A new spin on “Homeschool or Die”

Dallas parents are pulling their kids out of school rather than risk further exposure to Ebola: Parents rushed to get their children from school Wednesday after learning that five students may have had contact with the Ebola patient in a Dallas hospital, as Gov. Rick Perry and other leaders reassured the public that there is […]

How not to destroy Christianity

China is going about it the wrong way: In China the government is now taking on Christianity, treating some practitioners as potentially dangerous to the state. Christianity has been in China for centuries and currently is about five of the population and growing fast. In some provinces where Christians are prominent (lots of churches) and […]

Argentina defaults

So much for the strategy of preventing a foreign sovereign from defaulting through claiming sovereignty over its bonds: At the stroke of midnight last night, Argentina officially defaulted on $29 billion worth of debt. It was the eighth time in its history, and the second time in 13 years, that Argentina told its foreign creditors […]

Et tu, Bibi?

Netanyahu not only doesn’t know how to run a 4GW war, he apparently doesn’t understand that Americans don’t give a damn about his expectations: In a phone call with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, Netanyahu vented his anger, according to people familiar with the call. Netanyahu told Shapiro the Obama administration was “not to […]

ESR on SF and literary penis envy

Er, sorry, I guess that was literary STATUS envy. Although considering the predominantly female and low-testosterone gamma male makeup of the other side, either description would serve equally well. In any event, ESR addresses the Blue SF/Pink SF divide: I’ve been aware for some time of a culture war simmering in the SF world. And […]

Hamas is Israel’s al-Qaida

Keep the history of Hamas in mind when you read about how terrible they are and how Israel has no choice but to eradicate it due to its implacable religious opposition to the existence of Israel. And notice that the article is twelve years old, although it reads as if it was published yesterday. Israel […]

And now, a moment of silence

For Our Friend Damien’s abortive SF career: Damien Walter @damiengwalter I don’t believe I can claim to belong in SF any longer. That makes me a little sad, but also excited. While I did advise Our Friend that he ought to go ahead and quit as per his declaration concerning his distaste for the true […]

Homeschool or die, vol XLVI

Pity those poor “children” crossing the southern border: You’re going to hear plenty of people try to explain how, if a school turns such a “student” away, it’s racism. You’ve been told thousands of times that stopping illegal immigrants at the border is “hate.”  You’ve been told that even calling this a problem means you’re […]

Pro-pedophile, anti-Amazon

It’s certainly an unusual public position for a writers organization to take. I found this letter by an SFWA member to be vastly amusing, particularly in light of how the astonishingly inept Steven Gould was recently re-elected SFWA President: Douglas Preston is circulating a letter regarding the Amazon-Hachette dispute. In this letter, Preston finds Amazon […]

Book review: Monster Hunter Nemesis

I am not a Monster Hunter International fan. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I WAS NOT a Monster Hunter International fan before this, the fifth book in the Monster Hunter series. While I stand second-to-none in my respect for their intrepid best-selling author, I found the first four books in […]