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The Peculiar Conundrum

By: Matt R. Erickson

The Peculiar Conundrum is a political allegory, substituting difficult legal concepts with rules of sports. In the fictional country of Aminica (the United Franchises of Aminica), General Managers (Senators) and Head Coaches (Representatives) ignore many of their constraints listed in the Compact (Constitution) and act with impunity. The Sports Commissioner (President) and Referees (Supreme Court Justices) likewise do as they please. The country founded upon sports freedom, where soccer is named as the Supreme Sport of the Land, gets transformed by open corruption into football played to the death, where back-room deals enrich sports politicians and We The People are oppressed. But one man, Brandon Crawford, with the help of his brothers, work tirelessly to understand the peculiar conundrum, the odd phenomenon, of members of Congress and federal officials seemingly acting contrary to founding principles with impunity, so we may finally end the methodical push toward absolute tyranny....

From the Back Cover: Envision for a moment, the following nonsensical sportscast: “Only seventeen seconds remain on the clock as we near the end of the sixth inning. The soccer ball is caught by Right End Tom King, only 9 yards from home plate. “To keep from being called for ‘Traveling,’ King dribbles the ball but still manages to get past the Goalie without being tackled. Moments later he slam-dunks the ball through the basket to score a touchdown and the Cattails win the game.” It wouldn’t take much of a sports enthusiast to realize something was strangely amiss with this “game,” as the rules and terms from soccer, baseball, basketball and football were all intermixed into one bewildering event. And, with millions of die-hard sports fans across America who intricately know every rule and regulation of their favored sport, there is about zero chance any huckster would succeed in passing this off as a legitimate game. But, replace the game with politics, law and government, and tragically the most sacred of our country’s founding legal and moral principles may be substituted by their polar opposites with nothing but the weak...

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