Well I am progressing on the book to the point where I feel comfortable releasing a brief view. It's still untitled but I did give a name to this passage. In regards to titles. I treat my stories like I treat my pets. I let them tell me their name over time. So here it is:

People think hell is a volcanic world where soul’s burn, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. In actuality, hell is a cold dark place filled with silence. Almost like being locked in a freezer full of corpses. Well, there is the occasional scream just to keep you awake. What kind of creature would live in a place like that?

Once you stare into the face of evil, you can never get that image out of your mind. It’s engraved into your soul and every time you close your eyes you can see the face of evil staring back at you. It’s waiting for you; waiting until you are at your weakest. Then it will strike and take away everything you hold close to your heart.

The eyes of evil are like two lifeless pieces of coal. An endless black pit filled with horror and pain. There is no life in the void, only death, decay and darkness. They will suck the life out of you; absorbing the laughter and smiles, while leaving behind isolation and terror.

When darkness descends, the wake of destruction is much like a tsunami. One day your family is happy without a care in the world. Then, one day you feel the cold spots. Then, voices in the dark empty house. The voices are a whisper in your ear like someone is standing right next to you but no one is there. You can feel the icy breath softly rushing into your ear as you name is whispered.

At first you think you are crazy but then you feel an invisible hand on your shoulder. The touches are gentle at first but become more intense often leaving bruises. You put your groceries away in the closet and are shoved inside with the door slamming behind. You bang on the door frantically trying to open it but it will not budge. It’s like a concrete wall and your fists make only a dull thud against the wood.

Then one night you awaken to a stranger sitting on your night stand staring through you. He looks real enough but you must be dreaming because, the eyes are strange. The eyes are nothing but two pools of darkness. You exhale and see you breath – its freezing! You want to scream but you can’t even move. Terror fills the room as he floats to the ceiling and vanishes in a black fog which slowly dissipates.

You notice other strange things happening in the house. The electrical appliances come on by themselves. The television in the basement displays only an eerie green static and if you look closely you can see a dark figure within. You unplug it but it still works!

Your family photos have blurred spots in them. You can see other people’s faces, sometimes appearing directly over your faces. The translucent white orbs are everywhere. In some pictures it looks like it is snowing in your house. Other people start to notice strange things happening in your house. They are scared to come over now so they stay away, further contributing to your isolation. You are the dark secret in the family that no one talks about but everybody suspects.

Now you are starting to see other people in the house. Is he bringing them here? You sense the man is living in your closet. At times you can see his evil glare between the shirts when you are putting the clothes away. You can see him run past you out of the corner of your eye but you never get a good look at him. You only get a better look at his face at night.

The night terrors are the worst. That is when the man in the bedroom attacks you; often while your husband is asleep in the bed with you. You must be crazy, you must be imagining this; but the bruises on your inner thigh are proof enough for you. How can you be raped by an invisible man? If you say something they will put you away.

As evil descends over your home you can think of only one thing. If you can see this and feel this, what about the kids? How will you fight this?

Keep in mind, I am trying to paint an aura of fear and hopelessness, which an evil spirit would bring into your life if he would appear. This particular story is based on an actual case I am currently working on.

I love zombie movies. In fact, the past two nights I watched Dawn of The Dead and Land of The Dead non stop. I finally squeezed in the Weather Man but the whole time I was thinking about watching Resident Evil. Why do I like these movies so much? I finally think I know why.

In a zombie film we are all equal; black, white, brown, red, yellow, male, and female. It’s us versus the zombies. Money has no value and your family and the friends around you matter the most. If they die then you will die. I think this is how humans are supposed to live. I don’t mean fighting the undead but living in REAL communities, caring about one another and keeping your neighbor safe from the “evil” people.

In a zombie movie the things you need to survive, other than the community are food, shelter and learning how to survive (education). You are not living in some upper class asshole-world with them telling you what to do, what you should know, who you should know, how much you must pay them for it, or what your values should be.

