As far as i'm concerned, your fired.

People are fucking idiots. A prime example of this lies in history. During the first battle of the Civil war citizens, and various politicians from Washington gathered upon the battlefield to see the battle. During the Union retreat which eventually followed the armies got tangled up with the carriages of the spectators. Anyone who has a desire to actually witness combat obviously has something wrong with them. But anyone who has prolonged exposure to human beings has likely come to the same conclusion I have. That the average person is not particularly bright. Especially large groups of people. Angry mobs. No good had ever come from large amounts of people congregating with feelings of rage.

Nothing vanishes without a trace.

It was during the beginning of the third straight hour of Law and Order that Mike began to ponder how his life got this way. Sitting on his old couch with pizza boxes and cartons of Chinese takeout strewn across his room that he began to wonder why. At first he had refused to watch Law and Order refused to give in. But as he slowly became aware of the pitiful array of television programming offered during the day he gave in. He took a sip of his 40. The cold liquid felt good going down and the warmth spread to the rest of him. It was his second of the day and as he was halfway through it the effects were finally starting to materialize. TV was a strange beast Mike thought. Every channel seemed to be straight blocks of the same programming and all of the shows used in those vast blocks seemed to be the ones with the least artistic merit. Still he had slowly gotten used to Law and Order and gotten into the cases. Still it seemed strange that they had to run it so many times in the day and that there were so many versions of it. Damn I am so unemployed, Mike thought taking another long draw from the 40. They had fired him at the supermarket for drinking at the end of June and he had been just barely able to pay for the July rent. Then a few weeks after he had gotten his unemployment. Now as August approached he knew the next week was going to be tough. The endless commercials irritated him too, all of the ones for schools, and training programs. It was as if the marketers knew that a vast bloc of unemployed losers was watching TV at a given time and wanted to capitalize on it. Mike got up from the couch and found a few roaches from the other day on the living room table. They were small but just barely enough to satisfy his craving. He picked up his bong the ground and placed it on the table. Time for good times he thought

You are not sending me too the cooler

In the great book by Alex Haley The Auto-biography of Malcom X Malcom describes how he first started to become alienated from the Nation of Islam Malcom finds out that the leader of the organization The Honorable Elijah Muhammed was in face not quite so honorable after all. He had several illiegtimate children in the south from young women whom he had abandoned. At first he thought it was merely propaganda but soon after he went down and spoke to the women who had accused the Honorable Elijah Mohammed, He also found out that Elijah Mohammed had also been badmouthing him behind his back. Malcom had idolized Elijah Mohammed and had preached his doctorine for many years. He would begin many of his statements with 'the honorable Elijah Mohammed tells us such and such and had championed his ideals and grown his organization for the years. He later was further chastised after says the that assianation of President John F. Kennedy was an example of 'the chickens coming home to roost.' This remark eventually led to his censure by the Nation of Islam and eventually leaving the Nation of Islam to form his own organization and go on the Haijj. But I digress because the one thing he said after find out about Elijah Muhammed was that 'My faith was shaken in a way I could never explain.' I have felt that way recently. Got burned by someone I regarded as a really good friend when I was in a vulnerable position, A breach of trust unexpected and caught quite by suprise. Someone I knew and trusted for almost three years completely fucking me over for no particular reason at all. Its the sort of thing that shakes your faith in people in general and humanity at large. So many assholes. So many examples of cruelty and malice visited upon people all around the world. From small scale examples like mine to large ones such as totouturs, and evil dictatorships to child rapists and pepophiles. Like the 'doughboy' case in Greenfield Mass where a family had held a retarded man hostage for weeks toutureing him for several weeks. It was in fact a house a had passed frequently walking around the neighborhood. But there are always examples of good people sometimes but in the minority.

Steak and eggs

Louie gestured towards the waitress attempting to get her attention. 'Hey toots could we get some more coffe over here?' she sauntered towards them with a blatant attitude of contempt. They were notoriously bad tippers and they stayed and talked long after their food was gone. She poured the coffe in silence and walked off. Louie remained silent without even a hint of a 'thank you.' 'I don't know what the fucks her problem.' He said loud enough for the whole diner to hear. 'Your the one who always wants to come her.' Sal replied sipping his coffe. 'I told you that you fuckin moron its the only place where they won't be listening to us.' It was a dubious claim to be sure as Louie was frequently tailed by at least one FBI agent but it seemed reasonable at face value. 'So you take care of that thing for me?' Louie asked. 'What thing?' Sal asked wholly vexed by the question. 'You know with that guy Jimmy...' Sal paused for a second. 'Oh yeah we took care of that last night. Louie sighed. Sal was a big guy and could hit like a ton of bricks but he was not much on brains. He came from a family in Sicily that had been enforcers for La cosa nostra going back a century. Louie had remembered hearing from someone that some of his kin going back had been inbred. 'You gotta be careful out there now. Keep your nose clean, be careful what you say to anyone.' Louie looked around the diner anxiously. 'We been hearing things that we may have a snitch.' Sal's faced remained impassive but he was listening intently. 'Could be anyone so just watch out.'

