On Monday, February 9, 2009, the cold wave that swept the nation had dissipated; scattered snow squalls and winds still pounced on portions of the upper northeast and mid-central regions, but - for the most part - the bitter weather was over, and people returned to their normal winter routines.
Workers continued to rebuild parts of Washington, DC; New York City; Philadelphia and other eastern coast cities hit hardest by the hurricane almost a year ago. Los Angeles still lie mostly dormant, but there were some signs of reconstruction along what remained of the earthquake-ravished Pacific coast. In other areas othe country, new shelters were still being built to house people still living in tents, left homeless by O.U.T.R.A.G.E. bombs just over a year ago.
On the West Indies island of St. Kitts, the Presidential Triumverate worked with dozens of O.U.T.R.A.G.E. committees to come up with plans to ressurect the crippled United States of America.
At the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Washington, DC, newly-elected members of Congress diligently put together the new law of the land, as mandated by the people over the past year. Thousands of laws would be repealed as fresh legislation would replace archaic, convoluted, inane laws enacted by an equally inane Congress over decades of political decadence. "The people" now would have a voice in virtually every legislative decision as the U.S.A. was transformed into an authentic democracy. New technologies made such mass participation a virtual reality, and all the fresh new faces in Congress recognized that they were there strictly to obey the people's commands. From this new Congress would emerge a new motive: that of serving the common good instead of cow-towing to the corporation campaign contributors, the industrial fat-cats, and the moneyed interests that had infected American politics for so many decades. "Pork" and "earmarks" would no longer even be part of the lanugage among public servants.
In Iowa, Mike and Donna Osborn, Bobby and Lovey Boyles, Bobby Cowles, Boo and Jo Warren and the rest of the Double B crew were busy bringing a legitimate supply of "pork" to market. Phil Baker was finally back home, and he sat in his study smoking his third pack of Marlboros and reviewing monthly production reports. Janie Baker was in the smokehouse taking inventory of whole hogs ready for shipment to overseas restaurant clients.
Back home again in Indiana, Jil Adams sat in her office feverishly working on plans for her Presidents' Day celebration, while her bevy of assistants studied logistical alternatives. Lynn, Michelle, Connie, Suzan, Sally and Cathy muddled through maps, trying to create an efficient 'route' for what would become a grand Presidential Parade across America. Doc was back home, helping with the plans. Eli was behind the bar; Dar, Hooter, Ryan, Bruce and Shorty all sat at the bar chugging two-dollar longnecks. Bob Ryan and Ron Oetting sat at a table guffawing and giggling over the same verbal graffit they always giggled over.
Just outside of Seattle, "Hammy" and Lynn were adding final finishing touches to their newly-refurbished lime green bus, which Hammy had managed to wreck twice. All that was needed were a few cosmetic touch-ups, and the bus would be on the roll again, continuing its road trip to promote the legalization of drugs.
O.U.T.R.A.G.E. 'cells' of volunteers around the country were working to assemble media kits, organize public meetings and motivate citizens to get involved with this new process of government. Most of the country's skies were overcast and gray, as people looked forward to an early spring and a new infusion of national unity. "Conservative" and "liberal" labels were pretty much avoided these days, as most of the general public began to recognize how those terms had only served to divide the country. "Red" and "blue" states no longer fractured the country into political pockets; we were all in this together now, committed to revitalizing the country, restructuring our patriotism, and embracing the concept of "Equilateralism" - a nation where all people are given true equal opportunity, regardless of race, creed or political persuasion.

No one noticed them hurling their way toward Earth at what could have been a million miles per minute. It was like one minute nothing was there, and the next minute there they all were! None of Earth's sophisticated radar facilities recorded anything unusual. Observatories observed nothing out of the ordinary.

The Earth shuddered.

The whole world was instantaneously bombarded by strange, oddly-shaped spherical aberrations, all roughly the size of Goodyear blimps. Hundreds - thousands of them kept coming from God-knows-where, and piloted by only God-knew-who. Because they struck with such silent instantaneity, few people even saw these colorless, noiseless 'aircraft' as they plunged to Earth and obliterated everything in their path. In less time than it took for you to hear your last heartbeat, you - and everything around you - was gone: skyscrapers; factories; retail stores; houses; restaurants; airports; military facilities; offices; bars; apartments; banks; houses....all were annihilated immediately. As was reportedly the case at the ports of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II's final days, human flesh simply evaporated. But this time there were no fires, no smoldering ruins, no charred bodies lying in the streets, no survivors with grotesque disfigurements, no remnants of animal bones or human body parts. Everything was gone....completely, totally expunged from the Earth, as if nothing had ever existed there before. In the snap of a finger, every major metropolitan area on the face of the Earth had been absorbed into the atmosphere. Nothing was left but parched earth - as if the unidentified flying objects intended to expurgate the land, freeing it from all the cement, asphalt, stone, steel, glass, brick, neon and plastic with which man had desecrated the Earth's rich, black soil and green grasslands.

Within that very instant, every major urban region on the Earth faded to black. I

From Beijing to Zurich, every major metropolitan area on Earth had literally disappeared off the face of the map, decimated by an unknown force of unimaginable power. London, Paris, San Francisco, Rome, and every other power center in the world was gone......not just demolished, but GONE. Disappeared, as if they had never been. Every financial center, political and religious mecca, resort area, industrial region and military community on Earth had been reduced to...earth. Oil refineries, coal mines, natural gas pipelines and factories were gone......not just vacated, or lying in ruins....absolutely, positively GONE.
It was as if some kind of third-dimensional force has swooped down on the Earth and sucked away all the accoutrements of man's avarice, hubris and gluttony. Virtually and city with a population of more than 250,000 had evanesced as quickly as lightning could strike, had vaporized into nothingness as it had never even existed.

Within that very instant, every major urban area on Earth faded to black. It was 4:55 p.m. EST.

In Bloomington, Indiana on December 5, 1999, Byron C. Bangert addressed the congregation of the First Presbyterian Church about "the end of the world as we know it". Cataclysmic events were what would mark a "divine rescue operation" that would save the world from "going to Hell in a handbasket". Bangert drew much of his sermon from the Gospel according to St. Mark as well as writings from the books of Matthew and Luke. He noted how Jesus Christ had predicted "suffering such as has not been from the beginning of the creation....[and] after that suffering the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from Heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken..." In short, Bangert claimed, "the whole cosmos will be thrown into pandemonium and distress. Then, and only then, the Son of Man will come to gather the elect from the ends of the Earth".
Bangert's speech went on as he surmised, "I suspect that there would be a lot more apocalyptic talk and fear.....if it felt more like our world was abut to dissolve into unrelenting disease or unrestrained violence or unbridled chaos. Here we stand on the threshold of a new millenium....and there is little that seems to trouble us more....than possibly minor disruptions caused by the Y2K computer bug. The closest we get to thinking or feeling that maybe there is something really bad that could happen to us all is when we go to the movies".
He ended his sermon with a plea to his congregation: "In this season of Advent, pray for the end of the world as we know it. Pray for the end of violence and greed, wars and rumors of war, of famine and disease run riot, of false remedies and false gods, of hatred and betrayal within families and across our divisions of race and creed and clan. Pray that no one may claim special privilege due to ancestry or religious practice, and that no one will take advantage by means of official status or social power, and that those who have more than enough will give to those who need. Pray that all will have a place at the table, whether it be the table where decisions are made, or the table where meals are shared. Pray for the end of the world as we know it. As Jesus taught us to pray: God's Kingdom come! May all flesh see God's salvation! AMEN!"

