard or Dr. Rekers.

The Cure I didn't know what I expected to hear from Dr. Hess. Probably something I didn't want to hear or didn't want to know. Sources can be like that sometimes: pure bullshit or gold. You can never really be sure until you see and hear what they've got. Hess had been my history professor when I had been in the University. His specialty was the 20th century and he was great for background. More than once his insights had put my stories in the correct context and perspective. He had never steered me wrong before so whenever he called, I'd make the time to listen. I entered University History Department office late in the afternoon and a graduate assistant was manning the receptionist desk. She looked up and said, "Mr. Sawyer. Dr. Hess is expecting you. You can go right in." I thanked her and headed back into the warren of offices and his door was open. Dr. Hess was a little over sixty with white hair. He was sitting behind a cluttered desk which was home to two desktop PCs and a laptop. He looked up from his screen and said, "Kevin. Come in and pull the door closed if you don't mind." I closed the door and sat in the same chair that I sat in as a student talking to my faculty advisor years ago. I said, "Dr. Hess what have you got for me?" Hess said, "It's a long story that I think you might find interesting." I said, "Go ahead Doc. I'm off the clock and have time." "First, let me tell you where this comes from. In 1989 when the Soviet Union fell, the Russians sent us copies materials that they seized from the Nazis when Germany collapsed in 1945- material that has never been seen in the West before. For the last three years I have been studying it." Hess pulled some notes out and sat them on his desk in front of him. "It starts in Nazi Germany in 1943. The war is going poorly for Germany and the whole of their scientific establishment is pressed into service to find any weapon that can turn the tide of the war." I said, "I'm familiar with this part. Germany's wonder weapons: jet aircraft, super-tanks..." Hess nodded. "Yes. That's the part that most people know about from the History Channel. Other things were going on behind the scenes that we only now beginning to learn about. You see the Nazis were also interested in making weapons of their people." "Super-soldiers?" "They were looking into it", Hess replied. "but they were decades away from any real progress. They did make a big breakthrough in human conditioning." "At the Auschwitz death camps Dr. Mengele oversaw a large medical experimentation group. One of those groups was run by a young psychiatrist named Johan Muller who studied under Carl Jung in Vienna during the thirties. He developed a method of physical and psychological stress combined with drugs that he called the death of personality or Persönlichkeit Tod. Once a persons personality has been effectively destroyed, they could basically reprogram the subject to be anything they wanted them to be. They were the perfect sleeper agents: completely unaware of who and what they were. Unable to betray themselves or their mission even under extreme interrogation." I said, "That's terrifying. Agents so psychologically conditioned that don't even know whose side they are on." "Exactly. Although the Nazis made the breakthrough, they didn't have time to use it. In January 1945 the Soviets liberated Auschwitz and NKVD teams snatched up all the Nazi scientists and research that they could find. The Soviets immediately saw the value of Muller's research. The process is so rigorous that it killed about 10% of the subjects. They took the research and ran with it. By 1955 the Soviets were putting deep cover sleeper agents all over the world. That's why throughout the Cold War Western Intelligence Agencies seemed to be completely swamped by Soviet agents." I said, "Well- that explains a lot about the Cold War and it would make a good historic interest piece for the Sunday edition." Hess continued, "Perhaps it would but the story doesn't end there. The Soviets used Sleeper agents until the very end in 1989. It was only after the Archives were turned over and we got a few defectors that the CIA finally figured out what the sleepers actually were." "In 1990 a working group of various scientists were given access to the archives. They were tasked with finding anything that might be of scientific or medical use. Guess who was a member of the group?" I said, "I have no idea Doc." "Dr. Vernon Roth- fresh out of medical school and working on his psychiatric specialty at Georgetown." I searched my memory and the name did sound familiar. "As in Roth Pharmaceuticals?" "He is one of the elder Roth's three sons and key player in developing in Roth's multi-billion dollar line of psychiatric medications." I said, "Isn't he some sort of an anti-gay nut?" "Vernon Roth is a major contributor to anti-gay organizations all over the country and has ties to this clinic in Costa Rica." Hess handed me a very slick tri-folded glossy flier with a photo of a modern looking clinic in a tropical setting called the Freedom Institute. I turned the page of the flier and read a bold headline: Freedom from the Spiritual Bondage of Homosexuality. I said, "Doc are you saying that you think this clinic is using this Nazi developed and Soviet refined mind control method to reprogram homosexuals?" Hess said, "That's your story Kevin. Look at the details. The Soviet method of programming a sleeper took a year and two months. The clinic's program lasts one year and two months. It's very expensive- the cost of the treatment is over a quarter million dollars. It's the only method of treatment for homosexuality to boast a 100% success rate." "I've covered the Ex-gay movement here in the region and they only claim a 30% success rate." Hess said, "That's just it Kevin. Homosexuality is part of the personality at a very deep level. The only way to change it is to completely reorder the personality. This method is just how you would go about it." I said, "I like it. This would make a great story. Do you have anything more for me?" Hess handed me a sheet of paper with names and addresses. "This is a list of five people that have completed the therapy at the Freedom Institute and one more who died of a heart attack while he was undergoing treatment. It's not much but its a start." "Thanks Doc. I'll see what I can do with this. Would you mind emailing me more of the background?" Hess said, "I'll be waiting for you when you get home. Good luck Kevin.'

