Reading, Spring 2019.

The Comedians: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels, and the History of American Comedy by Kliph Nesteroff

Yourdrum by Kevin Stock

The Rescue (Ryan Decker Book 1) by Steven Konkoly

Obvious Adams: The Story of a Successful Businessman by Robert Updegraff

Destroy the Opposition: Programming for Powerlifting by Jamie Lewis

Sleep Like a Lion: How to Go From Average Sleep to Awesome Sleep with a Scientifically-Proven System of Sleep Tips, Tactics and Routines by Paul French

The Soul of a Chef: The Journey Toward Perfection by Michael Ruhlman

ALPHA: A Black Flagged Thriller (The Black Flagged Series Book 1) by Steven Konkoly

Monster Hunter International (Monster Hunters International Book 1) by Larry Correia

Monster Hunter Vendetta (Monster Hunters International Book 2) by Larry Correia

Monster Hunter Alpha (Monster Hunters International Book 3) by Larry Correia

Monster Hunter Legion (Monster Hunters International Book 4) by Larry Correia

Monster Hunter Nemesis (Monster Hunters International Book 5) by Larry Correia

Monster Hunter Siege (Monster Hunters International Book 6) by Larry Correia

-----

The Wild Storm Vol. 3 Paperback by Warren Ellis, John Davis-Hunt

Atomic Robo Presents Real Science Adventures: The Flying She-Devils in Raid on Marauder Island by Brian Clevinger, Lo Baker, Wook Jin Clark

Atomic Robo Presents Real Science Adventures: The Nicodemus Job by Brian Clevinger, Meredith McClaren

Atomic Robo and the Spectre of Tomorrow by Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener

Atomic Robo: Real Science Adventures Volume 1 TP by Brian Clevinger, John Broglia, Ryan Cody, Scott Wegener, Jeff Powell

Kill or Be Killed Volume 1-4 by Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, Elizabeth Breitweiser

Shazam!: Origins by Geoff Johns, Gary Frank

Batman vs. Deathstroke by Christopher Priest, Diogenes Neves

Deathstroke Vol. 3-5 by Christopher Priest, Joe Bennett, Carlo Pagulayan, Diogenes Neves

Titans: The Lazarus Contract by Christopher Priest, Dan Abnett, Brett Booth

#thestruggle

Reading - Winter 18/19

Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator by Ryan Holiday

What Remains by Ry Beville

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman

The Killer Collective by Barry Eisler

Out of the Dark: An Orphan X Novel by Gregg Hurwitz

Gun Machine by Warren Ellis

How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It by Mark Cuban

Normal: A Novel by Warren Ellis

Super Villains of Persuasion by Ben Settle

Dead Pig Collector by Warren Ellis

Persuasion Secrets of the World’s Most Charismatic & Influential Villains by Ben Settle

Elektrograd: Rusted Blood by Warren Ellis

The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need by Daniel H. Pink and Rob Ten Pas 

(1. There is no plan. 2. Think strengths, not weaknesses. 3. It’s not about you. 4. Persistence trumps talent. 5. Make excellent mistakes. 6. Leave an imprint.)

--

Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year Two - The Complete Collection by Tom Taylor, Bruno Redondo, Mike Miller

Injustice: Gods Among Us Year Three - The Complete Collection by Tom Taylor, Brian Buccellato, Bruno Redondo, Mike S. Miller

Wolverine: Old Man Logan Vol. 9: The Hunter And The Hunted by Ed Brisson, Francesco Manna, Juan Ferreyra, Mike Deodato

The Wild Storm: Michael Cray Vol. 2 by Bryan Hill, Stephen N. Harris, Dexter Vines

Jimmy's Bastards TPB Vol. 1: Trigger Warning by Garth Ennis, Mike Marts, Russ Braun

Jimmy's Bastards Vol. 2: What Did You Just Say by Garth Ennis and Russ Braun

Indeh: A Story of the Apache Wars Kindle Edition by Ethan Hawke, Greg Ruth

Uber Volume 6 Invasion by Kieron Gillen, Daniel Gete

Batman: The Rebirth Deluxe Edition Book 1 Hardcover by Tom King, David Finch , Mikel Janin

Mister Miracle Paperback by Tom King, Mitch Gerads

...

"Reductionism is misleading and lends itself easily to fear-mongers and fanatics on either side of the political spectrum."

Islam vs. Islamism: Why the Distinction Still Matters – Areo Magazine: "Pew Research Center surveys of Muslims from 39 different countries show that beliefs are largely determined geographically. This means that in countries like Pakistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan, people overwhelmingly support sharia law — 84, 91, and 99% respectively– whereas in the secular, ex-USSR countries of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, only 8 and 10%, respectively, favor its implementation. Even so, Muslim communities in Britain hold convictions that contrast deeply with the rest of the population. When asked, for example, whether homosexuality should be legal in Britain, 52% of Muslims said they disagreed, compared with 5% of the general public. Almost one third of those interviewed thought it acceptable for a Muslim man to practice polygamy, compared to 8%, and nearly 40% agreed wives should be submissive to their husbands, compared to only 5% of the rest of the population. In this case, religion, rather than geography, decided belief...

Trevor Philips, former head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, noticed a correlation between a lack of willingness to assimilate, and sympathy with terrorists: “One in six Muslims say they would like to live more separately, a quarter would like to live under sharia law. It means that as a society we have a group of people who basically do not want to participate in the way that other people [do].” Citing this worrying find, he stressed the urgency of integration and the danger in sacrificing disagreement for the sake of being non-confrontational: “We are more nervous about Muslims because we feel people will be offended. But my view is that looking at the results of this survey…we have gone beyond the situation where we can say: ‘OK, don’t worry; they will come round in time.’ ”

It is precisely the concern that radical beliefs may not be the exclusive domain of radicals, however, that makes the distinction between Islam and Islamism so pertinent. While Daniel Pipes declares that Islamists are a minority, he acknowledges that they are a “very active minority” whose reach is “greater than its numbers. Islamists are also present here, in the United States, and, to a stunning extent, dominate the discourse of American Islam...

