rlfj: Blog

Some of the more interesting things I have found are in the emails I get from overseas readers. Many of them find our system of government as screwy as we find it. I have gotten several emails asking, “Is it really like that?” My usual response is, “No, not really. It’s usually worse!”

Some interesting comments on other things in the chapter. One individual stated that Carl would have voted for NAFTA as a dedicated capitalist and Republican. 132 out of 176 Republicans in Congress voted for it, which means that 44 did not, one out of four. The same ratio (roughly) was true in the Senate. It was not a strict party line vote. Carl even states that he has neo-isolationist tendencies.

Another comment was that the Iranians would never let a nuke get in the hands of terrorists, and Hezbollah would never nuke Israel. There were a variety of reasons given, like they aren’t that crazy and that Hezbollah would be buried under the fallout. Me, I’m pretty old school. I listen to what these guys say, and what they say is that it would be a great idea to kill every Jew on the planet, and then they are coming after everybody else! I think it would be pathetically easy to find some of these guys who think that whatever the consequences are, nuking Israel would be a productive day.

Related to that comment was a comment that Israel would never retaliate against a country that nuked it, out of fear of being attacked by everyone else. Again, I find this out of touch with their public statements. If Israel gets hit by weapons of mass destruction, they are going to retaliate, consequences be damned, and the public stance of the U.S. has been that we will join in.

A different area of comment was on Carl’s thoughts on the efficiency of infrastructure investment in China vs. America. The claim was made, quite accurately, that in China almost no thought is given to environmental, safety, or quality concerns. This is all quite true, and I have no interest in living under such a system. However, I have been to any number of town board meetings (I’m the grumpy old man in the back!) and seen how this plays out here. There has got to be a better way!

Chapter 115 proved one of the most compelling in the story, if email response volume is a metric. I had upwards of 80 emails on this chapter, all positive, though some cursed me for awakening emotions they had thought buried. That was the first day. I woke up the next morning to another 60! I think I ended up somewhere between 150 and 160. What a phenomenal number! For most of you I simply sent back a thank you, but I read all your responses. Many of you referred to loved ones who had passed away from cancer. For what it’s worth, in the ugly disease rating system, I would prefer cancer to the way my father went out with Alzheimer’s. I’d rather lose my body than my mind. Just my opinion.

Many asked if I had a child or loved one die of cancer. No, fortunately not. My mother-in-law and father-in-law passed away from hepatic cancer and melanoma, respectively, but they were in their 70s. I have certainly known people who have survived cancer. I must admit that my daughter likes medical shows, and I am constantly seeing this stuff on television. I lost a couple of nieces at an early age (I have about forty or fifty nephews & nieces & great-nephews & -nieces, maybe more) but one was in a car accident when she was about ten and the other was born with a fatal heart defect and never made it past three weeks. From that I can honestly state that no parent should ever have to bury a child; Nature calls on the child to bury the parent. Burying my father was difficult, but I cannot conceive of the pain of burying one of my children. By the time I finished writing the eulogy, I was crying, too.

In Chapter 116 we get back to a mishmash of personal stuff and politics. As always, the important part is not whether you agree with Carl’s politics but watching him maneuver. For those of you who think it doesn’t get this convoluted or hypocritical, I am not showing a tenth of what really occurs.

One reader sent me some comments that it is not 100% illegal for a civilian to own automatic weaponry. He described the procedure involved, and it is lengthy and expensive and involves a lengthy background check. It is not illegal, though. For the average citizen, however, it is a real pain in the ass. The 1934 National Firearms Act is involved, as well as the Reagan-era Hughes Amendment. I don’t think it is worth doing a rewrite, but I do think I can pass it along. Thank you, spamtrap.

I don’t want to get into an argument with anybody about gun control. I think if I asked a hundred people what should be done, I would get back a hundred answers. Please don’t tell me what Carl would do, because he’s a Republican or because he’s an Army vet, or whatever. I guarantee not every member of any group you mention will agree.

The same applies to the rest of the Contract with America (or Contract on America, as some have called it.) Regardless of your political philosophy, it was a big part of the Congressional fun and games in the ‘90s. If Carl wanted to be known as a serious player, he would be involved in it. Most of the various elements were cribbed straight from the real Contract, whether you agree with them or not. Just because I write about them does not mean I agree with them 100%. Please don’t bother telling me how stupid/evil/hateful/wrong I am. I can get that from my wife for free.

