machievelli

'Forgive me for this but it's been on the brain a while, how about a CSI who does seem to know everything?'

More definition. Psychic? Sherlock Holmes style? Having just seen the Marvel Avenger Movie, I can picture a 'super sleuth' Bruce Banner' type. Just have to find what girl to use, or introduce another one...

All right, here goes:

The person who reviewed your story pulled no punches. The first rule I have in dealing with an author, whether screen or print, is how much of the story entertained, amused and surprised me. As that person said, when you described the person they were looking at AS a human being, it was a forgone conclusion where it was located.

Right now Josh Whelan is the one screenwriter I enjoy, because he takes situations and turns them on their head. Like having someone comment that 'the next time you are going to stab me in the back, try doing it to my face'.

As Heinline pointed out, when service to your country becomes either a chore or duty others must carry, you're headed down. When all you have for your defenders is contempt, you are near the bottom. Rome went from the largest citizen army in their era to the lowest in less than two centuries because mercenaries and slave warriors were good enough for such nasty duties.

As for leaders, they cause a lot of the problems. Spending on stupid things (Such as Caligula spending money on parties. The term Bread and Circuses was coined for the last few Emperors of Rome, spending money on gladitorial games and enough bread to sooth but not remove the hunger of the poor.

We entered that stage when Franklin Roosevelt decided to tax the middle class into penury to keep the poor working, something I expect to see repeated in the next few years.

As to my comments in the critic's thread, your work is good on the whole, but like any young writer, there are mistakes that are on the technical level that interfere, and I am not talking about what we have previously discussed. I suggest you check out a book on script writng, or better yet, watch a movie from a critic's point of view. Look at the scenes they wrote that don't feel right, and see where even a professional makes mistakes that bother their viewers.

Don't feel depressed by what I have said. My primary job here is to help you grow as an author, not rip you up when you try.

Ask anyone who has been so honored, I don't hand out gold stars for showing up.

Have you read the second part of Joining? Tell me what you think. I have portrayed the US government as a-holes, but when you read up on the argument about SETI, you will see that it became a bone of contention between the US and the Communist bloqs due to the possibility of destabillizing alien tech.

Can you help me? I asked Jedimaster12 to delete a duplicate posting because I had reorganized, and wasn't sure if people would come back to read it, but she accidentally deleted the newer version. The post is Dark Side of the Mirror, she removed the one marked redux instead.

Could you do this for me, please?

DOn't have time to read anything and everything (Maybe I should try to win a million while I live here in Vegas?) so what work and chapter did you use any of my stuff?

DOn't worry, if I yelled at everyone who used a line I had posted here I'd have a raw throat even today

Oh, btw, the primary reason I don't get into screaming agruments here is because there are enough idiots who will argue for the sake of arguing, so try to tone it down and don't get banned again, K?

FDR got the money for the federal projects by creating the first peacetime income tax. Before that they had been only allowed during time of war or right afterward until the war debts were paid off. The idea of a rich man not paying his 'fair share' came from that time as well. Something like 60 percent of the rich in this country left between 1933 and 1939 because they were expected to pay up to 90 percent of their income as a 'fair share'. They also tried to make welfare an honorable thing.

The 'New Dealers' still in government right at the end of WWII were used in of all places, Germany after the war. They showed their way of thinking by dismantling 90 percent of Germany's industry (Only 40 percent of which was linked directly to military suppliers) and handing it to the Russians. They stood back as three quarters of a million German soldiers captured in France were made into slaves unable to leave France without passports while forcine them to work just to eat in the iron and coal mines.

Then to put the icing on the cake, they ordered all Russian prisoners, including those who had been in POW camps to be returned to Russia whether they wished to be or not. The Liensk Cossacks were among these, 60,000 prisoners taken by British and American troops turned over to the Russians who didn't even bother to ship them home. They all lay in mass graves in Austria now. Among them were almost 40,000 women and children brought out by their families.

Our service is All volunteer now; but you still hear the 'brainwashed soldier' crap.

Face it, we haven't had a decent president since Theodore Roosevelt.

First thing to remember, is that most enhanced energy weapons have line of sight ranges for thremal and radiation pulses. That means that a nuclear weapon detonated at 5,000 meters (about 16,000 feet) will irradiate or set alight anything within a radius of 50 miles. While that sounds large, it is less than one thousanddth of one percent of the planet's surface.

To do what you suggest, you need not one bomb, but severa scattered all over the planetl.

Back in the seventies, they envisioned a 'doomsday' device which consisted of 50 missiles each with a 100 megaton weapon with a cobalt/ thorium sheath set where prevailing winds would cause the maximum spread. The detonation would cause the thorium to suck up the raqdiation of the blast which would be transferred to the cobalt releasing cobalt isotopes with a half life of approximately fifty years as fallout.