When looking at the book from which both the faithful and the militant draw their inspiration, it would be easy to obfuscate Islam and Islamism. But how much does the Quran matter when discussing the problem with radicalization? One could argue that to say all religions are equal is dishonest. Bill Maher, television host, writer, and unabashed critic of religious fundamentalism, often ridicules the hesitation to label Islamic terrorist as such. It’s safe to say they aren’t Amish, goes the joke. There’s the sentiment that honest debate regarding the Quran is being silenced in favor of political correctness: all religions are the same, Islam is as benign or malevolent as any other belief system, and terrorists are politically driven. As is most often the case, the truth lies somewhere in the middle, between the equally ridiculous arguments that attribute extremist inclinations to the poor, disenfranchised, and disillusioned — absolving religion of any responsibility — and those that make Islam out to be the root of all evil. Reductionism is misleading and lends itself easily to fear-mongers and fanatics on either side of the political spectrum...

The same responses that are fallacious in one context are legitimate in another, in so far as they are irrefutable facts. Organized Christianity did engage in forced conversions on indigenous peoples. It did carry out the Inquisition. It was responsible for the systematic persecution of heretics, — often Christians themselves who deviated only slightly from accepted dogma — and the brutal torture and execution of homosexuals, Jews, and women. Shall we separate these from the doctrines of Christianity? If the answer is yes, then we can plausibly do the same for other religions. But the answer is unequivocally no. The Bible certainly allows for these interpretations. And it’s a tired old trope saying communism wasn’t real communism, those weren’t real Christians, and terrorists can’t call themselves true Muslims. No one is buying the forced distancing of atrocities committed in the name of one ideology or another from their idealistic or cherry-picked versions. Westboro Baptists have all they need in the Bible to justify their hate. And we never shied away from identifying the problem when abortion doctors were being murdered...

Those who wish to identify as Muslims, especially for reasons of heritage and family tradition, must be offered the choice to interpret the Quran as a philosophical text, much like secular Christians who do not necessarily believe in the divine infallibility of the Bible but choose to follow Christ’s compassionate example. This would lead to a clear demarcation between church and state, private and public. The relationship with the divine would shift from public to private. The onus is on figures of authority, like imams, to instigate and encourage this interpretation. There is no place for the violent, primitive practices of the Bible and Quran in modern society, if there ever was a place for it in history. We all share a responsibility in decriminalizing criticism and skepticism. This is exactly why it is so crucial to distinguish between an ideology and individuals. If they are one and the same, we cannot criticize the former without appearing bigoted towards the latter. Though the lines may seem to blur, as in the tragic cases outlined in the previous paragraph, we must criticize the ideology that motivates individuals to abandon their humanity."

'"Extraordinary rendition"—where harsh interrogations are outsourced to foreign countries on behalf of U.S. intelligence—has never gone away."

Will Trump Really Bring Back CIA 'Black Sites'? Even If He Wants To, He Might Not Need To - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "Eli Lake raises an interesting point in a column for Bloomberg: Trump doesn't need to re-instate the practice of secret CIA prisons in foreign countries because "extraordinary rendition"—where harsh interrogations are outsourced to foreign countries on behalf of U.S. intelligence—has never gone away. Lake writes that Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama all relied on extraordinary rendition to various degrees, and although Obama ended the CIA black sites and forbade torture, he still had prisoners interrogated in "third-world" prisons...

Those partnerships will likely be the reason that Trump, despite his bluster, will not revive the CIA's black sites program. He simply doesn't need to. In a narrow sense, this will be a victory for human rights and the rule of law. But given the history of America's third-world allies in the war on terror, that victory is pyrrhic."

Down the rabbit hole. See also James Medina, Harlem Suarez & Rezwan Ferdaus.

FBI Introduced Florida Shooter to ‘Informants’: "New York Daily News in their article, “FBI spied on Orlando gay club terrorist Omar Mateen for 10 months in 2013: FBI Director James Comey,” would admit Mateen first appeared on authorities’ radar in 2013 after the security guard’s colleagues alerted the FBI to inflammatory statements he made to colleagues claiming “family connections to Al Qaeda,” according to Comey.  Mateen also told coworkers he had a family member who belonged to Hezbollah, a Shia network that is a bitter enemy of ISIS — the network he pledged allegiance to the night of the carnage, Comey noted. The FBI’s Miami office opened an inquiry into Mateen.  “He said he hoped that law enforcement would raid his apartment and assault his wife and child so he could martyr himself,” Comey said.  Nevertheless, FBI investigators investigated Mateen, who was born in New York, for 10 months. They introduced him to confidential informants, spied on his communications and followed him. They also interviewed him twice. 

The significance of this cannot be understated. “Informants” in this context, according to FBI affidavits regarding similar counterterrorism investigations, refers to individuals posing as members of terrorist organizations who approach suspects, coerce them into planning and preparing for terrorist attacks, before finally aiding the FBI in the suspect’s arrest before the attack is finally carried out. Among the activities these informants carry out includes providing and training suspects in the use of real explosives, providing suspects with arsenals of weapons precisely like those used in the recent shooting in Orlando Florida, and encouraging suspects to adopt “radical ideology” over the course of the investigation. Suspects are given the false impression that they are working on behalf of terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda or the self-proclaimed “Islamic State,” often cultivating delusions of grandeur among otherwise mentally ill suspects. 

The Intercept in its recent article, “Before Nightclub Shooting, FBI Pursued Questionable Florida “Terror” Suspects,” would note that the FBI’s Miami office who investigated Mateen, has been “among the bureau’s most active and aggressive counterterrorism units.” It would also report on the specifics of this unit’s activities: For more than a year ending in April — a time during which investigators will now be looking for any clues from Mateen that might have been missed — the FBI in Miami focused on a counterterrorism sting that targeted James Medina, a homeless man with mental problems. The Intercept would reveal that the FBI informant, not Medina, came up with the idea of crediting the planned attack to the “Islamic State.” In fact, upon reading the FBI’s affidavit, it is clear the FBI’s informant encouraged and walked Medina through every aspect of the planned attack, including providing him with what he thought was an explosive device.  Upon reading Medina’s incoherent conversations with various FBI informants, it is clear he possessed neither the mental or technical capacity on his own to perpetrate the attacks he was arrested for. 

The Intercept would continue: Nearly a year before Medina’s arrest, the FBI’s Miami office arrested another supposed terrorist, 23-year-old Cuban-American Harlem Suarez, also known as Almlak Benitez, whom former co-workers described as “a little slow.” The government alleged that Suarez conspired with an FBI informant to bomb a beach in Key West in support of the Islamic State. The FBI provided a fake backpack bomb. 

