Rant: The Oral History of Buster Casey

Phoebe Truffeau, Ph.D.: In rural China, the social stigma associated with leprosy prompted many of the infected to hide their condition. In response, the government offered a cash bounty to anyone who could report a leper, thus forcing the infected into treatment and eliminating the disease from the country.

In India, where a more democratic form of administration prevents such a program, cases of leprosy remain common.

The Emergency Health Powers Act simply enables the federal government to suspend all state and local powers, seize property, and quarantine populations in order to effectively deal with any infectious agent.

Hudson Baker: Amber saw getting infected as the ultimate commitment. Like her and the guy would be doomed to be with each other. Looking back, she figured a brush with death would make her really enjoy her life. Like she would feel more alive. Regular people would feel sorry for her, or some might be afraid or grossed out, but Amber just saw that all as added attention.

Amber said it would stop her from boosting peaks. She really wanted to live a real, alive life. I mean, it's really hard to explain.

From the Field Notes of Green Taylor Simms: The term «bogeyman» is derived from 'Boney,' the British derogatory nickname for Napoleon Bonaparte. Over time, the name evolved into «boneyman» and later 'bogeyman,' but it was always used as a threat by the British in order to keep their children obedient.

Hudson Baker: Amber and me, she wanted us to double-team Gregg Denney. That's the night I didn't get in his car. I let her go alone.

Phoebe Truffeau, Ph.D.: As was most likely the case with Buster Casey, an asymptomatic, infectious carrier tends to be immuno-compromised by a previous illness. For example, one massive superspreader of Coronavirus, commonly known as SARS, suffered from a pre-existing kidney condition which allowed the patient to incubate and transmit huge amounts of the virus.

Gregg Denney: Some bitch gets herself knocked up and says she wants to have my rabid baby. She wants to see, can she go all the way to a baby without curing her infection. I don't know what you're talking about.

Hudson Baker: Amber was always telling me, 'Rant Casey is the father of my rabies…' Like Amber met him and knew him and everything. Their love was, like, sealed with a kiss.

Gregg Denney: Maybe I put babies inside some daytime bitch, but, no, I never had the rabies for real. I only let on I was infected, to keep me in clean tail.

Hudson Baker: Amber was living with Gregg Denney by then. She expected her baby to be, like, part man, part animal. Like, one time she told me, 'I'm taking human evolution one giant step backward…'

Phoebe Truffeau, Ph.D.: As with the Rant serotype of the Lyssavirus, most modern epidemics have «jumped» from animals to human beings: SARS being a form of bovine Coronavirus, or cattle 'shipping fever'; Creutzfeld-Jakob disease being the human form of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or 'mad cow disease'; and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome most likely being derived from the simian immunodeficiency virus.

From the Field Notes of Green Taylor Simms: Once he'd died, or at least disappeared, Rant Casey became a very effective bogeyman for our government. Anytime the federal government needed to distract public attention from its own incompetence, the surgeon general simply announced a new development in the rabies epidemic, or the hunt for Rant, or both.

Neddy Nelson: Don't you see how there is no actual rabies epidemic? Can't you see how Rant Casey is just a political scapegoat? Do you really accept that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone? Or that James Earl Ray really was a 'lone gunman' when he assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? How about Sirhan Sirhan? Or John Wilkes Booth?

Do you really believe one man caused an entire nationwide rabies outbreak?

Gregg Denney: A bitch with her hormones exploding and some serious brain damage happening from the rabies, that sounds like nothing I'd want to hang around. Forget it. People I heard of can carry the spit around for years; could be she was one of those.

Phoebe Truffeau, Ph.D.: Other terms for superspreaders include «superinfectors» or 'supershedders.' Due to the deadly, invisible fog of saliva and mucous droplets that surround these infectious individuals, epidemiologists sometimes refer to them as 'cloud cases.'

Neddy Nelson: Doesn't it scare you that the Emergency Health Powers Act now preempts all legal rights of the individual?

Shot Dunyun: The way you lock up all your enemies without charging them with any crime, or providing lawyers, it's called a quarantine. Doctors are the new judge and jury. Disease is the new weapon of mass destruction.

Neddy Nelson: Why do you think every political radical gets «diagnosed» as rabid, then locked up until his inevitable death is announced? Don't you see how this is legalized assassination?

Hudson Baker: When I couldn't help it any longer, I called Mr. and Mrs. Nye and told them everything about Amber and the chewing-gum notes and Party Crashing, and they went and hired a detective.

Only, when they went to where Gregg Denney lived, Amber was gone.

Neddy Nelson: How can you say Rant Casey overreacted? How's an intelligent person supposed to react when he discovers that he's merely the product of a corrupt and evil system? How do you continue to live after you learn that your every breath, every dollar you pay in taxes, every baby you conceive and love will only perpetuate some evil system?

How do you live knowing your every cell and drop of blood are part of the big evil?

40–Final Connections

Wallace Boyer (Car Salesman): Right now, if you scratched your ear, I'd scratch my ear. If you cocked your head to one side, I'd cock my head—pacing you—selling you with eye contact and proof that I care.

I'd say, 'Look here' — another embedded command.

If you said, 'Time travel is impossible,' I'd bridge your objection, saying, 'Yes, many people claim it's