Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 199
June 21, 2012
News flash — just in: Beaver surges in popularity…
Today’s pop culture has a way of being tomorrow’s trivial pursuit. Does my title when spoken refer to an old sitcom or a misspelling of the name of the young man who drives tweenies crazy? Or, a new meat in your grocery store you’ll find next to the buffalo burger? Fiction writers today have to be knowledgeable about old and new culture—the trend is to mix them together. The modern author needs to recognize that not all readers will recognize the words he or she uses.
An added complication is...
June 19, 2012
Scalia’s brilliant broccoli blathering…
Papa Bush probably had no idea what Pandora’s box he opened when he chose pork rinds over broccoli. Now Justice Scalia has used the green vegetable in a derogatory sense again, in a more absurd and subtle manner. Here’s his brilliant legal argument: If the government can force people to buy health insurance, then it can force people to eat broccoli. Huh?
I understand logic and I know law schools are supposed to teach logic. P –> Q means not P .OR. Q. In other words, P –> Q is true if not P is...
June 15, 2012
News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #28…
#157: New! Look for Pop Two Antacids and Have Some Java. My new short story eBook anthology will be released exclusively on Amazon KDP Select. Free over this Fathers’ Day weekend—this Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. If you enjoyed NYPD detectives Chen and Castilblanco in The Midas Bomb and Angels Need Not Apply, you will enjoy these new cases starring the detective duo. And, if you were reluctant to buy the novels, this is a painless way to meet these two crack detectives! You will learn more a...
June 14, 2012
Running the country versus ideological posturing…
The House GOP members in general and Mr. Boehner in particular continue the ideological posturing that almost put the U.S. into loan default. Now they have voted to appeal a new tax on medical devices that is associated with Obamacare and designed to lower costs to the consumer (this vote means they’re keeping their promise to financially starve the new healthcare legislation). Since these jerks know that such bills won’t get past a Dem-dominated Senate, this is yet another case of ideologica...
June 13, 2012
Review of John Betcher’s The Exiled Element…
(John L. Betcher, The Exiled Element, Create Space, ISBN 978-1475180589)
The Exiled Element is the fourth book in the series that features ex-military intelligence officer James Becker (Beck), his ex-CIA crypto-analyst wife Elizabeth (Beth), and assorted friends. Beck is a lawyer in Red Wing, Minnesota. Nevertheless, considering the Becker couple’s background, even the uninitiated will guess that author John Betcher does not write legal thrillers. Every book in the “Element Series” is somehow...
June 12, 2012
Austerity wins in Wisconsin…is the U.S. next?
Ignoring media trumpets of doom (they might be trumpeting prematurely), Wisconsin certainly is a major victory for ultra-conservatives. Even Scott Walker’s election was a major victory for ultra-conservatives, as was Scott Brown’s in Massachusetts (hmm…two Scotts?). The state has shown how big money can buy elections in the U.S., made all the easier by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. Walker and the dark side of the force struck a blow for the evil Empire by outspending the Dems...
June 7, 2012
The vagaries of English…
Guetapens. Spelling this French-derived word that means ambush or trap made Snigdha Nandipati the winner of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. My beef: Each year thousands of kids win or lose spelling bee events with words that are NOT English. While it’s true that America is a melting pot and English is the most wanton and promiscuous of the world’s languages, the Scripps organizers should be ashamed of themselves, along with the organizers of every other spelling contest that try to trip up...
June 6, 2012
Review of Ben Coes’ The Last Refuge…
(Ben Coes, The Last Refuge, St. Martins, ISBN 978-1250007155)
Military adventure and thriller junkies will get their fixes and then some by this new book in Ben Coes’ Dewey Andreas series. Savor it. Enjoy the adrenalin rush. Following that, when you wake up at night worrying about reality versus fiction, be thankful you have real people like Dewey waging real-life battles against terrorism.
When ex-special forces member Dewey Andreas is asked what the greatest danger to America is, he replies,...
June 5, 2012
The deal between two devils…
I read with dismay recently that Amazon and New Jersey have struck a deal. It’s good that Amazon brings two of its distribution centers to the state—two new distribution centers anywhere means new jobs. It’s bad that Amazon was blackmailed by the state in general and our anti-Santa Claus, Governor Christie, in particular, to pay NJ sales tax. I don’t know if this means that everything bought from these distribution centers has NJ sales tax on it (that sounds illegal); or that Amazon will coll...
May 31, 2012
An interview with Sirena…
Author: [In a whisper, like an announcer at the U.S. Open] Today we meet Sirena, certainly the most unusual character in my sci-fi thriller Evil Agenda. The villain in that novel, Rupert Snyder, also known as Vladimir Kalinin, sponsored the research that produced her. Sirena is a mutant, the first in a projected line of super soldiers, especially built to overpower her opponents, whether using enhanced body armor or not. We find her coming onto the beach on her island in the Bahamas. [Normal...
