Day 182 of OH FUCKING GOD FINISH CUTTING THAT GODDAMN SHEET METAL

I honestly don't know what sort of construction project is going on at the state house (which is just across the street from me) but goddamn, they have been working on it for a couple months now, so I get to hear all kinds of noise when I'm trying to sleep. The worst has to be whatever fucking metal-work they're doing, because they only seem to need just shy of a hojillion pieces cut, and only do about 100 a day, but staggered over 6 hours.

Seriously, if I could set people on fire with the power of my mind, there would be a mysterious rash of spontaneous combustion deaths around here.

Interesting.....

The latest Rasmussen telephone poll in Pennsylvania has Clinton only ahead of Obama by 5% (47% to 42%). Last week, she was ahead by 10%. In early March, she was ahead by 15%.

And we still have three weeks to go.

fiction

I looked up at the sky, what I could see of it, that is. The Pine Barrens were pretty thick around here, especially since I had turned off anything resembling a paved road a couple miles back.

"So, it's like this. There's predestination, and there's free will." I said to Ricky, just to get the conversation started. "Now, the way I understand it, predestination says that everything we do, you, me, the guy down the street, we got no choice in it. God decided what we were going to do from the moment we were born, to the moment we die." Ricky grunted at that, but that was only to be expected.

"Of course, if you were predestined to do something, there's no point in holding a grudge over it, right? Because it's not your fault any more. It's God's fault." Ricky nodded at that. Again, not surprising. "Unless of course, the guy holding the grudge was predestined to hold a grudge."

"The flip side of this is free will." I leaned over to Ricky and looked at him. "Free will says everything you do is your own responsibility, and your own fault. Same with everyone else." I reached over and pulled the gag out of Ricky's mouth. "With free will, you can always hope that the guy you're dealing with feels like cutting you a break. So, the question I got to ask you is, when you decided to rob Fat Tony's mom's place, was it predestination, or free will?"

Ricky started to answer but stopped himself as I pulled out a pistol.
"uuuuhhh...."
"You need to answer, Ricky. Not answering is bad."
"Puh.... predestination?" He had a hopeful look in his eye, like maybe one of the two answers would be the right one, and maybe he'd be lucky enough to guess it.
"Sorry, Ricky."
"No, wait, it was free will."
"You can't have it both ways, Ricky. It's one or the other."

And then it was over. Of course, I was going to kill him regardless of what he said. I really get off on that look in their eyes when they think they might have a chance to walk away. Good thing it took a couple days to track Ricky down. The last bit of snow on the ground had melted, and snow makes a body dump a real bitch.