Stardate 0917.10

It's the most wonderful time of the year. Fall is in it's infancy. The leaves are falling. Damn! Damn! Damn!




Another Descent Into...
Steelers Recap-Week One

So let's say you lose your two-time Super Bowl winning QB for a period of time due to his stupidity. What do you do? For the Steelers, the answer was easy, go back to basics. Grit, the run game, and badass D was the key to Sunday's 15-9 overtime win over the Falcons.

For almost the entire game it was a classic slugfest against a team many consider to be on par with the Saints in football superiority. If you ask me, the Steelers could have won this game in regulation if Bruce Arians would have done some proper offensive coordination and Jeff Reed hadn't missed a fg with less than a minute to play.

Nevertheless, I will praise Arians for Rashard Mendenhall's 50-yd td run to seal the deal for the black and gold. I think the Steelers will be ok for the next three weeks.

Week 2 vs. Titans-
Which leads us into this week's game against the Tennessee Titans. Led by current running back gawd, Chris Johnson, the Titans are coming off a victory against the Raiders and really want to run it down the Steelers gullet. Guess what? Ain't happening! The Steelers D is going to be very tough, so tough in fact, they will keep Johnson under 100 yards for the first time in twelve game. On the offensive front, I look for Dennis Dixon to finally get into a rhythm and actually throw for a td. Steelers 17 Titans 7

It Can't Happen Here-

I love books about possible scenarios involving America and a change of the political  and social guard. Sinclair Lewis's 1935 novel It Can't Happen Here is a fine and timely example of such a story. Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip, a charismatic and power-hungry politician, is elected President of the United States on a populist platform, promising to restore the country to prosperity and greatness, and, more importantly, promising each citizen $5,000 a year Once in power, however, he becomes a dictator; he outlaws dissent, puts his political enemies in concentration camps, and creates a paramilitary force called the Minute Men who terrorize the citizens. One of his first actions as President is to make changes to the Constitution which give him sole power over the country, rendering Congress obsolete. This is met by protest from the congress as well as outraged citizens, but Windrip declares a state of martial law and, with the help of his Minute Men, throws the protesters in jail. As Windrip dismantles democracy, most Americans either support him and his Corpo Regime wholeheartedly or reassure themselves that fascism "can't happen" in America.


The few who openly oppose Windrip's regime form a secret protest organization called The New Underground; establishing a secret propaganda periodical under the alias the Vermont Vigilance. Doremus Jessup becomes a major contributor to these publications, writing editorials decrying the state's abuses of power. Shad Ledue, head of the state police and Jessup's former employee, terrorizes him, eventually putting him in a camp. He also goes after Jessup's family, attempting to seduce Jessup's daughter, Sissy. Eventually, however, Ledue falls out of favor with Windrip, and he is put in the same camp as Jessup, where he is murdered by the angry inmates he sent to the Camp. After his friend bribes a guard, Jessup escapes from the camp, rejoins his family, and goes to Canada to join a resistance movement.

In time, Windrip's hold on power begins to weaken; the economic prosperity he promised has not materialized, and more and more people are fleeing to Canada to escape his government's brutality. Windrip's lieutenants stage a coup; Secretary of State and Windrip's number two man, Lee Sarason, becomes president and has Windrip exiled to France. In the ensuing power vacuum, they fight among themselves for control, setting the stage for the regime's self-destruction. After another coup, ousting Sarason in favor of General Haik, the Corpo Regime's power slowly starts seeping away and the government desperately tries to find a way to keep the people happy with the Regime. They decide to stir up patriotic fervor by slandering Mexico in the state-run newspapers, deciding an all-out invasion of the country will rally the American people around the government. But the resulting draft of 5 million men for the invasion splits the country into factions: those pro-war and loyal to the Corpo government, and those anti-war who now see that they have been manipulated for years.

With this novel, you have to take it in very slowly. The prose and dialogue is ripe with mid-30s vocabulary and expressions. The main thing I was disappointed with is this is not a multi-character tale. I feel it would have worked better. I mean, a major upheaval such as this is bound to be rich with other people's actions. If it hadn't been for this novel, there would have been no original V  and no cornerstone for my imagination. That much I'm thankful for. Pick this up. 8/10

The Cinema Snob-
Mr. Snob will be away for a few weeks filming a movie so no new episodes for awhile. However, it doesn't mean there will be no fun at the end of my post. Oh no. This week I dig into the archives and pull out a peculiar porn featuring-guess who-ROCKY!!!