Spacecrab's Journal

How all revolutions end ...

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 02:36:14 GMT

I like this.

Trafficking with the Proscribed Planet Minion

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:25:28 GMT

Thirty years ago, when I was a longer-haired indigent hippie, I realized that science fiction had warned me about certain ethical perils of everyday life.

If anyone younger than 35 is reading this, you may not know that Piers Anthony, circa 1975, was thought of as a leading-edge science fiction writer. The Xanth books were years in the future. The protagonist of Cthon, Anthony's first novel, was a character who'd been exiled to a prison planet for falling in love with and courting a Minionette. Anthony's Minionettes were sensuous alien females, indigenous to the Planet Minion -- where the emotional spectrum and responses of the inhabitants are the inverse of normal human emotions.

For Minionettes, pain equal pleasure, pleasure equals pain. Or, as Jethro Tull told us around the same time:

Lend me your ear while I call you a fool.
You were kissed by a witch one night in the wood,
and later insisted your feelings were true.
The witch's promise was coming,
believing he listened while laughing you flew.

Leaves falling red, yellow, brown, all are the same,
and the love you have found lay outside in the rain.
Washed clean by the water but nursing its pain.
The witch's promise was coming, and you're looking
elsewhere for your own selfish gain.

-- Witch's Promise -- Jethro Tull

What has all this hippie chestnut stuff got to do with anything now? Well... I can't say they never warned me if my train gets lost.

Like many aging Boomers, I now have a certain percentage of my retirement savings sunk into -- mining operations on the Planet Minion. I monitor economic processes on the planet during coffee breaks at work, hoping that at the end of the day I'll have at least as much in my savings accounts as I had at the beginning of the day. On days where the little Dow and NASDAQ status reports are green, I congratulate myself for not being completely locked down to the miserable investment rates of CDs.

Except that the following news note reminds me of what my younger self already knew. I'm turning myself in, for the benefit of Pastwatch and Futurewatch time-monitoring versions of myself. (No idea whether any other entities will care.)

From Google News, Wed Nov 4, 2009 3:42pm EST:

... In the hour following the FOMC statement, the S&P 500 rose as high as 1,061.00 and the Nasdaq touched 2,081.00. With less than 30 minutes before the closing bell, though, those late-day gains began to fade somewhat.

The healthcare sector jumped on hopes the Obama administration's healthcare reforms may be slowed after Republicans scored some key election victories.

Atrios? What am I missing here?

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 02:26:34 GMT

In an entry dated today, Atrios (Duncan Black) expresses "cautious optimism" about Obama's plans for health care reform, based on some remarks that Obama just made in Minneapolis.

Breaking with the healthy skepticism that is usually the signature element of his blog, Atrios says:

"While this process has been rather maddening, I've still remained just on the side of cautious optimism about the final result of health care reform. I don't expect it to be awesome, but it might be just be good enough."

But Obama's speech that Atrios and Digby link to for "new hope" sounds like it does nothing except reiterate support for the crippled "public option" proposal that will insure, at most, 10 million additional people above the current Medicare rolls [- correction, 9/14-LB].

It wouldn't be exactly nothing to establish a safety net for 10 million people who don't currently have (and can't afford to buy) *any* insurance. But the rest of the citizens of the U.S. need more than that and deserve more. I can't see anything in the "co-op" shopping plans that Obama seems to be supporting that will reduce the obscene prices the insurance companies can and do charge the ~~200 million~~ 45 million of us [thanks wild_irises for catching that] who don't qualify for "group" insurance.

That's good enough? (By the way, I'd definitely like to see more information about what would happen to the employer-funded "Group" plans under Obama health care reform. If the Republicans have their way "Health Care Reform" may also tax those out of existence.)

David Brooks is off today

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:07:26 GMT

Good.

I like this ....

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 02:28:01 GMT

Excerpt from Tiny Titans #18, the current issue.

Apparently, some people at DC Comics are still resisting the Anti-Life Equations. To appreciate this, you may need to be a certain kind of comic book geek.

FWIW: You may recognize the high school janitor in this TT excerpt as Darkseid, who had a one-day gig as the school principal in a previous issue.

The green lantern scarcity and "Blackest Night" refer to a too-wretched-for-words current DC story arc, in which all currently-dead DC superheros come back from the grave as flesh-eating zombies. (No, really.)

