Book Review: Time Salvager

Time Salvager
Wesley Chu
Tor Books
(c) 2015 by the author

Several centuries in the future, the Solar System is dominated by a handful of corporations. Civilization is fading, thanks to what seems to have been an almost non-stop parade of wars and disasters. A quasi-independent organization controls access to time travel, and uses it to plunder the past for technological assets that would have otherwise been lost or destroyed.

James Griffin-Mars, our protagonist, is one of the “chrononauts” who dive back in to the past, risking life and limb to scoop up those artifacts. On one mission, he has a crisis of conscience about leaving people in the past to die…

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Happy Irish-American Day!

Many, many years ago, some friends invited me to join them in a visit to a nearby Irish pub for St. Patrick’s Day. Seems it was a *real* Irish pub – they were hosting a small band who were actually *from* Ireland that night. Beer, good music, and friends? What’s not to like?

The only thing that stayed with me these many years is that at some point, a couple of older (much older – we’re talking senior citizens here) people came in. I’m not sure what they were expecting, but one of the ladies in the group kept asking the band to play “Danny Boy”. Every time, they begged off, claiming they didn’t know it, maybe later, and the like. Eventually, that group left.

I think the problem was that “Danny Boy” isn’t really considered an Irish song (the lyrics were written by a Brit, and the music – the Londonderry Air – takes its name from a county in Northern Ireland). Rather, it’s an Irish-American one, adopted by expatriates in the United States. It’s a fine song, but it’s probably as Irish as green beer, those cheap green plastic hats that get sold in early March, and most people who wear a “Kiss Me, I’m Irish” t-shirt.

I think of St Patrick’s Day not so much as an Irish holiday, but as an Irish-American one, in the same manner that Columbus Day is an Italian-American holiday, and Cinco de Mayo is a Mexican-American one. The days don’t mean that much in their “home” countries; it’s only here that we use them as an excuse to party get a day off from work celebrate those people’s contributions to American culture.

(Yes, St. Patrick’s Day is a national holiday in Ireland, but I’d say that Easter Monday is rather more important for that nation.)

I would like to think that in the years since that pub visit, Americans have become rather more acquainted with “real” Irish music and culture. Below the “More” line, you’ll find an annotated playlist of some Irish performers singing real Irish music. Give it a listen – if you don’t, I won’t care. I’ll just pour myself a glass of Powers and read “Darby O’Gill and the Good People“….
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How Low Can You Go?

The references to the size of certain body parts in the recent Republican “debate” are causing many to sigh in despair over how low the political campaign has gotten. We’ve also seen a candidate deliberately spread falsehoods about an opponent’s staying in the race and send out misleading – at best – “get out the vote” flyers. This  presidential campaign seems to be filled with all manner of nastiness, and we’re only getting started.

Ah, for the good ol’ days, when campaigns were matters of decency, fairness, and dignity….

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Movie Review: Killdozer (TV movie, 1974)

When you see the basic description – a bulldozer is taken over by an alien entity and starts attacking a construction crew – you’re going to suspect that this is a pretty crappy movie. When you find out that it was made for television, you’re going to figure it’s another lump of crud from the SyFy Channel (or whatever the heck they are calling it these days), and give it a miss.

Well, that’s not entirely fair. Back in the 1970s, in the heyday of the made-for-TV-movie, the networks took them seriously. They were crucial elements of the Ratings War between the three networks. Some of them launched their own series (Columbo, The Night Stalker), some launched careers (Duel), others can still stand up to the best that Hollywood has to offer (Brian’s Song, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pitman, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark). Whatever you could say about them, they were all at least competently made. Experienced actors and professional crews knew what they were doing, and they had writers who didn’t pander to the lowest common denominator.

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Ask the Candidates – 1a

I hadn’t realized it at the time, but I posted the questions on the 70th anniversary of George Kennan’s “Long Telegram”. After the dust of WWII had settled, it was becoming clear that the United States’ chief rival in the near future would be the Soviet Union. Kennan, the American “charge d’affaires” at the Moscow Embassy, was asked to provide answers to a couple of questions about the Soviet Union’s general outlook and policies.

His response was much longer (thus the name) and more insightful than anyone had any right to expect. It described the Soviet Union perfectly, and his recommendations became the center of the “Truman Doctrine” of containment that kept communism in check in the opening phase of the Cold War.

