46. Origins of the Bureacratic Species, Part 5 of 5
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! It’s Thursday afternoon here in Baghdad, and if you’re reading this in the States you’re between eight and fourteen hours behind, so you have football and cooking and eating and cleaning and sharing to look forward to. Please look for something to be grateful for, as it’s the easiest gift you can give to yourself.
I can think of no better way to celebrate than to publish the fifth and final installment of “Origins of the Bureaucratic Species”. Longtime readers will be grateful for this stunning conclusion to an excellent series on the topic, and new readers can begin at the beginning by clicking here to read from episode one.
As a final comment before launching this week’s conclusion, I would like to point out the sweet appropriateness of celebrating the accomplishments of successful bureaucrats on the same day as we highlight the value of that great and humble bird, the turkey.
Without further ado….
Origins of the Bureaucratic Species
by Marc A. Viola
Conclusion – Persona Non Grata
The founders are long gone, forced out by a gradual, methodical, bureaucratically instigated overthrow. Control has been transferred, and talented individuals go into exile. All become a persona non grata (PNG), an outcast from the organization that they helped create.
One of the worst fates to befall intelligence professionals overseas is to be declared PNG by the nation where they are stationed. It means that a foreign government has found your behavior disquieting enough to require you to depart its borders, and never return. Sometimes, if a government finds your shenanigans particularly distasteful, they will have you “rolled up.” That means you are arrested, roughed up a bit, asked uncomfortably probing questions (perhaps related to even more uncomfortably revealing photographs of you and others), and then assisted in your departure. Nobody really wants to be rolled-up. It is just bad form.
It takes a special level of tactlessness, or outright hubris, to achieve PNG status, and it is especially troublesome if you have a fondness for the country, its people, the food, or the lifestyle. I liked traveling abroad, so whenever I did I kept my head down.
The same could not be said for my organizational travels in the Intelligence Community. I came into the community with the foolish idea of “making a difference.” I expected to engage in critical thinking and informed debate. Unfortunately, when a person becomes “smart enough to be dangerous,” bureaucrats can smell him or her from miles away. Like so many others in “the 20 percent,” I just wanted to do my job, take pride in my work, and defend the nation. Over time, this won me PNG status from organizations throughout the community. That translated into fewer choices for future assignments. I was rapidly running out of agencies that I could work for, or wanted me working for them. As I discovered, PNG status applies not only to organization founders, but also to those perceived as possessing similar energies that would threaten the bureaucratic species.
Ultimately, those in “the 20 percent” recognize that there may be no personal or professional profit to be gained from their efforts to stay on under such constraints. In fact, by overachieving or employing their special talents, they increase the risk of being viewed as threatening to stability. So one treads delicately on a tightrope stretched between initiatives that would move organizations forward and the bureaucratic anchors jammed into the floor to hold them back, all the while trying not to startle the idle spectators. Again, that is where good management makes all the difference, and without which the disillusioning balancing act of “the 20 percent” is long and un-applauded.
About the author – Marc A. Viola
Marc A. Viola
Marc Anthony Viola is an intelligence professional pioneering the development and deployment of innovative technologies and tradecraft for the U.S. Intelligence Community for almost 20 years. He is best known for his work with Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT) at such Intelligence Community (IC) agencies as the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). He was the Director of MASINT Review for the Presidential Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, http://www.wmd.gov/.
An aerospace engineer, he expanded the scope of his interests into business, computer and information systems management, strategic intelligence, and national security studies. Viola is a visiting guest lecturer at the National Defense Intelligence College (formerly the Joint Military Intelligence College) for intelligence science topics. A former military officer, he served for almost 12 years in various U.S. Air Force intelligence positions before separating from active duty, then the reserves, and finally becoming a successful consultant. During his years in the Air Force, Marc Viola was privileged to work with, and for, members of, and organizations directed by the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and the Canadian Forces.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this series. While the story may be told in a friendly and entertaining way, the unfortunate material it describes is only too accurate. Our hope in telling it is that through awareness, individuals in every segment of society may recognize the bureaucratic tendency in their organizations or themselves, and decide they’re not willing to accept such a wasted life.
