Emphasis mine:

A hundred years ago, the first group of progressives concluded that this country needed to change in a big way. They argued explicitly for a refounding of the United States on the grounds that the only absolute in political life is that absolutes are material and economic rather than moral in nature.

That's one of those statements that leaves one rubbing the chin. It seems plausible on the face of matters. However, having taken one's eyes off the Almighty, much is possible. As someone wicked once said:

. . .All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

Bill Whittle is excellent, as ever:
https://www.billwhittle.com/firewall/struggle-stupidity

What hooey:

Yeah, the Hindus and Buddhists are all, "Wut?"
"When Christian ideas succumbed in the 18th century to rationalist ideas" is a hoot because at least a good chunk of the Enlightenment thinkers considered themselves Christian.
"...feudal society fought its death battle with the then revolutionary bourgeoisie." Yeah, there was that extended Bourgeoisgeddon, to roughly the extent the ancient world had "death throes". Charlemagne thought he was just reforming Latin, and would have balked at the idea of these "death throes" that Marx is making up. It sounds as though Marx may have bought off on Edward Gibbon's biases, directly or not.
This is to say nothing of my contempt for Marx's view of private property. What a used car salesman. The Communist vanguard inevitably, invariably, with enough irony to float an Iowa-class battleship, becomes the aristocracy standing in the ashes of the bourgeoisie. The only thing to be done with this foolishness is to reject it, and haul it out with the kids for a cautionary tale about liars.

Took my family to see Guardians of the Galaxy last night. I had only heard good stuff about it and it was a fun movie. What's funny is I thought it was pretty good while my wife and kids thought it was amazing. My son kept going on about it and my wife said she wanted to go watch it again. Usually with a film like this it would be the other way around and I'd be the one who was more enthusiastic. Funny.

Republican Party: Far RIght Fascist
Democratic Party: Center Right Fascist
Conservative Tory: Far Right Fascist
New Labour: Right Fascist
Liberal Democrats: Center Right Twats

