Communati.com

An Ambiguous Mass
by Cliff Pyke

…An ambiguous mass squawking
no sure idea where they’re walking
no sure idea where they’ve been
in the deafness of their masks
sinking…

…down many hidden destinations linking
impressions in their sand dunes thinking
of disappearing invisible winds inklings’
spoken in cafeterias’ babbling
brand…

…burnt on blank white hot papers’ land
traced by abstractions’ mysterious hand
onto slates of concrete wings heavy girth flying
within your grays’ cloudy ambiguous births’
dyings…

©2007
Written by Cliff Pyke
Thursday, May 17th, 2007

In the midst of all the rhetoric against the Bush Administration, there are still plenty of Americans who see a good man and good leader in George W. Bush. He worked hard to keep his promises to the conservative voters who had placed their trust in him during his now seven years in office. He responded to the terrorist threat and proved he is a man of resolve. He took our plight as tax payers into consideration and lowered our tax burden. He stood up for the family and refused to let America devolve into some perverted society that would have merited fire to fall from the heavens. In short, he did a first rate job in a very dangerous time.

Today, with the talking heads vying for the oath, it is easy to see that much is left to be achieved and many things linger from Bush’s failures, and there are more than a few. He failed to adequately push for a constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage. He was and is an abysmal failure in stemming the tide in the deluge of illegal immigration from our southern border. He did not succeed in ridding the nation of our addiction to Middle East oil, though the democrats and Bush’s fellow republicans in congress bear the same burden as he regarding all these failures. Nevertheless, President Bush did sow together many cords that, if kept in tact, will keep America on the path of right choices and policy for a long time to come. Yet, there are many strings still hanging out in this tapestry of the fabric of American history that still need tied up.

Of course, the war in Iraq, which is in far better shape since President Bush ordered the surge, is unfortunately, far from over. The surge seems to have marked a great turning point for that nation, much to the chagrin of the liberal elite who would love to derail the war for the sake of an election in November, 2008. If this surge continues to show success, there will be a good chance of seeing another republican in the White House. This can be very feasible if it remains possible to start pulling our troops out of Iraq during the spring and summer of 2008. Images of returning American GI’s will give Americans a sense of pride and a feeling that President Bush had been correct in taking a tyrant out of that nation and that his stubborn resolve is what they want to see in the next president as well. So, this election can be pulled off with good voter turnout and by America viewing its children returning home to a hero’s welcome.

Yet, let not the return of our troops be considered as the end-all of a struggle that will not need to be revisited. I suspect that there are about two more wars that may need to be waged before this nation can take a breather. That fact adds tremendous weight to the importance of electing a president who possesses a steel-like determination to protect this nation from current and future threats that hover out on the political, social and religious horizons. With this in mind, it is clear that the greatest threat facing America and any new president will be how to deal with a nuclear-armed Iran. Currently, the only Muslim nation that possesses nuclear arms is the nation of Pakistan. If the world can be set on edge by the current developments inside Pakistan, an American ally, then any president will have to view Iran, bent on building itself a nuclear arsenal, as a potentially very serious threat to The United States and our allies. Iran may not pose a threat to the USA in actually launching one of their missiles at us, but that Islamic Republic could attack an ally, such as Israel, that could lead to World War III. There are also great dangers in the possibility of Iran using its surrogates or sleeper cells to smuggle such arms into our nation. Though there is a strong popular movement inside Iran for change toward democracy, it is clear that no such hope truly exists without outside assistance. At the moment, America is looking to the UN for some help in this regard, which is tantamount to killing cancer with an aspirin. I predict that this event will fester to a boiling point and the need for forces to be deployed will again be called for. Nevertheless, we will have to have a lot more help from the Iranian people than we received from the people of Iraq. Therefore, the next president will not be able to beat Bush’s weapons into plowshares, as many predict, though it is unclear if any of the candidates truly realize that.

The other international hot spot in the world is North Korea. Though President Bush has signed an ill-conceived agreement with the president of this poorest of nations, Kim Jung Il has already broken the first major provision of the accord by failing to report how many bombs have been built and to what extent he has proliferated his nuclear technology around the world. North Korea has one of the largest standing armies in the world. Though that nation may not have rice enough with which to feed its people, it does have weapons with which to launch, at the very least, a region-wide war. Kim Jung Il has demonstrated his capacity to fear, though. Right after America took Iraq, The North Korean leader sent word to the Bush Administration that he intended to talk. Yet, talk is cheap and though there has been some progress in North Korea’s dismantling of its nuclear program, letting this tyrant slide in his failures to meet his commitments will be costly. Bush has taken too much time to play the talk game. If North Korea fails to live up to its word, which has been proven time and time again to be the ultimate, final conclusion, such talk time will have become exhausted.