I don't know if you have ever read it, but in the Book Starship Troopers by Heinlien, the main character is speaking with a doctor when he is taking his induction physical. In the book, military service (Broadened further in future chapters to electrical linemen, firefighters and police) guarantees the right to vote. The doctor (A civilian) examining him had this to say; 'But if you came in here in a wheel chair and blind in both eyes and were silly enough to insist on enrolling, they would find something silly enough to match. Counting the fuzz on a caterpillar by touch, maybe.'

I can see someone in charge of such things saying 'organ donor until there's nothing left'

I don't know if you've read it so far, but after rereading it, I felt it was too confusing. After all, if I'm confused, what about the reader who isn't inside my head.

Something to avoid. Dark, drafty, dusty, and there be monsters there...

I know, I found out where it was and was there on Wednesday from ten AM to 4:30. Kept getting the runaround. 'We told them to come back after lunch', then 'We told them to be back after 4', then 'We couldn't have them help because it's a Union shop, so we let them go for the day'. All from the Conventions staff.

Followed by getting the runaround on the phone from the hotel staff right up to someone from security (Why I was sent to them I have no idea) who told me that they could neither confirm nor deny if you were staying in the hotel, nor give you a message because it violates your privacy.

Next time, maybe one of us, oh, I don't know, give the other a cell phone number? The note I left for you with that was obviously not delivered.

I may be wrong, but she reminds me of Zakal a bit.

Question, is Mass Effect an online game? I was looking at it over at Best buy and it says you need an internet link. If it is, do they charge?

I tried to go to chapter 7 and the system tells me there are only six. So I went and read the reviews.

The one thing I noticed is she is nitpicking, but not flaming you. She's picking specific points in the story, and saying 'why didn't you do this?'. I flipped back further and will have to read each chapter and comment to see if there is justification for her comments, but if I had written that review of your work, I doubt you would have been as upset. Give me a few days, and I'll do just that

I was having fun after I watched the new 'Clash of the Titans' because the only 'heroes' in Christianity are the ones that pretty much died horribly for their faith. I had also seen an Anime that reminded me of the old TV show 'Greatest American Hero' where the guy doesn't under stand the suit or what powers he has, so he in hero form tends to fly into buildings, or with his butt high in the air, head down.

I decided the gods of mythology had gotten together and given the power to be an old style hero like Gilgamesh or Jason to some poor schlub who wouldn't have amounted to anything. I had fun with that too. Aphrodite sitting on the available laps, Artemis petting her pet Bubo the owl, who promptly bites her hand, that kind of thing

However, unlike a comic book hero, he's supposed to create his own form, but he's into Japanese Anime where most of what we define as heroes are female...

I will anyway because you asked. I think I owe that sale I made, since you did a working for me a few months ago.

There is a woman corresponding with me from overseas, and she needs some cash. What I would like you to do is this:

Do another work, asking for enough money to get her here. But if she is part of a scam, have it fail, and have your dragon tell you it has. That way if she is telling the truth, I can get the love I asked for as well.

I've done the review, but I will cut it to save. All right?

I expect you'll want to let me know when.

remember that entire diatribe he and I got into a year or so ago about what is, and is not real? The additional thread he had to answer which got deleted? Read the reviews of his latest opus, and he is ignoring every damn critiques because it fit's what he bloody well believes!

If I were a real bastard, I'd ask you and the other admins to make me one just to 86 him!

The problem with monarchy is that you can't guarantee what the kids are going to be like. In the Armageddon Inheritance series they made military service a tradition because learning discipline would make that heir a more responsible person later.

The Expunging group would not be a government per se, they would be a limiting group that would force people to think before they pass laws. Robert Heinlien in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress pointed out that restrictive laws are passed because people don't like other people doing something. They never use themselves as the target, it's always 'I hate when someone (Insert peeve).

The problem, And again everyone ignores it, is that before 1933, all money the Feds got were from tarrifs, customs duties, and a percentage of income taxes and the States and cities divied up the rest of the property taxes. After 1933 only the states and cities got the property taxes but like the Feds came up with new ones. As an example where I work at Verizon I have seen taxes as follows; Federal Telecommunications ta, State sales tax and Telecommunications tax, County sales tax and Telecommunications tax, even city sales tax and Telecommunications tax.

It was still Military intelligence then The forerunner of the Cia, the OSS didn't exist yet.

The name by the way is Theobold, sorry) commented that of the people who were on the Magic list, two Military officers (CNO Army Chief of Staff, and War Plans for both the Army and the Navy) have a constitutional mandate to inform their troops of danger unless they recieve orders to the Contrary. Yet none of these men passed on the information. In fact in 1948 when they had the last inquiry into Pearl Harbor, Admiral King stated before a combined subcommittee that he had specific orders not to. However everyone ignored the fact that only one man has such authority, and that was Roosevelt. Theobold pointed out that Roosevelt by himself could not have hidden this. There was a combined effort by the Democrats (His party) to conceal it because the voters would have hung them like Mussolini if it had become public knowledge.