Copyright © 2008 by Jack Oatmon. All rights reserved.
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40. Origins of the Bureaucratic Species, Part 4 of 5
Readers, you’ve been amazingly patient while I fussed with election matters and continued to conduct my little piece of the war here in Iraq.
I promise that next week, I’ll post the fifth and final weekly edition of Origins…on an actual weekly schedule! For this week, at long last, I give you Origins of the Bureaucratic Species, Chapter Four:
Origins of the Bureaucratic Species
by Marc A. Viola
[If you haven't followed the series from the beginning, or missed the last entry, you can jump to those by clicking: Jump to Chapter One or Jump to Chapter Three]
Part Four – Overwhelmed By Sectarian Violence
When its long, slow death begins, the organization has evolved far beyond its original formation from intellectual stardust, and now resembles the landscape of medieval Europe. Barons, duchesses, earls, countesses, viceroys, and all other manner of victors emerge from the battlefields of interoffice nation-states. Staff meetings, once forums for sharing information, now make daily pronouncements on matters of organizational hierarchy and regality, and stage vacuous pantomimes bestowing honorifics upon the undeserving. Across artificially drawn borders, emails pound entrenched areas of resistance with heavy-caliber memoranda of agreements. Returning volleys rain down with incendiary track changes and cannon balls of staff summary sheets. Standardized templates and approved formats lay siege to pockets of individual originality. Task-force committees in the chapel officially validate the new dogma and issue it in website proclamations. Hyperlinks herald initiatives to “synergize,” “integrate,” “facilitate transformation,” with “network-centric processes,” “enterprise collaboration,” “re-organizing,” “re-aligning,” and “re-prioritizing” “interoperability,” while “mapping a path for closure and victory.”
Pointless buzz-phrases and managerial jargon choke the real power of language to exchange ideas. This Orwellian “new speak” lethally submerges creativity and critical evaluation of new concepts while it stifles open debate on their possible relevancy. In their place come a barrage of slogans and managerial mantras that are precisely what the organization soon seeks in the résumés of its employee candidates. What was once an enlightened organizational renaissance has entered a dark age of institutionalized bureaucracy, and a malignantly parasitic life form has effectively taken over, its self-preservation complete. Eventually, nothing happens without the regulating influence of bureaucratic oversight and control. Nothing moves, nothing changes, and nothing really new pushes the organization forward. It is as if an administrative weir has been intentionally constructed for the express purpose of checking the flow of progress. The organization has become a fortress of servitude, a medieval castle complete with towers, walls, moats, and bureaucratic dragons. In fact, one of the terms often used to describe such individuals when I worked at the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) was “moat dragons.”
The organization atrophies. Where there was once energy and vitality, now a stonework system prohibits risk, experimentation, and failure. A formidable outer wall of regulations protects the now-ravenous bureaucrats as they multiply. They are safe, and their job security is assured. Life is good for the bureaucrats: they are confident that they will pay off their mortgages and kids’ college tuitions.
In sociological terms, the organization appears to be another shining example of capitalistic success. What has really happened, though, is that the once-great organization has reached a critical turning point in its existence. The genius that sired its creation is now gone. Gone are the requirements for core competency. Loyalty and obedience trump ability. To protect those less than competent, minimum performance standards are established and rigorously held down to. Excelling at endeavors, exceeding expectations, and new ideas become threatening to the establishment, upsetting its now cherished goals of stability and predictability.
The organization no longer primarily functions in its original role as a profitable answer to a business need. Instead, the organization now serves to house and employ its minions, and to fiercely defend its self-preservation. Cumbersome processes have made introducing new talent or new ideas prohibitive. Only lateral changes are possible from incestuously trusted inner circles. The organization embodies a stifling atmosphere, evident in subtle indicators: drab-grey carpeting, endless white walls, and bland decor. Employees with dull looks and shadows under their eyes shuffle through hallways, eager for each day and the week to end.
