Victor D. López's Blog: Victor D. Lopez, page 79

Audio Preview of My Mindscapes Short Story Collection

For a preview of my new speculative fiction short story collection, please click on the audiobook cover above (or here)  and then click on the “play audio sample” icon underneath the book cover. The preview, read by Dale M. Wilcox, is from the short story “Earth Mother” one of ten short stories in this collection.

For more information about the stories in this collection and the paperback and eBook versions of the book, as well as an extended preview of the short story “Eternal Quest”, you can visit the book’s page at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other leading retailers.

Although the audiobook is read and produced by Dale M. Wilcox, I enjoyed creating a simple book trailer for the book that features my reading of the entire short story “Justice” — the shortest story in the collection. You can view that book trailer here.  For anyone interested in other free previews from this collection, I’m making the two shortest stories in the book, “Justice” and “The Riddle of the Sphinx: Solved” available free of charge in versions for all popular eBook readers (and computers) through Smashwords here.

On writing — My answers to Goodreads questions

See my answers to Goodreads.com questions about writing here: https://www.goodreads.com/author/774657.Victor_D_Lopez/questions

Illegal Immigration: The Ongoing Debate

In 2013 I published a paper in an international peer-reviewed journal, “Dealing with Uninvited and Unwelcomed Guests: a Survey of Current State Legislative Efforts to Control Illegal Immigration Within Their Borders” (Int. J. Public Law and Policy, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2013). At the time, the U.S. Supreme Court had not yet weighed in on the Constitutionality of state efforts to enforce federal immigration law in answer to the Obama Administration’s refusal to enforce the law. (No president from Reagan through Obama has made any effort to enforce the law, which explains why after President Reagan provided a general amnesty to most illegal aliens, effectively reducing illegal immigrants to near zero during his time in office, we find ourselves with more than 12 million illegal aliens today.) When the Obama administration challenged the Constitutionality of Arizona’s efforts to enforce federal immigration law within its borders, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled most (but not all) such efforts as Unconstitutional, holding that only the federal government (read: Congress, the legislative branch) can set immigration law and only the federal government (read: the President, the executive branch) can enforce federal law.

Leaving aside for the moment the  legality of an executive order that prevents enforcement of current immigration law for 5 million illegal immigrants, permitting them to stay and work in the U.S.  in direct violation of current federal immigration law, it is a good idea for the general public to become informed as to the legal issues involved so that they may make make an informed decision on both the legal and social issues involved for themselves rather than formulating a decision based on the conflicting views expressed by legal experts in two-minute segments on the evening news or cable news channels.  the issue is far from settled, but one thing is clear: if we do not learn the lessons taught by the misguided policies of the past,  we are doomed to repeat them. If we have learned nothing from Reagan’s blanket amnesty which at least had the benefit of having been achieved through legal, Constitutional channels (e.g., an act of Congress signed by the President,  rather than by an executive order or questionable validity issued by a petulant President upset at having his ideology soundly rejected in the 2014 midterm elections) in the 1980′s we will once again triple the current numbers of illegal aliens in the next 30 years if another blanket amnesty is given (and amnesty is what is involved, by whatever name and means it is effectuated).

Reasonable people may differ on this as in most any controversial social or political issues.  I welcome a reasonable debate based on the facts that is implemented through a valid law passed by Congress which is exclusively charged with the power and responsibility for setting immigration and naturalization law in the U.S. by Article I Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution.

For my part, I’ve published two scholarly articles on the issue of illegal immigration in peer-reviewed law journals the past five years that are relevant to the current debate. In the future, when my research agenda permits it, I intend to write a general reference guide to immigration law. For now, you can find the text of the entire article referenced above at the publisher’s site. Please click on this link and then on the PDF or HTML versions of the article from its main page. (You may also cut and paste the following URL to your browser: http://inderscience.metapress.com/content/35147130346915u6/

A second earlier article on the subject,  “Illegal Immigration: Economic, Social and Ethical Implications” Victor D. Lopez, North East Journal of Legal Studies, 22 (Fall 2009), 45- …, 2009, is only available in print and not online at this time. I will obtain permission from the NEJLS to reprint it here and/or on my primary blog at victordlopez.com in the near future.

“End of Days” short story free for a limited time only

For a limited time only in November, you can download a free copy of my science fiction short story “End of Days” from Smashwords here. The short story poses a novel theory of cosmology involving the role of black holes in the creation and extinction of a limitless number of multiverses, including our own. It explores scientific arrogance and the ability of determined terrorists to exploit it, using two suitcase nukes and a commercial plane in a field experiment that will begin an irreversible countdown to the end of days. The end is very, very near, and there is absolutely nothing we can do about it.

