Alexandra has smacked another homer with her post sewing together the snake-wiggling controversy happening in the blogosphere over Professor Jeffrey Hart's article in the Wall Street Journal which pretty much denigrates conservatives as half-wits.

I know there are a lot of people out there who are quick to paint with broad partisan brush strokes after hearing my individual stances on political and social issues, but I've really tried to step back from that because I've ostracized and lost a few good friends by holding their feet to the wrong fire when it came to a few heated political debates.

Nietzsche once said that no true thinking man could ever belong to a political party for very long because they would eventually think themselves right out of it. I absolutely believe this is the case.

I am a registered Independent voter but I am not a middle of the road walker. I discuss politics based on my core value, which is this: Every human being is inherently free to purse their own vision of happiness provided that this pursuit does not infringe upon the life or property of another citizen. All laws should originate from this and government should derive its power from this philosphical mindset. Any time the law or the government steps out of the business of preventing lives or property from being infringed upon by others, it has become a tyranny.

This is the paradigm from which I operate my life and from which all my actions, attitudes, and teachings that I share with my children and my reading audience come from. I think of this political viewpoint as humane common sense.

The bottom line is that we live in a world of inequality and scarce resources which have to be allocated to their most efficient uses and I believe that this efficient allocation is driven by the pure force of human will and desire. But I also know that there are evil minds and hearts in this world and that is why we need a strong rule book (The Constitution) which we stick to in all matters and a powerful but sensible firearm at arm's reach in case one of these evil minds steps out of line.

And that doesn't mean I always throw in with the administration because whatever you consider conservativism to be, the Bush administration is about the farthest thing from it. I'd say it's more of a Corporatism, double-speaking using conservative key words like tax cuts and small-business owners all the while allowing the biggest spending spree in the nation's history to happen under a supposedly conservative Congress more ineffectual and pointless than testicles on the Pope.

If thinking like this makes me an intellectually inferior idiot to those in the blue states, then they can wipe their asses with their Ivy League diplomas and fake-ass sympathy driven by weakness of heart and misplaced guilt. The heart of the true conservative is made of sterner stuff and doesn't deflate from accusations of being too strong-willed and not open-minded enough. There comes a point where if your mind is too open, it will fall out and the lunatic who holds their folded faces to floor when everyday the paperboy brings more begins to run the asylum.

If you want weakness of character in your country, look anywhere but the United States--here we make mistakes we're only too proud to claim and correct; all the rest is recycled and boring fodder for intellectuals to mull over in their fart-filled leather professor chairs.

So take that to Congress, sign it, seal it, and send it to the President.

Alexandra has thrown down the gauntlet to the blogosphere to produce a top ten list of the Worst Americans. Here is mine in no particular order:

1. Huey Long: This could have been our American Hitler had the man not been assassinated under auspicious circumstances most likely resulting from a contracted hit put out on him by the FDR administration. Long was a social reformer who was even further to the left than FDR and could have easily gained the Presidency with his populist message of anti-rich Robin Hood tactics while he lived like a King in the bayous of that gang-ridden cess pool that Andrew Jackson saved in the War of 1812. It was a good thing for history that this man was cut short by a bullet before he sewed his evil tapestry right through the United States Constitution.



2. Aaron Burr: This traitor not only shot and killed one of the most brilliant of the Founding Fathers, Alexander Hamilton (who arguably had it coming); he tried to incite a rebellion and establish a new country further west that would eventually go to war with the burgeoning United States. Aaron Burr was brilliant in his own right and could have been President of the US one day had he not been such a double douche bag.



3. Jesse Jackson: What can one say about this Reverend of lies and preacher of divisive hatred. How can I count the ways that this man has driven stakes through the heart of this country and squeezed his popularity from the butt cheeks of the lowest of American ideals and ignorance. This man is so much worse than the bigotry and hatred he espouses to be an opponent of that if there is any justice in heaven, Martin Luther King Jr. will be waiting for him with a shovel and an angel’s rifle to make sure Jesse Jackson digs his own path to the shit pit of hell he deserves to boil in for eternity.