About the author – Marc A. Viola
Marc A. Viola
Marc Anthony Viola is an intelligence professional pioneering the development and deployment of innovative technologies and tradecraft for the U.S. Intelligence Community for almost 20 years. He is best known for his work with Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT) at such Intelligence Community (IC) agencies as the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). He was the Director of MASINT Review for the Presidential Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, http://www.wmd.gov/.
An aerospace engineer, he expanded the scope of his interests into business, computer and information systems management, strategic intelligence, and national security studies. Viola is a visiting guest lecturer at the National Defense Intelligence College (formerly the Joint Military Intelligence College) for intelligence science topics. A former military officer, he served for almost 12 years in various U.S. Air Force intelligence positions before separating from active duty, then the reserves, and finally becoming a successful consultant. During his years in the Air Force, Marc Viola was privileged to work with, and for, members of, and organizations directed by the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and the Canadian Forces.
Click here to jump to next week’s thrilling conclusion to…Origins of the Bureaucratic Species! [...Echo machine fades...]
Copyright © 2008 by Jack Oatmon. All rights reserved.
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35. Origins of the Bureaucratic Species, Part 3 of 5
I’m sorry for the delay, gentle reader. This war out here in Iraq can really interfere with my administrative duties! So without further ado, and in honor of those MAV fans who have so patiently waited for the “Origins” series to continue, I present:
Origins of the Bureaucratic Species
by Marc A. Viola
[If you haven't followed the series from the beginning, or would like to catch up again, you can jump to Episode One by clicking: Jump to Episode One]
Part Three – The Insurgency Begins
Like a young living organism, an organization grows to accommodate its success. When founders are off conquering the world, they leave a growing numbers of bureaucrats behind as caretakers who, in the worst possible outcome, take charge of vital leadership decisions. If they take the helm in the absence of the founders, their actions will almost certainly veer in a direction without the vision, creativity, and daring that led to the point of their takeover that far. The strengths of bureaucrat are financial accounting, process definition, and chaos control, not vision, not direction.
Bureaucrats seek out and enlist more of their own kind when they find a need to control corporate entropy of their own making. If anything, their motivation shifts ever so slightly to enhance the security of their growing numbers. To buttress their fortress, they invite others sharing their mindset, and unfortunately belonging and inclusion often foster a sense of elitism, privilege, and status. The psychology of power can take hold, and the organization may never be the same again.
To protect themselves, bureaucrats create walls of other bureaucrats around them. Each controls new administrative functions and approval gates. The organization becomes a castle or walled city built for safety, security, and self-preservation. As they assume more senior posts, bureaucrats also harbor the discomfort of knowing that they do not own the fortress. Their insecurities emerge and, without humility, the most well-meaning bureaucrat tends to compensate by attempting to mold the organization in his or her own image.
Before the walls rose, only a semi-permeable membrane separated the organization and the world, and energy and information flowed freely between the two. New people and new ideas entered and exited the organization freely, and as needed. This was the very process of dynamic creativity in action, building momentum and vectoring in unexpected directions.
In their growing numbers, bureaucrats impose a new order to an organization. They attach themselves like parasites to the inside of the organization Bureaucrats embed themselves in the inner workings of an organization, siphoning its life and energy. As they link with other bureaucrats, their colonies grow biggest around the entry- and exit-points of an organization). In this way, they position themselves as gatekeepers, regulating the flow of resources, people, information, and, eventually, ideas. Their goal of protecting themselves is reached by controlling all sources of organizational collateral entering or leaving the organization.
The semi-permeable membrane that once carried the free flow of organization creativity becomes clogged with layers of bureaucrats who micromanage the flow of information. Bureaucrats can now modify the tone and rhythms of the organization to their liking. Creativity is now kept in check, managed, and bridled. Territorial boundaries emerge, bureaucratic fiefdoms consolidate themselves, and the once vibrant organization is no more.
Marc Anthony Viola
About the author – Marc A. Viola
Marc Anthony Viola is an intelligence professional pioneering the development and deployment of innovative technologies and tradecraft for the U.S. Intelligence Community for almost 20 years. He is best known for his work with Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT) at such Intelligence Community (IC) agencies as the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). He was the Director of MASINT Review for the Presidential Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, http://www.wmd.gov/.
