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The state of the world in the time leading up to World War 1 was so close to the state of the modern world it should cause nightmares in politicians all over the globe.

World War 2 is a commonly studied conflict that has been the subject of movies, discussions, documentaries, and books. It is said that this conflict set the stage for the modern world.

But what happened to cause that conflict? It can be claimed with a lot of credibility that the signing of the armistice for World War 1 set the stage for Hitler’s rise to power, which ultimately caused that second conflict.

With that in mind, I wanted to understand the cause of World War 1 and what I found held such eerie parallels to the modern world they must be explained.

We all learned in school, on the one day they taught this part of history, that WW1 was started because of the assassination of the Archduke. Let’s face it, had that happened in isolation the nations of the world would not launch into a conflict that would lead to the death of more than 16,000,000 people.

Let’s look at the man who fired those two shots that sent the world into a tailspin.

He was a Bosnian student named Gavrilo Princia. When questioned he said many things, one of which seems relevant to this discussion: “I am an adherent of the radical anarchist idea which aims at destroying the present system through terrorism.”

Let that sink in.

After he fired those shots several world leaders were heard saying (or writing) something eerie. I will pull a direct quote from an German leader (translated to English), “We should go to war now, because its going to happen in the future anyway.”

Sure, so let’s ignore diplomacy, let’s not try to discuss anything, let’s just kill a lot of people.

While many historians have said the war was conceived in Berlin, it was also said that it was born in the Balkans. With that in mind we should understand the Balkan region of the world at that point in time, and the challenges these nations had with regard to getting along with one another. These nations were still ruled by various European Empires, and had been for years.

The modern day Balkan Nations are Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Romania, Servia, Slovenia, and Turkey.

When the assassination happened, the entire region went into what can only be described as national convulsions. Each nation started taking up sides. Mostly these nations had leadership and citizens who agreed which side of the conflict to align themselves with. With one exception, Greece. The people of Greece sided with Serbia, however the Queen of Greece was the only sister of the German Kaiser, and she sided with Austria.

For the most part world leaders could influence their citizens to go whichever way they wanted, that is what leaders do.

The challenge was that many people believed that the people of the Balkans should start to govern themselves, as in elect leaders, rather than being satellite nations of some European Empires who were still being ruled by descendants of the Hapsburgs. There was some thought that these nations should become states in some kind of nation resembling the United States. That would allow them to be self-governing, and if need be throw off some nation who came and wanted to attack and dominate them.

In a letter outlining this by a Liberal party leader of the Romanians it was said, “Out of the hatreds engendered by the domination over the liberty-loving Slavic people by arrogant Teutonic (German) minority grew the assassination at Sarajevo of the Archduke.” In other words, a vocal liberty espousing minority suppressed another group so greatly that group rose up and murdered a world leader.

He went on to warn that the people in the region just wanted a say in their government, and to throw off the dynasties that were happening. One can see dynasties occurring once again. How many families are responsible for multiple Presidents, generations of Senators, Congresspeople, etc. It happens in the United States today, as well as Europe. It was these “high born” groups that the people wanted to overthrow in favor of self government, which worked well when done properly.

The world leadership greatly resembled the stages we have set today. Generational dynasties, all feeling they are entitled to power. Husband and wife teams, father and son…There are examples of this all over the world.

In other words, the world was on a track that closely parallels where we are today from a world leadership and conflict standpoint (we must invade this other nation because of what they might do in the future). These parallels get a little more interesting if we look to the European population (not leadership, the populace) at the time.

There was a very important man by the name of Professor Masaryk who lives from 1850 to 1937. He spent some time and energy prior to World War 1 trying to get the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy to reform their empire into a federal state. That obviously didn’t work, and it was only broken up as a result of the war. After World War 1 he because the first President of Czechoslovakia.

