Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 154
April 2, 2015
Italians aren’t unique…
Italy is known for its change of governments, corruption, dalliances among public officials, unions abusing public trust, and ties to organized crime. Is it any wonder the justice system is completely dysfunctional? It isn’t alone, of course. France and Spain and many Latin American “democracies” suffer equally from incompetence and corruption. I’ve written about Argentina in these pages—their President was just exonerated from killing a special prosecutor on the eve of announcing an indictme...
March 31, 2015
Airline safety…
How do you detect and thwart a deranged killer? Except for close family and friends, I have no problem when someone, desperate, anguished, and out of his or her mind, commits suicide. Yes, it’s sad they couldn’t get some help (maybe they tried). In the new Chen and Castilblanco mystery, Family Affairs (going well, by the way), Sgt. C takes time from his niece’s case, where he’s moonlighting, to work on the detective duo’s caseload. He proves a man who was allegedly pushed in front of a subway...
March 27, 2015
News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #84…
Item: Two new ebooks worth checking out. Recently I reviewed Ellie O’Neill’s Reluctantly Charmed on Bookpleasures (my shortened review of the same ebook is on Amazon). This is from Simon and Schuster’s Touchstone imprint; it’s a delightful mystery, fantasy, and romance that was released on St. Paddy’s day. For all lovers of Irish folklore, to be sure. Also, sometime ago I reviewed Jay Kinney’s The Masonic Myth from Harper Collins (yeah, I read non-fiction too). I’ve recently had opportunity t...
March 26, 2015
Iran, Israel, and ISIS…
The Middle East is complicated. Friends and enemies don’t seem to mean much. We find duplicity in “friends” like Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey; we have capricious and malicious behavior in old “enemies” like Iran and Syria. Will Hassad be part of the solution for the Syrian conflict? Will Pakistan ever drive out the Taliban? Will Afghanistan ever get beyond the corrupting influence of the opium poppy? Will Jordan survive? Will Palestine ever be a state?
Some of the problems stem fro...
March 24, 2015
A Schock-ing performance…
I guess I’m one of the haters Aaron Schock (ex-GOP representative of the 18th Illinois congressional district, representing Peoria and part of Springfield) talked about when showing off his Downton Abbey-like remodeling of his congressional office. While he’s become the poster-boy (or should I say cover model?) for the new GOP sociopaths on Capitol Hill, he’s the tip of the Republican iceberg, that new GOP majority of icemen and women who want to freeze the middle class and the poor out of al...
March 20, 2015
Movie Reviews #12…
Focus. Will Smith and Margot Robbie star in this story about a con-man training a con-woman. There are some fun moments in New Orleans when the scam-jam takes place, and Smith’s character even surprises the con-woman (and me as well). The whole thing is a bit unrealistic, though, especially the ending, a twist gone wrong. Newcomer Robbie, an Aussie, is a good foil for the rapidly aging Smith, but she’s a failure as a con-woman, never graduating beyond stealing watches. Really a mixed bag, in...
March 19, 2015
The anti-science troglodytes…
As a writer, I love words. Sometimes I love a particular word because it’s mysterious. “Eldritch” is an example. You can understand its meaning from context when you combine it with “light”—it just looks spooky and sinister. Because English is spoken in so many places, an author can give local color to his prose by choosing particular words (often not consciously). I love the sound of “scarpered”—it just sounds like someone in a hurry to leave town. When my beta-reader knew what it meant but...
March 18, 2015
Irish Stew #37…
[Note from Steve: Maybe the timing of this seems off…consider it corn beef and cabbage leftovers….]
Item: The new traitors. I’m not going to pussyfoot around this issue. While I abhor the general tone of New York’s leading rag, The Daily News, I’ll agree with its recent headline: the forty-seven (47) senators (nearly the entire GOP majority) are the new traitors in America. Arrogant, egotistical, and uncouth, they have trampled on the U. S. Constitution, period. I quote Article II, Section 2,...
March 17, 2015
Financing our schools and standardized testing…
Happy St. Paddy’s Day…Enjoy your Guinness and Jameson! But Do It Safely, Please….
Common Core seems to be a polarizing addition to the educational scene. I don’t know about your section of the country, but here in the tri-state (Connecticut-New Jersey-New York) area, we are lambasted with ads directed at presumably evil politicians who have it in for the educational systems. Never mind that the politicians are between rocks and hard places—parents, teachers, and students ranting about educati...
March 13, 2015
News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #83…
Don’t let any black cats cross your path today…adopt one from a shelter (unless you’re allergic, of course). Watch for ladders too….
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