The Novella "Evil Eye" Evades Anything Interesting.

 One time best selling author Joyce Carol Oates (“Blonde") latest book is an onslaught of awful stories; four to be exact. 

Wearisome characters in a web of weird terrible tales define 'boring' perfectly in the novella” Evil Eye." The first story and title track, "Evil Eye" is a tiresome tale focusing on three fictional characters. Mariana is the 4th wife for Austin Mohr who is 32 years her senior. Ines Zambranco, Mohr's first wife and her niece Hortensa come to visit Mariana and him.

As the story unravels it is found out that Mohr and Zambranco's infant son Raoul died of crib death; Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Suspicions are aroused that maybe Mohr or Zambranco killed the child. Also at a glance, Mohr is generous, kind and brilliant while working for a film and theater institute. His intense anger at Mariana for simply rearranging some furniture makes one question his kindness.   

Is Mohr a wife beater, a murder? When all is said and done, "Evil Eye" because of its non-existing character development is as entertaining as a spot of darkness in the farthest corner of the cold universe.

The second story, "So Near Anytime Always” is even more colorless and drab than "Evil Eye." This story takes place in Strykerville, N.Y. in 1977. Lizbeth, a not so attractive 16-year-old girl, self proclaimed falls for Desmond, a 21-year-old college student. The two become very close in a plutonic relationship. Like the first yarn, "So Near Anytime Always" has no characters of interest. There is simply no pull to the people in this lame saga. 

Desmond, when he was 14-years-old bludgeoned his sister to death on a canoe asks Lizbeth to go on a canoe ride with him there is absolutely no tension, why? The reason is because when he asks Lizbeth to go on the canoe ride with him; the reader does not know what he did to his sister till later in the story.  

Toward the end of "So Near Anytime Always", one of the two teenagers dies while driving drunk at a high rate of speed, but because it's a poorly written yarn, there is no feeling what so ever, no joy, nor remorse.

The 3rd story, "The Execution" was another disastrous debacle featuring idiotic beings living in Lameville, USA. Incidentally, that is not the name of the town in Oates story, but it might has well been. 

"The Execution" is a bizarre tale of a college aged rich kid named Bart who clings to his mother the way a preschooler might. Oates manages to bore the reader with drugs, alcohol use and a brutal axe murder. It was simply a twisted tale of love between a mother and grown son. Thank all the powers that be, the two were never lovers, because of this, the novella receives a one star rating instead of zero. 

The last story, "Flatbed" was a real flat liner to the senses. By far the worst story in the book which is quite feat of futility. In nutshell, "Flatbed" was a story of far-out dreams and necrophilia. The best thing about "Evil Eye" was that is was only 216 pages, another reason I managed to give it one star.     

The 1960s, A last gasp for Hope?

Ah, the 1960s in the U.S. when the Vietnam War divided this county like it had not been divided since the Civil War former Sen. George McGovern said. 

The potential for positive change flourished in the 60s with the likes of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., and several other high profile activists. Just 50 years and days ago, the assassination of JFK sent the political world into an endless sea of corruption, greed and murder which included women and small children. 

Maybe if JFK and Martin Luther King Jr. had not been assassinated, the U.S. government would still be riding on its path to destruction and greed. No one can know for sure now. Interesting how high profile politicians and other men with severe pull for peace are murdered. My guess is that there is no money in peace and that does not fly with any government in the world which is run by about five percent of major business. 

Do the research and realize war makes millions and billions of dollars for a small group of people who continue to shroud the general public into believing war is necessary? 

JFK sighed a bill to keep the U.S. from going to Vietnam. The very next day after his murder, then brand new president Lyndon B. Johnson revoked the bill and after 10 years, more than 55,000 U.S. soldiers were killed and more than two million Vietnamese, many of them women and children were killed. Incidentally the average age of U.S. troops killed in Vietnam were 19-years-old. 

If you believe the pointless war in Vietnam was a 'conflict' or that the U.S. was combating communism which is another countries right how 'they' live, your simple wrong. 

Boeing Airline’s which currently transports many of our troops to an oily death or limp removal in the Middle East makes massive amounts of money on war such as the Vietnam one. 

Several huge corporations thrive on the profit of war; do the research. Today's wars are 100 percent about money, if you believe other wise, I'm truly sad about your blind perspective. 

The top stories in the day before Thanksgiving were about shopping on back Friday, the crowed airports and how extremely cold it gets in northern territories this time of year. More than 6,600 U.S. troops have been killed and more than 50,000 have been wounded as of Feb. 5, in both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars according to the article “U.S. Military Casualties and the Cost of War: Iraq, Afghanistan and Post 911-Conflicts” by John Wihbey wars. (http://journalistsresource.org/studies/government/security-military/us-military-casualty-statistics-costs-war-iraq-afghanistan-post-911#) 

Since the brutal fiasco in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, more than 1,700 U.S. military members have had amputations, more than 1,450 of those troops lost major limbs according to Wihbey’s article. Other research I’ve done estimated that between 2004-2009, more than 66,000 Middle Eastern civilians have been killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, two of many tame euphemisms for war. 

”Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives,” John Lennon said. 

The book “Devils Night” is more like Drab Night.

“Devil’s Night” is a tedious tale of mundane mystery. One paragraph late in career journalist Todd Ritter’s third novel made “Devils Night” a two star read as opposed to a zero star read. 

Ritter claims not all pentagrams are not satanic. Wiccan is another name for a pentagram and its five points represent the cycle of life. The top point being a higher power and the other points being the four elements, Earth, air, water and fire. A Wiccan is also a symbol of protection against evil. Halloween is the Wiccan new year also known as Samhain, it’s Celtic. Other then this enticement to my imagination, this book is a bumbling barrage of lame characters and a weak plot. 