In his attempts at diplomacy he pointed out that Europe had a huge problem at the time. There was a discrepancy between the number of nation states and the number of defined nationalities all over Europe. His tally showed that there were twenty seven nation states, but more than seventy accepted nationalities. Almost all states were a mix, and there was very little assimilation of cultures. Instead there were people trying to force their beliefs and ways of life on other people. He pointed out as an example that there were Romanians in Austria, but there was no Romania. There were even Romanians inside Austria who would openly claim that the Austrian leaders were not “their” leaders, and therefore rules passed, laws, policies, what have you did not apply to them.

If we look at the parallels of the populace of the world at that point in time, we can once again find an eerie parallel to what is going on around the world today.

One must only think, if the leadership of the world had parallels, the people of the world had parallels, and the statements of people had parallels what does that say about us today? Are we going to repeat history? Setting aside the fact that there was a large disagreement involved in World War 1 among Christian nations on how to deal with Muslim immigrants that also lead to some of the fervor and desire of people to be involved in this armed conflict, should we be concerned? Or is it enough to consider that three out of three major reasons for going to war seem exactly the same as what is going on today.

Given that the weapons at our disposal today are more efficient at killing than those available in the early 1900s, which might the next conflict have as a body count? We should consider things carefully before merely wishing to invade because of what might happen if we don’t.

I recently reread a long time favorite book of mine called Absolute Power by David Baldacci, which has a movie adaptation of the same name (also a solid movie). I wanted to take a minute to go through this novel, and why I feel it is possibly one of the best debut novels to ever make it to press, and ranks up there on the list of things I’ll read every few years.

Before we dive into the book, yes I know the book and movie share a first act, but then deviate greatly from one another. Part of that is because the book has some very complicated story lines that while complex seem realistic. The challenge is that if you were to adapt all that complex stuff to the screen it would have been a very long movie, so I understand why they made the changes.

As the book opens we see a burglar doing his job and cleaning out a vault at one of the largest, most expensive homes in the Washington DC area. This home is owned by a billionaire who is one of those DC powerbrokers we all hear about on the nightly news (a fictional one).

During the robbery the thief sees a woman killed after she struggled with the current President of the United States (long story as to why, read the book, it is well worth the time). But the scene makes sense. Somehow in the struggle the woman gets the upper hand and POTUS screams for help. Secret Service rushes in the room and shoots the woman in the head.

Now, a thief who sees all of this, knows what happens, and really wants to protect the woman is stuck with a problem. He has no reason to be in that house, who is going to believe him, and honestly, if he comes forward how does he not go to jail being fingered as the one who did it by POTUS. Seriously who will believe a thief more than the President?

After fleeing the scene the thief’s presence is known to the Secret Service but not his identity. So, there is a conundrum. Can he just sneak away, disappear, and let the guy get away with it? How do you do that when you can finger the trigger man? The stress the thief puts himself through leaps off the page, and not even the great Clint Eastwood can make it transition to screen with as much clarity as Mr. Baldacci has crafted in his novel.

The book itself has a subplot that never makes it to screen. It gets into the legal firms that basically are “bandits” running around D.C. Now, when he wrote this Mr. Baldacci was a lawyer near DC so this part of the book rings very true. I also have done a lot of work in and around DC and the number of layers charging to “assist” with government relations is staggering. Basically, they are selling access for an hourly rate of $500/hour and up in today’s dollars. Typically, there is an 80-hour minimum to keep out the riff raff.

Interestingly there is a whole section about lawyers and what they call “security” in their career. It turns out that it is the clients they “control.” Now, how many layers are on retainer for elected officials. That whole concept is in the book for more than a chapter. Basically, having worked there for a long time, this shows that Mr. Baldacci has worked in and around DC for a long time. He knows how it works, and if you ever want to know an accurate description of the functionality of that town, read this book. It is fictional, but dang is it close to the way it is in real life.

So, back to the story. Dead wife, billionaire husband, who is so distraught he hires a hitman to go after “whomever it was.” Think about this. If a normal person’s spouse ended up dead in some strange murder scene I’d have to depend upon the police. But then, billionaires have a different set of rules they live by. We can go on social media and rants that all rules apply equally but let’s be honest, they don’t.

