The SoapBoxers

I’ve been feeling really under the weather lately, so there may not be a fiction story tomorrow.  If that’s the case, then this will be the last post of 2011.  (If you go into Soap Boxer withdrawal over the weekend, you can also delve into the archives.  Plenty to read there.)

We’re on the cusp on a new year.  Honestly, I’m not much of a New Year’s fan, as I see it as a pretty arbitrary start point for the new year – why not start it on the vernal equinox?  In any case, I have some goals for the year ahead.

Turn a profit.  Hyrax Publications (the parent organization for The Soap Boxers) has been somewhat unprofitable in 2009 and 2010.  With increasing traffic and new ventures such as SPARKS by Kosmo, I think 2011 will be a profitable year.  By 2012, I expect to see millions of dollars in revenue each year.  (Huh?  What do you mean by “rose colored glasses”?)

Double the traffic.  This sounds like an aggressive goal, but the number of page views in December 2010 is more than four times the traffic we saw in December 2009, and we’ve seen very strong growth the past few months.

See SPARKS ignite.  SPARKS by Kosmo booked a small bit of revenue in 2010, but there is plenty of room for growth.  We’ll be unveiling new pricing plans and features in January.

Continue to give back.  I received – and continue to receive – a lot of assistance from my good friend Lazy Man.  In an effort to pay it forward, I’ve helped other people get started with their own blogs, and will continue this is 2011.  If you have ever wondered if you should start your own blog, the answer is “yes”.

More articles from guest writers.  We’ve had a variety of guest articles in the past, on topics like a day in the life of an air traffic controller, the in-person experience of the 2010 Olympics, and a muslim’s view of Islam.  I’ll continue to seek out people who have interesting tales to tell.

Finish the new eBook.  Next week, I’ll announce a new project that will involved 100 authors.  I have already lined up quite a few writers, but need a lot more to turn the idea into reality.  I expect to spending much time searching for these writers in the first few months of the year, and hope to have the book ready for production by late spring or early summer.

Get traction on my novel.  I’ve had a lot of irons in the fire in 2010, and my novel ended up on the back burner.  I really want to set aside some time in 2011 to make strong progress on the novel.  I doubt I’ll be able to finish in 2011, but I’d like to have most of the heavy lifting done before year end.

What are your goals or resolutions for 2011?

When I was in elementary school, I was a good student in most subjects.  One particular subject always tripped me up – penmanship.  We were on the S/U (satisfactory / unsatisfactory) scale, and I received a grade of U- each term.  In hindsight, I wonder if my teacher comprehended the actual meaning of the word unsatisfactory …

My mom urged me to work on my penmanship, which was truly atrocious.  I commented that I’d just do everything on computers in the future, and that handwriting would be unimportant.

It turns out that I was actually correct.  My handwriting was never an impediment in my college years, and most of the people I have worked with over the past 13 years have no idea how lousy my handwriting is – because all of our communication has been verbal or via email.  My typed documents are just as neat as the next person’s – I’m not Pig Pen.  In the time before laptops, someone glanced at my meeting notes and asked if I could read my own writing when it was “cold”. 

When I am forced to take pen in hand, I almost always print – in order to achieve some level of legibility.  The only time I use cursive is to sign my name or write checks.  Until recently, I always took caution to sign credit cards as neatly as possible.  The I realized that this might cause a problem if a merchant decided that my normal signature didn’t match the one on my card.  Now I simply use my regular scribble when I sign a card.

Over the years, my signature has slowly lost its luster.  The six characters in my last name were once somewhat distinguishable.  This is no longer the case – you see the first letter and then a ragged line for the rest – and even the ragged line is losing definition and will eventually become a straight line.  My first name is a bit better, but not by much.  Perhaps the most defined letter in my entire signature is my middle initial.

It’s not all bad, of course.  If I ever wanted to pass myself off as a doctor, I’d have a fighting chance.  I always joke that I have the writing down, I just need the medical school.  Like many bad writers, I also have the ability to decipher the code of other bad writers.  When we come under attack from Canada, the ability to transmit messages via poor handwriting will be critical to the defense of the nation (assuming that we are able to first identify and eliminate Canadians with poor writing skills).