The short story is one of ten from my Mindscapes collection which is now also available as an audiobook from Audible, iTunes and Amazon. You can check the Audible version of the audiobook here and download it free of charge with a new, no risk free one month trial membership to Audible. Paperback, eBook and audiobook versions are also available from other leading retailers, including Amazon.

A Veterans Day Message

Watching the ceremonies this morning in remembrance of Veterans Day I could not help but think of the millions of vets who served our country with honor, too many of whom willingly gave their lives as the price for freedom, and too many of whom returned with both visible and invisible scars as perpetual reminders of their noble sacrifice. Saddest of all, too many returned home only to be cursed and spat upon by the unwashed masses of ungrateful fools blinded by their self-seving ideology and heaping disdain on those who embodied principles they could never understand or embrace: honor, duty, love of country, and putting others above their own self-interest.

Only fools glorify war. Likewise, only fools believe war is never necessary. Good men and women have fought bravely in unwise wars throughout history, and recent history is no exception. One can hate war but love the warrior. One can engage in civil debate about the wisdom of bellicose actions and still be a patriot, and still be grateful for the service of those who do not have the option to second-guess the orders issued by the civil authorities they serve.

Blind allegiance to ideology (from the left or right, by doves and by hawks alike) is dangerous, and never ends well. But those who harbor a pathological hatred of the military, of police, and of order and civil society in general and cloak themselves in the borrowed clothes of causes to allow them to heave their hatred as “righteous indignation” pose by far the greatest danger to freedom and democracy. And those thinking individuals who fail to speak the truth for fear of giving offense, and those for whom right and wrong can only be determined by consulting the oracle of political correctness, are doing no lesser a disservice to those who placed their lives at risk to defend the freedom we enjoy thanks to their continuing sacrifice.

On Veterans Day and every day, let us give thanks to those who day in and day out go into dark, dangerous places far from their homes and families to protect ideals that will never go out of fashion other than for those who stand for nothing and, therefore, will happily march behind the first demagogue who plays a catchy a tune to their liking.

Earth Mother (short story excerpt)

She awoke in the throes of a mind numbing panic.  Her eardrums sympathetically vibrated with the subliminal hum of an unseen, unheard yet very palpable force just below the threshold of audible frequencies.  Her heartbeat sloshed in her ears as though she were under water, desperately trying to escape a powerful predator.

The adrenaline in her veins and the irrational fear that paralyzed her made every joint in her body ache and yielded spasmodic pains as though her muscles were tightly coiling around themselves. Her mouth dry and vocal cords frozen from fear, Lisa lacked the power to give voice to a scream that was born, grew and died in her throat without expression.  Unable to move and still unaware of the cause of her discomfort, Lisa could detect a barely perceptible blue-green aura through the partially closed Venetian blinds and drawn drapes in her bedroom.  The air was charged;  she could sense it though the prickly itch of her hair standing on end. It smelled like a summer thunderstorm had just passed though, despite a cloudless sky.

After long, silent moments of languishing transfixed in irrational terror, satin sheets clinging coldly to her naked body as she lay in a  perspiration-soaked bed, a painful flash of white light inundated her bedroom, leaving Lisa temporarily blind, with multiple circular black afterimages receding slowly through her repetitive blinking, eventually fading to gray and melding into a humanoid form standing some six feet from the foot of her bed. The form, a hairless, androgynous ashen skinned humanoid with large, seal-like black eyes, button nosed, with thin, small lips,  approximately five feet tall and weighing perhaps ninety-five pounds, finally spoke to her.  More accurately, it transmitted words and fragmentary, vivid images into her mind accompanied by a soft, musical sound that might be speech and was as beautiful as it was unintelligible.

“Please, please don’t hurt me,” she thought, still unable to utter a sound.

“No need to fear; we will not do you harm. Be calm,” the creature replied in visual words and images that were fragmented but quite clear.

“Please go away.  Oh. God, help me, please.”  Lisa would have cried and screamed and run had she the power to do any of those things.  Since she did not, she lay still, mentally pleading with the seemingly innocuous creature whose presence, despite its attempts at reassurance, had done little to ameliorate her dread.

“Do not fear.  We bring you a gift with which to bargain for your help.”  The creature’s facial expression and body language did not change, but the visual messages it transmitted clearly tried to show its good will. Warmth, happiness, contentment emanated from the creature as does the sweet scent of a flower carried by a slight summer’s breeze.