Land of the Dead is awesome because the dead actually attack the upper class high rise and eat them all. They think they are safe as they have the grunts living on the streets below but all the grunts run away when they are overrun by the zombies and leave the upper class to be eaten. That movie definitely has a moral to the story and it mirrors real life more than you think.

I don’t like to see anybody hurt but I have often thought about the French in the old days storming the castle and beheading the king and queen. When I was in high school, I never understood how they could do that, but as I have aged, I understand completely. The whole “let them eat cake” attitude the upper class has is disturbing to me. So when I watch them get eaten by zombies I laugh out loud.

Tonight it's Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2. Am I sick?

Part of my problem (if you want to call it a problem) is money holds no value to me. I would rather have the stuff money gets than the money itself. My only motivation to get money is to pay my mortgage, utilities, and get the few things I need to survive and live comfortably. So when I hear about companies putting profits before people it is very hard for me to understand why.

Some people, on the other hand, worship money. They horde it, they collect it; it is the most important thing to them. They will kill for it, screw for it, sell their kids for it, sell their family for it, sell their soul for it, and trade anything to get it. Why? I don’t understand this; can somebody explain it to me?

It's very ironic that many of the people who horde money or condone the hording of money claim to be the most religious. Yet another thing I do not understand. No matter what God you worship, I cannot remember any of the prophets, apostles or demigods having lots of money or condoning the hording of cash.

Isn’t it ironic how the CEO goes to church on Sunday and then goes to work during the week behaving the exact opposite of what the preacher teaches? Exploiting over seas workers, firing employees, destroying families, while collecting all of their earnings for himself. Isn’t it ironic how the President goes to church and claims to hear God's voice and then signs legislation to benefit the wealthy and never sponsors legislation to help the poor? Makes me wonder who he is actually listening to, God, or something else (if you know who I mean).

I am very lucky because other than my mortgage and a slight student loan, I have no debt. My cars are paid off, my credit cards are at a zero balance, I have no second mortgage on my house and 50% of my net salary is put into some type of savings account. I could easily sell out and abandon the poor like other people in my class but I can’t.

I believe in the phrase, “with great power comes great responsibility”. But our political leaders, although they have great power, are not responsible at all. Instead of helping the very rich, which do not need any help; they should be helping the poorer Americans so everybody can live the American dream. So what if the wealthiest Americans have to spend a little more in taxes, it still won’t matter to their bottom line. They will still be ultra rich when it’s all said and done but since they horde money they just cannot do it. Why? I do not understand this at all.

Let’s take the Walton’s for example. In one single quarter they each earned $17 billion. If they each took only $1 billion (and it probably would not even be that much) and gave all of their employees healthcare, they would still have $16 billion and they would make hundreds of thousands of people/families better off. So why can’t they do this? I would have no problem doing this and would consider it an honor if I could have a positive impact on this many people. I don’t even go to church every Sunday but the Walton’s do; do you think they could figure this out? Hello?! Do you listen to what the preacher is saying to you?!

Am I way off here? Please tell me if I am.

When you look at the bills that are signed into law, did you ever consider what the outcome would be if the bills were subject to a popular vote? My thoughts are the results would be 180 degrees different. Right now minority of people from the upper class rules our country and this probably will not change in the coming generations unless steps are taken to stop it. Before you can stop it you have to realize a problem exists. Let’s look at some recent laws and see if the majority of citizens in the United States would vote differently than the politicians.

Filial Responsibility Laws
Status: Already a law in 30 states.
I cannot see any citizen approving this bill unless they own a hospital or long term care facility. But yet even though these laws benefit a small number of people our politicians are signing these into law in 30 states and counting.

Prediction: Fail by at least at 90% - 10% margin.

Bankruptcy Laws
Status: already a law
The bankruptcy laws were changed in 2005 giving creditors even more power by making it impossible to get out of debt. Based upon the fact that over 2 million Americans filed for bankruptcy in 2004 and almost 1.8 million filed in 2005 why would we want to make it more difficult to file? It is important to note that the number one reason why people file for bankruptcy is to save their home because of a hospital bill.