If the next president fails to act appropriately to the threats of Iran and North Korea, the world could well be shoved into WW III. This is a sobering reality that should take precedence over any other reason that motivates us in our choice of candidate to lead the nation for at least the next four years. These two nations will have to be dealt with and without delay. Part 2 and part 3 of the Axis of Evil will have to be, not only pacified, but rendered incapable of waging war against its neighbors and drawing in major forces like our own. Failure to do so will mean renewed war that will render the war in Iraq as a mere scuffle in comparison. Therefore, the next president will have no lack of problems in the future with this apparently mentally ill communist dictator who will have no loss of an appetite to flex some muscle that he indeed does have.

On the domestic front, one lose end that needs to tied up into an eternal knot is the danger of allowing gay marriage. It seems apparent that President Bush simply used this issue as a reelection point, since he has done virtually nothing about his own proposal for a constitutional amendment since he began his second term. This is the one point that I am sure will not receive the appropriate attention, by virtue of the political capital that will have to be spent to achieve it. Neither of the two of the two party nominees, from either party, will push hard to preserve the sanctity of the institution of marriage. That does not mean it is not important. In fact, if the American society allows this obtuse action to become the national norm, it will transform the waging of battles abroad for the safety of the nation into something of no value to many of us who hold to social morals that say you can do whatever you wish in private so long as it is not sanctioned and protected by those who lead us publically.

Therefore, we must fight hard for the constitutional amendment that President Bush called for during the 2004 election. It is very clear in the antics displayed by those protesting since Bush’s first inauguration that this issue will be bigger than ever for the next president, especially a liberal one. The greatest failure for President Bush is that he placed a greater priority on Social Security savings accounts than following through on the moral issues he so bravely championed in his second presidential campaign. He has failed to look sufficiently at his 2004 election polling data to see that the reason that he is again in office today is because Christians placed their faith in him as a believer and moral leader. We need to insist upon not just giving these issues lip service.

The future does not look too bright for conservatives today. That can become a good thing, also. Often long-term power creates lethargy and apathy. Too much power and far too much pride has lulled conservatives to sleep and made them think that they were unshakable and full of strength. Of course that was a pipe dream. If you do not think so, ask Speaker of the House Pelosi what she thinks. The next president will have about two years to make these things happen, if at all. At the moment, no real conservative seems poised to take President Bush’s place in the 2008 election. The closest thing to a conservative presidential hopeful in the Republican Party for 2008 is John McCain. He is right of center, at best, and has an eerie tendency to rely on any side from which he may find support. The great danger is that all of the candidates that the republicans and the democrats have fielded could spell the end of the America as we have know her.

Therefore, those of us who care about the social nature of the nation and the future strength of the sane world need to insist that the next president not crowd out the issues that are of supreme importance to us. Failure to correct the moral wrongs in our country shall cause the nation to incur more attacks and shall nullify any attempt to spare the nation from greater disaster. Men and women do right or wrong by virtue of their characters. It does not matter if the next president is black or white. There are good men and women from every walk of life in this country, regardless of their gender, race, religion or creed. Let us decide to only pay tribute with our vote to the man who has kept faith with America. Yet, never let us sit back and pretend that all is calm in Gotham. These next four years will determine whether America will maintain the stamina and courage to fight the good fight and to tie all loose strings together into one large tapestry that cannot be unraveled. Demand it! Expect it! Scream like crazy until you get it! Nothing less is acceptable!

Steven Clark Bradley lived abroad for over 17 years and has been to 34 countries, including Pakistan, Iraq and Turkey. He has a master’s degree in liberal studies from Indiana University. He speaks French and Turkish. He has been an assistant to a Prosecutor, a University Instructor and a freelance Journalist in Ramallah, Palestine, Israel, Turkey, Iraq and Pakistan. Steven is the author of three novels, Nimrod Rising, Probable Cause and Stillborn, available through Borders.com, Barnesandnoble.com and Amazon.com and almost anywhere on the net.

You can read lots more from Steven Clark Bradley at these sites. You might even find some Stories That Read You! at:

• Author Steven Clark Bradley
• From The Mind Of Author Steven Clark Bradley
• Inspired Author.Com
• Inspired Author.com (Nikki Leigh’s Virtual Book Tour)
• Posts On Fire
• Steven Clark Bradley - ezinearticles.com
• Steven Clark Bradley - Nimrod Rising
• Steven Clark Bradley @ Communati.com
• Steven Clark Bradley on Blog Talk Radio
• Steven Clark Bradley’ Blog @ xanga.com
• Steven Clark Bradley’s Blog @ Amazon .com
• Steven Clark Bradley’s Underground Controversy
• StevenClarkBradley - Book Marketing Network
• StevenClarkBradley - Published Authors

All of Steven Clark Bradley’s novels are widely available all over the net. Here are a few links to help you read these exciting stories now.

