Inside the Belly of the Beltway Beast

Good evening one and all... I am at home writing for my Traveller campaign, and getting a start on a novella. This story will be dear to my heart.It is a look at a future where we have lost basically all of our civil liberties, and corporations control our food, our media, our politicians. Doesn't sound far off from what we have now! But anyhow, I am re-committing myself to supporting local businesses. You will soon see more restaurant reviews/shout-outs here. Why am I excited about turning my back on some major corporations? Well, one is the recent expression of blatant and outrageous greediness of Papa John's owner and CEO. He refuses to raise the price of his pizza 11 to 14 cents in order to help cover his worker's health insurance. In fact, he is slashing all of their hours so there's no way they could qualify as full-time employees entitled to some important benefits in a civilized society that actually begins to care about its workers. This callous creature has ...

Winter seems to be rolling in about a month early here in DC, and yesterday was the election. One wing of the corporate party won more electoral college points than the other. More drone wars killing thousands of civilians, more off-shore drilling furthering our fossil fuel addiction, and more jobs will now be shipped overseas with the soon-to-be signed Trans-Pacific Free Trade Pact. Sadly, the American people and the future of our planet is not benefiting from the destructive and exploitive nature of our current political system. As Americans, we are also harshly divided over vague and outdated ideologies, which are little more than abstract and little understood titles we hang on one another -- chief among these are capitalism and socialism. Neither in any of their original purity exist in reality today. In better news, I have been enjoying some meals here in the Eastern Market neighborhood of DC. One of my favorite food haunts is Tortilla Cafe, 210 7th Street SE, Washington, DC....