I think I will take this opportunity to report to everybody that neither Carl nor I are Communist, Socialist, or sleeping with Nancy Pelosi. Since I don’t think Carl was very different in political thinking in the last chapter than in any of the preceding chapters, I find it amazing that anybody would last through 126 chapters before proclaiming Carl is too liberal to keep reading. Please, don’t write me on this. If Carl is too liberal or too conservative, just stop reading and don’t complain.
Several readers were disappointed that Carl didn’t take his knowledge of the bribe to the Justice Department or the newspapers in order to destroy George Bush. I actually considered doing that but didn’t think it would work for the story for several reasons. Yes, it would have destroyed Bush’s Presidential run. It was a very tight election, and even though lawyers would have kept it clouded and confused, only a few percent of voters would need to be switched.
On the other hand, let us assume that Carl manages to really pull it off, with George doing a perp walk and getting thrown in jail. If he gets arrested before the convention, the Republicans will end up nominating McCain. (Carl is not officially on the ticket until the convention.) If George gets arrested after the convention, it’s not 100% clear to me, but Carl might be the Presidential candidate by default but will undoubtedly lose. Either way, Carl will be a pariah to his party and undoubtedly lose his position as Whip.
Finally, does Carl really want Bush to lose, if the alternative is that Al Gore wins? Gore is much more liberal than Bush or Clinton. Carl probably would prefer to be the voice in Bush’s ear than the Whip in a Gore presidency. We’ll just have to see.
Everybody seemed to like Chapter 128, although a few thought it was a bit contrived and over the top (well, okay, it was!) One person complained that there is no real Springboro, Oklahoma. Nor was there a tornado on July 20. This is fiction, and I make shit up. There is no real Westminster Diner, either. Again, I make shit up.
Several people wonder about the level of the political crap that gets thrown at me, and I thought I would pass along an email I got from somebody. I mean, I’m inventive, but even I can’t write stuff like this!
“Yeah, he "thinks only of other people" that's why he's a billionaire with a jet and vice president, because he couldn't think of any way to help others with all those billions except of course himself. What a crock of shit.
Your protagonist, AND YOU, are Lawful Evil. You believe in laws, in the system, in hierarchy, but deep down, you're evil and rotten to the core. You have no ideals, you have no principles, you have no core values. There is nothing you believe in or CAN believe in because your brain is totally fucking broken and can't support any such thinking.
It doesn't take youth to be passionate and idealistic. It takes a *superior kind of brain*. Whereas you have an INFERIOR kind of brain. One which is always 100% focused on ME ME ME ME ME. Egotistical selfish fuck.
Just because you're passive or submissive, like 99.5% of the human population, just because you're a COW, doesn't mean that you're any less evil and self-centered. 'Good' is beyond you as the whole NOTION of Goodness is totally and utterly incomprehensible to you. You probably think that Teresa of Calcutta or Gandhi or Tenzin Gyatso (to you the Dalai Lama) are Good people. The TRUTH is that they are EVIL. Evil in the extreme. They appeal to you only because they're POWERFUL Evil people. And because they're YOUR kind of Evil: Lawful Evil.
(sneer) Ugh.”
Wow! How do I respond to that!? Well, at least I won’t have to worry about explaining it to Saint Peter when I show up at the Pearly Gates, because now I know I’m heading south. It’s like I said, even at my most inventive I can’t write stuff like this! It’s not clear to me whether this reader is liberal or conservative. I guess liberal, since Carl shouldn’t be rich. Some of the stuff I get from the conservatives is just as bad.
Hey, folks, it’s just a fucking story! FICTION!