Some muzak for the party.

I don't think that I've seen my favorite "gay" movie yet. Too many focus on stereotypes and others focus on sex. Movies are made for profit and its rare that production houses venture into territory that might harm their bottom line.

Sadly ironic.

Not at all unexpected. She nearly died in 2008 because she damaged her lungs by smoking too much crack. Addiction kills. It's no joke.

Milo: You think you're so f**kin' cool, don't you? You think you're so f**kin' cool. Well just once, I would like to hear you scream, in pain. Joe Hallenbeck: Play some rap music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBd4nCFqsNs

courier!?

Today I got the talk from my boss. His partner left the firm and he can't afford to keep me. I join the mass ranks of the unemployed. How can this day get any worse? Add a robbery. While I was inside a convenience store a thug helped himself to my new i-Phone, debit card and a gas card. Now I'm afraid to leave the house. Never ask What else could go wrong. It will. How many times do I have to get up after being floored? Just the next time.

Most of the time campaign adds are annoying but sometimes they can be fun. From Mississippi: Add a cute one from your state.

I don't get kidney stones. I listen to heavy metal at eXtreme volumes and blast the little buggers into particles.

I can't be gay. I don't listen to dance music and I'd rather fish than shop. That's such a relief.

You're from Georgia. Maybe not as deep in the heart of the bible belt as Mississippi but the influence of religion is still deeply ingrained. Look up any speech on the subject by say... Eddie Long. The KEY to the idea that gay people are unclean and are unworthy of Christian forgiveness is the idea that homosexuality is a choice. I don't remember ever making such a conscious decision. I've never met anybody that has.

Oh Yeah. I'm stupid enough to chose to be gay and take on all the bullshit that goes with it. I personally decided to be gay because you get your ass kicked so much better this way than wearing a kick me t-shirt. F-ing idiots. The only people that think homosexuality is a choice and call it a lifestyle are religious retards nuts. I don't want to disparage retards.

Unlike a novel that can wander for pages or even chapters at a time, a short story has to be on point all the time. There simply is not time to go wandering.

< ? I bit the bullet and joined the new millennium. I bought a smart phone. Specifically an Apple iPhone 4. It's an impressive piece of technology. My particular iPhone has 32 Gigabytes of memory. It is a Kindle. It is a web enable device. It is an iPod. I'm pretty sure it's got a phaser if I can just figure it out. However- I am a grown up. You'll never catch me sexting anybody. With my luck I'll send naughty pics to a wrong number that just happens to be a Fed. I wouldn't be caught dead playing Farmville on my smartphone. Maybe Cityville. Bah! No Facebook on my iphone! That's just... an obnoxious waste of my bandwidth. I am looking forward to taking pictures with my iPhones camera. 5 megapixels is pretty good for a phone camera. Maybe I'll reconsider sexting... but unlikely. Here my music load out on my phone. Look upon my play list and despair. Alan Parsons Project - Ammonia Avenue Blur - 13 The Cars - the Cars The Cars - Candy-O Counting Crows - Films About Ghosts The Cranberries - the Best of the Cranberries David Bowie - Best of Bowie The Doors - the Doors The Doors - LA Woman The Eagles - Hotel California Green Day - American Idiot Gunz & Roses - Greatest Hits Jimi Hendrix - Smash Hits Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine Nine Inch Nails - With Teeth Nirvana - the Very Best Pearl Jam - Rearviewmirror Pink Floyd - Animals Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon Pink Floyd - the Wall Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here The Police - Synchronicity REM - Eponymous Rolling Stones - Hot Rocks Rolling Stones - Some Girls Rolling Stones - Sucking in the Seventies Rush - 2112 Rush - Moving Pictures Smashing Pumpkins - Greatest Hits Stabbing Westward - the Essential Staind - the singles STP - Core STP - No. 4 STP - Purple STP - Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop Supertramp - Breakfast in America Supertramp - very best of Tool - AEnima Tool - Lateralius Tool - Undertow Tool - 10,000 Days U2 - War U2 - Under the Joshua Tree The Who - My Generation The Who - Who Are You? The Who - Who's Next? Yes - the Yes Album Yes - Close to the Edge Yes - Fragile http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwFgGJI0DhU < avoid this

Oh Canada! It's easy to love a neighbor that has: Great Beer Better whiskey Hot French-Canadian Men

Why don't you sit down right here...