Whew!!
This prophetic sermon was delivered four years prior to George W. Bush leading America into the most illegal, unjustified, unconstitutional, immoral 'war' in the history of the United States. If any three men at the threshold of the 21st century were to be reincarnate of the 20th century's Satanists, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld would most certainly be the three with "666" etched into their foreheads underneath their receeding hairlines. This evilist trio had proven to be the most morally reprehensible malefactors since the days of Joseph Stalin and Adolph Hitler. U.S. soldiers had been conned into believing they were sacrificing their lives to bring democracy to Iraq when, instead, they were fighting to enhance the profits of firms like McDonnell-Douglass; Lockheed-Martin; Sikorsky; and those two newcomers to the Pentagon's war trough: the Carlyle Group and Halliburton, both of whom ahd direct ties to the Bush-Cheney White House. American taxpayers had been led to believe their tax dollars were being invested to achieve peace in the Middle East, when - in fact - our troops were put in harm's way so that Exxon-Mobil and other members of the 'Big Oil' coalition could harvest those rich fields of cheap, easily-accessible OIL and continue feeding America's addiction to the black gold that had made oilmen like Bush and Cheney fabulously wealthy. A gullible, contemptible, incompetent, lazy, arrogant, cowardly, corrupt Republican-led U.S. Congress was told that the U.S. needed to abolish 'weapons of mass destruction' from Iraq, then turned its back as the Bush-Cheney satiation for power and wealth disregarded the U.S. Constitution, ignored the UN Charter, and mocked the rules of the Geneva Convention. A new Democratic-led Congress, that - in its lust for power - promised an end to the 'war' in Iraq impotently stood by during its first year in office and did little to try and stop the sanguineous carnage.
Halliburton continued to accept government contracts to construct fourteen new, permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq without the bothersome need to submit a bid. The Carlyle Group gorged itself with billions of American dollars as it provided vaguely-identified 'services' to the Pentagon. Billions of taxpayer dollars had slipped through the cracks without anyone even seeming to be alarmed; one planeload full of American currency was 'lost' and nobody even went looking for it in 2005. The bile of fraud, waste, corruption, thievery, lies, distortions, abuse, mismanagement and mass murder didn't seem to annoy anyone, not even those who had taken solemn oaths to protect and defend the people of the United States of America.
If this bastardly series of outlandish events had been a movie, its titled would have been "The Devil's Advocate - II" and Al Pacino's character would have had to been played by

North Manchester, Monroeville and Columbia City are three small rural towns in northeastern Indiana that have little in common other than their rurality. North Manchester has become a quiet community, most know for being the home of Manchester College

Four days before Christmas in 1950, unusual events were going on in the world. Joseph Stalin celebrated his 71st birthday as collective farms, schools and factories joined the press is praising the Russian dictator. The son of a peasant shoemaker, Stalin had killed almost ten million of his countrymen before his reign of terror ended. Hattie Caraway, the first woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate, died at the age of 72. Congress predicted that final passage of the three billion dollar "excess profits tax" would be delayed until New Year's Day due to many members of Congress already away for the holidays. The Senate wanted to reduce the tax ceiling on corporate profits from 67% to only 60%, and also wanted to adopt special "relief" provisions for "growing concerns", utilities, railroads, airlines and "a host of other companies".
In their first 18 days of heavy fighting with Chinese Communist troops, U.S. casualties mounted to 11,964 in North Korea. The toll for November 24 thru December 12 raised the number of American dead, wounded or missing to 42,992 since the outbreak of the Korean War. Other UN units, exclusive of South Korea, reported 1,011 casualties during the same 18-day period. Communist casualties for the same 18-day period totaled nearly 130,000 men.
December 21, 1950 was just another day in the life of most Americans, fatigued from the horrors of World War II, and now already weary of a "military police action" in a tiny country called Korea. Most knew little about the politics of the 'war' - and most didn't much care. Post-World War II babyboomers were being born in record numbers. Automobile manufacturers and home builders couldn't produce product fast enough to meet the pent-up demand of war-starved consumers. Television was taking attendance away from movie theaters. Amana introduced its "Radar Range" for cooking new "tv dinners" packaged and sold in the frozen food section of local supermarkets. Military veterans wanted new carpeting, furniture and household appliances for those young wives who waited for their return from the great war. Advertising became a new medium that tempted families with new gadgets, new experiences, and new "necessities". If your tv commercial could convince them they "needed" it, you could sell a million of 'em!

President Dwight D. Eisenhower was most noted for his creation of the American Interstate Highway system; he was less noted for an urgent warning that he'd impressed upon the public with little fanfare. The giant U.S. military-industrial complex, he said, could become a force that would have a vested interest in encouraging and promoting war. World War II had proven just how profitable 'war' could be; fifty years later, Eisenhower's predictions were startlingly accurate. As the Bush war folly dragged on in Iraq - and then spread to Iran - it was obvious that mammoth corporations were lining up to cash in at the Pentagon's war trough. McDonnell-Douglass, Lockheed-Martin, Sikorsky, General Electric, and a host of other large corporations saw billions of dollars in profits, even from the littlest military skirmishes. After the Korean Conflict, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam and Desert Storm, most equipment was left behind to become nothing more than scrap. Pentagon officials brazenly ordered new equipment, commissioned state-of-the-art technologies that often never worked, and kept increasing reckless military spending even in times of peace. "Star Wars" projects during the Reagan years cost taxpayers billions of untold dollars for high-tech junk that never worked. The Air Force would junk planes after a military endeavor, usually scrapping them so that "enemies" couldn't obtain technological secrets. By the time George W. Bush stumbled into the White House, the military-industrial complex was eating up the largest portion of the government's budget.
While Bush slashed spending for education, environmental issues, public safety, health care, parks and recreation, and social welfare programs, military spending went unabated and unchecked. No one dared ask how much was being spent on the war in Iraq. U.S. soldiers saw their pay and benefits decreased; so many were refused treatment for psychological disorders caused by their war experiences that it prompted a Congressional investigation in 2007. Soldiers were cheated out of medical care as part of the Bush administration's cost-cutting programs. Meanwhile, Halliburton received juicy government contracts (often without a bidding process). The company was contracted to build fourteen new, permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq even though the administration kept promising an eventual troop pull-out. By the summer of 2007, many of the GOP leaders were turning their backs on Bush, demanding that he change strategies and start working on a timetable for leaving Iraq to Iraqis. Both Bush and Cheney at times defied Congress by claiming they would not allow that body of politics to interfere with running the war. Since Bush avoided the Constitution when he attacked Iraq, it wasn't surprising that he would not see it as prudent to leave the end result to any other branch of the government.
By the time O.U.T.R.A.G.E. bombs assassinated George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld and most members of Congress on January 17, 2008, the war was already off course. Bush swore he would not bow to political pressure. It was becoming obvious to even the most ill-informed that the Bush administration had only two of its own interests at heart: OIL and WAR PROFITEERING. Bush and Cheney were not going to let go until they had secured all rights to all of Iraq's oil, and until their favored government contractors (especially the Carlyle Group and Halliburton, both of whom had direct ties to the Bush-Cheney White House) were handsomely rewarded with outlandishly excessive profits. It didn't matter how many died.
Money, power and influence were