There’s actually a serious question hiding behind the facade of my jokes.  Have we reached a point where we can safely ignore penmanship – and cease further instruction on the subject?  The need for the skill is on the decline – will the need eventually die out completely?

Buy Stuff

As you know, I am a huge baseball fan.  For many years, I have had my eye on the Ken Burns miniseries Baseball.  The new price never dropped below $100, and used copies were hard to find for a good price (if you’re a big enough baseball fan to buy it, why would you sell it later?)  A few days before Christmas, I was pleased to find the miniseries – including the new 10th Inning – for just $49.99 on Amazon.  It was temporarily out of stock, but I immediately jumped at the chance to pick it up for that price.  It’s still temporarily out of stock, but the price has begun to climb – it’s now $50.99.  To grab your copy before the price jumps more, head over to Amazon today (note: we do receive a small commission on Amazon sales).

While you’re at Amazon, pick up a copy of Ron Shandler’s 2011 Baseball Forecaster.  Shandler’s approach on predicting performance is based on component analysis – rewarding players for the skills they exhibit rather than the resulting numbers (which can be skewed by external factors or just plain dumb luck).

Ohio State Suspensions

Five Ohio State football players are being suspended for the first five games of the 2011 season after running afoul of NCAA rules regarding improper benefits.  Players are being accused of trading autographs for tattoos and selling rings, jerseys, and awards.  The suspension may cause those players – include quarterback Terrelle Pryor and running back Boom Herron – to jump to the NFL instead of returning for half a season next year.

Why aren’t the players being suspended for the Sugar Bowl on January 4?  The NCAA says it is because the players “did not receive adequate rules education during the time period the violations occurred.”  I call BS on that.  If that’s a valid excuse, then why would the NCAA lower the boom on them with a 5 game suspension?

The real reason, of course, is money.  Take those players out of a BCS bowl game, and ratings would plummet.  Sponsors would not be pleased.

NFC West

My wife’s St. Louis Rams and their adversaries, the Seattle Seahawks, both won their games on Sunday.  The two teams now head into next week’s game with identical records of 7-8.  The winner of the division will end the regular season at .500.

For the past few weeks, many of the talking heads have expressed concern about the possibility of the NFC West champion qualifying for the playoffs with a 7-9 record – while a 10 win team from another division could be left out of the playoffs.  I was hoping this would happen, just for the novelty.

Andrew Gallo

Andrew Gallo, the drunk driver who cause the accident that killed Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart and two others in 2009 (and injuring a fourth person), was sentence to 51 years in prison.  Was the sentence influence by the fact that one of the victims was an athlete?  No.  It was influence by the fact that Gallo has previously been convicted of DUI and at the time signed an acknowledgement that if he cause a fatal accident while drunk, he could be charged with murder.  This has become common practice in Orange County, California – the Gallo case was not an aberration.

Why Bloggers Hate Christmas

As readers of The Soap Boxers (and search engine visitors) headed out to visit family and friends for the Christmas holiday, traffic to the site fell off a cliff for a few days … and traffic will likely be a bit slow until New Year’s Day.  Sadly, advertising revenue takes a similar hit.

But do bloggers actually HATE Christmas for this reason?  Nah.  I sincerely wish my readers a happy Christmas season.

So much for being the lame duck session of Congress. Despite constant Republican obstruction, whining and even some crying, things actually got done and even some Republicans got off their asses and did the job they were elected to do. In the past couple days Congress has passed the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, a new START treaty, as well as a bill providing benefits to first responders to 9/11. Not too shabby of a finish to this Congress even though we had to give the Republicans their tax cuts for the rich to bankrupt the future just to be able to get to these items in the first place. I guess the Pubes did “give in” to extending unemployment benefits so not everything was horrible with that one.