Police chief Kat Campbell is on the hunt to find Constance Bishop’s killer and stop a string of arsons in her town of Perry Hollow, Pa.

The town’s museum, hotel, recreation center and library are all but destroyed by fire and dynamite. Was Bishop murdered because she knew about to arsons ahead of time and wanted to stop them? Were the arsons done because certain high end town officials could make millions in insurance dollars? Was the arsons revenge from some of the town’s ancestors from the late 1600s who delved in witchcraft or simply wanted justice from murders committed well over 300 years ago?

The witchcraft theory stems from old human bones found in the crevasses’ of Perry Hollow’s museum. Around 1682 the bones found in Perry Hollow’s museum were engulfed in the flesh of Rebecca Bradford who lived in the same town which had a different name then. Bradford and her four sisters were burned alive because Christian folk deemed Bradford to be a witch for saving a young boys life. The boy was near death due to illness and Bradford treated him with herbs from her garden and the boy made what doctors called a miraculous recovery. 

As one old adage states; ‘No good deed goes unpunished.’ The town’s then judge, William Daniel Paul freed Bradford with a not guilty verdict of being a witch. The town Christians ignored their own book (the Bible) which clearly states to obey the laws of man and Gods commandment 'thou shall not kill'. OK, another cool point made by Ritter; amazing how ‘good’ Christian people cast untruths with such ease and cunning. 

So “Devil’s Night” is and average two and half star read. The three possible conclusions were not weighty enough to pull in the readers interests and every character was nothing but a number. Ritter could have named each person in his latest book 000-00-0000, 000-00-0001, 00-00-0002 and so on. 

There was nothing to love, lust, like or hate about all of the women in the story. The male characters were equally uninteresting and as compelling as a spec of dust in the farthest corner of and attic.  

Dean Koontz Novel "Deeply Odd" is Deeply Disappointing

The novel “Deeply Odd” by New York Times best selling author Dean Koontz teeters on being deeply awful.

Derived in May, “Deeply Odd” is average at best. Returning character Odd Thomas has paranormal abilities and can see glimpses of the future. His terrifying vision of three siblings burning to death fuels his quest to seek them out and save them.

The children are eight, six and 10-years-old retrospectively. A 70s clad cowboy truck driver complete with rhinestones on his attire is one of the many Satanist trying to kill Thomas. Both Thomas and the cowboy have the ability to blind people with their mind or the ability to be unseen by their prey. To be honest, I cannot remember.

While venturing out to find and save the children, Thomas rides along with 80 plus-year-old Mrs. Edie Fischer. Thomas becomes her limo driver and the two become a humorless team to thwart a satanic cult.

Both Thomas and Fischer have flashes of interest and sometimes make the reader laugh, but ultimately they are a boring pair. While Fischer and Thomas are pursuing the satanic cowboy, they learn that 17 children are to be sacrificed by a group of devil worshipers known as the Prostar plus congregation.

I’ll give Koontz credit for not having a single profane word and managing a PG rating for such a heavy themed story, but “Deeply Odd” is deeply dull. The names alone didn’t help the stories credibility. Two of the Satanist where named Ken # 1 and Ken # 2, in reference to Barbie’s beau. One of Thomas’s ghost dogs was named Boo. Maybe Koontz was attempting to write a children’s novel involving sadistic murders and devil worship?

Most of the comedy in “Deeply Odd” was not funny, and its climatic journey into a path of predictability could only beget the book a two star rating. 

"Inferno" is a Smoking Hot Read

“Inferno” is a fantastic fable of suspense rippling into the depths of destruction, the promise of paradise or the threat of hell.

Contrived in May, the novel “Inferno” burns to the soul’s core of intrigue and fascination. Best selling author Dan Brown who also wrote “The Da Vinci Code” educates the reader along with having a compelling story. The book features the characters Harvard professor Robert Langdon and Dr. Felicity Sienna Brooks. Brooks emits her first name and is known to all as Sienna. Even the reader doesn’t find out her real fist name until very late in the story. 

Langdon, a U.S. citizen wakes up in a hospital in Florence, Italy oblivious as to what happened to him or how he arrived in Italy. Before Langdon can recover from his grazing to the head via a gun shot, a leather clad woman on a motor cycle kills one of doctors and attempts to kill Langdon. 

Brooks helps Langdon flee the hospital to safety and they team up to solve an intense mystery. Brooks and Langdon know there is a plan to destroy at least half of the human race. The villains who shall remain nameless have a twisted way to save the world. 

According to many, including the World Health Organization the human population is expanding too fast and too much. If this continues, food and water well not be abundant enough for all. Perhaps that’s why nature thrust the Black Death Plaque upon the world in the 1300s. 

The World Health Organization; WHO wants to control the population explosion with a world wide spread of contraception. The Vatican spends enormous amounts of money indoctrinating third-world countries into a belief that contraception is evil. I enjoyed how Langdon said; who better than a bunch of male octogenarians who are celibate to tell the world how to have sex.

 Some of the philosophy behind the theory to pulverize half of the world’s population is based on “The Divine Comedy” written by Dante Alighieri in the late 1200s or early 1300s. The theme of “The Divine Comedy” is that man must pass through hell to get to paradise. 

In order for Langdon and Brooks to save the world (half) of it, the two must assemble the puzzle of clues they find while seeking and fleeing from individuals and army personal who are trying to kill them. 