Only credit card companies, banks and hospitals would want this law tightened and since they represent a small portion of the American population I would think this bill would be defeated by a landslide. So why do our politicians support a bill that hurt the majority of the people that voted them into office?

Prediction: Fail by at least at 80% - 20% margin.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
Status: Already a law
This law transforms our 14 year old kids that download their favorite music into felons capable of serving jail terms up to 10 years and paying fines up to $1 million. If the fines were realistic, let's say, $5 a song with no jail time and lawbreakers were misdemeanors and not felons, this law might have a chance but the way it reads now there is no way this would pass a popular vote.

The only group in America in favor of this law would be the minority servicing the RIAA and the MPAA; everybody else hates it.

Prediction: Fail by at least a 95% - 5% margin.

Privatizing Social Security
Status: Proposed legislation.
I cannot imagine anybody over 50 years of age supporting a law REDUCING Social Security benefits. The only reason younger people would vote for such a law would be if they are convinced they will not get a chance to collect their benefits upon retiring. The reality is there are plenty of funds to keep Social Security healthy for generations provided the richest 1% of the country contributes to this fund as the original law intended. Remember, the plan to “strengthen” is really a plan to “eliminate” or “reduce” Social Security.

Prediction (if the truth is known): 90% - 10% against privatization.
Prediction (if the deception is believed): 50% - 50%. Even if the deception is believed the seniors out vote the younger generations and will never vote for any changes to this program.

National Healthcare
Status: No longer even discussed.
This is the greatest need in our Country, period! If this was even mentioned again in Washington I'm sure the smear campaign against it would be overwhelming. The minority would be over estimating taxes for the middle class to scare them off completely.

The only way the politicians could prevent this from becoming a law is if they worded the law so the tax burden fell squarely on the middle class. If it was written so the wealthiest individuals and corporations funded the difference needed between what we are paying now and what would be needed this law would overwhelmingly pass.

The piece of mind with knowing you could get healthcare for your family without the threat of losing everything you own is so important for our American families. With what we currently pay for healthcare we should be able to afford a national plan but the healthcare industry would have to be reformed.

Prediction: Pass overwhelmingly by 90% - 10%.

Estate Tax (renamed Death Tax to scare the middle class)
The Estate Tax is a tax on the estates on the minority of the super rich in our country when their estate is passed onto the heir. This tax does not affect the majority of the middle class or the lower class as the current administration would have you believe. Because this tax was eliminated, the middle class has had to pick up the difference and pay more.

Prediction: Estate Tax is NOT repealed 90% - 10%

Deregulation of Electricity and Natural Gas
Status: Proposed
The only reason to deregulate these utilities is to increase profits for the companies providing the service. In increase for their profits translates into families paying more to keep warn in the winter when they already cannot afford their current bills. The illusion is this deregulation will somehow make our rates cheaper, yea right!!!

Since nobody wants higher utilities I predict a popular vote would put the smack down on this proposal. The politicians are considering this even after the Enron debacle because the lobbyists for these utilities are contributing many dollars to the Republican and Democratic parties and candidates.

Prediction: 90% - 10% to retain the regulation of utilities.

Other ways the minority rules the majority:
• Upper class never fights wars only middle and lower classes.
• Tax deductions mostly benefit the minority of wealthiest Americans.
• Credit laws only benefit the minority of wealthiest Americans.

When you look at how our politicians vote, it is the completely opposite of the popular vote. Why is this? This is because when they cast their votes, our politicians are influenced by the lobbyists and not the citizens of our country. The lobbyists represent the small minority of rich citizens in our country and almost never represent us.

These lobbyists should be kicked out of Washington and all gifts to politicians of any kind should be eliminated. This will return honesty to our government and give power back to the majority of people. Until these changes are made the minority will rule us forever.

Can you think of any other ways the minority rules the majority in this Country?

The definition of slavery is the state of being under the control of another person against their will, enforced by violence or other forms of coercion. Slavery almost always occurs for the purpose of securing the labor of the person concerned.