Unlike John McCain, I am very happy to see the repeal of DADT. I use McCain here because he reacted to the ruling stating “Today is a very sad day.” Really John, ending discrimination is a sad thing? Anyways this law has always has been the dumbest law to me, not just because it is wrong, but it was never the law the title implies. It never was a law of such a neutral stance, it was always a law of no matter what you are not allowed to serve if you are gay. The Don’t Tell part of the law tended to be very well followed to, it was the Don’t Ask part that the military just ignored. So with its repeal I am happy that we no longer have to dismiss highly qualified people just because they are gay.

On the START treaty I am hppy to see it done, but unlike the rest of the bills I felt this one was the one that was assured to pass in the lame duck session. Afterall every living former Secretary of State was for the new treaty. It was just a matter of time before the Pubes would end their faux outrage and end their obstruction on this one.

Then on the front of the 9/11 first responders bill it is nice to see that those who did their most on that day are finally able to be taken care of better for the damages done to them. Luckily a few Republicans disconnected from the collective on this one as well. I do find it funny that the party of 9/11 doesn’t give a shit about those who actually did the work that day, they only like the symbolism of the day itself to use as propaganda. But then again this is the party that prefers to get unpaid for tax cuts for the wealthy, while holding hostage the benefits to many unemployed in a tough economy to get their way, so nothing really should ever be a surprise for the party of fear propaganda and lies.

On other fronts, the Alaska Supreme Court has seemed to wrapped up the litigation on the Senate election of write-in winner and current Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski. Joe Miller can now crawl back under the rock he came out from, and because hell hath no fury like a woman scorned Sarah Palin has created an oddity in a Republican that openly rejects her as well as her opinions on things. I feel that is the one reason Murkowski suddenly became a vote in favor of the recent bills that passed, including DADT. I don’t for see her being much of a moderate Republican down the line still, but it is nice to see independent thought out of a Republican, even if it clearly is out of spite.

Ending my thoughts for this month it seems that possible presidential candidate and Republican Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour feels that the Civil Rights era “Wasn’t that Bad.” and that the Citizens Council were good organizations. Now I don’t think Barbour is a racist for his comments like many have been stipulating, I merely (like I do about about many Republicans) think he is an idiot. Of course the civil rights era was not that bad, for him, he was white, had a good upbringing, etc. it is more of ignorance over what went on right around him than racism in my opinion here, but ignorance is no excuse for being an apologist to what actually happened in the past.

I hope everyone has a safe holiday season and I wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

[Editor’s note: today’s article was written by Poch.  Check out more of Poch’s writing at Plato Press.]

My small Manila hometown is very near the Philippines busiest international airport (I will not mention the name to avoid libel charges). Its main attraction and big income producer is a world-famous church which also triggers corruption among the town leaders -our town thrives on underground economy.

Illegal gambling is everywhere -it’s already part of the town’s culture. The town leaders allow vendors (and anarchy) to occupy sidewalks for a fee which collectively isn’t small -there are hundreds of illegal vendors creating street anarchy. Even some police officials get their take too.

From time to time when the corrupt leaders are taking heat from higher officials, they make a show of chasing the vendors away from the streets which turns violent sometimes causing death among vendors or law enforcers. These battles have been going on for decades until now.

I have a cousin who is an ‘official’ of one illegal gambling (locally called ‘Sakla’) that’s permitted most of the time during funerals. It’s organized if the family of the deceased wants or needs money for the funeral. The family gets a percentage of what the gambling earns from bets. After the local elections this year, this particular gambling was stopped by the city mayor. The reason? The mayor’s brother lost in our town elections and because his brother’s opponent was earning or ‘on the take’ from Sakla, he stopped it to punish his brother’s opponent. So now my cousin gets poorer and poorer everyday because Sakla is his main source of income and he’s feeding 4 children of his own. Now imagine the other many gamblers who earns less than him and also have families to feed. I really wonder how the gamblers go on for decades living this way. But mostly, I wonder why I’m being forced by fate to come back and live here again and again.

