Eric E. Wright's Blog, page 48
April 15, 2011
My struggle to dump a book
Plague Ship by Clive CusslerMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
I'm a sucker for an entertaining, suspenseful book when I'm tired and want something to read for relaxation. And in spite of my frustration with other books by Cussler, I picked this one up cheap and started to read it. I got half way into it with my two selves battling over whether to continue. One self told me I had a moral responsibility to finish a book once I started it. The other self told me not to waste time. Dump it. Finally, I listened to the later.
The scenarios Cussler dreams up are bizarre and unbelievable. Worth dumping.
View all my reviews
March 3, 2011
How Environmentals miss the real villains
See Ezra Levant, Ethical Oil. The Case for Canada’s Oil Sands. Full of tightly knit arguments and uncontroversial facts, Levant slays the paper tiger thrown up by the anti-oil sands movement. By the end of the book that tiger lies bloodless and crushed.
Some of his points:
With the oil sands at our disposal is it ethically responsible to import oil from the host of countries run by brutal dicatorships who crush freedom—Sudan, Nigeria, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. While the companies exploiting the Alberta oil sands are subject to the scrutiny of a free public and because of that committed to an acceleration of technological innovations designed to reduce environmental harm.
Western companies operating in Canada and the US contribute an enormous amount to the government through taxes, and to the private sector through salaries and purchases. Stop the oil sands and immediately throw thousands out of work; many from provinces where unemployment is high. In the other countries, little profit trickles down to private individuals.
The environmental charges against oil sands companies shrink in the light of the pollution being caused in Mexico and Nigeria by flaring natural gas, in China through coal. Fires deep in coal mines in China contribute an enormous amount to global warming. Cars contribute more…etc., etc. Why doesn’t Greenpeace and their ilk target Saudi Arabia, China, etc.? Because they can’t Western countries are soft countries. They hounded Talisman out of Sudan, despite their outstanding contributions to schools, etc. leaving Sudan open to more rapacious exploiters.
Companies involved in ethical investing who pretend to challenge the Oil Sands, actually are hypocritically deeply invested in all the companies and in coal, etc.
Detractors use flawed measuring instruments and wildly idealistic views in evaluating the Oil Sands. “The real test of ethical oil is not in comparing oil sands oil to some imposible, ideal standard but comparing it to its real competition. Actually (p. 109) “the oil sands are more environmentally progressive and emit less waste than all sorts of other common industries in Canada and around the world. In just nineteen years, from 1990 to 2009, the intensity of greenhouse gases (GHGs0 from the oi sands has plummeted by 38 per cent.”
An impressive and well-nigh irrefutable argument.
View all my reviews
Some of his points:
With the oil sands at our disposal is it ethically responsible to import oil from the host of countries run by brutal dicatorships who crush freedom—Sudan, Nigeria, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. While the companies exploiting the Alberta oil sands are subject to the scrutiny of a free public and because of that committed to an acceleration of technological innovations designed to reduce environmental harm.
Western companies operating in Canada and the US contribute an enormous amount to the government through taxes, and to the private sector through salaries and purchases. Stop the oil sands and immediately throw thousands out of work; many from provinces where unemployment is high. In the other countries, little profit trickles down to private individuals.
The environmental charges against oil sands companies shrink in the light of the pollution being caused in Mexico and Nigeria by flaring natural gas, in China through coal. Fires deep in coal mines in China contribute an enormous amount to global warming. Cars contribute more…etc., etc. Why doesn’t Greenpeace and their ilk target Saudi Arabia, China, etc.? Because they can’t Western countries are soft countries. They hounded Talisman out of Sudan, despite their outstanding contributions to schools, etc. leaving Sudan open to more rapacious exploiters.
Companies involved in ethical investing who pretend to challenge the Oil Sands, actually are hypocritically deeply invested in all the companies and in coal, etc.
Detractors use flawed measuring instruments and wildly idealistic views in evaluating the Oil Sands. “The real test of ethical oil is not in comparing oil sands oil to some imposible, ideal standard but comparing it to its real competition. Actually (p. 109) “the oil sands are more environmentally progressive and emit less waste than all sorts of other common industries in Canada and around the world. In just nineteen years, from 1990 to 2009, the intensity of greenhouse gases (GHGs0 from the oi sands has plummeted by 38 per cent.”