Now, the cops have no leads (I strongly suggest you read the book and see how they pulled that off), the billionaire doesn’t know who to kill, and the President is on TV railing about random violence, even though he is the cause of this one. What is Luther to do?

What would you do?

Let them get away with it?

The stress of the entire situation gets to Luther in ways that are impossible to put into a movie, yet Mr. Baldacci manages to make leap off the page. I really felt for Luther and couldn’t imagine how I would get through the day if it were me.

Enter an ambitious Chief of Staff to POTUS. She sees this entire situation as a way to enhance her power, because who in DC doesn’t look for an easy way to have that happen.

Flash back to Luther who is now so stressed he goes to see a lawyer to look for options. The lawyer suggests witness protection, Luther laughs then vomits.

Back to the White House. They know that a letter opener is missing, and Luther (whose ID is still not known) has it. So, of course, they make the decision to kill him, if only they could find out who he is. Poor Luther now has two sets of people chasing him down.

Now here is where the movie and book really start to depart. Through some herculean efforts the police get onto Luther in a manner that was presented much differently in the film.

The Billionaire is now getting angrier, and impatient, and devising ways to increase his fortune.

Whew, this is a fast paced book.

The police find a way to encircle Luther. Now, because it is a billionaire who knows everything because he can, and the Secret Service everyone who wants to kill Luther knows where he will be and bam, take the shot.

The Billionaire starts to suspect it wasn’t our thief.

Now, I won’t ruin the rest of the book, but I will say something about the last half. Authors tend to write what they know. Stephen King often has an author character in the book who is the hero of sorts. Mr. Baldacci has a lawyer who he desperately wants to be the hero. In fact, wants him to be the hero so much the lawyer can do anything.

He can find out where the evidence is through deductive leaps. He can wrestle an armed Secret Service agent to the ground and live to tell about it. He does all this without really becoming all that stressed, and still chasing down the woman of his dreams.

The lawyer sequences toward the end get a little bit much personally, but this is probably still one of the better novels I have ever read. I enjoyed it greatly, and someday will enjoy it again.

The other interesting thing about authors is they tend to craft a world the way they want it to be. In Mr. Baldacci’s perfect world lawyers are always the hero, but also Presidents pay for their mistakes, and pay for them with more than the end of their career. There are actual consequences for breaking the law. Now if only it were like that in real life.

 

There are a lot of theories about The Zodiac. Which one is true? I have no idea.

One thing is certain. He was never, and will never be caught. Someday we will figure out who it was, but I’m not sure that will be anytime soon. Out of all the serial killers that have walked the planet he may be the most disturbing.

I don’t mean disturbing because of what he did, that’s crazy enough, I mean it much differently.

This was obviously a really smart guy. Some may say brilliant. He got away with these crimes despite enormous manpower being thrown at stopping him.

I’m not impressed by that, although perhaps I should be (sorry Zodiac if you are alive and reading this).

What I am impressed by is that this is a guy who had a job, probably friends, perhaps a family. He didn’t leave so much as a breath of a hint of a sentence to anyone that let go enough information to have someone in his life figure it out. That is disturbing.

This is a guy who had a house, a job, a car, and obvious capabilities in multiple fields, crypto being just one.

I for one am more disturbed by the fact that he was someone’s coworker. It makes me look at my coworkers just a little differently 😉

Autism is a disorder, really a neurological condition that is typically diagnosed early in childhood that is characterized by huge difficulties in communication and forming relationships with other people. These challenges are due to the way the people with this condition use language and interpret abstract concepts.

My son is a four year old on the autism spectrum. He sits in the mild side, and has been in treatment for a while to treat his various developmental struggles. He is far from alone in these struggles. The autism spectrum is a wide range of severities of this disorder but it is said that more than 1 in 100 kids (more like 1 in 88) sits on the spectrum and requires some kind of treatment. These treatments can be shockingly costly.

Many of these treatments have been covered by our insurance company as every therapy he has been in was prescribed by a medical professional. He has been to neurologists, speech therapists, occupational therapists, all kinds of stuff. The co-pays alone would boggle your mind.

