Author: Glenn Hauman

Christopher Jones, on WNYW Fox 5 this evening:
If [Paul O’Neil] now describes George Bush as “disengaged” in many
policy debates, O’Neil’s book may explain why. Who would want to engage
with cabinet members like O’Neil when what is said might appear in a
spiteful book just two years later?
Wow, George Bush is precognitive enough to predict that O’Neil will
write a book about him being disengaged, and so he disnegages, thereby
proving him right? He’s not precognitive enough that he doesn’t avoid
hiring O’Neil in the first place, of course…
C’mon. This is bad, even for the Fox flagship affiliate.

The price one pays for pursuing any profession, or calling, is an
intimate knowledge of its ugly side. — James Baldwin
(via http://www.herdthinners.com/)

When he’ll do anything to avoid the writing job he should be doing. So
far, I’m hoping that I have too many other jobs that I’d rather not be
doing that I’ll actually start writing again.
Or I could just jump off a cliff.
(My god– I’m even doing weblog posts again! How desperate am I?)

William Safire offers a list
of people who he thinks made mistakes “about the surprisingly easy
overthrow of Saddam and its unexpectedly bloody aftermath, and mistakes
now being made in building democracy”.
The list includes everybody EXCEPT George W. Bush.
Now, what the hell is the irony tag in HTML…

\\
The Chicago City Council voted to tack an added 15 dollars onto the
annual passenger vehicle tax for SUVs over 4,500 pounds because of
their additional “wear and tear” on city streets, raising it from 75 to
90 dollars effective January 1.
The increase, applicable to most SUVs except the lighter compact
variety such as Toyota’s RAV4, was approved as part of the city’s 2004
4.8 billion-dollar budget.
The additional revenue generated by the move will be applied to
infrastructure improvements, said city spokeswoman Lisa Schrader, who
said the measure was based on common-sense assumptions about the impact
of SUV traffic.\\
Thank the Lord. It’s a minor thing, but it’s a start…

“No amount of money
can truly compensate these brave men and women for the suffering that
they went through at the hands of a very brutal regime, at the hands of
Saddam Hussein”, and by God, we’re going to make sure that no amount of money
is exactly what they get.

…is that somebody does the work for you.
I was going to write a long piece saying that for a man who follows the
Bible, GWB seems to be mighty ignorant of the lessons of Genesis
regarding Joseph and Pharaoh’s dreams.
Luckily, Sam Coppersmith
has already done it for me:
\\Behold, there shall come seven years of great plenty throughout the
land. Then shall come seven years of famine, and all the plenty shall
be forgotten, and grievous famine shall consume the land.
Let Pharaoh plan for the future of his country, by decreeing the
setting aside of reserves during the seven years of plenty, gathering
food and corn in the cities and granaries against the seven years of
famine. And those stores shall protect the land during the famine, and
the people shall not perish.
And Pharaoh said to Joseph: You may be wise in interpreting dreams, but
you know nothing of politics.
You must not know, having been locked in a dungeon these past two
years, that I am a supply-side Pharaoh.
During years of plenty, we do not gather reserves nor do we plan for
the future. The grain that will grow in abundance is not the
governments grain, and such abundance instead demands that the
government set aside less grain, not more.
Right-wing Pharaohs, during years of plenty, want to cut taxes. The
surplus generated by years of plenty may pay for an occasional new
program. But conservative Pharaohs have no desire to prepare for the
futureexcept by repealing the estate tax.
When the lean years come, famine may consume the land and afflict the
people, but that hardship becomes yet another reason to cut taxes and
to continue ignoring the future.
This philosophy may strike you, Joseph, as shortsighted and foolish.
Years of famine always may come, and a wise ruler should prepare during
the years of plenty.
But Pharaohs family and friends will have enough money to buy grain,
no matter how severe the famine.
Pharaohs need not worry about famine. That is the beauty of being
richand of term limits. I will rule over plenty; the next Pharaoh can
deal with the famine.
And Pharaoh thanked Joseph for his time, gave him a snappy nickname,
and ordered him returned to the dungeon.\\
(Hmm… seven years… that was the Clinton Administration, right? And
that means that… oh boy…)