The sessions

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 05:19:00 GMT

I thought I was a music fan (of certain types and genres), but I never heard this before. Holy cow, love! (Thanks to "sardine" at Eschaton for cluing me in.)

Just a place for me to stand?

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 19:56:16 GMT

I'm lucky. I have a job and I have health insurance (although I pay through the nose for it from a smaller private company).

Too much of nothing can make a man feel ill at ease -- and I have something. So maybe it is small-spirited (or a childish thing to do) for me to link and post the following stuff on this day.

On the other hand, if I'm not just locked into my own head, maybe this will induce a brief moment of reflection.

Full lyrics to Tears of Rage written (and sometimes sung) by Bob Dylan are here. Go ahead and open the link in another window, if you decide to listen to the song.

"It was all very painless

When you went out to receive

All that false instruction

Which we never could believe.

And now the heart is filled with gold

As if it was a purse.

But, oh, what kind of love is this

Which goes from bad to worse?

Tears of rage, tears of grief,
Why must I always be the thief?
Come to me now, you know
We're so low
And life is brief."

Back in showbiz

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 22:17:19 GMT

Sort of. I answered a Craigslist ad a few weeks ago and wound up being appointed the San Francisco Computer Virus Examiner for the Examiner.com website.

This definitely carries less weight than being an Imperial Auditor on Barrayar. If I get as many page hits in a month as Scalzi gets in a couple of hours, I'll have earned enough to buy a burrito dinner in the Mission District.

But why not? My second installment contains geek knowledge for Windows users about limiting browser privileges that hasn't previously had wide scale distribution.

Apparently real enough

Tue, 26 May 2009 00:16:48 GMT

Thanks to Paul Di Filippo for turning up a *great* 6-part documentary on Philip K. Dick.

Produced by the BBC in 1994, Part 1 features a Ubik/PKD commercial from Terry Gilliam's kitchen, a late-night UHF/PKD book commercial by Elvis Costello, footage with Tom Disch and Kleo Mini, spiced with a great selection of 1950s photos. Subsequent segments have Gilliam, Disch, Kim Stanley Robinson, Paul Williams, Brian Aldiss, Tim Powers, and James Blaylock discussing the power of Dick's writing.

If you're moved to continue watching after segment 3/6 in Di Filippo's link, you can go here for the last three segments.

I really enjoyed seeing Paul Williams at the height of his eloquent power, expounding on Phil in this. Right now, Paul Williams could use a lift. If you've got a buck or two to spare, I hope you'll consider sending it in Paul W's direction.

World's Finest

Tue, 19 May 2009 00:14:58 GMT

"I always thought Batman was best suited in the role of gritty urban crime detective. But now you guys have him up against Santas and Easter Bunnies? I'm sorry, but that's not my Batman!"

Caution! Playing the video clip behind this picture link in an embedded Quicktime browser window takes a powerful CPU. Right-click the picture and download the clip to your hard disk if you want to play it safely. -- LB

"Psst!" say the animated Batman crew from the stage at the 5th Dimension Animated Cartoon Convention. "Read this!" they say, handing BatMite a slip of paper.

Batman's rich history allows him to be interpreted in a multitude of ways. To be sure this is a lighter incarnation, but it's certainly no less valid and true to the character's roots as the tortured avenger crying out for Mommy and Daddy. And besides, those Easter Bunnies look really scary, right?

The producers of Batman:The Brave and the Bold have let Paul Dini loose to author this Friday's upcoming episode: Legends of the Dark Mite. Cartoon Network, 5/22, 8:30PM. Be there or be square!
[[Apparently will show next week: Friday 5/29, 8:30PM]]

What's left to throw at him? A squadron of scolding mothers?

'Still Truckin' Update

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 16:48:04 GMT

The Listen to it link referenced in yesterday's 'Still Truckin' post now goes to a broadcast of The Dead at Madison Square Garden: 4-25-09.

Live365.com, an Internet radio station, is apparently covering the entire tour.

This Picky Deadhead's opinion is that 4/25/09 is not completely shabby. But with a challenging setlist that includes St. Stephen->The Eleven, it has a greater history of awesomeness to compete with.

I stand by my initial take that the 4/24/09 Nassau Coliseum show rocks out. See for yourself:

The fellow ~~on the right~~ with the long hair is Warren Haynes, of Government Mule fame. [[9-6-09: Substitute Easy Wind for Goin' Down the Road, same night's performance. The whole show now streams at Archive.org if you want to check out GDTR.]]

