Friday, December 21, 2018

I Hope That You Have A Cool Yule!

And from the longest night of the year, I bid you a cool Yule!  In 2018, this site pumped my latest novel, presented a few new songs, had The Thirsty Bear and Hungry Snake make an appearance, announced some new readings and publications, featured some videos of my old bands, and showcased some miscellaneous news and nonsense.  For 2019, I have lined up some poems, another new song, more videos of my old bands, and some other fun.  I will see you then!

Thursday, December 13, 2018

R.I.P. William Blum

Today, I learned that William Blum died.  He was older, so it was to be expected at some point that he would pass on, but he seemed to keep active with his writing until nearly the end.  You can read an obituary about him here.  Generally, he offered a thoughtprovoking perspective on American foreign policy that I found refreshing.  He even contributed to this blog once.  I was trying to publish daily then and started publishing the work of others, and Bill allowed me to reprint an article from his excellent "Anti-Empire Report" enewsletter about The Affordable Care Act a.k.a. Obamacare.  Reading that article years later, it is quite obvious that Bill was quite right in his predictions.  That usually with the case with him.  He preferred a happier republic to a grumpy empire and hoped to influence his fellow Americans into not wasting so many of our taxdollars and soldiers' lives messing around in other countries for little good reason other than benefiting a rich few who are just being greedy anyway.  Sadly, more Osamas than Obamas listened to him, and the American government still does a lot of the same dumb stuff.  Fortunately, without the bravery of folks such as Bill who point out the truth of "The Emperor's New Clothes", it probably would be a lot worse.  He will be missed.

Wednesday, December 5, 2018

Pushcart Nomination!

A big thank you to New Pop Lit for nominating one of my stories, "Yelp In Reverse", for a Pushcart Prize!  You can read about their nominations here:  https://newpoplitnews.com/2018/11/29/pushcart-2018/.  They also nominated another one of my stories last year.  I did not win, but it was nice to be nominated.  Maybe I will have better luck this year!  If not, then, once again, it is an honor to be nominated.