If you remove the word “violence” from the above definition you have just described the labor conditions in much of the world including the United States. The majority of workers in the United States hate their jobs but cannot quit and are working poor. Working poor means they work full-time but still cannot support themselves or a family. While the physical abuse is outlawed the mental abuse is rampant. I will provide evidence below suggesting a new form of slavery exists in the US today. The masters are the fortune 500 corporations and richest 1% of the country. The slaves are the middle and lower classes.

The morale of today’s workforce is the lowest in thirty years. Management is becoming more ruthless and demanding, as principle-centered leadership styles are abandoned in favor of scare tactics. Working long hours or weekends is expected regardless of your family conditions. Women who use family leave to have a baby are viewed as a problem and often return to their jobs without the support of management.

In the IT field, training, which was a staple since 1990, is gone. In the mid to late 90’s training was a part of your professional development, so company time was devoted to learning the newest technology. Today, professional development plans have been eliminated as employers expect workers to learn the latest technology on their own time, taking even more time away from the family. You don't like these new rules.....tough! If you look in the local newspaper or on-line the good jobs are just not there anymore.

No one I know of is happy working in the corporate sector anymore. The spirit and comradery of the office is replaced with a deafening silence as people are scared to lose their jobs, so they tolerate horrible conditions, bad employer behavior and declining benefits and wages. In the IT field, everything is now a short term consulting gig with no benefits. If you take one of those you are not technically unemployed but those are not good jobs either. Thus the work force today is nothing but a pool of slaves. Very few people enjoy their job nor can they leave for something better because there is nothing better available.

While company profits along with the number of hours worked continue to climb, personal wages and working conditions continue to decline. Politicians like to point to the low unemployment rate as a signal for good news for the under classes. What they don’t tell you is that many of those jobs do not pay enough for someone to support a family, so our country continues to produce working poor families. Even worse, this same system makes it impossible for people to improve their conditions by not providing higher education and not allowing employees to organize to obtain a livable wage.

Ford Motor Company earned $2 billion dollars in profits last year is now somehow broke and firing 30,000 employees. I’m sure as their sales show growth in the coming months those jobs will be replaced with cheaper labor in over seas factories. Their new buyout program marks the beginning of the end for company provided retirement benefits for the working class.


BEGIN SARCASM

You are in the richest 1% tax bracket or you have just been promoted to the CEO of a company and you want to know how to rule the slaves. Below is required reading for all potential masters.

The goal of the master is to keep the slave working. Because of those annoying labor laws you must now pay slaves but remember never to give them enough money so they can stop working only give them just enough to come back tomorrow. You will now be given detailed instructions on how to keep your slaves working. NOTE: remember to repeal those labor laws.

Create a system of lending in which interest exceeds the original principle
This is probably the best way to enslave a population. Credit card debts and home loans that can never be repaid and plenty of payday loans keep the slaves without cash and working. Slaves get absolutely no value in credit because all of the laws are slanted in favor of the masters.

Let’s look at home loans. If a slave's mortgage is $150,000 at 5.81% interest for 30 years, by the time they pay off their house they will pay $317,192. This is the primary tool in keeping the slaves working and indebted to the system for an entire lifetime. Al Capone used to give a better interest rate to his gambling debtors than these loans.

As a master, you want these business practices in your favor since you have all the money anyway. Hopefully, the slaves will pay off their MasterCard with their Visa so they have to work overtime tomorrow. WHOOPS! You don't pay overtime! HA! HA! HA! HA!

Thankfully, the bankruptcy laws were finally changed to favor the masters. Now it is easier than ever to keep the slave in a lifetime of debt and even take their home. We must all praise the Republican Congress and President Bush for that masterpiece.

No healthcare
Never give the young slaves healthcare because they will retain their property longer. You always want to keep the fear of losing their home within reach. As an added bonus, the Filial Responsibility Laws enable the masters to take the inheritance of all middle and lower classes and still dig into the heirs savings and property. Don't worry about similar laws taking your stuff because the Death Tax was eliminated.

