Sunday, September 22, 2013

Mr President, Where Is Your Righteous Outrage?


Watching these farces of domestic and foreign "policies" these last few weeks, one has to wonder where our esteemed President's priorities lay. Two years too late, he aims to enforce his mouth diarrhea about "red lines" in a failing state that could have been punished more effectively and succinctly by surgical air strikes before sarin had been used and Islamist forces took control over a "rebel" continent in Syria. He's embarrassed his biggest ally, himself, America and the West in general, and allowed our traditional rival and Dictator-in-Chief Vlad Putin an easy global political victory. After weaseling out of a direct Presidential order to strike Syria over his nebulous red line and attempting to throw Congress (and his political opponents and so-called allies) under the bus, he threatens this very same Congress over ridiculous budgetary shutdown terms. Where was that spine with Syria two years ago, Mr President? Where was it against Iran's Green Movement crackdown by the despots and the Revolutionary Guard? 

Yesterday, in a Kenyan mall shooting, dozens were killed by al-Shabab militants—allied to al-Qaeda, no less—the same terrorists responsible for Somalia's decades of misery and horror. These people are the Taliban of East Africa. Americans were murdered there, as they were in the twin 1998 hotel bombings that President Clinton ignored. Al-Qaeda's first salvos went unmet by Clinton. Mr President, al-Shabab won't go away; will you have a spine against these animals? 

All the hand wringing over domestic gun violence—be it school shootings or neighborhood watchmen defending themselves—random sports events bombings, aerial drone strikes and Gitmo tribunals will pale in comparison if we fail to stand up for our ideals and project our force across the world where we have been directly threatened. 

Monday, June 24, 2013

Send In The Drones

Much has been made in the popular media recently about the role of drones in state and federal law enforcement, from frenzied Orwellian overtones to more nuanced analyses. The fact of the matter is, surveillance, whether from drones or squad cars, choppers or planes, has been an ongoing occurrence for decades. Now with the installation of realtime phone cameras onto cheap RC drones and quick uploads to the web, the eyes that have always been there now seem omnipresent. Domestic weaponization is only a short time away, surely. We'll all be targets.

Well, I'm not quite ready to concede defeat to alarmists in this regard. As much as I disagree with the current administrations's handling of the "covert" foreign drone programs, I don't foresee a domestic analogue run by the CIA without Congress swiftly worked up into a lather (the FBI has conceded that they already run a domestic program, but they probably aren't going to start a drone Waco or Ruby Ridge anytime soon). And while Congress has traditionally been slow to adapt or adopt laws regarding new technologies, some states and localities are already drawing up bills to curtail or nearly ban blanket drone surveillance. Frankly, Cold War-era spy satellites have been doing a mighty good job at peeling away the layers of our domestic sense of security for decades, and we give them little or no thought. The very idea that the Eye in the Sky is within ear or eyeshot seems to give people the willies more than anything else. What would the neighbors think?

In Ether, our heroes face particularly nasty weaponized drones on a few occasions, with intrepid special agent Greg Mason literally engaged in a face-to-face encounter at one point. I don't expect to bring that scene to life anytime soon.

Jaunt Discounted at Lulu.com!

Just dropping a note that I discounted Jaunt the trade paperback 30% over at Lulu.com, an exclusive discount you can't get anywhere else! Now at $13.27, Jaunt is over $5 cheaper than ever before (and much cheaper than Amazon or Barnes & Noble). Go and grab yourself a bound copy for your scifi shelf.

And when you're done with Jaunt, remember that Ether is only $.99, a bargain of an ebook! Thanks and good reading.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

A Renewal, Of Sorts

I have been thinking for a couple of years, pretty much since I released Ether, that Jaunt required a fresh coat of paint, to spruce up that dusty face I created six long years ago. To put the two JauntWorld books together within a more unified front, I have redesigned the ebook cover, and a tentative wraparound cover for a potential print book, if I so decide (economics playing a bigger part, of course). It was quite an ambitious project six years ago when I first published Jaunt with Lulu; with a more practiced and experienced eye now, that first book looks very much like a rookie endeavor, more flaws than successes. I'm quite proud of it, and I've received many words of kindness and support about it, but a renewed Jaunt for a new season seems well past time. Eventually I suppose I will reformat the text inside—for now, the cover is the lone new element, and a new header here at JauntWorld to reflect the renewed brand.

Hope you enjoy it, I sure do!