Finally, the Intercept would reveal (emphasis added): The Orlando shooting isn’t the first case to raise this question. In 2011, when the FBI investigated Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, agents did not deem him a threat. Instead, at about the same time, the Boston FBI started a nine-month sting operation against Rezwan Ferdaus, who had no weapons and no connections to international terrorists, and whose mental wellness had deteriorated so much that he was wearing adult diapers at the time of his arrest on terrorism charges. Rezwan Ferdaus, like Medina, was provided assistance by the FBI every step of the way, including being provided 24 lbs of C4 explosives, 6 fully automatic AK47 rifles, and 3 grenades – the FBI’s own affidavit reveals . He was brought deep into a fictional world where he believed he was working directly with Al Qaeda for nearly a year – told that “detonation devices” he constructed and passed on to FBI informants were “used” in Iraq to “kill” American soldiers."

"There is the seductive belief that if only we go "over there" to destroy ISIS, that the threat of homegrown radicalism will be solved."

"It will not."

How Not to Fight Islamic Terrorism - Reason.com: "If we make this attempt with renewed vigor as both candidates are calling for, the result will almost certainly be the increase in the threat of domestic terrorism, not its diminution. It's not hard to understand why. I have spent considerable time on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq over a 25-year period in both a military and civilian capacity. 

I can categorically state that short of a Nazi-like genocidal wiping out of entire populations, it is militarily impossible to go to these overseas locations and destroy the ideology of violent jihadism. 

Our attempts to do so since 2001 in Afghanistan, 2003 in Iraq, and the numerous places we've used special forces and drone strikes to kill Islamic radicals of various stripes since then has succeeded only in expanding the threat. Our efforts have been much like trying to put out an oil fire with water. It only makes the flames bigger. Longtime diplomat and Middle East expert, Chas Freeman, recently explanied that using military power in this way "radicalizes and creates volunteer recruits for our worst enemies. We need to halt this, not double down on it." 

...

You put out an oil fire by suffocating it. As painfully demonstrated by the San Bernardino attacks last December and the Orlando attacks last week, the threat of radicalized, domestic Islamic jihadism is real and growing. Instead of fighting the threat with means that will only spread its flames, we need to change course and deprive it of oxygen instead. 

First is to stop the bleeding and suspend policies based on the belief that the United States can impose a set of values and a political system of our preference on others alien to it. 

Second, we must do all we can diplomatically, politically, and economically to contain the fire of Islamic radicalism to where it currently burns. Working with allies, friends, and even competitors on areas of mutual benefit can help stop the spread by choking off funds, interdicting resupply chains, and blocking routes by which new radicals join the fight. 

Third, we need to stop making far more enemies than we ever eliminate by suspending the use of targeted killing and bombing terrorist targets from the air. This is the most controversial step because it seems counterintuitive to suggest that we can best battle terrorists by ceasing to bomb them. But overwhelming evidence confirms that such tactics are counterproductive and work against our interests. Instead of bombing, we would use the military to help contain terrorist organizations like ISIS where they currently exist, and then employ new, diplomatic measures that have a chance to undermine the terrorists..."

"If the concern is radical Islamist terrorism, gun control appears more ineffective than usual."

The cognitive dissonance is astounding.  Has Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson Forgotten About Paris or Kenya or the Second Amendment? - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "...countries with stricter gun control laws than in the U.S. are struggling to find something to do to keep guns out of the hands of terrorists too. In Europe, while it may be far harder for law-abiding residents to acquire legal firearms, terrorists are able to acquire actual "weapons of war," automatic weapons, that have are largely banned in the U.S. despite the misleading rhetoric used by the anti-gun left. Neither were tough gun laws able to stop the 2013 radical Islamist attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Kenya or the 2015 attack on Garissa University in Kenya or numerous other terrorist attacks around the world. 

If the concern is radical Islamist terrorism, gun control appears more ineffective than usual. It would also be interesting to know why the Obama administration didn't deploy this argument after the 2009 Fort Hood shooting or the 2015 San Bernardino shooting. The Fort Hood shooter was a member of the U.S. military, so could access legal firearms even if guns were otherwise banned in the U.S., while the San Bernardino shooter, also a government employee, acquired his weapons legally in a state, California, with some of the strictest anti-gun laws in the country. They make imperfect pretexts.

This too cute by half approach to categorizations of shootings for the purpose of specific agendas is fairly popular, and so the political arguments surrounding gun control can be frustrating. Definitions are constantly changing to fit narratives. The term "assault rifle," for example, which according to the U.S. Army and Oxford's English Dictionary is a rifle that has an automatic and semi-automatic setting, is used to refer to semi-automatic rifles like the AR-15, itself a brand that's become a metonym for a wide range of rifles. Automatic weapons have largely been banned in the U.S. since the 1930s. That doesn't stop even members of Congress with military backgrounds from lying about what kind of weapons are available legally in the U.S. There's also the rush to identify the shooter in order to deploy an appropriate narrative...

The definition of mass shootings also depends on the political agenda. If the target is rifles, then a narrower definition is used so that the rifle is overrepresented as the weapon of choice. If the target is guns generally, a broader definition is used to juice the mass shootings number...

As J.D. Tuccille noted in his column yesterday, law enforcement officials are starting to acknowledge the usefulness of gun rights in fighting terrorism aimed at "soft targets." Interpol's secretary general at the time the Nairobi terrorist attack happened, for example, said such attacks made "police around the world question their views on gun control." "You have to ask yourself, 'Is an armed citizenry more necessary now than it was in the past with an evolving threat of terrorism?' This is something that has to be discussed," he continued. That's the exact opposite tack the Homeland Security secretary is taking. The U.S. destabilized Iraq, helping to form ISIS, it has demanded more and more power for the federal government to snoop on us and people around the world, has dropped bombs in countless countries, helping to radicalize people abroad and at home. Now, after aggravating the terror threat they want to disarm the population they've put at risk."

Reading - Spring 2016.

Robert B. Parker's Slow Burn by Ace Atkins
Morning Star: Book III of The Red Rising Trilogy by Pierce Brown
The Getaway God: A Sandman Slim Novel by Richard Kadrey
Killing Pretty: A Sandman Slim Novel by Richard Kadrey
The Wild Diet by Abel James
How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life by Scott Adams
The Book of Lies by Brad Meltzer
In Fifty Years We'll All Be Chicks And Other Complaints from an Angry Middle-Aged White Guy by Adam Carolla 
Tough Sh*t: Life Advice from a Fat, Lazy Slob Who Did Good by Kevin Smith
Growing Up Gronk: A Family's Story of Raising Champions by Gordon Gronkowski
The God's Eye by Barry Eisler

Lazarus: The First Collection Hardcover & Lazarus: The Second Collection Hardcover by Greg Rucka and Michael Lark

Postal Volume 1 by Bryan Edward Hill, Matt Hawkins and Isaac Goodhart
The Multiversity, Deluxe Edition by Grant Morrison and various artists

"Mandela, president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, was on a US terror watch list until 2008."

