Esteem

Lincoln went for it
earnestly honed a lanky
charisma; losing but with
stories getting better and better.
Douglas! Thine enemy for taking
sides long and a new Republican
fiesta, stiff drinks, cut it apart and put it
back together, like a vacuum and a curious
ten year old. That's the recipe for Esteem,
Americano: a double espresso and four ounces
of hot conflict; never fails to get respect, the
legendary variety -- wait a moment, could this
then be a recipe, as they say, for disasters and 
war? An egotistical-industrial-military complex
that Eisenhower was too boring to turn to
mythical advantage (what's the half-life again?
how long is a hundred years?); should have built
that doomsday machine with the better water
filters (or just a lot of pure whiskey, you know
what it is Mandrake). Start your scheme,
watch it unfold, and you will have the highest regard
from the most number, in this zero sums game of Strife.