Oh, and FWIW, here's Nassau Coliseum: September 7 1973, (Contains Here Comes Sunshine as the second set opener.)

Still Truckin'

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 17:33:07 GMT

Once in awhile I think about the psychic space my mind occupied in the 1970s and early 80s.

No jobs exploring personal computers or teaching their operation to students. Minimal involvement in the community of s-f fandom. Instead, I spent many many hours wrapped up in the music of the thing called The Grateful Dead: collecting and listening to tapes, drawing line sketches to illustrate songs, attending their concerts, hanging out in the festival parking lots and inside the arenas, going to Deadhead parties, playing music every night with Deadhead friends, and being a waystation for travelling pilgrims to Bay Area shows.

Those days seemed endless. The noosphere of my world was filled with an inexhaustible supply of "live Dead" music.

Today, twenty-five years later, I'm happy (and a little bit awed) to drop in on that psychic musical space again. The remaining guys from that hairy old hippie band have got their shit together. Last night, they gave a performance at Nassau Coliseum that strikes me as equal to any of Old.

Listen to it while you can!
Update, 4-26-09: Continued on next rock.

Set 1:

Jack Straw
Brown-Eyed Women
It's All Over Now Baby Blue
Easy Wind
Death Don't Have No Mercy
Don't Ease Me In
Lost Sailor >
Saint of Circumstance

Set 2:

When I Paint My Masterpiece @
Peggy-O @
Looks Like Rain @

Set 3:

Alabama Getaway >
Jam >
Dark Star (v1) >
Drumz >
Space >
Knockin' On Heaven's Door....
Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad

Encore: Donor Rap
Touch of Grey

@ - Acoustic

I voted for him. He's still charming, well-educated, and eloquent --

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:19:41 GMT

-- but, Obama's "compromise/reach out across the aisle" economic advisors are just producing economic stupidity (minus some of the Republican plutocratic meanness and outright theft).

If Obama doesn't hire some smart people to help him soon, all his charm may not save us from an impending economic meltdown.

You know this, right? Myself, I'd rather be writing an essay comparing similar themes in the novels of Steve Brust and Matt Hughes. (Despotic corruption -> abuse of powerful sorcery, which destroys and reshapes the known world.) But my brain says that thinking about this economics stuff has to come first.

Loyal friends list (and others who get here from kindly-granted external links): if you haven't already read so much about the Obama Stimulus Package that your eyes glaze over, stay with me for a few more paragraphs.

The stimulus package that worked its way through the Senate has been shorn of its real power to address problems in the U.S. Economy. Stimulating the economy is not about more tax cuts. The way to avoid a depression is to fund industries and encourage scientific research that will create jobs and, ultimately, produce more wealth. (Spending *wisely* to keep credit markets open and assisting victims of the mortgage crisis are also useful tools. The solution for avoiding a depression is not giving more money to brokers-cum-bankers without having some control over what they do with it. We shouldn't have to watch some of those guys redistribute the money to themselves as bonuses and get away with that.)

If you don't believe me about the probable ineffectiveness of what Obama is currently planning to do, see here and here, for opinions from Atrios (who is also former Economics Professor Duncan Black, Ph.D: at London School of Economics, the Université catholique de Louvain, the University of California, Irvine, and, most recently, Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania.

I've held my tongue (or my keyboard, anyway) about all the Obama warning signs since the election. Some of my friends have expressed a joyous sense of celebration that we've elected a smart, wise man as President of the U.S. and ousted the Evil Ones. (I'll admit to feeling a lot of relief, myself, about those evil ones departing from the White House. So, thank you, all the Obama campaign workers and voters who made that possible.)

But wise hero? I wish he would show the courage to support the base that elected him instead of fearing that everything will break down without constant compromise. The message about torture and Guantanamo seems to have gotten across to him. He's trying to address that with more than lip service -- even if it's not working yet.

On the U.S. Economy he talks the talk without walking the walk. Why isn't he soliciting advice from people like the NYU faculty linked to above ("Smart People"), or from Paul Krugman?

Trying to be fair: a certain amount of blame for the flaws in the watered down stimulus package can be assigned to the Senate. But from what I've been able to extract, the package was disproportionately weighted toward tax cuts over "stimulus" investments to begin with.