“You won’t hurt me?” Lisa half asked, half pleaded, somewhat reassured by the creature’s communication, yet certainly not yet disposed to accept its alleged good will at face value.

“We come only to offer a gift, in exchange for your assistance.”

“What kind of gift?  And what type of help do you want?” Lisa’s fear seemed to dissolve rather quickly with each reference by the creature to a gift.

“We offer a great gift, the ability to communicate without words as we now do, in exchange for your service” The creature retorted, seemingly encouraged into more negotiation by Lisa’s growing receptiveness.

“Are you offering me the gift of telepathy?”  Lisa’s heart, no longer beating fast in response to fear, was beginning to speed up in response to a new growing emotion.”

“You may call it that, yes.”

“What do you want in exchange?” Lisa asked, furrowing her brow slightly, and beginning to ask herself what in her power she would not be willing to do for that ability.

“You must incubate one of us and nurture it until it is strong enough to part from you.”

“I don’t understand. Do you want me to care for you or one of your kind? To be a baby sitter?”

“Much more,” the creature replied, sending Lisa a clear image of a human body, her body, in the last stages of pregnancy.

“No!” replied Lisa, tried instinctively to close her legs and gather her sheets about her, aware for the first time of her nakedness and vulnerable position with great revulsion. She also remembered the unpleasant reports of alien encounters with horrific medical exams and intrusive probes wielded by intergalactic perverts apparently intent on molesting humans for their own gratification. But her body would not obey her commands; whether she was paralyzed by some sort of stasis field of by the creature’s mental powers, she did not know.

“It is not copulation we seek,” the creature immediately offered, seemingly amused and sending a clear visual image of its honorable intentions.  “Our anatomy is unlike yours and would not permit it, but your womb is compatible for our purposes.  We would plant an embryo in your uterus that would grow, protected and nourished through your normal biological means” With this, the creature sent an image of a sesame seed-sized embryo being implanted into a human host, and later emerging in the usual means less than a fifth the size of a human baby.

“No pain?” Lisa asked, relived but cautious.

“Both the implantation and the subsequent birth are completely free of discomfort.”

“How long for the procedure and how long is the period of gestation?”

“Two of your minutes for the implantation and six of your weeks for the gestation to be completed.”

“A two minute implant and painless delivery six weeks later buys me the gift of telepathy, huh.  Is that your deal?”

“Yes.”

“Wait a minute.  My mother raised no fools.  How long does my telepathy last?”

“Throughout the entire period of your life.”

“Not bad.  A lifetime of telepathy for six weeks of work.” Lisa replied, more to herself than to the creature, who perhaps sensing that fact made no reply.

Then, her brow furrowing again, she continued, “If this is such an easy deal, why do you need me?  Why can’t your own kind do so themselves.”

“All of those capable of breeding on our world are dead.” The creature’s thoughts and mental images conveyed great sadness. We will cease to exist as a species unless we have outworlders such as yourself help us.”

“Sorry to hear that. “  She thought back at the creature, which again made no reply.  “Is there any risk to me from the pregnancy or birth? Will you return for the birth?  And how long need I care for the thing afterwards?”

“There is no risk to you.  We will give you medications to strengthen your immune system and eradicate any illness you may currently have. The medication will also prevent your antibodies from attacking the embryo.  We can guarantee your health and vitality for the rest of your life as a byproduct of the procedure.  As to our return, it is unnecessary.  Our infants are self sufficient and require only the most basic type of sustenance for a period that never exceeds two of your weeks after their birth. The infant would then move on without need of any additional assistance from you.”

“Sounds like a deal to me.  The little bugger will pop out like a slice of toast when its time comes, care for itself immediately, leaving me with telepathy and good health for life, and I don’t even have to undergo morning sickness or stretch marks.  What more could a girl want?” She smiled, thinking about the possibilities that telepathy would provide for her.  To know what others thought, and to be able to plant messages in their minds.  The possibilities were intoxicatingly endless.

**** END OF FREE PREVIEW ****

Earth Mother is one of the ten short stories in Mindscapes: Ten Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction Short Stories. The book is available as an audiobook, in paperback and in every major eBook format from a wide range of book sellers.

Mindscapes short story collection – Audiobook version. Click on any of the following vendors for additional information and and an audio sample:  Audible, iTunes and Amazon.

Mindscapes short story collection – Paperback and eBook versions. Click on any of the following vendors for additional information and and a free preview: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Scribd.

