As he followed her inside Mother Abagail’s house he thought it would be better, much better, if they did break down and spread. Postpone organization as long as possible. It was organization that always seemed to cause the problems. When the cells began to clump together and grow dark. You didn’t have to give the cops guns until the cops couldn’t remember the names…the faces…
Fran lit a kerosene lamp and it made a soft yellow glow. Peter looked up at them quietly, already sleepy. He had played hard. Fran slipped him into a nightshirt.
All any of us can buy is time, Stu thought. Peter’s lifetime, his children’s lifetimes, maybe the lifetimes of my great-grandchildren. Until the year 2100, maybe, surely no longer than that. Maybe not that long. Time enough for poor old Mother Earth to recycle herself a little. A season of rest.
“What?” she asked, and he realized he had murmured it aloud.
“A season of rest,” he repeated.
“What does that mean?”
“Everything,” he said, and took her hand.
Looking down at Peter he thought: Maybe if we tell him what happened, he’ll tell his own children. Warn them. Dear children, the toys are death–they’re flashburns and radiation sickness, and black, choking plague. These toys are dangerous; the devil in men’s brains guided the hands of God when they were made. Don’t play with these toys, dear children, please, not ever. Not ever again. Please…please learn the lesson. Let this empty world be your copybook.
“Frannie,” he said, and turned her around so he could look into her eyes.
“What, Stuart?”
“Do you think…do you think people ever learn anything?”
She opened her mouth to speak, hesitated, fell silent. The kerosene lamp flickered. Her eyes seemed very blue.
“I don’t know,” she said at last. She seemed unpleased with her answer; she struggled to say something more; to illuminate her first response; and could only say it again:
I don’t know.
–Stephen King, The Stand
“It’s well within the realm of possibility that in the space of about two years, the Taliban, an al Qaeda with genuine international reach, Saddam Hussein’s Baathist-fascist regime, and the ayatollahs’ Islamic fundamentalist theocracy will all be in the dustbin of history. How freaking bitchin’ is that?”
– Sean T Collins, June 18, 2003
“it’s hugely important for European nations to come to terms with the problems posed by their Muslim citizens and non-citizens.”
-Sean T Collins, June 11, 2003
“I strongly, indeed almost maniacally, advocate using the military power of the United States and its allies to depose autocratic regimes and end human rights abuses. Indeed, aside from the direct defense of American lives, I can’t think of a better use for our brave, genuinely heroic armed forces.”
– Sean T Collins, June 10, 2003
“Spain sent a message to terrorists today, and the message was “we give up.” The message is “you were right.” The message is “you win.”
Pre-election bombings in other countries (including our own), already likely, are now a virtual certainty. And why shouldn’t they be? Spain’s Socialists and their supporters have taught al Qaeda that murdering 200 commuters for no reason is perfectly viable campaign strategy.
The Spain debacle is easily the biggest setback to the free world since the War on Terror began, and I feel worse about it than I can remember feeling about anything since that awful autumn. It truly is a disaster–not just for the local- and geo-political ramifications, mind you, but (it bears repeating) because this virtually guarantees that many many more people will be killed in countries across the globe whenever an election is in the offing.
ADDTF reader George writes in to lament the lack of attention being paid to these issues here in America. Of course, the reason it’s not being made a bigger deal of in this country is because the people responsible for making things a big deal, the major news media, think that voting the PP out of office was an eminently sensible response to being attacked by terrorists–a dress rehearsal, if you will, for November 2004 here in the good old U.S. of A.
Not good. Not good at all.
Meanwhile, as a commenter points out here, a major Western nation has just been defeated by an army of approximately one dozen people.
Europe is gone.”
– Sean T Collins, March 14, 2004
Not a day goes by, not a single day, that I don’t look back on the things I said and did with abject horror and shame.
I wish you’d had the courage and honesty to not post this anonymously, so I could tell you, whoever you are, personally, that you are right and I was wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.
That’s not enough, Sean.
You honestly think I don’t know that?
Would you prefer me to say “you’ve got my fucking number, Dan, I’m trying to skate by on this, but fortunately you’re here to pop up and remind me in some comment thread every couple-three years that I have the blood of millions on my hands”? I’ll fucking say it then, Dan. You’ve fucking got me dead to rights.
Seriously? He doesn’t owe YOU a god damn thing, so get off your high horse.
…but Sean did a 180 on the whole issue years ago.