The novel is a bit lengthy, but its plot never losses its cerebral grip. The historical facts seized my attention as well. The age of Le maschere, the sad and happy masks synonymous with dramatic theater is more than 2,500 years old, yet is still the most popular icon in drama. 

The lithe figured and beautiful woman Brooks posses a 208 IQ and read all 1,600 pages of the medical text “Grays Anatomy” before she was ten-years-old. The books lengthiness and the fact that Langdon, not Brooks solved most of the clues brought a 5 star rating to a 4 and a half star one.       

   

     

  

Write Mind, Football and Sea Me...

                                        

                           Football

                     Summer ends football begins. Seven days in

                     a week. Seven points with a touchdown and

                     extra point. Two world wars. Two points for

                     a safety. Tragedy in war. Sudden death. 

                    Politicians everywhere plotting battles and 

                    wars. The offense huddled far back from the 

                    ears of the defense. 

                    Ground troops or air strikes? Run or pass?

                    Who strikes first? Flip a coin.

                                                                         Izzy Schurr

                                    

                                                     Sea Me

                     The kiss of the colliding waves. Rippled sand

                     decorates the cusp of a low tide. Aluminous

                     moonlight radiating lacquered night beading

                     off the brilliant stars. The warmth of a pitted

                     fire thrust itself against my body. 

                    Tall red and yellow flames swallowing mother

                    night, which has caressed me with her dark

                    embrace.                                Izzy Schurr

Write Mind

No desk or lap top. Eagar imagination spins. No 

pin, insanity seeps in. Lunatic fury fuels frustration.

Remember that phrase! Hold that thought!

Indeed, dying is easy, comedy is hard.  Izzy Schurr / Neil Peart / ?

Debut Novel Reviver is a Disaster

“Reviver Death Won’t Silence Them,” is a rotten read.

First time novelist Seth Patrick thrusts a fantastic idea into the realms of ruin, complete with dull characters, a listless storyline and a clumsy climax.  

“Reviver Death Won’t Silence Them” starts out with a solid punch; supernatural beings in the natural world helping the police solve murder cases. The U.S. has a Forensic Revival Service and one of its best revivers. Revivers can bring the dead back to life, but only for a few minutes. People who work for the FRS, such as Jonah Miller, the best in the business, talk to murder victims to find their killers.

The one and only thing I liked about this book was its mention of the corruption in the medical industry. Although the story is fiction, murder victims with low-income family members get the lowest paid revivers who only have a ten percent track record of reviving their victims to uncover legal facts for the police. 

One of the many flaws in this book was the lack of symphony generated for any of the victims. Since the character development was mostly non-existent, only 9-year-old Nikki Woods was the only murder victim I felt sympathy for. All the other characters were like glancing at an obituary column of a complete stranger who died of natural causes. 

The possibility that the Devil and his demons would end the human race and take over the planet, still could not save the crappy climax of “Reviver.” The main villain in the June release of this book, Michael Andreas was as interesting as a pebble I dumped out of one of my shoes that same month. 

The Novel "Community" is a Colossal Catastrophe

The horror novel "Community," is a labyrinth of lameness and bizarre sexuality not worth reading.  

Author Graham Masterton rapidly captures the attention span, psych’s the reader into a false sense of intensity then hurls the story into a cauldron of crap. "Community" is a dreadful tale of Michael Spencer, a fictional character who is run down by a very psychotic driver while on his way home to San Francisco with his girl-friend Natasha Kerwin, who answers to Tasha. 

Spencer awakes in the town of Trinity at the Trinity Shasta Clinic. While at TSC, Spencer is given the name Gregory Merrick. Merrick, since the horrific car accident has a permanent limp due to spinal damage and suffers from post traumatic amnesia. During his first few weeks in Trinity, he knows nothing of his previous life such as formally being with the women he loved, Tasha. 

Dr. Hamid and the other doctor, Catherine O' Connor convince Merrick to stay in the town of Trinity and live with Isobel Weston, a highly sexual woman who makes this an R rated book. While in the act of coitus with Weston, Merrick's sin sauce is crystallized while Mr. one eye thrusts about in her lust tunnel. "Community" is a putrid and perverted version of a "Twilight Zone" episode.

The genre of this novel is a thriller / suspense book which is neither thrilling, nor suspenseful. As Merrick's memory fades in and out, he begins to question whether he's dreaming, alive or dead and if the mystery women in town is indeed his former lover Tasha. 

The quote unquote villains in this book were too nice and the hero's were boring at best.  This novel lacked any sort of intensity and its climax was non existent. This no star September release should have never been written.  

Mass Murder is Legal for the U.S.

Distributors of mayhem and destruction for the almighty American dollar are what drive the U.S. government.

The insane quest for money has halted the universal use of solar power, bio diesel and everything that is practical, so a few billionaires can bask in finical paradise while having middle and lower income youths kill innocent entities for more oil.

Individuals being brain washed into killing and dyeing for their government believe in the balderdash politicians constantly feed the world. The U.S. military currently kills with an unmanned aerial vehicle, also known as a drone.

Juan Cole’s Dec. 2012 article “Let’s also Remember the 176 children killed by U.S. Drones.” (http://www.juancole.com/2012/12/lets-also-remember-the-176-children-killed-by-us-drones.html) claims around 3000 people were killed by U.S. drones and 600 of those people where innocent civilians including a 176 mass murdered children. Washington narratives say the drones are precision machines that only kill terrorists. There’s also no corruption in politics, blah, blah… I’d bet dollars to donuts, that the U.S. government is responsible for the death of tens of millions of innocent soles since the 90s. Remember the early 90s war, Operation Desert Storm which featured the use of Smart Bombs. How anyone over the age of four can possible believe that a launched bomb kills only 100 percent of its intended targets is ludicrously blind thinking. 

