Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 186

The NRA is a good example…

…of what’s wrong with American government. Who makes the laws of the land? The lobbyists and special interests, that’s who! We don’t have single payer health insurance and universal health coverage because of the demands of health insurance and pharmaceutical companies and all the healthcare industry—AMA, hospitals, clinics, doctors, and nurses. Every special interest pressures Congress, the executive branch, and, increasingly, the judicial system, especially Wall Street and other corporate l...

Review of Bob Adamov’s Sandustee…

(Bob Adamov, Sandustee, ASIN:BOOBMZNCMU)

Here’s another great Indiana-Jones/Da-Vinci-Code-style adventure, and it’s arrived on my Kindle just when I thought I’d seen the last of them. Many readers still enjoy a good tale along these lines. I do too, if it’s done well. H. Rider Haggard could do it well. Dan Brown at least receives credit for reviving this adventure subgenre while managing to infuriate Catholic orthodoxy. Problems occur when readers, or authors, start taking these books too seri...

Reagan and Thatcher…

Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady and Prime Minister of Great Britain (1979-1990), is dead. Her conservative partner from the 80s, Ronald Reagan, the Gipper and U.S. President (1981-1989), is long gone. These two larger-than-life personalities tried to make the world safe for conservatives and failed. Many Republicans and some Democrats here in the U.S. still consider Reagan an icon. Similar ideological separations occur among Conservative and Labor party members across the pond. The two were...

News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #45…

#248: New ebooks for your enjoyment. Let’s start with my most recent release, The Golden Years of Virginia Morgan. Thriller and conspiracy lovers, take note. Women tired of vampire romances, take note. Baby boomers tired of watching ups and downs of their retirement funds, take note. This book is fast-paced entertainment that’s gripping and thought-provoking. What would you do if the U.S. government sponsored a retirement plan designed just for agents and other employees with early onset deme...

Poetry–the written or spoken word?

I have many friends who are avid…well, I’m not sure what to call them. On a long commute or a plane ride cross-country, they listen to a book. In other words, they purchase audio books instead of paperbacks or ebooks. If the reader for the audio book is a first-rate master of the spoken word and not like my sophomore English teacher, that’s a fine way to read a few books. In fact, it harkens back to the days before books when storytelling was a vocal tradition.

Poetry has more of a modern oral...

A constitutional conundrum…or just sloppy legal thinking?

Most days I’m thankful I’m not a lawyer. I’m not addressing those legal duties that involve helping people with their wills, estates, tax issues, births, deaths, etc. A lawyer can make a good living doing this, it’s a feel-good way to occupy your time (especially if you throw a few pro bono jobs in toward helping out people who can’t afford lawyers), and a service that most people need to survive in modern U.S. society at different times in their lives. I’m not addressing the legal duties of...

Congress…working hard…or hardly working?

At no time in polling history has Congress had such a low approval rating. As Mr. Obama’s poll numbers have waxed and waned, Congress’ have consistently been lower. Borrowing from a bit of history, the congressional sessions during Mr. Obama’s reign are appropriately labeled “the do-nothing Congress.” The members include some of the most ideologically stubborn, inept, and stupid people on the planet, the cream of the crop of failed lawyers and other riff-raff who can’t do anything more than b...

An interview/review for 7 Lessons on Irish Whiskey…

(7 Lessons On Irish Whiskey, 27Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0-9887705-2-2)

I don’t usually write about commercial products, but what 27Press offers is more services than products. Moreover, one needs to take a break from the seriousness of this blog’s op-eds from time to time. Not that Irish whiskey isn’t serious…it’s serious fun to be had, although only legal fun for those over twenty-one. If you’re under twenty-one, keep on reading, but don’t imbibe until you’ve reached that ripe old age. (That end...

The GOP’s future…

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews and other progressive pundits have made much ado about the rift between the political bosses and the ideologues in the GOP. The first group, led by Karl Rove and financed by people like the Koch brothers, just want power, and that means the GOP must bend a little to win elections. The second group, if it weren’t for their radical positions, is comprised of admirable individuals who stubbornly stick by their Tea Party ideology of small government without entitlements and...

Women as objects…

As a writer, I try to imagine what goes on in my characters’ minds, even the more violent ones. I come to conclusions at times, partly based on observation, and some can make me uncomfortable. Here’s an example: I think there’s a common thread connecting an arrogant misogynist to a serial rapist and killer. This common thread is treating women as objects.

Historically, of course, treating women as objects was the same thing as treating them as property. Our nation started with neither women no...