Friday 25 April 2025 10:15:54 PM CST





Monday 21 April 2025 10:39:02 PM CST

The first album by the Alan Parsons Project from 1976. The Cask of Amontillado is one of the Edgar Allan Poe stories honored therein. The humorous Dr. Tarr and Professer Fether is there but a darker humor is present in TCOA. For those who don't remember the opening the narrator says "The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge." Which is to say that in the case of Montresor adding insult to injury was decidedly bad judgment. The Raven and The Tell-Tale Heart (definitely of the most disturbing of Poe's tales) are included and most side two is home to 15-minute orchestral piece entitled The Fall of the House of Usher.

One of the scariest of Robert McCammon's books was Usher's Passing but They Thirst was pretty scary too. Swan Song was somewhat like Stephen King's The Stand being huge and a post-apocaliptic setting. I liked Swan Song better but King was always hit and miss with me and eventually it was all miss. I'll cut him some slack for The Shawshank Redemption and The Long Walk but TLW was so disturbing I only read it once.

McCammon mostly stopped writing horror and I didn't read him for year until he started the Matthew Corbett series. Matthew Corbett is kind of 18th century James Bond and gets into some pretty strange adventures. He even has a Moriarty-like nemesis and gets into jams witn nasty villains like Bond does. Hot chicks not so much but there probably won't be any Matt Corbett movies.

Wynne Progress said the Wynne guy arrested in Jonestown for shooting a female juvenile in Brinkley was a fatal shooting but the others are sayin' it was non-fatal. He's only charged with terroristic acting and not any kind of homicide as would be the case if the shootee perisned.



A better question is what is anybody going to do about it when the President doesn't obey the court orders? We're talkin SCOTUS here as no other court has any authority over the president. President Trump could have just ignored those bozos from the beginning but he for now is obeying the forms no matter that the forms don't apply. He may at some point just have to ignore the court and they still can't do anything. I belive the independent counsel they used on Nixon and Reagan and Bush is defunct now and if they get an indictment or something who's gonna arrest him?

If President Trump calmly stating what anyone with half a brain can see - that Powell is a tool of the former regime and will do anything in his power to harm efforts at reform is a 'blistering attack' well... whatever. And he didn't call for his termination.

I'm good with Hollywood becoming completely irrelevant. Aside from the self-inflicted damage technology and societal changes have washing away the sand it was built on for decades now.

Dunno where I am on doing away with the Post Office. It's a helluva mess for sure and like all government operations wasteful and incompetent and corrupt. Don't see for sure any way to just do away with it right off - maybe do a DOGE audit and cut the waste and unnecessary personnel and go to three days a week delivery. People that have to use certified mail for legal purposes would still get it delivered and signed for. I don't get as much junk as I used to but there still quite a bit so the cost ain't that bad yet.












Tuesday 22 April 2025 10:52:12 PM CST

Way they wrote this I can't tell if they were her checks or checks on city bank accounts. If a 10K check goes through one of my accounts and I didn't write it I'll know pretty quick. Don't know why a city council member would be writing official checks though. Fun fact - banks haven't checked signatures on checks in years. Back in the day they were all filed by bookkeepers and they were supposed to check but probably twenty or more years ago the checks just get scanned and shredded or burned after a while. Somebody sez a check wasn't theirs they invstigate. Need more formation.

What, Chris?

Actually I don't care. It's Parkin. Or Earle. Lemme check. I believe it was Parkin where the mayor said they got a food desert, or was it Earle? One of the other I'm pretty sure.

I may have addressed this but don't remember just now. How the Wynne paper said it was a fatal shooting but the other news folks said it wasn't.



I read Michael Moorcock's The Ice Schooner again the other day. Actually I dug it out of the library because I remembered I liked the cover. It's a Boris from the late 1980s. Boris remains one of my favorite artists after a lot of new ones have entered that market. This one intrigued me - the hot chick barefoot on the ice. And not wearing much of anything else anywhere but in fantasy art that's to be expected. That's the Dell edition about 1978 or so. I probably picked it up in a bookstore on an Air Force base or maybe off-base in the UK. Used to go up to London almost every other weekend and just a few miles away from the base was Ipswich, a city of about 100K as I remember.

Reading it again after all these years you see he wasn't at his best yet but it's pretty good. Post-apocalyptic world covered with ice and Vikings in ships on skis. Don't let the blurb fool you - it wasn't a banker convention. Talk about lust - alcohol-accelerated. Been to a few of those. Just some hanky-panky with a couple of the main characters.