Cold blanketed most of the United States on Thursday, February 5, 2009. Not the kind of cold that was usual for mid-winter, but a bone-chilling, brutal kind of cold that seemed to come from far below the depths of Hell. More pronounced, of course, in the north central regions of the country, the sub-zero temperatures kept reconstruction teams from working in most areas decimated from the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. bombs more than a year ago. Even in the southern regions of the country, residents tried to avoid the brisk winds that reached into the mid-twenties in areas used to 70-degree weather in February. For the first time in modern history, there were reports of coastal waters along Fort Lauderdale being sheeted with a thin layer of ice.
The 'Great Depression II' continued to wreak havoc on local economies. Tens of millions of Americans were unemployed; the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. shelters and food banks were overwhelmed with people looking for help. Warehouses of national chain stores - no longer operatinal - were raided and food was distributed to those in need. The most startling component of this mass outpouring was that it wasn't just the "poor" folks you'd expect to frequent these facilities; more and more, it was "middle-class" and "upper-middle-class" citizens who suddenly found themselves broke, homeless and hungry. As ongoing as this problem was, most citizens agreed that O.U.T.R.A.G.E. had done a far better job over the past year than the supercilious Bush administration had done following the Katrina hurricane disaster. O.U.T.R.A.G.E. had coordinated efforts with local food banks, the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, Goodwill Industries and thousands of local community service clubs to ensure a streamlined flow of assistance to all those in need. A volunteer army of millions of Americans was rebuilding homes, restoring infrastructures, and refurbishing public buildings as quickly as humanly possible. Los Angeles and Washington, DC were being rebuilt, although progress was woefully slow. Building materials were simply being confiscated from Lowe's, Menard's, Home Depot and WalMart warehouses all over the country. Factory inventories were being seized since those factories were no longer in production and their corporate headquarters had been blown off the face of the map.
Other O.U.T.R.A.G.E. experts were working on trying to resolve other issues. A convention of trade experts were engaged in a monumental effort to try and reduce America's $175 billion trade deficit. Due the ravished, weakened dollar, that deficit - mostly with China, of course - had ballooned to triple what it was in 2006.
O.U.T.R.A.G.E. scientists were trying to determine why global warming was causing gray whales to lose weight. This had been common knowledge for several years, but the Bush administration saw no need to concern itself with such trivial pursuits. It was preoccupied with war. As the whales lost weight, they also lost interest in breeding. Were fewer calves being born because there was less abundant food in the oceans? Or was the warming effects of the ocean promising to shoo one more species into extinction just because their habitat had been destroyed, thanks to mankind's industrial revolution? Either way, it was man's fault. If the water's temperatures were wrong for the whales, or if there wasn't enough food left to feed the whales, it was man's fault. If man's vehicle emissions, smoke-belching factories, and overall rape of the Earth and its atmosphere hadn't disrupted the natural cyclical order of global warming, perhaps gray whales would have naturally adapted to the new conditions over hundreds or thousands of years. But man's 150 years of "progress" had served only to speed up the progress on nature.....and hundreds of thousands of species of plants and animals could keep up with such unatural change. Man had been a meddlesome quidnunc in the natural order of things, a busybody whose inventions of convenience and prosperity had ultimately inconvenienced the planet's timetables and touseled the prosperousness of normal Earthly cycles.
Money, power and influence had become man's mistress.

And, as is almost always the case, once the defloration of the mistress is completed, it's damned difficult to put that pandora back in the box.

Epimetheus learned that lesson in mythology; now modern man was about to learn the lesson all over again, thanks in part to pioneers like Andrew Carnegie, John Rockefeller, and Henry Ford, among many others.

Had, as Osama binLaden lamented in late November, 2008, God grown tired of us?
Could the human species have become so self-absorbed with pettiness that more intrinsic matters mattered least?
Did we not puzzle over the weird wretchedness of the world today?
Like a father weary of his young son's arrant behavior, had God given up on us again as He did just before he instructed Noah to build an ark? Was God fed up with our shameless materialism, consumerism, avarice and unabashed hubris?
Even after He created the universe, God put aside Sunday as a day of rest.
We mere mortals, on the other hand, chose to see Sunday as just another day of the week. A day which was not devoted to our faith and family, but to our businesses, our golf games, our cook-outs, our mistresses, our money, our drugs, and our pursuit of personal happiness. Could all the odd things going on in the world be signs from God - or from an intelligent designer, or an evolutionary 'big bang' theory, or 'nature'?
For all the time mankind has inhabitated this insignificant third rock from the sun, we have progressively removed ourselves further and further from the holiness of the Earth. We have traded sacredness for sanctimonious self-indulgence. And we fail to notice the subtle changes - perhaps warnings - that may very well be predicting our own doom.
Even today, in 2009, most of Earth's inhabitants pooh-pooh the theory that something called 'global warming' is about to destroy the planet as we know it. So we keep on building smoke-belching factories, driving gas-guzzling cars that spit out toxic vehicle emissions, and refusing to reduce, reuse, or recycle or refuse.
To most people, such attention to environmental issues is inconsequential; we're too busy admiring ourself in the new Bill Blass strapless gown we bought at $400 less than its usual price. We're showing off our newest $3 shirt that sports a $24 alligator on its breast pocket.
Unless we're a marine biologist, we don't seem to take notice when another giant squid crash lands on a remote beach. Isn't it odd that such an occurence - which apparently hasn't happened in centuries - now happens almost on a semi-annual basis? What causes the squid - who lurks in the deepest, most remote parts of the ocean - to suddenly wash up on the shores of our beaches? Is something going on underwater that we don't know about? Shouldn't we take more interest in such activity?
For the past forty years, the United States government has poured untold billions down countless rat holes, and American citizens are too busy worrying about Britney Spears' love life to pay any attention. The federal government has squandered taxpayer dollars an the ill-fated Vietnam War; the Watergate investigation; the "Star Wars" initiative; the failed "war on drugs"; the Iran-Contra affair; the short-lived Gulf War in 1991; the titilating Bill Clinton witch hunt; a paranoid "war on terror"; an unconstitutional and immoral war in Iraq; a Hitleresque Department of Homeland Security; a reckless immigration policy and numerous 'pork' projects and 'earmarks' so near and dear to unscrupulous politicians. Yet no one seemed to notice - or care - when the federal government would allocate $4 million for a teapot museum in North Carolina. Afer a brief uproar, an Alaskan "bridge to nowhere" still was built with taxpayers' money.
Years after Hurricane Katrina an impotent federal government had still not established housing for most victims of that tragedy. And most Americans only watched in awe as the "in-depth" television newscasts fed us a two-minute Pubulum of some poor slob still living on his roof. But when it came to New Orleans, most Americans had a bigger concern: when would Bourbon Street be back to normal, and what kind of a package deal can I get to go watch all the transvestities, street musicians and gay blades strut their stuff??
Americans uncomfortably avoided its poor, sick, disabled, underprivileged, disadvantaged, hungry, undereducated, mentally challenged, and homeless because it caused an inconvenient pang - a prick - in our collective consciousness. It was not our fault, after all, that these people don't live in $675,000 homes, drive new Mercedes roadsters, or own $2,000,000 stock portfolios. What about those kids who have never seen a tree, never thrown a football, never slept without rats crawling around their toes, never consumed a meal that didn't come wrapped in grease-splattered paper? Well, yeah....that was too bad, but what could we do about it?
God had given us the ability to be generous, to share with others and care for every species on the planet. But few of us ever took into account how important a rare Amazon frog might be to our own existence. Few of us bothered to protest the decimation of our rain forests, complain about luxury vacation resorts wiping out ecologically-valuable (and necessary) mangrove forests. Oil spills in pristine Alaskan waters didn't affect our lives in the middle of Manhattan.
It was national news in 2007 when a missing pregnant woman in Ohio generated an outpour to more than 1,000 volunteers to search for her body. Yet, a hundred times that many people squeeze themselves into football stadiums every Sunday to 'watch' a game and criticize a player's disastrous fumble (and what makes the sports voyeur think he could have played that game any better?). It's amazing how we won't get off our dead ass to help someone else, but we'll put ourselves through the trials of Hell to make our way to the 'big game' or show up at the Inaugural Ball.
We paid scant attention when a tsunami ripped away Asian communities because they were thousands of mile away from us. But we're obsessively enraged when someone scratches our car or throws a stone through our window.
The question was worth posing: has God grown tired of us? Has He finally thrown up his hands in disgust and said, "The hell with 'em! Let' em all drown in their own cesspools of self-gratification!" Were the hurricanes and earthquake that