Amazon.com
booksamillion.com
powells.com
bordersstores.com
barnesandnoble.com
copperfields.com

I can’t even count the number of times I hear this from people. Actually, “hearing” is usually in the form of an email one of my readers will send me. The fact is, Internet Marketing does work, but many people are more interested in a quick fix or the “getting rich quick” schemes you can find all over the Internet that they lose sight of the fact that making money on and with the Internet needs to be treated as a viable aspect of their business.

Did I really say that? A viable aspect of their business. Yes I did.

Where I see people fall into the trap of Internet Marketing is when they think they don’t have to work at building their business by way of the Internet. They seem to think all they have to do is set up a website, get a merchant account, have one product (well, maybe two) and presto, they are going to make millions. WRONG!!!!

Don’t fall into this trap. Learn the truth. Study what the professionals are doing. Get the correct information.

My intention here is not to discourage you. My intention is to arm you with the right information that will allow you to make money by way of the Internet.

Can you make money on the Internet? By all means. I have been doing so for years as have my collegues, Patsi Krakoff and Denise Wakeman aka The Blog Squad. As a matter of fact, not long ago between the three of us we made over $75,000 in a couple of weeks. Did it happen by chance? Absolutely not. It happened by having a solid plan in place, systems set up and a vision of what is possible.

If you’re ready to Discover the 5 Traps of Internet Marketing that Can Derail Your Business join The Blog Squad and The Street Smarts Marketer on June 24th at 3 p.m. for a FREE teleseminar. Go to http://www.actandattract.com/5traps/ to register.

Ponder this: No matter how hard you think your intelligence, your wit, your money, your youth or your power, can make you different from others; somehow better than everyone else—immortal even!, as always is, in the end, the Creator levels the playing field—and silent hellish tears of despair rain down upon the stage in that last moment of moments upon loss for trying…in vain. -Cliff Pyke

Just a few words from your resident agony uncle, on the lonely: I walked to the window of my apartment and looked down to the sidewalk, and behold, a pot of gold, in form and variety, with feelings just below the mind that I might guess to be of the waiting kind. Waiting there, as often the lonely will, for someone or something to un-lock their gilded cage….

Strangers walked by as I observed; he side glanced, said no words of greeting and then looked away—as if forbidden the fruits of kind words exchanged with others. I turned away from my reverie, thought of getting old, and how for some, loneliness can become so complete…as minutes turn to hours, hours turn to days, and days into years…into lines on my face, grey hairs worn so reluctantly—the inevitability of age that the young look upon [in others] with such fearful disdain, reluctantly knowing deep down within, that quietly, in time, their day will come too…some will become so old and lonely they’ll wish to be dead.

I lit a smoke and sat down, as I often do, in the middle of the couch, and I looked at the walls of my familiar gilded cage, and thought to myself…how much more lonely, loneliness can be, when it has a name and a face; as I stare around me and this familiar realization, eyes more inward than out, and search for words to express my thoughts…I visit her again…she, like a shadow, my loneliness, my friend…my end

Yes, ponder my words as you walk down the streets of your life and notice the bits of you in other people’s eyes; the happiness’s, the joys, the ups and downs, the embarrassments, the failures—the very time itself! See the tear painted faces of clowns, the pain of the rain as it dances its dance down below, reigning you in too; and finally, take note of…that lonely bubbling just below the surface of your smile, as you too realize you’re no different than anyone else—we all walk together once in a while; we all walk that long lonely mile….

© 2006
Written by Cliff Pyke, Saturday, August 26th, 2006
Originally titled “A Few Words from Your Resident Agony Uncle: On the Lonely”
Edited & Re-titled “That Lonely Bubbling Just Below the Surface of Your Smile”

In the 1960’s Kiwi - standard bred harness horse champion racehorse, Cardigan Bay, took on the best in America and won - becoming the first million dollar pacer in history!

 

First published at Qassia:

 

Forty years later another Kiwi champion is taking on the standard bred sires to prove he is the best too!

 

He’s the sire of all sires in the southern hemisphere, now Christian Cullen is taking on America, taking on the world.

 

Owner Ian Dobson will shuttle the champion standard bred champion to the United States in an attempt to prove he is the best sire in the world - a big task, perhaps, but not beyond him.

 

The all conquering sire will be flown to Kentucky in February after the upcoming breeding season here in NZ, becoming the first New Zealand or Australian bred stallion to go to North America for stud duties. He has made his decision after years of pressure from leading US studs.

 

Christian Cullen will be restricted to a book of about 125 mares and Dobson’s marketing manager, Noel Kennard, said his stud fee would be near the top of the market, at $10,000.

 

Dobson wants to put the horse on an international pedestal.

 

Christian Cullen has set record after record in New Zealand and Australia and the media has called him a super-sire. Perhaps the best in the world - and now gets the chance to prove it.

 

There is a clause in the contract that if Christian Cullen’s southern breeding season is in any way at risk he will stop serving mares up there in North America, and be brought straight home and not return the following season.