The human race continues to evolve in a technological sense while the powers that rule the world burry spiritualty by squelching the mass use of solar and other natural resources to fuel our vehicles and continue using outdated oil and gasoline.   

The U.S. military routinely kills innocent civilians and children in the Middle East so we can embrace ignorance, post meaningless things on face book, play our Xbox’s, Play Stations, drink our overpriced coffee and go shopping for more stuff that will soon be outdated.

So wake up people and stop ignoring what’s going on in the evil world of politics and cease going to war for sadistic billionaires. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go check my fantasy football roster.     

Tangible Paradise

The fawned eyed girl with sun brown legs dances on the edge of his dream and her voice rings in his ears like the music of the spheres.   
                                                                Neil Peart

Come on lil' devil, be my little angel.
                                                       The Cult

Love and romance? Not  chance with my current finance.
                                                                                    Izzy Schurr


                                                                Tangible Paradise

To descend upon Paradise Falls, she and I had to crawl through a natural tunnel less than three feet high, laced with poison oak on the top and both of its sides. Thick thorny berry bushes accompanied with an abundance of jagged rocks begging to pierce the skin engulfed in darkness dominated the center of this tiny cave even on the sunniest days.

Her, a woman delicious, complete with an alluring smile residing on unblemished skin was gracious enough to accompany me to Paradise Falls. The light at the end of the culvert was so blinding, no one could see the steep cliff warning hikers to stop. Using my wisdom from a previous hike, I stopped, and the two of us crawled feet first toward the blinding sun light. Emerging into the warm autumn day we slowly and carefully made a sharp right onto the narrow trail overlooking the far heights of inner space. She and I were now on the walkway to bliss.

Certain spots on this mud tainted and often-slippery steep path announce certain death. One false move, act of carelessness, or stupidity would mean plunging hundreds of feet down into the depths of despair. For both her and me this was more exciting rather than terrifying.

We often halted our walk to stop, take pictures and sip water. The radiant sun cast brilliant shadows across the foliaged mountain, bountiful with trees.

The last hundred or so yards leading to Paradise Falls was simply marvelous. The trail was much less steep, and the sound of the raging waterfall illustrated the gratifying power of the tame nature in paradise falls. The flowing water on the river bank was crystal clear. Dark green mint leaves penetrate the nostrils. A soft zephyr whistled through the tree branches while squirrels and other creatures scurried about the forest. Chirping birds, water free falling against rocks, boulders, and into the lagoon were the only sounds we could hear. We marveled at the sight of the lush green grass and towering trees surrounding the cove. The mountain range soon swallowed the setting sun. The reddish sky faded into a welkin cloaked with infinite stars. 

She and I cuddled on warm sand and gazed at moonbeams glistening off the verdure in the colossal woods. Engulfed in the center of this most wonderful place, a glimpse a nature was transformed into a stare. Her head resting on my chest, the star dominated sky above and the flowing stream into the lagoon triggered some serious romancing.

 

Relax, and Let Go of Your Halloween Fears About Your Children

Let your children play, rendezvous with foolish fun and delve into the depths of delicious treats on Halloween.

Whether it's religious beliefs, or just plain paranoia, there are some parents who won't allow their children to roam the streets without adult supervision on the annual pagan holiday. For very young children it's abundantly necessary for constant supervision whether it's quote unquote Devils night or not. Most children 11-years and older are very capable or roaming the cool dark suburban streets with their peers in quest for fondant treats on the last night of October.

When I was a youngster, trick or treating with my peers in the 70's, the horror stories filled our ears; razor blades in apples, drugs and rat poison harbored in some of the candy. According to a Huffington Post article "Manufacturing Fear: Halloween Laws for Sex Offenders, written by Emily Horowitz on the Oct. 21, (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/emilyhorowitz/manufacturing-fear-hallow_b_4135793.html) these things are unsubstantiated gossip.

Sociologists, such as Joel Best claim urban myths such as razor blades in apples, first appeared in the early 1970s, and then spread via word-of-mouth. Best has never found a death or injury of a child on Halloween related to candy based on his decades of research.

Horowitz's article makes an excellent point about children potentially receiving poison candy on Hallween. Her article states that the Center for Disease Control warns children to only eat pre-wrapped candy and to avoid all homemade treats. This is excellent advice, not only because some demented individuals would make something that is harmful to children, but if it is homemade, the people who made it may have cold or flu symptoms, thus unintentionally getting people sick.

As far as parents worrying about their children knocking on the doors of possible sex offenders and the worst things happening to their children, they should ease up on the worrying. Statics, real ones show that there no evidence of increased child sex abuse on Halloween. In fact in all cases of sex abuse against children, more than 92 percent of those crimes are committed by their parents or acquaintances.

Increased fear and anxiety and remove the fun and excitement from Halloween. The night should be a time to meet neighbors and connect with community Horowitz wrote in her article and I agree.

People are basically decent, though we read about the exceptions everyday Neil Peart wrote in 1987 for the Rush song "Prime Mover."

The Movie "Captain Phillips" Commands Little Attention

Heralded actor Tom Hanks latest movie details the realities of modern day piracy on the worlds seas, yet lacks a much needed cerebral punch.

"Captain Phillips" is worth a watch when its theater release has run its course. (2.5 star rating) The movie is Based on the true story of Captain Richard Phillips, a U.S. cargo-ship captain played by Hanks who surrendered himself to Somali pirates in 2009 so that his crew would be freed.