Welcome to the 1st annual Johnny Goodman Bowl Spectacular. Tis the season for great (or in most cases not great!) bowl games. Here is the complete lineup of all Division 1 Bowl games for your holiday football season.

December 18th

New Mexico Bowl. BYU vs. UTEP. The Niners have no chance. Stormin Mormans have gotten better as the year has progressed. BYU 52- UTEP – 24

Humanitarian Bowl – Northern Illinois vs. Fresno State. Everyone is a Pat Hill believer, except me. NIU – 40 Fresno St – 17

R & L Carriers New Orleans Bowl. Troy vs. Ohio. The Fighting Frank Solich’s are way overmatched against the high speed attack of the REAL Trojans. Troy. 48- Ohio – 21.

You may have noticed I picked all of these dead on the money. That is because I am a freaking genius when it comes to picking bowl games that have already been played. Coincidentally, I really did have all three of these games picked in my ESPN Bowl Mania Pool, so I don’t care if you throw me under the bus, I have points on the board!

December 21

Beef O Brady’s St Petersburg Bowl – Louisville vs. Southern Mississippi – Huh? The strangest name for a bowl game. I would pass this one up as a University President based on the name alone. So Miss – 24- Louisville – 20

December 22- MAACO Bowl – Las Vegas – Utah vs. Boise St. Wow talk about a blowout in the making. Boise St 63- Utah 21.

December 23

San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl. San Diego St vs Navy. Man, that credit union must be charging some freaking outlandish fees to their customers to be able to sponsor a bowl game. Maybe that is why they matched up the local team against the local fleet parked in the ocean. I will take the Middies! Navy 31- SDSU – 28

December 24

Sheraton Hawaii Bowl. Tulsa vs Hawaii – The Rainbow Warriors make like their 48th appearance in their home bowl game. But it will be enough for Jet Lagged Tulsa. Hawaii – 35- Tulsa 21

December 26

Little Caesars Pizza Bowl. Toledo vs Florida International. When in doubt take the home team here. Toledo is much closer than FIU to Detroit. Toledo – 28- FIU – 21

December 27

AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl. Georgia Tech vs. Air Force. Two things of interest here. 1) I guess they will let anyone sponsor a bowl game and 2) this will set a record for fewest passes ever thrown in a bowl game. AF – 28- GT 27

December 28

Champs Sports Bowl – North Carolina State vs. West Virginia. The Mountaineers are superior if the coaching is right. They lose way to many games in my opinion due to bad coaching decisions. But hey they have had three weeks so we will give them the nod. West Va – 28 – NCSU – 20

Insight Bowl – Missouri vs. Iowa – since Iowa students are starting pharmacies and all drinking in their spare time, they have lost good players to this game. The most overrated coach in the Big X against the worst coach in the Big XII that went to a bowl game this year. Tigers – 21- Squawkeyes – 14

December 29

Military Bowl – Maryland vs. East Carolina – Since the Terps canned their coach they will send him out a winner. Maryland – 21 East Carolina – 10

Texas Bowl – Illinois vs. Baylor – Art Briles goes bowling and comes home a winner. I love Robert Griffin III. No really I do love him. Baylor 42- Illinois – 21

Valero Alamo Bowl – Oklahoma State vs. Arizona. Why does Arizona get so much publicity. They got shut out last year in the bowl game, this year they will get blown out. Okie State – 49- AZ – 28

December 30

Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl – SMU vs. Army. Nothing makes me want to go out and buy a helicopter like watching a bowl game. June Jones for Heisman! SMU – 31- Army – 10

New Era Pinstripe Bowl – Syracuse vs. Kansas State. Snyder “the rat” is golden with extra time. Cats find a way to get er done. Mildcats 28- Syracuse 17

Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl. North Carolina vs. Tennessee – Nothing says “Nashville” to me like Franklin American Mortgage Company. NC – 17 – Tennessee – 16

Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl. – Washington vs. Nebraska – worst match up of the season. Not even rabid husker fans want to see this one again. Huskers 28 – Washington 14