Interception
        I had the computer wake me up at six so I'd be ready for the pirates. Of course, when the alarm went off I thought "damned whores" until I looked and was reminded that I'd set the alarm myself. I started coffee, took my shower, and ate a quick breakfast. Huh? Steak, egg, and cheese wrap. A small one.
        Then I went downstairs to do a quick inspection of the engines and generators. Thankfully, nothing was broken or being worked on and everything was all right except number seventeen and the port generator. I only did a cursory check looking for red or yellow lights. I usually spend two or three hours down there, sometimes a lot longer if there's trouble, checking readings, but the most time I had then was forty five minutes or so.
        I went back to my quarters and checked the holo map; they'd be here in forty five minutes. That would be about quarter after eight.
        Destiny was awake by then, so I had coffee with her while she ate and we watched the news. Nothing new in the news. More people dead in orbit around Venus and everyone on the station was sick. Cops had tried to arrest a nest of Pirates in San Diego, but ten cops and two pirates died and fifteen cops and five pirates were hospitalized. The rest got away, more than fifty of them.
        About quarter 'til eight I went to the pilot room with a cup and a full pot of coffee, and at eight I did my normal checkouts. Good, everything was okay.
        At five after eight I picked up the fone and addressed the PA system. "Strap down, ladies," I announced. "Gravity changes in two minutes and it's going to be dangerous." I masered Bill to change course and gave him coordinates to change to and had the computers lazily turn the boat around and head towards the pirates.
        I lifted us to point eight nine gravity, the best I could do on one generator. Better than pirate boats can do, unless they've captured some of ours, which I didn't think was very damned likely.
        They took chase when they saw me, and I turned around and headed to Mars on a different course, one that wouldn't take us anywhere near Bill's boat. The droppers were going to be happy, even though it was an hour later when I changed course again to a more direct route towards Mars and dropped it to half a gravity, a bit more than we'd been going before eight but we needed to go that fast to outrun the pirates.
        I unstrapped and went back to my quarters, and alerted passenger and cargo that it was safe to unstrap.
        "John, you need to talk to Tammy," Destiny said.
        "Huh? Why? Talk to her about what?"
        "Pirates and droppers!" she said. I didn't get it. "Look," she said, "Tammy has a last ditch weapon; you read her book and didn't get it but it's clear to me what she can do. Tell her about the pirates, I promised you I wouldn't. I know even telling me about any danger was against the book and I understand, but she might wind up saving our lives. I'd say she has an operational need to know."
        Women. "You're right, I don't get it," I admitted, "and it looks like you have an idea. Talk to Tammy for me, would you? No restrictions, I trust her. But I still don't get it."
        "Christ, John, you can really be dense sometimes but at least you know you can be. Why can't you understand? These women are incredibly dangerous! I can't believe you read that book and missed that!"
        "I know they're dangerous, but they're a danger to you and me and themselves and the boat, not the pirates."
        "Tammy's a psychologist and an anthropologist, dumbass. She can handle these women!"
        She's right, I'm a dumbass. I don't know why she likes me so much. I still didn't get it, though, how in the hell can anybody handle a redeye monster? Christ, tasers have no effect at all and bullets only work if you hit an artery or a vital organ, and there weren't any guns inside the ship, anyway.
        "Okay, okay," I said. "I told you, talk to her. I hope we don't get boarded," although I still didn't see what she had in mind.
        "Boarded? You said we were safe! She might be our last chance if they actually manage to board," Destiny said. "That's what I was talking about."
        "Yeah, usually we're okay but shit happens, you know? I like to be as prepared as I can. They'd need a hell of a lot more boats than are after us to do it, and they can't catch us, anyway."
        She kissed me. "What you lack in education you make up for in wisdom," she said. I have no idea what she meant by it. "Look, I'm going to see Tammy, try not to get into any trouble."
        I laughed. "Want to watch something when I get... SHIT!" My phone was alerting me; pirates ahead of me. How the hell did that happen?
        "Destiny," I yelled, "Pirates ahead!"
        She laughed. "Poor pirates!" she said. I didn't get it.
        I went to the pilot room, calling Bill over the maser with my fone. "Bill, we got pirates, see 'em?" I didn't know how far away he was, and hoped he was too far away to hear me or to get picked up on the pirate's radar; our boats are stealthy but can be seen if you're close enough. "Go to zero gravity if you can hear me and they haven't spotted you so you won't leave an ion trail, I'm gonna nuke the sons of bitches."
        I switched to the PA system. "Strap down, ladies, weird gravity almost immediately. We don't need nobody getting hurt today."
        Rather than changing my heading away from them, I kept on course to intercept. Yeah, I learned that word in boat training. And yeah, this was strictly against company regulations, but fuck regulations. I was in too much danger from my cargo to have to worry about a bunch of God damned pirates.
        Ten or fifteen seconds later I got a "roger" from Bill, he must have been pretty damned close. He should have been way away by now, did that damned fool follow me or was it orbital mechanics? Orbital mechanics is way over my head. Ten minutes later the pirates were coming towards me. I grinned. Poor bastards... die, you motherfuckers! I dropped my atomic right when it would be in the middle of them, and made the boat's portholes, which were all in the bow on the ceiling, turn black. Not sure how this shit works but it works. I plan on going to college.
        Gravity got a little weird, of course, but not near as much as I thought I'd have to make it.
        That bunch was easy, the blast from that one atomic got all of them... but there would be more, I was sure of it. There were half a dozen pirate gangs and they all hated each other, but they hated us so much more that sometimes they would band together. This was probably one of them times.

Next: Boarded!

So I pulled a pile of dreck (The Communist Hooeyfesto) into the Kindle app on my 'Droid phone.
This is supposed to be some classic of political thought? Really? For 33% through this noise, I have to say that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion was a better read. I mean, if you're going to smear someone falsely, Jews or burgerboise, one recommends a more diabolical approach to lying.