Somali pirate Muse, acted by Barkhad Abdi is the ring leader among the pirates who seize control of the cargo ship MV Maersk Alabama en route to Mombasa, Kenya. His counterpart, Bilal, characterized by actor Barkhad Abdirahman is the menacing force to the Americans.

Abdi, Bilal and the rest of the Somali pirates, because of their birth place and station in life are forced into sea crimes which ignited my intrigue on more global happenings. Excessive greed soon consumes Muse and Bilal after seizing helm of the cargo ship. The chaos begins soon after they kidnap captain Phillips and the U.S. Navy gets involved.

Screen writer Billy Ray adapted the story from the book "A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALS, and Dangerous Days at Sea" by Stephan Talty. Actors Hanks, Abdi and Abdirahman nailed their performances while everyone else had minimal roles including the alluring actress Catherine Keener who plays Hanks wife, Andrea Phillips.

Brief moments of intensity in "Captain Phillips" were too brief in this lengthy flick which is a onetime watch when it comes to Netflix.

The Novel "Pirate Alley" has Its Brief Moments of Interest

The novel "Pirate Alley" is a graphic escapade of vicious rape, insane greed and certainly not for the faint of heart.

Returning hero’s spawned in writer Stephen Coonts mind, Jake Grafton and Tommy Carmellini are the brains in thwarting depraved pirates who hi-jack a cruise ship with more than 800 passengers. The main characters Carmellini and Grafton are mere side notes to in the story which adds to the novel many flaws.

The cruise ship, Sultan of the Sea is sailing on the narrow gulf of Suei and the Gulf of Aden, perhaps the busiest highway for ships infested with pirates known a "Pirate Alley."

The very beginning of the books captures the attention span in moments, with a story line that has nothing to do with the main plot. I imagine Coonts was illustrating Carmellini’s ability to fight crime with wits and brawn.

The main villains Sheikh Ragnar and his partner in crime Mustafa al-Said epitomize evil the way Wall Street defines financial atrocity. Ragnar and Said are characters anyone who is not sadistic would love to hate. The two inhuman men lead the charge in the brutal raping to death of women and senseless torture and killing of other innocents people.

"Pirate Alley" is a tale about a cruise ship seized by Ragnar, Said and their savagely cruel gang of Somalia pirates with an insane goal to acquire the almighty dollar. The ships passengers are held ransom for 200 million American dollars.

The author Coonts said Somalia is without government with raging pirates swarming along the coast with armed hungry men eager to loot, pillage and rape anybody. It's like Europe in the Dark Ages or Wall Street.

I had mixed feelings about "Pirate Alley." On one had it had the gripping elements any story should have, intriguing characters and the arousal of the reader’s curiosity as to what will happen next.

Although there are surprises in the book, the story festers into futility in the middle and is soon muddled into a boring read. Without revealing too much of the story, the parts I did like were educational and pleasing to me. Commanding officer of the USS Richard Ward, Millicent C. Fjestand known as 'the old woman' and called big momma behind her back is a fun character with a dilly of weapon on her ship. The weapon is Mark 45 mod four; it fires shells five inches in diameter weighing 70 pounds each with a muzzle velocity of 2,650 feet per second. Mark 45's efficient range is 20 miles.

One of the rape victims, Nora Needling gets her revenge by bounding her rapist so tight with rope his hands turn white from lack of circulation. She then removes a certain part of his man hood with a kitchen knife and leaves him bound and bleeding to a slow death.

A violent appetizing beginning to "Pirate Alley" followed by a lackadaisical middle and ending nets the novel an average read.

　

　



　

　

　

　




　

"Weight of the Human Heart' is Heavy on the Eyelids

Australian author Ryan O’Neil’s new book “Weight of the Human Heart,” released in July barely warrants a one star rating.

The only reason I gave the novel “Weight of the Human Heart” even one star was because the first two short stories were OK at best. The rest of the stories in the book where borage of boring words thrust onto paper with no comprehensible purpose.

The first story, the title of the book, “Weight of the Human Heart” was actually a pleasant read, complete with excellent character development, conflict and an excellent conclusion.

Barbara, the daughter of an unloving mother who is a moderately successful writer narrates the entire story. I almost cried when Barbara wrote a story for her mother when she was five-years-old and her mother littered her story with corrections and basically told her to give up writing. Then kindergartener Barbra cried herself to sleep that night. The story is a simple tale of a single mom and only child with no laughter or affection toward each other. 

The second story, the title I forgot is about a Tutsi girl from Rwanda, a place in east Africa. The young girl flees from a Rwandan genocide. I’ll give the ending away in in this story; If you don’t want to know the ending, don’t read the next sentence. The girl does escape but she has to exit Rwanda in a black river filled with dead bodies in the pitch black of the darkest of nights.

The other six or seven stories in “Weight of the Human Heart” were an absolute debacle of disarray. “A Short Story,” one of the last works in the book was 1, 798 words O’ Neil said. It was 1,798 words too much. “A Short Story” was a lame account of how to write a story which was about as useful and intriguing as discarded nail clippings. 

“Weight of the Human Heart” is only 240 pages, but this afternoon read transformed into a month long read due to the constant breaks I needed to stay awake for the tedious and weary read.

 

Government II, Write Mind and Sea Me From the "Dead Poems" Files.

        

                                               Government II

                                Makers of mayhem. Lurid lies foster into wars

                                where world leaders send children to die other

                                than their own.

                                Economic demise forever has poverty on the rise. 