An aerospace engineer, he expanded the scope of his interests into business, computer and information systems management, strategic intelligence, and national security studies. Viola is a visiting guest lecturer at the National Defense Intelligence College (formerly the Joint Military Intelligence College) for intelligence science topics. A former military officer, he served for almost 12 years in various U.S. Air Force intelligence positions before separating from active duty, then the reserves, and finally becoming a successful consultant. During his years in the Air Force, Marc Viola was privileged to work with, and for, members of, and organizations directed by the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and the Canadian Forces.
…And that’s it. Always leaves you wanting more, doesn’t he? That’s the mark of great writers and air-hose-tenders for hard hat divers working on the bottom of the ocean.
Go straight to the next exciting installment at Origins of the Bureaucratic Species Installment Four!
Copyright © 2008 by Jack Oatmon. All rights reserved.
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31. Origins of the Bureacratic Species, Part 2 of 5
Okay, this one’s a beaut. I suppose it had me from the very first line.
[If you didn't catch Origins of the Bureaucratic Species, Part 1 of 5, I invite you to first read that through HERE.]
Without further ado, I present the second, awe-inspiring episode of:
Origins of the Bureaucratic Species
by Marc A. Viola
Part Two – The First Bureaucrat
The first bureaucrat does not appear infectious, or even a threat, at the time. In fact, the arrival of the first bureacrat is actually seen as a godsend. This is someone who can attend to all the necessary details, and leave the founders to focus on their precious new baby. No one sees the arrival of a pathogenic vector or harmful toxin, but rather the means for developing order from the chaos. What few realize is that at this moment, the first bureacrat will herald either sweeping success for the organization, or its descent into mediocrity and eventual demise.
The first bureaucrat is usually an accountant, a chronicler, or secretarial assistant. This person will try desperately to track all the elements of the organization as it achieves critical mass and chain-reacts. If the organization were an astronomical feature at this stage, it would be a formless cloud of gas and stardust collapsing in on itself through the tug of gravity within each atom. In the instant a once-nebulous cloud ignites with the light of a new star, a self-sustaining organization is born. The job of the first bureaucrat is to catalogue every grain of cosmic stardust, account for every gram of collapsing matter, and measure the before, during, and after of the creation of a sun. No easy task, and not a task for just anyone. Only a person built for that that much attention to detail will suffice, so picking the correct first bureaucrat is crucial.
Every aspect of the organization will undergo inspection. The bureaucrat will not necessarily contribute to the life of the organization so much as observe it and keep track of its operation. In this sense, the first bureaucrat is not a source of income for the organization, and in fact, they may represent the first overhead cost, a salary expense to run the organization. This is also when the first bureaucrat will face their great temptation. In confronting the monumental challenges of all the tasks at hand, the first bureaucrat will face seduction by pride. This dark emissary of malignant narcissism will set into motion the initial cause of doom for the organization. The pact will focus around a single emotion: resentment. The more the bureaucrat resents the amount and types of work they must do for the founders, the deeper the bond with future bureaucrats will be forged.
The deluge of organizational detail will be overwhelming, but the first bureaucrat will succeed in making documented sense of a swirling milieu. The bureaucrat’s worth to the new organization will be incalculable. But, as the organization lurches forward in growth and operation, the first bureaucrat will not be enough. The organization will require an additional person, adding another overhead cost to be subtracted from total income. It is time for the first bureaucrat to divide into two. If the first bureaucrat has already submitted to the will of self-interest, the organization could be in exceptionally grave danger.
This is a critical time in the organization’s development for four reasons. First, the number of bureaucrats will increase by 100 percent in the mitosis that will yield the second bureaucrat, and potentially 100 per cent more in each subsequent cell division of the number of hired bureaucrats, if left unchecked by the founders. Second, the founders may be so busy building up the organization that they mistakenly shift decision-making for hiring future employees to the first bureaucrat. Third, no matter how well-meaning, the first bureaucrat will very likely hire new employees with who feel “safe.” Fourth, the first bureaucrat may be unaware of detrimental traits inherent in of a new hire, traits that may not appear immediately, but may manifest themselves in determining future hires. Traits present in the first few bureaucrats tend to self-replicate in a growing crop of new employees.