4. Mark David Chapman: This asshole shot John Lennon because he wanted to “kill the image on an album cover.” It’s a shame he didn’t hold the record up to his forehead before he pulled the trigger.
   
   

5. Lyndon Baines Johnson: This man directly profited from the assassination of a sitting United States President and was most likely complicit in his death. He then went on to escalate a war in Southeast Asia that cost the lives of hundreds of thousands and gained absolutely nothing in the advance of human freedom. That being said, because of him, there were laborious hours of wonderful music produced in protest of his very existence and acts while wielding power in this world, so it’s really a wash in the end.



6. Charles Manson: What can one say about this ego-maniacal lunatic who still believes he is the chosen one to usher in a great race war and then assume messianic control of the earth after black blood flows in the gutter along with white blood? I think that just about says it all.



7. Kenneth Lay: This piece of shit is still walking free after financially raping thousands of people who worked their fingers to the nubs for him. He is the Gollum of corporate America and if there is any justice in this world, he will be reincarnated as Roseanne Barr’s G-string.



8. Jim Jones: Here’s another ego-maniacal lunatic who massaged the religious faith of people in group psychology mode, broke them away from their friends and family, moved them out of the country, had them shoot and kill a United States Federal agent and then commit mass suicide when the deal went south from there. He and Charlie Manson will be subject to an eternity of co-starring in Satan’s gay porn videos without Vaseline.



9. Hillary Clinton: This is the most evil woman ever to walk the face of the earth. She is so power-hungry and vicious that she actually makes her husband a sympathetic figure in light of the fact that he has to navigate around her treacherous mind, moods, and emotions on a regular basis. If this woman ever seizes any more power than she’s already sold her soul to capture, consider it the beginning of the end of freedom in this world.



10. Michael Moore: I know it’s trendy to pick on Michael Moore, but he really is the worst American ever. He and his propaganda have done more to aid the Islamo-Fascist movement world-wide then even Osama himself. There is nothing endearing or funny about this man’s wit or his malicious world-view of the haves and have-nots. His confrontational “gotcha” style interviews are more sensational and than substantial but also do more to drum up political support for ephemeral causes and happenstance occurrences that generally play right into the hands of the enemies of America, both foreign and domestic. A statue bust should be erected of this man and placed in the urinal of the White House with a fountain that ensures his image will spit Presidential piss for the rest of this country’s existence.

And there you have the Boys Wear Pants Top Ten List of the Worst Americans.

...According to this online article by Doug Thompson, President Bush is reported to have said, in regards to the Patriot Act:

“Mr. President,” one aide in the meeting said. “There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.”

“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”

I’ve talked to three people present for the meeting that day and they all confirm that the President of the United States called the Constitution “a goddamned piece of paper.”

This article is totally biased as the Anti-Bush position bleeds from every article, verb, and pronoun in it. But this is a direct quote within the article and if the President said it, I can't begin to express my disappointment.

This man took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution, not denigrate and subvert it. I pray this isn't true.

If you only listen to one podcast in your daily routine, I urge you, beg you, implore you, to listen to Skepticality.

One of the co-hosts, Derek, recently had some pretty major health issues which left him in a coma and in some pretty extensive rehabiliation upon waking up.

But he's now been back for two episodes, and while his voice is challenged and strained, the same old brilliant thinker is finally back behind the microphone.

I'm a skeptic in some aspects and a believer in others but the conversations and interviews that Derek and Swoopie get into are some of the loftiest and high-brow intellectual exchanges that I've come across either online or offline.

In their latest episode, Tom Flynn, absolutely skewers the tradition of Christmas in our culture. He is an atheist and what Bill O'Reilly would no doubt call a General in the War Against Christmas.

And while I agree with everything he said, I'm still a practicioner of Christmas rituals (besides going to church); this is because Christmas to me is much more about family and exchanges of gifts and well-wishes than anything else. This may change in the future, but at any length you will be doing yourself a disservice if you don't listen to this half-hour podcast that will no doubt leave you feeling different about the origins and practice of this national holiday.

