WELCOME TO THE BLOG OF POPE JOHN THE TALL, LEADER OF THE ALL JOHN ALL THE TIME WORLD CHURCH


******PLEASE NOTE******

(Notice I said please.)

To those of you who are new to "the Pope" and the "AJATTWC", the following various posts are the official communications of yours truly, Pope John The Tall, or as I'm known in many circles, PJTT.

I aspired to the position of Pope of the AJATTWC several years ago, after the Roman Catholics elected Joseph Ratzinger, a German Cardinal, as their Pope; I figured if he could do it, so could I.

Despite what would seem to be a "religious" theme, I try not to play favorites: I'm satirical/irreverent about everything, in an attempt to give my readers a few yucks; that is the goal. If I haven't made you laugh, well, I tried, and I hope I'm given an "A" for the effort. (Or at least a really solid "C".)

I further hope that my faithful readers (all several of them) and any of you who wander in from the cold of the Internet, will derive much solace and spiritual awakening from my timeless prose, and, as I so often refer to it, the "soothing balm of Johnism"; if you don't, how sad for you, because I'm a pretty funny guy. (My daughter tells me, regularly, that I'm "silly"; I suspect that she's right.)

Please note that everything on my blog is meant to be fun, and in no way insulting to anyone, unless of course you're a politician, then you can assume I intended to insult you. (Hey, it goes with the job, guys; if you can't take the heat, then the harder they fall.)

Never mind.

Anyway, welcome and thanks for stopping by; please feel free to peruse to your heart's content (there is a large archive of my past posts, going back several hundred years, in the right-hand column), and please be sure to make a large donation at the door as you leave. (It's tax-deductible.)

Speaking of leaving, as I make my exit, and probably none too soon, here's something from the Book of Excretions, Apollo 13: Dodgers 6...

"Blessed are the lazy, for although they don't accomplish much, they're well rested."

Enjoy. (Or don't, it's still a free country. It is still a free country, isn't it? They haven't changed that as far as I know, have they?)





Sunday, September 9, 2012

The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same


The above photo was taken by the Martian rover Curiosity, shortly after landing on the planet Mars; how astounding that this isn't science fiction, but a real picture taken and transmitted from another planet in our solar system.

Your Pope (that would be me, Pope John The Tall, of the All John All The Time World Church and Currency Exchange; if you're interested in how I came to aspire to and achieve such a lofty position in life, see the explanation at the top of the page), thinks this is absolutely amazing.

I have always liked science fiction; in many instances, it's not only the flight of fancy of an author with, typically, a very active imagination, but a way of addressing social and topical issues from an unusual perspective.

My favorite science fiction author, hands-down, was Robert Heinlein, who wrote such giants of the genre as "Stranger In A Strange Land", "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress", "Starship Troopers", "Double Star", "The Cat Who Walked Through Walls", and one of my favorites, "The Puppet Masters", which, by the way, was made into a pretty good movie back in 1994 starring Donald Sutherland, Eric Thal and Julie Warner.

Heinlein was, in many ways, a wry observer of the human condition, and had a few rather "advanced" ideas about how we residents of Planet Earth could improve our lives. I'll spare you all the details of his various "beliefs"; probably the best insight into his way of thinking is contained in his 1960 novel "Stranger In A Strange Land", so if you're interested, and haven't ever read his works, that's an excellent place to start.

Periodically, I go back and tackle one of his novels, and although I've read most of them many times over (I suspect I've read "Stranger" three dozen times, easily), it's a rare occasion that I don't come away with a new perspective on some point of view he was espousing, or, at minimum, a renewal of my appreciation of his genius.

Recently, I sat down with my copy of "The Puppet Masters", a short "novella" that was written by Heinlein in 1951, which, interestingly, was the year I was born. I hadn't read it in some time, but despite some of the outdated language and the sci-fi gadgets that RH predicted would become commonplace in our 21st century world that never have, it's a wonderful story.

Basically, the book tells the story of a race of "slugs" that go about the universe, invading planets and taking over the inhabitants thereof, by attaching themselves to the host and manipulating him/her to do the alien's bidding, and their invasion of Earth. Without giving away too much of the plot, the early part of the story is a recital of how slowly officials in Washington reacted to the threat of invasion from outer space, and how woefully unprepared we are to deal with such matters.

I was struck by the following exchange that takes place between two of the main characters, the head of the ultra-secret government agency known as the Section, and one of his top agents; they're discussing the response, or more to the point, the lack thereof, of the President and Congress to the evidence that the Section has obtained about the secret invasion by the aliens from the moons of Venus.

Remember, Heinlein wrote this in 1951. To wit:

'"You mean Congress hasn't acted?"
"I have spent the past several days-ever since we stopped the attempt on the President-trying to help the President convince them. Ever been worked over by a Congressional committee, son?"
I tried to figure it out. Here we sat, as stupid as dodoes-yes, and homo sapiens would be as extinct as the dodo if we did not move. Presently the Old Man said, "It's time you learned the political facts of life. Congresses have refused to act in the face of dangers more obvious than this. This one isn't obvious. The evidence is slim and hard to believe."
"But how about the Secretary of the Treasury? They can't ignore that."
"Can't they? The Assistant Secretary had one snatched off his back, right in the East Wing, and we killed two of his Secret Service guards. And now the honorable gent is in Walter Reed with a nervous breakdown and can't recall what happened. The Treasury Department gave out that an attempt to assassinate the President had been foiled. True, but not the way they meant it."
"And the President held still for that?"
"His advisors told him to wait. His majority is uncertain-and there are men in both houses who want his head on a platter. Party politics is a rough game."
"Good lord, partisanship doesn't figure in a case like this!"
The Old Man cocked an eyebrow. "You think not, huh?'"

61 years later, isn't it amazing how some things never change?

Love and super PACs,

PJTT

copyright 2012 Krissongs Inc.

excerpt from The Puppet Masters by Robert Heinlein, copyright 1951

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