No, it is not. The mental effort of binning individuals into abstract chess pieces, so that he could move them around some imaginary chessboard, happened mostly in the mind of Marx.
It's an appealing fable, and many have swallowed it whole, to their detriment. As Alinsky would later codify the central axis of the Commie Hooeyfesto:

There will be no improvement until people recognize tawdry plays and gently rebuff them. I hope God had mercy on Marx. While I reject his ideas, I don't want to play his game.

• Shy away from dangerous, heavily policed areas.
• Avoid swaggering or any other confident behavior that suggests you are not completely subjugated.
• Be sure not to pick up any object that could be perceived by a police officer as a firearm, such as a cell phone, a food item, or nothing.
• Explain in clear and logical terms that you do not enjoy being shot, and would prefer that it not happen.
• Don't let society stereotype you as a petty criminal. Remember that you can be seen as so much more, from an armed robbery suspect, to a rape suspect, to a murder suspect.
• Try to see it from a police officer's point of view: You may be unarmed, but you're also black.
• Avoid wearing clothing associated with the gang lifestyle, such as shirts and pants.
• Revel in the fact that by simply existing, you exert a threatening presence over the nation's police force.
• Be as polite and straightforward as possible when police officers are kicking the shit out of you.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/tips-for-being-an-unarmed-black-teen,36697/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_campaign=Pic:1:Default

• There were no WMD in Iraq, 2003.
• Ghadafi didn't hand out Viagra.
• Saddam didn't toss Kuwaiti babies out of incubators.
• The Gulf of Tonkin incident never happened.
• German troops did not cut off the hands of Belgium school kids.
• Mexican troops did not cross the Rio Grande into Texas.
• The Spanish did not sink the Maine.

Warning: this is long and completely weird. Almost spoiler-free, but there might be some in there as well.

Saw Guardians of the Galaxy yesterday and it was pretty much what I expected: funny and cartoonish, great action and great special effects (but, really, when was the last time you saw a movie with BAD special effects? But I digress.)

And, of course, we had the funny cameo by Stan Lee right there at the beginning of the movie. Good old Stan, funny as usual. And a very strong showing by Thanos, the bad-ass similing foe glimpsed at the end of the Avengers.

What struck me this morning was this horrible thing: what if Stan Lee and Thanos were one and the same?

Bear with me here for a minute or two... I'll try to explain

Thanos is defined, in the Guardians of the Galaxy, as "The Mad Titan", and one of the common thread that unites the Marvel movies (Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, The Avengers) is the fact that there are in the universe these incredible artifacts, named the stones of power.

But the OTHER common thread in all these movies (plus the Spider-Man movies and the Fantastic Four) are these funny little cameos by Stan Lee, who appears for a few minutes in pretty much all of them.

What if Stan Lee is Thanos himself, or an agent of the Mad Titan?

All of a sudden, all these little appearances start to make sense!

You see, Thanos is a Titan, an ancient being of almost unfathomable powers and resources. Surely, to being like this one, time traveling and dimension/realm hopping is nothing but a trifle?

My theory is this: Thanos knows that nothing in the Universe is truly a threat to him... EXCEPT maybe for the combined might of Earth/Midgard and Asgard. Think of it this way: Asgard was able to kick the dark elves collective asses (Thor 2) not just once but TWICE, and the elves had "the Ether" (magical McGuffin #1), something so powerful that it was supposed to be able to drag back the entire universe back into darkness.

PLUS, Odin, Asgard's King and All-Father has another "stone of power" in his possession, the Tesseract (Magical McGuffin #2), something so powerful a minuscule fraction of its power was supposed to power the Entire Red Skull Hydra army (Magical McGuffin #2).

Thanos is not an idiot, you are not the kind of being who survives so long -- maybe even from the beginning of the universe -- by ignoring potential competitors. So what he does is research the opposition. And, for this, what better agent than good old Stan Lee?

