Dagnabbit. "Public Assistance" got rejected by F&SF.

But "Shepherds" is still out to Analog.

I'm apparently in no danger of losing my status as the black sheep of the family. Went out to lunch yesterday with Mom. Has the entire country gone bug-nuts with this political thing? I can't have lunch with my mother without getting into a political discussion, something I don't ever recall happening before with or without food involved. Ye gad, we should go on Oprah... "Yes, my mother's a life-long Republican and a devout Methodist, while I tend to oscillate between Libertarian and Green and this year I'm making the horrible, gut-wrenching mistake of voting for John Kerry. I'm also a devout Jedi and we're not only globalist we're decidedly universalist. It's in our nature, y'see, when your entire religion is founded on being the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy you tend to become rather bewildered at this insistence on imaginary lines drawn on a piece of paper and the belief they represent some sort of arbitrary division between geographical populations of a single species. See, my mother thinks that the source of all evil is John Kerry, but I think that's just because she hasn't met Darth Sidious yet. So you can see where this is going to cause quite a bit of trouble at Thanksgiving this year, not to mention Christmas."

(bangs head on keyboard)

Please... everyone, if you love me, vote me off this mudball NOW!

So it's a fine thing to be railroaded into a political discussion in the middle of Sweeney's barbeque on a Friday afternoon, surrounded by people who all think George Bush is on his way to sainthood. And here you are, not planning on mentioning politics, not bothering anyone, keeping your weird political and religious views to yourself, being good... and your pod-people replicant mother pipes up with the Canonize Dubya stuff...

They're ALL crooks. So is Kerry. But at least he supports civil unions and he realizes the United States does not exist inside a vacuum and that we have to live with the rest of the world so we'd better stop making with the 500 pound gorilla stuff. And does the phrase "LA glowing in the dark" and "Korea" have any meaning to anyone?!

While over a thousand of our troops have died for a war started on false pretenses ... while the love of my best friend's life is over there right now where Insurgent Dish of the Day comes in a desert-camo wrapper with USMC stamped on the side... while people are still dying of Multiple Sclerosis when the cure might be found in embryonic stem cells... while I'm told I'm a perversion of nature because I happen to fall in love with people regardless of gender...

Yeah. All in all, pound for pound, the world makes absolutely no rational sense.

Vote me off. Now. I want to go home.