Yet another reason to despair for America’s future — brought to you by *PC Magazine*, no less.

Cracked a major problem with the script last night.

Will tell you more about it, and *Hard Time: Season 2* in general, as soon as possible.

I’m going into cocoon mode to finish a script that an editor and an artist are waiting impatiently (and justifiably so) to receive.

That may mean no new posts here for the next couple of days — but not necessarily. Ideally, I’d like to finish enough work, early enough, each day to be able to write at least a paragraph or two in this journal.

Guess I’m not going gently into that sweet cocoon.

I ran across this quote in a book review today:

“The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but someday the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.”

— H.P. Lovecraft, “The Call of Cthulhu”

That pretty much sums up my own theory as to what’s behind the current “spirituality” fad.

We’ve seen what the universe looks like, and it scares the shit out of us.

Faced with a cosmos comprised of amoral, vibrating strings, a universe utterly indifferent to human concepts of right and wrong — utterly indifferent to *humans*, for that matter — we lunge for simplicity, for the certainty of black and white, the comprehensibility of fundamental (and fundamentalist) dualities. Good and evil. God and Satan. Us and them.

We have to believe.

We have to proclaim belief, to reassure ourselves.

And everyone else must believe, too, and proclaim their belief. And if they don’t, we must disparage them for their spiritual deficiency or their pessimism or their secular humanist delusions — because if we don’t marginalize the doubters, we admit into consciousness the possibility that *we* might be wrong.

And this, kids, is how dark ages get started.

From Steven Grant’s column this week:

Just in case you were expecting the screwing of average Americans to stop now [after the bankruptcy bill], here’s another call to action on an issue that will affect absolutely every American and rip more money from your pocket while giving “relief” to corporations.

Of course, only radical leftists will be upset about this latest Republican outrage — oh, and anyone who uses a telephone.

Ah, well. At least you know where you stand with Bush, right? And if you’re a corporation, a billionaire, or an embryo, you’re loving it.

A post on the *Star Trek Enterprise* BBS:

The new Pope’s first official statement contains a call for Viacom to produce a 5th season of “Star Trek Enterprise” and describes “Star Trek” as “a beacon of hope throughout the world. Legion are the stories of youth receiving their first moral and vocational instruction from the iconic figures of Kirk and Spock.”

The statement goes on to praise Enterprise’s fourth season, puzzling observers who noted that Italy’s RAI network has not yet aired any ENT episodes beyond Season Two and prompting speculation that an encyclical addressing the ethics of Internet peer-to-peer file swapping will be an early project of the new Pontiff.

Vatican insiders report that the College of Cardinals were startled when the newly elected Holy Father of the Church responded to the traditional “What name will you be known by?” with “Jean Picard I”.

Okay, so I’m easily amused.

And no, you’re not allowed to ask why the hell I was reading a *Star Trek* BBS.

Monday got away from me, so the post about *Hard Time: Season 2* will have to wait a day or so while I catch up on work.

Meantime, allow me to plug a project with which I have no association at all, except as a reader.

If you’re a fan of Golden or Silver Age comics, you really ought to be reading *Alter Ego*, Roy Thomas’ monthly magazine from TwoMorrows Publishing.

Every issue is full of gems about the history of comics — interviews with artists and writers whose careers date back to the 1940s; surveys of comics characters, magazines, and publishers; even articles about the history of comics *fandom*, which has been in existence now for more than four decades. I know that for a fact, since I was one of the people who received a copy of the first, ditto-reproduced issue of *Alter-Ego* in the mail in 1961. I was 14 years old.

I’m testing a new anti-comment spam plugin that doesn’t require entering a security code. If it works, this will make things easier for everybody.

If you don’t know about the bankruptcy bill that’s just been passed by Congress and how it could affect your life, let a comic book writer explain it to you. Read Steven Grant’s online column, the section entitled “Alert for activists and would-be activists”. That heading is a bit misleading. You don’t have to be an activist to care about this. U.S. citizenship and breathing are the only qualifications necessary.

It’s too late to stop the bill now. Both houses of Congress have passed it, and our Proxident — Mr. Christian Compassion, Mr. Middle American Values, Mr. Lips Pressed So Deep in the Asses of the Credit Card Companies You Can’t Even See Him Smirk Anymore — has said he’s eager to sign it. But use the links Grant provides and email your congressperson anyhow. Let them know you think they’ve committed an abomination.

(More about *Hard Time: Season 2* tomorrow.)

Tried to install a new comment verification program tonight, but couldn’t get it to work. If you’ve been unable to leave comments, please send me an
email and let me know. Thanks.

Thirty-four years ago, I worked as a copywriter at an ad agency in St. Louis, Missouri. Between commercials, to keep my brain alive, I would lock my office door, turn off the flourescent ceiling light, and, by the glow of a little desk lamp, write…strange stories on my IBM Selectric. Most of those stories have been lost to the ages, but a few survived down the decades to be posted on my web site.

One such story is described on the site as follows:

“Conversion in a Terminal Subway” abandons all laws of physics, logic, and language in an effort to explain the real reason people want government, and the world, off their backs.

I doubt I’ve looked at the story since it was posted online in 2001. Tonight, while doing some long-overdue site maintenance, I skimmed a few paragraphs.

I found myself both amused and horrified.

It reads as if it could have been written last week. Just picture Karl Rove as the “high government source.” Eerie.

Don’t take my word. Read it yourself… if you dare.

WARNING: Bushies will be grossly offended by this story, even though it was written during the Nixon Administration. Parental discretion — you know, like W’s FCC wants to enforce on every adult in America — is advised.