There is no getting around this progression. It happens in every organization’s birth and growth. Even if the selection of the first bureaucrat is flawlessly made, the risk reappears with every subsequent selection of a bureaucrat. This invariably challenges an organization’s ability to retain its original character and energy. The four cited steps (hiring more bureaucrats, hiring delegated to bureaucrats, expression of bureaucratic need to feel safe, and replication of undesirable bureaucratic traits) are critical because they will ultimately determine the lifespan of an organization. In addition, if the first bureaucrat lacks the capacity for humility, warmth, and nurturing in the face of chaos, or does not revel in the performance of their work, the shortcomings in their character will afford the forces of evil recesses from which to establish perpetual grip on the organization. This translates into the single-most precarious moment of organizational development.
All organizations come to decision forks along their developmental paths. A potentially disastrous milestone marks each fork if inattentive leadership permits modification of the original character of the organization. As I have said, it is in the organization’s infancy that its lifespan will be determined. The genius and energy of the founders must be involved in these early decisions; otherwise they risk deferring their responsibilities to a conveniently positioned, but unqualified, bureaucrat. There is a possibility that founders will choose their first bureaucrat wisely, and he or she will faithfully preserve their core ideals. That the first bureaucrat understands those ideals, and believes in those ideals, should be the immutable prerequisite.
Marc Anthony Viola
About the author: Marc A. Viola
Marc Anthony Viola is an intelligence professional pioneering the development and deployment of innovative technologies and tradecraft for the U.S. Intelligence Community for almost 20 years. He is best known for his work with Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT) at such Intelligence Community (IC) agencies as the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). He was the Director of MASINT Review for the Presidential Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, WMD.org.
An aerospace engineer, he expanded the scope of his interests into business, computer and information systems management, strategic intelligence, and national security studies. Viola is a visiting guest lecturer at the National Defense Intelligence College (formerly the Joint Military Intelligence College) for intelligence science topics. A former military officer, he served for almost 12 years in various U.S. Air Force intelligence positions before separating from active duty, then the reserves, and finally becoming a successful consultant. During his years in the Air Force, Marc Viola was privileged to work with, and for, members of, and organizations directed by the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and the Canadian Forces.
That’s it for this week. Stay tuned for the next thrill-packed installment of Origins of the Bureaucratic Species!
JUMP TO THE NEXT INSTALLMENT: LINK TO ISSUE 3 OF 5.
Copyright © 2008 by Jack Oatmon. All rights reserved.
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27. Origins of the Bureaucratic Species, Part 1 of 5
Et Voila…Marc Viola!!!
Now here is some writing worth reading!
For this one post and the four weekly installments to follow, readers of Powerful Peace will be spared some of my writing while a good friend, Marc Viola, intersperses some quality musings.
As promised, Marc will thus claim the mantle of the first serial Guest Author Contributor (GAC) of P2, and regular readers will likely hope that many more will follow…at least enough to fill the “white space” before the founder can!
Without further ado, I give you the first work of the new Sporadic Column of Authorly Talent (SCAT) known as Alpha to Zeitgeist, in Part One of a five-part series, Origins of the Bureaucratic Species:
Origins of the Bureaucratic Species
by Marc Anthony Viola
Part One
So where do talented individuals go to feel safe? What does it take to feel professionally engaged, fulfilled, and accepted? How will they know the right institution to go to, with the kind of environment that will take care of their particular needs that make them distinctive? Where does genius go when it is time to move on? It seems obvious that such people would not want to take their chances on yet another bureaucracy. Who could blame them? Intimidated by real talent, and desperate to protect their precious positions, the masters of organizational bureaucracies are the real threat to gifted individuals. From an intelligence perspective, then, it is important to identify the characteristic traits of the bureaucratic threat. Before being able to detect, locate, track, identify, and characterize this formidable system of intellectual destruction, it is perhaps important to first understand how it functions.
