Archive for June, 2012
Monday, June 18th, 2012
Loose Cannon: The Tom Kelly Novels by David Drake
A pair of Cold War with Aliens thrillers sharing the same hero/anti-hero, Tom Kelly. Tom Kelly is a spy, and not the sauve, Vodka martini drinking type of spy that that era made famous. Nope, Kelly is a roll up your sleeves and get the job done, regardless of where the chips may fly type of spy. The ladies still love him, probably because is a seriously “bad boy.” Ok, not a bad “boy”, he is a man who lives by his rules, not the rules of the agencies that employ him. If you are looking for gritty action with a healthy dose of aliens, settle down in a comfortable chair and get to know Tom Kelly.
Monday Book Pick Archive
Posted in Baen Books, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction | No Comments »
Sunday, June 17th, 2012
Tor publishing has created a list of The 10 Most Memorable Trek Redshirts Not Dressed in Red
10.) Crewman Green (Uniform Color: Gold), “The Man Trap”
9.) Joe (Uniform Color: Blue), “The Naked Time”
8.) Robert Tomlinson (Uniform Color: Gold), “Balance of Terror”
7.) Lee Kelso (Uniform Color: Beige?), “Where No Man Has Gone Before”
6.) Karen Tracy (Uniform Color: Blue), “Wolf in the Fold”
5.) Latimer (Uniform Color: Gold), “The Galileo Seven”
4.) Sam (Uniform Color: Pink Bathrobe), “Charlie X”
3.) D’Amato (Uniform Color: Blue), “That Which Survives”
2.) Arlene Galway (Uniform Color: Blue), “The Deadly Years”
1.) Sam Kirk (Uniform Color: Civilian Orange Colored thing), “Operation—Annihilate!”
Posted in Science Fiction, Star Trek, Sunday SciFi | No Comments »
Saturday, June 16th, 2012
Remember kids, you can always send an Amazon Gift Card at the last minute by email.
Posted in E-Commerce | No Comments »
Friday, June 15th, 2012
Gattaca
This 1997 film is best known for where Uma Thurman meets the man who would become her ex-husband. Other than the ex-Mr. Thurman, it really has a pretty good cast. Uma Thurman, who went on to fame in the Kill Bill movies, Ernest Borgnine, Tony Shalhoub, Jude Law and Alan Arkin give the movie some serious acting chops. SNL’s Maya Rudolph had a brief scene as well, one of her early “serious” acting jobs. The movie focuses on an old SciFi concept, when science allows parents to start editing their children’s genes to create “perfect” humans, what happens to those who didn’t have their genes tweaked? A good film, but not a great one.
Friday B-Movie Archive
Posted in Movies, Science Fiction | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 13th, 2012
One of my sons got a Saint Bernard, so I had to get a keg for the beast.
The son in question is a Helicopter pilot, the sticker was his idea.
Originally posted at the Slices of Life blog
Posted in Photography | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 13th, 2012
I first heard Andy’s Automatics on Pandora, which lead me to track down and buy their album, Things Have Changed.
The one review on Amazon describes them as a Wisconsin bar band. I’m betting they are a hoot to see live.
It’s good rocking country singing about hot lady cops, the problems of being a traveling band, and dealing with evil women.
Check it out!
Posted in Country, Music | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 12th, 2012
The following has been passed around actively by leftist recently:
Basically, the Republican strategy for the past three years has been this:
1. Do everything humanly possible to prevent the economy from recovering.
2. Wait for 2012.
3. Run a campaign focused on the fact that the economy is lousy.
This post shows a high degree of partisanship, and an appalling low knowledge of how the federal government works and basic economic theory.
First off, for most of the past three years, the congressional Republicans haven’t been in a position to do much of anything. A position they primarily put themselves in. They didn’t control the White House, were the minority in the House of Representatives, and didn’t have enough seats in the Senate to even threaten a filibuster.
For the better part of two of those three years, the democrats ran the show. They set and implement policy, they decided where the money was coming from and how it was going to get spent. For the rest of the three years in question, they still controlled the White House and the Senate, which let them effectively block any changes the House Republicans might want to make.
The democrats, lead by Barack Obama own this economy, i.e. the most lackluster recovery on record. They are the ones who promised unemployment under 6% by now if they got enact their grand Keynesian economic plan, which they did. The results, unemployment at 8.2% (which be over 10% if the labor force participation was at the same level it was when Obama took office) and a real unemployment rate of 14.8% (according to the Dept. of Labor)
Faced with this record, the democrats want to double down of failure and continue the policies that have resulted in high unemployment and economic growth that in a good quarter breaks 2%.
There are a great deal of things you blame the congressional Republicans for. The current lack of significant growth in the economy isn’t one of them. Even Barack Obama has correctly stated that the economy was his issue and if he didn’t have it fixed in three years, he didn’t deserve a second term.
Posted in Barking Moonbats, economy, Obama Economy, Politics | No Comments »
Monday, June 11th, 2012
An important historical fact to remember, congressional democrats opposed the Civil Rights Act.
Senate democrats filibustered the Civil Rights act for 57 working days, which included a speech by democrat Senator Robert Byrd against the bill that lasted fourteen straight hours. Byrd’s opposition was not surprising, since the late Senator got his start in politics as a recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan.
The filibuster was finally ended when the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen, a Republican from Illinois, pushed for a closure vote in a speech that called for the democrats to end their filibuster and accept racial equality.
The Civil Rights Act was finally voted on, and passed with a majority of Republicans and minority of democrats voting for it.
Posted in American History, Congress, History, Politics | No Comments »
Monday, June 11th, 2012
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
I saw this book in the “New Science Fiction” section at a local bookseller. So “new” means published in the last 100 years, since this book was originally released in 1912! It is a classic, well worth the reprinting. One of the favorite early childhood books of both my brother and myself. I still have that hardcover edition with the Ape-English dictionary in the back.
Monday Book Pick Archive
Posted in Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction | No Comments »