A Momentary Taste of Being

at Shirt of Flame, I came across this woman who deserves to be remembered and imitated: Irene Sendler

Joanna Russ has left the SF world

If true, may he rest in peace.  If true,  this is a somber victory and should be regarded as such.  No one wins when we make a martyr of anyone, and especially not when people figuratively spit on his grave.  I'm truly sorry that this has to be the resolution of the whole terrible ordeal. As Anthony says of Caesar, "The evil men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones; so let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus hath told you that Caesar were ambitious; if it were so, it was a grievous fault and grievously hath Caesar answered it. I am no partisan of bin Laden and his followers, but surely we have matured to a place in our civilization where we do not need to crow over a fallen enemy?  That the observance of such a deep moral victory can be made a solemn occasion for remembering not only that something great has been accomplished, but that it had to be accomplished at a terrible price in lives--both those who have died today and ...

Il Magnifico--or his Polish Equivalent given the wonderful Mercy of being beatified on a day precious to him (Totus Tuum) and on the day of celebration of the feast he erected--Divine Mercy Sunday.  I do know that there is a variety of Catholic who will not be pleased with this--but I am ecstatic--fallible, human, broken, like us all--but a man of great Holiness with a heart for peace.

Homeless mom jailed on grand theft charges for enrolling her son in Kindergarten I'm appalled that we can even think this way.  I pay taxes to support the schools even though I homeschool.  I would gladly give the "voucher" to someone who needs a place for their child.  There are millions of childless people who pay into the system and who get nothing from it other than the proper education (by some lights) of all of our children.  How is enrolling your child in a school stealing anything at all?  Perhaps if this enrollment actually prevented the enrollment of another child, I could see the point.  And yes, there will be a problem if everyone starts doing this.  No question.  So, why not bring the underperforming schools up to par?  (Easier said than done, but better than relegating countless children to them.)

Compressed Air Car

Ugh--the Joycean Copyright trap.

I found the news at Biblioklept , googled to assure, and found this appreciation by Christopher Priest. What a tremendous loss to the world of fantasy.  I'm so sorry to hear this news.

Rooting your Nook I guess this falls into the category of  "Because I could."  I'm not certain that I fully understand the attraction of doing this given that tablets are not all that much expensive to start with and they are undoubtedly going to become more affordable.

Horrific as it is, it shouldn't come as any surprise--the war on girls/women And the future looks even more ominous for baby girls. Nick Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute points to “the fatal collision between overweening son preference, the use of rapidly spreading prenatal sex-determination technology and declining fertility.” As the magazine adds, “Over the next generation, many of the problems associated with sex selection will get worse. The social consequences will become more evident because the boys born in large numbers over the past decade will reach maturity then. Meanwhile, the practice of sex selection itself may spread because fertility rates are continuing to fall and ultrasound scanners reach throughout the developing world.” While imbalances such as now found in China and India are unknown in the West, the practice of sex-selection abortion is found here as well. Indeed, there is no current law against the practice in the United States,...

R.I.P--Elizabeth Taylor I must admit that I haven't cared much for her work-- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof being the highlight for me, but I will miss her presence.  She was certainly an interesting and involved person.

Zero-tolerance Mayhem--student suspended for opening a door for a person who had arms full. Asinine stupidity.

Please remember to go out and support my good friend Randy at his Meet the Author Event in Dublin.

Chain Bookstores and their demise via Books Inq.

An Elegy for Borders

Assange and Bakunin via Books Inq. Assange has expressed indifference to the harm that might be done to innocents in Afghanistan and Iraq as a result of his unredacted disclosures. When Amnesty International warned him of the likelihood that the Taliban would kill named informants and human rights activists, he flippantly dismissed such criticism by saying, “I’m very busy and have no time to deal with people who prefer to do nothing but cover their asses.” (The Taliban, meanwhile, have set up a commission to compare a list of 1,800 Afghan informants with the names that appeared in WikiLeaks.) When one gives one's own life on a principle, that could be noble.  However when one is indifferent to the lives one destroys--is there any word other than evil to describe the attitude?

Brian Jacques R.I.P.

It's difficult for me to decide about something like this.  Is it real?  Is it simulated? It certainly seems to have all the hallmarks of the real, and yet. . . And this, unfortunately, is precisely the kind of difficulty the film producers must face.  Too much can be faked, too much can be imitated.  But--as in all of these things, it seems the better part of err on the side of caution and on the side of humanity--siding then with those who watch what comes from above.

I hope to post shortly a review of This is Not a Game . But in the meantime--its sequel Deep State and how life imitates science fiction.

In the Bleak (Chicago) Midwinter