Political Correctness: The Most Dangerous Pandemic of All

For a president who has boasted about the power of his pen and who has not hesitated to use it to legislate from the oval office through executive orders to advance his agenda and sidestep Congress, President Obama has resisted using it to save American lives by imposing a travel ban from West Africa to the U.S. Instead, his Acting Surgeon General has contradicted the centers for Disease Control and assured Americans that the Ebola virus is difficult to transmit–something that might come as somewhat of a shock to the nurses in Spain and the U.S. who contracted the disease while treating infected patients and following established protocols.

If medical professional in protective suits can become infected, what hope is there for the luckless traveler unfortunate enough to sit next to a sneezing/coughing/sweating Ebola-infected traveler on an airplane, bus, subway, restaurant, school or workplace? If the virus can live for many hours on hard surfaces touched by an infected patient’s sweat, mucus, blood or other bodily fluids, (to say nothing of penetrating protective clothing designed to be impenetrable) the deflection from the Obama administration’s various spokespersons during press conferences and talk show visits has as much credibility as the statement from the President about there being “not a shred of evidence” about misconduct by the IRS in its targeting of Conservative organizations and denying of tax-free status applications for Conservative groups in violation of federal law during a post Superbowl interview with Bill O’Reilly.

One has to wonder whether there is a shred of credibility left for the current administration–for the man behind the curtain telling us not to trust our eyes, ears, noses or brains but rather the pretty, reassuring messages on the screen that all is well.

As dangerous as Ebola may be, it is not the worst pandemic affecting us today. That dubious honor belongs to a far more wide-spread illness with which we are all being intentionally infected by both government, the media and the entertainment industry: political correctness. This is by no means a new disease; its roots date back to the 1960s and grow from the well fertilized soil of relativistic ethics and left of center political theories that planted it with careful tending by a sympathetic media and academics. Public safety must take a back seat to possibly giving offense to West Africans/African Americans/liberals/open border advocates/Ebola victims or making any of these groups feel bad about themselves.

Preventing harm to the economies of West African countries trumps the health and safety of the American public. These are the actual reasons that President Obama will not impose a travel ban on travel from Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. The rest is just a smokescreen–a mendacious narrative that distorts facts in order to justify doing what the administration wants to do–nothing. Temporarily banning travel to the U.S. by anyone with a passport from these three countries or from any other country that shows travel to these affected countries in the past three months is a first step in stemming the flow of additional infected individuals into the U.S. It is a logical, rational, and effective solution demanded by an overwhelming majority of Americans in recent polls.

Yes we should allow humanitarian relief and travel to these countries by special permission aboard military aircraft or chartered flights, but NOT on regular airline flights. Constructing a patently absurd rationale for doing nothing is unconscionable.

I predict President Obama will eventually give in to the demand for a travel ban, but not until there are additional deaths in the U.S. from Ebola-infected victims. Perhaps when a child dies of the disease transmitted by an infected teacher or classmate school or in daycare, or by an infected passenger on a flight the administration will see the wisdom of imposing a travel ban. Why must more people die before the political machinery acts? On whose heads will those deaths be? 

Doubtless some will reject what I write off hand as a partisan attack on the President. I’ve voted for Republicans and Democrats since I first voted at the age of 18. Yes, I’ve voted mostly for Republicans, but Robert Kennedy and Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan were also heroes of mine, alongside President Ronald Reagan, and William F. Buckley, Jr. And my best friend was a former delegate for the People’s Party when we were both in college.

This is not about politics, but rather about a secular religion of political correctness being forced on the American public. It was incubated in college campuses in the ’60s and ’70s and moved well beyond the Petri dishes of academia into the general populace nurtured by the media and the Hollywood elites to a point where we have become a nation paralized by this disease. Civil discourse is discouraged on topics found to be “offensive” to the social/political/lifestyle predilections of the few. Those who challenge political correctness and the preferred narrative of the left are subjected to ad hominem attacks and labelled as bullies / racists / mysogynysts / homophobes / reactionaries (and sometimes all of the above) in a vile attempt to silence voices of dissent by any means necessary. These are the tactics of the extremists from time immemorial and call to mind such paragons of utopian bliss as Nazi Germany, Maoist China, and the Stalinist Soviet Union, to name but the tip of a very cold, dirty and dangerous political iceberg.