Think I am crazy? Consider the following time-line:

Circa 1944: Stan Lee appears as a general -- infiltrating the US Army -- certainly in order to research the super soldier programme (Captain America 1) and, possibly, the use of the Tesseract by Red Skull & Hydra.

2008: Stan Lee is mistaken for Hugh Hefner, probably researching Tony Stark and the Iron Man programme (Iron Man)

2010: Stan Lee again is mistaken, this time for Larry King, again extremely close to, and researching, Tony Stark and the new development of Iron Man (Iron Man 2).

2011: Stan Lee tests Mjolnir weight, trying to pull it out of the earth with his pick-up truck (Thor 1). Being so close to Mjolnir, he probably was able to witness first-hand the battle between Thor and The Destroyer, gving him very valuable information on both the strength of the Prince of Asgard and the kind of military technology Asgard can put in the field if needed... But also on the average technology of Earth and of SHIELD - probably the toughest opposition available on the planet (think Helicarrier here).

2012: Stan Lee was in NYC during the battle between the Avengers and Loki's army -- which was supplied by Thanos in a bid to recover the Tesseract. Think of it this way: Stan Lee is Thanos eyes and ears ''on the ground'' and was probably able to judge first hand if Loki was in a position to win that conflict. Why do we see Thanos smile at the end of the Avengers, despite the battle having ended in complete defeat? Because he already knew the outcome of the battle through Stan Lee report and because he considers the lessons learned have provided him with invaluable information on the strength and weaknesses of its two worst potential enemies: Earth (Midgard) and Asgard!

2013: Stan Lee is in London (Thor 2), in the very hospital where Dr Erik Selvig is interned, keeping an eye on him, and probably researching the way Earth foremost expert on the multiverse is able to understand the realms, a topic of the foremost importance for Thanos (what would happen if Tony Stark and all his armors were to launch a trans-dimensional attack with weapons possibly based on Asgard Technology?) and all this just a couple of hours before the Dark Elves try to use the Ether to bring darkness to the Universe. That's the second time Stan Lee is in a position to (a) be a witness of a battle between Asgard/Thor and dangerous foes and (b) learn more about one of the Magical McGuffins and their powers, something that could become very valuable in the future.

2013: Stan Lee, again appears in a very close vicinity of Tony Stark (Iron Man 3). I think his interest here is more of a port-mortem on the Battle of N.Y. in the Avengers: how are the humans who defeated Loki's army holding up? How are they adapting to this new multiverse? Have they developped new weapons and tactics? It seems obvious Thanos has an interest in the super-soldier programme and its ramifications into the different super objects that have been gradually been discovered. But the strength of Earth, its military technologies, also have its full and undivided attentions. He wants to know about it BEFORE Earth is in a position to use that technology against him!

2014: Stan Lee is in the Smithsonian Museum, as a security guard to the Steve Rogers expo (Captain America 2 - The Winter Soldier). But, seriously, since it appears he has been researching the super soldier since the mid-1940s, it's not really surprising: he IS probably the foremost authority on Captain America, thanks to his time travels! And, again, please note he is in Washington D.C., really close to where the action is. Coincidence? I THINK NOT!

2014: Stan Lee is present on Xandar, probably keeping an eye on Gamora, and is able to witness the fight between her and the other characters who will become the Guardians of the Galaxy. Not just that, but, being in Xandar, he may even be able to scout and research the security around the Infinity Stone, which is going to be held by Nova Prime. Again, this cannot be a coincidence: Stan Lee is in the perfect place to observe, collect information and report possibly crucial data back to Thanos.

AND... This is just the Iron Man/Avengers/Thor/Captain America movies. Stan Lee has also appeared in the Spider Man movies (some very interesting military applications here) and in the Fatastic 4 movies (Earthling defat Galactus? Inconceivable!!). Again, always at he right time, right place to observe, note and report back to his master, the Mad Titan, Thanos himself.

