Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 118
October 25, 2016
Puppets…
In the presidential debate last Wednesday, HRC accused Trump of being a puppet of Russia. His comeback lacked a few words. He said, “No, you’re the puppet.” He needed to add “…of special interests and Wall Street.” While we got rid of one dynasty, Clinton Inc. still remains, and it looks like they’ll take over the country for the special interests because HRC is indeed the puppet of the one-percenters. Moreover, you can’t call Trump a puppet of anyone but himself. In his flamboyant narcissism...
October 24, 2016
Those of us who had imagination circuits built can look i...
Those of us who had imagination circuits built can look in someone’s face and see stories there; to everyone else, a face will be just a face.—Kurt Vonnegut
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In libris libertas!
October 20, 2016
The cart and the horse…
I never could decipher the adage “Don’t put the cart before the horse” to my satisfaction. That frustration was partial motivation for writing “The Case of the Carriageless Horse,” Detective Castilblanco’s first case as a homicide detective—the story appears in the collection World Enough and Crime. The conundrum: Why would anyone want a horse if s/he didn’t already own a cart? Maybe the implication is that a horse has a lot more uses than just dragging a cart around? That’s true, but it begs...
October 19, 2016
Steve’s Shorts: Part Four of Five…
Russians
Copyright 2016, Steven M. Moore
Part Four of Five
Boris tapped on the VW passenger’s window. Jan rolled it down. “There are two detectives staking out your apartment. They’re so obvious even I could spot them. Here’s what we’re going to do.”
She got out and walked in the direction he had come from. He got in the VW and passed her. As he passed the patrol car, he slowed down and turned off his headlights. As he figured, that attracted the cops’ attention. He sped up and they pursued w...
October 18, 2016
Trade agreements: the good, the bad, and the ugly…
A serious moment occurred in the presidential debate on October 4 (there weren’t many). Ignoring the name-calling, insults, and non-productive finger-pointing, Trump could be considered the big winner for this one moment when he mentioned trade agreements. First, the encounter reinforced the perception that Hillary and Clinton Inc. are sleazebags. Not only did she deny calling TPP a gold standard for trade agreements (she did), she committed lies of omission by not pointing out that she came...
October 17, 2016
Monday words of wisdom…
Don’t join the book burners. Do not think you are going to conceal thoughts by concealing evidence that they ever existed.—Dwight D. Eisenhower
In libris libertas!
October 14, 2016
Movie Reviews #37…
Birth of a Nation. Nate Parker, dir. Whew! A powerful movie, although my reaction was on a par with Nat Turner’s after his first victim. The buildup to the gore is the powerful stuff as the Turner boy grows up in slavery and becomes a preacher for his fellow slaves. The whites cover a wide spectrum here, from faux sympathies for their victims to indifference to out-and-out evil SOBs. My only real complaint about the story beyond the normal Hollywood distortion of history—Turner had several ma...
October 13, 2016
News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #132…
Mom-and-pop bookstores. There was an interesting little article in the NY Times about how mom-and-pop bookstores are surviving through online sales. I have no idea where the Times reporters got their information (another mysterious person slipping them a brown envelope like the one containing Trump’s tax report?), but it just sounds wrong. Why would customers order online from a mom-and-pop when they have a greater inventory elsewhere? I’m guessing that the owners of the mom-and-pop are offer...
“Cultural appropriation” in writing…
Last month Lionel Shriver “belittled” the movement against cultural appropriation at the Brisbane Writers Festival in Australia (felt I had to add the last for the geographically challenged who don’t know where Brisbane is—not as bad as not knowing about Aleppo, but telling). I’ve never read anything by Shriver. I’ll have to confess, I’d never heard of Ms. Shriver, and she’s probably never heard of me. BUT I AGREE WITH HER…to a point. You might be already considering the movement she’s compla...
October 12, 2016
Steve’s Shorts: Russians, Part Three of Five…
Russians
Copyright 2016, Steven M. Moore
Part Three of Five
Once inside the houseboat, Jan and Boris went around closing blinds and shutters. He turned on the old TV set. He left her watching, found a liquor stash with a few bottles that weren’t empty—why keep the empty ones?—and poured generous servings into some heavy water glasses he had rinsed out. He joined her on the sofa and handed her a glass.
“I’m not twenty-one.” He shrugged. She took several swallows of the Canadian whiskey. “This...