Unionman

'I refuse to answer the question on the grounds that it might tend to incriminate me.' John O'neil had repeated the line so many times that he was almost unaware that he was saying it. The senator had hammered on along this line of questioning for a half hour with the same results. It had been a parade of flashy dressed mobsters, union officials, all repeating the same mantra. He wondered why they even wasted their time with it. The senator knew the questions would elicit the same response by the gangster's but the questions continued. John had found a blank spot on the wall and had been staring at it repeating the same refrain. He was getting irritated by the comitte members dark stares. It helped that he had finished off a fifth of scotch before going in to testify. Most of the comitte members were WASPs of some description most of them well off from middle America, while most of those summouned to testify were urban ethnics of some description Italians, Irish, Jews. John listened as the senator continued to drone on about corruption, vice, and the destruction of this country's values. For John it was ironic considering how many upperworld politicians and law enforcement officals who enabled them to operate. The scotch had started to wear off and there was still several more characters to be called to testify.

He has lost his left arm but I have lost my right

Virginia 1850

Samuel looked up at the stars carefully looking to the north one. It was not a difficult task as the heavens were lit up and it looked as if one could see across the galaxy. He had been following the path for three days, avoiding farms and houses, living off of what he could pillage from farms. He had heard about freedom. About those who had fled the plantations and made their way north. He had heard that there were those in the north who were sympathetic and who would help him. All of it had seemed like some crazy fantastic idea but he had gone with it. He had stored up enough courage and he ran. Anything, better then the life he had left behind. A life of cruelty, of beatings, of backbreaking labor from dusk til dawn. Samuel had not told anyone about his plans, it was too risky. There were always those among them who would turn him in. Those who would tell simply to curry favor with the master. Some of the others had spoken of escape but mainly it was in a theoretical kind of way. Something they might attempt if the consequences were not too dire. They called it crazy. For Samuel it was far more crazy to submit to a lifetime of toil with nothing to show for it except a few ragged pieces of clothing and bad lodging. That was insane. He knew that there was likely a party looking for him by now, dogs and a whole bunch of rednecks. Still he vowed he would rather die then go back.

I can show you the world

John O'neil awoke with a start. He stared into the darkness for a few minutes attempting to process it all. For a while he thought he was back in the pacific but now he slowly came to the realization that he was in his home in Staten Island. Cold sweat covered his brow and he wiped it off with his hand. The images had come back to him. Horrible godforsaken images. Images of death and carnage, of severed limbs and decapitated heads. Images so horrific that no amount of time or medicating had been able to delete them from his brain. Of burning flesh, of piles of dead bodies, of talking to your best friend one minute and having his head blown off a second later. For a long time the drinking had gotten rid of the images for him. For a long time he assumed they had gone away. However they would still come back to him from time to time and tonight seemed to be one of those nights. He got up from his bed. He looked at the clock 4:30 am it was very early. Still he knew it was unlikely he would be able to get to sleep again. Most likely it would invite more images. He walked over to his liquor cabinet. He extracted a tumbler glass from underneath and poured himself a large shot. He took the shot as if he were drinking water. At this point it was almost a reflex something done without thinking. Johnny had a meeting with Vito later and he was already worried. Fear was something that was always hard for him to process. After all he had been a marine earlier in life. A decorated combat veteran for him to be scared because of a few overweight Italians seemed absurd to him. Still he knew what those men were capable of. They could order a man killed without a second thought. If the boss said so they would murder their own brother. What chance did he stand? An Irishman in a sea of Italians. They had always liked him but he knew the bigger picture. He knew if the hammer really came down they woulden't hesitate to put him out of the picture. And nowadays the hammer was coming down hard. Already the government had supeoaned him before a congressional committe investigating organized crime in labor. It was only a matter of time before they figured it all out. John poured another shot, its going to be a long day he thought.