Showing posts with label essays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label essays. Show all posts

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.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Another One Bites The Dust (Soon?)


I believe I've made clear my disdain for the world's worst heads of state on JauntWorld; it certainly hasn't lessened any with the news of Hugo Chavez's recent health woes. I can only rejoice with the irony of this monster being eaten alive from the inside out—a fitting end for a man who has done the same to his own country. The less said about his "Bolivarian Revolution" the better, save for it being thrown onto the ash heap of history.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Hey! How About That Putin!

Now that I've got your attention, click over to Agent Maya for some news. I promise to get an essay back here on JauntWorld about the sad state of affairs in our current world. Meanwhile, the first post-bin Laden US Presidential election is gearing up to be a farce...our incumbent is trying to out-W. Bush the nation in his covert overseas adventures, while our challenger would appear to have no foreign policy to speak of and zero charisma at best. Reminds me of the reverse of the 1980s. Interesting.

Monday, December 19, 2011

An Open Letter To Kim Jong-Un

This your time. Your people will follow you into the future. Truly make the People's Republic live up to its name and allow you people's voices to be heard. Open your country to the world. End the Stalinist purges. End your nuclear program. End the useless propaganda—no one buys it, not even your own people anymore with modern technology. Follow the example set by Burma and allow elections. Follow China and open your markets. You have no blood on your hands, giving you legitimacy to the eyes of the world. Do all of these things and truly become a Beloved and Great Leader, not the facades your forefathers propagated. It is true Juche to do these great things.




Monday, December 12, 2011

Tsar Vladi's Bad Week

So, apparently parading around doing burly, manly activities (including hosting an Us vs. Them Russian-American wrestling match) isn't enough to wrangle your party to a total victory in a rigged parliamentary election in these desperate days anymore, Vlad. Sorry to hear your and Dmitry's pre-arranged job swap isn't inflaming great love for your return, either. While I doubt your electorate will kick you out for good (something tells me you'll find some spare votes in a crevice) perhaps you should think twice and consider a few guys to the south who've disregarded their populace this past year. Your armed forces have a lot of time on their hands, too, and I hear they don't get paid that well, or often. Keep an open mind.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Late-Season Rambling

It's that time of year once more, day is the same as evening is the same as day. Inspiration is hard to come by so I work on gathering my research and plotting out my future tales. The holidays are tough to navigate, as the day job sucks the energy from me and the cold darkness depresses imagination. I have started the first glimmers of an outline for Cloak a bit early as I have found some intriguing research to fuel the trials our protagonists will be put through. And I continue plotting out the comic I have in mind to actually draw one of these years.

I watch and read the precarious situation across the Korean Peninsula with concern and anticipation, or is that anxiety? I can only hope the Kims get what's coming to them, either via more sanctions or their masters in China furtively pulling on that unraveling leash.... Oh and that piece of Wikileaks theater.

It's more and more apparent ebooks are the independent's new modus operandi, so I must get into the mindset for digital content and begin shifting my focus towards them. The Mrs has acquired a NookColor (in addition to her original Nook) and the avenues open to furthering ebook content on the device are astounding. Merging text and visual media will soon be commonplace, leaving big-time publishers in the dust if they don't get on the bandwagon and stop charging ludicrous price points for simple epubs while pooh-poohing multimedia e-reader content.

And one more year piles up under JauntWorld's belt here at Blogger!

Monday, July 12, 2010

Look Who's Seen The Light

I will admit upfront about being a Russo- and Persiaphile; their histories and cultures are so profoundly different than the Classical Western tradition one can't be helped but be intrigued by every cryptic move either one makes. So it's a bit of a surprise to these eyes to see that President Medvedev, in decidedly non-cryptic terms, spelled out that the Iranian regime of Khatami and his puppet Ahmedinejad are moving closer to possessing a nuclear device.