On November 3, 2004, Common Cause reported that "the American public was relieved that the Presidential election was not tied up in recounts and lawsuits, and that the Supreme Court would not have to step in and appoint the next President. Many American believed - and the press reported - that the election has been orderly and fair. Unfortunately, they were wrong." In its membership recruiting campaign, the non-profit organization pointed out how the "election of 2004 was at least as marred as the disastrous election of 2000! From Columbus, Ohio, where an electronic voting system reported that George Bush had received 4,258 votes, but only 638 votes were cast - to North Carolina, where thousands of ballotswere lost when a computer ran out of disk space - all across the country the electoral process was riddled with problems." A survey was part of the Common Cause mailing, which encouraged recipients to join the "common cause" and "help fix our broken electoral system".
O.U.T.R.A.G.E. had spent millions of dollars on the most sophisticated computer programs, high-tech equipment, and built-in safeguards to protect against voter fraud, computer error or malfunction, and human tampering. The elections of Tuesday, November 4, 2008 had been perhaps the most honest and accurate voter tabulation in the history of the United States. Those O.U.T.R.A.G.E. volunteers who had helped create the one-of-a-kind computerized voting machines had even incorporated a whole system of checks and balances to assure that one voter only cast one vote. You didn't register as a 'Republican' or 'Democrat' or 'Independent' - you registered confidentially with your Social Security number and address; you provided a secret password before you voted. After your ballot was cast, a 'receipt' was printed out for two reasons: to verify that your vote had, indeed, been caast and recorded; and to show your employer in order to be paid for the time you took off to vote.
Voters were encouraged to keep those receipts and bring them along to the next election. It would serve as a back-up procedure to confirm you were the same voter who cast his or her ballot last time. All in all, it was as foolproof a system as mediocre human minds could devise.
Now that the elections were over, the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. teams who focused on voting issues were in the process of a new idea:
before it was time for mid-term elections, a federal lottery would be tied into the voting process. To encourage even more people to vote, Election Day would not only be a paid holiday, but each ballot would also be a 'lottery ticket'. A random computerized drawing would determine a broad range of winners who could - with their voting 'receipts' - claim cash prizes or special merchandise awards. In the old pre-Revolution days before January 17, 2008, pompous politicians would be prone to bellow, "Who will pay for this excess?" while they recklessly spent billions of useless wars, squandered billions more on worthless 'pork' or earmarks; and wasted billions more on needless and derelict programs that served only to increase the taxpayers' burden of supporting a bloated and unproductive government. With as much as 90% of the government excessive expenses being eliminated, O.U.T.R.A.G.E. believed there would be sufficient room in a new budget for a voter rewards and appreciation project. It would motivate people to vote and add some 'zip' to the otherwise tedious process. If and when it became necessary to fund the project, voters could be invited to 'buy' more lottery chances, just as they did in their state lotteries. Merchandise prizes, such as cars, television sets, etc., could be donated from manufacturers or retailers who wanted to play a part in encouraging voter turn-out.
All the 'bugs' needed to be worked out, and the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. volunteers were hard at work

On Monday, February 2, 2009, Jil got a call from Colin Powell asking her to "postpone" any further celebratory events "for the time being". Without any further explanation, he acknowledged, "Your events have made a marvelous difference to our nation during a time of peril and perplexity. You've helped to motivate millions of American citizens at a time when we all needed such motivation. You've restored life to areas where the stench of death and the devastation of the American spirit seemed to dominate. You have created memorials to our fallen countrymen that will forever allow us indelible memories. I personally am indebted to you for such awesome acts of goodwill. Your spirit, enthusiasm and professionalism helped pull this nation back from the depths of despair." Stunned, Jil hung up and wondered what was going on. The nation was still in turmoil; a terrible economic depression held a cloud of desperation over most citizens; sadness and uncertainty still loomed large. Jil believed the celebrations and memorials she organized helped lift people out of the doldrums. In some parts of the country, search-and-rescue operations were still going on; in others regions, people had lost hope. The AROB group, and the whole party of Jil's helpers had had a hand in revitalizing America's vigor and helping to bring people back from the brink of despair. Why stop now? Jil thought it was premature; there were still desolate souls that needed comforting. Sure, some celebrations may have gotten out of hand, but people needed to be assured taht 'fun' still had its place in the American psyche. Just because bombs had eliminated an entire upper-class and natural disasters had destroyed major coastal cities didn't mean that the country could wallow in self-pity. It was time to move on, move out and move up. "A time to laugh...a time to cry...."
Jil was in the midst of planning a very appropriate Presidents' Day event that would allow Americans to embrace the concept of patriotism and honor those men who had held the nation's top