Nelson Mandela: CIA tip-off led to 1962 Durban arrest - BBC News: "Nelson Mandela's arrest in 1962 came as a result of a tip-off from an agent of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), a report says. The revelations, made in the Sunday Times newspaper, are based on an interview with ex-CIA agent Donald Rickard shortly before he died. Mandela served 27 years in jail for resisting white minority rule before being released in 1990. He was subsequently elected as South Africa's first black president. Rickard, who died earlier this year, was never formally associated with the CIA but worked as a diplomat in South Africa before retiring in the late 70s.

Mandela, president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, was on a US terror watch list until 2008. Before that, along with other former ANC leaders, he was only able to visit the US with special permission from the secretary of state, because the ANC had been designated a terrorist organisation by the former apartheid government.  Mr Mandela needed special permission to enter the US until 2008 The bill scrapping the designation was introduced by Howard Berman, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, who promised to "wipe away" the "indignity". President Ronald Reagan had originally placed the ANC on the list in the 1980s."

"Which means we are all suspects. Even preschoolers."

4-Year-Old Boy Recommended for Counter-Terrorism Program After Saying 'Cooker Bomb' Instead of 'Cucumber' - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "A 4-year-old boy who mispronounced the word "cucumber" as "cooker bomb" so freaked out his pre-school teachers that they recommended him for a de-radicalization program. This happened in Britain, where nursery staff clearly couldn't keep a stiff upper lip when faced with all the horror that is a pre-schooler with pronunciation problems. 

In their defense, it wasn't just the way the boy garbled the name of the salad staple. He had also drawn a stick figure of a man cutting that vegetable with a giant knife. No wonder they wanted to ship him off to the counter-terrorism brigade! That's two counts against the radical little rugrat...  

So there you have it: If you look and act like a terrorist, naturally you become a suspect. But if you don't look or act like a terrorist—if, in fact, you look like a kid who's not about to win any awards for art or articulation—naturally you become a suspect, too. Which means we are all suspects. Even preschoolers."

Columbia, SC Killings: "NOW is the time to talk about WHITE SUPREMACY!!"

Attacks in Paris: "Don't talk about RELIGION!!"

I'd like to pretend I don't understand why, but it's all about facts not aligning with preconceived narratives and cognitive biases.  

"None of these “ISIS arrests” involved any actual members of ISIS, only members of the FBI... posing as such."

Propaganda and fear mongering.  Zero for 40 at Predicting Attacks: Why Do Media Still Take FBI Terror Warnings Seriously? — FAIR:

"The ominous FBI (or Department of Homeland Security) “terror warning” has become such a staple of the on-going, seemingly endless “war on terror” (d/b/a war on ISIS), we hardly even notice it anymore. Marked by a feedback loop of extremist propaganda, unverifiable claims about “online chatter” and fuzzy pronouncements issued by a neverending string of faceless Muslim bad guys, and given PR cover by FBI-contrived “terror plots,” the specter of the impending “attack” is part of a broader white noise of fear that never went away after 9/11. Indeed, the verbiage employed by the FBI in this latest warning —“we’re asking people to remain vigilant”—implies no actual change of the status quo, just an hysterical nudge to not let down our collective guard. There’s only one problem: These warnings never actually come to fruition. Not rarely, or almost never, but—by all accounts—never. No attacks, no arrests, no suspects at large."

Reading, June '15. "Maybe I’ll post a consumer review. “Brought product to surface of Mars. It stopped working. 0/10.”

Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football by Rich Cohen

The President's Shadow (The Culper Ring Series) by Brad Meltzer

The Martian: A Novel by Andy Weir

A Wanted Man (with bonus short story Deep Down) (Jack Reacher, Book 17) by Lee Child

Never Go Back (with bonus novella High Heat) (Jack Reacher, Book 18) by Lee Child

Personal (with bonus short story Not a Drill) (Jack Reacher, Book 19) by Lee Child

Captain America: Truth by Robert Morales & Kyle Baker

Jupiter's Legacy, Volume 1 by Mark Millar & Frank Quitely

The Marvels Project by Ed Brubaker & Steve Epting

Captain America: Man Out of Time by Mark Waid & Jorge Molina

The Delinquents by James Asmus, Fred Van Lente & Kano

Genius Volume 1 by Adam Freeman, Marc Bernardin & Afua Richardson

Batman: Earth One & Batman: Earth One Vol. 2 by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank

The President's Shadow

“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” —attributed to Mark Twain

“Do you know the real secret of how Presidents become Presidents?” Before I can answer, he explains, “It’s because they’re good at getting people to do things for them. In fact, they’re not just good at it. They’re maestros. Virtuosos. To get that title of President, you need thousands of people doing thousands of different things, all for your benefit. It’s a massive churning machine. And y’know what feeds that machine?” he asks. “People like you, Beecher. It’s fed with your life, and your family, and your reputation. Because when things go wrong…and they always go wrong…the President isn’t allowed to have that skunk smell around him. So when that happens, he doesn’t just replace you. He crumples you up, tosses you out back, and…chomp goes the woodchipper.” “You have a very graphic view of politics.” “A realistic view. You need to be smart here.”

It was a basic rule of life: Parents are full of promises; children are full of needs and longing. The perfect ingredients for disappointment.

We all have one body, with many versions of ourselves in it.

In life, the most complex relationship you’ll ever have is with your parent. It also comes with its own secret language.

“None of us are who we are on our very worst days,”

For so long, I thought I knew what my mission was: to uncover my family’s history. I spend every day showing people the power of history. But history only has the power you give it... You may never make peace with your father. But you can always make peace with yourself.

A Wanted Man

“I’m getting hassle through two separate back channels.” “Who?” “First the State Department, and now the CIA.” “They’re not separate. The State Department is the political wing of the CIA.”

“I could have been hurt.” “But you weren’t. So don’t worry about it.”

“They opened the wrong door, Julia. They get what they get.” “From you? How so? Who died and made you king of the world?” “Someone has to do it. Are you guys going to?” Sorenson didn’t answer. Reacher said, “I’ll take that as a no, shall I?”