 

As well as a champion sire, Christian Cullen was one of New Zealand’s greatest harness horses, a pacing champion.

 

In four seasons he wowed Australasian racing fans with his racetrack presence, winning 22 of 31 starts, and $1.25 million in stakes. In 1998-99, as a four year old, he was unbeaten in 12 starts,including a 20 metre, 1:54.4 demolition of his rivals in the Miracle Mile.

 

He was named 1998 Horse of the Year, and retired with 14 group one and group two scalps, including the prestigious New Zealand Cup and Auckland Cup, both over 3200 metres.

 

He has stood at stud for eight seasons, his first at $8,000 and the latest at $25,000.

 

His progeny have collectively won all of New Zealand’s most prestigious races.

 

His yearlings at the Karaka national sales last February, averaged 489,000.

 

On the track or at stud, a super-champion without a doubt.Now could he become a world champion?

 

Continue your glance into the world of Nimrod Rising as Alex Maefield takes further fatalistic steps into the darkness that has invaded his very being. Many of us find the spirit world hard to fathom and difficult to believe. During my research for Nimrod Rising, I came to the shock and realization of just how real the spiritual world truly is. I realized that Watchers are simply created beings, like unto ourselves, prone to do the wrong and tempted to rebel, also like the tragedy of the Human Race. Yet, the Watchers who turned against Elyon (God) are bitter and angry and determined to get the kingdom they ruled on the Earth before they were cast out and mankind was created. Witness the power and the confusion in this young man, Alex as he both feels the terror and allure of his new-found power that makes him special in the realm of the physical.

In Part one of Nimrod Rising - Sincere and Dedicated, you can feel this young man’s fear and speculation. He knows he needs to reject the call from darkness and turn his life over to the true force of power for good, but he he wants to continue to let this evil call fill his life as well. I think you you may be able to see the same decisions in your own life when you, and like all the rest of us, you have to make a conscious determination to follow the right whether than the wrong that eventually infects every area of our lives. In America today, we are all faced with the same kind of decisions. Will we, as a nation, choose to listen to the calls from the forces of good or will we finally give way to the natural instincts to let evil pervade us? With the deaths of 37 million babies through abortion, the calls for same-sex marriage and the recent loss of dignity through the forces of the culture of death, America is at a crossroads, just like Alex himself, we must choose today whom we will serve. Read this excerpt from Nimrod Rising and decide for yourself…

Nimrod Rising - Sincere and Dedicated Part One

Alex finally made it to the Vineyard base. The Ford transit, carrying Sally to Islamabad, had already departed. Alex had hoped to at least wish Sally a safe trip. He had just wanted to see her enticing face one more time; to let her look in his eyes and see the confusion that was leading him to madness. She would have immediately understood. She would at least see that there was something very wrong with him. Instead, Alex and his team leader, Mike Wakely would travel to Islamabad together.

“Alex! Great to see you man! I thought you weren’t going to make it.”

Mike Wakely was a gentle soul. He had the usual quaintness of speech and movement of the British. Yet, there was a certain toughness, a genuine grit that had been built up inside him after having been in India and Pakistan for so many years. Mike was one of the “Founding Fathers” of the Vineyard. He had been with the mission since its inception. He was responsible for all the teams in India, Pakistan and the rest of the Far East. As for Alex, Mike had a certain appreciation for the young man. He felt that Alex was sincere in his desire to spread the gospel to the lost religious followers of Mohammed throughout Pakistan and India.

Americans had always been very successful at rubbing the Brits the wrong way. Mike had a way of laughing it off. He was a true gentleman.

“You and I are going together.” Mike said with a muffled voice with his head under the hood of his tiny Suzuki minivan.

“What’s wrong with the baby carriage?” asked Alex

“The what? Oh, the van? I don’t know really. It starts and takes off then it just loses power.”

“Mike, the word ‘power’ just doesn’t fit in respect to this buggy.”

Mike chuckled. “Alex, could you look through the tool chest and find me a #10 wrench?” Alex looked for the tool as Mike waited patiently with his head under the hood singing softly, “Onward Christian Soldiers, marching on to war…”

Alex handed Mike the wrench and Mike saw the scrapes and bruises around Alex’s wrist. Mike panicked and tried not to think the worst of it or to show his concern. Mike had known for a while that Alex seemed more perplexed than normal. He thought it to be just a bit of lost zeal that every worker experienced after a certain amount of time on the field. Alex felt that Mike had been troubled in his spirit and then began to see a sort of strange green colored light around Mike’s shoulders, arms and head. It was like the rays given off of a florescent light that glowed but never quite lit completely. Mike’s mind began to analyze the bruises around Alex’s wrist.

“Had the boy tried to kill himself? What’s troubling him? He hadn’t been normal at the prayer meeting this morning.”

Alex was reading Mike’s thoughts. Mike’s mental words entered Alex’s mind as though they had been verbally uttered. Alex could hear the words though Mike had not spoken a thing. Suddenly, Alex realized that Mike had seen his wrist.