Anyhow it's a fun read, part of a trilogy of which I don't seem to have the other two parts. Not his best but not his worst by any means - the Martian ones were among the worst but after Burroughs what do you do? I would guess it was a tribute to someone he admired rather than something to make a buck.


No, getting married or changing our last name or your whole name or any part thereof has nothing to do with proving you are a citizen. Still it's good to see the extreme desperation of the Enemy.

I never heard of anyone wanting to start a new country got get away from 'corporate regulation'. What is corporate regulation anyway? Other than the government regulations bought and paid for by corporations by buying the congress-critters to vote for them. The reason people look for somewhere to go do a new country is to get away from government regulations.

Only if they make her a tranny POC.

What, Chris?

Person of color. No I didn't say POS but come to think of it....












Wednesday 23 April 2025 10:23:43 PM CST

For my money never having any more executions would be good - much as some people deserve it - if you could guarantee them being locked up for life and never get out. Too many innocent people have been executed for the relatiely small number of executions. But then you got them that deserve it so much it seems wrong not to give it to them.

Pope died before I got around to this. It seems VP Vance is a devout Catholic and also the vice-president and keeps things nice. The pope was one of the worst ever for hypocrisy sitting in his own private little country with walls around it telling people they need to let millions upon millions of parasites - disease carriers and rapist/robber/murders come in and let them stay here and feed them. Now a bunch of old men gonna go in a room and decide on another old man to run the show. What they'll choose seeing the winds of change blowing I have no idea. I suspect that a lot of stuff that went on before ain't going to much longer both here in the U.S.A. and other places. Italy being one of the other places.


Sorry, get rid of that 36 trillion in debt that will soon be 37 trillion and put a handful of trillions in reserve and all you nonprofit people work free as in no pay. I'm working and paying taxes and the money is being blown on outfits like yours. BTW in your case those people shouldn't even be in the country.
BOSTON (AP) -- Looking to cut pollution from its fleet of diesel-burning school buses, an Oklahoma school district last year doubled its electric vehicles. The Shawnee Public Schools, a 3,300-student district about 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Oklahoma City in a county that voted overwhelmingly for President Donald Trump, figured the nearly $1.5 million for the four buses would be reimbursed through an Environmental Protection Agency program. The agency, under President Joe Biden, had promised to do just that last year with money from a massive infrastructure law passed by Congress.

Associated Press
Yeah, that's what I read. 1.5 million for four buses. That'd be about... lessee... $375,000 per big yellow electric school bus. And who doesn't love big yellow electric school buses at 375K a pop. As for the school district I expected better from Oklahoma.

How about that, we may already be in a recession. Back when we were they continually redefined recession. During the last year of the Bush 41 administration was doing decent polls-wise. Bush 41 was a globalist tool but why have a compromised Republican when you can have a Democrat that's 100% reliable? The last year the economy was pretty decent as the Reagan effect was still in effect but the news every day became "the ecnonomy is good but people are worried" and "well it's still pretty good but there are signs of trouble ahead" and so on and so and by September you had some negative growth numbers. Just when they were needed and if the were revised upward after the election nevermind it worked. Not that Bush didn't screw the pooch six ways from Sunday but it still took a campaign of lies to get him down to the point where Ross Perot and Slick Willie could beat him.












Thursday 24 April 2025 09:11:23 PM CST

I didn't know this place existed. I do now because this. Be interesting to know the revenue sources and what the operators and emloyees are being paid. These should be thoroughly scrutinized by the appropriate agencies, those entrusted with the welfare of children more so. Looks like they in business under a year.

A rare piece of opinion from the sane side in the Jonestown paper. Dunno if it's intentional or not - they still run a Cal Thomas piece now and then. The Heritage Foundation is one of the most hated by the commies.












Friday 25 April 2025 10:22:53 PM CST

Starting the third sequel to Aztec. The pope guy dyin' the other day kinda fits as this one looks to deal with the Inquisition. It was goin' on already when Cortez came over the narrator of Aztec got burnt at the stake under Inquisition law. This is about the time when Napoleon is about to come into Spain and if he didn't do any other good he shut down the torturin' and killin' and stuff for a while. Goya's Ghosts is an interesting movie about that time. It came back for a while after him but they finally stopped it. Actually it existed up until the 1960s or so, proscribing books and such.