“Have you ever met a trade attaché?” “No.” “Me neither,” Reacher said. “But I met a few folks who claimed they were trade attachés.” “What does that mean?” “How much help does Coca-Cola really need to sell its stuff around the world? Not very much, right? Generally speaking American products speak for themselves. Yet every embassy has a trade attaché.” “What are you saying?” “Have you ever seen a trade attaché’s office? I’ve been in two. Both had courtyard windows, not street windows, both were lined with lead and Faraday cages, and both were swept for bugs four times a day. I know the Coke formula is a secret, but that’s ridiculous.” “Cover for something?” “Exactly,” Reacher said. “Every CIA head of station on the planet calls himself a trade attaché.”

We love cell phones. We love them to death. For all kinds of reasons. I mean, can you imagine? Suppose twenty years ago Congress had proposed a law saying every citizen had to wear a radio transponder around his neck, all day and all night, so the government could track him wherever he went. Can you imagine the outrage? But instead the citizens went right ahead and did it to themselves. In their pockets and purses, not around their necks, but the outcome is the same.”

I like you guys. I like the FBI. I like the way you think. I can’t help it. You’re doing wrong, but you’re doing wrong right. You put everyone together, so there are mutual witnesses to everything that goes on here. You could have thrown us in solitary somewhere and done whatever the hell you liked to us. But you couldn’t do that. Because deep down you’re on the side of the angels. I can’t take that away from you.

“Is it legal?” “I don’t know. I’m not a lawyer. But it probably is. Except that it probably shouldn’t be. You know how these things are.”

There was no point in making a plan. No plan could survive the first exchange of fire. No plan ever did.

“How are those better odds? If you come back with me, you’re guaranteed to survive the night.” “No,” Reacher said. “If I come back with you, I’m guaranteed to die of shame.”

Reacher let him go. There were things Reacher didn’t like to do. Running was one of them

Never Go Back

Life was not a television show. Hit a guy hard enough in the side of the head, and he didn’t spring back up ready to carry on the fight. He stayed down for an hour or more, all sick and dizzy and disoriented. A lesson learned long ago: the human brain was much more sensitive to side-to-side displacement than front-to-back. An evolutionary quirk, presumably, like most things.

I figured it out when I was about five years old. A person either runs or he fights. It’s a binary choice, and I’m a fighter.

“Nothing happens in the movies that doesn’t happen in real life. That’s one thing I’ve learned. You can’t make this stuff up.”

“I don’t think I forget people. I hope I don’t. Especially women I sleep with. But if I did, I would be unaware of it, by definition. You can’t be aware of forgetting.”

“We’re all animals,” he said. “That’s what makes things interesting.”   •

I think millions of years ago we were all living in small bands. Small groups of people. So there was a danger of inbreeding. So a gene evolved where every generation and every small band had at least one person who had to wander. That way the gene pools would get mixed up a little. Healthier all around.” “And you’re that person?” “I think ninety-nine of us grow up to love the campfire, and one grows up to hate it. Ninety-nine of us grow up to fear the howling wolf, and one grows up to envy it. And I’m that guy.”

Prevention is better than cure. Get your retaliation in first.

Those old New England guys always think they’re half British.

Fifty-fifty, Reacher thought, like everything else in the world.

A random encounter doesn’t get more likely just because both parties are moving.

Personal

The guy in the blazer didn’t talk. Neither did I. We both sat there mute, as if we were in a no-talking competition and serious about winning.

I listened to Kott for a good long time before I concluded that deep down the guy had an arrogant streak as wide as his head. And as hard. He wasn’t making the distinction. Anyone who challenges you deserves to die is battlefield bullshit, not a way to live. But I had known people like that all my life. I was the product of people like that. They want to tell you about it. They want you to understand. They want you to approve.

“You know how many Americans have top secret security clearances now?” “No idea.” “Nearly a million, and half of them are civilians. Executives and businesspeople and contractors and subcontractors. And best case, out of any million people a couple hundred will be seriously bent.” “That’s O’Day talking.” “He’s usually right.” “And always paranoid.” “OK, cut it in half. We’ve got a hundred traitors with top secret security clearances. National security is completely out of control. It has been for a decade.

Which is all we’ll ever need. Smart people, working hard, paying attention, thinking laterally.” “We had those on September tenth.” “No, we didn’t,” I said. “We really didn’t. Like we didn’t have much of an army in 1941. It had been a long time since we had needed one. We had out-of-date people doing out-of-date things."

So all in all I like the fast exit strategy better. Plus I have no desire to go to Buckingham Palace anyway.” “Wouldn’t you like to meet the Queen?” “Not really. She’s just a person. We’re all equal. Has she expressed any interest in meeting me?”

“No cop on earth would call his badge a government identification document. Cops don’t work for the government. Not in their minds. They work for their department. For each other. For the whole worldwide brotherhood. For the city, just maybe, at the very best. But not the government. They hate the government. The government is their worst enemy, at every level. National, county, local, no one understands cops and everyone makes their lives more and more miserable with an endless stream of bullshit. A cop wouldn’t use the word.” “This is a different country.” “Cops are the same the world over. I know, because I was one, and I met plenty of others. Including here. This is not a different country when it comes to cops.”

 Having everything out there is the exact same thing as having nothing out there. The Brits are hacking our signals. The Brits are not hacking our signals. Both things are up there under the spotlight. Which doesn’t help us know which one is true.

“Human nature,” he said. “You know how it is. Whatever your intentions, if you have the ability to do something, then you will do it, sooner or later. The temptation is always there, and it can’t be resisted forever. Don’t tell me you think any different.”

“Weird things are going to happen, and things are going to change, and the ground is going to move under our feet, but if we keep on thinking fast, we’ll be OK.”

“I see both sides,” Suzanne said. “I would do anything to stop another attack. But it’s getting insane now. They fly these guys from Guantanamo to Egypt and Syria, where they get a good working over, and after a while the ones who survive have to come back, because the Egyptians and the Syrians can’t have them hanging about forever, but you don’t want them back, because what are you going to do with them? Guantanamo is always full, and you can’t just say never mind and let them go, because they’ve all got stories to tell.” “So what do they do with them? And tell me how you know.” “There’s a network, for people of conscience. Way down in the dark web. Certain facts are established. Your ground crews bypassed a couple of failsafes, and made it possible to open the airplane door during flight. At very low speeds, and very low altitudes, mostly over the far north Atlantic, in the radar shadows, where they would come down low and slow, and open the hatch. That’s what they do with them. Problem solved.”

