Intelligent Life and Death -- A new story idea

Cases of flesh eating bacteria multiple.  Doctors puzzled as previous cases responded to treatment with antibiotics. Alarm grows as cases increase among unusual demographic -- medical professionals and scientists. Scientific team assembled at CDC / NIH. They discuss origins of bacteria -- we all carry them in a symbiotic relationship. Cyanobacteria probably responsible for beginnings of life on earth. Data reveals long-term trend of increasingly antibiotic resistant bugs. This has been known for some time, but the recent data seem to indicate targeted members of the population. How can that be? Do the bacteria exhibit a form of intelligence? Depends on how you define intelligence, doesn’t it? Consider the jellyfish. It has no brain, and yet it adapts, survives, thrives. Distributed intelligence? Is there a hive of bacteria directing attacks? Alarm grows when members of the team begin falling prey to previously treated bacterial infections. It seems that the bacteria are eliminating anyone with the knowledge to thwart the attack, while keeping enough humans around to act as “hosts.”

The Lion and the Sun -- An Excerpt

In this excerpt from the novel, The Lion and the Sun, Anatoly Balakirev, a Russian intelligence agent, who is working with Daniel Conte, an American intelligence agent, describes his meeting with the head of Iran's nuclear program. The action takes place in Tehran in 1994.

“So, Anatoly, you flew to Tehran Wednesday?”

“Late Wednesday night. We met with Director of Atomic Energy Research Division, Thursday morning, Dr. Nozar Aganazadeh. You know him?”

“I know of him. Never met the man. Who was with you?”

“Yousef Arbrogati and Wolfgang Hemming, the other two inspectors sent by Mr. Protopopov.”

“Just the three of you? I thought he was sending four inspectors.”

Balakirev waved a hand dismissively. “Malek Garlut came down with stomach flu and couldn’t make it. In any case, three was enough.”

Balakirev smiled. Conte knew Garlut. The team was better off without him.

Balakirev ran his fingers through his hair. He looked tired, but animated, and a little drunk. “Dr. Aganazadeh wanted to show that he was well connected with the Agency before getting down to business. He started by giving a little speech. I have committed to memory one of his most precious pronouncements.”

Balakirev stood straight and threw out his chest attempting, it appeared, to look directorial. “Gentlemen, let me just say, if you will, the Islamic Republic of Iran, has always condemned the possession of weapons of mass destruction. Our Islamic tents… Tents?”

“Tenets,” Conte said.

“Okay, ten-ents.” Balakirev put his hands out, palms up. “Then he says, our beliefs, and human affinity turn us away from such pursuits. When you have grown to know us better, you and your organization, you will see that our nuclear program is entirely peaceful. Inshallah.”

Conte laughed.

Balakirev momentarily basked in the glow of his own unreserved appreciation for his performance. Then he went on to describe his protracted negotiations with Aganazadeh over the team’s intention to inspect the Tehran Nuclear Research Center and the Jabr Ibn Hayan Multipurpose Laboratories located at TNRC -- laboratories that had not been declared by Iran.

Balakirev described the inspection that he and his team performed in the afternoon. “We examined the small research reactor originally supplied by the United States, I believe?”

He looked at Conte. Balakirev knew the answer, but was intent on making a point.

“Yeah, we put it in there in 1967,” Conte confirmed.

Balakirev smiled. “And you know it has been converted to burn 20 percent enriched uranium?”

“Yes.”

“And could produce up to 600 grams of plutonium per year in its spent fuel?”

“Yes, again.”

Balakirev gave Conte an ironic look. See what you did, he seemed to be implying.

Will the real Republicans please stand up?

Why do Republicans devalue intelligence? Republicans use the word “intellectual” as a pejorative. One of Newt Gingrich’s attack ads directed at Mitt Romney mocks him for speaking French in talking about the 2002 Winter Olympics held in Salt Lake City, for which the official language was French. In fact, Gingrich once said about himself, "I'm not a natural leader. I'm too intellectual; I'm too abstract; I think too much” (1995).

Republican attack ads against Elizabeth Warren in the Massachusetts senatorial race pitting her against Scott Brown refer to her disparagingly as, “Professor Warren.” Michele Bachmann in criticizing Barack Obama, mockingly called him “professorial.” Obama was editor of the Harvard Law Review and taught Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago.

Rick Santorum has accused Obama of “intellectual snobbery,” because of Obama's emphasis on getting a college education.

Michael Steele, former head of the RNC, mocked Jon Huntsman speaking Mandarin during a Republican debate saying, “I thought he was ordering takeout.”

Herman Cain bragged about not knowing who the president of ‘Uzbeki-beki-stan” (Uzbekistan) was, and blew off his complete brain freeze on Libya.

For Republicans, being college educated makes you an “elitist.” They equate being an intellectual with being a socialist. In response, some clever entrepreneur created a tee shirt sporting this on the front, "If you can read this, you're a socialist."

Someone who approaches a complicated problem, like going to war in Iraq, and has the audacity to change their mind, is a “flip-flopper.” George W. Bush famously made his decision to invade Iraq based on his “gut.” Then, in the face of overwhelming evidence that his rationale for war was dead wrong, stuck to his guns.

Is it all just a ruse to appeal to what the Republicans may see as their “stupid demographic” -- the Christian fundamentalists, the conspiracy theorists, the southern redneck -- or is this what Republicans have truly become? If the former, then let them have their craven fun and beat the hell out of them at the polls. If the latter, then, quoting one of our supposed heros, we must say to them, “You are pitiful, isolated individuals! You are bankrupts. Your role is played out. Go where you belong from now on—into the dustbin of history!”