[Boring plea] If you're a USAn, consider writing to your Senators and Representatives or Obama, himself.

I'm working 10-hour days, some days. I'm grateful for that and consider myself lucky to have the work. But what I'd really like to do is go back to worrying about Dan DiDio wrecking the DC Universe and publishing lousy comic books.

Additional Spacecrab recommendation: read The Sideshow every day. Thank you, Avedon!

See you in Botany Bay!

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 06:44:48 GMT

Thanks, old friend. We won't forget you.

Footnote (1/15/08):
Many years ago, I wrote a lengthy piece called "The Village Storybook" that was published in SHAGGY (Shangri L'Affaires, the genzine produced by the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society). In there, I referred to a possible explicit connection between #6 and "John Drake" (Dangerman/Secret Agent from McGoohan's first TV spy series). It sounded to me, at the time, like #6 was referred to specifically (once and quickly) as "Drake" in THE PRISONER, in "The Girl Who Was Death" episode.

I've also been thinking about the final PRISONER episode. There's a scene where McGoohan, Leo McKern (the converted rebel No. 2), and Alexis Kanner (the rebel hippie, #48) are dancing inside the bars of a prison truck. They're sharing a champagne toast while being driven to London. McKern (No. 2) is dropped off in front of Parliament. Alexis Kanner (#48) is dropped off near a highway and immediately sticks out his thumb to hitchhike. Patrick McGoohan (Drake?) goes home and is ushered into his house by his mysterious butler/manservant.

Remembering this, it struck me that all us USAans are now sitting in our getaway prison truck, clutching our bottle of champagne -- while being driven swiftly to Obama's inauguration. The butler stands ready to usher us back into our home. It's a time to celebrate freedom! But in THE PRISONER, I was always slightly suspicious about who the butler was really working for.

((7-11-09: The video has an "off again, on again" existence at YouTube, but you can still download it here))

My City's Not Gone ....

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 06:16:50 GMT

I looked up one evening and found my city was *still there.*

When I fell into the ticket line, listened to fans gossiping about the new tour bus parked in front of the theater, and eyeballed the arcane ornament patterns over the doorways of adjoining flats, I felt a familiar buzz.

It could just as well have been 1972, standing outside the Keystone Korner, waiting for Jerry's kids to be ushered inside -- or several years later, receiving good wishes and a piece of Col. Sanders chicken delivered personally by Bill Graham, as he walked up and down the long line outside of Winterland. (Oh yes. *That* San Francisco.) Roadies dutifully carried stuff out of the big tour bus and I waited patiently, even though a power failure had pushed admission to the ballroom back 3/4 of an hour. A big cheer went up from the line when the GAMH marquee fired itself back into life. *E-lec-tri-city.*

I don't have the setlist, recordings (or even photos) for this to link to. (I realize that most of you who will be reading this, either from my Friends List -- or through the fandom central collection on pnh's list -- may have no inkling of why I'm raving on about this band. But I've decided to pretend that some of you may be interested enough to sample some material linked to in this post.)

For passersby who've "herd of 'em": David Gans opened the show and joined the Buffalos on "No Place Like The Right Time."

Crooked Fence, Chicken Yard
Life can be simple but still be hard
Oh my head, it hurts my eyes
The world's getting bigger as it shrinks in size.

Tara Nevins sang her heart out on "Family Picture," they did a bunch of stuff from their new release "Silverlined" and Jeb Puryear delivered a series of 4 to 5 minute guitar solos during the show-closing "Conscious Evolution" that made me feel he was directly channeling the fingers of Duane Allman. Proper invocations were made to wish for peace, love, harmony, and a prayer for a better life under Barack Obama. The band was at least as good as the sample stuff you'll find appended below, and the room was full of dancers -- young pretty ones with tall handsome boyfriends, mid 30s-to-40s ones, grey-haired couples, and lumpy, longhaired types (like me) who could have (and might have) stepped out from an s-f convention or WELL party:

Donna The Buffalo - Family Picture (Live image linked to Studio Performance)

Tides of Time

Some day I might figure it
Right now I'm just livin' it
Right now I'm just livin' it
Right now I'm just givin' it

Looking out over the multitude
Looking in to the heart of it
Reaching out into the middle of it
Seeing how we're a part of it

Chorus:
I'm feeling the tides of time
Moving in on my senses now
I'm feeling the tides of time
Pull me in, pull me out.