“You seem to know a lot about how they think.” “I try to learn how everyone thinks. It’s the key to understanding. Not that this was some innocent sweetheart. He was a thug straight from the Middle Ages. He was a vicious killer. I was glad he was jumping out of the plane. But he had already told them what he knew. And they were sending him anyway. Just out of habit. It’s insane now.”

The Martian

Anyway. That’s a problem for tomorrow. For tonight, I have to get back to Three’s Company. I stopped last night in the middle of the episode where Mr. Roper saw something and took it out of context

After a search of everyone’s personal items (hey, if they wanted privacy, they shouldn’t have abandoned me on Mars with their stuff) I found my answer. Martinez is a devout Catholic. I knew that. What I didn’t know was he brought along a small wooden cross. I’m sure NASA gave him shit about it, but I also know Martinez is one stubborn son of a bitch. I chipped his sacred religious item into long splinters using a pair of pliers and a screwdriver. I figure if there’s a God, He won’t mind, considering the situation I’m in. If ruining the only religious icon I have leaves me vulnerable to Martian vampires, I’ll have to risk it.

Time to take a break from thinking. Commander Lewis was the last one to use this rover. She was scheduled to use it again on Sol 7, but she went home instead. Her personal travel kit’s still in the back. Rifling through it, I found a protein bar and a personal USB, probably full of music to listen to on the drive. Time to chow down and see what the good commander brought along for music.

LOG ENTRY SOL 38 (2) Disco. God damn it, Lewis.

“What must it be like?” he pondered. “He’s stuck out there. He thinks he’s totally alone and that we all gave up on him. What kind of effect does that have on a man’s psychology?” He turned back to Venkat. “I wonder what he’s thinking right now.” LOG ENTRY: SOL 61 How come Aquaman can control whales? They’re mammals! Makes no sense.

My conclusion was “Fuck it.”

The screen went black before I was out of the airlock. Turns out the “L” in “LCD” stands for “Liquid.” I guess it either froze or boiled off. Maybe I’ll post a consumer review. “Brought product to surface of Mars. It stopped working. 0/10.”

As to your question: We haven’t told the crew you’re alive yet. We wanted them to concentrate on their own mission. [11:52] WATNEY: The crops are potatoes, grown from the ones we were supposed to prepare on Thanksgiving. They’re doing great, but the available farmland isn’t enough for sustainability. I’ll run out of food around Sol 900. Also: Tell the crew I’m alive! What the fuck is wrong with you? [12:04] JPL: We’ll get botanists in to ask detailed questions and double-check your work. Your life is at stake, so we want to be sure. Sol 900 is great news. It’ll give us a lot more time to get the supply mission together. Also, please watch your language. Everything you type is being broadcast live all over the world. [12:15] WATNEY: Look! A pair of boobs! -> (.Y.)

Venkat, tell the investigation committee they’ll have to do their witch hunt without me. And when they inevitably blame Commander Lewis, be advised I’ll publicly refute it. I’m sure the rest of the crew will do the same. Also, please tell them that each and every one of their mothers is a prostitute. —Watney PS: Their sisters, too.

My conversation with NASA about the water reclaimer was boring and riddled with technical details. So I’ll paraphrase it for you: Me: “This is obviously a clog. How about I take it apart and check the internal tubing?” NASA: (after five hours of deliberation) “No. You’ll fuck it up and die.” So I took it apart. Yeah, I know. NASA has a lot of ultra-smart people and I should really do what they say. And I’m being too adversarial, considering they spend all day working on how to save my life. I just get sick of being told how to wipe my ass. Independence was one of the qualities they looked for when choosing Ares astronauts. It’s a thirteen-month mission, most of it spent many light-minutes away from Earth. They wanted people who would act on their own initiative.

I told NASA what I did. Our (paraphrased) conversation was: Me: “I took it apart, found the problem, and fixed it.” NASA: “Dick.”

[08:31] JPL: Good, keep us posted on any mechanical or electronic problems. By the way, the name of the probe we’re sending is Iris. Named after the Greek goddess who traveled the heavens with the speed of wind. She’s also the goddess of rainbows. [08:47] WATNEY: Gay probe coming to save me. Got it.

But at least I have encouraging messages from Venkat to cheer me on!

[17:12] Watney: 145 holes today. 357 total.

[17:31] JPL: We thought you’d have more done by now.

Dick.

As with most of life’s problems, this one can be solved by a box of pure radiation.

I tested the brackets by hitting them with rocks. This kind of sophistication is what we interplanetary scientists are known for.

Fortunately, I have an alternate supply of Hab canvas: the Hab. Problem is (follow me closely here, the science is pretty complicated), if I cut a hole in the Hab, the air won’t stay inside anymore.

I need some encouragement. I need to ask myself, “What would an Apollo astronaut do?” He’d drink three whiskey sours, drive his Corvette to the launchpad, then fly to the moon in a command module smaller than my Rover. Man those guys were cool.

Security Theater. "TSA's 95% failure rate shows airport security is a charade."

LA Times: "A report leaked out of the Transportation Security Administration reveals that a team of investigators from the Department of Homeland Security managed to sneak weapons and fake bombs past airport screeners in 95% of their attempts to beat the system. That means what many of us suspected all along has now been confirmed. All those expensive body and baggage scanning machines, all that intrusive rummaging through luggage, all those intimate pat-downs of little kids and grannies, all those nail clippers confiscated, all those bottles of liquids seized, all those shoes and belts taken off, all those laptops pulled out and all those thousands of frustrating hours wasted in line have been mostly for show."

'Dirty Wars.' - "...the American people would be extraordinarily surprised if they could see the difference between what they believe a law says and how it has actually been interpreted in secret." - Senator Wyden

"Somehow, in front of our eyes, undeclared wars have been launched in countries across the globe. Foreigners and citizens alike assassinated by presidential decree. The war on terror transformed into a self-fulfilling prophecy. How does a war like this ever end?"

Dirty Wars: "Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill travels to Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, and other countries where the United States has taken military action in the War on Terror. In Afghanistan, he investigates the United States military and government cover-up of the deaths of five civilians, including two pregnant women killed by US soldiers from the Joint Special Operations Command. After investigating the attack, Scahill travels to other sites of JSOC intervention, interviewing both proponents and opponents, and the survivors, of such raids, including U.S. Senator Ron Wyden."

THE FILM | Dirty Wars: "We encounter two parallel casts of characters. The CIA agents, Special Forces operators, military generals, and U.S.-backed warlords who populate the dark side of American wars go on camera and on the record, some for the first time. We also see and hear directly from survivors of night raids and drone strikes, including the family of the first American citizen marked for death and being hunted by his own government. Dirty Wars takes viewers to remote corners of the globe to see first-hand wars fought in their name and offers a behind-the-scenes look at a high-stakes investigation. We are left with haunting questions about freedom and democracy, war and justice."