Putting on my old electronic publisher hat, look at this: a 300 ppi screen that’s about the size of a business card.
In color.
Perspective: I know a lot of people who were typesetting books at that
resolution 15 years ago in black and white– without even the
possibility of anti-aliasing.
Game’s almost over. This is paper quality on a portable screen.
Now, ask me if I think it’ll make the e-book market better? Maybe…
another time. (Story via http://dotclue.org.)

Matthew Yglesias, a fine political writer despite the fact that he’s
not even old enough to remember Carter’s term, points out some
brilliant comments about last season of 24:

I must say that, in retrospect, the whole show seems rather
touchingly naive. We’re supposed to believe that the possibility that
the country was headed for war based on forged documents would provoke
a crisis at the highest levels of government, and then when the people
duped by the forgeries saw their mistake they would resign in shame. If
only they knew.

\\Harry Clement Stubbs, who under the pen name of Hal Clement wrote
science fiction for sixty years and received SFWA’s Grand Master Award
in 1999, died in his sleep at his Milton, Massachusetts home on October
29th, 2003, at age 81.
Clement was an exemplar of the hard science fiction writer, always
basing his stories in thorough and rigorous science. He held three
science degrees, a bachelor’s in astronomy from Harvard and masters’ in
education and chemistry. He was a high-school science teacher for forty
years, most of that time at Milton Academy in his home town.
His first short story, “Proof”, which appeared in Astounding in 1942,
is widely considered the first successful melding of SF with the
mystery genre. After a stint in the Army Air Force in World War II, he
published his first novel, Needle, as a serial in Astounding in 1949. A
second military stint intervened before he produced his most famous and
enduring work, Mission of Gravity. His portrayal of Mesklin, a vast and
fast-spinning planet with gravity varying hugely from poles to bulging
equator, from the viewpoint of a native adventurer trekking across its
surface was a tour de force of hard science.
Clement’s other work included two more Mesklin novels, Close to
Critical and Star Light, as well as Iceworld, Cycle of Fire, The
Nitrogen Fix, Still River, and Half Life, along with some short story
collections. His most recent novel, Noise, was published earlier this
year by Tor, and he was reportedly working on further things at the
time of his death. His enduring legacy will be his portrayal of his
favorite character: the Universe, at once wondrous and comprehensible.
Clement was also a familiar and beloved figure at SF conventions,
enlivening any panel with sharp observations, self-effacing humor, and
remarkable anecdotes. His talents did not stop there. Not three weeks
ago at Albacon, I had the unusual privilege of listening as he and new
Analog writer Carl Frederick spent perhaps a quarter-hour at a social
gathering singing Welsh folk ballads. What an abstruse and charming
thing to know; what a breadth of experience and knowledge it revealed
in him.
A memorial service will be held at Saint Michael’s Episcopal Church at
112 Randolph Street in Milton, Massachusetts, at 10 am this Saturday.
Harry Clement Stubbs is survived by his wife of over fifty years, Mary,
and his children George & Richard Stubbs and Christine Heusel. On
behalf of all the members of SFWA, Online Update offers heartfelt
condolences to his family and many friends.\\
A gentleman in every sense of the word. I did a panel or two with him
at Arisia, and he was a pleasure, even going so far as to complement me
when I brought up an interesting point about writing Superman stories
and most story writing that he said, as a hard SF guy, he never got
until that moment– the point that if your character can do anything
(be it science, fantasy, or what have you) then the only stories left
to tell are ethical ones– should the character do this or not? And
why?
That, to me, summed up the man– even at the age of 80 or so, he still
was happy to learn new things he hadn’t considered. He’ll be missed.