December 31

Meineke Car Care Bowl – Clemson vs. South Florida – Daaaaaaa Bullls , Da Bulls, Da Bulls, Da Bulls. SF – 21- Clem – 20

Hyundai Sun Bowl – Notre Dame – Vs. Miami – Hurrigangsters way to athletic for the crew from South Bend. Gangsters – 31- ND – 17

AutoZone Liberty Bowl. – Central Florida vs. Georgia – Georgia was dead in the water early in the year. This is late in the year. GA – 24- Cent Fla – 17

Chick-fil-A Bowl – Florida State vs. South Carolina – Gimmie the Ol Ball Coach! South Carolina – 21- Florida State – 17

January 1

TicketCity Bowl – Northwestern vs. Texas Tech – No Persa = No chance for the Wildcats. TT- 35- NW – 21

Outback Bowl – Penn St vs. Florida – Do you really think Urb is going to lose his last game…well we think it is his last game but we also through Brett Favre was retiring a couple times ago too…..FLA – 28- Penn St – 24

Capital One Bowl – Michigan State vs. Alabama – What’s in your wallet? The TIDE! Bama 35- Mich St 10

Konica Minolta Gator Bowl. Michigan vs. Mississippi State – Nothing says happiness like copy machine reptiles. Michigan rolls. Wolverines – 28- Miss St – 20

Rose Bowl presented by Citi. Wisconsin vs. TCU. Since the Rose Bowl won’t allow sponsors they have it “presented by Citi”……whatever. Wisco rolls, blah blah blah….Cheeseheads 52- Frogs – 21

Tostitos Fiesta Bowl – Oklahoma vs. UCONN – other than Nebraska game this one will have about 2 more viewers…boooorrrrrrring. Oklahoma 49 – UCONN 3

January 3

Orange Bowl – Virginia Tech vs. Stanford. Andrew Luck for…well leaving early. Stan – 24- Va Tech 21

January 4

Allstate Sugar Bowl – Arkansas vs. thu ohio state. Ryan Mallet thinks he is back in the Big X again for a day and still ticked off at thuh ohio state since he used to play for Michigan. Ark – 21- thuh ohio state – 17

January 6

GoDaddy.com Bowl – Miami – OH vs. Middle Tennessee State. No one will tune in unless Danica Patrick is the halftime entertainment. Miami – 42- Midtenst – 21

January 7

AT&T Cotton Bowl. Texas A&M vs LSU – somehow the Cotton Bowl thinks moving their bowl game later makes it more appealing….ummmm it doesn’t. LSU – 14- A& M 12.

January 8

Birmingham Bowl – Pittsburgh vs. Kentucky – Wannestadt is gone, Pitt plays ticked off. Pitt 35 – Kentucky 14

January 9

Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl – Boston College vs. Nevada. Colin Kaepernick for Heisman! Wait they already voted on that…oh well. Nevada 35- BC – 20

January 10

Tostitos BCS National Championship Game – Auburn vs. Oregon. Everyone predicts a high scoring game but me. Auburn 9 – Ore 7

Officially I am on vacation until next year. Reality is that I will be going into my office at least two mornings this week to make sure deliveries are made and plans for next year are complete. With the actual time I will have off before Christmas, I will be attempting to spread Christmas Cheer. The best way that I know to do that is through charity.

Charity comes in many forms. I will be donating to various causes with new clothes and toys and food. I will be donating usable items that my family does not use or need any more to various organizations (Good Will, St. Vincent DePaul, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled Veterans, to name just a few – yes I do have that much stuff to give away as I have two kids in college and one in high school). I will be making monetary donations all around town (Salvation Army is the most visible). I will also be making cookies for my office, the office my wife works at, a couple of schools, my boy scout troop and a couple of churches.

The great thing about charity is that it makes you feel much better than the actual cost of anything you give away and charity can be in the form of volunteering (through your church, synagogue or mosque or through an organization like the United Way) which costs nothing but time.

