I am not religious - too many untimely deaths of the good (including my brother), too many wars over who owns God, and simple lack of proof. (I have faith in nothing.) But this blog post by a Vermont minister gets it absolutely right. And then, just to hammer it home, a pair of vicious, racist cartoons about the Florida youth murder by a cartoonist who, somehow, is syndicated. And I'm back to being nonreligious, because if this ass is made in God's image, none of us should follow him.
Cassius was right. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in the stars, it is in ourselves. More's the pity.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Saturday, March 17, 2012
A St. Patrick's sale
In honor of the land of my ancestors, I have a sale going on the e-book versions of Chronicles. It's been marked down from $10 to $7.50, so if you haven't purchased the e-version yet, now is the time! This is, for now, only good if you buy the book through Lulu.com so please go there today!
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Where is this candidate? Do any like this exist:
My comment on this story (which is a very good summary of why everybody seems think this election stinks):
Let's face it - what is really turning people off can be found in the comments on this story. Neither side is willing to admit that the other side may have good points. We have all gone to the ends of the rope, and the middle is on the ground. We do need to cut government spending, but one big area to cut - perks for elected officials - is controlled by those officials and will never be cut. But the tax cuts should go to all Americans, not just the richer ones. When it comes to government, no citizen is better than another and no politician is better than anyone. What we need is a fiscal conservative who wants to help all the people, not just the rich, and a social liberal who wants to free controls on individuals, rather than mandating their lives from school lunches to the kind of light bulb we use. Show me one of those and I will happily vote for him or her.
Let's face it - what is really turning people off can be found in the comments on this story. Neither side is willing to admit that the other side may have good points. We have all gone to the ends of the rope, and the middle is on the ground. We do need to cut government spending, but one big area to cut - perks for elected officials - is controlled by those officials and will never be cut. But the tax cuts should go to all Americans, not just the richer ones. When it comes to government, no citizen is better than another and no politician is better than anyone. What we need is a fiscal conservative who wants to help all the people, not just the rich, and a social liberal who wants to free controls on individuals, rather than mandating their lives from school lunches to the kind of light bulb we use. Show me one of those and I will happily vote for him or her.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Some Leap Year Thoughts on Books
It was my first Leap Year. My second, actually, but at 3 years old, I couldn't count to 29. At 7, on Feb. 29, 1964, I got my first library card. Thanks for all the books, every librarian ever.
Now, I read them and more or less write them. (See Lulu.com for a Leap Year special!) And that's the end of book plugs for this post.
Recently, two books off the shelf of the Brown County Library came home. Strangely, both have time travel and presidential themes.
The first is a funny little volume called "Taft 2012" by Jason Heller. Its conceit is that William Howard Taft, after being president, disappeared off the face of the earth, only to reappear in 2011, unaged but unknowing of what had happened in the nearly 100 years since. It's big news, of course, but because all anybody talks about any more is politics, Taft gets mixed up in that - while still reconciling himself with the 21st century, his remaining family, and the biggest trial for the heavy weight champion among presidents - modern overprocessed food.
It's fun, if not entirely historically accurate (Taft, of course, later became chief justice, to his great joy, and died in 1930, and he does not have a great-granddaughter in the House). But, as Johnny Carson used to say, "you buy the premise, you buy the bit" and it's surprisingly easy to do so.
Not surprisingly, the other book is darker - it's by Stephen King. "Taft 2012" tells its story over the time it takes Big Steve to clear his throat. But then, King set himself a larger task - saving John F. Kennedy.
It begins, as every King story does, in Maine, where a former teacher is invited to visit the past by the dying owner of an old diner. Go down the stairs and you're in 1958 as your present self. Stay as long as you like, days, weeks, months ... but when you go back to the present, it's only two minutes later. And every time you go back to 1958, you start over again - any previous changes you made are erased.
Turns out saving JFK was the dying man's dream, but he knows he can't do it. So he tasks the new guy with the job.
Jake (the new guy) eventually gets to Dallas on the title date, but it's a long five years, and the bulk of the book is how he gets there. Indeed, you're almost 90 percent of the way through the book before the title date, and once it's all over, there's a surprisingly short (and in retrospect obvious) look at how things changed after the event. (It's interesting that King, at the end of the book, credits others including Doris Kearns Goodwin with helping with that part. It almost seemed like he was trying to blame others for a weak point in the whole thing.)
Still, Steve's got a way of making you want to see what happens next, and while it moves slowly, it moves. (I'm tempted to say it's a cross between "The Stand" and "24" but I won't. Of course.)