What was interesting about treatment of our enemies; Japan, who attacked us so nastily were allowed a negotiated surrender while Germany, who didn't were brutalized. Under military regulations issued under order 2506 (I think it was) were told that under no circumstances was there to be any fraternization between our troops and the Germans. Yet the Japanese supplied guards for American posts standing alongside the Americans.

We didn't give them money until after 1950 because Secretary of State George C Marshall spent 87 Billion dollars (In 1950-53 dollars) on the Marshall Plan to rebuild and rearm both Japan and Germany. To make it even more interesting The US had framed the present Japanese Constitution with Article nine that doesn't allow them a navy army or air force.

The review system has a link at the top where yoju choos if you wish it reviewed or not. you can always send me a PM or send me one to my email.

It should be listed on my contact info. If it is not, let me know

They characterized the tax as an 'emergency measure' that had a sundown clause just like the Patriot act now. Yet they never let the emergency end. Befrore 1933, there was a pauper's oath you had to swear to get government assisntance here. By doing so, you also gave up the right to vote until you could rescind it. In return the government would have you work on roads etc in return for room and board. Every other charitable functions were controled by the churches, so the 'faith based initiative' Bush pushed was to get al of those government organizations out of the welfare business. As for taxes, read the section written by Tom Clancy in Executive Orders. He pointed out that title 17 (Income tax law) is 90 percent loopholes that can be used by someone to avoid paying their 'fair share'. What he didn't mention is the tax structure was created in 1970 when a CEO was making about 50,000 a year, yet has not been changed. So the upper middle class, the working stiffs, are getting screwed because they are suddenly 'upper management.

As for the industry the Russians were allowed to take any factories in the Russian zone, England France and the US was supposed to take 30 percent, giving ten to the Russians as reparations. Their actions were shabby because the New Dealers who had lost power when Truman took office were kicked to the curb, and they took over administration of the US zone. One of their acts was to take all of the landed estates and divide them into farms given to small farmers without compensation. Considering they had been brutalized by the Nazis then by us, it's not surprising they didn't want to deal with us for years. In fact ex treasury secretary morgenthau had sugested we make the entire nation agrarian, destroy all industry across Germany to force them to become farmers. The fact that the only way to do so was reduce the German population to less than 6 million was conveniently ignored.

Also, Roosevelt did everything he could to get us into WWII long before Pearl Harbor. He signed the North Atlantic Treaty in 1940, and began to escort convoys first within 200 miles of the coast then split the Atlantic so that east of Iceland Americans were escorting them. When USS Kearny prosecuted an atack against a German U Boat within that 'neutral zone (A violation of international law by the way) He used that as proof of German brutality when that sub dared to fire a torpedo that didn't even come close just to warn the destroyer off. Two American destroyers, the Rueben James and the Greer werre torpedoed during this time and the Democrats screamed about brutal attacks. What was brought out (And drove public opinion) was that both ships were of the same class as the 50 lend lease (Another violation of International law) destroyers we had given the English.

Now to make matter worse, read a book by Thorvald called the Last Secret of Pearl Harbor. Thorvald was the COMDESPAC (COmmander destroyers in the Pacific) in 1941who was incensed by the treatment of Admiral Kimmel. In 1953 he was able to get declassified records about Magic, the code breaking used to read the Japanese codes. He pointed out that while the British had two of the Magic machines, one in Singapore another in London, MacArthur had one, and High COmmand in DC did, Kimmel was not only cut out of that loop, but had to depend on telegrams and radio reports from the US. When the Japanese Ambassador in Hawaii was ordered to give the location of every ship in the harbor first once a month at in late november once a day, he was not told. The famous 'war warning he recieved told him to expect attacks against the phillipnes and points west from there. Worst yet, the US knew the night before that the enemy intended to attack at precisely 1 PM DC time. That meant the only place they could make a surprise attack was Pearl, since it would have been noon in the Canal Zone and 10 Am on the west coast.

They were working on the tank cannon that later became standard, the smoothbore high velocity penetrator. In the air they were working on a long range jet bomber capable of bombing New York, and the upgraded A10 version of the V2 which could have delivered a nuclear warhead to the East Coast. In Naval combat they had created the Walther hydrogen peroxide submarine. The one that was in service sailed into a harbor to surrender, and the captain marked the position of the British cruiser for a day or so of their cruise. He knew it because he literally trailed him at the same speed, unheard of at the time

The question isn't what they were working on, but what they weren't.

Trying to login though the Fusion web site, I receive;

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, webmaster@starwarsknights.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

My attempt to use the email above gives me a 'delivery failed'.

Is their any way you can help?

After reading the first chapter, I was a bit leery of posting on the site. Not that it isn't good; just I have a negatvie weakness for utopian societies that find a use for everyone. The first chapter reminded me of the TV show Lost where John Locke is convinced by sweet reason to give up a kidney to his estranged father. Once the operation is over, of course the 'father' wants nothing to do with him. After all, he got what he wanted.