I suppose the questions are, how much does Russia fear Iran, and what does this mean for US and Russia relations? The Bond-style spy swap last week wasn't exactly a warm handshake, and the typical eastern mode of saving face seems to be more of a pie in the face for Russia after the incident. Does Russia want to invite the Western nations to its corner to show that they'll behave from now on? Maybe a little "Look at us, we're nice guys now?"

One thing's for sure, being a Russia and Iran watcher just became much more interesting.

Further Reading:
'Iran nearing nuclear bombs' Russia warns

The 'unraveling relationship' between Russia and Iran 

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Persian Tinderbox

A recent "vote" highlights the tenuousness of free elections in the modern world—all us who hold true liberal democracy in high regard—and gives us pause to consider what we enjoy. We may be split on election day, and have watercooler debates, but at the end of the day we're all Americans and proud of what we've achieved these past two centuries.

It is important to not forget another "experiment" in recent decades, that of the Islamic Republic of Iran. A failed experiment perhaps, but educated Iranians want and desire true "change" and freedom from repression in the guise of the pious Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It's easy to superimpose our values on one of the oldest civilizations on earth; we expect modern Iranians to blindly "like us" and be our friends in a region of the planet heavily exploited by past empires. We forget the true or perceived grievances many ordinary Iranians hold.

A common dialogue between our two cultures is gravely needed to get past the differences and our pie-in-the-sky Pollyannaism. Everyday news out of Iran does not look particularly promising, and the violence against ordinary citizens continues there unabated. Explicitly frightening is the measured takeover of public and private Iranian assets by the Revolutionary Guard, self-styled thugs whose tendrils threaten to overthrow whatever shreds of a republic exists and slowly rot Iran from within. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may not be the Supreme Leader, but he shows every sign of emulating Saddam Hussein's military dictatorship. An Iranian war is already underway, and it appears to be inside its own borders. I postulate a future Iran in Ether ruled by a dynastic thug whose origins are rooted in the Revolutionary Guard. Iran is a nation of many splintered peoples, held tight by an increasingly deplorable state apparatus spiraling towards tyranny, much like Iraq once.

If you were President of the United States, what would you do?

Further Reading:

Profile: Iran's Revolutionary Guards


Iran: Where did all the votes come from?


Recognizing Iran as a Strategic Threat: An Intelligence Challenge for the United States

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Æther


"The exact nature of dark energy is a matter of speculation. It is known to be very homogeneous, not very dense and is not known to interact through any of the fundamental forces other than gravity. Since it is not very dense — roughly 10−29 grams per cubic centimeter — it is hard to imagine experiments to detect it in the laboratory. Dark energy can only have such a profound impact on the universe, making up 74% of universal density, because it uniformly fills otherwise empty space. The two leading models are quintessence and the cosmological constant. Both models include the common characteristic that dark energy must have negative pressure.

"Negative pressure does not influence the gravitational interaction between masses - which remains attractive - but rather alters the overall evolution of the universe, typically resulting in the accelerating expansion of the universe despite the attraction among the masses present in the universe."

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Korean Finger Trap

1991 saw the collapse of the USSR into its constituent republics, a victory for the Western world, or so we all thought. Nearly twenty years on and Eastern foreign policy is a nightmare of dozens of regional crises all ruled over by a spectrum of fairly friendly governments (at least capable of doing business with) to downright hostile regimes. One more Cold War relic, however, has yet to thaw: North Korea. And when it does, some year, the consequences could be dire, not just for South Korea, as everyone assumes, but China as well.

Kim Jong-il's recent, still rumored, stroke put him out of the "public" eye for a few months this past autumn and winter. While he rules as Commander-in-Chief (his late father, Kim il-Sung, is still technically President of the state) the Dear Leader can't live forever, despite his "divinity." I postulate in my JauntWorld timeline a disaster effectively removing the Kim Dynasty from power some time in the nearly distant future, a vacuum filled by the military. This would have repercussions not just politically, but economically. No country with its lid welded on as tightly as North Korea's simply goes from bad to good; a real-life lesson was the ex-USSR; we've all seen how well that's worked out. If the various cadres and parties in North Korea were to be suddenly freed from the Kims, chances are the People's Republic would be carved out into dozens of fiefdoms at the mercy of any strongman (generals, perhaps), a medieval scenario no respectable or responsible outside country would want on their foreign policy plates. China and South Korea would be flooded with refugees and old scores would be settled (post-America Vietnam, anyone?). The chances China or even Russia would intervene to "keep the peace"—as those two nations have done so brilliantly in the separatist Uighur and South Ossetia enclaves—are quite high.

