Those oils wells could be our undoing. We're gonna' go in and try and grab them quickly so that they don't get blown. Besides we promised some of that oil to Turkey to keep them placated. We essentially promised (in advance) to give them oil that isn't ours. This is stinking pretty bad. So shift your frame of reality to that of an Iraqi general. How you gonna' inflict maximum damage on them Yankees? You don't want 'em to walk around your defenses like last time and take you from behind. You only know one thing for certain. Now back to yourself again. Be alarmed. Be very alarmed. Our lust to control the wells makes us predictable. The last thing you want in a war is to be predictable.

Oh, and just in case you think 'Surely our own generals have thought of that'; consider that the wells have to be taken by ground troops. You can't bomb 'em or you'll blow 'em. I really do hope our generals have thought of that...

Gee I should check. I'm one-sixteenth Cherokee or something like that. I should be able to put a slot-machine or two in my shoppe, don't you think? Too bad I wasn't Khualowat or Chinginseel. They can each have 349 slot machines pretty much anywhere in North America. See, it doesn't always pay to come from a good family. But you probably heard that before from czar Nikolae, another third or fourth cousin.

I've avoided talking about business recently. This is some serious shit. At least in Silicon Valley, the entire world of commerce has flatlined. Think I'll avoid talking about it a bit longer. The prospects for us small merchants are let's just say, not suitable for idle conversation. There is no plan 'B'. Failure is not an option, even given the uncertain economic climate and the fact that failure likewise wasn't an option in previous ventures (which subsequently failed). Business for me is down. 25% over last year when I barely had anything to sell. Every week record low sales are broken. Most of my walk-in customers haven't seen a paycheck in a year or more. Those are some tough numbers to digest. But it doesn't matter. Failure isn't an option. Period.