“He thinks that I tried to…” Alex panicked!

There was no way that Alex would be able to explain the dream to Mike, or to anyone, for that matter. Even Sally would have a hard time digesting it. They would all think he had a serious case of homesickness, or worse yet, that he had been possessed by demons.

“Why not?” Alex thought. “Was it not true?”

It seemed to be exactly plausible. Yet, it couldn’t be! Alex looked at his wrists and felt along his chest and torso. The burning pain bore witness to the fact. He had not invited any evil thing to entertain his thoughts. He had not dwelt with the wicked. He had consistently confessed his sins,
fasted, prayed and had stayed in the Word.

“They will all try to cast the demons out of me, as simplistic as they are!” Alex speculated.

They would call for a meeting, place their hands all over him and pray for a cleansing spirit to cast out the evil one! He couldn’t bear it! He would most certainly not allow it. He’d be called rebellious and sinful.

“Alex, can you give me the black adhesive in the tool box?” Mike asked Alex.

Mike didn’t really need the tape. It was a good excuse to see Alex’s wrists again. Mike grabbed Alex’s arm. He had to know how that had happened. He was genuinely concerned for the boy. But when Mike looked at Alex’s wrist, the bruise that he had been absolutely sure he had seen was gone! Mike was so startled that he jerked his head upward from beneath the hood of the Suzuki minivan and caught his balding spot on the latch! The tip of the latch had embedded itself just under the thin skin of his scalp. When Mike had detached himself, a small but deep cut began to ooze blood. Almost instinctively, Alex reached up his left hand and touched the grease-soiled cut. When his palm drew close to the contusion, Alex felt energy leave his body. That thin green light shot out again from between his palm and Mike’s scalp. Alex watched as the abrasion closed up without even leaving a scar. These miracles, as Alex had interpreted them to be, seemed more commonplace now to Alex. He was not afraid anymore.

____________________________________________________________

Now, Watch The Nimrod Rising Video Trailer:

Are You Ready For Nimrod Rising?
Is it really hard to see that something sinister is afoot? All around us, in every country, on every face, there is a knowledge that everything has changed. Watch this video and see what Steven Clark Bradley’s new novel, Nimrod Rising describes and the very plausible scenario that may be playing itself out in the very day in which we live. This video will make you think!
Are You Ready For Nimrod Rising?

___________________________________________________________

“Did I cut myself, Alex?”

“No, you just gave it a good thud is all.”

“That’s impossible! I felt the tip of that thing clinging to the inside of my skin.”

“Well Mike, it must have only felt that way, cause there isn’t even a red spot.”

Alex felt a wave of conviction pour over him. Here was his chance, perhaps his only one, to tell someone he knew he could trust about what was going on in his life.

“See Mike, I met this demon last night and he tied me to a chair and poured tar and bugs all over me and then crawled behind my eye!”

The sound of it all playing back inside Alex’s head convinced him to leave it all alone. He was certain that if he told Mike about the satanic attacks of the morning and afternoon, Mike would be able to cast it all away through prayer and fasting. He trusted Mike. He knew Mike would keep it quiet. Still, Alex did not want to lose this power either. Had it not come to him without his desiring it? Had he not, in the past two hours, saved a family from certain starvation by mending their transportation and the healing of an ugly wound on the top of Mike’s head? He liked the power! He was somebody special now! Did it really matter where this power came from as long as it wrought well for the world, Manassa Dormin’s world? Could Satan cast out Satan? The answer was “yes” if it caused deception and illusion enough to deceive the lost masses of humanity, and Alex knew it! Yet, talking to Mike was out of the question. Situational ethics were wrong!

Alex knew it! Helping people was right, even if he actually wanted it all. A small, whispering voice told him that he loved the power. He loved the fear! He loved the shock effect on those around him! He loved the final results! He loved that lizard-looking, nostril-puffing, yellow-eyed demon, Abaddon that seemed permanently stuck in the corner of his right eye! The narrow road on which Alex was walking was needle thin. He would just have to walk down it. It tantalized him now. It wasn’t the mere babbling of some mentally induced gibberjabber that he had been participating in called the tongues of angels. He was actually sending power from himself to others! Where the power originated did not matter anymore. Alex was not about to give it up!

Mike still had hold of Alex’s arm. He stared at the wrist unbelievingly.

“Alex, I was sure that…”

“Sure of what?” Alex asked.

He was getting good at this, he thought, as Mike shook his head in confusion.

“Never mind.” Alex looked down at the minivan.

“Mike, have you checked the coil wire? Maybe it’s loose. I’m sure if you press down on it firmly, the engine will start.”

Alex pressed on the wire solidly and Mike went around to the ignition and turned the key. The motor roared to life.

“Mr. Maefield, you’re a good soul!” Mike said. “And a very troubled one too!” Mike thought. He looked down again at Alex’s wrist. It was clean and free of even the slightest bruise.

