Welp.

There is nothing good in the repeal of Roe.  That's for sure.  I shudder when I think of the pointless death and suffering and life-derailment that will come in tidal waves, and not exclusively to women either.  Oh it will.  The "justices" who voted for it should spend the rest of eternity floundering around in an ocean of boiling feces.  As should all their enablers.  Let's not be coy about this.

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Steve Katz, Creamy & Delicious (1970)

I read Katz' first novel The Exagggerations [sic] of Peter Prince some time ago, and enjoyed it in the way I enjoy a lot of these old works of avant-garde metafiction that, let's be honest, feel a little quaint these days.  But I never bothered to look any further with Katz.  I was peripherally aware of this book, and I think I could've read it if I'd wanted to; I don't think copies were prohibitively expensive, but, well, I didn't.  So this Tough Poets rereleased seemed like the opportunity.

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That's why Greg Abbott says "hey man, nice shot"

But to be slightly serious for a moment: I wonder what Abbott would say if you asked him: do you think America failed these innocent victims?  To me or you or any non-psychopath, this question seems extremely easy: there are legitimate debates to be had over the degree to which government should get involved in day-to-day life, but at the bare minimum, a country has to be able to ensure that its people aren't constantly murdered.  We call countries that can't do that "failed states," and then everything else that they can and do do seems kind of trivial by comparison.  Yes, we've built a more-or-less functional interstate highway system, and that's impressive and everything, BUT WE CONSTANTLY LET PEOPLE BE RANDOMLY SLAUGHTERED.  Kind of overshadows your accomplishments.

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A known fact

Bloodthirsty ghouls like Greg Abbot and Wayne Lapierre, Ron DeSantis, and Marjorie Taylor-Greene (if I'm misspelling her name, don't tell me; I'm not going to look it up and risk seeing a picture of her) love school shootings, the bigger the better. They blare "Celebration" by Kool & the Gang and pop champagne corks whenever a new one happens.  I can neither confirm nor deny that they're incapable of reaching orgasm without envisioning giant stacks of dead five-year-olds, but people are certainly saying as much.  Some people might say that's unfair, but those probably wouldn't be grieving parents.

William Beckford, Vathek, an Arabian Tale (1787)

I had really wanted to read this for a long time.  Seems like a fun bit of Orientalism, maybe.

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Mario Vargas Llosa, Captain Pantoja and the Special Service (1973)

So the Peruvian army has a problem: their troops stationed in remote areas are sexually frustrated, with few women around, rape is commonplace, and generally the whole situation is bad for morale.  Captain Pantoja isn't really interested in this, but he is extremely dilligent and devoted to the army, so he is assigned to create a "Special Service" of prostitutes to try to ameliorate the situation.  This is made even more difficult for him by the fact that he's not allowed to reveal his ties to the army, and he's not allowed to tell his family what he's really doing.  Seems rough, but in fact, due to his conscientious nature, he succeeds beyond anyone's wildest dreams.  It's probably not much of a spoiler, though, to reveal that everything does not end up going wholly according to plan.

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A Soldier Dreams of White Lilies

 I'm glad that pro-Ukraine sentiment is as nigh-universal as it is.  Sure, there are some right-wing Putin-apologist shitheads, but the message doesn't really seemed to have spread to the vast majority of people.  There's a bank around here that now says "Pray for Ukraine" on its electronic sign.  If you think a dang bank would ever put up a sign that they feared was going to cause any controversy whatsoever...well, I disagree.

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