Some ranting and other misc. commentary

I am disgusted that for the second election in a row, we may be faced with choosing the one person who may cause the least amount of damage to our country. We need a leader to step up and take the mantle of the presidency, but unfortunately, it doesn't seem like that is going to happen. How long has it been since we have had a good leader, one who wasn't bought and paid for by special interest and lobbyists. In my lifetime I can think of two presidents that I thought exhibited actual leadership. All of my liberal friends will hiss at me when I say this, but I thought Ronald Reagan was a good leader. Before Reagan -- in my lifetime, just barely -- John F. Kennedy. I don't have to agree with every belief that a would be leader has in order for me to follow him or her. Liberal, moderate, conservative -- it doesn't matter to me. Will a Reagan or Kennedy rise up out of the ashes? One can only hope; I don't think it's going to be President Obama or Mitt Romney. I don't think leadership gets people elected anymore. I think it's wealth and influence. How sad is that? Someone like Harry Truman or even Abraham Lincoln would never be elected in today's political landscape. I should avoid discussing politics because I actually don't know as much as I should, but I was just thinking. I have begun a rewrite of Fall of Knight. I'm wanting to use my Ipad to do a lot of the writing, and to that end, I purchased a new app to use. I debabed about the one I bought and Celtx, but I read some bad reviews of Celtx and the reviews on scriptpro were mostly good. Screenwriters need to take another look at the new terms Amazon studios have set up for submissions. They are much more agreeable to the writer than the originals were. I think that when I revise Knight, I am going to submit it to them. It can only make me money if they like it, and if they don't like it, it will only be tied up for 45 days instead of 18 months as in the case of the original contract. I am going to do some fiction writing, but I have decided I will continue doing screenplays primarily. I'm making money still from ACT so that justifies my writing in a genre that is very likely not going to make any money for me. That's okay. I just love the screenwriting game, and I think I can get good at it. I know; you have to be great, and you have to have connections, but they are still fun to write. I think one of my former students Jess Inman will be a director one day, and maybe when I am old and crotchety, he'll have pity on me and make a movie from one of my screenplays. I am also going to break out my Tongue Tied screenplay and work on that. Dystopian fiction seems to be the rage, and that's what tongue tied is. It has some potential I think, but I always think that about my writing. I am still coughing a lot. I went to Web MD and checked out what coughing could be a sign of. The news was not encouraging. I found that it could be anything from whooping cough, to copd, to congestive heart failure, to lung cancer to emphysema. Also maybe allergies. It acts more like whooping cough I think, but it could just be a really stubborn repiratory infection. When I was a smoker (I quit about ten years ago) I used to get bronchitis frequently. I also remember that when I was a kid, I frequently got colds and stuff-up sinuses. Anyway, I think it's getting a little better. I have noticed that every once in a while, I will get a coughing fit to where it is hard for me to stop long enough to actually take a breath, and then I get dizzy. I do feel some better though. The Cardinals won today. Lynn pitched a good game, and I was impressed because it was a real team effort. Both Berkman and Freese were out with injuries, but every pitched in. Bullpen looked good. I really like our new manager. We are 6-3 and in first place. That isn't bad. I cut grass today and saw my first of what will likely be many snakes. It was a ground snake though it was fairly long at three and a half feet or so. It didn't want any part of me, and I didn't want any part of it, so we parted with mutual respect. Well, that's all for me.