                                Universal health and dental care buried in 

                                bureaucratic balderdash. More and more freedoms

                                fading fast. Taxes rise while services fall. Political 

                                poison pollutes us all.

   Write Mind

No desk or lap top. Eagar imagination spins. No 

pin, insanity seeps in. Lunatic fury fuels frustration.

Remember that phrase. Hold that thought.

Indeed, dying is easy, comedy is hard.  

                                                Izzy Schurr /Anonymous

                            Sea Me

The kiss of the colliding waves. Rippled sand

decorates the cusp of a low tide. Aluminous

moonlight radiating lacquered night beading

off the brilliant stars. The warmth of a pitted

fire thrust itself against my body. 

Tall red and yellow flames swallowing mother

night, which has caressed me with her dark embrace.

                                                                   Izzy Schurr

Life, Death, War and Nonsense

        Life and Death
　

Geckos dwell in the caves of the ancients, and roam
through hollowed rib cages where the heart used to be.
Demons laugh as we plan for tomorrow. Predator’s dwell
in anticipation. Indeed the devils work shop is a busy
place. Near death or seized success?
Just another pawn in a soulless generation. Which gener-
ation will destroy the last of civilization? Knowledge over
powers laughter. Laughter dances on knowledge, it
dances with wisdom, it dances with folly.
                                       Izzy Schurr / Nancy Simpson Hoke
　                       

                          War III
　

Unseen enemy is near, the air charged with fear,
Heart beats unclear. Whispered violence
Echoes death.
　                        

                         Nonsense

　
Razzle dazzle, pies in the castle. Where is Miss.
Frazzle? Under da castle? Perhaps causing a
hassle? Why no, she’s eating sassle. What is
sassle? Sometimes it’s sweet, bright, and
light. Other times it’s sour, dark, and heavy.
Sassle is often like dark chocolate, and some
times it’s like white chocolate. It’s never like
hot chocolate. Mostly it’s Wokalit. Wokalit pie.
chocolate pie, sapple pie, apple pie. Scary pie,
cherry pie, pickle pie, chicken pot pie. Never eat
a mud pie like a Burf or a Wurf. Instead why not
surf. Perhaps walk with a Wurf.
                                                        Izzy Schurr

World Wide Rape is Much Too Real

In too many parts of the world it's legal to be a pedophile and rape young girls which raises the question, 'Why are some young girls born only to suffer?'

Thirty nine-thousand girls a day around the globe are forced into marriage, many of them under the age of 18 according the March article "Child brides around the world sold off like cattle." (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/03/08/child-brides-sold/1972905/)

The above article states that a 17-year-old girl in Juba, South Sudan Africa was beaten to death for refusing to marry a man old enough to be her grandfather. Girls as young as 12-years-old in South Sudan are forced to marry much older men. Instead of war for oil and power, how about war against forced marriages for every female in the world?

Half the women in South Sudan between the ages of 19 and 15 are forced into marriage. In west Niger, Africa 75 percent of girls are married before the age of 18. 

How many sadistic occultist use religion as a tool for raping very young girls? Twelve-year-old girls marry middle aged men who already have several wives. The Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints leader Warren Jeffs who has 80 wives, including a 12-year-old girl leads a very demented cult in the U.S. Incidentally, Jeffs is currently in prison for life. Why the U.S. military does not swoop in and shut this nefarious religion down is a complete mystery to me.

An ABC news article from April; "Warren Jeffs Still Calling the Shots from Prison?"  details the horrid facts of the FLDS. (http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/04/warren-jeffs-still-calling-the-shots-from-prison/)  The FLDS is not affiliated with the LDS, the most popular Mormon practice.

Freedom of religion is a fantastic thing and I'm all for it. However a felony is a felony, epically when adolescence girls are being raped by men in their mid-50s. As I'm typing this very second, the FLDS religion is allowing some of its men to engage in polygamy and force elementary age school girls to marry men older than 55-years old. The U.S. government allows this religion to torture very young girls because it's OK with their lame brained parents who believe Jeffs words of sheer nonsense according to the above article.

In Afghanistan girls as young as 8-years-old are forced into marriage or face brutal public flogging or even made into a suicide bomber according the web site; http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/indepth/upfront/features/index.asp?article=f013111_brides.

Disguised in boys' clothes, Khadija Rasoul, 13, and Basgol Sakhi, 14, traveled for two days to escape their illegal, forced marriages to much older men according to an “Upfront” magazine article on the above web page. Policeman recognized them as girls, ignored their pleas, and sent them back home, where they were publicly and viciously flogged for daring to run away from their husbands.

“What a Wonderful World," by Louis Armstrong is often not true. If I was a praying man, I'd simply pray that everyone could be safe. I got those words from one of my college professors at Dixie State College, now Dixie State University.

"More than 100 teens rescued in weekend sex-trafficking raids, FBI says," an article on the website; http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/29/19754475-more-than-100-teens-rescued-in-weekend-sex-trafficking-raids-fbi-says?lite claims an estimated 240,000 children in the U.S. are considered at risk of sexual exploitation.

"Why are little ones born only to suffer?" (Peart. N. 1991)

The Bay Area Blitz, Northern California Teams are Winners

Since 2001, Bay Area professional sports teams have amassed seven championships in multiple sports; football, baseball and soccer.

 

Surprisingly the San Francisco Giants have the least consecutive playoff appearances (two) of all the bay area pro teams according to Mark Purdy, a journalist for the Mercury News in his article “ San Jose Sharks top list of Bay Area's longest playoff streaks,” published April 28. (http://www.mercurynews.com/mark-purdy/ci_23127548/san-jose-sharks-top-list-bay-areas-longest)

 

Of course the Giants have won two of the last three World Series, the zenith in the world of baseball.