We ignore the Kim succession plan at our own peril.

Update, 04/09: He's appeared in public, and he's not looking too hot.

Further Reading:

Who Will Succeed North Korea's Kim Jong-il?

Profile: Kim Jong-il

North Korean Leader Appears In Public

Friday, March 20, 2009

Kremlinology

The world today sometimes seems eerily eager to be the prologue for the fictional world of tomorrow. Russia's recent "August War" in Georgia and President Medvedev's pronouncements of military rearmament are clear signs that the Bear is desperate to show it still has teeth, albeit in need of serious dental work. This does not mean, though, that Russia has ceased to be a threat or to become the one they are presented as in Jaunt. The "Confederation of Independent States" were borne out of internal collapse and external strife, mainly economic, political and environmental. Seen in the light of the world's economic recession—the burst bubble of credit and profligate greed—the dire circumstances in the JauntWorld backstory don't seem to be all that unreasonable, or unfathomable.

Further Reading:

Russia Announces Rearmament Plan

Advancing, Blindly


Poor Little Rich Kids

Russian Military Rearmament Plan Pits Politics Against Economics

Sunday, December 9, 2007

A Little About Jaunt (aka Origin Story)

Waaay back in the early '90s, random images in my head of a good guy and a bad guy fighting in strange spacesuits and jumping through time led me to write the scraps of what at first was called "Temporal Retrieve," a fantastically awful name for a book. Starting out as a handwritten script, then shelved for about five years, I instead focused on writing Star Trek fanfic to sharpen my skills, having the youthful delusion that I could actually get one of those published someday. My awakening came when Pocket Books' FAQ basically said "Forget About It," so I returned to that goofy time travel story with the guys duking it out in spacesuits.
After two years spent knocking it out in QuarkXPress, then moving over to InDesign, I had my first draft. And it was too long. Like 130,000 words. Perfectly suited to not get me an agent, let alone ever see it in print. I spent the next three-to-four years editing it, trimming it, having my wife read it, telling me what was good, what was not so good and "what the #@&$ does that even mean?" and I had a shorter, more cohesive and streamlined novel I had re-titled Jaunt.
And so I sent off queries and samples in SASEs to several agents I had selected from the Writer's Market and various online sources like Editors and Predators. I guess some kinda sorta liked it, but thrillers are a dime-a-dozen these days, so I'm sure a noob like me had next to nothing in the way of potential. (Don't even get me started about dragons, vampires or demon-slaying were-cats wearing hip-huggers written by fifteen year-olds and suddenly optioned by big motion picture studios for seven figures.)
I happened to come across Lulu.com almost by accident, in a Photoshop magazine of all places. So I logged on, checked it out, mulled it over for a few weeks and thought, damn, I COULD do this. Design my interior pages? Hell, not even big-time authors get that opportunity. Pick my own cover, design it, too? Ditto. I've been a Mac user and an artist all my life, why shouldn't I finally put those years of doodling with Adobe Illustrator to good use? If it looks like poop, well I'll take the blame. If it rocks, well, I'll bask in the sun. Above all else, this will truly be MY BOOK, not what some big house publisher decides it is, designed by somebody on their payroll. So, with my wife's encouragement, I dove in and produced Jaunt, all the while fixing mistakes and nixing bad/half-baked design ideas, and, hopefully, creating something worthy of being on bookshelves.
Seven months later, here I stand. One book published, two short novels set within another universe prepping for launch soon, and a handful of other ideas that each need my urgent attention. It hasn't always been easy, or fun, but it certainly hasn't been dull, either.