Now, I give away most of the cookies I make for two reasons, actually. I really enjoy making them, but as many of you have seen from my other articles, I have trouble keeping my weight under control. So in being charitable, I also protect myself from myself.

The great thing about charity is that it makes you feel much better than the actual cost of anything you give away and charity can be in the form of volunteering (through your church, synagogue or mosque or through and organization like the United Way) which costs nothing but time.

To keep myself organized this year, I compiled the recipes of my favorite recipes. Most of these recipes have been modified over time to meet the taste preferences of my family (such as substituting crushed graham crackers for nut coatings since my sister has a nut allergy). I am providing a copy of that compilation (it is only 6 pages and 11 recipes) to Kosmo to distribute to any of our readers who want it. I encourage you to keep writing, be charitable and spread the calories.

Download Martin’s cookie recipes (PDF)

Things have been busy lately in the world of Kosmo.  Barring a complete collapse in the second half of the month (which is possible, with Christmas pulling people away from their computers) we should set a new record in page views for the fourth consecutive month.  We’re not seeing a million visitors per month, but we’re seeing solid growth, particularly from search engine traffic.  The Soap Boxers has always been the flagship offering of Hyrax Publications, and this will continue in the future.

I have also launched a consulting business, Sparks By Kosmo.  The thought was that up-and-coming bloggers would take advantage of the service to get some new ideas for their site.  However, at this point, the main interest seems to be coming from established bloggers looking to iron out the last few wrinkles.  We’ll be unveiling new packages geared toward these different sets of customers in January.  And perhaps we’ll also unveil a new member of the Sparks team at that point?  While The Soap Boxers is the flagship of Hyrax Publications, Sparks has the potential to actually pay some bills.

We’ll also be launching an eBook project in January.  This isn’t me just announcing a new eBook or audio book for sale in the Hyrax Publications store.  This will actually be a collaborative effort involving up to 100 individual authors.  I’ll be looking to include some of you in this project.  Keep your eyes open for more details in January, with publication slated for late spring or early summer.  Some of you are already aware of this effort and have signed on to become contributors.

Hyrax Publications will also be getting into the business of selling printed books in 2011.  The first two books are written by a self-published author on an interesting niche topic.  Putting her books for sale in the Hyrax Publications store will allow her to reach a potentially worldwide audience without having to build out any infrastructure.  If this experiment proves successful, we may opt to work with other authors later in the year.

My novel, unfortunately, has been pushed to the back burner a bit.  My New Year’s resolution for 2011 will be to get some traction on it.  Given the free time, I think I could hammer out the first hundred pages fairly quickly.

Several days ago, I received notification that I was NOT the winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Award contest.  This wasn’t a big shock, since the contest attracted 400+ writers.

And in the category of “things you didn’t notice and really don’t care about,” my business name has changed from Hyrax Publications to Hyrax Publications, LLC.

Free agent pitcher Cliff Lee signed a 5 year deal with the Philadelphia Phillies that will pay him $120 million.  Evan was so excited about the news that he temporarily forgot what Evernote was.  There are plenty of theories about why Lee preferred to sign with the Phillies instead of the Yankees.  Some say that Lee and his wife really enjoyed the city of Philadelphia, while others suggested that he preferred to stay in the National League.  The real reason is pretty obvious.  The Indians, Rangers, and Phillies all use the color red in their logo.  The Yankees do not.  Clifford the Big Red Dog, anyone?

The Boston Red Sox continue to put the screws to the Bronx Bombers.  After adding first baseman Adrian Gonzalez via trade, they nabbed outfield Carl Crawford as a free agent.  It’s a double word score for the Sox, as they not only add a big gun to use in their war against the Yankees, but also weaken their other division rivals, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Hall of Fame pitcher and Iowa native Bob Feller passed away at the age of 92.  Feller was the dominant ace of his day, hurling a fastball that topped out above 100 mph.  It will never be known exactly how fast Rapid Robert could toss the old cowhide, due to the fact that speed gauging technology was in its infancy during his prime.  Feller missed all of the 1942, 1943, and 1944 seasons and started just 9 games in 1945 due to his service in World War II.  Feller won 76 games in the threee years prior to 1942 – it’s not a stretch to assume that the 3.75 seasons he lost to the war may have netted him 95 wins, pushing his career total to 350+.  However, this is a common situation for players of the era (Ted Williams lost time to World War II and the Korean War) and if if and buts were candy and nuts, we’d all have a merry Christmas.  Feller made his debut with the Indians at the tender age of 17 (he went 5-3 with a 3.34 ERA that year).

