I was scared shitless; the CEO had called me into his office. Jesus, the fucking CEO! Why would a CEO want a lowly boat captain to talk to him? Yeah, centuries ago ship captains were really important guys, but that was back when they needed crews. I was a glorified bus driver and babysitter.
I liked hauling passengers because at least I'd have somebody to talk to. It takes a long time to get from planet to planet, and it's usually a boring trip. They pay pretty damned good, too â" cargo boats don't need babysitters.
Jesus! The CEO! I was shaking as I walked into his office. If I was going to get fired for that little incident on Vesta my chief would have sacked me.
"Have a seat, Mister Knolls. Coffee?"
"Uh," I said, "Uh, thank you, sir." I fidgeted in my chair. His assistant gave me a cup.
"Knolls, your supervisor told me all about Vesta."
I almost pissed my pants. Shit, they were going to sue me.
"That was some damned good work, Knolls."
My head kind of exploded. "Sir? Two men died!"
"Yes, Mister Knolls, but you saved ten million dollars in equipment and the wrongful death suits were only a million each. God damned good work!"
"Uh, thank you, sir," I said, wondering how damned evil this man could be.
"I have a new assignment for you," he said. "Your supervisor told me you didn't like cargo runs, but this time you'll have someone to talk to."
My head kind of stopped working right then.
"This assignment is important. You're the man for this job and we're giving you a fifty percent raise."
"Uh, sir, uh, what's my cargo and where am I taking it?"
The CEO smiled. "Women. You're to transport two hundred woman to Mars."
"Women?" I asked, my brain still not working properly.
"Whores, Knolls."
Taking a couple hundred whores to Mars? Wow.
"So, Knoll, are you taking the assignment?"
What could I say? Of course, not ever having met any whores I had no idea how much of a pain in the ass it would be or that I would regret my decision. "Yes, sir, how could I not? Of course! When do I leave?"
I wish my brain would have been working. God, what a mistake.
Yes, I finished "Nobots". I've registered the copyright but I misunderstood ISBN. I could have sworn I got ISBNs with my software patents but a different body issues those, $125 for one or $250 for ten.
I just put a new phone on my Visa card and they charged me for two (I'll have to return one) and I'm trying to keep my balance low so my number will go up so I'm waiting for the next bill before I get an ISBN for it. It won't be long. The finished product is a hell of a lot better than what's at slashdot, and twice as long.
So I'm working on a new one. I plan on recycling some old journals, even ancient sm62704 journals for it.
Nobots has taken four years, this won't, partly because I'm retiring in six months and will have time to write.
"...who can keep his mouth shut and I'll eat him."
-- Newspaperman in Frank Capra's Meet John Doe
We have to create a situation in which it becomes in their interest to participate in a larger, international initiative to define the rules of the game and the solutions for the current problems which go beyond Syria; that is to say the overall potentially explosive state of the Middle East."
--- Zbigniew Brzezinski 01 September 2013 ~ 10AM ET - [link to transcripts.cnn.com]
Believe it or not, that's an LA Times headline.
It's grammatical but not exactly accurate.
Whatever happens, this much is clear: We`re no longer talking about the IRS targeting tea party groups, the Justice Department tapping reporters` phone lines, the NSA`s surveillance programs, Benghazi. The president has smartly changed the subject to the most important decision a commander in chief makes: war.
8/30/2013ÂÂ-ÂÂFriday
7:30 am On FedEx vehicle for delivery LAKE ORION, MI
5:33 am Arrived at FedEx location LAKE ORION, MI
5:31 am At local FedEx facility LAKE ORION, MI
2:39 am Arrived at FedEx location PERRYSBURG, OH
Â-Â
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8/29/2013ÂÂ-ÂÂThursday
9:40 pm Departed FedEx location INDEPENDENCE, KY
4:19 pm Arrived at FedEx location INDEPENDENCE, KY
2:59 pm Shipment information sent to FedEx
11:11 am Picked up LEBANON, OH
Yeah, i know, i know. But i still am amazed at Kentucky being on the way from Ohio to Michigan and the package's ability to be at Lake Orion before arriving there. My condolences to the dear departed location in Independence, Kentucky. And, i am amazed that it's about to be here, in just a day. It took the company, seemingly, longer than that to tell FedEx about it!
And then i get my hammocks.
Final note, JEs are as bad as they used to be. Can't see the source and the preview at the same time?! Guess the morons^H^H^H^H^H^H who design these things, refuse to admit their absolute stupidity of removing functional parts of websites that have been there for years.
I hate everybody.
Listen to Hugh Hewitt asks a simple question, and Little Karen just can't hang. Bwahahahaha.
You listen to hear lies of commission, omission and unexamined false-assumption.
The question is then not what "sides" are represented in any story, but who's lie, for what purpose.
It's pretty easy. About 85% of the time it is Dept of State or US Army.
Daladier, a classic leftist politician of the era, became Prime Minister three times. French politics were rough and tumble, with alliances made and dissolved, and little attention paid to foreign policy. There was a general refusal to acknowledge that Germany was re-arming and preparing for another round. Daladier was a voice in the wilderness. He saw the threat coming from Germany and became particularly alarmed by the Nazi-Soviet Pact. Unlike many others of his time, and today, he understood that Communists and Nazis comprised two sides of the same totalitarian coin. Daladier became PM for the last time in April 1938. By this time, the West's appeasement policies towards Hitler were firmly set. Daladier desperately tried to convince Britain's Neville Chamberlain to take a firmer stance against Hitler. Chamberlain would have none of it, and France's parlous military state prevented Daladier from striking out on his own. Chamberlain had decided to yield to Hitler's demand for the Sudetenland, and to the effective dismemberment of Czechoslovakia. Daladier argued against this, but found himself helpless to do anything but go along. To his life-long shame, Daladier became a signer of the September 1938 Munich Agreement, the now universally recognized monument to appeasement. Heading back home from Munich, Daladier assumed angry French patriots would rip him to shreds. He, instead, got a hero's welcome. Enthusiastic crowds sang his praises, prompting him to turn to an aide, and utter the famous, bitter, and prophetic words, "Ah, the fools! Why are they cheering?"
. .
I have written before about the Obama foreign policy (here, here, and here, for example). We are firmly in the grip of an appeaser, perhaps even worse. Other countries have begun to see that quite clearly.
All I can say is that I've worked harder to restore sanity to our system the last five years than in the preceding 20. Too, you can't wholly blame Obama; the structural drivers precede #OccupyResolutDesk. Nevertheless, he'll be the one to run us aground. So, brace for shock and stand by for a rough one.
"A car is just a big purse on wheels." -- Johanna Reynolds