Let us examine this threat, up close and personal. Where does it come from? Who are its agents, and how do they organize, train, and equip themselves? How does their command and control function? Last, but certainly not least, why are bureaucracies such a threat to justice, domestic tranquility, the common defense, the general welfare, and the blessings of liberty?
In their defense, perhaps bureaucracies do not represent a completely toxic threat to human creativity. My apologies; I erred. What was I thinking? Let me rephrase that so that there is no misunderstanding as to my intent. Bureaucracy is the scourge of all mankind. If bureaucracy is a necessary evil, then let us agree that it is, in fact, evil. So where did this contemptible instrument of malevolence come from? Or more precisely, who let it in?
In what I call my “bureaucratic atrophy model,” I hold the view that every great organization is born virtually devoid of any bureaucratic influences. The first people who come together are the ideological founders. These people are do-ers, the subject-matter experts in their fields. These are the kinds of people with the rare qualities of inspiration, energy, and often intimidating creativity. These founders do not necessarily all get along because they are people of great passion and even stronger opinions. The energy between them feeds the process of creative development and eventually the organization achieves critical mass, and takes on a self-sustaining quality. As it takes on a life of its own, it is able to draw ever-increasing commitment and devotion from its members. The founders seek new talent to answer the pressing need for decisions, requirements, and tasks. A new organization has been born.
At this stage in its evolution, the fledgling organization is tiny, a loose alliance of a few individuals who gave life and gestation to the concept and delivered it to the world. In the philosophical view of a sage intelligence consultant and coworker of mine, the number of founders is perhaps always as many as, but never more than, five people.
“Every project comes down to only five people-who actually make it happen.”
-The Sage Consultant, 2006
This is a time of great enthusiasm and high aspirations in the organization. Creativity flourishes with new life, vitality, and hope for the future. As the concept for an organization forms, so to must the membership grow. The euphoria soon morphs into pressures to confine the organization to reality, to record activities, and track progress. Documentation, once a virtual afterthought, was ignored lest it get in the way of creativity in full flight. Initially, there is little need to document the steps because all steps are in a continuous process of change, experimentation, and refinement. Keeping track of this dynamism would waste time and energy that might otherwise go into creation. Once the organization starts consuming inventories and resources at frightful speed, keeping track of all aspects becomes an overwhelming concern. This is when the organization becomes most vulnerable to infection by “the first bureaucrat.”
Skunk Baxter
1. The analogy of bureaucracy to a viral life form was inspired by the author’s discussions with defense consultant and rock-star guitarist Jeff “Skunk” Baxter in 2005.
[Editor: We're serious! Here's a photo of Jeff "Skunk" Baxter to prove it (how does that prove anything?), and an important link with the hopes that everyone should think so far out-of-the-box in the service of evolved counterterrorism for Powerful Peace. We are indeed a motley crew in the DC Beltway...and thank God for the diversity!]
Marc Anthony Viola
About the author: Marc A. Viola
Marc Anthony Viola is an intelligence professional pioneering the development and deployment of innovative technologies and tradecraft for the U.S. Intelligence Community for almost 20 years. He is best known for his work with Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT) at such Intelligence Community (IC) agencies as the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). He was the Director of MASINT Review for the Presidential Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, http://www.wmd.gov/.
An aerospace engineer, he expanded the scope of his interests into business, computer and information systems management, strategic intelligence, and national security studies. Viola is a visiting guest lecturer at the National Defense Intelligence College (formerly the Joint Military Intelligence College) for intelligence science topics. A former military officer, he served for almost 12 years in various U.S. Air Force intelligence positions before separating from active duty, then the reserves, and finally becoming a successful consultant. During his years in the Air Force, Marc Viola was privileged to work with, and for, members of, and organizations directed by the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and the Canadian Forces.
That’s it for this week, gentle reader. Be sure to watch PowerfulPeace.WordPress.com for the next exciting episode of Alpha to Zeitgeist…coming soon!
…Oh – and my stuff, too.
JUMP TO THE NEXT INSTALLMENT: LINK TO ISSUE 2 OF 5
Copyright © 2008 by Jack Oatmon. All rights reserved.
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