Facts (f)or Doomsday Sci-Fi?

On November 13, I cut the segment below from a lengthier post on ZeroHedge.Com, a financial web site that monitors all things Wall Street. Since this topic is atypical for the organization, it caught my eye. Quotes within the article from Retired Major General Jerry Curry riveted my attention, particularly the last line of the portion pasted below.

Today, writing about the Apocalypse is popular. The form the end of time takes in a book plot is as varied as the authors writing on the topic. One of my readers has an indie book out in this genre, with a second book in the works. Book two is due to be released by the end of the year.

Given the high level of interest in doomsday matters, I had to share the following text. It is FACTUAL fodder for fictional stories. At this point, I normally sign off with something like “Enjoy, and happy writing,” but given the words you are about to read, I think I’ll pass on the cheery salutation.

Retired Major General Jerry Curry wrote Friday, November 9, 2012:

The Social Security Administration (SSA) confirms that it is purchasing 174 thousand rounds of hollow point bullets to be delivered to 41 locations in major cities across the U.S.

 

***

 

Those against whom the hollow point bullets are to be used — those causing the civil unrest — must be American citizens; since the SSA has never been used overseas to help foreign countries maintain control of their citizens.

 

What would be the target of these 174, 000 rounds of hollow point bullets? It can’t simply be to control demonstrators or rioters. Hollow point bullets are so lethal that the Geneva Convention does not allow their use on the battle field in time of war. Hollow point bullets don’t just stop or hurt people, they penetrate the body, spread out, fragment and cause maximum damage to the body’s organs. Death often follows.

 

Potentially each hollow nose bullet represents a dead American. If so, why would the U.S. government want the SSA to kill 174,000 of our citizens, even during a time of civil unrest?

***

If this were only a one time order of ammunition, it could easily be dismissed. But there is a pattern here. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has ordered 46,000 rounds of hollow point ammunition. Notice that all of these purchases are for the lethal hollow nose bullets.  These bullets are not being purchased and stored for squirrel or coyote hunting. This is serious ammunition manufactured to be used for serious purposes.

 

In the war in Iraq, our military forces expended approximately 70 million rounds per year. In March DHS ordered 750 million rounds of hollow point ammunition. It then turned around and ordered an additional 750 million rounds of miscellaneous bullets including some that are capable of penetrating walls. This is enough ammunition to empty five rounds into the body of every living American citizen. Is this something we and the Congress should be concerned about? What’s the plan that requires so many dead Americans, even during times of civil unrest? Has Congress and the Administration vetted the plan in public.

***

All of these rounds of ammunition can only be used to kill American citizens, though there is enough ammunition being ordered to kill, in addition to every American citizen, also every Iranian, Syrian or Mexican. There is simply too much of it. And this much ammunition can’t be just for training, there aren’t that many weapons and “shooters” in the U.S. to fire it.

***

We have enough military forces to maintain law and order in the U.S. even during times of civil unrest.

 ***

This is a deadly serious business. I hope I’m wrong, but something smells rotten. And If the Congress isn’t going to do its duty and investigate this matter fully, the military will have to protect the Constitution, the nation, and our citizens.

The article on ZeroHedge.com ends with a 1987 quote from a United States Senator. That quote, which follows, when combined with the words of  Major General Curry is enough to make the hairs on my neck stand on end. The words of these powerful, knowledgeable men stimulate my imagination. How about yours?

Senator Daniel Inouye said in 1987:

There exists a shadowy Government with its own Air Force, its own Navy, its own fundraising mechanism, and the ability to pursue its own ideas of national interest, free from all checks and balances, and free from the law itself.

 

My first bite of November– and it tastes delicious.

Thank you, rarasaur, for visiting my blog and posting a “like.” Your visit led me to your site where this darling photo gave me my first laugh of the day. Laughs are priceless gifts, lifting hearts, bringing mirth, improving mental and physical health. So I love you for the gift.

If the rest of you want a dose of merriment, click the link below.

