Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 181

The lost cause: environmental issues…

Activists often just protest and offer no solutions to fix the problems they’re protesting about. It’s a sign of the times, I suppose. During the era of the Vietnam War draft, we were willing to go to jail or flee to Canada for our beliefs that the war was unjust—that probably wasn’t a solution either, but it was more effective than simple protest. People of all races put their bodies where their mouths were too, just like in the civil rights movements. Thousands still work quietly behind the...

The GOP and the economy…

While people are picketing and protesting the government for drones, Snowden et al, Guantanamo, and so forth, blaming Obama for everything (would they rather have Putin?), it’s useful to step back and assess how the economy is going. First, the stock market seems to be volatile but generally healthy. Second, 162,000 jobs were added in July, bringing unemployment down to 7.4%. Third, companies are pulling back jobs previously outsourced overseas. Fourth, a Wall Street robber baron was finally...

George Alexander Louis…

I suppose it’s nice to have some good news for a change: new baby, mother’s fine, and millions of citizens of the British Commonwealth are delirious about their new royal parasite. You see, that’s what the British royals represent—a possibly benign but certainly useless parasitic infestation. In short, no one needs them!

Here’s the test of their usefulness: If the current Queen Lizzie, Prince Charlie, and Prince Willy abdicated right now, the British Commonwealth wouldn’t change at all with Pr...

Greed wins over compassion in the new GOP…

Rep. Peter King, self-proclaimed moderate and terrorism expert, recently announced that he was thinking about running for President for the GOP. Not that I like King in general, but he does have a point. The ultra-right, commonly known as the Tea Party and its sympathizers, has captured the Republican party and made the GOP a bad joke when running in contested elections—that is, any election outside of win-easy red state politics and gerrymandered GOP districts (King’s district is one of thos...

The Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum of Gotham?

We can laugh at crying evangelists who have strayed. We can even laugh at a president who can’t keep it in the pants. The Europeans, especially the Italians, are used to this, of course, but our laughter has to bubble up over our Puritan inhibitions here in the U.S. Traditionally, we don’t like our public officials to fool around—just ask Gary Hart. That’s why Weiner’s and Spitzer’s campaigns for office in New York City are over the top. Perhaps motivated by the election win of the North Caro...

Do an author’s political views make a difference?

Sci-fi writer Orson Scott Card is the new casualty in the cultural wars that roil across our country. For those readers who don’t know him, he is the author of Ender’s Game, now considered by many to be a sci-fi classic. It’s the story about a special boy who is trained to manage flotillas of starships in a war against ETs that are more hive-like than human. The movie is scheduled for release in November, and therein lies the problem: gay groups are calling for its boycott. Mr. Card, a Mormon...

News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #54…

#301: Name recognition at work…and play? If any author needs a demo of the power of name recognition, the latest J. K. Rowling gig provides it. Ms. Rowling, saying she wanted unbiased opinions on her new venture into detective stories, published The Cuckoo’s Calling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. Until last week, sales of the book were underwhelming. When it was announced who the real author is, sales took off, just in time to accompany the release of her last novel in paperback. Now b...

Are obstructionist policies the same as governing?

I promote term and age limits for our government officials in this blog. The most egregious offenders are Supreme Court Justices—anyone beyond seventy and/or more than twenty years in that court might as well be living on Mars insofar as their capability to relate to present day society is concerned. The Senate comes in second—same comments. The House—well, that’s another can of worms, maybe literally. The House—in particular, one sector in the House—is why nothing is done in Washinton.

Gerrym...

Review of E. F. Watkins’ Dark Music…

(E. F. Watkins, Dark Music, Amber Quill Press, 2013, 978-1611248944)

While this book might be considered more appropriate for winter reading—sitting by a crackling fire with spirits at hand as you become spooked by the author’s spirits—I read this after the Fourth and thoroughly enjoyed it. “What? Steve’s reading paranormal now?” you ask. It’s true that the last ghost story I can remember reading, and for the umpteenth time, was “A Christmas Carol,” just after I saw Patrick Stewart’s rendition...

The invisible man…

That’s what George Zimmerman must become. His paranoia will be a reality now. Rightly so. Rather than enter into topics of hot debate right up front, though, let me first focus on our gun culture and vigilantism.

It’s clear that a “neighborhood watch” of armed private citizens on patrol is a vigilante force. An ordinary man like Zimmerman is playing cop without the physical or sensitivity training of a cop. Whether it’s successful or not, most modern police forces make efforts not to racially...