Here are a couple that coffeeem and willshetterly might like.

Locket and Key (New Studio Release)

Ring of Fire

*Oh, by the way: I don't have a link to the show I saw on Friday night. But here's a link to the whole show from the day before (Portland, Oregon, Thursday, 11-20-08). To listen to this you'll need the music geek skill to advance your audio player pointer to "02:24:00" to skip the opening band. (This is also explained on the website.) In case you're lucky enough to be located on the tour bus path, here's a tour schedule.

Tenor of the Auth-Ons

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 23:10:06 GMT

David Tennant has just--

No. This journal is skipping that LJ replication echo for a smaller one.

Potlatch 18, the floating West Coast literary s-f convention has just released Progress Report #2 for the iteration coming up on February 27 - March 1, 2009 in Sunnyvale, California.

Extra goodies such as banquet tickets, a Freddie Baer-designed T-shirt, Writers Workshop registration, and a special letterpress poetry broadside can also be ordered by mail or through Paypal from the P18 website registration page.

If you're just tuning in to our program in progress (or, as you know, Bob/Roberta), Potlatch features books of honor rather than guests of honor--and this year it has two. The poetry broadside will feature poems written by the authors of both BoHs.

Tenor of the Auth-Ons? Sorry, that's how the well-established, little-recognized Spacecrab brain cells work. More circuses await exploration....

WSJ editorial is full of crap

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:12:29 GMT

Maybe it's true that Obama's got this.

But there's a link on Google News this morning to a Wall Street Journal editorial entitled "Obama and Health-Care Equity -- Barack defends tax subsidies for the rich."

The editorial brazenly asserts that:

"For someone running as the tribune of "change," Barack Obama showed again in last night's debate that he sure is comfortable with the status quo on health care. He continued his recent assaults on John McCain's health reform even though it is precisely the kind of plan that someone of Mr. Obama's professed convictions ought to support."

This WSJ opinion molder echoes McCain's whopper: that the McCain tax credit (which would allow a $5000 deduction for Health Insurance for families and $2500 for singles) would be sufficient economic stimulus to allow most currently-uninsured taxpayers to purchase individual health insurance.

*Wrong.* McCain's tax credit would allow a writeoff of $2500 per year for a single taxpayer. Check the website of any major health provider and you'll find that full coverage for a single taxpayer, for one year, costs at least twice this amount. And that's with a reasonable yearly deductible of $1500 to $3500. Try looking for PPO plans that cover all office visits and hospital care without making the patient cough up $1500 to $5000 a year, first, and you'll find the prices go up to $850-$1200 a month (or about $10,000 per year).

But, as many of you reading this will know, the kicker is that you can't get the insurance even at two to three times the money McCain would give you, unless you're young and healthy as a horse.

I'm painfully familiar with this, because I'm a single taxpayer who lost my employer-sponsored group plan in 2008 and had to go looking for individual coverage on my own. I checked out Anthem/BlueCross, BlueShield, HealthNet, PacificCare, Aetna, Kaiser, and a number of other carriers and did some extensive reading and telephoning of insurance brokers.

I was rejected outright by five major health insurance carriers. The stated reason on each rejection form was that I had reported having a renewable prescription for Protonix to address a diagnosis of GERD (kept under control with the prescription). I was just out of luck, along with nearly 40 percent of the U.S. Population. For having *one* renewable prescription.

After another few weeks of rigorous googling, I located a "not-so-well-known" carrier that was willing to take me on despite my prescriptions at a 50% markup on their standard rate (which amounts to the higher $10,000/year figure I cited above). I consider myself to be extremely fortunate. I found another job (with a small company that doesn't offer group health insurance); and I can pay my monthly "protection fee."

- -

The WSJ piece continues advising us to eat cake instead of bread by boasting about what a stimulus for business it would be to tax those nasty old employers who dare to provide unconditional group health plans for employees.

OK. I'm back to chilling for awhile. I hope Barack really has got it.

Great General Petraeus! / Merciful Minerva!*

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 05:17:38 GMT

I watched two men casting shadows on the CRT, tonight,
demoing themselves to an audience who (presumably) will
vote on which one casts a more appealing shadow.

What we (you, me, and our blogs)
know about the noumenal men
is that one is decent, with a conscience.
The other is an egotist, who shows nothing but gall.