My first bite of November– and it tastes delicious..

But wait! There’s more. I love this blogger’s ACTION! She inspires me to keep trekking the path. Look at her to do list. Yeah, baby! It’s like the old motivational saying goes: throw enough at the wall, and something will stick. So that will be the topic for tomorrow’s post. Stay tuned for Moore!

Grieving Today. . .and Tomorrow

Last night I sold a good friend. Today I am grieving.

My husband is no longer able to ride. His horse has been in the field, unused, for two years– the period of time during which Hubby has had both knees replaced and his heart rebuilt.  The companion to his horse is Sugar Baby, an ancient but healthy mare that was my riding horse until last year, when she tore a muscle in a field accident.

During the course of Sugar Baby’s recovery, I bought a Racking Horse named Jake to ride. Jake is gaited and riding him is easier on my battle-worn body — I have a history of multiple falls from horseback, so my body is beat-up and sore.

But Sugar Baby will always be the best horse I ever had the privilege to ride. She and I were so well matched that she seemed to read my mind. She always did what was asked of her and always took care of me, her rider. On mornings, she would  stand in her spot at the fence and stare toward the front door of the house. The minute she saw movement, she would neigh, asking for breakfast. When I worked around the barn, Sugar usually supervised, nickering softly when I talked to her.

In these erratic times, we are like many other households in the United States. We have our own economic downturn going on in our personal finances. At the end of October, a reckoning of accounts demanded austerity. Logic dictated that two horses that were going unused must go.

Maintaining a horse is expensive. Beyond the cost of food and shelter, there are farrier, vet and grooming expenses. Not to mention winter blankets and the like.

So the mares were sold.

I don’t have the attachment to my husband’s horse Missy that I do to Sugar Baby. Even in advanced age, she is beautiful in my eyes. And she caught the eye of someone else. I find peace that she has a home. But I am grieving that she’s gone.

 

 

 

Rough Day at the Hospital

According to the cardiac surgeon, thirty percent of open heart surgery patients experience arrhythmia after surgery. Wouldn’t you know, hubby is one of those. Today his heart would not come into rhythm on its own, choosing instead to skip beats or beat too fast. Finally, his heart just stopped when the nurses were trying to get him on his feet. He zonked. The nurse screamed–literally–for help. Six medical staff grabbed parts of him and heaved him onto the bed. Hubby’s heart restarted on its own. He came to and looked around, confused by the hubbub surrounding him. After the surgeon, the hospitalist and a consulting cardiologist conferred, hubby was attached to an external pacemaker.

“This thing is shocking me,” he told me in a quiet moment, sometime later. Guess what, darling? That means your heart has stopped beating and the machine is keeping it ticking. Shocks mean it’s working.

The day ended better than it started, when hubby’s heart decided to go rogue at 4 A.M. By 4 P.M., he felt better, looked better and was regaining his composure.

We’ll see what tomorrow holds.

Thanks to all of you who are praying, thinking about us, or supporting us in some way. You are our lifeblood in this moment. You are priceless.

Recent Reads

After a long dry spell in my personal reading, I finished five books, three last week. Many of you read multiple books a week regularly. Other than reading for college, I have never read three complete books within seven days.  The other two books were read a few weeks ago.

Here’s the list:

Mark Sarvas Harry, Revised – first novel

Dean Koontz Forever Odd – part of a  series

Thomas Harris Hannibal Rising – part of a series

Sue Monk Kidd The Secret Life of Bees – first novel

Todd Burpo Heaven Is For Real – first book

The funny thing is that each of these books were loaned to me by someone who read it first, then recommended it to me to read, giving or loaning me the title. Beside my bed, I have a stack of twenty books, maybe more, all recommended to me by another and waiting for me to commit to reading it.

Isn’t it odd that I haven’t selected a book for myself? Instead, my reading is guided by others.