Jerks all around the world are bristling at being compared to Jets strength and conditioning coach Sal Alosi.  During a punt in the game against the Miami, a player for the Dolphins ran out of bounds on his way downfield.  This is fairly common  – players do it to avoid being blocked in the field of play.  What is not common is to have someone stick their knee out to trip the player, as Alosi did.  Further investigation has also determined that Alosi told 5 inactive players to form a wall near the sideline to prevent the Miami players from going out of bounds.  Alosi has been suspended indefinitely, and I would not be surprised if he gets fired.

The leaked documents were strategically devastating for the military, as they contained detailed battle plans for the ongoing wars.  The enemy would easily be able to use this information to determine the general strategy the army intended to use in battle.

The leaked documents were also personally embarrassing for many individual members of the military, as they contained complete medical records for tens of thousands of soldiers.

The source of the leak might have been a secret forever – if not for one single document that was included.  It was an email between the owner of the site that published the documents and the apparent source of the documents – an email that outlined an agreement to leak the documents.  The email address that the source used was a throwaway Gmail account – but the source had felt compelled to sign the email with a nickname – the Camouflage Kangaroo.

General Paul Arnaud had assigned a team to delve into the leaked documents in hopes that someone might find a clue that would help identify the source of the documents.  He was stunned when his researcher show him a copy of the email.  General Paul Arnaud knew exactly who the Camouflage Kangaroo was.  For as long as he could remember, Colonel Ann Barron had named her fantasy football team The Camouflage Kangaroos.  He was shocked that his good friend could be a traitor to her country – and equally surprised that such a brilliant woman would be dumb enough to reuse a nickname when engaging in such activities.

Paul Arnaud was not convinced that Ann Barron was the source.  After all, a good number of people had participated in their football leagues during Ann’s time playing.  Perhaps one of them had simply used the name of the Camouflage Kangaroo in order to frame Colonel Barron.  Yes, this seemed like a much more plausible explanation.  Ann Barron was loyal to her country – she would never engage in espionage.

The general’s hopes were dashed when the investigation was complete.  A review of Ann Barron’s bank records showed a number of deposits from a foreign source – spread across a dozen accounts in seven states.  The way the deposits had been spread out suggested an attempt to circumvent mandatory reporting requirements for the banks.  The amount totaled $180,000.  The general was disappointed that Colonel Barron would betray her country for a relatively small amount of money.

Barron’s access logs were equally disturbing.  Over the past year, she had used her top secret clearance to access a massive number of files.  There was little doubt that Colonel Ann Barron had accessed confidential documents and turned them over to a third party.

Colonel Barron steadfastly denied the charges during her court martial.  However, the overwhelming evidence resulted in her being found guilty.  She was sentenced to death.

Colonel Ann Barron knew that she had been framed, but couldn’t prove it.  Thousands of miles away, someone else knew that she was innocent, and he could prove it.

Unfortunately for her, her son wasn’t inclined to aid in her defense.  Billy Barron had set the trap a year ago, when he installed a key logging program on his mother’s computer.  A few days later, he had passwords for a variety of military computer systems.  He made sure that some of the money was sent to inactive bank accounts that his mother had forgotten about.  The bulk of the money, however, was sent to an account in Switzerland.  After the execution, Billy planned to visit his money – and spend a few months skiing in the Alps.

His mother had always insisted that he would enlist in the Army when he turned 18.  Billy thought that spending his life as a rich playboy seemed like much more fun.