Welcome back Derek--you were sorely missed!

TAGS: Skepticality, Tom Flynn

First of all, I don't care that Vonnegut is a socialist--he's a national treasure and an outright brilliant author. You will find, the more you read me, that I believe that proper art trumps politics in the matter of universal importance. This is because politics is the problem and art is one of the solutions.

This book is one of Vonnegut's "truth" books, meaning that he just comes right out and says it. And he's still funny as shit at 82 years old.

There were about ten times where I genuinely laughed out loud at Vonnegut's humor. Check this out:

Last night I dreamed I was eating flannel cakes and when I woke up the blanket was gone.

That type of joke within the framework of a joke is the essence of Vonnegut's writing.

I remember a blurb quote on the back of one of his paperbacks (I think it was Cat's Cradle but don't quote me on that) which referred to him as "Mad prophet laughing all the way to Armageddon." I fell in love with Vonnegut's work with that one phrase because it sums him up perfectly and there is a deep part of my artistic soul that stands shoulder to shoulder with him in this outlook.

Deep inside, I know that everything is turning to shit in our world but somehow I still see the humor in life; I can still find the diamond floating in the turds.

Vonnegut claims in this short book that he's gotten too old to see the humor, but I have a feeling that he's letting Kilgore Trout come through a little too much (in other words, he's talking out his ass).

The man is as brilliant at 82 as he's always been and you won't be disappointed by this book.

In fact, I'm going to make it a tentative goal to reread all of his books this year in order of print. We'll see what happens with that.

January 20, 2009

The following is an advance copy of the 44th President Elect's Inaugural Address. The speech has been moved from outside the Capital to the Jefferson Memorial.

My fellow Americans...

First, let me thank you for the overwhelming support that has made me the youngest US President in the history of our great country. This has been a whirlwind campaign.

I am very pleased to report to you that, while I received millions in campaign donations, this successful four-year bid for the Presidency has cost me only a few hundred thousand dollars. In fact, after expenses, my campaign is still in the black some 35 million dollars, all of which will be donated to the new Public Education fund which I will start as my first act in office.

The Public Education Fund will not support lower schools, public or private. Nor will it fund the bloated and ridiculous collegiate system which has grown fat and lazy on the government's teat. My Public Education Fund will directly support libraries across this nation as that is the true source of public education.

When I was a young man, searching for a purpose in life; I was able to walk into a public library and follow my passions to that purpose. Without a public plethora of information and art, I would not be standing before you today and that is why as my first act as President, I will cut the apron strings between education and government and in doing so, will open the coffers of government to the will and desire of the many millions of individual citizens looking for a better way of life.

After all, this is what has made America strong despite the volcano of African slavery, the genocide of the American Indian, and the unprovoked invasion of foreign countries to secure land and resources that the sword of our precious democracy has been forged in. We will be working closely with our Canadian and Mexican friends to ensure that all three countries are safe from foreign invaders.

That being said, we still want to encourage talented, passionate, and worthy immigrants to enjoy the present and contribute to the future prosperity of our great nation. There will likely be some growing pains as we secure these borders, so I am going to ask in advance for your patience and understanding and willingness to change in order to secure ourselves. And expect stricter regulations and inspections of interstate shipping via train, truck, airplane, or cargo ship.

I will also continue the previous administration's policy of analyzing the information flow within and outside of our country. I absolutely adhere to and believe in the fourth amendment and I will be working with lawmakers and judges to ensure that your fourth amendment rights are protected while still allowing this government to protect your civil security through knowledge of what is being talked about online and offline.

When I said we stand at a moment of great choice regarding fossil fuels, here is what I meant. We live in a world of scarce resources and these fossil fuel resources drive our economies, our armies, and our future progress. And instead of focusing on truly developing technologies and methodologies of energy power beyond fossil fuels, which would allow us to terraform into space, colonize other worlds and begin extracting their fossil fuels for future use, past administrations have engaged in a global board game to secure what's left of the present at the expense of the future of our species.

This was not only incredibly short-sighted; it was arrogant and plain stupid.

So now we have a choice to make--either we pull back on our consumption and model of energy use or we continue on the Godless campaign to secure the world's fossil fuels while starving and murdering at least 1/3 of it's population in order to balance supply and demand.

I'm sure that you're not used to public officials speaking to you with such candor but I assure you that there is no time to mince words because this choice has to be made yesterday.

On top of this, consider that if we pull out of Middle East politics and release our military claim to their oil resources, there is a very real possibility that a nuclear conflict will erupt between the Arab states and Israel. It is likely that Israel will not survive and that a mega-conglomerate Islamic nation will arise who has America in its cross-hairs.

My administration will do our best to build up civil defense measures by providing all communities in this country with bomb shelters and funding, supporting, and encouraging local militias to be organized who can work with the National Guard and reestablish communications as well as provide armed civil defense should any enemy be foolish enough to strike within our borders.

This is a moral decision that the American people have to make because the previous administration staked our claim on the world with the statement that the American way of life is non-negotiable and this way of life is fueled by oil. So either we secure these assets through threat of force and invasion or we seriously undertake a willing paradigm shift into a new way of existence that is not dependent on fossil fuels.

It is one way or the either, there is no more time to stand any longer waiting to make a decision at the crossroads.

What I am talking about here is a fundamental transformation in the way we shop, how we work, and even how we spend our leisure time. Unfortunately, either path we choose will mean a significant reduction in the population of our species on this planet. The United States will simply be unable to continue to supply the world with food and other resources after we move to a new paradigm emphasizing virtual rather than physical communication and travel and alternative fuels as opposed to traditional carbon-based fossil fuels.

It is my sincere hope that our earnest endeavors to replace our dependence on these limited resources will yield technology which will allow us to terraform into outer space and seize additional resources in the form of asteroid, comet, moon, and planet mining operations which will allow us to rebuild the population of our species well beyond even the current level here on Earth.

But in the short-run, this unfortunately means that many millions will likely starve to death or perish as a result of tyrannical dictatorships armed with weapons of mass destruction and hell bent on destroying the populations of their own countries.

My fellow Americans, this is a time where we must make selfish decisions for the future sake of all mankind. We stand upon a moored vessel and are waving at the legions left on the shore. We don’t have to feel good about departing from their company, but this is a journey that must be made lest we all descend into the madness that our rape of the environment and our search for the quick and easy solution has wrought for our entire species.

This will be a period of great change, great struggle, and great sacrifice for our species; but these undertakings are nothing new to this country and the great men, women, and children who inhabit these bountiful towns, cities, and states.

And I am calling upon that collective strength, wisdom, and compassion to do the hard thing because it is the right thing. I will be a rock for you all to lean upon but I need you to be the gravity that keeps the rock in place between the hard earth and the open sky.

We begin making the future today, this moment and each that follows after it. Thank you for your trust in my leadership. I will not let you down.

This was, quite possibly, the shittiest book I have ever read. If anyone were to say to you that this monotonous drivel is their favorite book, or even a book that they respect, doubt their intelligence and sense of literary value immediately.

If this book gives any insight about Kerouac's character, it would be that he is the most superficial man imagineable, rootless, pointless, and whose insights on the nature of the universe and life in general spawned only from drug-induced psycho-babble.

I was told by one of my college roommates (before he ran off to Europe and never came back) that this book changed his life and inspired him to get out and "see the world."

Needless to say, he was on drugs at the time.

Weren't we all?

If I had to pick the one thing that helped my career more than any other (besides getting a four-year degree), it would have to be mastering Microsoft Excel.

I graduated college with an English degree which meant that I never even launched Microsoft Excel and really didn't use it until about four years ago.

Originally, I thought it was just a way to table things out and format easier than in Microsoft Word. But the truth is that once you understand how formulas work in Excel, you are one step closer to your next promotion.

Anyone who still uses a calculator when they have easy access to Excel (and the knowledge to use it) is a fool. Chances are that your company has a resident expert at Excel. If so, ask your boss and that person if it would be okay to sit with them and go over some Excel basics for an hour or so. Also, many companies have excellent online training courses or even will agree to pay for your offsite training (this is the course I took).

Once you begin using Excel to analyze the relationships between numbers, you will begin to think differently about your business. This is because every business and every position in every business has a magic number associted with it and the sooner you understand the nature, history, and effect of these numbers on all the other numbers in the company, you are on your way to becoming a better leader in your circle of influence.

The key formulas to understand are:

• SUM
• AVERAGE
• IF
• COUNTA
• VLOOKUP

The key skills to learn about are:

Conditional Formatting
• Pivot Tables/Charts
• Basic formatting (shades and borders)
• Setting page margins and print ranges

There is a ton more stuff that you will eventually pick up but all that will come as necessity dictates. One thing to keep in mind is that this is a tool to help you do your work easier; so, while there is a lot of upfront work, the results on the back end will save you enormous future time and effort.

And if all else fails, go to Microsoft and use the F1 help feature within Excel to learn how to do new things.

Trust me, few things you take the time to master will repay you with the boons that learning Excel will offer to you.

...that I would consider giving up writing if it was a vocation that I chose instead of one which chose me.

A new study projects that 11 million people in this country cannot read. For those that can do math, that's about 4% of our population who can't translate written language into mental pictures to create a mosaic of understanding from one mind to another.

I've often said that the person who can read and doesn't is no better off than the one who can't. Even if you don't have time to read a paper book, there are great audio books now that could be turning the time you spend in the car, waiting in line and walking through the grocery store, exercising, cleaning your house, etc. into quiet library study time.

So, there is no excuse for not learning, even if you can't read.

After all, unless you're deaf, you have no excuses anymore. Consider this quote from this story:

Perhaps most sobering was that adult literacy dropped or was flat across every level of education, from people with graduate degrees to those who dropped out of high school. So even as more people get a formal education, the literacy rate is not rising.

This is the most depressing part for me because, as I try to connect with coworkers, distant friends, close friends, and even some family members, I hit a total wall of resistance when it comes to getting them to get on the internet pop on this site and keep up with my blog on a regular basis.

And these are people who know me well and are probably interested in what is going on in my head and in my life (of course there are also loved ones including friends and family who do keep up with this blog on a daily basis and I am eternally grateful for that time and attention they have lavished upon me).

But the point remains...this study is thoroughly depressing.

So, I was flying home from Florida yesterday and because the weather in Ohio was so shitty, I was delayed at the airport for like three hours.

So, I spent $10 on an XBox magazine because it came with a demo disc that had King Kong on it and this is one of those games I wanted to try before I bought.

Well, I don't have an original XBox. I have a 360 and the disc clearly said that there were several XBOX 360 game trailers, movies, etc. So, one would reasonably assert that the disc would play in the XBOX 360 or that there would be a quick download from the XBOX Live server that would make it playable.

One would think that but one would be dead shot in the ass wrong because not only did I not get to play King Kong, I couldn't even watch any of the game trailers. So, I spent $10 on a 3$ magazine and a $7 disc that wouldn't even play in my $400 gaming system from a magazine that is dedicated to pushing this new system on a cost-concerned customer segment.

It's just stupid and this will probably be the last XBOX magazine I ever buy. I'll just read it at Barnes & Noble or listen to Major Nelson's podcast to get all my news.

In the end, I'm just pissed off at the whole situation.

So, I finished Longitudes and Attitudes and I have to say that it was a thoroughly enlightening work. See, I have no patience for Middle Eastern politics, which is why it was very easy for me, after 9/11, to say, "Invade them all--annex their countries, seize their oil, and if they have anything else to say about it besides, "Thank You, Sir, may I have another?"--bring out the Bradley tanks and shut 'em down like Public Enemy.

But that was back in the days when my political mindset was much more Scarface than The Godfather. Today, I'm thinking on a whole new level. Friedman's book and his writing, focused on globalization and how different countries and cultures have to overcome obstacles to make this thing work without blowing ourselves into an early evolutionary grave, are level-headed, fact-filled, and usually first person meaning that he actually meets with these foreign dignitaries and citizens and you're getting something filtered through the adminsitration, the main stream media, or third-hand by blogging experts (as important as they are).

And actually, I perceived Friedman to be conservative much more than liberal which I intially pegged him for (probably because he writes for the New York Times).

This book was written in 2002 and contains his thoughts on the world after September 11, 2001; these thoughts are bent on the Middle East and what produced the radical Islamist fanaticism in those fifteen hijackers that caused them to make the ultimate sacrifice to murder thousands of innocent people.

Here is the ultimate irony I walked away with--that conservatives in the US have gone all in during a global poker game on the hopes that liberals in the Middle East will match the pot and play the hand with them.

Talk about betting on the margins...

So, I changed up the style of Boys Wear Pants (if you're an RSS reader, you'll need to click through to see this).

Every usability expert always talks about how you have to get a lot of different people with a lot of different computers and operating systems to look at your blog and let you know what they think; then, by some miracle, you're supposed to jumble all of their suggestions into a new presentation that makes it easy for people other than you to read your site and find what they're looking for.

In the older format, I went for the two-sidebar approach which worked well for me because I was able to put content on the left sidebar and character stuff on the right with some advertisements thrown on their randomly.

But once I started working my new job and accessing my blog via the corporate Intranet, I realized how shitty it looked on a normal screen (my laptop has a 17" widescreen which is nice regardless what you're looking at). So, I've been kicking around transitioning to a one sidebar format and fooling a bit with the colors.

I'm going to delve into Darren's series on Adsense and Chitika placement and really streamline this blog as well as my new Family Bliss Blog which is much more niched that this wild and crazy beast called Boys Wear Pants.

I finished my second watching of the entire series Freaks and Geeks and I have definitely fallen in love with the show.

During the first watching I felt an infatuation but this is the full blown real thing. I never watched the show when it was on television, which is unfortunate because that is precisely the reason why it was cancelled. This is one of those shows that becomes painful to watch because it's painfully clear how truly great it could have become.

Most shows sputter during their first couple of seasons with a couple of occasional bonfire episodes. But gang, every single episode of this show is a brilliant fireworks display with quite a few grand finales thrown in for good measure.

The theme song "Bad Reputation" by Joan Jett is the second coolest opening song for any show (behind A3's "Woke Up This Morning" on The Sopranos).

Judd Apatow won me over with his show Undeclared about a group of college freshmen; a show which also met the same freshman year fate of being cancelled. But after watching Freaks and Geeks, it's obvious that this guy is a superstar at putting together ensemble casts.

In the final episode, when Lindsay runs off to follow the Dead, you have just about one of the best synthetic conclusions to any cancelled show I've ever seen. In other words, somehow everything fits.

The fact that the show takes place in the early 1980s gives it great era stylistic appeal as I can totally relate with the world and society it recreates. But the relationships between the characters and the high school social dramas they draw upon as the Freaks and Geeks intermingle in each others' lives are so universal that at times I felt that I was right back in homeroom in high school.

Trust me gang, if you've got 22 hours to kill over the course of a few weeks, you could do far worse that shelling out the duckets for this boxed set and watching one a night before you go to bed.

Tell 'em Uncle Josh sent ya'...

Jordan awakens with a jolt. He is disoriented, but he still knows his boundaries. He can see the bubble clearly now. What is it about God? He has never thought about it, but now he knows. He knows with complete certainty what happens next. If he were living two thousand years before, they’d have called him a prophet. Now, the only ones who know his situation would call him a plague.

He stands up and flexes the muscles of his arms. He pronates his palms and supinates them back again. The veins are standing out in his wrist. They pump blood that created a civilization and then destroyed it. They pump blood that will destroy again. He kicks down the door with preternatural strength unparalleled in his species. The shadow figure is an offering to the fire. He’s a sacrifice consumed in the ever-burning fire. Jordan feeds that fire.

He walks at a pace unequaled by even the rover vehicles of the Moon Colony. He no longer needs a suit for protection, he is the plague. He is death. He is the collapse of Universe they fear so much. He was unsure before he saw the translucent onion peel of the bubbled dome. He knows the dark and he knows the light. He is both and the shadow shows features light refuses to acknowledge.

He reaches the sunlight. He is drenched in the yellow part of the spectrum. It gives him power beyond power. It’s a solar battery fueling an electrical storm. He’s a fire plague, riding on the back of a locust swarm. The seals have been opened and the trumpeters trumpet. The horses are riding and the locusts are leading, the trumpets shoot fire from their horns. Rough beast, it’s hour come round at last; sloughing nearer to the golden eye of destiny.

He is careful when he reaches the colony. He enters with the pace of a human. No one must know. It’s a silent storm, very personal. He walks past the guard, through the gates. The computer no longer recognizes him as human. It doesn’t make a sound.

He doesn’t pay attention to the humans; they come later. He kicks in the door to the temple with the same ease as the VLA shack. The material doesn’t have the density of his heart. The heart is heating. The blood is beginning to bubble and pop. His fists clench as he walks down the hallway. The trumpets stop trumpeting and the horses stop riding. The locusts are gone, but the fire’s still burning.

When he reaches the door, it slides open, and the men seem to be expecting him. They are seated and looking at him with interested gazes. He walks in and immediately sees the white-hair man to his right.

The man speaks, “Boy, I know you’re angry. But you must listen to reason.” He is backing away and Jordan is walking closer. “I…I…We, we thought it would be best for your safety…”

Jordan grabs the man by the collar, “Enough talk. We have business.” He slams the man into the wall and the diamond-steel sword falls and clangs. He holds him in place with one hand. He turns to look at the others.

Jordan’s eyes turn bloody, then white-hot. The council members all drop to their knees with their arms back to support them in a triangle posture. They look up to the ceiling. Their eyes glow white-hot as well. Spandex suits catch fire at the sternum. Skin is completely melted away and hearts are bubbling and popping as if they were on a spit. Eyes fade Antarctic-blue and the hearts tumble from their chests and lie smoking on the floor under the table. Bodies go limp.

The white-hair man still lives. “Jordan, I know you’re upset, but please try to listen to reason. We didn’t need them, Jordan. They never did anything anyway. It was I, Jordan; I set it all up. I executed everything. I’m the one who built history and revised it. I can help you. I’ll work with you now. You need me, Jordan.”

Jordan drags the man, with one arm, down the hallway. Two guards rush out to stop him. Their hair catches flame and blood pours from their eyes, ears, noses, and mouths. Jordan drags the man into the VLA room. He swings the white-haired mass towards the computer console. “Take a reading.” His voice booms off the walls.

The man pushes buttons and a picture appears on the CCD monitor. ERROR….ERROR … ERROR, flashes across the screen. The man says, “My God, the size of the Universe is less than zero. How can that be?” The man appears to have forgotten Jordan in his crisis of observation.

Jordan walks calmly towards the computer and smacks the man’s hands away from the keyboard. “Have you ever been dead and didn’t know it? I want you to know the secret that’s been kept from you for so long.” Jordan pushes the return button and the computer takes another reading. The answer comes back and the man’s face contorts in fear as he scoots against the wall with a force that knocks computer chips off the shelves.

He says, “Impossible. Unthinkable.”

The computer gives a reading for the size of the Universe that is bigger than the initial reading taken 57 years ago. Jordan looks at the man, then looks away. He says, “Everything ends old man. Your time is over and your temple is crumbling.”

The foundation trembles. Jordan’s eyes display the heart’s rise in temperature. The white-hair man leans up on his knees and looks to the sky. Same routine, same fire. Same sound the heart makes falling to the floor. The building’s coming down.

Jordan hacks the man’s head with the diamond-steel sword and carries them both out of the convulsing building. Tapestries are falling to the ground and being smashed by pillars of metal. The building has toppled and the council has fallen.

