More “Election” Returns

(Taken from the Pike County News-Herald-Republican-Watchman-Tribune of November 4, 2009)
Pike County, OH- (Ilene Dover, staff writer) In the continuing bizarre events surrounding the vacant At-Large seat for North Jackson Township Trustee, it appears that the winner this time is Foreclosure. Once again the winner was not on the ballot and won as part of [...]

Bad Paper

{The Political Lamp is Lit}
Of all the sound bite terminology being used by the talking head television newsies theses days, the one that sets my teeth on edge is “bad paper”.
What is bad paper? According to what we are being told, it is some of the investment securities that were created by mortgage companies [...]

The Gerrymander still lives…

{The Political Lamp is Lit}
It was with great hope that I entered this election season anticipating that for the first time I would have a elected official in the US House of Representatives that represented me, my neighbors, and my county.
It was not to be.
The Gerrymander still lives and won the day. Again.
It angers [...]

Politics and the Federal Employee

{The Political Lamp is Lit}
I have not been very vocal on this blog about politics and this very important election.
There is this law called the “Hatch Act” that limits federal employee participation in partisan elections. It is very straight forward for most employees. But there is a huge gray area for those of [...]

Slice of Americana: an 11 hour roadtrip

The road trips when I take Derek back to school are both happy and sad. I am happy that I get a good bit of one-on-one time with him. Jokes, music, movies, books and just plain silliness are all topics that we cover. The half of the trip with him in the [...]

Investigating Narvik

It is amazing the things you can find when doing research via the internet. Even though I am writing fantasy/science fiction stories, I feel that getting basic facts correct is very, very important. It adds to the realism, the believability of the story.
I am working on a story based in the “Thistlethwart” world [...]

I say we test water-boarding…

{the political lamp is lit}
Sorry folks, I’ll get back to reviews and the like soon. I really didn’t want to jump back in with a political post, but sometimes…
The subject is water-boarding. What set me off was the following statement: “I’m finding out just how long I can go sleep deprived. You know, [...]

Are We Letting the Terrorists Win?

{The political lamp is lit}
The world in general, and the USA in particular, is overcompensating about terrorist attacks. Yes, terrorist attacks are terrible. Yes, we here in the United States need to take precautions that events similar to those that happened on 9 September 2001 are less likely to succeed. But at [...]

Review: Origins of the Crash – by Roger Lowenstein

Origins of the Crash: The Great Bubble and Its Undoing – By Roger Lowenstein
When the dotCom stock market bubble collapsed, it left behind a similar bubble of overvalued “legitimate” stocks. This is the bubble that Lowenstein writes about. I personally don’t see what happened as a crash a-la the crash of 1929. [...]

Right, Wrong, and Technically Legal

Quite a bit of my reading lately coincidentally has had a similar theme. What is right, what is wrong and what is technically legal. Two stories that I am working on have the same kind of theme, but I did not realize it until yesterday.
It really eats at my hope in my fellow [...]