The assassination of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney seemed to be an underlying mandate of the American people. While most citizens would not be so brash as to suggest actual assassination (more from a fear of reprisal than their lack of conviction), a poll in the early summer of 2007 revealed startling statistics. 45% of Americans polled believed Bush should be impeached; 54% of Americans believed Cheney should be impeached!
The Bush administration's maladroit performance was a festering scab on American society. As the puss poured from the gaping wound of a crippled administration, more and more Americans were quite ready and willing to get rid of the very leaders they'd elected. Prior to Bush's election, President Bill Clinton had been the target of impeachment proceedings by an overzealous, vindictive Republican-led Congress that squandere hundreds of millions of taxpayers' dollars trying to remove Clinton from office. Clinton's 'crimes' included lying to Congress about some shabby land deals, and trying to deny an adulterous sexual liaison with another consenting adult. Republicans dragged Clinto through the moral muck and slung more mud at his administration than was appropriate, all in a holier-than-thou attempt to showcase the moral superiority of Republicans. It was a sensational distraction as special prosecutor Ken Starr grilled Clinton relentlessly. Grown men argued over the definitions of the words "sex" and "it". The public peered on in stunned fascination as the entire U.S. Congress disregarded the important business of managing the country. Meanwhile, at the end of an exhausting, grueling day of interrogating the President of the United States on his sex life, Republican Congressional opponents would quietly retire to their private Capital Hill offices, where a fresh, seductive young intern would be waiting with accommodating lips and a carefully chilled, stirred and shaken martini.
The first four years of the feckless Bush presidency was protected, of course, by a Republican-led Congress that would never hang its own party's President out to dry, regardless of his wrongdoings. As Commander-In-Chief, Bush had been responsible for the mass murders of thousands of Iraq citizens and several thousand U.S. soldiers. But George W. Bush could have murdered his own wife and daughters, and his chicken-hearted Republican partisans would have found ways to exonerate him from any blame or responsibility. By the middle of his second term in office, mid-term elections had effectively put Democrats in control of Congress. Even though there were tenable opportunities to initiate impeachment proceedings, Democrats seemed to lack to tenacity, the will, or the gonads to put Bush's feet to the fire. Maybe they wanted to wait it out and let Bush completely self-destruct before landing the final blow to his prickish presidency. Maybe they were too afraid of public backlash, who might view it as politically-motivated. Perhaps some Democrats were genuinely concerned about putting the nation through another grueling, expensive, tedious political firing squad. Still, Bush had provided Democrats with plenty of ammunition:
In many minds, Bush had lied about 'weapons of mass destruction' solely to give him unconstitutional, illegal, unjustifiable and immoral grounds to attack Iraq. Bush had violated the terms of the Geneva Convention, to which the United States was a signatory. He had violated the terms of the UN Charter, to which the U.S.A. was a signatory. As Commander-In-Chief, he had condoned the torture and abuse of 'detainees' in Cuba. He presided over one of the most scandal-ridden administrations in U.S. history. His total disregard for the most fragile of American citizens was blatant, as he wiped out funding programs designed to help America's poor, sick, elderly, underprivileged, hungry, disabled, unemployed, disadvantaged, under-educated, and homeless. He even cut veterans' benefits, slashed soldiers' pay, and underfunded a military endeavor that he himself had initiated. U.S. soldiers were fighting a dirty 'war' in Iraq all for the sake of OIL and WAR PROFITEERING, and fighting it with inadequate equipment, malfunctioning machinery, and leadership whose hands were tied by Washington "suits" who wouldn't know which end of a rifle to point toward the enemy. Democrats had all the reasons in the world to impeach George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. All they lacked was the tenacity, the will, and the gonads. Obviously, Democrats weren't nearly as bloodthirsty, revengeful, and mean-spirited as their Republican opponents.

Drugged-out rock star Jimi Hendrix once made an unusually profound statement: "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace". Famed scientist E.O. Wilson, author of more than two dozen books, wrote one in 2007 entitled, "The Creation", where he argued for the confluence of science and religion.
The world was in turmoil. The United States was reduced to a shell of its former self. Darfur was home to millions of displaced people, rape victims, and political hostages. Around the world were countries littered with the ravages of war. The 'Great Depression II' in the U.S.A. had stimulated economic peril across the globe. Only China was still showing any signs of progress, prosperity and profligacy.
Colin Powell, Barack Obama and John McCain knew the mission of rebuilding America also entailed the reformation of the world. Hundreds - actually, thousands, of O.U.T.R.A.G.E. volunteers had produce voluminous documentation that demonstrated a need for an extreme makeover of mankind. Consumption had to be belittled and humankind's continued craving for "everything' had to be contained. For generations, parents had chastized their children to "never settle for second best", "never be satisfied with the status quo", or "always strive to be all you can be". While those admonitions were valuable, they all too often were directed in the wrong way. "Success" meant accumulating more money than you needed; owning more possessions than necessary; acquiring a more powerful position at the top of your career; being able to influence others just because of your status in the hierarchy. "Success" was seldom interpreted as being a good father, an adoring mother, someone who helped the poor, or someone who committed his life to acts of charity. In most people's eyes, Bill Gates was the epitome of "success"; Mother Theresa was just a poor nun that dawdled in the slums of India.
People who drove flashy cars, took exotic vacations, lived in elegant homes, owned hefty stock portfolios, and ruled large municipalities or corporations were considered "successful". Someone who volunteered her time in a soup kitchen, gave most of her palty annual income to charity, lived in a tiny, rundown two-bedroom house, and rarely bought a new blouse simply blended into the woodwork of society without any notice or adulation.
Success was power, money and influence.
It was that mentality that - somehow - had to be altered within the global society. But to change man's covetous ways would be a massive social undertaking.
The Presidential Triumverate mutually believed that such social alteration had to start in the schools. America's education system was a poorly biased pilot designed to lead a student toward fiscal 'success' instead of individual fulfillment. Children were encouraged to grow up to be doctors, lawyers, or Presidents. Of course, it was all encased in phrases of "helping others" and "doing good", but everyone knew the bottom line was making shitloads of money. The mother who proudly beamed, 'My son's a doctor" was secretly implying, 'My son's filthy, stinking rich." Mothers whose sons were doctors working in rat-infested ghetto clinics for minimum wage rarely bragged about it, and modestly kept their pride to themselves. They knew their son had chosen a profession because he genuinely wanted to help others, not because he coveted the big bucks.
Society, worldwide, had become a gluttonous, materialistic cesspool of falsehood, basing its vision of happiness and success on consumerism instead of socialism. Socialism, in fact, had become a 'dirty word' in most societies. Capitalism at any cost - even if it meant running rip shod over your co-workers, associates and career competitors, was embedded in the American dream. So people tried to fulfill themselves with the fakeness of fine jewelery instead of the genuineness of human generosity.
Self-absorption, self-protection, self-gratification, and self-reliance had replaced selflessness. The world needed to return to tribal tribulations where whole communities were dependent on each other. If a native American Indian killed a buffalo, he brought it back to the village to be shared with the entire tribe. Nothing was wasted: the buffalo was used for food, shelter and clothing. The bones made fine utensils. The entire tribe joined in the benefit of the kill.
Just as the gross grasp of materialism had taken centuries to reinforce into a culture, it would take eons to return Americans to a culture of kindness, compassion, caring and sharing. But the world could no lnoger sustain each individual's desire for largess and gratuity. If the Earth was to survive, less resources would have to be squandered and more commun

Barack Obama and Colin Powell agonized over John McCain's concerns. Was the AROB group out of control? Or were they just a bunch of party animals that liked a little 'release' after their hard day's work? The two co-Presidents decided to take the issue to a team of O.U.T.R.A.G.E. analysts for evaluation. Did this interfere, at all, with the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. mission? Still, there were myriad other issues to be dealt with. If, indeed, O.U.T.R.A.G.E. was going to remain linked to the federal government in helping to bring more equality to all, some subtle modifications needed to be made. As its membership exploded, the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. organization had become fabulously wealthy. Awash with cash from non-solicited donations, the organization had billions of dollars to work - or play - with; some members had contributed much of their life savings after joining the organization and/or learning about its revolutionary mission. This issue would be just one more component of the new federal government's mandate. O.U.T.R.A.G.E. analysts, economists, political experts, social scientists, clergy, international advisors, philosophers, and planners had a lot on their respective plates. A lot of things needed changed:

Elected officials, corporate executives, wealthy elitists, movie stars, sports celebrities, media moguls, and heirs to family fortunes had been living like some privileged class while millions of Americans went to bed hungry, had no place to sleep, were unemployed, couldn't afford health care, suffered from depression, couldn't make their mortgage payments, had to choose between medicine and groceries, or sat slumped over in wheelchairs alone and desolate in rundown nursing homes.
Government had squandered billions of taxpayer dollars on weaponry that didn't even work, wasted billions of dollars on useless research studies, granted billions more to corporations to 'help' them develop marketing strategies for their fast-food products in foreign countries, and pissed away billions of ineffective, fraudulent, worthless government agencies and projects - all because blind and innocent American taxpayers never paid attention to what was getting done in D.C.
Fully 60% of American corporations still paid little or no income taxes while the poor working stiff saw 35% of his wages eaten up in federal, state, and local taxes.
Of the top ten wealthiest people in the United States, four of them had been descendants of Sam Walton with a combined net worth of $62,300,000,000! Those people had been killed by O.U.T.R.A.G.E. bombs, as had many of America's other selfish and greedy billionaires. What was to be done with all that person wealth?
Government research, evaluation, and legislation had been written by corporations who wrote only what they wanted the public (and the government) to hear.
National Geographic magazine was warning that if nothing was done about global warming, much of Florida, Bangladesh and the Netherlands could be under water in less than five decades.

O.U.T.R.A.G.E. had taken the first revolutionary steps in eliminating the people and entities that contributed to such fiscal squalor. Now it was up the newly-elected federal government, with the assistance of O.U.T.R.A.G.E. volunteers, to find ways to transform a piggish America into a utopia of sharing, caring and compassion for all its people, not just the privileged few on the top rung of the ladder. Government excess had set the example for corporate excess. Now all that excess had to be re-directed for the common good of all people. There was no excuse for the world's wealthiest nation to allow millions of its people to go to bed hungry each night just because members of America's ruling class wanted to pig out on caviar and champagne in exclusive five-star restaurants. There was no reason why every single American citizen shouldn't have access to the very best medical care, regardless of his ability to pay for it. There was no logic to a society that enforced a minimum wage law, yet put no cap on what corporate leaders could milk from their publicly-owned companies. There was no justification for one 14-year-old high school student to swim in an Olympic-sized school pool and use state-of-the-art computer equipment, while another 14-year-old student in a different part of town sat in rundown classrooms and had to 'make-do' with a gymnasium's broken backboards. Hubris, avarice, arrogance and oneupsmanship had to give way to "Equilateralism". In McCain's view, that also meant the excesses he

John McCain was agitated; he beckoned his two co-Presidents to their small open office in the corner of the building where all the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. activities took place on St. Kitts. "I'm hearing disturbing reports about the AROB group," he said sternly, "and I think they might be getting out of control. And that "Hammy" fellow - I understand he's gotten into the gauncy pretty heavily while he goes around promoting legalizing drugs. And Doc's tour encouraging the legalization of gaming machines and a ban on smoking bans - well, I hear he's becoming a little contumacious. I wonder if all this is good for the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. image?"
Barack Obama and Colin Powell stared at McCain intently, without saying a word. Finally, Powell asked, "What are they doing, John?" McCain replied that he had no specifics, but rumors were floating back and forth about wild parties, drunken orgies, pot-smoking marathons, and other illicit activities. He kept pounding away at the "O.U.T.R.A.G.E. image" and how it was being tarnished. "I think it's time we divorced ourselves from the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. organization," Powell announced, "and begin recognizing our responsibilities to the governance of the people of the United States. O.U.T.R.A.G.E., remember, was a band of revolutionary rebels that did its job and now needs to be disolved. We were elected by the a popular vote of the people, and we are subservient to them - not to the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. organization." Obama agreed: "In the first American Revolution, the soldiers eventually returned to their homes and families and turned over the business of government to those officials elected to run the country. Now, this second American Revolution is complete. The people won the war. We've been charged with establishing a new, true democracy - perhaps the most challenging social-political experiment ever on Earth. If all these 'splinter' groups want to continue with their passions to persuade people's perspectives, so be it. We've got a government to run.....and a people to please."
"The AROB group has done a comendable job at organizing celebrations, rallies, and memorials that, I believe, were necessary to boost the morale or our people," said Powell. "They've accomplished some exasperating feats; why shouldn't they be allowed to blow off a little steam whenever they can?" Obama added: "Doc and 'Hammy' are doing their own things, chasing after issues they passionately believe in; eventually their efforts will result in referendums, and the people will decide whether drugs and gaming machines should be legalized. The people will decide whether smoking bans should be banned."
As McCain groused about it more, Powell finally said, "John, we have to remove ourselves from this mode of organization and control. Everyone in the country must come to accept that there will no longer be a central government on Capital Hill that dictates to the populace. From now on, the populace will dictate to us, and that's the way it was supposed to be all along. We just got drunk with power, and the voters didn't know how to handle us. The O.U.T.R.A.G.E. movement rebelled about all the excesses in government and in our country. It was the right thing to do, and the time for such a revolution was overdue. We need to respect the people's wishes and get down to the business of government and political reform. We don't need to worry about the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. image." McCain relented,