“Get in, Alex. Let’s go.”

~~~

The road between Lahore and Islamabad was at times wonderfully paved and then would break up first for great stretches of many kilometers into gravel, then into dirt, and, often, there was no road at all.

“You sure can tell which village is the home of a Member of Parliament,” Mike said to Alex. “Their roads are always well-preserved.”

Nevertheless, travel in the sub-continent was always dusty, dirty and hot. Alex would inevitably stick his arm out the window for a minute or two and pull it back inside semi-blackened. Alex thrived after the toughness of the land. He loved to see all the cultural aspects of the small villages. The various herdsmen driving their water buffaloes across the highway to a better grazing area somewhere on the other side always periodically impeded the travel.

“Why not? This is Pakistan,” Alex thought.

Uniquely beautiful, young Pakistani women seemed fatalistically denied their due moment of feminine splendor by virtue of their sensuous eyes and silky jet-black hair. There were lots of such beauties strutting along the sides of the road with large plastic basins planted firmly in the middle of the tops of their heads filled with the needed water for the first half of the day. Other women, usually the older ones, could be seen squatting on their haunches in the fields where the cattle had just deposited their smelly loads and sticking their prematurely-calloused hands in the fresh excrement, shaping handfuls into cakes which they would later stick and dry on the sides of their homes for future use as fuel for their cooking stoves.

As the two of them drove on through the Pakistani countryside, Alex spotted something in the road. One could always see many things lying in or on the sides of the roads; rusted out cars, dead horses and cows and buzzards as large as small children that seemed to be saying grace before devouring something dead for their next meal. Yet, what Alex saw was no broken down automobile or dead animal. It was a human body!

“Mike! Look there on your right!” Alex commanded.

Mike should have seen it as the steering column was on the right in India, but he had been busy trying to drive down this particularly rough stretch of road.

“What is it?”

“It’s a body….a dead body…at least it appears to be dead, just back there on the side of the road. Stop the car Mike!”

“Alex what if they think we did it? I know missionaries who’ve nearly lost their lives for hitting a Pakistani citizen!”

“Who cares, Mike? Stop now!”

Mike hit the breaks and threw the minivan into reverse. When they reversed to where the body was, they got out and looked at an obviously dead young man.

“You think he’s dead, Alex?”

Alex started waving his hand about three feet over the body.

“Yes, he’s dead, Mike. His spirit is still hovering over the body,” Alex said calmly and serenely.

Mike was dumbfounded. “His what is doing what? Are you going mad?”

Alex then looked at Mike and continued. “His name is Kamal Bhaktar and he’s from the village just over the hill behind you. He’s almost twenty years old and was struck by a passing bus about thirty-two minutes ago.”

“Alex! I really don’t think it is a good time for jokes!”

Alex looked over at Mike irately and shouted in some kind of strange, altered voice.

“Why do you call me Alex? My name is Dormin! Manassa Dormin, and I’ll dare you doubt me!”

Mike was sure that he saw something looking at him from the corner of Alex’s right eye. Alex then turned his head to the Suzuki and stared hard at it. The horn began blowing.

“What are you doing? What? You can’t be doing that! This is not of Elyon!”

Alex looked at Mike and spoke again in the voice that was not his own. “Mike, all that glitters is not gold and all that is powerful is not of Elyon.”

“Alex! What are you? Who are you?” “Alex!” Mike walked closer over to Alex.

“Listen to me!”

Alex cast a burning stare directly into Mike’s eyes.

“Who the Tenebre is Alex? I told you my name is Dormin, and, believe me, you’ll never forget it again!”

You can read lots more from Steven Clark Bradley at these sites:

Steven Clark Bradley’s Stories That Read You!
Steven Clark Bradley’s Underground Controversy
Steven Clark bradley inspiredauthor.com/promotion
Steven Clark Bradley - Published Authors.com
Steven Clark Bradley at Blog Talk Radio.com
Steven Clark bradley at Communati.com
Steven Clark Bradley at Inspired Author.com
Steven Clark Bradley - Nimrod Rising

All of Steven Clark Bradley’s novels are widely available all over the net. Here are a few links to help you read these exciting stories now.

Amazon.com
booksamillion.com
powells.com
bordersstores.com
barnesandnoble.com
copperfields.com

Nimrod Rising - As Real As It Gets!

 SOME SUNDAY READING  -  AN ARTICLE TO KNOCK YOUR SOCKS OFF FRIENDS…
………………………
Free Tibet? Hell, free America!

Support the humble monks? You bet. But oh, let’s not forget our own wonderfully abundant atrocities…

By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Free Tibet? Hell, free America! - Support the humble monks?

I know I know I know — we don’t exactly have huge platoons of nasty jackbooted soldiers storming through the streets in riot gear and gas masks and large sticks bashing down on the shiny heads of peaceful monks.

We don’t exactly have smashed and burning vehicles and dead bodies in the streets and vicious martial law, ethnic cleansings and curfews and media lockouts and blocked Internet access and all sorts of nefarious, disturbing reports of brutality and beatings and death. Well, except for parts of Oakland. And L.A. And Chicago. But never mind that now.