The last time I picked a book for myself was more than a year ago. I chose Anna Karenina by Tolstoy. The one before that was Stephen Hawking’s Universe: The Cosmos Explained. I read most of both books, but finished neither.

Odd.

 

Close Encounter of the Luddite Kind

A special thanks to author Richard Daybell of “Tis Pity He’s a Writer”  (http://richarddaybell.wordpress.com/) for inspiring this musing with his September 24 post. Daybell points out that, as we age, we cast a wary eye on all things unfamiliar. He made me giggle as I recalled my first encounter with my husband’s new work phone.

In the middle of the night, I peel myself from a warm bed to take two dogs to the back door to let them outside for a potty break. I am staggering in the dark, uncoordinated because I am half-asleep and blinded by the darkness. There is little ambient light to help me navigate furniture, walls, and door jambs. Finally, the dogs flee the autumn night cold for the warmth of the house. I wobble toward the bedroom.

My husband’s new iPhone-type device is plugged into a wall socket to recharge when I pass by. Suddenly I am bathed in light from a lighted screen. Like a skunk caught in the beam of a flashlight, I freeze in the darkness, snagged by an all-seeing eye. The Luddite in me abhors the damnable nightlight.

As I climb into bed, my groggy brain wonders, did that phone really light up when I passed it, or was I sleep walking when I walked by it earlier?

Will Creative Humans Be Replaced by Machines in the Future?

The intelligence and military agencies of the United States are working on automated systems to replace human  analysts in intelligence work. The human brain is a masterful “sensemaking” device, but it is subject to the human weaknesses of fatigue, bias or stress. Therefore, the government is going all in to find a machine that can do the work as well as an human, and maybe better.

Until now, the agency points out, the human brain has remained “the only known  example of a general-purpose sensemaking system.” Not for long:  Iarpa wants a  computer that would mimic human strengths, like analytic reasoning or learning  from mistakes, but do it without the accompanying weaknesses. The ideal Iarpa  system would first process and explain human sensemaking: why an analyst opted  for one hypothesis over another. Then, the computer would improve upon it, by  determining whether a decision-maker was affected by ambiguous data, deception,  or even denial. Finally, the system would offer its own sensemaking hypothesis – without any extenuating influence – instead.

Iarpa suggests that the  system would help out “overburdened analysts with routine, low-level analytic  tasks.” But a 2001 report from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense  points out that sensemaking is most often compromised in high-stress situations,  and, for that reason, humans are usually the weakest link.

Read more: http://www.disclose.tv/forum/spytech-agency-wants-software-brains-to-connect-the-dots-t13503.html#ixzz27ISZRsVk

All this gets me wondering, will there come a day when machines are used to write books, create poetry, works of art and music? Will a computer frame a photograph as well as Ansel Adams? Will 3-D copiers create art to rival Michelangelo’s masterpieces using flesh and blood models or mere mathematical formulas derived from analysis of 2-D items? And, if that day comes, who will the audience be?

When Words Won’t Come

For two days I have wrestled with a story from the song prompt “Lightning Crashes”. I don’t want to wimp out in my writing when confronting that which is raw and primal. Nor do I want to go down the path of describing a scene of evil, which is the image my mind keeps presenting.

I have told my brain, “No. Find something else.”

So I sit here, figuratively with pen in hand, with nothing to write.

Casting Spells

Funny the things you discover inadvertently. I was double checking spelling for the piece yesterday. You know how you look at a word. You believe you have spelled it correctly, but it doesn’t look right. I had that happen with the word pregnancy.

I went to Yahoo and typed “spell pregnancy” into the search feature. The search returned a myriad of “pregnancy spells,” including a voodoo spell guaranteed to work.

It got me thinking: do you think there is a writing spell that is guaranteed to produce salable material? Hmmm. I’ll check it out and let you know.

🙂

May 27th Writer’s Quote

Conquer the angry man by love. Conquer the ill-natured man by goodness. Conquer the miser with generosity. Conquer the liar with truth.

~ The Dhammapada