Not a Very Good Time

Things haven’t been that great the past couple of weeks.

Although the January 6 Committee has begun its public hearings, making it abundantly clear just how big a SORE LOSER the previous president was, there are still far too many people who believe the lies he’s spewing and see nothing wrong with the coup and insurrection. And even as more and more details come out, there’s still the dreadful possibility that not a single one of the plotters will ever face any punishment for it.

Then, the highest court in the land, the one that is supposed to be above partisanship and consider all of Law as its purview, revealed conclusively that it has been taken over by partisan hacks who decided – without any basis in law or sense or rationality – to simply ignore any laws that weren’t at least around one hundred and fifty years old. Evidently nothing of any real importance happened after 1860. To make it worse, the issues of vital national interest were tossed back to the individual states with a casual “You guys figure it out.”

Meanwhile, the majority of the news media seems to be doing its darndest to preserve some sort of “impartiality” and “fairness” throughout all this. Even though one of the largest news networks in the country is the de facto propaganda arm for one of the political parties. Look, when someone in the kitchen is putting garbage in the soup, you’re supposed to tell everyone DO NOT EAT THE SOUP. Just saying “I recommend the salad” isn’t good enough.

To top it all off, most people aren’t able (for whatever reason) to see past their next paycheck and realize what is happening – and going to happen – to their country. There are enough short-term crises happening at the individual scale, and they need a quick fix to those matters right now, and if President Biden can’t make it all nice within the next week, well…..

So that’s why I’m not really excited for Independence Day this year.

Book Review: Reboots: Undead Can Dance

Reboots: Undead Can Dance
Mercedes Lackey and Cody Martin
CAEZIK Sf & Fantasy
Copyright 2021 by the authors

Vampires, werewolves, and zombies exist. For that matter, so do a lot of other supernatural creatures from folklore, but not in anything near the same numbers. Now after the humans (“Norms” in the common slang) have decisively come out ahead in a global war against the “reboots” (i.e. zombies) and have attained clear domination over the “fangs” and “furs” et al., what do you do with all the millions upon millions of practically immortal beings hanging around?

Put them in cheap spaceships, and send them off to explore and colonize the galaxy, naturally!

That’s the basic premise behind this connected set of four novellas (some of which have been previously published).

Continue reading

On the Jan 6 Hearings

The January 6 Hearings are underway. Everyone is expecting some sort of “bombshell” to drop; something brand new that has never been revealed before.

As if it would matter.

If you’ve been paying attention – and cared – you’d know everything you need to know about what happened starting with the day Joe Biden was named the winner of the 2020 Election.

The General Public has pretty much already settled into two camps on the Insurrection; the hearings aren’t going to change anything noticeable there.

Where their effect really needs to be seen and felt is in the national news media. One political party has been taken over by a faction that condoned and allowed if not actively supported the Insurrection, and it is not violating any principle of “fairness” to point this out. Nor is it “biased” reporting to state that the faction is still present and active within the Party, and is working to turn the country into a theocratic, neofascist dictatorship.

Enough of the nonsense about “How inflation will hurt the Dems in the mid-terms”, and more of “How the Cult of Trump is destroying the United States”.

Movie Review: Agency of Vengeance: Dark Rising (Canada, TV, 2011)

It’s not your usual “get me to the church on time”. A team of demon fighters is racing through the streets, hot on the trail of….something unseen that is tearing up the pavement as it goes. Even a bunch of kids playing in the street isn’t going to stop them. Fortunately for the kids, the team has “portal guns” that open a sort of tunnel / gate that lets them pass through the space where the kids are playing.

You will note two things right off the bat.

Whatever it is ripping up the streets doesn’t bother taking shortcuts through / across lawns or even sidewalks. And the kids make no move at all to get out of the street when they hear something coming.

Well, at least they set the tone right away. And they got the stupidest bits taken care of at the start.

Anyway, they arrive too late to the wedding in the park to stop the Thing from attacking the wedding party and killing the groom. It almost kills the bride, but it turns out that she’s prepared. Thanks to a concealed blade (that looks like it would have cut her leg quite a bit as she walked around), she is able to fight and kill the Thing.

Turns out she – Summer Vale (Brigitte Kinglsey) – is a “warrior princess” whose mission is to kill demons who sneak over into our realm. And there’s been a surge in demonic activity lately. Can she and her team find out the reason behind it – and save the world?

Continue reading