A LONG RANGE SHOOTING MOMENT March 8, 2010
Sometimes you have to stop and smell the gunpowder. I just got this URL from our friend Brian Wilson, under the heading “Impressive”. http ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRYwMrsaLxs I replied to Brian:
You’re right. That’s impressive even if you’re opposed to this particular war (which I am).
I have to confess, though, that I don’t think the guy is really a sniper, or the Barrett .50 is really a rifle. It’s the first time I’ve seen the attraction of that kind of gun, a whole new class of weapon, somewhere between small arms and light …
LITERARY INFLUENCE February 21, 2010
I try not to do this to you very often, but for some time I’ve been looking for a paperback anthology I liked very much as a kid, and I’ve already run down a couple of the stories in it. One of them was called “$1.98″. It was written by somebody named Arthur Porges. You find mention of it all over the ‘Net.
Another great story I recall, although a bit more dimly, was about “The Mighty Maxxon” and his rather unique approach to populating colonies in space. A concept absolutely bound to warp the head of the average adolescent …
Just a Thought … January 20, 2010
Alternate history science fiction explained in seven words: “When in Reme, do as the Remans”.
ANOTHER LNS PREDICTION COMES TRUE January 11, 2010
Just this short note to point you toward an article that first appeared in the “Science & Tech” section of the _London Daily Mail Online_ a couple of days ago. Here’s the TinyURL:
http://tinyurl.com/yjn9jjc
The lengthy headline reads “The interactive projector that turns any surface into a Minority Report-style touch screen” but it looks a whole lot more like the watch or wallet sized personal computer displays we see Wilson Ngu and his mother Ardith using in my novel _Ceres_, being serialized right here at BigHeadPress.com.
The photo alone is worth the price of admission. I want one!
Hard to believe it, but …
SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT FORT HOOD November 7, 2009
Almost from the instant the American people learned that a United
States Army Major — and psychiatrist — one Nidal Malik Hasan, had
murdered a dozen unarmed individuals at Fort Hood, Texas, and wounded
around two and a half dozen more before being taken out of action by a
courageous young police officer, my Inbox began filling with bigoted
garbage.
“Muslims are all murderous fanatics!” “Islam isn’t even a real
religion!” “Muslims want to kill your grand — ” Sorry, that’s Nancy
Pelosi.
It is ironic — but hardy surprising …
A LITTLE GUN NOTE October 14, 2009
I was surprised, when I reread _Ceres_ Chapter 30, “The Adventures of
Sam O’Var” — a story-within-the-story it would delight me to write,
someday — to discover that the former Cossack colonel was carrying a
somewhat different “life preserver” (as his friend Conan Doyle would
say) than I remembered having given him. What he’s got under his old
greatcoat is a Colt’s Single Action Army revolver, model of 1873,
chambered for the mighty .44 Winchester Centerfire, otherwise known as
.44/40.
Back in the day, it was seen as a sort of .44 Magnum; Winchester made
short, light, handy little carbines for …
A SOUR OLD LEFT WING FART October 9, 2009
Surfing the web a while back, I ended up on a site that offered,
among other things, a recent _Sydney Morning Herald_ interview with
Tom Lehrer. There was a time in my life — more than forty years ago,
I am deeply astonished to discover — when Tom was one of my biggest
heroes.
For those of you who don’t remember — either because you weren’t
born yet, or you’ve taken Alzheimer’s way out — Tom was a Harvard
mathematics professor who moonlighted by writing, recording, and
performing funny songs — arguably the …
THE ONLY SALVATION FOR A WRITER September 22, 2009
It has been an odd couple of weeks.
In the course of preparing a pair of new nonfiction books, I’ve
spent several days gathering up everything I’ve written for public
consumption since September 11, 2001. (My first nonfiction book,
_Lever Action_, was published just before that date, and consisted of
stuff I’d written over the previous 30 years.) That means every
article, essay, column, blog entry, longish letter to the editor,
publisher’s note, and significant response to comments on both of my
blogs.
In that time, I’ve written for _The …
STOP MEDICAL MARXISM August 12, 2009
Dear Friends and Readers,
I’ve said this before, in longer pieces. Doubtless I will again.
There is one — and only one — solution to the mess our medical
system presently finds itself in. That is to remove the real cause of
the mess, not to drive the system even further into a state of medical
Marxism.
America needs — meaning it cannot long survive without — a
Constitutional amendment mandating total separation of medicine and
state. “Mandating” means “making mandatory”, giving it full force of
law.
A Constitutional amendment mandating …
JUMP OR GET OFF THE CLIFF August 4, 2009
To my utter delight, and enormous gratitude, a new edition of my
second novel, _The Venus Belt_, has just been released by Phoenix
Pick.
I haven’t written very much _about_ this little book, chiefly
because I don’t remember very much about having written it. I would
like very much to thank my friend Shahid Mahmud and his splendid Arc
Manor/Phoenix Pick publishing enterprise for making the attempt
necessary.
http://www.phoenixpick.com/
One thing I do recall vividly, and that’s the fact that I was so
nervous about attempting …