Article 1
I’ve just finished the second new Recluce novel — Heritage of Cyador — and sent it off to my editor. It’s a sequel to Cyador’s Heirs, which will be published next May [2014]. Because I’ll be doing a...
View ArticleRecluce Audiobooks
Tantor Media has agreed to publish all of the Recluce books already published in audiobook format. At this point, the publication schedule has not been determined, but, based on the time it took...
View ArticleEducation — Same Song, Umpteenth Verse
Barrack Obama spent a portion of August touring areas of New York and elsewhere championing, among other things, the need for colleges to keep tuition and costs down. He also set forth a policy and a...
View ArticleThe West Wing
When the West Wing was on network television, I tried to watch it and couldn’t, not for more than ten minutes at a stretch. After a hiatus of more than a few years, I tried again, this time through...
View ArticleAnother Business Myth
I’m getting more than a little tired of the right-wing propaganda about how everything would be better if business did it. While I’ll happily admit that sometimes government does get in the way, more...
View ArticleSeptember Question
Is there a recipe for burhka, for those of us who like really spicy food? There isn’t a recipe for burhka, per se. My personal sense of the dish is beef or lamb, in a brownish red sauce with the...
View ArticleCollege Costs – What People Don’t Get… Again?!!!
Just a little while ago, I posted a blog on some of the aspects of rising college tuition, and in the days following I’ve observed in forum after forum the fact that almost none of the supposedly...
View ArticleStructural Economics 101
One of the “goals” of almost every business, regardless of size, is to increase revenue and profits, and those targets are almost always increases exceeding ten percent per year. Executives in those...
View ArticleThe Business Model’s Time-Bomb
American society is buying the so-called business model lock, stock, and barrel… and almost no one seems to understand the long-term costs, both to the economy and to society. Effectively, the business...
View ArticleThe Stalemate – American Political Terrorism
The current political stalemate between a U.S. House of Representatives dominated and, in effect, terrorized by the far right and the U.S. Senate and the President is a clear indication, at least to...
View ArticleThe Price of Freedom
The other night I was discussing the problem of gun-related deaths and violence with some friends. One declared that he saw no need for gun owners to have fifteen or fifty bullet magazine clips or high...
View ArticleBeyond The Impasse
Although Congress is apparently deadlocked, all members of Congress do agree on one thing. Someone else should pay for it. The far right wants the poor to pay… by cutting their benefits, access to...
View ArticleCongress
Many years ago, I went to Washington, D.C., as a junior legislative director for a U.S. Congressman. At that time, all or at least the vast majority of budget authorizations and appropriations bills...
View Article“Literary” Fiction
Recently, an article in New Scientist cited a study that showed readers of “literary fiction” displayed more empathy than did readers of “popular” fiction. After the wave of nausea, disgust, and anger...
View ArticleRepetition or Rhyme?
Over the past two centuries especially, but for longer than that, authors, historians, pundits and others have debated the question of whether history repeats itself and what, if anything, we can learn...
View Article“Small Government” Idiocy
As long as I’ve been writing commentary on this site, I’ve received comments from proponents of “small government,” who argue, paraphrasing Ronald Reagan and others, that small government is better....
View ArticleThe Ender’s Game Controversy
In the science fiction community, another well-known and controversial figure has just recently declared that no one has really debated his ideas. In a recent interview, Orson Scott Card said about...
View Article“Debating” the Issues
I always get amused and sometimes angered when someone insists on “debating” questions or issues that have been settled, especially those settled by science [and yes, I know, some science issues turn...
View ArticleOverlooked
The November issue of The Atlantic contains a feature article with the results of a survey designed to suggest on the fifty greatest inventions. I read the list before I read the article, and it struck...
View ArticleThe “Ethical Hierarchy” of Law
More than a few times in my life, I’ve seen a legal decision and thought, “How could that ever be considered just… or even ethical?” I’ve certainly heard others voice similar sentiments. Now, I know...
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