I watch the phosphor shadows vye
in spotlight attempts to demonstrate which one
may prove to be more proficient at guiding
the White pieces to victory.
It's a shadow chess game that makes difficulty
as far as caring very much which shadow prevails --

until I jot this scribbling down, to remind myself
about some of the Real:

650,000 deaths.
Children gassed; blown up by our bombs --
murdered in their homes and in the marketplace.

Doubtful, senatorial conscientious objector
vs. self-serving callous toady
(toady's religion being "The Territorial Imperative.")

"No torture of any kind. That means you and me, brother!
   And no waterboarding."

"Um, well, I didn't like being tortured very much in Vietnam.
   But waterboarding -- sometimes we may have to do that,
    don't you think?"
We may ("sadly," we say) have to transmogrify
    into red white and blue monsters
so we can anticipate more of what Their Monsters might be thinking.

You admire the stand he took on torture !?
   Are you smokin' something bro?
Or is this one more case of
  "If I really say it, the radio won't play it?"

Hopeful good samaritan, working in the ghettos --
Chiseling, bald-faced liar-publicity hound.

Intelligent, well-meaning advocate of middle class rights --
Two-faced stupid plutocrat, bragging about the 50 cents
   he'll save you by stealing someone's food stamps.

Why can't we see some of those contrasts illuminated
(nstead of watching two shadows of the noumenal men,
   each trying to prove he might push the White pieces around
   more efficiently --
in an "As You Know Bob" game played
on a media-manufactured chessboard)?

*Updated on 9/27/08 and 12/2/08 by the Executive Committee for More Coherent Crabbing

"Last Fair Deal" addendum: on cautioning all, warning a few, etc.

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:22:10 GMT

Ben Bernanke is appearing before Congress in his scary ghost costume, this morning.

MSNBC News Services

"In testimony to Congress’ Joint Economic Committee, Bernanke repeated his warning of dire economic consequences if the bailout isn’t enacted and if credit woes persist. Neither businesses nor consumers would be able to borrow money, he said, adding that such a scenario could result in the world’s largest economy grinding to a virtual halt."

Atrios (Duncan Black), a Ph.D and former economics professor, thinks Bernanke is full of crap.

"I get emails like this sometimes, from insiders who know what they're talking about, and over time I've learned that while they may be insiders all that means is they have access to more gossip. That gossip often doesn't turn out to be true.

In any case, a straw man is being erected. There is no crisis which requires $700 billion to Hank Paulson's friends THIS WEEK. That's the argument. There may be serious problems in the financial sector which require government attention. There isn't something which requires an insane act of Congress NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW."

Apparently, the consensus of a wide number of economists is that Atrios is telling the truth.

Personally, I wouldn't be in favor of Paulson's bailout solution for his Wall Street friends, even if he's right in his prediction that a melt-down of the World Economy is imminent unless the U.S. makes an immediate "security theater" feint.

If the U.S. economy has actually become a devil's bargain -- where the only thing that can save it is a blind man's bluff payoff to the pitchfork cadre -- then it's time for a revolt in Hell.

In the meantime, this is another Spacecrabby reminder that we can protest Republican-spawned plutocratic stupidity on Earth:

Senate phone numbers and websites.
U.S. Representatives Phone Numbers.

Letter fodder:
Seven Simple Reasons To Oppose The Bailout.

Explanation of post title.

Last fair deal in the country?

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:08:39 GMT

Dear Senator Feinstein:

I'm writing to express my opposition to allowing Henry Paulson to steamroller the Senate (and House of Representatives) into immediately passing bail-out legislation that will result in handing 700 billion dollars over to the Bush administration--without placing checks and balances on how the money will be spent.

1) Paulson's current plan will simply drop money back into the hands of the investment bankers who have precipitated this crisis. I'm sure you're familiar with the recent speeches made by Hillary Clinton.

2) Please *do not* cave in to the Bush administrations pressure to act immediately in protection of the same people who precipitated the crisis--and *not* in the interests of homeowners, and middle-class citizens whose 401K pensions are on the line.

You are well aware of the Bush administration's record on managing huge amounts of money and of how they spend it. It would be criminal to hand them a blank check to perpetrate mismanagement similar to the disbursement of funds for the Iraq war. If you do not stand firm, this time, and fulfill the functions of Congress--to supervise and audit the Executive branch--you may not have another opportunity.

