Because I am boring and can not spare the attention it takes to express a coherent opinion, here are some links:
1) [Deleted]
3) The NY Times on my favorite food. I’m almost afraid to read it.
4) This makes me want to hide under my desk, and it’s just a couple of pictures on a website. NB: that link is not for people who have issues with high places.
5) Gay sex decriminalized in New Delhi. Change may be slow, but it’s coming (so to speak).
I know. You’re disappointed to be reading this one, aren’t you?
Let me salve your pain with links:
Want to go to a lawless state and murder desperately poor people? Now you can! For only 3,500 pounds sterling a day (plus weapon rental), you can cruise slowly along the coast of Somalia in a luxury yacht. If your luck holds, pirates will attack, and you can kill them.
(eta: I’m told this news report is a fake. I hope so.)
If killing Somalis in the real world is too spendy/morally bankrupt for you, you could always fight monsters on Hidlyda as a young Miracle Witch. It’s a free game, very Legend of Zelda old school, where you travel about fighting monsters, collecting loot and unlocking secret entrances until you finally come face to face with King Yeah Walusa. It’s pretty fun, even if I did have to reference the comment thread at Jay Is Games to find everything. And I scored a D. Huh. Save often!
But, if what you want is something beautiful and complex (complex for the internet, I mean), then look at this: Time Wastes Too Fast.
(Taken at the Barnes & Noble)
Please respond appropriately.
I hit my goal again today, which means I’m back in the groove (last Monday not withstanding). I wish I could do well above my groove, but such is life.
Meanwhile, have some links:
1) Back to the Future 4: Escape from Guantanamo. Marty McFly is in serious trouble.
2) Pediatricians address the effects of bullying on victims and bullies. My son’s two schools so far have done a good job of dealing with bullying incidents, but I don’t know if they’re this sophisticated.
3) Nick Mamatas on making money off your fiction. I’d always heard that novels are where the money is, but he offers an interesting counterpoint. Not that it matters to me, since my productivity crashes as the word count shrinks. It’s not that I can’t write short stories; it just takes me longer.
4) Finally! A plan to help people compare and contrast insurance plans.
5) How to make big money fast as a novelist… in Sim 3.
For fuck’s sake, people. I’m supposed to be working on my book right now, but Qwest made it super easy to log on to the Internet from Starbucks, so I did and I read my f-list and now I’m pissed off.
Via Making Light.
Talking Points Memo lays it out.
You can follow the link to the Making Light post if you want a summary, but here’s an writeup that’s even more brief: Tom Tancredo has recently called Sonia Sotomayor a racist, and said she belonged to a “Latino KKK”. One of Tom Tancredo’s people, Marcus Epstein, the executive director of Team America PAC (“A Political Action Committee Dedicated to Securing Our Nation’s Border”), was drunk on the street and karate-chopped a passing black woman on the head and called her a nigger. This isn’t just an accusation; Epstein has already plead guilty to the charge.
If you think that would prompt Tancredo to fire him, well, aren’t you adorable. In fact, the current plan is that he’s going to continue running Tancredo’s PAC until he leaves for law school in the fall.
Bay Buchanan has written an essay defending the man. No, I’m not going to link to it, but you can find it easily enough at one of the links above. In her essay, Buchanan describes Epstein’s battle with alcohol and depression, and I wish him the best in that, once he’s paid his debt for his crime.
But then she calls the media attention he’s received a lynching.
For Christ’s sake, people, “People are saying mean things about me on the internet” is not the same as being dragged out of your bed at night, hanged and set on fire.
I just… I don’t understand how people could be so narcissistic and so ignorant of history. The whole thing makes me sick.
Yeah, I’ll be jumping right back into my book now, no freaking problem.
1) Dance craze outlawed because it caused “broken penises.”
2) John Scalzi rants lightly about fan “ownership” of public figures.
3) Russia accuses Poland of starting WW2. How dare Poland stand up for itself! They deserved to be attacked for not acquiescing immediately! Note the last paragraph in the article about pending legislation which would make it a crime to state that the Soviet Union occupied Poland or any other Baltic state, punishable by five years in prison.
Russia=still fucked up.
4) I’ve been invited to be on a panel at Comic-Con! More details when everything gets firmed up. In the meantime, let me share the advice my editor gave me: “Be amusing, dammit.”