So what is the current Administration doing about the Ebola issue? judge for yourself based not only on the record but on today’s news report in The Daily Mail of President Obama’s naming of an “Ebola Csar”:

“Obama names Ebola czar with NO healthcare experience to take over bungled response to crisis”

“Ron Klain will coordinate the Obama administration’s Ebola response efforts

He is a longtime Democratic Party political operative and generous political donor with no background in medicine or public health
Klain was chief of staff to Vice Presidents Al Gore and Joe Biden
Managed Gore’s legal team during the 2000 presidential election recount in Florida and ran debate prep for John Kerry in 2004
Kevin Spacey portrayed him in the movie ‘Recount’ – and his character in the movie ‘Outbreak’ died of Ebola
Klain boasted that he was responsible for hiring Obama’s second White House Press Secretary, Jay Carney”

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2797340/obama-taps-political-operative-no-health-care-background-ebola-czar-job-new-cases-emerge-lawmakers-demand-action.html#ixzz3GQkJ7mje

Were this not tragic, it would be very funny. You simply cannot make this stuff up. If President Obama simply created an “Disinformation Csar” or a “Ministry of Propaganda” there would at least be a refreshing ring of truth from an administration that promised transparency but has thus far delivered all the transparency of a lead-lined bunker.

October Goodreads and LibraryThing Giveaways of Paperback and Audiobook Versions of My Mindscapes Short Story Collection

I am giving away a paperback copy of my Mindscapes: Ten Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction Short Stories book through Goodreads this month. Please click here to enter. I will be glad to autograph the copy for the winner on request. (Ends October 21, 2014)I am also giving away a free Audible download of the audiobook version of the book released last month through Audible, iTunes and Amazon to a U.S. reader and a copy to a U.K. reader. You can sign up for these here. (Scroll down until you see the U.S. and U.K. giveaways.) The U.S. Giveaway ends October 23 and the U.K. giveaway ends October 25.

The book is also available in a wide range of eBook formats as well as on paperback from numerous book retailers, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, Smashwords and many others.

A simple book trailer for the paperback and eBook versions of the book that features my reading of the shortest short story in the collection is accessible here.  Unlike the audiobook which was professionally produced and read by Dale M. Wilcox, my reading of “Justice” is a cold read without the benefit of a recording studio using a cheap mike in my study. I offer it only as a curiosity and NOT as an example of the audiobook as Dale’s polished approach is in sharp contrast to my own five-minute project. (A sample of the actual audiobook is also available through the Audible site here.)

Good luck! And thank you for your interest and support.

LibraryThing and Goodreads Book Giveaway

I am giving away a paperback copy of my Mindscapes short story collection (autographed on request) through a Goodreads author giveaway that should go live by tomorrow (9/23/2014). At the same time, I am giving away an Audible audiobook copy of the book through a LibraryThing giveaway. If you’re interested in signing up for either or both giveaways, you can click on the following links: LibraryThing  or Goodreads.

Once again, the Goodreads giveaway is pending editorial approval but it should be up and running by tomorrow.

 

As always, I am grateful for your interest and support. And good luck!

 

Remembering 9/11/2001

For those of who lived through 9/11/2001, and perhaps especially for those of us in who lived in New York then and now, today marks a sad, solemn anniversary.

I could write about our loss of innocence, or about the existence of misguided evil in this world, or about the people I personally know who lost loved ones that day, of the luckier ones who worked in the area but managed to escape harm of the visible kind.

I could write about the bravery of first responders running up stairs in the Twin Towers as people were running for their lives, or of the equal bravery and self-sacrifice of our men and women in uniform who gave their lives in the ensuing 13-year struggle in wars the wisdom of which honest people might question, but whose valor and sacrifice no honest person can deny or fail to acknowledge with deep gratitude.

I could write about the incredible bravery and sacrifice of special forces soldiers and soldiers of all stripes who willingly paid for our freedom with their blood and with their lives and continue to do so in places where chaos rules and of the no lesser bravery of war correspondents who tread the same dangerous places with only a camera or microphone as their weapon, trusting on the common decency of enemy combatants as their only shield, and whose bravery and sacrifice sometimes earn them not medals or Pulitzers but a beheading at the hands of barbarians with dull knives and equally dull wits attempting to justify their barbarism in the borrowed clothes of an honorable religion.

I could write of the bravery of elected officials with Ds and Rs and Is after their names walking together on September 11 2001 and the dark days that followed through the noxious ashes of the aftermath of the destruction–highly visible, present, active, engaged, caring and reminding us all of How politicians should act, what leadership is, and what distinguishes a civilized people from the barbarians at the gate.

But I won’t.

Instead, I will fly my flag today in memory of men and women far better and worthier than I who willingly paid the sacrifice necessary for the freedom I enjoy. God Bless them, every one. And God Bless America.