If you give the older slaves healthcare they will not work as many years. A national healthcare plan would only help people retire sooner. Masters hate for the slaves to retire.

No retirement
Retirement is an obstacle to work and an obstacle to profits. You want everybody working. This keeps the labor pool larger and the wages lower. Plus you don’t want a bunch of lazy-ass old people sucking down your profits so all retirement plans and healthcare must be eliminated.

The dilemma is how to keep the older folks working cheaply. After all, experience translates to decent wages; but masters hate decent wages. The plan here would be to figure out a way to fire them when they are about 10 years away from retirement. Blame it on a recession or something like that. Now you can hire them back at nothing. The next three sections will help you deal with this problem.

Remember to support President Bush's plan to "strengthen" Social Security. LOL!! Suckers!!

Keep wages low through mass layoffs and rehiring
The slaves should always have the illusion that wages are set by the market. This makes it easier to fire everybody and hire them all back at lower wages without a revolt. Better yet, don’t reopen in the United States. There are cheaper slaves in China, Mexico or any of the Central American countries. This is a great plan to break a union.

Keep wages low by implementing policies like NAFTA and CAFTA
If you want many cheap slaves you will have to pay many politicians to support laws that enhance your ability to be master. Let the politicians decide how to break the news to the slaves.

The politicians can spin anything negative to the slaves out to be a positive, and the dumb ass slaves believe it all every time. Remember the Clean Air Act actually allows more pollutants into the air. They use phrases like “good for the economy”. The slaves don’t understand that “good for the economy” translates into good for the master.

No employment laws for workers
Like I said earlier, as the master, you will have to pay politicians to pass laws in your favor. You cannot have employment laws standing in the way when you want to relocate a plant to China or fire half of your work force to collect a lucrative bonus. Unions used to protect people from predatory management practices like this. Again, we see how the political spin machine is so amazing because now the slaves actually believe that unions are evil!!! LOL!!

Create an atmosphere of fear
Nothing helps a slave forget about his rights faster than fear. As a master, this atmosphere of fear created by terrorism is just what you need to get laws like the Patriot Act acceptable to the slaves. It also helps you avoid the troublesome Bill of Rights and get the surveillance you need. Also, as a master you must understand many of the judges are not on your side so they must be completely ignored in the warrant process.

Create a false sense of urgency
A good salesman knows if you want to sell somebody something they do not need, insist they buy it now before it’s too late. Thus President Bush’s plan to “strengthen” Social Security is needed now before the plan is bankrupt. He won’t tell you that if he would eliminate all the tax breaks for the richest 1% of the country, Social Security would be healthy for decades. LOL!!! Suckers!!!!

Instilling a sense of entitlement for the masters
Even the slaves believe in this sense of entitlement for the masters. The proof is they voted in a political party that overwhelming supports the richest corporations and the richest 1% of the country. The tax burden has been shifted from the masters to the slaves but the slaves overwhelmingly accept this. The slaves support plans to eliminate social programs that cut their own throats because the masters use words like “strengthen” when they intend to “weaken”.

Slaves also believe their labor to be inferior to the masters. Why else would they allow the masters to earn so much more in comparison to their meager wages? A CEO earns 400 times more than the average slave but no one complains because the masters are entitled to this money.

If a slave wants to organize a union just to get healthcare and a decent living wage this slave is ostracized and the other slaves nod in support of the master. As a master, you can see how easily it is to manipulate the slaves and easily exploit their lack of intelligence.

Allowing the masters to control their own wages and benefits
As a master you can make a different set of rules for yourself. For example you give yourself healthcare or a decent wage but deny the slaves the same. The beauty of this is the slaves actually support and believe you have a right to a different set of rules. After all, you are the master.

Encourage a system that puts profit before people
As a master you can earn 400 times more than your slaves but complain about the high price of labor. Then, layoff half of the slaves forcing the remaining slaves to pick up the slack while taking away their healthcare and retirement and freezing wages. Now you can collect a record bonus and be hailed a hero. This is how the system works today in America and as a master you have to take advantage of this.