There you have it -- of course, Thanos and Stan Lee NEVER appear together at the same time during the movies. Even if they did, that would simply prove that Stan Lee is an agent of Thanos, and not Thanos himself.

Now, I believe the question we all need to ask Stan Lee is this one: "Are you an agent of Thanos, or have you ever been an agent of Thanos? And, if not, how do you explain your presence in all of these places and times?". Make him swear on a Bible, and surround him with SHIELD agents equipped with more copies of the big gun Coulson used on Loki in the Avengers (and please note that THAT gun was inspired by Asgard's Destroyer in Thor 1 -- how is that for technologies hopping dimensions?).

You have been warned. Stan Lee works for Thanos. And he is not on Earth to help us.

Don't blame them

What is your Facebook "username" any way?

Sneakers
        I woke up a little early, maybe ten or fifteen minutes after seven. I started coffee and did my morning bathroom... oh, shut up, head, bathroom, what difference does it make? "Head" is a dumb name for a room you take a bath in, anyway, almost as stupid as bow, stern, port, and starboard. At least those make sense in an ocean ship even though they don't on a space ship. "Head" don't even make sense in an ocean boat. What? Well, that's a good reason they started calling them that but even ocean boats weren't like that was for over five hundred years back.
        Anyway, I was in the dining room drinking coffee and watching a zero gravity baseball game... What? You never watched zero G baseball? It's kind of like zero gravity golf except there's more to baseball; it has teams throwing and catching a ball that's bigger than a golf ball while people "run" (I guess that's what you'd call it, even though they were flying) from one pole to the next and golf is one on one and you just hit the ball into a hole. The sticks are similar, a zero gravity golf club isn't anything like an Earth-side golf club. Baseball bats are really similar to ground-side bats, though.
        I can't believe you guys never watched zero G baseball or golf. I like them almost as much as zero G football. Anyway, when I was watching the game Destiny came in the dining room wearing a robe. "What are you watching?" she asked.
        "Zero gravity baseball, St. Louis against Chicago. Six to two Chicago's favor, they're in the bottom of the ninth and the bases are loaded. If McMurtrey doesn't get on base the game's over, and probably will be anyway unless he hits a home run, and home runs are really rare in zero G. If he does hit a homer I'll miss the end of the game because I have to go to work at eight." Of course, if he'd hit a single the game would still be in play unless they threw anybody else out...
        She poured a cup of coffee and McMurtrey struck out. I switched it to the news and we had corned beef and cheese omelettes for breakfast. The epidemic on the Venus station was worse and three people had died from it. It was completely quarantined and supply ships couldn't even dock, they had to leave supplies floating in space and somebody from the station or maybe a robot, I don't know, the news didn't say, somehow they had to get them in the space station.
        At eight I went to the pilot room to do my eight o'clock chores. It turned out to be a light morning, the computers were all agreeing and we didn't need a course correction. All the droppers were asleep except the German girl, who was in the commons eating. The generators were fine, except that one of the two wouldn't work. all the engines were fine except seventeen, which wasn't going to be lit before the Mars overhaul, since it destroyed two mechs and damned near ruined the last generator. There weren't even any robots working on any of the other ones.
        We had an early lunch, ham sandwiches and... yeah, I was just checking to see if you guys were paying attention, we really had Italian roast beef sandwiches and chips, and Destiny put a movie on.
        We was watching the movie when I saw a light on the holographic map again. Huh? An old twentieth century western, Rawhide I think. Short movie, maybe forty minutes or so. It was in two dimensions, like I already said there wasn't no hologram movies back then. Hell, they didn't even have lasers and holograms need lasers. Haven't you guys been paying attention? I mentioned that show a bunch of times already. This one didn't even have colors, just shades of gray. Weird. A lot of old movies were like that, I mentioned them before, too. Why? What difference does it make?
