At 21:56 5/27/2004 -0700, Joe Fenton wrote:

Druid wrote:

   Actually, as canny as the emeror appears to be, it would surprise me
greatly if he did not have any observers report back to him before he 

made any

such statements. He should be well of the fact that plans are all well and
good, but with a situation like this, knowing how things went before talking
about them would be highly important in my opinion, particularly in light of
the voltility of the individuals involved.

Volitility is right.

It strikes me that he is trying to make some villians. Ranma has been set up
as a hero, so she needs some villians to oppose her. Given how Akane acts
about perverts, there's only two ways she'll respond to the incident: she'll
become catatonic, or snap the guy's neck the moment her hands are free.
In any case, neither Akane nor Nabiki deserved the treatment they got.
This will put a rift between them and the good-guys. No "apology" of
ANY sort will be sufficient to appease the dishonor done over virtually
nothing. When they find out Ranma is still alive, they WILL blame her for
what happened. They will become sworn enemies dedicated to seeing her
humiliated worse than what happened to them.

I won't do any spoiling of Mark's story, Joe. But it occurs to me that
something in my personal life applies.

Some years ago, a reasonably wealthy man inherited a farm near where I
live. The land hadn't been used since before World War 2. The house and
barn were wreckage. The fields were utterly overgrown, with some trees
older than I am. It was a mess.

He wanted to farm the land, but it would take months to clear the land,
and more cash than he wanted to spend.

What did he do?

He hired the local volunteer fire department, got permission from the
county government, and then burned everything to the _ground_.

Torched the house, the barn, and the fields. What little didn't burn
naturally, he had seared off with portable flame throwers.

The scary - and rather sad, from my viewpoint - thing about this is
that it worked. After burning everything to the point where the fields
looked as if they'd been scoured clean by a lava flow, he had them
plowed and the new crops came up through the ash-fertilized soil like
they'd been fed on plant steroids.

It's risky, but effective. Provided you don't anger your neighbors, of
course.

Thing is, lots of small game died. Pheasants, quail, ground squirrels,
you get the idea. He didn't care, though. He had his farm, and it was
making money. He was happy.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that governments don't - or WON'T! -
do the same thing, if and when they think it's needful.

And if a few little people die along the way, hey... there's more
born every day.

After all, from an Emperor's viewpoint - or even a President's - we're
all just expendable little people.

Ed Becerra

         "Dreamers may die, but the Dream is eternal..."



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