An even better plan would be to convince the slaves your company is not profitable, even though you earned $2 billion in profits and then fire everybody and open your plants in China. Now you can collect an even bigger bonus because you destroyed more good paying American jobs but the slaves will still hail you as a hero for "saving" the company.

Give the illusion of choice
Perhaps the funniest thing about being a master is Election Day because you get to watch the slaves flock to the polls with a gleam in their eyes. It doesn’t matter who gets elected, your lobbyists own all the politicians anyway, so you win. LOL!!!

Keep education a low priority
You don't want too many slaves to be educated. The people who can afford education should get the education and to hell with the rest. You don't want some loose lipped prick like the guy who writes this blog to enlighten people.

Every once in a while it helps when a slave breaks out and makes it big; this will continue the illusion that wealth is possible for the slave. LOL!!! They're so gullible!!!

END SARCASM

Now I'm back and the sarcasm is over. I hope I did not offend anybody but I wanted to use sarcasm to prove my point. Do you see any similarities to the policies of the master and the rules of business in today’s world?

I got tagged by Milwaukee Girl. It was the first time I have ever been tagged so I hope I do not disappoint.

Four jobs I've had:
1. IT Manager
2. Manager at a Pizza Hut (I only lasted five days cuz it sucked)
3. Manager for the Department of Commerce
4. Personal Trainer/Sales at Bally’s Fitness

Movies I can watch over and over:
1. Gladiator
2. Office Space
3. Batman Begins
4. The Notebook
5. Napoleon Dynamite
6. Lord of The Rings Trilogy
7. Chronicles of Riddick
8. Les Miserables (Liam Neeson)
9. Phantom of The Opera (I never miss the musical when it comes)
10. Man In The Iron Mask
11. Legends of The Fall
12. Titanic
13. Dawn of The Dead
14. Shaun of The Dead
15. Slap Shot

Places I have lived (I have only lived in three):
1. St Louis, MO
2. Barnhart, MO
3. Mehlville, MO

TV Shows I'm addicted to:
1. CSI (Las Vegas only)
2. Real Time with Bill Maher
3. Deadwood
4. Sopranos
5. Rome
6. Dirty Jobs
7. Animal Precinct (this one is so sad)
8. Seinfeld (on DVD)
9. Fawlty Towers (on DVD)
10. 24 (DVD version only - too many commercials on network)

Four highly-touted TV shows I detest:
1. American Idol Season 1
2. American Idol Season 2
3. American Idol Season 3
4. American Idol Season 4
5. Anything with commercials is hard to watch except CSI.

Books I'd recommend to anyone, anytime:
1. Lord of The Rings Trilogy – JRR Tolkien
2. New Rules – Bill Maher
3. What’s The Matter With Kansas? – Thomas Frank
4. The Bell Witch – Brent Monohan
5. Jurassic Park - Michael Crichton
6. Crash!ng The Party - Ralph Nader
7. The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead - Max Brooks
8. How To Survive A Robot Uprising - Daniel Wilson

The best places I have vacationed:
1. Valley of the Gods, UT
2. Grand Canyon, AZ
3. Hearst Castle, CA
4. Bryce Canyon, UT
5. Red Rock, AZ
6. Monument Valley, AZ
7. Branson, MO
8. Tombstone, AZ
9. Phoenix, AZ
10. Baja, Mexico
11. Arches National Park, UT

My favorite dishes:
1. Chili (with or without spaghetti)
2. Steak off the grill with asparagus
3. Lasagna
4. Chinese Food
5. Imo's Pizza (The best damn pizza, period!!)
6. Toasted Ravioli

Sites I visit daily:
1. stltoday.com
2. blogspot.com
3. netflix.com
4. thedigitalbits.com
5. stlwritersguild.com

Places I want to go before I die:
1. Egypt
2. Transylvania
3. Australia
4. Stonehenge
5. Iceland
6. On a motorcycle ride across Europe
7. Salem, MA
8. Great Wall of China
9. Anywhere in Alaska
10. Switzerland
11. Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast