Peter Hodges

I’ll be returning home tomorrow.  I have to say that being a dad makes it more difficult to travel frequently. I miss the little guy (now almost eleven months old). I hate the fact that I’m missing new developments, new words, a more confident approach to cruising (that first unassisted step without a face plant is coming soon!), and valuable bonding time.

I’m watching the Democratic ego stroke (ahem, I mean debate) on CNN tonight. It’s a shame that everything I’ve heard so far is based on a pipe dream called “Universal Health Care.” Restricting a free market system with subsidies that either divert funding from other programs or force our government to raise taxes places pressure on our already wounded economy. Why should the productive members of our economy have more tax burden placed on them to place artificial controls on something that is functioning according to the law of supply and demand? The place to start on reform is to relax licensing and patent law, allowing generic drugs to hit the market sooner. Allow a reasonable time for companies to recoup the cost of developing drugs, then allow said drugs to be licensed to stimulate competition in the pharmaceutical sector. Likewise, reform your laws governing litigation surrounding the medical profession. Make it more difficult to bring frivolous law suits against doctors who legitimately don’t make mistakes and see the price of malpractice insurance go down, thus reducing costs to the end-user further.

Shannon writes about her frustrations and inadequacies while attending NCO training. 

Letters Home, Part 5  - set in the universe of A Loss of Innocence
Universe by Peter Hodges
Story by Kate Baker
Dramatic Reading by Kate Baker
Music: “Structure & Discipline” by Thomas Newman

*Contains strong language

 

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I ate a wonderful restaurant tonight called the Iron Hill Brewery. It’s really too bad that I didn’t discover it until tonight, because the food was excellent. It is a fairly renowned micro-brewery in this part of the country, but since I’m allergic to hops, I didn’t partake of any beer/ale. The scallops, however, were incredible.

I also have to say that I’ve finally had time to devote to Lee Stephen’s Outlaw Trigger. I’m impressed with where he takes his characters in this outing. I should finish the novel on the plane ride home, so sometime this weekend, it is my intention to do a detailed review. Don’t wait for the review though; if you want some good, clean (seriously!) military science fiction, buy Dawn of Destiny and Outlaw Trigger immediately from Amazon.

Alchemist continues to take form. The mid-February deadline is starting to seem a little more realistic every day.  I’ve spent some quality time with Jessica, the main female protagonist of the story. I’ve finally gotten my groove with her character; so far she is resonating well with my test readers, so I’ll probably leave her as-is.

It also looks as though my training session will end early enough on Friday that I will have time to go by Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell after all. Someone with my political leanings would be negligent if they didn’t at least make the effort to see the birthplace of American democracy while I was close to it. I’ll give a report on that as well this weekend.

Did McCain suddenly tighten his grip on the forefront of the Republican race while I wasn’t looking? I suppose that’s a victory for middle America, but traditional conservatives are probably terrified. Personally, I’m not sure that a moderate would be a bad thing. I also wonder if McCain at least has the political chops to defeat a strong Democrat for the office of President. Ally McCain with say, Huckabee, and they might make an unstoppable force, since you would have moderates and evangelicals in the same boat. The only ones left in the cold would be the non-populist, Ronald Reagan style conservatives.

Enough rambling. I have to get back to work.

That’s right, folks.

I’m calling myself “the Hodge.”

Why? Because when you’re in downtown Wilmington, DE, you gots to fit in, yo. Peter just doesn’t cut it. The Hodge is in full effect.

We now return from the Twilight Zone.

Seriously though, here’s a couple of things that I learned in my nearly twenty four hours here:

1. Delaware sucks, but not as badly as New Jersey.
2. Traffic in Dallas at least makes sense. Here they have fewer roads and fewer cars, and somehow the net result is still congestion.  People aren’t polite about it here, either. In Texas, at least, if you piss someone off, they’ll just go around you; they may or may not tell you that you’re “number one.” Here, they honk at you, roll down their windows and curse at you, then they tell you that you’re number one. If you run into them again through happenstance in traffic, they remember. They threaten your dog when they see you again and their fury is renewed. Too bad Delaware doesn’t recognize the Texas gun laws.
3. Several neighborhoods around here are in serious need of Extreme Home Makeover. I mean, really. The whole crackhouse with a freeway view is so last decade.
4. No one in Delaware must want to open a decent restaurant, because all I see up here are chains. I can eat chain restaurants at home.
5. While the cat is away, the mice will play. If I recall, today is Tuesday, which makes this a podcast day, yet I don’t see a podcast. Hmm…

Ugh.

