The death of Neil Armstrong at 82 from heart operation complications is a nail in the coffin we’ve been building for humanity’s adventures in space.  Some consider this only another example of public apathy or antagonism toward science and scientists.  I consider it a concerted effort to end a dream on the part of individuals who need to use their imagination more.

Another nail was the cancellation of the shuttle program.  But, even before that, the cancellation of the Apollo program was a bureaucratic castration—step 1, if you will, a pulling back from the great adventure.  The shuttle program’s cancellation was step 2, as the incompetent asses in government continued to opt for military expenditures over science in their clumsy and insane budget choices—the budget ax fell on the easy targets with special interests and lobbyists prevailing (call it the military industrial complex, with double meaning intended).

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I’ve been writing full speed now, trying to satisfy Ashley Scott and my muses.  Who’s Ashley Scott?  For those who have read The Midas Bomb and Angels Need Not Apply, Ms. Scott is a DHS agent and analyst and a good friend of NYPD detectives Chen and Castilblanco.  She thought it was time to receive top billing and my muses agreed.  She will appear in my new novel The Golden Years of Virginia Morgan, which she and the muses are tasering me to finish (about 60% complete now—I can’t wait to see how it ends!).

I wrote the post “Female Characters” four years ago.  Based on my own experience with just three novels (eight now—yep, I’ve been doing this for a while), I gave some advice about portraying strong female characters in your writing if you’re a male writer.  My thesis:  It’s tough, but you have to do it.  You stand to lose half your potential audience if you don’t.  I won’t repeat any more of that advice here (writers and readers might enjoy reading that old post), but I’ll make some comments about what’s gone on since then.

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#183:  Welcome Brits!  The newsletter “Publishing Poynters” pointed to the following stat:  eBooks are outselling pBooks now at Amazon/UK!  I have noticed an uptick in interest among Brits for my eBooks.  That’s understandable.  Many of my books are international in flavor.  Perhaps I should say, “Welcome international readers!”  Although I’m partial to Jameson’s and other fine Irish whiskeys, I think the whole UK rocks.  In fact, all of Europe rocks.  I have fond memories of my sojourns there.  It’s natural that this propagates through my books, from London’s Trafalgar Square to Barcelona’s Botanic Gardens to Paris’ Rue Rivoli to Brindisi’s port (have fun associating these with my different books).  I know readers love to revisit sites they are fond of too.

That’s why I must apologize for an enormous gaffe that I can’t seem to fix.  I recently entered some of my books in an eBook directory, eBook Heaven, and entered dollars for the prices.  Senior moment?  Whatever.  I know, of course, that prices there are in pounds.  All I had to do was go to Amazon/UK and search for my books.  Since I can’t even remember the prices in dollars, I went to the U.S. Amazon site instead—big gaffe.  (By the way, my website takes the reader to the U.S. Amazon site—Brits and other UK people, French, and others should adjust accordingly.)

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There are many important issues in the never-ending battle between the 99% v. 1%.  One such issue is likely to affect the 1% just as much as the 99%–the environment human beings live in.  Worldwide, many of the 99% live in poverty, experiencing war, famine, and filth without shelter and clean water.  This could be the future of the 1% too—when Gaia suffers, we all suffer.  Gaia, Mother Earth, or whatever you call Her, is currently being violently gang-raped by the 1% for power and profit.  Her silent scream is what I see in the famous Edvard Munch painting.

The 1% and its power brokers, i.e. most conservatives, America’s GOP, and presidential candidate Mitt Romney, are notorious Gaia rapists on America’s most wanted list of environmental criminals who are repeatedly indicted for their sociopathic abuse and lack of concern for Mother Earth.  To be fair, some born-agains, a large constituency of the GOP, have expressed concern about environmental issues.  Even some Republicans revolted against Romney’s leadership and voted for tax breaks for wind farms, a small victory probably aimed at vocally environmental constituents they need to appease in order to be re-elected to a second term.  Nevertheless, the political sycophants to the 1% generally turn a blind eye to Gaia’s rape.

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Religious belief has been a double-edged sword throughout the centuries.  Humanity seems to be mired in perpetual Crusades where one group of believers wants to beat the crap out of another group, and vice versa.  Warring crusaders are bad enough, but it’s even worse when those crusaders are using religion simply to take what others have by force and use the difference in beliefs as an excuse.  SOP:  Declare your enemies to be heretics in order to justify your butchering conquests.  Over the years, this often translates into ethnic hatreds that transcend any of the original reasons to go to war.

Religion as the justification for butchery often transcends religion v. religion, of course.  There is some indication that last Sunday’s attack on a Sikh temple was prompted by a white supremacist mistaking the Sikh religion for Islam, not that that would have justified his attack.  Fanaticism often is associated with people with low IQs—if a guy has a turban, he must be Muslim, right?—or with people who are easily manipulated by others, fanatics or not, who seek personal power and gain from the manipulation.

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A nail in the coffin for the U.S. in the future is the ubiquitous use of offshore bank accounts by the 1%.  It’s not just banking for the rich elites either, as many companies like General Electric incorporate overseas.  The common goal is to avoid paying U.S. taxes.  It’s a similar goal for European companies that want to avoid paying taxes to the E.U. (GE avoids them both).  Whether companies or individuals, the effect is the same: to keep a country’s infrastructure running and the worker bees moderately happy as good and healthy consumers, taxes are paid by the 99%, not the 1%.  While governments struggle to keep their heads above water in these lean times for the 99%, more money is hidden beyond their tax horizons by the 1%.  The problem is not big government—the problem is the rich elites who socialize costs and privatize profits.

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