Read what economic experts say: the current crisis has not been caused solely by a lack of liquidity. The current crisis is one of insolvency caused by poor investment choices of greedy businessmen. True to form in any crisis, George Bush and Dick Cheney want to rescue these people--not ordinary stockholders and homeowners (and their children).

PS: as a Democrat, you must surely be familiar with the principles applied by FDR in his establishment of the Home Owners' Loan Corp -- a government bail out that *worked* and channeled relief back to homeowners, not foolish investment bankers.

Senate phone numbers and websites.
U.S. Representatives Phone Numbers.

Letter fodder:
Seven Simple Reasons To Oppose The Bailout (via Avedon).

More Potlatch 18

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:11:54 GMT

Progress Report 1 for Potlatch 18 is now available.

One of the traditions of Potlatch, started at the SF\Bay Area ones, is to select a Book of Honor each year rather than a Guest of Honor. The Potlatch 18 committee, unable to make itself exclude either of two fine BoH candidates, decided to celebrate two Books of Honor, this year: Mike Ford's GROWING UP WEIGHTLESS and Ursula Le Guin's ALWAYS COMING HOME.

The first thought the committee had about this is that those two novels are as radically different from each other as any two books can be. But upon discovering we were deadlocked in trying to choose between them, I came up with the observation that maybe they do have something in common. Both novels show the life situation and problems of a rebel who is uncomfortable with, and alienated from, the mainstream of his/her society. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens in panel discussions as a result of this two-BoH experiment.

You can be there, too, if you're also curious to find out.

Potlatch 18

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 19:31:22 GMT

Potlatch, the Pacific Northwest literary s-f convention, now has a hotel and definite dates for 2009.
Potlatch 18 will take place February 27 - March 1, 2009 at the Domain Hotel in Sunnyvale, California. There are a number of good restaurants and points of interest to visit in the vicinity of the hotel.

The general member registration rate is $50 until July 31 and will go up after that. The committee is still caucasing to select a Book of Honor.

Are we there?

Sat, 24 May 2008 06:37:51 GMT

Once again, it's International Talk Like an Old Weird American Day. While the world rejoices in celebration, we of the Invisible Republic pause to wish lydy a happy birthday (as is also traditional at this time).

*And* we are pleased to announce the electronic availability of the 7th issue of Whistlestar, which doubles as a paper s-f fanzine (such as the ones wistfully missed by LJ's own Paul di Filippo).

Gort is alive, magic is a foot.

The above-referenced issue of Whistlestar includes articles by several members of the Old Weird S-F Fandom. In particular, it contains the second part of Fanotchka a fannish play written by Andy Hooper as a pastiche of Ernst Lubitscha's 1939 film, Ninotchka, which starred Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas. The complete illustrated edition of Fanotchka is here.

"Who is Andy Hooper?" you may ask if you've stumbled onto this page without being on my Friends List. He's a man long overdue for one of those silly rocketship nominations you hear so much about these days. You can click here to listen to his most recent radio play, The Price of Pugwash, which was performed at this year's Corflu fanzine convention. If you do, you'll also hear what might pass for my entry in this year's "Talk Like [Johnny Fontless] Day" celebration -- about three minutes into the performance.

"Who should I tell, oh, who should I tell?
The forty-nine of you like bats out of hell
Oh underneath that old apple suckling tree,
Oh yeah!"

Hey, it's us!

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 06:34:59 GMT

Wanderers in foreign lands, attn: check out the slide show at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/corflu-silver-virtual-con-suite

If you tune in between 11AM and 1PM PST tomorrow, you probably won't get the slide show. Instead, you might get to see, hear and comment on the election of the 2007 Past-President of the Fan Writers of America.

**Update: Which did take place. I think the slide show will remain in place for a couple of weeks, so I'm going to leave this post up --for anyone who might find it meaningful.

The Iron Lantern

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 00:06:51 GMT

I'm discovering that Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Macintosh is an impressive piece of software. Once you install it, your computer works like a superhero from Amalgam Comics.

Is it DC or Marvel, Windows or OSX? It doesn't actually matter, anymore. You get the best from both universes. You can run programs and open documents from both operating systems in their own windows, launching from either the OSX Dock or the Windows Taskbar. Parallels appears to provide practically seamless cut and paste, network connectivy, etc.

To add to the splendid geeky weirdness of it all, there's also this element to consider in the configuration linked to above.