Why pope dyin' reminded me of that horrible time - especially in Spain where it was probably the worst - I dunno. Pretty soon a bunch of old men gonna get together in a room and choose another old man to be the new CEO. Why don't they somehow just automagically know who it is?

I may or many not have remarked at some time or other that the first time I read Aztec with the author being so hard on the RC Church and not bashing the Aztecs he was anti-Catholic. Lot of people are. But as the sequels go along he observes that there good people and bad people and such of all kinds, whatever country or religion they grew up in.

Some people ain't very smart. Personally I'd hate to have my picture in the news and a description of me doin' something embarrassing I wouldn't do it. And buying a tool to commit a crime and then going straight off and doin' the crime...

Fixing Memphis may not happen for a while yet. And it ain't just the schools. Memphis needs cleaning up in the worst kind of way. It's one pool of corruption in a big state and the people have to have the courage to do what needs to be done. Yeah, people be screaming racism but they're gonna do that anyway. Put some of them in prison and maybe the others will settle down for a while. I try to say that like I believe it.


Well maybe, or not. We can always count on what's left of the state-run media to tell us there's one. Like bird flu and monkeypox. No Plandemics though. To be sure the Fed needs to go away but whether the Supreme Court will do anything about I would guess not. President Trump is doing pretty well and dismantling things like the Department of Education and while the current fed boss is doing what he can to sabotage the economy it isn't having much effect. Climate change and all. Okey-dokey.


























































By the last breath of the four winds that blow I'll have revenge upon Fortunato Smile in his face I'll say "come let us go I've a cask of Amontillado"