        The map was a holo of nearby... huh? Maybe five or six light minutes. Come on, guys, it's standard, haven't you ever been on one of these boats? Anyway, it was a holo of any bodies close by and any EMF sources, didn't I say that earlier? ...and one lit up; it was another radio transmission. I hoped it was just another shipping company like the ones that had shown up earlier. The computer would record it, so I had Destiny pause the movie while I saw what the EMF was, and listened in.
        Shit, pirate traffic! More pirates this far out? I sure didn't expect that! We were two weeks from Mars and the company fleet wouldn't be accompanying us for another week, which was twice as far as pirates normally went. I didn't expect anything but false alarms until we were almost to the fleet.
        "Sorry, hon, gotta work," I said.
        "Is this movie boring you?"
        "No, keep it paused until I get back. Look, hon, I have to go, there's pirates. This is serious and I have work to do." I kissed her and went into the pilot room and looked at the holos there.
        For once I caught a break, but unfortunately at some other boat captain's expense. It wasn't our company, I don't remember what company, I didn't really care. Anyway, the pirates thought he was me and started chasing him.
        I masered Bill, hoping he was close enough that the signal would be strong enough to be understood. "Wild Bill, John here. Pirates ahead, go around if you have enough batteries. They think some other company's ship is me. I'm slowing down until they engage, then I'm hauling ass."
        I addressed the women. "Ladies, it would be a really good idea to strap in right now because gravity might get weird." By now they knew what I meant when I said gravity was going to get weird. Unless they were short on drops and they probably wouldn't even feel it then anyway.
        I reduced gravity, which probably pissed the whores off. Good, payback is a bitch, bitch. They're monsters, pains in my ass. Glad Destiny and Tammy was there, I'd probably have been dead by then, along with everybody else. They'd have killed me and then each other.
        I went back to Rawhide. "That didn't take long," Destiny said, unharnessing. "And is gravity less?"
        "Yeah."
        "The droppers won't like it."
        "They wouldn't much care for pirates, either," I said. "Pirates would make them slaves if they could live long enough without drops. There's pirates chasing some other poor son of a bitch who they think is me. He's hauling ass and they're hauling ass and me slowing down helps us. When I see a battle I'll haul ass. I masered Bill, he's behind us, hope he can get around."
        And right then Bill answered. "What should we do, old buddy? I'm on batteries! The best I can do is a quarter gravity."
        "Arm all your shit and we'll try to sneak past when they're attacking that other company's boat."
        Bill had seen me in action and was probably grinning right then; he was too far for video, at least with our equipment. "Poor pirates!" he said.
        "Fuck all them God damned pirates," I growled. God damned sons of bitches. I hate pirates.
        My holo showed more EMF; a battle. "Hit it, Bill," I said. "I'll follow."
        "Roger."
        Destiny asked how long it would take.
        "I don't know," I said. "You need to strap back down." I kissed her and went back to the pilot room.
        I gradually increased power while Bill gave his boat all it had, which wasn't much, being on batteries and all. We were doing maybe point two gravities, if that. I followed. I saw, thankfully, that they were still battling the boat they thought was mine and I almost kind of felt sorry for the poor bastard the pirates were after because they thought he was me.
        Lucky pirates. For now. I was pissed and I hate pirates anyway. Yeah, getting pissed is unprofessional but professionals went to college and I ain't, so fuck you, I'm retiring anyway. Now shut the fuck up before I just walk out of here, there ain't nothing you can do to me.
        Yeah, asshole? Prove it.
        Okay, I accept your fucking apology. Now shut the fuck up and let me finish this God damned thing so I can go buy a ring for Destiny. Where was I?
        Oh yeah, me and Bill was trying to sneak past the God damned pirates and get to Mars alive. Anyway, I told everybody it was safe to unstrap. It was all right for quite a few hours, but they must have finally boarded that other company's boat, and no doubt killed its Captain and commandeered his ship for their own use. Poor bastard, I felt sorry for him.
        It looked like me and Bill was okay, at least for now. I went back to Destiny and my movie.