Chapter 113 saw the return of a real favorite, General Hawkins. Hawkins was one of the most hated guys in this story, and I’ve had hundreds of emails since he was introduced demanding that Carl do something for revenge! I’ve had story ideas for having Carl kill him, having Carl hire commandos to kill him, having Carl use his fortune to destroy the man, etc. Usually the desire to destroy Hawkins was coupled with a desire to destroy all the bad guys in Honduras – the MP Sergeant, the Provost Marshall, & the 2nd Lieutenant. I don’t think anybody was expecting what happened, which is probably a good thing for a writer.

Also being suggested is that Hawkins will now have a desire to go after Carl, and that Carl needs to beef up his security. The theory is that as an ex-general, Hawkins knows all sorts of commando types for hire. In reality you can’t just go down to Commandos-R-Us to find killers. While there are plenty of outfits that do that, they are extremely expensive and almost always involve overseas travel and government approved contracts. It would actually be far easier for Carl to be able to do that sort of thing than an ex-general, by being able to set up dummy corporations and contracts. The ex-general would have plenty of access to old friends who have retired, but how many of them would actually be friends? This sounds a whole lot better in a bad TV movie than in real life. Also, don’t forget, as has been mentioned Carl is using a high-end security service. Lots of ex-government types – Secret Service, FBI, diplomatic security, etc. He might not be such an easy target.

One curious thing I’ve noted is that so many readers think Carl is such a wonderful fellow. I actually had a few readers who commented that they were surprised by Carl’s comment about payback being a bitch, which they found out of character. I remind everyone that Carl is just a man, a normal man, and one with a ruthless streak as necessary. He has already murdered five men! They were bad men, but still! We’ll have to see how that works out in the future.

Did the Contract with America start out this way? Not in real life! It was thought up in a think tank at a later date and then sold to Gingrich. Doing it sooner rather than later lets Carl stay in control and earns him bonus points for the future. What will he do with them?

The camping scene that occurs in Chapter 112 actually occurred in real life. Every once in a while you need to kick their asses a little.

A word of warning about future chapters – there will be politics! Now, Carl is a fairly middle of the road kind of guy, what we used to call a business Republican. Socially liberal, deficit hawk, strong on defense. Most of them have been run out of Congress in the last ten years, but at the time when Carl gets into Congress there were still quite a few around.

However, there is no possible way to write a story where Carl goes into politics without writing about politics! It can’t be done! The important thing to look for is not what his positions are, but how he navigates the rapids and gets things accomplished. Whether you agree with his positions, or other members of his party, what does he accomplish and how does he accomplish it? That will prove the interesting part.

Quite a few of you commented on my use of the law firm Dewey, Cheatem, and Howe. It’s good to know the classics are still appreciated.

I got some very interesting info regarding booze in the Saudi compounds, and Dharan in particular. While one reader stated that booze was readily smuggled in via the diplomatic pouch, another reader reported that you had to be politically connected to get the good stuff that way, and another reported it was ridiculously expensive that way. A more detailed explanation is below and meshes with most of the info I was finding on the blogs.

“Re your questions regarding alcoholic beverages in Saudi Arabian compounds, I was in different expat compounds on the Persian Gulf side of Saudi in '74 (Abqaiq), '79 (Al Kobar), '85 (Daharan) and '02 (Al Jubail).

During the earlier times, alcohol was mostly home brewed from anything with sugar in it. The results ranged from good to paint remover and were universally called saddiqui (friend). In order to increase the alcohol content through distillation, the brew required a lot of heating, usually with propane burners. Heating 190 proof alcohol inside a closed house or garage with an open flame is downright dangerous. Enough compound homes were burned down during this process that fire insurance became almost unobtainable.

In the early '80's, outside entrepreneurs took over the brewing and the risk. It was possible to order lemonade (white wine), pink lemonade (rose'), red lemonade, fuzzy lemonade (beer) or siddiqui (hard liqueur) from local TCN's by a simple phone call. Delivery was to your door inside the compound in spite of the ever watchful Muttawa (religious police) at the gate.

In 1986, the King Fahd causeway opened, linking Daharan with Bahrain where all kinds of alcoholic beverages are readily available on the open market. It was easy and safe to have a weekend bender in Bahrain without the risk of having the forbidden alcohol in your home. This drastically reduced the profitability and need for both home brew and smuggling.

After the first Iraqi war in 1991, the US military was getting thousands of container shipments per month in Saudi. More than a few of them contained high quality booze and that became available on the open market, for a price. The difference between the quality of the imports versus the home brew put many siddiqui brewers out of business.”