An impressive and well-nigh irrefutable argument.
View all my reviews
December 30, 2010
Understanding Afghanistan in Story
The morass that is Afghanistan seems beyond understanding—certainly to a western observer. This artificial collection of fierce tribes has swamped and destroyed armies down through the centuries: those of Genghiz Khan, the British, the Russians, and now Allied forces led by America. Will there be any honourable exit that leaves the country better off than it has been? Unlikely.
Leckie plunges us into a heroic story describing an attempt to forge an Afghan alliance in the dying days of the Soviet withdrawal. David Lassiter, war correspondent, after stints in Viet Nam and Cambodia that has left him on the brink of a nervous breakdown swears he will never again get involved in a country’s struggles. Then the Globalcom News Syndicate asks him to get an interview with a mercenary in Afghanistan who is none other than his brother Jesse whom he hasn’t seen for twenty years.
Haunted by memories of his berother’s kidnapping as a child from the very room where he slept he accepts. The book describes his trek through tribal territory to his brother’s haunt where he finds him addicted, married to a hauntingly beautiful Afghan woman, and guiding the Mujahadin in wreaking vengeance on the retreating Russians.
Globalcom’s head urges him to stay and head an elite multi-media team to record the dramatic events. David reluctantly stays and becomes emeshed in trying to save his brother from addiction and recording the skirmishes with Russians and their Afghan lackies. He becomes increasingly captured by the fierce allure of the land and its people and by his brother’s wife.
Leckie went to the places of which he writes and did impressive research on the languages, tribes and their customs. The book, in a setting only slightly diverse from today’s Afghan conflict, paints a vivid picture of the tribes and their endless conflicts as his brother Jesse seeks to weld them into a unified whole to avenge themselves on the Russians and govern a new Afghanistan.
The book is well written with a strong plot and vivid characters but perhaps one of its greatest strengths is in throwing light on the media’s fickleness, the intractibility of Afghanistan’s tribal conflicts, and very questionable manipulation by America through the use of arms.
Leckie plunges us into a heroic story describing an attempt to forge an Afghan alliance in the dying days of the Soviet withdrawal. David Lassiter, war correspondent, after stints in Viet Nam and Cambodia that has left him on the brink of a nervous breakdown swears he will never again get involved in a country’s struggles. Then the Globalcom News Syndicate asks him to get an interview with a mercenary in Afghanistan who is none other than his brother Jesse whom he hasn’t seen for twenty years.
Haunted by memories of his berother’s kidnapping as a child from the very room where he slept he accepts. The book describes his trek through tribal territory to his brother’s haunt where he finds him addicted, married to a hauntingly beautiful Afghan woman, and guiding the Mujahadin in wreaking vengeance on the retreating Russians.
Globalcom’s head urges him to stay and head an elite multi-media team to record the dramatic events. David reluctantly stays and becomes emeshed in trying to save his brother from addiction and recording the skirmishes with Russians and their Afghan lackies. He becomes increasingly captured by the fierce allure of the land and its people and by his brother’s wife.
Leckie went to the places of which he writes and did impressive research on the languages, tribes and their customs. The book, in a setting only slightly diverse from today’s Afghan conflict, paints a vivid picture of the tribes and their endless conflicts as his brother Jesse seeks to weld them into a unified whole to avenge themselves on the Russians and govern a new Afghanistan.
The book is well written with a strong plot and vivid characters but perhaps one of its greatest strengths is in throwing light on the media’s fickleness, the intractibility of Afghanistan’s tribal conflicts, and very questionable manipulation by America through the use of arms.
September 28, 2010
Best-seller banished to my cellar
Have you ever curled up in your favorite armchair with a coffee and a book you looked forward to spending some pleasant hours with only to be disappointed? That has happened to me—again and again—during the last month or so. And just when I needed to be caught up on the wings of a good story and taken to a pleasureable place.
The last couple of months have been a pain, literally. A bad toothache led to a visit to the dentist where he started on a root canal. But the pain didn’t let up. For the six weeks I seemed to be either taking pain-killers or anti-biotics. I’d wake up in the night in agony. Of course, the dentist couldn’t finish the root canal until the infection was cleared up. Finally, after three double courses of pills the decision was made to pull the tooth!
