Marty Essen's Blog, page 288

Who is the evil genius?

Every arch-criminal organization has an evil genius, but finding one in the Trump Administration is difficult:

Donald Trump: Evil, but too incompetent to out-perform a lab rat in a simple test.

Mike Pence: Evil yes, but how smart do you have to be when after each dastardly deed you simply say, “Jesus personally told me to do it,” and your cultist followers enthusiastically nod in agreement.

Rudy Giuliani: As evil as they come, but as Wednesday’s Fox News interview proved, he’s also as stupid as they come.

Scott Pruitt: Evil enough to poison paradise for corporate profits, yet smart enough to get taxpayers to pay for installing a Cone of Silence in his office.

Okay, I’m declaring EPA Chief Scott Pruitt the Trump Administration’s official evil genius. Oh, God! As I’m typing this, he’s dumping arsenic into a mother’s well, “on principle,” because she had the audacity to tell her son to clean his room!

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The successful crossing

Marty’s photo of the day #2530: I rarely post photos of the same animals on successive days, but so many people liked yesterday’s photo of the baby bison crossing the river with their mother that I’m following up with this image, captured after they successfully reached the other side.

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Crossing the river

Marty’s photo of the day #2529: “Mom! Mom! This isn’t a good idea. The river is really deep!”

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You can’t tell me that priest isn’t . . .

Marty’s photo of the day #2528: You’re looking at a section of art on the side of a church in Spain. And you can’t tell me that some of the priests aren’t checking out the boy’s ass!

Spanish churches are amazing, but they also demonstrate the political aspect of religion that puts money and power above all else. The below commentary is from my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents:

Roman Catholicism became Spain’s established religion in the sixth century, and it remained that way (except for a brief period) until 1978, when the country’s new constitution declared an end to state religion. The Catholic Church’s long history of wealth and power was on display wherever I looked. Whether it was a store selling silver scepters, golden chalices, and precious metal accessories for the well-dressed priest or the extreme opulence in the cathedrals, all the gold and silver I’d seen in my life up to that point would be a mere speck compared to what I saw in a single afternoon in Madrid.

I felt uneasy walking through churches as if they were art galleries, but no one seemed to mind, and plenty of other people were doing the same thing. I just had to concentrate on keeping my mouth shut. Several times I repressed the urge to shout out, “Wow! Deb, come over here. You’ve got to see this!”

Many of the churches had massive pillars, soaring arches, beautiful gold-framed antique paintings, colorful stained-glass domes inlaid with  gold, huge gold and silver pipe organs, and elaborate stations where you could drop in coins to light electric candles. Even the doors, most with intricate three-dimensional artwork, were remarkable sights. Imagine the good the churches could of done if they had invested their money into helping the poor instead of decorating their buildings.

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The Tweeter

Marty’s photo of the day #2528: When I was in Spain, I photographed lots of old churches. They were really quite interesting, and many of the ornamentations seemed quite unusual for religious buildings. Looking at this one now, it seems rather prophetic. I call it “The Tweeter.”


 


Did the Spaniards predict Crybaby Trump tweeting on the toilet because he was too chicken to attend The White House Correspondents’ Dinner, and then had his feelings hurt because Michelle Wolf—a woman!—treated him like he treats those who don’t continually stroke his insecure, pee-soaked, ethically bankrupt ego?

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Whipsnake

Marty’s photo of the day #2527: I photographed this whipsnake in the Amazon Rainforest of Peru. I had to be quick to capture this photo, because it was doing an admirable job of defending itself.

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Pelican in blue

Marty’s photo of the day #2526: It’s artsy photo day. This is a brown pelican that I photographed over the Sea of Cortez. The bird was in focus, but the sun washed out much of the scene. So I darkened the photo and increased the vibrancy while boosting the blues that were already there. Because different species are sensitive to different color spectrums, perhaps some animal would actually see the scene this way without computerized help.

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Bigotry in the book promotion industry

I expect bigotry from conservative Christians and from the Republican Party, but I have to say that I’m surprised by the bigotry I’ve witnessed in the book promotion business. Books reach the top of the charts in three ways: the author is already a celebrity, everything goes right and the author gets a big publishing deal with a big advertising budget, or the author works his/her ass off and succeeds against the odds.

My latest book, “Time Is Irreverent,” has climbed the charts because I’ve been working my ass off to succeed against the odds. Part of that work includes running specials and advertising them via book promotion sites. I’ve done this with my previous books, but a big difference with my latest is that one of my main characters is Nellie Dixon, an outrageous, snarky, confident lesbian. Because of her, my book has become an Amazon #1 Best Seller in LGBT Science Fiction in both the United States and Canada.

Even so, while placing my ads, one book site, eBook Discovery, refused to run my ad, claiming they didn’t have a large enough LGBT following, and another, the Book Cave, ran my ad but felt it necessary to warn people that my book had prominent gay/lesbian characters.

In the latter, shouldn’t the Book Cave instead have warned about the actual villains in “Time Is Irreverent”? In 2056 theocracy-ruled America, religion, conservatism, and those who enforced those beliefs were the ones to watch out for, not a feisty lesbian who simply wanted the freedom to be herself without getting thrown into jail.

“Time Is Irreverent” projects 2056 as a time of conservative extremism. Here in 2018, life isn’t quite as backward as it will be in 2056, if conservatives get their way. Nevertheless, I’m shocked to live in a country where gays and lesbians are so scary that some still think they need a warning label.

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In-flight; in-focus

Marty’s photo of the day #2525: I always enjoy the victory when I get an in-flight photo in focus. This is a great blue heron.

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Borneo walking stick

Marty’s photo of the day #2524: Borneo is an island of walking sticks. Here’s one of the many I found while night-hiking there.

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