What else? Pack of smokes, the gold tips. Might want to burn one of those before leaving. The two regular phones and a couple of throwaways. Commpad. Probably forgetting something but time to go. Scotty is a 1975 Chevy Scottsdale pickup, a lower trim level back then. Dad bought three of them, one for himself and one for Roger and one for the foreman. He bought a Caprice for Mom and a Camaro for kid sister Callie. Five or more got you a good deal buying and insuring. Thinking of Caroline still hurt. Mom too but it happens to some of us, Mom not yet fifty there some kinds of cancer they hadn't figured out much. But Callie wasn't even thirty when a drunk came out of the Number One Club outside of Hornerville at exactly the wrong time. It was easy to hate the drunk and be glad he died too but doesn't do anything for the pain. Lot of darkness in my life before I signed on for this. Maybe it's why I did. Time to go. Grab the bag and lock up. Call Angie. "Hi lover, what's up?" "Not something you'll like. I know I don't." "Charlie?" "Yep." Silence. She understands, maybe better than I do. Almost a mile from the house he turned onto 356 West. Road wet so take it easy. Open the Commpad and check things, looks like a Dragonfly almost overhead. Blip behind could be anything but probably a chopper. Incoming call. Tap the answer button. "That you Roger? If it isn't somebody stole your truck." "Ginger? What you doing up there?" "I'm on loan. Your guardian angel - Charlie wants to be sure you arrive safely." "What's up? Never mind, people listening." "We're yellow," Ginger replied. "Just be extra alert. Anything coming at you I'll see before it sees me. Behind you too but watch your mirrors." "Got it. Buy you a drink first chance I get." "Deal. Stay safe. The Dragonfly was similar to the old Cessna military aircraft it was named for. A little bigger and with a .50 cal in the nose instead of the minigun in the original. The newer aircraft was more efficient and could stay up longer. Yellow? What'd I miss? Yellow meant the perimeter had been breached and the breacher or breachers were unaccounted for. "Bill doesn't. He visits occasionally and I see him at conferences. The main thing is Delta Citadel. Bill had two platoons - one of Ninjas and one Rangers. We have twelve of each so far - twelve Ninja/Ranger pairs. We have - at any given time - about two hundred candidates preparing for integration into a new platoon. Only about one in five or six makes it." "Twelve units of two hundred? Half Ninjas and half Rangers?" "That's the configuration. It takes time to assemble the units and fine-tune them but the results are worth it." "Results? Anything I've heard about?" "Sigma Seven?" That was a pretty impressive piece of work. "OK, got it," Roger said. "Why is their ops center so close to the perimeter?" "That is something you don't need to know," Charlie replied. What the fuck? Charlie grinned and got up. "Want some coffee?" "I could use some." A serving cart arrived at the door. Young man and woman in their twenties who could have been siblings. They pushed the cart into the room and parked it near the long counter that ran across the back or the room. "Ginger will be here in a few minutes," the woman said. "Anything else we can get for you?" "Looks good," Charlie replied. "Thanks, I'll holler if I need something." Roger put a slice of toast and a couple of sausage links on a plate and poured a cup of coffee. After thinking about it for a couple he seconds he added what was probably supposed to be a blueberry muffin. He sat down and ate some of each as Charlie brought a plate. Everything was top drawer as usual. "What you don't need to know," Charlie said, "and do now is that we flat screwed up. Should have put it over on the ridge. But at the time we didn't figure on it getting so big. Or so important. So we got it locked down good and watch it good. The intruders either weren't after if or didn't know where it was. They're down in the lowlands at Brushy Lake. We're observing them to see what they're up to." Roger looked up as movement in his peripheral vision alerted him. Ginger Barrett still in her flight suit. Plain olive - no insignia of any kind. She ran right over as soon as she landed. Ginger leaned on casually on the doorframe, sunglasses pushed back on top of her head. Dirty blonde hair rumpled. Cool almost smile. Not falling for it kid. Known you too long. He got up and she came towards him, putting her arms around his neck. No kiss though - Ginger adored him, probably asked for the assignment - but.... "Good to see you again," she said. "How's Angie?" "Good as can be. Not any happier than I am but we gotta do what we gotta do." "I feel guilty," Ginger said. "Enjoying it so much. But it keeps my mind off other things." "I understand. Glad you're here. You in for the whole op?" Look at Charlie. "Ginger is part of the team," said Charlie. "I asked for her - Mantis didn't want to lose her for even a few weeks but Jackson was reasonable and I didn't have to pull rank." Weeks? I don't like. "We have an interest," Charlie said. "It's pretty important. They were Dead-Enders, part of the Red Wolves outfit." "Bunch of terminally ill guys on suicide missions? What happened - some of them not die?" "Pretty much. Three of them had cancer and the other had cirrhosis and was just a step away from going into hospice. They had enough energy to take on a job - Mansville as you may recall - but they were burned and all captured." "That was over a year ago," Roger said. Charlie grinned. "Yep. And when they found out who they were they just locked them up and didn't give them any medical care. Probably to let them die an unpleasant death. Only that didn't happen - after about six or seven months they were feeling better than ever and they did tests and the cancer was in remission, actually shrinking. And the liver in the guy was repairing itself." "Livers will do that," Roger said. "Cancer I don't know about." "Nah, like I said this guy was about gone. And they have their version of Doctor Mengele there - several actually - that like to experiment. They've been harvesting blood and tissue from these guys and sending it out to labs where they do tests and experiments, trying to see if there's something there they can use." "It seems," Roger said, "that some people on our side might be interested. I can see why we'd want them back." "You could say they won the lottery," Charlie replied. "But they deserve a chance, whether or not they can help us any other way. And if they're likely to recover we'd like for them to not be in prison." "So we break in and get these guys out and bring them back here?"

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Phantasm Lord of the Dead 1 hour ago Since none have taken effect thus far who knows? When I go to Dollar Tree and all the buck-twenty-five items are a buck-fifty I'll believe it has taken effect. Why don't they wait and see? You play a good game, boy, but the game is finished. Now you die. Reply 1G Civil Whites 1 hour ago Why do that? Take the cheap shot now on what might happen and by the time it doesn't there's something new. I Would Rather Be Governed By the First 2,000 People in the Telephone Directory than by the Harvard University Faculty. — William F. Buckley Jr. Reply 994 [-) Jessica Atreides Marshall + hour ago They're lining up to cut deals now. China may soon find itself in a bad spot - they've got problems that will be exacerbated by anything that slows income from exports. They seem to be running scared now but their tough talk falls flat when you look at the big picture. We have entered the time when all will turn against us and seek our lives. Reply +8 C+ [ - Tarl Cabot 1 hour ago China is in the worst position. Like the rest of the world they went on thinking things would never change and Americans would roll over and be expoloited by their own forever. Trump is seriously disrupting things and no one knows how to deal with it. When the law no longer protects you from the corrupt, but protects the corrupt from you - you know your nation is doomed. ~ Ayn Rand Reply 44+ Count Smiorgan 1 hour ago The eye that looks ahead to the safe course is closed forever. - Paul Atreides. No one saw Trump coming and none have any idea how to deal with it. Political cartoonists least of all. America is at that awkward stage; it's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards. (Claire Wolfe) Reply +2G[-)