Then we come to today. He goes to one of his two regularly weekly scheduled speech therapy appointments that, until this week has been covered. The health care provider puts in an authorization request for treatment before his appointment (as is their normal procedure), and it is denied. That is strange, why now, why not a week ago?

Something strange is afoot at the Circle K you say?

Wait for it, this gets worse.

It turns out that under the Affordable Care Act they, according to the insurance company, they are required to only cover these types of therapies for “restorative reasons.” What is a restorative reason you ask? They can cover more but it is at their discretion. So, what company would do so if they don’t have to? Well certainly not this one.

Put another way if he had been in an accident and lost the ability to speak they would help, otherwise they won’t. Autistic kids are out of luck I guess, at least to go through a qualified private insurance covered speech therapist.

I was angry for a variety of reasons mostly because this is landing on us with no warning.

So, I asked, what is going on? When did this change?

Oh a letter was sent out 3 days ago? On Friday, and today is Tuesday? Nice, I guess I haven’t gotten or read that yet but ok.

I asked the question, what are these kids supposed to do? Have no shot in life? Medical professionals can prescribe a treatment and unless you can afford the $250-$400/week in cost out of pocket your kid is just out of luck?

No, that isn’t the case, the insurance company representative says. I can appeal (which they told me would in all likelihood be denied but I can do it), or I can go to the local school system department of special education.

So let’s review:

• Covered last week not covered today
• Costs of my policy go up year over year
• Out of pocket just increased by at least $1000/month for a procedure prescribed by a medical professional (and that doesn’t include all the increases in copays elsewhere).
• Coverage is shifting away from treating those with diagnosed disabilities, sort of.
• Because of his age he might be covered merely by an already overspent public school system according to the insurance company (the school district disagrees).

Put another way the ACA through some convoluted process just shifted what should be a medical procedure onto the school system?

I guess they wanted the federal deficit numbers to look better for the kids they have to cover through the subsidies? Could that be the case? Surely not…No, they would never forget to tell the whole truth right?

Does that seem like how things are supposed to work?

It appears as though we are playing a shell game of which part of the government goes into debt to do the job it was design to do. Also this brings to mind what qualifications the school system has to do therapeutic treatments that should be done by someone trained specifically for this purpose. Or is the Department of Education just working its way into all aspects of our life so that it never gets cut back and only grows?

Whatever the reason is this monstrously large bill that was supposed to bring down costs is certainly having issues proving its worth beyond some kind of procedure requiring a band aid or the most cursory of treatment.

As an interesting PS to this story. I was on twitter venting about this and got pounded by several people from one of the two major political parties. One statement said, basically, I didn’t get it and that it was all for the “greater good.” Another insane defender of all things done by one party said that, essentially, not that long ago no one got anything.

The “no one got anything” statement is interesting because instead of fixing the problem by making sure everyone gets something we are stripping coverage on an obviously pre-existing condition and blaming corporate greed. I am my wits end with the partisan garbage. We no longer care about solving problems in this country merely about assigning blame. We do this while parents have to figure out how to help the very small children that we are supposed to be doing all of this to help. I will find a way to make sure Emmit gets what he needs, but it sure would be nice to be able to keep the coverage I liked, without that price going up yet again or coverage being reduced even further, but I can I can keep my doctor if I pay for it out of pocket while paying the insurance company to do less with more.

I guess we hoped, and we got change.

Tim Imholt PhD

The “wall” is about the stupidest political argument I have ever heard. One side says “we need a wall or the country is going to end.” The other side says “that’s the dumbest thing ever.”

They are both wrong…Ok it may be one of the dumbest ideas ever, but our current immigration system is a total mess but let’s deal with one thing at a time.

I’m going to explain why both sides are being giant babies, so bear with me.

First, anyone who says the wall will solve illegal immigration (yes, that’s what it is) doesn’t understand the problem. The overwhelming majority of people in this nation illegally overstayed a visa of some type.

Second, for the group that is pro wall wants to know why it hasn’t been finished because Trump has been in office a while now.

