Suppose medical science discovered there was a physical cause to homosexuality, perhaps a malformed portion of the brain or a chemical imbalance. Whatever it was, the result is a pill that can be taken once a day to reorient a person to heterosexuality. Would it be moral for doctors to offer this drug to their homosexual patients? Would gayness come to be considered a disease that can be cured, leading those who reject the cure to be shunned as lepers? Or would it cement the idea that homosexuality is a lifestyle choice, because they could easily choose to be otherwise? Would it make a difference if there was also a pill to induce homosexuality?

(NB: I'm not saying it is a disease. I personally don't care what anyone's sexual orientation is. The question just came into my head one day.)

---

I've got an idea for a story about a man who has been wrestling constantly with a demon restrained within him for the past several decades. The demon wants the man to either let the demon use his powers to destroy/conquer the world or kill himself so it can possess someone else more amenable. The man was made immortal by the restraining ritual, so he sees literally no end to the physical and psychological torment he has suffered in silence most of his life. Months after the death of the only woman he ever loved, he's contemplating suicide when the woman's niece shows up at his door, asking questions.

I like the idea of some nobody on the outskirts of society waking up and saving the world every single day of his life, without any real incentive to do so other than its needing to be done and his being the poor bastard stuck with the job.

It's a tragic tale, a horror story of sorts. But I tend to have a soft spot for characters I create. After putting this guy through hell, I intend to kill him, but I want to give him a moment's peace first. For one brief, potentially delusional second, he should get some kind of reward. And I can't figure out how. Although, now that I think about it, it may not fit thematically with the rest of the story, said theme being, "Life sucks, then you die, and no one knows the difference."

You see my dilemma.

---

There's only one issue for me in the upcoming presidential election: are we fighting a war or not? Bush recognizes that there is an ongoing conflict between western civilization and middle eastern barbarity. Kerry seems to think the war is over now that the battle of Iraq is winding down. I don't care about oil. I don't care about religion. I do care about being blown up by people who do. The economy and health care are nice ideas, but now is not the time to push them to the forefront of the American agenda. It would be nice if the world loved us for trying to save them yet again, but that isn't the issue. Better to be alive and hated than dead and loved. While you're alive, you can change people's minds to get them to love you again. That's why I'm going to vote for the guy I didn't vote for last time.

Maybe the problem is we never turned to a full war footing in this country. As long as we can watch the war on TV without making WWII-esque sacrifices here at home, people think we're not really at war. Everyone heard the great stories of the Peace Generation putting a stop to the Viet Nam war, and wants to be a part something just like that, or were part of it the first time and want to relive past glories.

I got news for you. They tried to do Woodstock again. It got burned down by the attendees. You can't go home again; it's all brown acid this time.

---

Speaking of oil, here's my billion-dollar idea that I have no way of ever implementing. Genetically engineer some bacteria or yeast or something to consume various organic materials and excrete octane. I envision vats where people dump in their leftover food, "non-edible" portions of plants, biodegradeable garbage of all sorts, and turn a faucet at the bottom to take out high-grade gasoline. It would solve the oil problem and the garbage problem in one swell foop.

More importantly, it would bankrupt the oil-producing nations of the world, allowing them to go back to killing each other instead of bothering the rest of us.

Yes, I know it wouldn't be that simple. But octane is an organic molecule, so it should be possible.

---

There is a foolproof way that I and my two brothers could absolutely identify each other under any conditions that allow us to communicate. Only the three of us know the method, even if they haven't realized what it is. It involves a private joke only we know, which is eccentric enough that no one could possibly guess it at random.

No, I'm not going to tell you what it is.

Of course, my brothers seem to have disowned each other, and none of us are likely to be in a position where such an oblique method of identification would become necessary. Still, it's there if we need it.

---

If I'm ever taken hostage by terrorists who threaten to kill me if the US doesn't do whatever they say, let me die. Well, try to rescue my ass if you can, but if it comes down to it, I'd rather die than be the lever some worthless dungheap of a person uses to move this nation.

After I'm dead, kill everything within five miles of everyone responsible as a warning to the others. I'd do it for you.

---

That's all I have.