Anyway, I needed an escapist kind of book to sweep me along without a lot of concentration. Well, I chose a Tom Clancy tome—Teeth of the Tiger—sure it would fill the bill. But after three or four chapters I threw up my hands and threw down the book. The plot was clear, another world-wide conspiracy, but the characters were not clear. Have you noticed that fiction today is full of either conspiracy theories, supermen and women or consuming tragedy? Not only that, but many writers seem determined to confuse their readers as much as possible by switching voices and characters a number of times in every chapter?
To add insult to injury, Clancy filled up pages and pages with long paragraphs of description of the various characters’ backgrounds and tedious expositions about American spycraft and the agencies involved.
Okay, perhaps it was my state of health that made me lose patience with Clancy, or could it be that I’m just dumb? But shouldn’t stories flow and be relatively entertaining?
Sorry, Clancy buddy but sayonara. Never again. I’ve been fooled too many times.
The last couple of months have been a pain, literally. A bad toothache led to a visit to the dentist where he started on a root canal. But the pain didn’t let up. For the six weeks I seemed to be either taking pain-killers or anti-biotics. I’d wake up in the night in agony. Of course, the dentist couldn’t finish the root canal until the infection was cleared up. Finally, after three double courses of pills the decision was made to pull the tooth!
Anyway, I needed an escapist kind of book to sweep me along without a lot of concentration. Well, I chose a Tom Clancy tome—Teeth of the Tiger—sure it would fill the bill. But after three or four chapters I threw up my hands and threw down the book. The plot was clear, another world-wide conspiracy, but the characters were not clear. Have you noticed that fiction today is full of either conspiracy theories, supermen and women or consuming tragedy? Not only that, but many writers seem determined to confuse their readers as much as possible by switching voices and characters a number of times in every chapter?
To add insult to injury, Clancy filled up pages and pages with long paragraphs of description of the various characters’ backgrounds and tedious expositions about American spycraft and the agencies involved.
Okay, perhaps it was my state of health that made me lose patience with Clancy, or could it be that I’m just dumb? But shouldn’t stories flow and be relatively entertaining?
Sorry, Clancy buddy but sayonara. Never again. I’ve been fooled too many times.
August 30, 2010
Dealing with Dawkins and the New Atheists
John Blanchard in "Dealing With Dawkins" has done it again with this short, 90 page, gracious, point by point disagreement with Richard Dawkins the populist atheist. From his detailed work, "Does God Believe in Atheists' through his million best seller, "Ultimate Questions", Blanchard has an ability to deal with complex issues in clear, logical prose.
In this short volume he deals with Dawkins arrogant claims that people of faith are blind and ignorant bigots. From an atheist bigot talking about others? Blanchard never resorts to the kind of hyperbole often used by Dawkins, nor does he set up straw men to knock down, Dawkins' chief method. He quotes other atheist to throw doubt on Dawkins' claims that science has the answer to everything, that evolution determines morality, that religion is the root of all evil, that God does not exist, that the Bible is full of violence, inconsistencies and dangerous teaching.
While Dawkins equates belief in God on a par with belief in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy; psychiastrist Kathleen Jones says more accurately that "when we talk about our onw faith, we mean what we personally believe in as a result of using common sense, logic and experience. We do not mean superstition, wishful thinking, self-delusion." p. 80
A few quotes:
-Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of uncertainty( Richard Feynman, Nobel Prize-winning physicist).
-All scientific methods fail when questions of origins are involved (Wolfgang Pauli, Nobel winner for Physics).
-Universal love and the welfare of the species as a whole are concepts that do not make evolutionary sense (Richard Dawkins admission).
-Science can tell you if you add strychnine to someone's drink it will kill them. But science cannot tell you wheter it is morally right or wrong to pu7t strychnine into your grandmother's tea so that you can get your hands on her property. (Oxford prof, John Lennox)
In a careful and gracious way, Blanchard points out the flaws in Dawkins own belief system while underscoring the validity of faith in God, in the Bible, and in Jesus Christ. Highly recommended.
In this short volume he deals with Dawkins arrogant claims that people of faith are blind and ignorant bigots. From an atheist bigot talking about others? Blanchard never resorts to the kind of hyperbole often used by Dawkins, nor does he set up straw men to knock down, Dawkins' chief method. He quotes other atheist to throw doubt on Dawkins' claims that science has the answer to everything, that evolution determines morality, that religion is the root of all evil, that God does not exist, that the Bible is full of violence, inconsistencies and dangerous teaching.