        Huh? Christ, guys, what does it matter? It was a show about driving cattle across the ancient American west. And God damn it, I'm hungry and I'm getting some God damned lunch. Excuse me.
        What? You're all hungry, too? Well, okay, a hamburger and brogs and a glass of Shike will do for me. Yeah, with caffeine. Thanks.
        I put a plug in my ear to hear the pirate traffic without bothering Destiny and still be able to hear the show myself. Huh? Really? You never heard of it before? Jees, guys, a lot of the greats that shaped culture for well over half a century had a hand in it. The art form was in its infancy then, barely half a century old. Go watch it, there's a series of 'em, just pull the library up on your tablet, it's there. I guess Destiny's wearing off on me, she's big on movie history. Actually, she likes history, period.
        Anyway, when that was over Destiny put a really silly one on, an old two dimensional movie that was hilarious. I don't think I ever laughed at puns before. I don't remember the movie's name, sorry, but there was one place where a woman wearing a dress is on a ladder with a man looking up saying "nice beaver." She says "Thanks, I just had it stuffed!" and then hands the guy a stuffed animal, a beaver a taxidermist had worked on. I laughed my ass off all the way through -- at least, until the pirates realized they'd boarded the wrong boat and knew I was still alive.
        Shit. I'd hoped they'd been fooled. They must not have been. I wonder how they figured it out.
        They knew I was alive, wanted me dead, and had an extra ship, full of whatever cargo the boat was carrying. I hoped it wasn't weapons. I'm glad it wasn't one of ours, not just because I work for the company but because we have the best boats and especially the best weapons. Guys from the other companies are always bitching about their crappy boats and especially about their crappy weapons, but they get paid better than we do and they say the robots on their boats make okay coffee.
        At the rate they were traveling they'd catch up to us in maybe twelve hours. We were in trouble. I was in for some serious trouble, because if I lived through this I was going to be in some deep trouble with the company because of what I had in mind.
        I got back on the PA. "I'm sorry, ladies, but everyone is confined to quarters because of an emergency that's come up. You will need to strap down again at seven forty five tomorrow morning, I'll let you know over the PA when we need to strap down. If you get hungry, call the computer and it will send food to you."
        The doorbell rang, it was Tammy. "John, I have to be able to treat the droppers," she said.
        "You're not confined, that's just to help keep them under control until we can speed back up. Just pretend you sneaked out or something. Have a robot deliver drops if you can."
        "What's the emergency?" she asked.
        "I can't talk about it right now."
        "Okay, I'll adjust the dosage so they'll sleep through most of the low gravity," she said, and left.
        We watched the end of the movie but I didn't laugh much after that. It was still early but I was going to need a good night's sleep.

The last several chapters are the latest chapters written, with the exception of the book's final two chapters, so they're pretty short. Most of the rest have been pretty heavily edited already; edits usually add words. I keep track of progress by recording a daily word count, when it gets to single digits or below I'll just count changes.

The username/email conundrum

Much as the "Teflon" Tim Pawlenty was the apparent pinnacle of non-stickiness, his campaign just didn't make it.

So now, from neighboring (don't forget, Iowa does border Wisconsin) Wisconsin, we have Scott "Kevlar" Walker. Truly bulletproof after dodging a recall attempt, he has all the favorite traits of a GOP / Koch Brothers Party candidate:

• Proven and repeat animosity towards the working class
• Blatant disregard for the most populous city in his state (where the most non-wealthy people live) (hint, look for how many times his 2014 state of the state address mentions it by name)
• contempt towards public transportation
• Hatred towards Washington DC
• • With some added bonuses!
• Previous track record of electoral shenanigans
• Campaign videos that demonize a business that was started in his home state, by a family from his home state

I expect the Koch Brothers would send him money by the train car load, if the train tracks were maintained in his state. Maybe they could send it by executive jet instead (after all they couldn't have unionized parcel handlers helping move it...)