Dirty Wars (2013) Movie Script | SS: "What we were being asked to do, and where, and for what purpose. A lot of it was of questionable legality. And most of it was outside of any stated battlefield. Kinetic operations, whether it's capture or kill, in some cases to detain, people as directed by the United States government. They launched their own internalized interrogation program, without the knowledge of the conventional U.S. military forces, or even the CIA. Because of the extreme secrecy surrounding the program, there was a variety of abuses. 

Torture? 

I would say that, yes. The president has made a political and military calculation to let the joint special operations command run wild."

Scahill: So you're saying j-soc is able to hit harder under President Obama than they were under President Bush? 

Harder, faster, quicker, with the full support of the the White House."

"Senator Wyden:  It's important for the American people to know when the president can kill an American citizen and when they can't, and yet it is almost as if there are two laws in America, and the American people would be extraordinarily surprised if they could see the difference between what they believe a law says and how it has actually been interpreted in secret. 

Scahill:  You're not permitted to disclose that difference publicly. 

Wyden:  That's correct."

 "We're now seeing the effects of covert intervention in countries on multiple continents without any thought to future repercussions. And it has radically expanded. At one point it was 40 countries. It is now expanded to over 75. And there are dozens, if not hundreds, of concurrent operations. But in theory, Congress is supposed to have oversight of these operations. They don't want to step into the dark and see what goes on behind the curtain. Joint special operations command became a paramilitary arm of the administration. And billions upon billions of dollars was poured into JSOC. What we have essentially done is created one hell of a hammer. And for the rest of our generation, for the rest of my lifetime, this force will be continually searching for a nail."

"Another series of terrorism arrests, another series of allegations that the government essentially manufactured them."

The arrested Brooklyn ISIS guys were not a threat to the U.S.—or probably to anyone.: "...a Times story this week under the wonderful headline “Eager to Join ISIS, if Only His Mother Would Return His Passport,” is pretty reassuring about the actual level of threat the group poses to the U.S.

The fact that this plot to wage holy war against the infidel depended on 19-year-old Akhror Saidakhmetov being able to sweet-talk his mom into giving him back his passport isn’t the only indication in the FBI’s case against the men, released just after their arrest, that we aren’t exactly dealing with future Bin Ladens here...

This would appear to be the latest in a long line of cases in which not-so-bright guys with dreams of jihad are nudged along (in some cases borderline entrapped) by FBI informants. Other examples have included the guy who attempted to detonate a dud bomb given to him by the bureau outside the Federal Reserve, the guy who attempted to detonate a fake suicide vest outside the capital, and the guy who tried to blow up a fake bomb at a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony in Portland. All these men are serving lengthy prison sentences, though it’s not clear they would have gone as far as they had without the involvement of FBI informants posing as co-conspirators."

Via Morning links: DOJ expected to criticize Ferguson PD for racial bias - The Washington Post: "Another series of terrorism arrests, another series of allegations that the government essentially manufactured them."

Chicago PD, you're doing it wrong.

Chicago Police Department maintains "black site" for illegal detention and torture - Boing Boing: "Homan Square is the Chicago Police Department's "secure site" where people as young as 15 are detained without charge and without access to counsel, subject to beatings that result in head wounds, and, in one case, death. People detained in Homan Square are not listed in any database and can't be located by lawyers or family members. At least one notorious Gitmo torturer, Richard Zuley, formerly worked at Homan Square for the Chicago PD. The guards who stand at the doors to Homan Square refuse to identify themselves. Although most of those detained and abused at Homan Square are poor people, mostly of color, it has also been used for political detention of protesters."

"You all just clapped for a dead baby." - Louis CK.

Louis C.K. Is Totally Cool With The Patriots Deflating Balls And Cheating To Win: "“Sometimes you do stuff that’s not fair so that you can win. I have no problem with it. I think it’s hilarious. It’s a stupid football game; Deflate the balls, poke the guy in the eye or something…. It’s football.”

LAPD, Which Tracks Citizens Through Their Phones, Worries About You Doing the Same to Them - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "There are a million ways some violent, crazy person could track down or lure police with the intent of ambushing or killing them, including following their cars or, you know, simply calling the police and reporting a fake crime. In my neighborhood, they can apparently just walk right up to the local police station and shoot at them (as far as I can tell, they still haven’t caught that guy, assuming that shooting actually happened). Hey, would you like to listen to Los Angeles Police and Fire scanner traffic? It’s right here! This is not a request to be treated seriously, and we should all recognize it for what it is—an effort to keep citizenry from providing information to each other to help stay out of the clutches of law enforcement’s money-grubbing traffic enforcement adventures. Reminder: The LAPD uses technology to track people’s locations via their smartphones. Turnabout is fair play."

Boozey Intel Agent Crashes Drone at White House, Which Spurs Call for Regulations - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "And oh yeah, about the guy who was operating the drone (a quad-copter model that was about two feet across and weighed all of two pounds)? It turns out he's an employee of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, which itself uses drones for all sorts of stuff, but that's fine because you know, it's the government."

Kung Fu Monkey: LIBRARIANS #107 "Rule of Three" Answer Post: "(NOTE the third: I don't believe in the supernatural, so please rest assured I respect Wicca as much as I respect all other more traditionally accepted religious beliefs -- as one of many available cool personal operating systems one might use to comprehend a vast and nigh-infinite universe. I know that these operating systems are deeply emotionally resonant to most of you.  I'm not mocking, and the show will farm from various religious traditions for story points as cultural frameworks and legendary narratives, with as much respect as we can muster. We will sometimes fail. Sorry about that.)"

Kung Fu Monkey: LIBRARIANS #107 "Rule of Three" Answer Post: "...cute, fluffy otters are actually the monstrous rape-murderers of the sea."

The Other Side of Otters : Discovery News: "Sea otters – cute, furry, adorable, clams-wouldn’t-melt-in-their-mouths sea otters – have been observed forcibly copulating with, and in the process killing, juvenile harbor seals off California. Writing in a recent edition of the journal Aquatic Mammals, Heather Harris of the California Department of Fish and Game and colleagues document nineteen occurrences of this behavior in Monterey Bay between 2000 and 2002, leading to the deaths of at least 15 seals."

