Friday, January 18, 2008

SHALLOW GRAVE, Lori G. Armstrong




This, and the other books in Lori Armstrong's Julie Collins series, are the kind of books I talk about to people until they wish I'd just shut up already.

I confess, I've fallen hard for Lori's heroine Julie Collins, a chain smoking, hard-drinking redneck woman with a serious obsession over finding the person who killed her beloved half brother. That story arc is finally resolved in this book, with devastating results for Julie. And her other obsession,with the dangerous biker warlord Tony Martinez, provides erotic sparks that are enough to raise a sweat on a bishop's forehead.

When I read Julie's stories, I think of one of my favorite Pretenders songs, "Human":

I crash and I burn, maybe some day you'll learn
I'm only human on the inside
I stumble and fall, baby, I do it all
I'm only human on the inside...

Add in Lori's gift for loving description of the landscape of her native South Dakota, and you've got...well, one of those books I talk about to people until they wish I'd just shut up already.

Check it out or I will get in your face about it again.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Why I Hate the Press, Redux

Richard Cohen - Obama's Farrakhan Test - washingtonpost.com: Barack Obama is a member of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ. Its minister, and Obama's spiritual adviser, is the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. In 1982, the church launched Trumpet Newsmagazine; Wright's daughters serve as publisher and executive editor. Every year, the magazine makes awards in various categories. Last year, it gave the Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Trumpeter Award to a man it said 'truly epitomized greatness.' That man is Louis Farrakhan....

...It's important to state right off that nothing in Obama's record suggests he harbors anti-Semitic views or agrees with Wright when it comes to Farrakhan. Instead, as Obama's top campaign aide, David Axelrod, points out, Obama often has said that he and his minister sometimes disagree. Farrakhan, Axelrod told me, is one of those instances.

Fine. But where I differ with Axelrod and, I assume, Obama is that praise for an anti-Semitic demagogue is not a minor difference or an intrachurch issue. The Obama camp takes the view that its candidate, now that he has been told about the award, is under no obligation to speak out on the Farrakhan matter. It was not Obama's church that made the award but a magazine. This is a distinction without much of a difference. And given who the parishioner is, the obligation to speak out is all the greater. He could be the next American president. Where is his sense of outrage?

So the daughters of the minister of Obama's church endorse the egregious Louis Farrakhan. Obama has already he said he disagrees with said minister's opinions on Farrakhan. But this Cohen idiot has his panties in a bunch because....why? Just expressing disagreement is not enough to make Richard goddamn Cohen comfortable that Obama has enough outrage to suit him.

I guess he won't be happy till Obama literally spits in Farrakhan's face and pisses on his shoes. Because, as we know, every time a black person says or does something stupid, Barack Obama is required to openly deplore it, and to dance that dance until white people are happy with the length and sincerity of the deploring.

Pheh. Is anyone asking any of the Republican candidates to distance themselves from the hateful bullshit of Republican supporters like Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin? Hell, no.

Barack Obama has, so far, been canny enough to avoid playing some of the usual games the press has tried to run on him. I hope he not only refuses to play this one, but to ask the next ninny who asks him to "speak out" against Louis Farrakhan why he's not asking Mitt Romney to "speak out" against his hate-filled supporter Ann Coulter.

Saudis to Dubbya: Drop Dead.


ABC News: Saudi Arabia Rebuffs Bush on Oil Request: Saudi Arabia will raise oil production only when the market justifies it, the kingdom's oil minister said Tuesday, in response to President Bush's request that OPEC nations increase output to reduce world oil prices.

Our allies in the Global War on Terra, ladies and gentlemen. Aren't they great?

The biggest failure of both Republicans and Democrats during the last twenty years is in not addressing the problems caused by our dependence on foreign oil. If I could ask any candidate one question, it would be: "What are you going to do as President to bring us closer to the day when we can afford to tell these torturing, woman-hating, terrorist-supporting assholes to kiss our asses rather than have to hold their hands?"

Sunday, January 13, 2008

My Hometown Indy Goes Online


The Country Bookshop, which has been an institution in my hometown of Southern Pines for 50-odd years, now offers online ordering.

They're good folks and have been very supportive of yours truly, so show 'em some love next time you're thinking of ordering online.