What is interesting is that in King's last two books - "11/22/63" and "Under The Dome" - he is going back to ideas he had long before but didn't feel he was ready to tackle. Both, it might be noted, are heavy on political thinking. In "Under The Dome," the book all but blames right-wingers for the problem; "11/22/63" is a bit more nuanced, but again, the liberal area is peaceful and serene; it's the right wing who causes the problems. Personally, I sympathize with that viewpoint; still, it's a lot more political than he had been in the past. Sadly, political venom seems to have seeped into our society - now THERE'S a horror story - and it is probably inevitable that it has even affected all those small towns in Maine where Stephen King makes bad things happen.
Now, I read them and more or less write them. (See Lulu.com for a Leap Year special!) And that's the end of book plugs for this post.
Recently, two books off the shelf of the Brown County Library came home. Strangely, both have time travel and presidential themes.
The first is a funny little volume called "Taft 2012" by Jason Heller. Its conceit is that William Howard Taft, after being president, disappeared off the face of the earth, only to reappear in 2011, unaged but unknowing of what had happened in the nearly 100 years since. It's big news, of course, but because all anybody talks about any more is politics, Taft gets mixed up in that - while still reconciling himself with the 21st century, his remaining family, and the biggest trial for the heavy weight champion among presidents - modern overprocessed food.
It's fun, if not entirely historically accurate (Taft, of course, later became chief justice, to his great joy, and died in 1930, and he does not have a great-granddaughter in the House). But, as Johnny Carson used to say, "you buy the premise, you buy the bit" and it's surprisingly easy to do so.
Not surprisingly, the other book is darker - it's by Stephen King. "Taft 2012" tells its story over the time it takes Big Steve to clear his throat. But then, King set himself a larger task - saving John F. Kennedy.
It begins, as every King story does, in Maine, where a former teacher is invited to visit the past by the dying owner of an old diner. Go down the stairs and you're in 1958 as your present self. Stay as long as you like, days, weeks, months ... but when you go back to the present, it's only two minutes later. And every time you go back to 1958, you start over again - any previous changes you made are erased.
Turns out saving JFK was the dying man's dream, but he knows he can't do it. So he tasks the new guy with the job.
Jake (the new guy) eventually gets to Dallas on the title date, but it's a long five years, and the bulk of the book is how he gets there. Indeed, you're almost 90 percent of the way through the book before the title date, and once it's all over, there's a surprisingly short (and in retrospect obvious) look at how things changed after the event. (It's interesting that King, at the end of the book, credits others including Doris Kearns Goodwin with helping with that part. It almost seemed like he was trying to blame others for a weak point in the whole thing.)
Still, Steve's got a way of making you want to see what happens next, and while it moves slowly, it moves. (I'm tempted to say it's a cross between "The Stand" and "24" but I won't. Of course.)
What is interesting is that in King's last two books - "11/22/63" and "Under The Dome" - he is going back to ideas he had long before but didn't feel he was ready to tackle. Both, it might be noted, are heavy on political thinking. In "Under The Dome," the book all but blames right-wingers for the problem; "11/22/63" is a bit more nuanced, but again, the liberal area is peaceful and serene; it's the right wing who causes the problems. Personally, I sympathize with that viewpoint; still, it's a lot more political than he had been in the past. Sadly, political venom seems to have seeped into our society - now THERE'S a horror story - and it is probably inevitable that it has even affected all those small towns in Maine where Stephen King makes bad things happen.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Sale through March 4!
HEY BOOK FANS! 15 pct. off any order (of my book, of course) at http://t.co/DuIypUOb thru March 4! Checkout code: LASSO
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Welcome Facebookers!
Those of you seeing my ad on Facebook, welcome! There are plenty of links here to order my book, or just to learn more. Or e-mail me at ray.columns@yahoo.com. Thanks for visiting!
Sunday, February 19, 2012
A bit about that project...
For now, it's on hold - the person I'm involved with is seeking more ways to fund it. So I'm off to other things.
I wasn't able to get the Feb. 11 surprise going, and I'm sorry about that. Maybe another time.
I do have a couple of backers on Kickstarter for the football book, and would love to have more. If you can't, that's understandable, but maybe mention it to somebody who can...
And as always, tell others about "Chronicles."
I wasn't able to get the Feb. 11 surprise going, and I'm sorry about that. Maybe another time.
I do have a couple of backers on Kickstarter for the football book, and would love to have more. If you can't, that's understandable, but maybe mention it to somebody who can...
And as always, tell others about "Chronicles."
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