While Dawkins equates belief in God on a par with belief in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy; psychiastrist Kathleen Jones says more accurately that "when we talk about our onw faith, we mean what we personally believe in as a result of using common sense, logic and experience. We do not mean superstition, wishful thinking, self-delusion." p. 80
A few quotes:
-Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of uncertainty( Richard Feynman, Nobel Prize-winning physicist).
-All scientific methods fail when questions of origins are involved (Wolfgang Pauli, Nobel winner for Physics).
-Universal love and the welfare of the species as a whole are concepts that do not make evolutionary sense (Richard Dawkins admission).
-Science can tell you if you add strychnine to someone's drink it will kill them. But science cannot tell you wheter it is morally right or wrong to pu7t strychnine into your grandmother's tea so that you can get your hands on her property. (Oxford prof, John Lennox)
In a careful and gracious way, Blanchard points out the flaws in Dawkins own belief system while underscoring the validity of faith in God, in the Bible, and in Jesus Christ. Highly recommended.
August 19, 2010
Should Writing Enlighten or confuse?
As a reader of many books and the writer of a few I have a complaint to make. In my understanding writers should write to enlighten and/or entertain. Admittedly, some subjects are complicated and require intense concentration to master. But even in technical writing, the goal must be to enlighten not obscure. Good writing should increase our understanding of a concept or a place or at least transport us to a place of pleasure and delight.
Take fiction, for example. In my view, using a multiplicity of obscure place names and diverse characters tends to clog up a good story. The aim should be to waft the reader along on the wings of prose in such a way that one is transported beyond oneself without continually being jerked out of the story by mystifying words. Slogging through a puzzling array of characters, acronyms, and unknown places tends to dissipate reading enjoyment. It can also limit the educational value of a work.
Let me illustrate my meaning from what is declared on the dust jacket to be, The Number One Bestseller. Not a but the.
Ian Rankin's Complaints tells the story of a police department called Complaints, where cops investigate other cops. Malcolm Fox, the main character, has a frail father and a sister in a compulsive relationship. While investigating a popular cop, his life spirals out of control. Then his sister’s abusive live-in is killed and a wealthy, but down-on-his-luck developer disappears in what seems to be a suicide. Are the two events connected?
It is hinted that the cop he is investigating has bought pictures from an internet porn ring out of Australia. Soon Fox doesn't know who to trust and he quickly becomes the target of an internal investigation. He is sent home to cool his heels.
The plot is intricate and the main characters well drawn, but why does Rankin include so many Scottish expressions, names of departments, and local place names that only a native of Edinburgh would understand? In my opinion—and it is only an opinion—this tendency made the book tedious to follow and dissipated much of the entertainment value to be found in a good mystery. True, after reading it I have a rather vague idea of the organization of the Scottish police and the city of Edinburgh. But then again, the plot still seems fuzzy to me.
Am I the only one who has problems with gratuitous acronyms, a multiplicity of exotic place names, and a multitude of characters?
Take fiction, for example. In my view, using a multiplicity of obscure place names and diverse characters tends to clog up a good story. The aim should be to waft the reader along on the wings of prose in such a way that one is transported beyond oneself without continually being jerked out of the story by mystifying words. Slogging through a puzzling array of characters, acronyms, and unknown places tends to dissipate reading enjoyment. It can also limit the educational value of a work.
Let me illustrate my meaning from what is declared on the dust jacket to be, The Number One Bestseller. Not a but the.
Ian Rankin's Complaints tells the story of a police department called Complaints, where cops investigate other cops. Malcolm Fox, the main character, has a frail father and a sister in a compulsive relationship. While investigating a popular cop, his life spirals out of control. Then his sister’s abusive live-in is killed and a wealthy, but down-on-his-luck developer disappears in what seems to be a suicide. Are the two events connected?
It is hinted that the cop he is investigating has bought pictures from an internet porn ring out of Australia. Soon Fox doesn't know who to trust and he quickly becomes the target of an internal investigation. He is sent home to cool his heels.
The plot is intricate and the main characters well drawn, but why does Rankin include so many Scottish expressions, names of departments, and local place names that only a native of Edinburgh would understand? In my opinion—and it is only an opinion—this tendency made the book tedious to follow and dissipated much of the entertainment value to be found in a good mystery. True, after reading it I have a rather vague idea of the organization of the Scottish police and the city of Edinburgh. But then again, the plot still seems fuzzy to me.