No, Mass Surveillance Won't Stop Terrorist Attacks - Reason.com: "...the mass surveillance programs initiated by the U.S. government after the 9/11 attacks—the legal ones and the constitutionally-dubious ones—were premised on the belief that bin Laden’s hijacker-terrorists were able to pull off the attacks because of a failure to collect enough data. Yet in their subsequent reports on the attacks, the Congressional Joint Inquiry (2002) and the 9/11 Commission found exactly the opposite. The data to detect (and thus foil) the plots was in the U.S. government’s hands prior to the attacks; the failures were ones of sharing, analysis, and dissemination. That malady perfectly describes every intelligence failure from Pearl Harbor to the present day. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (created by Congress in 2004) was supposed to be the answer to the "failure-to-connect-the-dots" problem. Ten years on, the problem remains, the IC bureaucracy is bigger than ever, and our government is continuing to rely on mass surveillance programs that have failed time and again to stop terrorists while simultaneously undermining the civil liberties and personal privacy of every American. The quest to "collect it all," to borrow a phrase from NSA Director Keith Alexander, only leads to the accumulation of masses of useless information, making it harder to find real threats and costing billions to store."

Morning links: Record number of exonerations in 2014 - The Washington Post: "Last year saw a record 125 exonerations, including six people on Death Row."

Lies, damned lies, statistics.  Be careful with that viral statistic about the top 1% owning half the world’s wealth - Vox: "In recent days, there's been a startling statistic going around. The number comes from Oxfam, and warns that the combined wealth of the richest one percent will pass that of the other 99 percent next year, at least if current trends hold. The statistic has been reported in the Guardian, the New York Times, and FiveThirtyEight, among others. Even Hillary Clinton is using a version of it. But it doesn't mean quite what it looks like it means. To see the problem, here's another version of the same number: the combined wealth of my two nephews is already more than the bottom 30 percent of the world combined. And they don't have jobs, or inheritances. They just have a piggy bank and no debt. Oxfam presents the statistic, which is derived from data published in Credit Suisse's Global Wealth Databook (pdf), as a measure of wealth. But it's technically a measure of net worth: assets minus debts. As such, what it's picking up isn't just massive inequality in wealth, but also massive inequality in the ability to access credit. So for the purposes of Oxfam's calculation, a farmer in China's rural Sichuan province with no debt but also very little money is wealthier than an American who just graduated from medical school with substantial debt but also a hefty, six-figure income. By any sensible standard, the medical student is richer, but because her student debt still outweighs her financial assets, the net worth measure counts her as poorer than the Chinese peasant."

"Power, in essence, takes the form of conspiracy."

The Easiest Way to Live Life Fully Is to Follow Your Weird | VICE | United Kingdom: "Think about it – what's the difference between a fiction and a god? A god is a fiction that everyone believes in. Sometimes fictions can take on a similar kind of reality...

It's important to recognise that the term "conspiracy theory" is a derogatory term used against people who are sometimes pointing out very real, very harmful conspiracies. Power, in essence, takes the form of conspiracy. So even if you're not a crazy left-winger, but a reasonable left-winger, there's a lot of truth to seeing our current condition as the result of conspiracy. But even if a given shadowy group exists, that doesn't mean they have their hand on the lever any more than any of the other groups out there with their own crazy agendas. I see many manipulative groups: corporations, intelligence agencies, the super-rich, pranksters and transhumanist technologists. All these groups are making a move on the future, so if you go hunting for conspiracy you're going to find it all over the place."

You don't say.  ‘Boy Who Came Back From Heaven’ actually didn’t; books recalled - The Washington Post: "Tyndale House, a major Christian publisher, has announced that it will stop selling “The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven,” by Alex Malarkey and his father, Kevin Malarkey. The best-selling book, first published in 2010, purports to describe what Alex experienced while he lay in a coma after a car accident when he was 6 years old. The coma lasted two months, and his injuries left him paralyzed, but the subsequent spiritual memoir – with its assuring description of “miracles, angels, and life beyond This World” – became part of a popular genre of “heavenly tourism.” 

Earlier this week, Alex recanted his testimony about the afterlife. In an open letter to Christian bookstores posted on the Pulpit and Pen Web site, Alex states flatly: “I did not die. I did not go to Heaven.” Referring to the injuries that continue to make it difficult for him to express himself, Alex writes, “Please forgive the brevity, but because of my limitations I have to keep this short. … I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention....""

Nightmare Fuel.  UPDATES: This Guy Caught His Wife And Sister-In-Law Cheating In A Four-Way And Is Currently Live-Updating The Story

RAWIllumination.net: Happy RAW birthday: "Today is the 83rd anniversary of Robert Anton Wilson's birth, Jan. 18, 1932 in Brooklyn, N.Y. In other words, he was born on 1-18-1932. If you add those numerals up, you get 25, conforming nicely to the law of fives. Marking RAW's birthday seems less melancholy than noting his death, which took place on Jan. 11, 2007,  just over eight years ago." 

   

  

Progress.  Eric Holder Orders End to DOJ Program that Shares Seized Assets with Police - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "Big, huge news on the civil asset forfeiture front: Eric Holder is ordering an end to most of the Department of Justice’s Equitable Sharing Program. This is the program where the DOJ works with local law enforcement agencies for busts, and then the law enforcement agencies are permitted to keep 80 percent of the assets seized. It has been an incubator of the worst police abuses, as some agencies looked for any possible reason to take people’s property without ever actually accusing them with a crime...

While police can continue to make seizures under their own state laws, the federal program was easy to use and required most of the proceeds from the seizures to go to local and state police departments. Many states require seized proceeds to go into the general fund. That difference between how the state and federal programs operate is important. The federal program is what encouraged the police abuse because the agencies got to keep the money (and cars, and whatever else they snatched). When the money goes into the general fund, not directly to the police, there goes the incentive for police to grab whatever they can get their hands on."

Breaking down Holder’s move to limit civil asset forfeiture abuse - The Washington Post: "The program won’t end civil asset forfeiture abuses entirely, but it will stop local police agencies from circumventing state laws aimed at reining them in. Many states, for example, have imposed stricter evidentiary standards police have to meet before they’re allowed to seize assets without a conviction. Other states have tried to eliminate the incentive problems that arise when police are allowed to keep the proceeds from asset forfeiture by requiring those proceeds to be sent to a general fund, or to a schools fund. Local police agencies have been able to get around those laws through the equitable sharing program, which basically federalizes investigations solely for the purpose of letting local police departments and prosecutors keep the bounties they collect in these cases. Holder’s policy change will end that."

I can't even.