Ok, it’s a 2,000 mile long project. Has anyone seen how long it takes to get blueprints, permits, layouts, and decisions on placement to build a 6,000 square foot home? Something like a year.

Yes, a wall is easier, but let’s play this out. I replaced a fence at my house. At the time we lived in a house that was around 1/3 of an acre. It took a week for permitting, a few days for supplies and 2 or 2.5 weeks later we had a fence. That was a 6’ privacy fence. This is a 2,000 mile wall across a large array of types of geographic changes. It isn’t going to be up overnight. Planning along will take (my engineering background coming out) more than a year. Then money, contracts, supplies, this thing is a 5-7 year project at least, and that’s in a hurry.

Plus, do you really need a full up really expensive wall across that entire border or can some of it be done with state of the art sensors? What environmental or business impacts will the wall have? Lots of questions to be answered.

Ok, for those that are anti-wall they usually fall in the category of amnesty for “undocumented workers” or “immigration for all” or whatever you want to call them.

Also a really bad idea. Yes, other countries have immigration systems that are managed differently from us. Every time I hear the “let’s just do it like this other nation” does I cringe.

Why?

It’s always some nation of 10,000,000 residents (smaller than NYC) that is being referenced. Managing something the size of the United States is different than dealing with New York City. It is much more complex. Immigration needs to be done in an orderly fashion, and we can’t just be the place where you show up and automatically are granted all kinds of rights, privileges and benefits.

Is the system broken? Yes.

In some ways immigrating is far harder than it should be.

Does that mean we stop all sorts of checks, as some people say?

Hell no. We need to know who is here, why they are coming here and what they intend to do once here.

In short, the wall is just another way we are being played. We have been told to look at this wall thing, pay attention to that. Both sides of politicians are doing it. Those that are pro and anti wall want you to focus on that.

Why?

Because there are things they aren’t doing in their day to day jobs that they should.

Ask them to focus on a balanced budget or fixing what they screwed up in our health insurance system. That might be worth doing. But wait…the wall…someone knelt….vote for me…donate.

That is what we will hear. As we approach the mid term we will hear more about what divides us, and they will try to drive wedges, rather than about a solid plan for the future.

I have the good fortune of working with some people I really respect. One of those is a retired NFL player who now does sales and marketing. He has introduced me to several other former players, all of whom are now in business for themselves in one form or another, but that is a story for another day.

The interesting thing that seems to hold true, almost to a man, is the question of these protests going on around the league is that they view them as a massive distraction.

At best I have been told some things that say they (the protestors) made their point, now let’s move on. At worst it has been that these guys are going to screw up the future of the league thanks to the dip in ratings and the protests now going on with people boycotting the league on both sides of the discussion.

These things have made me think. Not about the NFL, but about what the NFLs actions say about us as a nation.

There is one side that wants to exercise their freedom of speech, and as an army vet, I say, more power to you. I won’t do it, but you choose what works for you.

On another side, there are people saying “if you don’t stop it you are fired.” I get that also. If I am a team owner and you want to do something while at work I disagree with, that ruins the value of my product, it is my right to fire you.

On another side there are those saying I won’t tune in while these protests are going on because those guys are just babies…This is a free country and we should celebrate those that gave us that freedom and stand up and respect the flag. Ok, despite the blatant contradictions about freedom and do what I tell you in this crowd, I totally respect their right to change the channel. I don’t like it when they yell at me to do the same thing, but hey, again…their right, and my right to walk away and ignore them.

Then there is the protest. It has transformed from something I understood to something I don’t. Is there police brutality? Yes. Is it every single cop on the street…hell no.

But we are so divided as a nation there is no more grey area, it is all black and white.

Those that are anti-protestors and taking a knee during the anthem seem to indicate the police can do no wrong, and we should respect them, and the veterans no matter what…I disagree with that.

There are the protestors, and now some of the people behind them are now painting all police with a broad brush and saying they are all wrong and we should randomly shoot, kill, be against, or whatever those there to protect us….I disagree with that.