Overall, even under the deformed and wretched Bush regime and despite how much Dick Cheney’s dead raisin of a heart leaps with excitement when he sees the videos of those bloodied and dead Tibetan protesters ("Damn hippies had it coming"), America is still far from the brutality and inhumanity happening right now in Lhasa and beyond.

Or maybe not. For here is what we do have: We have torture. We have a frighteningly simpleminded cowboy-wannabe president who supports and endorses the most inhumane treatment of prisoners imaginable despite its utter failure as a tactic, and this violent belief, this dark energy infects the national bloodstream like prehistoric malaria.

We have capital punishment. We remain the only so-called advanced first-world democracy on the planet that legally kills its own, and we top it off by imprisoning tens of thousands more merely for growing or selling a bit of marijuana or Ecstasy or meth, wasting tens of billions of dollars on an overflowing prison system and a failed drug war that no one at the highest levels of government dares speak against because oh my God all drugs are evil! Now go slam a few beers and a fistful of Xanax and forget about it.

We still have a hateful fundamentalist religious right that, despite nicely fracturing itself over the fact that certain chunks of it aren’t hateful enough toward women and gays and sex and non-Christian beliefs, still freaks out when kids play dress up, still is horrified by the notion of a black or female president, still honestly believes homosexuality is an abomination and Jesus spoke perfect English and stem cells have feelings and cavemen rode dinosaurs and the vagina is Satan’s playground. Which, of course, it totally is. But in a good way.

Thanks to Dubya’s disastrous economics, we now have the largest deficit in history, coupled to the widest gap ever between ultra-rich and the poor, with the largest swath of the middle-class no longer really in the middle and now more like hovering just above oh my God how will we make the mortgage payment this month I hope nothing goes wrong with the Civic and please please please no one get sick.

Wait, check that: Bush’s economics haven’t failed at all. They’ve worked spectacularly well, and exactly as designed: The rich got richer and, well, f— everyone else.

We are all but officially in a recession, deepening by the day. China and Japan own the vast majority of America’s staggering debt, in the form of massive loans with equally massive interest rates, and if their economies so much as sneeze, we’re basically screwed. Check that: more screwed.

The housing market is tanking. Has tanked. Is still tanking. And you know it’s tanking when even homeowners in normally bulletproof San Francisco are getting nervous, when real estate blogs from here to SocketSite are all posting items about how even ridiculous multi-million dollar Pacific Heights homes and downtown luxo condos are slashing 50 thousand, 100 thousand, 1 million bucks off their sale prices to stimulate interest, and while there are still gobs of dot-com money floating around, most everyone is feeling very edgy indeed. But hey, at least you have that IRS rebate check coming, right? Smell the economic stimulus package! Mmm, futile.

Is there any good news? Why, sure. Hope is bubbling and churning like we haven’t seen for nearly a decade. Given how 80 percent of Americans believe/know we’re currently on the wrong track, all attention is turning to the Obama/Hillary cavalry riding all-too-slowly toward us in the far distance. But meanwhile, the feral neocon pigs are still rooting what’s left of the garden. As Jon Stewart put it, despite all the change in the air, despite the wisps of hope and progress and fluffy bunnies for all, well, Bush is still president.

Yes, Dubya is still being mocked overseas and still raping the English language at every speech and still taking these remaining miserable months of his failed presidency to see if he can’t hammer a few more nails into the coffin of the economy, the environment, the soul of the nation. Hey, what’s happening in Tibet is horrible, but have you seen the smoking rubble that was the U.S. Treasury?

Gas is four bucks a gallon. Airlines are shutting down. Newspapers are dying. Oh my, yes. Major media is in upheaval and some of it is good and some of it is very ugly and no one seems to have any idea how to create a new kind of business model that will sustain true and invaluable expertise in journalism, deep reportage that we actually count on — and which all those petulant, anti big-media blogs actually depend on for their very existence — to give the nation some sort of reliable collective narrative.

Whoops, sorry. Sidetracked. But then again, not really. You want to know about Bush’s various ongoing abuses? You want to know the facts about the failed surge in Iraq? About Darfur? Burma? Tibet? You need major media, flawed and imperfect and biased as it may be. What, you think it’s a perfect science?

As for Tibet, it’s sort of amazing, really. This Olympics might indeed turn out to be a terrific opportunity for this same beleaguered media — right along with the blogs and the YouTubes and the rest — to shame China for its rampant human rights abuses and abhorrent record of oppression and ethnic cleansing.

But here’s the really incredible thing: Intense international scrutiny could actually forcibly reshape the political and moral agenda of this exploding superpower at the perfect moment, just as it enters the big leagues and becomes a true force in the world. Put another way, Bush’s America has essentially failed as moral and theological leader of the world. Maybe our turn at the wheel is done. Maybe a revolutionized, liberated, democratic China can do better?

