So I once again thought of that song The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead by XTC.

But he made too many enemies
Of the people who would keep us on our knees
Hooray for Peter Pumpkin
Who'll pray for Peter Pumpkinhead?

And, because I am a resolute apophenic, it struck me that, once again, the Empire is in the Middle East, occupying a holy nation, which is in any case ruled by people who do not care about the people (cf. King Herod and whatever puppet government the U.S. installs into Iraq) And that, if you look at it closely, the New Testament is really a revolutionary handbook, a manual on how to overthrow the Empire in a subtle, but long-lasting way. (And I fantasize that perhaps Islam will metamorphosize, and in its new form will infiltrate the Imperial lifestyle, in the same way that Judaism spawned Christianity, which eventually supplanted the religion of the Empire).

As Philip K Dick put it, "the Empire never ended."

But this past week has been a trying episode. In my melodramatic way, I like to call it my own personal road to Cavalry. Like a man cursed by the gods, I had been forced to work with the Evil Resident twice this week, leaving my fragile ego shredded, tattered, filetted, and smeared across the asphalt. While I admit that perhaps I haven't been keeping up with the material as well as I should, it's clear that no matter what I say or do, I will be wrong, and God knows that Hell will freeze over before the day that she actually tells me I'm doing something right. For four days, I was forced to subsist on a scant 15 hours of sleep total. By the fifth day, a bullet in the head would've been an act of mercy. And, for proof that I have somehow offended the gods, and am now the subject of divine retribution, the one day that I get out relatively early (i.e., thirty minutes earlier than usual), my rear left tire blows out, and instead of being able to sleep, I am forced to hang out at Pep Boys to get the tire repaired.

OK. Enough feeling sorry for myself. I am, once again, hoping for the best, but simultaneously trying to prepare for the worst.