I think it says a lot as a nation that those of us that think both sides are wrong are barely allowed to speak, for when we do both sides shout at us about freedoms and how if we disagree with their point, and their side we are stupid and need to get on board now.

We need to be less divided as a nation, and I’d like to see that protest take place at some point. But in order for that protest to happen the two sides would have to agree on something and that doesn’t appear to be happening anytime soon.

I think that humans rarely understand ourselves. Even trained psychologists don’t fully understand the underlying motivations of some humans. I also believe we are all very similar in our desires and thoughts. Some people are better at controlling the evil than others, but we all have the thoughts (from time to time).

The older I get the more I believe that serial killers and the so-called insane give us insight into the human condition and thought process. Those insane merely don’t control the evil the way well adjusted people do.

Before someone goes crazy I don’t want to become a serial killer, I really just want to understand people better and I find serial killers (especially the Zodiac who never got caught) very interesting. Mainly because he had to be a normal person and blend in with society or he would have been caught. He killer a large number of people across more than a decade.

The first letter he sent to authorities in attempt to get credit for his work. So, my theory is that serial killers are typically people who didn’t get the credit they felt they deserved in one way or another throughout their lives. Let’s dive into this first letter of his and see what the hell it is I am talking about.

Zodiac is talking about the first person (a woman) that he killed.

SHE WAS YOUNG AND BEAUTIFUL BUT NOW SHE IS BATTERED AND DEAD. SHE IS NOT
THE FIRST AND SHE WILL NOT BE THE LAST I LAY AWAKE NIGHTS THINKING ABOUT MY
NEXT VICTIM.

He found a woman he liked, he found beautiful, and for some reason he felt he couldn’t have her in his life in a meaningful fashion, so he fixed that and made her a more permanent part of his life. She was now “his.”

MAYBE SHE WILL BE THE BEAUTIFUL BLOND THAT BABYSITS NEAR THE LITTLE STORE AND WALKS DOWN THE DARK ALLEY EACH EVENING ABOUT SEVEN.

He describes the type of person he wanted to kill next. He was describing the type of woman he found attractive. As killing someone etches them into your brain he wanted this type of woman etched. He also mentions walking around seven in the evening. So, he is either waiting for sundown, or he has a job that keeps him busy during the day (likely both).

OR MAYBE SHE WILL BE THE SHAPELY BLUE EYED BROWNETT THAT SAID NO WHEN I ASKED HER FOR A DATE IN HIGH SCHOOL.

Speaking as a guy, when you are younger, asking a woman out takes courage. Being told no isn’t a big deal, but the way some women go about it just messes with your mind. Perhaps some woman who fits this description laughed at him and recalled it for years, and it bothered him, and perhaps made him have this type of woman in his mind because of that memory.

BUT MAYBE IT WILL NOT BE EITHER. BUT I SHALL CUT OFF HER FEMALE PARTS AND DEPOSIT THEM FOR THE WHOLE CITY TO SEE. SO DON’T MAKE IT TO EASY FOR ME. KEEP YOUR SISTERS, DAUGHTERS, AND WIVES OFF THE STREETS AND ALLEYS.

Not sure what he is going for here, but some men are obsessed with female body parts. Perhaps he just took it to an extreme.

MISS BATES WAS STUPID. SHE WENT TO THE SLAUGHTER LIKE A LAMB. SHE DID NOT PUT UP A STRUGGLE. BUT I DID. IT WAS A BALL. I FIRST PULLED THE MIDDLE WIRE FROM THE DISTRIBUTOR. THEN I WAITED FOR HER IN THE LIBRARY AND FOLLOWED HER OUT AFTER ABOUT TWO MINUTS.

He is complimenting how smart this made him feel. Perhaps throughout his life people told him he wasn’t smart enough to do certain things and he has no self confidence in this area. This could be a way of him working on that issue.

THE BATTERY MUST HAVE BEEN ABOUT DEAD BY THEN. I THEN OFFERED TO HELP. SHE WAS THEN VERY WILLING TO TALK TO ME. I TOLD HER THAT MY CAR WAS DOWN THE STREET AND THAT I WOULD GIVE HER A LIFT HOME. WHEN WE WERE AWAY FROM THE LIBRARY WALKING, I SAID IT WAS ABOUT TIME. SHE ASKED ME “ABOUT TIME FOR WHAT”. I SAID IT WAS ABOUT TIME FOR HER TO DIE.