The San Jose SaberCats clinched another playoff berth this season, so stay alert for the Arena Football League playoffs which start Sat Aug, 3. ArenaBowl XXVI in Orlando, Fla. Will occur Sat Aug, 17.

 

The SaberCats have won three titles since 2002; including their last title in 2008.The San Jose soccer Earthquakes have two Major League Soccer titles in this young century. (2001; 2003)

 

The Oakland Athletics won the American League western conference title last season and missed playing the Giants in last year’s World Series by one game. Despite being 27^th out of 30 teams for the lowest payroll in Major League Baseball according to the ESPN website; (http://espn.go.com/mlb/team/salaries/_/name/oak/oakland-athletics).

The A’s are riding a six consecutive series winning streak. During the team’s current streak, they are 6-3 against the teams with the three best records in baseball, the St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates and the Boston Red Sox.

 

Incidentally the A’s have the fourth best record in baseball and only two teams in MLB have won more World Series than the A’ who are currently in first place in the AL west.

 

Although the San Jose Sharks have never won a hockey title, the Stanley Cup, they have not missed the playoffs since the 2002-2003 NHL season. Currently the Sharks lead all Bay Area teams with the most consecutive playoff appearances with nine. The 49ers are second on that list with eight according to Purdy’s article.

 

Only one team has won more Super Bowls then the 49ers. The Niners are back in the playoff picture before the cameras are even turned on. Last year’s NFC conference champs are poised for another Super Bowl run. 

 

Noteworthy are many of the Santa Rosa Junior College teams and the Petaluma Little League baseball team which was one win away from playing for the world title. Remember that game against Tennessee when they scored 10 runs in the top of the 9th to tie the game up in the national championship game? Arguably the most exciting baseball game ever played.

Eight state junior college championships have been accumulated by the JC women’s swim, soccer and basketball teams; Six of those championships coming since 2004, including a 2011 state title from the JC women’s basketball team.
(http://www.santarosa.edu/)

 

Since 2001, the JC men’s soccer, swimming and baseball teams have amassed four state titles and the 2001 soccer team has the lone national title for the SRJC. The JC men’s swimmers won the state title last year. The state title in baseball was in 2005.

Although the Golden State Warriors and the Oakland Raiders have been out of serious contention for too many years, the Warriors have established themselves as a perianal playoff team when they made it to the playoffs last year and lost to the San Antonio Spurs in six games without their lone all-star David Lee. The Warriors and Raiders have still combined to win four championships.   

Great Artist's of Music Might be Jamming in the Afterlife

Teetering on the middle ground of sanity and lunacy, hovering on the fringes of fact and fiction, pressed into the dusk before sheer darkness or weaved into the dim light after pitch night and unable to determine dreams from reality, there is another world.

Residing in the realms of science and superstation hoping to acquire a round trip ticket to rock ‘n’ roll Valhalla, a musical paradise where deceased icons live forever and dominate the senses with phenomenal music. I'm referring to an oasis where musical gods gather together and form the most extraordinary band ever.

For starters this band has John Lennon, Frank Zappa, George Harrison, Freddie Mercury, Buddy Holly and Stevie Ray Vaughan writing for it. Everyone just mentioned also sings and plays various instruments including keyboards and guitar. With Lennon, hard hitting lyrics about the corruption of politics and religion are covered, Zappa provides the same with his words with an added mixture of pleasant madness and humor only he can provide. Mercury also brings a zesty lyrical punch, while hitting the critical high notes needed in certain songs. Harrison is the melodically driven vocalist who can sing leads or harmonize with the best of singers. Holly provides the dancing element to any song while Vaughan rides the wave of gratifying guitar notes.

If none of the above musicians neither writes a single word, note, plays an instrument, nor sings, there’s always Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Jim Morrison or Roy Orbison to produce a worthy song or two.

For hard hitting rock ‘n’ roll, there is Ronnie Montrose, Bon Scott, John Bonham, John Entwistle, Tommy Bolin, Randy Rhoads and Keith Moon. Bolin and Montrose have the voices to sing loud and heavy while also jamming on the guitar. Rhoads fuels the metal mayhem needed in various songs. Entwistle can basically (bassically) play to any instrument such as Bonham and Moon's erratic, yet structured chromatic drum beats.

The countless other blues greats from the 20s-90s, such as Sippie Wallace who birthed rock ‘n’ roll music and influenced the great musicians who departed Earth too early will also be writing and performing fantastic music in rock ‘n' roll Elysium.

There is a Solution for World Hunger

Too much selfishness and the inadequate use of big money is the number one cause for malnourishment and starvation.

It's time governments across the globe and the extremely wealthy get some soul, education and end world hunger. What the U.S. government spends in less than half a year on the war in Afghanistan, it could end world hunger. I've done the math, and the United Nations claims it would take about $300 billion a year to end world hunger.

"The Price of Hunger;" (http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jun/23/opinion/ed-food23) also states that $300 billion is less than half of 1 percent of the world's combined gross domestic products. Hence the money is definitely there to end world hunger.  

U.S. tax payers shell out more than a $115 billion a year for the fiasco of death in Afghanistan. This is tax money for the war alone folks, not counting everything else! This information can be found in the article "Afghanistan War Costs Loom Large over Obama Troops Announcement" on the web page; http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/afghanistan-war-costs-soar-obama-troops-announcement/story?id=13902853#.Ud78ax7n-e0

According to the above article the total cost of the war in Afghanistan has billed U.S. tax payers more than $443 billion and the U.S. government has channeled well over a trillion dollars in this futile war.

