Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 163
September 15, 2014
Hispanic Month (Mes Hispanico)…
[Este mensaje se traduce abajo para todos mis amigos hispanicos.]
I should ask Google why it didn’t come up on today’s banner to remind me (they have young people there with better memories than mine), but this is the start of National Hispanic Heritage Month. Our celebration runs from today to October 15.
I say “our” because I love most things Hispanic—without being Hispanic. Food, music, and other aspects of the culture. Hispanic countries with their beautiful landscapes, lively and friendly...
September 11, 2014
Politics and immigration…
A longer title for this post might be “Politicians Unconcerned about Human Needs are Pandering to their Provincial Bases.” The GOP went after Obama for his announcement about acting on immigration reform via executive orders; now they’re accusing him of delaying for political reasons. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. On the other hand, Dems in red states, fearing a backlash from their right-leaning constituencies over any immigration vote, begged Obama to delay his actions. The po...
September 10, 2014
The Flying Dutchman…
[In case you haven’t noticed, this is the 30th anniversary of Ghostbusters, a classic bit of tomfoolery set in New York City. Here’s some tomfoolery that’s a wee bit more serious. It also happens far removed from NYC. Enjoy!]
The Flying Dutchman
Steven M. Moore
Copyright 2014
Call me cynical. Or, paranoid. I knew there was something wrong when I stepped aboard the Huang Cheng. It was a bit too clean, for one thing. Freighters carry freight. While medical supplies might be in pristine, sealed con...
September 9, 2014
When history bites you on the butt…
Recent history, let’s say 1950s on, hasn’t been kind to our stupid foreign policy mantra that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” especially in the Middle East. We created the Shah in Iran as a favor to the Brits, toppling a democratically elected regime there, and we’re still paying for it. We armed al Qaeda to fight the Russians in Afghanistan, and we’re still paying for it. We “saved” Iraq from Saddam Hussein, who, for all his faults, held all that country’s factions together. Dubya, Che...
September 5, 2014
News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #70…
Item: Looking for MJM? You’ve seen her diary entries. Now you’ll know Mary Jo’s entire story. Muddlin’ Through has just been released and is available on Amazon. (See below for more info.)
Item: Book bundles. Some authors are releasing ebooks chapter by chapter. Others are bundling several previous novels together in one ebook. What’s going on? What works? Do readers want this? I read an ebook recently that I thought was a full novel, but it turned out to be a novella. Dumb me! A reviewer warn...
September 4, 2014
Irish Stew #33…
Item: ISIS recruiting in U.S. While Mr. Obama muddles over his ISIS strategy (wheels of bureaucracy moving slow?), here’s one suggestion: Any American who joins a terrorist group should have their U.S. citizenship annulled, declared persona non grata in the U.S. (and preferably in Europe too), and put on the TSA watch list with cancelled passport number clearly indicated. While I have no compunctions about killing a U.S. citizen with a drone strike if he or she’s a terrorist (we’ve already do...
September 3, 2014
Movie Reviews#6…
Calvary. Irish pathos…great acting. Highly recommended. We have at least two interpretations of this one, a film where John Le Carre’s noir intensity meets Catholic Irish angst. Excellent and highly recommended, but not for the squeamish. It will become a classic.
Land Ho! Two old guys travel around Iceland. You have to fill in the blanks here—a lot isn’t shown or seen—but it’s a pleasant little trek albeit much ado about nothing. The irascible, old guys are lovable old curmudgeons, but it was...
September 2, 2014
Advertising in the internet age…
Recently the inventor of those pop-up ads apologized for creating them. I guess he finds them annoying too. Here’s my take: Many websites offer all kinds of “free services,” so they’ve decided to make money by convincing corporate advertisers that those pop-up ads, especially those targeted to a consumer’s interest, really are worth it. I guess that’s progress. We’ve progressed from the carnival quack screaming about his wondrous elixirs; to TV’s screaming used car salesmen (they’re invariabl...
August 28, 2014
Irish Stew #32…
Item: Bankers laughing all the way to the bank! Are you frustrated that no upper-echelon bankers have gone to jail? I am! We still maintain the “too big to fail policy” (I think I started blogging about that way back during the Bear-Stearns fiasco, i.e. even before the 2008-2009 economic implosion). It seems to have become the sacred cow. Bank of America is laughing about their sixteen-billion-dollar fine, planning to write most of it off as a tax loss, while none of their bigwigs will go to...
August 27, 2014
Cleo’s ASP…
[Note: In spite of my lists of what-ifs and other data I use to create stories for you, sometimes I just wake up in the middle of the night with a story idea. Who knows? I might eventually turn this one into a novella or novel, although it’s really short in its present form. Enjoy!]
Cleo’s ASP
Steven M. Moore
Copyright 2014
Dargon signed off from the remote feed to the planet’s huge satellite and faced his assistant.
“There’s evidence they made it to that huge moon, but, for some reason, after tha...
