Left Behind/Headscratchers


 * Out of all the things that bug me about these books, this is fairly low on the list. However, having gotten back from the gym a little earlier I want to talk about the fact that Buck becomes exhausted after walking less than two miles. Some of you might not know how tired you would get if you walked two miles. I didn't know myself before I began exercising regularly. Anyway, most treadmills measure the distance you would have traveled if you were actually moving from Point A to Point B at X rate of speed for X amount of time, and the ones I've been using are no different. In a typical workout, I do the equivalent of jogging and walking a little more than a mile before I have to stop, and after that I still have enough energy left over to lift weights, so traveling a mile would not exactly have me on the verge of passing out from fatigue. If I decided to just walk at a leisurely pace and not exert myself too hard, I'm pretty sure I could walk twice that distance...and I'm pretty sure you could, too. I don't consider myself to be in exceptional shape or anything. I'd say I'm in average shape at best. I'm saying that Buck is in terrible shape, at least cardiovascular shape. Terrible, terrible, terrible.
 * My old job was at a restaurant that's about 2 miles from my home. On a couple of nice summer days, I walked home after working an eight hour shift that had had me on my feet all day. Sure, I was a bit tired afterward, but it was never like the epic journey of death described in the book. I've also been on hikes in Banff that were longer than two miles, over terrain that is a lot less forgiving than a New York sidewalk, and even those didn't have me anywhere near as exhausted as Buck was after his little adventure. Like you, I'm not some kind of uber-fit athlete, I just happen to not have the cardiovascular system of a 90-year-old. The problem in the book seems to be that the authors believe Manhattan is much, much larger than it actually is, though, rather than Buck's inability to handle a couple miles of walking. I'd like to imagine that they confused the size of the entire NYC metropolis with that of the Manhattan borough. And it's also really sad that I, a Canadian, apparently know more about New York's geography than these two American authors.
 * I'm a gamer, don't get that much exercise (I use the stairs instead of the elevators when I can) and spend most of my time indoors, but I've walked from the Reichstag to Checkpoint Charlie and then all over Berlin on a pretty hot summer day just fine. Another summer, I walked about two miles to my school, then took part in a musical production rehearsal, then walked back to my house and then felt exhausted.
 * Hell, I used to walk about a mile-and-a-half to school and then back again every day, from the second grade through High School. This was in Western N.C., so much of it was uphill (both ways, as a matter of fact, since I took a different route home). I've never been very physically fit, but the only time I ever broke down from exhaustion like Buck was the first time I walked there in mid-summer, when I was 8 years old, and even then I was mostly just trying to convince my mother to take the car instead. Apparently Buck Williams is less physically capable than an 8-year-old - and a chubby 8-year-old at that.
 * Two miles is nothing. I'm a bookworm who doesn't get much exercise and I walk way more than two miles to get to and from my classes each day without much trouble. The only things that get me to Buck's level of exhaustion are the hills and stairs. My university is known for having a ridiculous number of hills and stairs.


 * What happened to Russia after their inexplicable first strike on Israel failed? Did Israel retaliate? Did they go nuclear in response? I don't recall the book ever mentioning what happened to the country itself after its military was destroyed, nor was it clear whether their entire military was annihilated or merely the forces attacking Israel (Which, logically, could not have included their entire land army). Did the government survive the inevitable popular backlash over such a spectacular defeat? Evidently the State still exists in some form, since it is later mentioned in passing during various UN functions, but seriously - what did they do after attacking a sovereign country unannounced and failing catastrophically? Shrug awkwardly, announce "nichevo!" and stroll away? Surrender? Rebuild and attack again?
 * The same goes for Ethiopia, although I have difficulty imagining how many planes and long-range missiles they could possibly contribute in the first place, so their defeat would be much less remarkable.
 * The maneuvering between China and Russia after an event like that could make a book series of its own.


 * If Israel is part of the One World Government, why did Carpathia sign a peace treaty with the Israeli government? They're explicitly referred to as being subject to the OWG when Carpathia visits in Tribulation Force, and have been demilitarized with the rest of the planet. So how can they possible treat with Babylon as a sovereign nation state?
 * In the same vein, why are the Jews apparently exempt from the Enigma Babylon One World Faith? (If they aren't exempt, why did they get to build their own temple?)
 * Could it be in recognition of them handing over the miracle grow formula to Carpathia?