She obviously knew him in some way, but she worked at a library so she met lots of people.

I GRABBED HER AROUND THE NECK WITH MY HAND OVER HER MOUTH AND MY OTHER HAND WITH A SMALL KNIFE AT HER THROAT. SHE WENT VERY WILLINGLY. HER BREAST FELT VERY WARM AND FIRM UNDER MY HANDS, BUT ONLY ONE THING WAS ON MY MIND.

Again his obsession with female body parts is obvious.

MAKING HER PAY FOR THE BRUSH OFFS THAT SHE HAD GIVEN ME DURING THE YEARS PRIOR.

Maybe he had attempted to flirt with her, and she refused him. Maybe she didn’t even realize he was doing it, but for some reason he felt she had been unfriendly. Maybe she was just shy and didn’t engage in a conversation but she had obviously been (in his mind) unkind to her.

SHE DIED HARD. SHE SQUIRMED AND SHOOK AS I CHOAKED HER, AND HER LIPS TWICHED. SHE LET OUT A SCREAM ONCE AND I KICKED HER HEAD TO SHUT HER UP. I PLUNGED THE KNIFE INTO HER AND IT BROKE. I THEN FINISHED THE JOB BY CUTTING HER THROAT.

She made him feel pain (emotional) so he was going to be sure she felt pain. He was angry.

I AM NOT SICK. I AM INSANE.

BUT THAT WILL NOT STOP THE GAME. THIS LETTER SHOULD BE PUBLISHED FOR ALL TO READ IT.

Perhaps he is insane, perhaps it was a temporary insanity as he obviously blended in well with society. I am surprised some conspiracy theory person hasn’t said he was a composite of various CIA operators designed to keep the public looking for something while they did something else they didn’t want to public to focus on, like some kind of elaborate false flag.

IT JUST MIGHT SAVE THAT GIRL IN THE ALLEY. BUT THAT’S UP TO YOU. IT WILL BE ON YOUR CONSCIENCE. NOT MINE. YES, I DID MAKE THAT CALL TO YOU ALSO. IT WAS JUST A WARNING. BEWARE…I AM STALKING YOUR GIRLS NOW. 

1. CHIEF OF POLICE

ENTERPRISE

He wants contest. He views this whole thing as a game he is playing.

In short, was Zodiac someone known to people? Was he the quiet guy in class? Was he someone’s coworker, the guy that always showed up for that after work beer. One thing is certain, in ways he was just a normal person. In others, he lost control of his demons from time to time, but were they his demons or were they the demons of every human walking the planet.

It is that time again…election time. When those of us with more centrist leanings get pummeled by both sides and called names for not immediately falling in some party line and acting like a zombie. We aren’t zombies, we just believe both sides have a point. Although interestingly both sides try to shame us into running their way or “we are unthinking.”

There is the far right who says everything the President does is perfect, no human ever elected as a “true” Republican can do anything wrong, they then perform a purity test on people in their own party and label some as RINOs (Republican In Name Only).

Then there is the far left, who does a similar purity test, wants to launch a zillion investigations every single time someone at the other end of the political spectrum burps without prior written permission and tells anyone not voting their way they are stupid (ok both party extremes do that one).

Doubt me? Below are a few random twitter pulls from each side.

Now, then there are people that realize both sides of the political aisle have some issues correct, and some wrong. There are a few elected officials that feel this same way. They can’t say it in public or their “base” voters will go absolutely nuts and throw things at them in public.

One thing is certain. Political election time is supposed to be a time when we all come together to pick the leadership of this great nation. Yes, I believe this nation is great now, has been great before, and remains so. We don’t need to make it great again, and we don’t need to fundamentally shift our beliefs to remain great.

We abolished slavery. Are race relations perfect? No.