Wednesday, January 28, 2009. Phil and Janie Baker, Mike and "Hot" Donna Osborn, Boo and Jo Waarren, Bobby and Lovee Boyles, and Bobby Cowles were all back to work on the Iowa pig farm. Jil and Doc were back to "business as usual" at the bar, but Jil was leaving for a "spot check" of two of her other bars: "Cahoots" and "Screwball's", both located just over the Indiana line in southern Michigan. Her managers' reports were 'jiving' with what her computer records were telling her, and she suspected there might be some "skimming" going on. At the last minute, Doc decided to go along just to add "substance" to Jil's review of the situations.
Ron Oetting and Bob Ryan were nowhere to be found. One could only suspect they were taking a little "r&r", more than likely at a neighborhood bar - somewhere, anywhere. If Ryan and Oetting were given a divining rod with which to dowse for water, they'd almost certainly find alcohol instead. Bob was still talking about the weekend revelry. "Can you believe Mike Osborn passed out on the bar with a beer bottle glued to his lips?" Bob asked increduously. Ron replied with his own fond memory: "Yeah, but did you see Janie hugging that microphone? I think she was trying to make love to it! 'Course, when you you think about it: it's probably been a long time since she's had anything that skinny!' In his most sobersided tone, Bob reprimanded, "Now, now, let's not be making fun of Phil's rotundity when he's not here to reciprocate with jokes about your old age." Not three minutes after those words filled the bar, Phil walked in! 'G'day, Mates!" he greeted. "I was just passing through, saw your cars, and thought I'd stop for a cold one." To bob and Ron's astonishment, Phil looked sunburned - in the dead of winter! "Where the hell have you been?" Bob asked, "I thought you and Janie would be back in Iowa by now!"
Phil explained that, indeed, they were headed back to the farm, and - indeed - Janie was back home. "We weren't out of the city limits yet, when Janie asked me who that girl was at the bar Saturday night - or should I say Sunday morning? It was four o'clock and most of the crowd was passed out cold, but this girl was still ready to party hardy! Well, I thought, what the hell? She was really robust - if you know what I mean - with emphasis on the 'bust'. Janie was slobbering all over that stupid microphone, and I was having trouble manuevering through the dance floor clogged with drunken bodies. Janie must have overheard me ask the girl if I could jump her bones. Or maybe she overheard the girl's slick reply: 'You think you've got the boner to do it with, big boy?' Either way, that's about when Janie passed out. To be honest with you, I'm not completely clear as to what all happened. I remember the girl followed me into the men's room and grabbed hold of me.....making some ruddy remark about me not being able to lift anything heavy. I remember she told me her name was Tonya or Sonja - something like that; that's when I said, 'Well, Tonya, I'd sure like ta' bong ya'!' Next thing I know I woke up sitting on the toilet in the men's room with Tonya - or Sonja, or whatever the fuck her name was - straddled over me, with her chin dug into my left shoulder. I recall suggesting that she strip to the waist, and she took her pants off! Then she took mine off! How the rest of our clothes ended up in a pile underneath the urinal, I don't know! And I sure as hell don't know how we ended up sitting on the toilet facing each other! I have a very vague recollection of Janie coming in and whispering, 'Courtesy flush, please...' in my ear, but I don't have a clue as to where Tonya - or Sonja - was at that time. In fact, maybe I'm mistaken.....maybe that wasn't Janie. Maybe it was Tonya - or Sonja. Do you guys think there could've been two girls - one named Tonya and one named Sonja??" Anyway, to make a long story short, Janie threw Phil out of her car near the I-69 and I-469 interchange. Somehow, he'd managed to walk back to town and - somehow, as luck would have it - he managed to find Bob and Ron sitting in a strange bar where none of the three had ever been before! Phil's clothes filled with wet, damp snow, and road slush. He must have walked for over four miles, Bob somehow calculated. When the attractive brown bartender brought Phil a beer, he said, "Oh, okay...that'll do for a starter, but bring me something to warm up my innards. Better bring me some kickin' chicken." Ron whispered to the bartender, "That's Wild Turkey on-the-rocks, and keep 'em comin', okay?"
As the smooth warmth of the alcohol soothed his chilled body, Phil continued fantasizing about 'what the hell happened'? It wasn't like Phil to forget much of anything, but obviously an overabundance of booze had blurred his memory.
With the AROB group one member short (Adams was on her way to Michigan), Ryan, Oetting and Baker whittled away the day in this dark, cozy, rustic bar. As they swilled their libations, all three began to notice the very same thing about that cute little bartender: she was turning into a wretched shrew with intense eyes ablaze with hatred and disgust; her hair was beginning to fall out in piles on top of the bar; her teeth were turning an ugly shade of chartruese as some unidentified mocha-colored foam spewed from her grotesquely-shaped mouth. As she was transformed from a beautiful brown-eyed brunette with an inviting smile and a not-half-bad figure, the three began to ponder among themselves: was this just a bad halliucinatory case of the DTs - or were they in the "bar from Hell"? Either way, this was going to be a worrisome Wednesday!
Ever the eternal optimist, Phil suggested they all have a "few more drinks" to "take the edge off" - who knows, he surmised, "maybe she'll get prettier again!" Sure enough, by 2:00 a.m., she had been transformed into a knock-down, drop-dead gorgeous redhead with firey green eyes and a flirtatious smile. Phil ordered another bourbon, burped, and then asked in the most polite tone he was able tomuster, "Is your name Tonya by any chance?

In September, 2004, when the Iraq war was still "fresh", TvNewsLIES.org published a disturbing manifesto accusing George W. Bush as being one of the world's worst terrorists. In its report, it gave the FBI's official definition of "terrorism":

"Terrorism is the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives"

The United States of America is a signatory to the United Nations Charter which specifically forbids unprovoked attacks on other sovereign nations except in self-defense or with the authority of the UN. When Bush attacked Iraq in 2003, he had no such justification or authority. Bush invaded Iraq in direct violation of international law, without regard for the UN Charter, and without the Constitutional authority of the United States Congress. Such an invasion was no different than Hitler's pre-war invasions of France, Poland and Czechoslovakia. Bush's invasion was malicious and unprovoked. Saddam Hussein had in no way threatened, provoked or attacked the United States; but, the 9-11 World Trade Center disasters gave Bush the impetus he needed to 'settle the score' with Hussein, who had humiliated George H.W. Bush during Desert Storm in 1991.
Regardless of his noble cause, his fear of 'evil regimes', or his intent to bring democracy to Iraq, George W. Bush had violated laws and - in doing so - had poisoned the world against America. His cocky demeanor and arrogant, jaunty swagger only served to alienate people who viewed Bush as a bully and a tyrant. Even tens of millions of Americans saw their President as repulsive and disingenuous. Even before the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. bombs exploded and assassinated Bush and his evil, malevolent comrades, millions of Americans were asking, half-seriously and half-jokingly, "Where's Lee Harvey Oswald when you really need him?"
Bush surrounded himself with wicked, money-grubbing, power-lusting people. One of his best friends, Ken Lay, whose avaricious appetite for immense wealth eventually brought down the house-of-cards at Enron, was once slated for a top government position. "Scoooter" Libby, another Bush confidant, was eventually sentenced to prison for criminal malfeasance, but days before he was to begin serving his sentence, he was pardoned by his best friend, George, Tom DeLay considered Bush to among his closest associates, even after his involvement in abhorrent government scandals. Indeed, the Bush administration was staffed with a full complement of scoundrels, criminals, traitors, and people willing to commit mass murder for the sake of oil and war profiteering.
As reflected in his daily diary, even George W. Bush knew he was nothing more than a dullardly dumb dolt being strung along by puppetmaster Dick Cheney. But egoism prevailed, and there was never a time in American history where one band of political thugs believed themselves to be above the law and "more equal" than everybody else. Unless you were a powerful politician, an obscenely wealthy individual, or a giant corporate conglomerate, you were nothing in the eyes of the Bush-Cheney administration. That was just one more reason why the concept of 'Equilateralism' was so vital to reforming the United States of America. Newly elected public officials recognized that even the appearance of impropriety would be grounds for their immediate dismissal from the body of Congress. The Presidential Trimverate understood that honesty, integrity and credibility were of utmost importance - and over 100 million O.U.T.R.A.G.E. members would be watching every single move every individual public servant made, looking for even the most petty infraction of the public trust.
In the 'new' America, there would be no distinction between the rich, powerful people and the rest of society. Even the most underprivileged, poor, sick, aged, disabled, disadvantaged, hungry, and homeless among the population would be treated with equal respect and dignity.
By now the new members of Congress were transforming informal discussions into more intense dialogue. They had called in many of the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. "think tank" operations, seeking advice and counsel. Political analysts, economists, scientists and philosophers had abandoned the lush warmth of St. Kitts for dreary January days in Washington, DC. The J.W. Marriott Hotel was still serving as a "temporary" Congressional meeting place. "All men are created equal..." was one phrase that seemed stuck in many minds. America had to return to that simple premise, that one inalienable truth. No longer could one's money, power or status influence