But this is not a column to say we’re in the same situation as Tibet/China. There is no real comparison. After all, Bush has yet to order the Army into the streets of Eugene and Austin and San Francisco to crack people’s skulls for doing some yoga and lighting incense and for believing that Jesus wasn’t actually a warmongering Muslim-hating isolationist jackass like he is. Not yet, anyway.

This is merely to remind, to point out one of the great things about this country. You want dour news? You want heartbreak and disappointment and oppression, people paying 15-grand to have a tiny bump removed from their elbow because the health care system is a disaster? You want to feel enraged at human rights abuses and overflowing prisons and fascist-like government maneuvers? Wave that banner high, protester. Free America! Free America! Free America!

 

 

I am not feeling well right now. At first, I thought it might be a kidney stone, but it’s not. I ran to my doctor, who’s just up the street, and let him take a look. It’s not good news, but it’s not bad news.

 

I had been taking medicine for some growths I had in, around and on the lumbar region of my back. 20 years ago I had a tumor back there that caused me some problems. From time to time I have gotten some small growths, or really masses of bad cells, that need to be addressed. Luckily today there are several types of medicines you can take that will help out for this. 20 years ago there was radiation and chemotherapy!!

 

So I will get back on the regimen of taking some medicine for a bit. It will all be fine in the long run. I just need to keep a close watch on it all. I go get checked on a regular basis. The medicine has some side effects and they are not good, but it’s better than the alternative.

 

So I am going to write this and then just lay down to take a rest. It takes a couple of days for the medicine to get down to business and I will start to really feel better again. I am not in bad shape. I just bummed out a bit when something like this happens.

 

It’s a nice, sunny cool day though. I have my animals around me. So I am going to be just fine. More later!!

The issue of my absence has been raised a number of times, so I thought I could address it here for all of the awesome bloggers.

 

First, after the transfer, I had to sort out a number of database problems with the new host. That was ongoing for some time, as I am sure most of you noticed. In the interest of promoting stability to the site, I had to reduce the options available temporarily. I thought I would allow about about 30 days or so while things settled in, once I got the database errors cleared up. Behind the scenes, I have sl-o-o-w-l-y been eliminating and optimizing things.

 

Second, as most of you are also aware as indicated by your posts, I have been attending university. I’m in an accelerated program and these last few classes have really eaten into my time (can anyone say "statistically significant?").

 

Third, on top of going to university, I was laid off indefinitely from my job at the auto plant here in Detroit at the end of January. There is no indication that I will be returning any time soon, especially in light of the national financial turmoil brought on by indiscriminate consumer spending  (of which I admit my own contribution) and asinine lending practices by the big financial institutions.

 

Fourth, I have been remodeling a home my family purchased for another relative who is in very bad heal who needs a kidney transplant, has been fighting immunological problems for the last nine months, and just recently underwent open heart surgery.

 

Fifth, and the last I will whine about, is that in between all of the above, I’ve been working hard trying to get something in the hands of a few well-known networks and film studios. I am hoping to hear something this week but one thing I have learned is that the film industry doesn’t know the meaning of moving quickly, or even moving at all, for that matter. Rounds and rounds and rounds and rounds of talks…but all good.

 

Six, I have a specific short-term goal I am trying to meet with Communati that will greatly impact the site and a long-term goal that should please everyone.

 

When it rains, it definitely pours here.  Oh, would you please pass the cheese?

 

If you are gardening in a dry area or just feel a dry garden season or maybe several seasons coming up using the "bent" bed approach for your garden beds make sense. I garden in Texas, San Antonio to be exact, and we have long periods of dry weather. While this could potentially stress the garden to no end using a "bent" or sloped bed can help ease this hardship.

 

Sloping the bed, and making a lip on the lower end ,will congregate the water at the bottom of the slope and keep it moister for a long period of time. Naturally, as you move up the slope varying degrees of moisture are present with the top being the driest. This method work nicely for all types of plants, but plants that require a moist soil have to have it in dry areas.

 

This method has been successful for me since I have moved to Texas. Even in the middle of drought periods the bottom of the slope will stay somewhat moist and give plants a chance to live.

 

Positioning a bed where the runoff from the roof of a house will keep water funneled to the bottom of the slope also. Even if its only a small amount of rain or water coming off the house from early morning dew this amount of moisture will help the garden as it will be guided to the bottom of the slope.

 

A bent bed approach will work in areas of very dry weather. Nothing can take the place of good old rain, but in the absence of sufficient precipitation one of the best things one can do is channel the water to the bottom of a slope where it can linger around for a bit to help your plants grow. Try it! You will be surprised at how much it helps.