This isn’t the most pleasant place that I’ve been sent in the course of business travel so far, that’s for sure. Couple my persistent bronchitis (or is it walking pneumonia by now?) with a three hour flight into Philadelphia, and you have a recipe for grumpiness. I’m here all week, but we won’t have Kate guest posting because my evenings will be spent in Delaware, land of the bored. I mean, come on. I tried to go eat tonight at a place with local color and all the places around my hotel were closed. I ended up driving out of town a little ways and eating at a chain restaurant. Bleh.

I would like to go see Independence Hall and the Liberty bell (a scant 45 minute drive to Philadelphia), but the museums close at 5 PM sharp, which means I won’t be done with my business functions by then. I’ll have to wait another day to experience the birthplace of the Declaration of Independence.

All is well now. My hotel has a free intarweeb connection, so I can buckle down and do a little research on flintlock firearms. Why, you ask? Good question. One of the many things that I need to become an expert on (when writing Alchemist) is primitive firearms. While I may know a very little bit about modern day firearms, my knowledge of the history is nearly nothing. Simply glossing over the details isn’t working terribly well, given how detailed other parts of my world are. That’s what happens when you write yourself into a corner.

This is a “documentary” that shows what happens to the wounded after battle.

Before I begin with today’s rant, let’s have a little geography lesson.

To the left is a map of Israel. Israel lies on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea. It is the only Jewish state in the Middle East, it is the only quasi-acknowledged nuclear power in the Middle East, and it is the longest running democracy in the Middle East.

To the southwest of Israel, bordering the sea, you’ll see a tiny piece of land called the “Gaza Strip.” This is a densely populated area that is predominantly Muslim. In the original agreement that established the nation of Israel in 1948, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights were administered by Egypt, Jordan, and Syria respectively. It was only after the 1967 clash with neighboring Arab countries that Israel occupied these areas.

When Hamas, a “political party” formed of Palestinians that openly uses terrorism as part of their tactics, was elected to several positions within the Gaza strip, Israel placed the area under a blockade. Hamas siezed control of the area last June. The blockade intensified, with cooperation from Egypt. This included walling off large sections of the border, restricting trade, and applying economic sanctions against the territory.

There is currently a wall seperating Gaza from Egypt. Militants within Gaza have knocked large sections of this wall down in order to go into Egypt to buy food and other essentials. The concern is that some of those leaving the blockade are returning with weapons or cash. Likewise, there are projections that indicate more militants will be brought into an already tense situation.

Let’s be completely honest here. In a siege, there are several things that the besieging army is trying to do:

• Eliminate mobility and initiative.
• Strangle communications.
• Interdict supplies.
• Break the will of the defender.

If Egypt is truly a partner in this endeavor, if they are truly trying to support Israel’s efforts in isolating Hamas, then they have a responsibility to enforce the blockade. If they are not a partner, Israel needs to know so that it can assume full responsibility for maintaining the containment of Hamas. Shame on Egypt, but it is at least understandable since the Egyptian people share close ties with those in Gaza.

If Israel were truly serious about this, they would let the region starve for around five to seven days. After that, they would allow women and children under twelve years of age to leave. Then, they would wait another week or ten days and begin to demand the surrender of the remaining men and boys. If there was no surrender, that’s no problem. Interdict any supply efforts by global relief organizations, turn a deaf ear to humanitarian pleas, and let Hamas eat their own rhetoric if they desire sustenance. Eventually, the defenders will either be so stubborn that they die of disease or starvation, or the rational men left in Gaza will capture the Hamas leaders and present them to the Israelis. Either way, Israel wins. And the next time Israel puts a blockade on someone, they’ll understand that they mean business.