Friday, May 22, 2009

UNCAGE ME!

Just got a look at the final version of UNCAGE ME, the new anthology from Bleak House Books, edited by the amazing Jen Jordan.

My short story "Players" is in there, alongside works by such talents as Scott Phillips, Allan Guthrie, Christa Faust, Victor Gischler, J.A. Konrath, Declan Burke, Brian Azzarello, Steven Torres, Stewart Macbride, Simon Kernick, Patrick Shawn Bagley, Greg Bardsley, Stephen Blackmore, Tim Maleeny, Nick Stone, Martyn Waites, Talia Berliner, Maxim Jakubowski, Gregg Hurwitz, Blake Crouch, and more!

It's a true honor to make the cut with that kind of company. And the stories I've read so far are killer.

UNCAGE ME releases in July. Thanks to Jen for all her hard work, and, as always to Ben and Alison at Bleak House for theirs. You guys rule.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

It's Time For Harry Reid to Step Down

He's spent most of his career as leader of the Senate Democrats knuckling under to the Republicans. Now, it appears that he's gone senile as well, as shown by this excerpt from his press conference in which he demanded that Guantanamo Detainees Not Be Moved to U.S. Prisons:
REID: I’m saying that the United States Senate, Democrats and Republicans, do not want terrorists to be released in the United States. That’s very clear.

QUESTION: No one’s talking about releasing them. We’re talking about putting them in prison somewhere in the United States.

REID: Can’t put them in prison unless you release them.

QUESTION: Sir, are you going to clarify that a little bit? …

REID: I can’t make it any more clear than the statement I have given to you. We will never allow terrorists to be released in the United States.

WTF? "You can't put them in prison unless you release them"?

No one's talking about letting them loose, you old fool. We've already got dozens of terror suspects and convicted terrorists, as well as other extremely dangerous criminals, in American prisons.

It makes no logical sense to say, as Reid does, that Gitmo has made us less safe and needs to be closed, and then to turn around and say "we can't move detainees even to maximum security US prisons". Where the hell does he think we're going to send them, the fucking Death Star?

Enough is enough. Reid needs to go. It's bad enough that the Republicans are fearmongering and lying through their teeth about this, but when the Democratic Majority Leader starts parroting the RNC party line as if he's ripping and reading off Rush Limbaugh's fax machine, it's time for him to go. Replace him with somebody who remembers that
the Democrats won the goddamn election.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Will They Never Learn?

The story made short: wingnut columnist Andrew Breitbart was having a cocktail with the missus at "an elegant, white-veneered hotel along the ritzy Santa Monica shoreline" when he saw a protest that triggered his Spasmodic Wingnut Outrage Reflex. Assuming that it was a protest against all things good and true and American, and that the "anti-warriors were trying to destroy the peaceful seaside vibe and our pleasant Jose Cuervo buzz," Breitbart proceeded to make a colossal ass of himself as only someone in the throes of Spasmodic Wingnut Outrage can do:

I jumped from my seat and bolted to the center of the balcony, where the American flag waved furiously in a now-harsh wind. Positioned next to Old Glory, I countered the young punk and reached out my right arm directing my middle finger in his direction.


Yeah, that'll learn 'em.

Later, however, he found out the protest was against the enslavement and use of children as soldiers in Uganda and the Congo. To Breitbart's credit, he's actually against that. And he admits he was a jerk: "OK, fine. I messed up."

Yep. He did. And Breitbart is to be commended for admitting it.

But the problem is, this is the sort of shit that wingnuts pull all the time. Whether it's a conniption over Rachael Ray's scarf, or a freakout about Obama allegedly flying someone across the country to make him pizza, or some hoax about Michelle Obama ordering lobster and caviar from room service on the campaign trail, these idiots never stop to think or check their facts they throw one of their little tantrums.

Will this be an object lesson to the wingnuttosphere? Will they start thinking or getting facts straight before letting the Spasmodic Wingnut Outrage Reflex take over their frontal lobes?

Well, in the words of the website where I first saw this story: Sadly, No!