By Monday, snowplows had cleared out most of the Midwest's blizzard accumulations. The snowbound O.U.T.R.A.G.E. volunteers were on their way home after sobriety set in and they cleaned up the mess they'd made of Jil's bar. Down south in St. Kitts, O.U.T.R.A.G.E. think tanks kept thinking about how to revitalize American society.
In the spring of 2007, a 43-year-old California investor named Mohnish Parbral had bid a record-setting $650,100.00 at a charity auction for the opportunity to have lunch with billionaire investor Warren Buffett. "He has had a major influence on the way I invest," said Pabral, "and also in the way I give back." Having modeled his own investment strategies after Buffett's, Pabral continued, "To the extent societal rules or the wiring of your brains make it easy to acquire a lot of assets, then to the extent you can, you should try to improve the world." This simplistic philosophy was becoming a key component in the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. theory of "Equilateralism". For too many years, Americans (and much of the rest of the contemporary world) had squandered much of their wealth on themselves with little regard for those underdog nations and civilizations. Those who had accumulated massive mountains of money thought of themselves as industrious, hard-working, smart, savvy businesspeople; in their minds, those images of poor African children with flies buzzing around them were proof-positive of the third world's lack of ambition, motivation and enterprise. Why help them when they don't help themselves? In the late 1990's, Kiwanis International had stepped up to the plate and sponsored a worldwide effort to combat what was a little-known fact of life in underdeveloped countries. It was not that these people were inherently lazy, it was that they lacked sufficient iodine in their diets! Americans had, for decades, been blessed with a simple solution to this problem: iodized salt. In the early part of the twentieth century, even poor rural Americans often suffered from goiters, lethargy. and other health problems that were practically erradicated once iodine was added to table salt. The human body requires an infintesimal amount of iodine, but without it, the immune system breaks down. The Kiwanis organization had initiated a monumental effort that would add iodine to salt in remote villages throughout the world. The results were astonishing, as incidents of cretinism, physical and mental abnormalities and severe thyroid deficiencies were virtually eliminated in communities all over Africa, China and the poorer parts of Asia. People who had previously been seen as lazy, unmotivated and stupid were now able to lead more productive lives. "All because of a little bit of iodine being added to their deficient diets," said Ron Oetting, who - as a Lt. Governor of a Kiwanis regional division, had participated in the project. Instead of giving the money to state or local governments (where it could be stolen, squandered, or misused), Kiwanis built inexpensive salt processing factories in villages and towns so that the money was poured directly into the community. Not only did it provide direct aid to those who suffered iodine deficiencies, it also provided jobs in each community. Due to inadequate international publicity, the Kiwanis objective of $40 million fell short until the world's richest man, Bill Gates, offered to make up the difference. His infusion of millions of dollars made it possible for Kiwanians around the world to achieve their goal and make the world a better place.
A similar project was based out of Little Rock, Arkansas, where a non-profit organization with the unlikely name of Heifer International provided animals to individual families in poor communities. With the donation of a goat, a heifer, a pig or a few chickens, a poverty-stricken family in some unknown African village would be able to have milk or eggs, and often had enough left over to sell to, or share with, others. Heifer International had been making small differences in the world for years, yet few Americans even knew about the organization.
O.U.T.R.A.G.E. saw such outreach projects as imperative to its own mission. If the American psyche could be revived; if the average American millionaire could be persuaded to stop squandering his wealth on himself and start 'giving back' to those with less; if American attitudes toward the weak, the sick, the aged, the hungry, the underprivileged, the poor, the disabled, the disadvantaged, and the homeless could be changed, the concept of "Equilateralism" could successfully work to change the spirit of a nation. Bringing compassion, generosity, cooperation, spirituality, and - yes - even "love" into the forefront of a nation's standard was certainly one way to eliminate prejudice, bias, hatred, bigotry, poverty, and - yes - even 'war'.
The Kingdom of Brunei and the tiny nation of Bhutan seemed to have made such standards workable for their citizens. The charitable works of Heifer International and the world's 8,800 Kiwanis clubs seemed to have made such standards workable around the world. Why couldn't the United States of America become a new kind of world super power by offering fairness, equality, and love to all people everywhere??

Sunday morning was pretty much a repeat of the day before. Jil was one of the first ones to wake up after another all-night party where few people starting passing out until 4:00 a.m. She stepped gingerly over bodies lying on the stage, sprawled across tables, comatose in chairs or sofas, or spread-eagled on the floor. She couldn't help but detect a repulsive and odoriferous blended scent of alcohol, beer, wine, onions, and unwashed bodies. The stifling heat in the bar only served to further accentuate the stench, so Jil tried opening the side door only to find it barricaded with six feet of heavy snow pack. Finally, she managed to shove the door open just enough that she could stick her head outside and breathe some fresh cold air. She was wearing aqua pedalpushers and a dark turquoise sweater; her hair was in its traditional ponytail, the minimal make-up she was wearing was smudged lightly across her face. Doc came up behind her and whispered, "You think these guys are ever gonna' go home?" He grabbed a nearby snow shovel and started scooping a tunnel which allowed him to finally get outside and 'dig out' Neither snow, nor sleet, no hail or rain could keep Doc from his appointed rounds, Jil thought; "he's kinda like the postmen and taxicab drivers".
'Hot" Donna was the next one awake. "What are we gonna' do with all these drunks, Jil? We're runnin' outta booze! We blew through three kegs last night, the coolers are just about empty, and our liquor inventory is about depleted!" Jil listened with little concern; if there was nothing to drink, maybe some of these party-goers would brave the weather and start heading for home. "Don't you and Mike have to get back to Phil's pig farm?" she quizzed. "Do you really like working on a pig farm, Donna?" Donna peered over the top of her glasses, and responded, "Well, it's not much different than some of the pigs we've had to work with around here! Only difference is the pigs in Iowa have four feet and eventually become bacon. The pigs in Indiana might get fried, but they keep coming back!" The two couldn't keep from guffawing, which woke up Boo and Bobby and Bobby and Bruce. Hooter stood up as if he had just risen from the dead. Tom Chandler snorted and immediately headed for the head. Lovey and Jo and Michelle were the next to open their eyes. Ron was curled up in a fetal position trying to keep warm with a tablecloth he'd found in the storeroom. Phil was snoring (imagine that!) what sounded like a trumpeted version of "Purple Haze". Mike was sitting on a barstool, his head lowered on the bar, with a beer bottle clenched tightly between his lips as if he never wanted it to leave him alone again. His mustache was full of beer suds, someone had apparently doused his jet black hair with beer foam. Bob and Cher were cuddled up together on one of the comfortable sofas; Bob's right leg was perched over the back of the sofa making it look like it had been twisted off and hastily replaced - backwards. Janie was on the stage hugging a microphone. Dana had fallen into one of the drums on stage; had the drum been filled with water, it could have appeared she was in a small child's swimming pool with her hands and legs hanging over the sides. The drum wasn't filled with water, but there did appear to be a small pool of beer fermenting as Dana soaked in its suds.
By noon, everybody was up, though some were still not functioning all that well.
"Grab the mops, brooms and buckets, you guys!" commanded Jil. "We're gonna clean this place up!"
Without dissent, the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. volunteers became the clean-up crew. It's hard to work with a hangover.