:-)
5) “But watching conservatives mock liberals for being PC, is like watching the morbidly obese mock Weight Watchers for its system of points.” — Ta-Nehisi Coates (I suggest reading the whole thing, including the author’s replies to comments in the thread below).
6) Oh, God. As much as I’d love to see it revived, I’m not sure I can get behind this project. I mentioned last year that the gift I bought myself when I cashed my first check from Random House were the books I needed to complete my set of Chill, first ed. But they’ve been talking about this third edition for years, and I’m not ready to blithely accept that it’s the economy that delays the game. And $25K??? I dunno. I suspect I’ll pledge my forty-five bucks, but I don’t have a lot of hope.
7) And now, to bury the lede, Child of Fire has been accepted into the Amazon Vine program. Essentially, Del Rey will send 50-75 ARCs of the novel to Amazon.com, who will distribute them to reviewers with a lot of reviews and high rankings. They get to read the book early and their reviews will appear on the Amazon.com site two weeks or so before the publication date.
Normally, reviews can’t be posted until the book drops, so that’s a good thing. Also, Amazon.com rarely takes mmpb for this program because the profits are small per unit, but a sharp gentleman in the marketing department pitched it to them and they signed on!
So, that’s really good news. :D
1) It puts the lotion on its skin. Why Archie is smart to propose to Veronica rather than Betty
2) “… Where health care reform becomes entitlement reform.” Ezra Klein on the effects of giving power to experts. Please please please get this right, President Obama, you hold-without-trial bastard.
3) Rebooted movie franchises are the new black! What movie franchise would you reboot? Explain, if you would, what you change. For me, it would have to be THE ROAD WARRIOR, but I would set it in a future where no one talked funny. Oh, and instead of searching for rare gasoline, everyone would just ride bicycles or drive solar cars. And instead of shooting crossbows, they’d throw snack cakes. What’s your idea?
Wichita doctor shot while attending church in probable terrorist attack.
——-
Fun! When Sonia Sotomayor states that a Latina would have more experience with discrimination than a white male and would probably reach a better ruling on a discrimination case, she’s called a racist. Who called her that? Rush “Take the bone out of your nose and call me back” Limbaugh and Newt “[bilingual education is teaching] the language of living in a ghetto” Gingrich. John Ridley (a guy I rarely agree with) puts it very neatly: “Newt, seriously, anytime you want to swap racisms give me a call.”
America: still shamefully fucked up.
1) It’s real because it’s science: Gay marriage causes earthquakes! Darn pulses of gay energy. (via Andrew Wheeler aka antickmusings)
2) Man arrested for calling 911 because his drive through order at McDonalds did not include a juice box. Expect to see this on notalwaysright.com in the next couple days, although it sucks that the employees were laughing at him because he couldn’t speak English well. How many languages do they speak?
3) How many Canadians flee their crappy health care system for our fantastic American system? Practically none! In fact, the idea that our northern neighbors avoid wait times by crossing the border is politically expedient bullshit. Meanwhile, a million California residents a year seek affordable health care in Mexico, which doesn’t even count the hospitals in Thailand and India that are specifically built to handle American patients.
4) Marvel Comics attempts to draw in women readers with series about large-breasted models. Can you see how this would fail? ‘Cause I sure can’t. Isn’t every female comics reader hoping to see Mary Jane Watson team up with a revamped Millie the Model to solve a crime?
5) Oh, look! It’s the classiest logo of all, for National Fist Bump Day. I’m sure their T-shirts will sweep the nation.
6) And now I link myself, which sounds vaguely dirty. Thank you to everyone who offered to read an ARC of Child of Fire. I will forward your addresses.
Comments on that post are screened, so I’m not going to unscreen them to respond. However, I have your addresses. Thanks, again.
The California Supreme Court has upheld the initiative banning same-sex marriages in that state.
Which is shameful for the state, but that’s what the people have chosen. Personally, I believe CA needs to seriously reform its initiative process, which was instituted to make Sacramento politicians more responsive way back in 1911. At this point, though, the initiative process has driven the state to fiscal disaster and stripped citizens of their equal rights.
Someone needs to step up and change the status quo, and for the change to be most effective and successful, it should be someone outside the judiciary. An initiative to end initiatives?