We have a messed up immigration system, it isn’t perfect.

We certainly have issues with the funding of schools and other stuff. We aren’t perfect, but we are pretty good, and we will continue to improve. In ways we are great, in ways we aren’t. That doesn’t make either side of the political aisle less American.

What I urge all politicians to do this cycle is to reach out to all voters. Hear their concerns, and act on them. Don’t only discuss problems, please work together to solve them.

Also, political supporters…stop the purity tests, and above all end the damn name calling. It is getting really old.

The older I get the more I am certain that a very select group of songwriters tried to warn us about the direction of the world. This time we turn to Leonard Cohen and Sharon Robinson. Their song “Everybody Knows” is one of those timeless songs that when you hear it, you say, oh that one…and sing along.

Certain pop culture tunes knock me out with their ability to warn us of the direction of politics. This one is no exception.

 

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows

 

This is what some politicians want us to think. The War on Terror is over and we lost. First, that war is not now nor will it ever be over. Humans have wanted to terrorize other humans for many thousands of years. It isn’t ending soon. Those same politicians want you to think that without their help you will always be poor, and never rich, unless they tax that rich guy back into the same condition as poor people. Notice that political discussion, at least these days, is so rarely about building anything up, it is about tearing someone else down.

 

Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died
Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long-stem rose
Everybody knows

 

Translation? The other guy did it, and lied about it. He hit the giant floating chunk of ice, he’s to blame…Here is a tiny treat to hold you over. Note when you see political ads there is rarely a solution offered, but there are a lot of complains about how that other guy sucks.

 

Everybody knows that you love me baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that you’ve been faithful
Ah, give or take a night or two
Everybody knows you’ve been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
Without your clothes
And everybody knows

 

Translation? I’m the one that loves you, I’m the one that cares about you. Send me into office and I’ll be sure to send you something in return.

 

And everybody knows that it’s now or never
Everybody knows that it’s me or you
And everybody knows that you live forever
Ah, when you’ve done a line or two
Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old Black Joe’s still pickin’ cotton
For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows

And everybody knows that the Plague is coming
Everybody knows that it’s moving fast
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artifact of the past
Everybody knows the scene is dead
But there’s gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
What everybody knows

 

How often in modern political campaigns do you hear that “this time if we don’t win it’s over, the world is coming to an end and the nation will never be the same again.” I’m tired of that. We will still be a nation, but we are always a nation of change.  We were once a nation of slavery, we no longer have it. See, we changed, and we didn’t end. We can and will change again and we will be better tomorrow than we are today.

There are a few more verses to the song, but I think you see the point. We are 90 days away from a mid term election. I for one am really sick of the ads already. It is all about how this guy is to blame for this problem, and only I can fix it. So I’ll make that other guy pay so….you see the point.

I urge everyone to look for the candidate espousing ideas, and not the guy looking to blame someone else, then take something from one person and hand it to another. Look for the candidate that wants to build things up, not tear them down.

The first Hardy Boys Mysteries were published around 90 years ago. I know, I was shocked too.

I fondly remember reading some of these as a kid, and promising my 2nd grade self I would read “all of them.” I think somewhere around the 4th grade I forgot about that promise and stopped reading them, but I got through many.

I now have 2 boys at home of my own, and they are about the right age to read these. So one of them picked up the first one and is making his way through, which prompted me to read a few again so we could talk about it.

Yes, the language is dated, no I don’t have the original ones I have the updated ones that took out much of the racism in the fist set. But, one thing struck me pretty solidly.

Boys never change. The Hardy brothers like action and adventure. They also have to figure out how to balance school, girls, sports, and their hobby of solving mysteries. They do all of this while hanging out with a group of friends that could have been my practical joking bizarre group of guys I knew in high school.

Yes, in some ways the books are dated. In other ways they really aren’t. Highly recommended for the modern generation (and can now be gotten on eBook).

I hope these books will be enjoyed for generations to come, and in the picture is one of my father’s copies. So we are on at least the third generation of Imholt boys to read these things! Maybe someday it will be four. Only time will tell.