Just when you thought a good Le Carre spy novel was a thing of the past, we’ve got Russian spies again.  Le Carre’s books never translated well into movies (e.g. The Spy Who Came In from the Cold)—they were tales focused on the dark inner workings of the U.S. versus U.S.S.R. spy networks, more character-driven than action-driven.  Sure, movies were made (I liked The Russia House best), but they weren’t blockbusters.  Compare his tales to Ludlum’s, if you will, where there was plenty of action that translates well to the screen when you allow Hollywood to modernize the plot (and change it beyond recognition as in the Bourne trilogy).

Yet, here we are, smack in the middle of a real life Le Carre novel with a lot of Boris and Natasha thrown in for good measure.  To summarize the characters so far: there are the Murphys, Richard and Cynthia, of Montclair, NJ; there are Vicky Pelaez and Juan Lazaro of Yonkers, NY; Michael Zottoli and Patricia Mills of Arlington, VA; Donald Heathfield and Tracey Lee Ann Foley of Cambridge, MA; Anna Chapman of NYC; Mikhail Semenko and Christopher Metsos of who knows where.  Metsos is the Boris-like fellow and was apprehended in Cyprus on his way to Budapest; he may be the paymaster.  Chapman is the Natasha-like bomb shell that moved around the NYC night club circuit.  At least the first two couples have kids that say they had no idea their parents were spies and neighbors of the various couples are dumbfounded.

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Judge Vaughan R. Walker of the Federal District Court in California is now in the process of deciding on the legal challenge to California’s Proposition 8 which prohibits gay marriages.  The case was unusual in that lawyers David Boies and Theodore Olson, opponents in the hanging chad case associated with the 2000 election, teamed up to challenge the Proposition.  Whatever the good judge’s decision, it will be appealed and probably work its way up to the Supreme Court.

You might be asking, why is Steve worrying about gay marriage?  My answer is that it’s part of a more general problem, the attack on individual rights.  In fact missing in all those presentations before Judge Walker is the important legal analysis of a question I’ve hammered at many times in this blog: should voters have the power to restrict the rights of individuals?  The secondary and related question is: if the courts don’t protect the rights of individuals, who will?

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(Carolyn J. Rose, Hemlock Lake, Five Star Publishing, 2010, ISBN 978-1-59414-884-2)

There are fiction genres that challenge me as a writer.  Romance, YA, and mystery are really troublesome.  For the first two, I believe it is indispensable that the author put himself in the mind frame of the reader.  The first readers have graduated from fairy tales like “Cinderella” to more adult fantasies about lust and love.  While those elements can be found in other genres, they are the quintessential elements of the romance genre.  The second readers, often young and impatient in this computer game world of instant gratification, are looking for adventure and some magic (and perhaps lust and love) at a level they can relate to, not too profound and highly entertaining.

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In reciprocating his state visit to Russia with burgers at Ray’s Hell Burger in Arlington, Mr. Obama is continuing his chumminess with Russia’s President Dimitri Medvedev.  The dapper Russki, who dresses like and serves as a mob lawyer for Mr. Putin’s Russian mafia, seems to be someone Mr. Obama can relate to.  Maybe not a friend but just a nice guy that you can have a beer and burger with?

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(For those who have read The Midas Bomb, you already know detective Dao-Ming Chen.  This short story takes place when she still worked on the narcotics squad, before joining forces with Rollie Castilblanco.  So, if you haven’t read The Midas Bomb, this story will serve as an introduction to this tough lady cop.  Enjoy…)

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The sci-fi writer Vernor Vinge (more fi than sci), known for A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky (two entertaining but unscientific Hugo award winners), and others have postulated a singularity in technology where machines attain sentience and the next stage of human evolution will see humans become part machine, or vice versa (presumably the human part attains sentience also?).  Vinge’s contributions to this theme lie mostly outside his fiction.  The idea has enough popular science interest that most of an IEEE Spectrum issue was dedicated to the subject.

In fiction machine sentience appeared some time ago in sci-fi lit.  There were Asimov’s robots (no one can deny that Daneel Olivaw is sentient).  There was the computer in Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (I believe his name was Mike).  Greg Benford’s Galactic Center series maps out Man’s fight with a machine civilization.   Humans becoming part machine is a sci-fi theme from Heinlein’s hero with the toolkit arm to the GigaRAM bottling of the hero in Pohl’s Gateway series, i.e. from prosthetics to complete assimilation.

But there is another major sci-fi theme that bears relevance to the world of men.  I for one believe that we are seeing another approaching singularity, one where a small group of individuals, even just one, well meaning or otherwise, can bring about a world damaging, catastrophic screw-up.  Chernobyl came close.  The BP oil spill may come closer.  Sci-fi writers have treated this theme for years.  They just didn’t call it a singularity in human affairs.

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At various times during my brief sojourn on this planet I’ve considered obtaining an MFA in creative writing.  At the risk of being figuratively tarred and feathered by many of my fellow writers as well as having to fend off e-cries of “We already knew that!” from my science and engineering colleagues, I will endeavor to show in this post that an MFA is useless.  The latter people, by the way, will probably pound their chests for the wrong reason.  The former may rest assured that I’m not saying that an MFA is a waste of time and money.

The question I put before you is whether an MFA will help you become a successful writer.  I’m not talking about making a lot of money.  (Most writers never will in their lifetimes.)  I’m not considering skills learned either because an MFA program undoubtedly teaches them.  In the same way, an ME degree provides you with some of the skills an electrical engineer needs and an MD degree basic medical skills, but neither degree makes you successful as an engineer or a doctor.  All we can say is that having an MFA probably means you have the skills.  The degree is not a sufficient condition for success.

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Sunday’s New Jersey Star-Ledger got it all wrong.  Terribly, foolishly wrong.  Gov. Christie of New Jersey wants to implement the 2 ½ % property tax increase limit that Massachusetts employs.  The Star-Ledger’s main argument against it was that it would destroy school sports.  Come on, guys!  If you can’t think of a better argument than that, you deserve a century of dancing, chortling Gov. Christies that fill your every waking moment and all your nightmares as well.

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I don’t have much sympathy for those British folks that have retirement funds hinged to BP.  For me BP still means British Petroleum.  Hiding behind a name change doesn’t hide the pain and suffering British colonialism has unleashed on this world.  British Petroleum has been a part of this for sixty years and continues to this day their multinational policies of greed and environmental indifference long after the sun has set on the British empire.

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Mr. Nelson Mandela, father to modern South Africa, could not be at the opening ceremonies of the World Cup today because his great-grand-daughter, Zenani Mandela, died in a car accident on the way home from a kick-off concert at the Orlando Stadium.  While our hearts go out to Mr. Mandela, he will be sorely missed at the ceremonies because he was a great believer in the power of sporting events to bring the races together.  He promoted the rugby championship in South Africa (portrayed in the movie Invictus), even though his critics called rugby a white man’s sport, and has promoted the World Cup.

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