Am I the only one who has problems with gratuitous acronyms, a multiplicity of exotic place names, and a multitude of characters?
August 2, 2010
Politics Corrupting Humble Christian Faith
David Kuo in his book, Tempting Faith, describes in concrete modern terms why thoughtful western nation-builders have always insisted on the separation of church and state.
He describes his desire to use his Christian faith to end abortion, strenthen marriage and help the poor. He worked for John Ashcroft, Ralph Reed, Pat Robertson and Bob Dole. Ultimately he spent 3 years as second in command of President Bush's Office of Faith-Based and Commun ity Initiatives. He dreamed of fusing his faith and his politices. Bush, as a believer in Jesus, trumpeted compassionate conservatism. And yet the rhetoric never crystalized into action.
No matter how hard Kuo worked to help the Bush team get votes by scheduling conferences with faith leaders, the money never materialized.
Not only the Republicans but the Democrats promised much but delivered little or nothing. All was politics. Many of Bush's aids ever spoke of faith leaders with contempt, as pests. The attitude he discovered in Washington was totally political; blase, indifferent, inactive unless some political end could be served. He found Bush to be a believer in Jesus, a good man, but a very smart and shrewd politician concerned most about perception, less about doing good.
Disillusioned twice and faced with a terrible health crisis he left to take up bass fishing...then to write about his experiences. Sadly, nothing seems to change in Washington.
If you're a political junkie this book is for you. If you are a sincere Christian wanting to make a difference, this is also for you--a warning to avoid political involvement. The ultimate hope is not in politicians but in God...and as Christians we should serve him sincerely where we are. Power corrupts. The Christian faith is about humble service.
He describes his desire to use his Christian faith to end abortion, strenthen marriage and help the poor. He worked for John Ashcroft, Ralph Reed, Pat Robertson and Bob Dole. Ultimately he spent 3 years as second in command of President Bush's Office of Faith-Based and Commun ity Initiatives. He dreamed of fusing his faith and his politices. Bush, as a believer in Jesus, trumpeted compassionate conservatism. And yet the rhetoric never crystalized into action.
No matter how hard Kuo worked to help the Bush team get votes by scheduling conferences with faith leaders, the money never materialized.
Not only the Republicans but the Democrats promised much but delivered little or nothing. All was politics. Many of Bush's aids ever spoke of faith leaders with contempt, as pests. The attitude he discovered in Washington was totally political; blase, indifferent, inactive unless some political end could be served. He found Bush to be a believer in Jesus, a good man, but a very smart and shrewd politician concerned most about perception, less about doing good.
Disillusioned twice and faced with a terrible health crisis he left to take up bass fishing...then to write about his experiences. Sadly, nothing seems to change in Washington.
If you're a political junkie this book is for you. If you are a sincere Christian wanting to make a difference, this is also for you--a warning to avoid political involvement. The ultimate hope is not in politicians but in God...and as Christians we should serve him sincerely where we are. Power corrupts. The Christian faith is about humble service.
July 26, 2010
Techno Shuffle
Are there any other writers out there flummoxed by all the techno-digital stuff that we're supposed to master? According to the New York Times, a week ago Amazon sold 143 Kindle book for every 100 hardcover books. Astonishing. So I guess in spite of the fact that I love to curl up in an armchair with a good suspense novel cradled in my hand, as a writer I need to ride the wave. How I would love to ignore the digital revelation and retire to a cabin on a lake to just write and forget about all this marketing mumbo-jumble. On the other hand, at a lit fest recently, the point was made that this is a new day for the writer when he may become more independent of publishers and get better royalties.
My son even called last night to urge me to get all my books digitized (right word?) so I can offer them as e-books through multiple portals. And, most wonderful, to nudge me into the 21st century he bought me a Kindle which should arrive any day now.
Sigh, I've so much new stuff to master, I may have to stop writing. Eric E. Wright
My son even called last night to urge me to get all my books digitized (right word?) so I can offer them as e-books through multiple portals. And, most wonderful, to nudge me into the 21st century he bought me a Kindle which should arrive any day now.
Sigh, I've so much new stuff to master, I may have to stop writing. Eric E. Wright