© 1998 by Joshua Minton

As an independent thinker, I believe in giving equal voice to both sides. My core values dictate economic and social freedom on the individual level and are, at the same time, very suspicious of governments, institions or groups of people united under any agenda whatsoever (this includes churches and civic groups as well).

I realize that a lot of social good has come from these social structures and that the general living standard of the average human being (especially the average American citizen) has been improved greatly because of these types of social networks, but I still live under the umbrella maxim that I would never be a member of any group that would have me.

In the spirit of giving equal voice to both sides, and in my fascination for conspiracy theories, I have sought out the liberal Bible which explains 9/11 and answers the question of what is driving their worldview to overthrow the Bush presidency and what exactly they would do with the country (hence the world) should they ever seize the platform of world power.

I believe I have found this book, which is titled Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil (affiliate link) by Michael C. Ruppert. I am only 41 pages into it and I am absolutely scared shitless. The author lays his cards on the table on the first page of the introduction when he calls 9/11 a "homicide" and states the results of his investigation:

With respect to Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, that critical litmus test for anymurder prosecution--means, motive, and opportunity--has never been fully applied. In a capital case each of these components would require demonstration "beyond a shadow of a doubt." Regardless of whom the suspect(s) turns out to be, these are the basic questions every homicide investigator must seek to answer in the course of the investigation. In the end, the only "suspects" found to meet all of these criteria will not be al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. They will instead be a group of people operating within certain government agencies, including the White House, for the benefit of major financial interests within the United States and in other countries. This group will specifically include parts of the administrations of George W. Bush and, before it, the administration of William Jefferson Clinton. However, the only possible unifying thread will be the intelligence community and, in particular, the United States Secret Service and the Central Intelligence Agency. I realize that this is a frightening statement. I submit that by the end of this book it will be the only statement that encompasses and reasonably explains the facts as documented.(1)

So there it is, nothing we haven't heard before from Michael Moore or Al-Jazeera. This isn't what concerns me, even if it's true. Bill Hicks said it best when he said, "All governments are lying cock-suckers."

What worries me is the last section of the introduction and the first chapter on oil, titled "Petroleum Man." It worries me because it connects my fears about the true nature of our government's (seemingly) failed War on Drugs and the rising costs and dwindelilng global supplies of hydrocarbon fuels.

Any free-thinking and intelligent individual can ascertain that the US government's War on Drugs is the biggest bullshit foreign and domestic policy abuse against American citizens since the passing of the Amendment banning the sale and production of alcoholic beverages and before that the levying of the income tax in an immoral meaure of class warfare.

And the same intelligent individual can see that the rapidly rising cost of fuel and the dependence on foreign sources of energy mean, not only that the American fuel supply isn't enough to sustain the country, but that the global fuel supply isn't enough to sustain the world for any more than 30-40 more years if we're lucky.

The author is basically saying that the global drug trade is in the hands of the United States intelligence agencies and has been their primary focus for over thirty years, representing billions and billions of dollars in liquid capital which is being allocated to securing the little remaining planetary hydrocarbon fuel in an effort to marginalize and to eradication a siginificant portion of the world's human population to a more sustainable level.

Thinking on this level and in this direction is like Oliver Stone's brain on steroids and I don't know how people who agree with this weltanschauung don't put a pistol in their mouth immediately. Still, I find the idea fascinating and worth reading further into.

Please don't think I'm putting words in the author's mouth, because here is another passage from the end of the introduction:

Now look at the barrel of oil and realize that the earth is a closeed sphere, and that without the oil and natural gas, the financial system is doomed. There is nothing on our horizon--other than wishful thinking--that can completely replace hydrocarbon energy. The surest way to see this is to realize that, as the human race starts down the inevitable slope of shrinking oil and gas supplies, we have seen no hydrogen-powered F 18 Hornets or M1 Abrams tanks. We have seen no vegetable oil-powered Bradley fighting vehicles or solar powered guided missile frigates.

There are many factors that the rulers of the American empire now have to manage as they read their own delusional map of the world. They have to:

• Apportion dwindling resources among competitors, some of whom posess nuclear weapons;

• Mai