The U.S. is spending $100 billion a year for the war in Afghanistan. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/18/afghanistan-war-cost_n_850293.html)  

First lady Michelle Obama displayed her compassion for the hungry in August, 2010 by vacationing abroad with 40 of her friends in a five star hotel in Spain. According to the article "Michelle Obama Criticized as "Modern-day Marie Antoinette" Over Spain Vacation," (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20012789-503544.html) she and her guest occupied 60 to 70 rooms. The travel cost alone was $73,781.50 one way. This tells me that the people with power and money care nothing about the poor and hungry. F-word you, I'm living large, it sucks to be you seems to be the attitude of the first lady and all the other insanely greedy leaders with money and power.  

How about the very rich citizens of the world with the same mentality, "I'm rich, your poor, sucks being you."

If your successful, that's fantastic and there is absolutely nothing wrong with spoiling yourself, friends and family with vacations and material goods, but over doing things is just plain wrong when there are massive amounts of people, many of them children dying of starvation. 

Word around the campfire (http://www.businessinsider.com/the-10-most-outrageous-purchases-rich-people-bought-in-august-2012-8?op=1) states that in August of last year a signed Babe Ruth baseball and bat sold for $776,750 at an auction. Granted, I'd love to have those items, but paying well over a half a million dollars is ludicrous no matter how thick your wallet is. That kind of dough would buy a lot of canned food for food banks all over the world. At the same auction a single bidder paid 1.6 million dollars for a dime! The dime was minted in 1873.

The list goes on and on as for why world hunger will never be solved. 

Dreams, Everything and Beer IV. More Dead Poems

                        Dreams


An efficacious zephyr hovers my thoughts into the
spheres of inner space.
Madness is music, dreams, and whispered beauty.
Unfiltered emotions riding in wisdoms wave.
Separate thoughts fused forever into time. Infinite
imagination spawns creative desires. Passion to
immortalize, desire to live. To embed ones soul into
the heart of time itself.
                            

                               Everything

Everything is cold water in the desert and cold beer
on the beach. Everything is the ability to understand
human nature as well as comprehend all positive
insight from others. If I had everything right now, I’d
be living in a house that was all paid for. My entertainment
room would have a bowling ally, pool table, Ping-Pong
table, an air hockey table and quarters table. Quite simply
my entertainment room would have everything. I’d have
a swimming pool with a hot tub adjacent to it. My bank
account would enable me to travel hundreds, even
thousands of miles on any given weekend. I’d have
the power to make everyone safe.
I’d live off my dreams. Hmm… My books would
always be incisive, griping, entertaining, and lucrative.
My screenplays would be the same. I'd be married to
an intelligent and beautiful hard bodied shapely woman
who’d entice foreplay for hours. You know, everything.
　

                           Beer IV


Full of cheer and ice cold beer, now you’re pissed at
me dear. The guys just happened to stop by, even
though the Raiders had a bye. Couldn’t be rude,
after all I was in a sippn’ mood. Sipping pints,
downing shots. Am I hot? Certainly not.
Many say I’m crass, perhaps call me trash, when
after all, I’m just really smashed.
                                                                                              Mark (Izzy) Schurr

Middle Eatern Adolescents Paving the Way for Global Education?

Two teenage girls, not even old enough to legally drive are a major force for female education in the Middle East and possibly the world.

With a combined age of under 31-years old, Shazia Ramzan and her friend Malala Yousafzai survived an execution attempt from a Taliban gunman last October.

Ramzan is back in school and ignored earlier threats from the same Taliban terrorists who shot her and Yousafzai nearly a year ago according to the July, 1 article by Gordon Brown; "The story of Malala's friend: Brightening girls' lives with education." on the web page; http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/01/opinion/shazia-gordon-brown/index.html?

The two Pakistan girls are continuing their education in the U.K. Yousafzai, after being shot in the head and Ramzan who was shot in the neck and arm are on a mission to not only graduate college but to ensure other Pakistan girls get a full education. According to Gordon's article 40 Pakistan girls will get an education because of Yousafzai. Her goal is to get 40,000,000 girls an education.

These two amazingly brave girls have stood up to the Taliban simply because they want an education which was the sole reason they were shot in the first place. The Pakistani government has agreed for the first time to legislate compulsory free education and provided stipends for 3,000,000 children since the horrid acts where committed against Yousafzai and Ramzan.

Pakistan schools that continue to education females are under constant threats of bombing and sadistic killing of innocent teachers, staff and children. In March, 41-year-old teacher Shahnaz Nazli who'd been teaching for 24-years was shot to death in front of her son while she was on her way to teach at an all-girls school in Pakistan. For much more details you can read Gordon's article; "Teacher's murder sparks calls for school protection for Pakistan's girls." on the web page; http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/27/world/asia/pakistan-teacher-death-petition/index.html

Brown is a United Nations Special Envoy on Global Education. He was formerly the U.K.'s prime minister. Brown's goal is to have worldwide education by 2015. He claims this is very possible if all the rich governments and even the poor countries in the world channel money into this.

Currently there are 61,000,000 children shut out of primary school, 34,000,000 adolescent girls not attending school and 10,000,000 girls forced into marriage, many of them very young teenagers.

If knowledge is indeed power than the men who hold high places must be the ones who fund Browns plans for global education. I highly recommend the following two web sites;

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2013/06/17/ctw-education-for-all-gordon-brown-interview.cnn#/video/world/2013/06/17/ctw-education-for-all-gordon-brown-interview.cnn and http://educationenvoy.org/