One wonders if there is anyone today in the State Department providing a similar analysis of Islamic terrorism, and if there is anyone in government ready and willing to listen.

Anyway, here are my answers to the questions I asked last time. Of course, I’m cheating. I only asked questions that I felt I could give good answers to….
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Ask the Candidates – 1

Recently, President Obama had some strong  words for Donald Trump. Referring to his lack of governmental experience, especially in foreign policy, he said that being president “requires being able to work with leaders around the world in a way that reflects the importance of the office, and gives people confidence that you know the facts, and you know their names, and you know where they are on a map, and you know something about their history.” [1]

Well.

Given that it seems a lot of the candidates this time around are actually rather inexperienced in foreign affairs, it’s probably worth it to subject them to a little pop quiz on their knowledge of those matters. One would hope that at some point, now that all the preliminaries are out of the way and we’re into the serious part of campaign season, the media will eventually get around to asking these sorts of serious questions.

I’m focusing on the Middle East, since that’s where most of the “action” is at the moment. However, anyone wanting to be a leader should know that a crisis can arise anywhere at any time (Whatever happened to those schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram, anyway?).

Please note, there aren’t really any “right” or “wrong” answers – only “good” and “bad” ones. Since it’s unfair for an anonymous blogger to ask these questions without being willing to answer them himself, I’ll post my own answers in a week or so. Keep in mind I am no foreign policy expert; what I am aware of comes simply from reading newspapers (and their websites) and a sincere interest in what’s going on in the world at large.
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Empty Seats

The death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has made this campaign season even more interesting. Now we’ll get to hear the candidates talk about their ideas on the role of the Supreme Court, and what one should hope to get in its members.

Of course, there will also be the usual foofaraw over the “fitness” of the nominees to replace Justice Scalia. We’ve already seen it start, but it’s interesting that the tone is a bit different this time. Instead of the mouthpieces of the GOP saying flat out that they will oppose whoever Obama nominates (on whatever principle they feel their constituents are most concerned about), they are saying that the nomination should wait until after the election. Something having to do with the fact that there will be a new president very soon, and it isn’t fair to whoever that will be for some reason.

There are a few reasons why this delaying tactic is nonsense (mostly because there’s absolutely no reason behind it), but there’s much more to it than that. While the GOP strategists have been planning to oppose any potential Obama Supreme Court nominee for a long time, the words they are using – don’t even bother nominating someone – hint at what’s really going on.

Article II Section 2 of the Constitution says it is the duty of the president to nominate candidates for positions like the Supreme Court and it is the duty of the Senate to offer “advice and consent” on these nominees. If Obama were to present a nominee, the GOP members of the Senate would have to come up with reasons for not doing their job. The usual “Whatever it is, I’m against it” isn’t going to work much anymore. We’ve seen just how fed up voters are with the obstructionism and stalemates in Congress (which partly explains the rise of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders).

And this year, in addition to voting for a new president, thirty-four Senate seats are up for election. What makes the GOP nervous is that twenty-four of them are currently held by Republicans. Most of them are “safe” seats, but depending on who you listen to (and when they did their count), as many as ten are toss-ups. And the GOP majority in the Senate is only three seats (54 compared to the required 51)….

The GOP isn’t just trying to tilt the Supreme Court their way and win the White House; they also want to maintain control of the Senate. And that’s going to be harder to do if they anger more voters with pointless obstructionism. Sure, the GOP will spout a lot of sound and fury during the Inquisition (er, confirmation hearings), but it’s all going to signify nothing more than grandstanding for their base. In the end, as long as Obama doesn’t nominate a complete loser, the nomination will begrudgingly go through. Better a slight lean leftwards on the Supreme Court than a Democrat White House, Senate – and a slight lean leftwards on the Supreme Court, too.

A Bucket of Warm Spit

We’re coming up on Presidents’ Day here, which allows workplaces to combine Lincoln’s Birthday and Washington’s Birthday into one convenient day off, gives retail businesses another excuse to advertise a sale, lets football fans argue that it should be made the day after the Super Bowl since people tend to take the day off anyway, and offers the pundit an opportunity to bemoan the poor quality of the current crop of presidential candidates.

But we might also want to give a nod to those people who are, according to one saying, “a heartbeat away from the presidency”: the vice-presidents.
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