A priest, a politician, and a Hollywood director walk into a bar. What do they have in common? If this is the start of a joke, it’s a very bad one, because there’s nothing good or funny about sexual perversion and exploitation. Is the reason found in our institutions? Maybe. But it’s surely found in powerful men taking advantage of their position, men who lust for victims and use their power to dominate them.

Jimmy Swaggart, Bill Clinton, Weinstein, Franken, Spacey, Donald Trump, Ailes, O’Reilly, Roy Moore (no relation, thank God), and many others have abused their power by sexually harassing and molesting victims…and more. Men doing that (it’s rarely women) aren’t uncommon, historically speaking—it’s been going on since Ugh the caveman clobbered another tribe’s cavewoman and hauled her off to his cave. Maybe it’s a manifestation of male human beings wanting to be the alpha male in the pack, which would make it even older…but that’s an oversimplification.

The men named above embarrass me. All men who do this embarrass me. Of course, they’re just as likely to harass and exploit other men who they consider inferior—I’ve seen and experienced a lot of that—but sexual exploitation makes it worse. Other men are just seen as competition by these jerks; the victims of sexual exploitation, all too often women, are treated as sexual objects to be dominated as an expression of their narcissism and virility. I’ve had it with them!

(more…)

No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says:  He is always convinced that it says what he means.  – Voltaire

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Now’s your chance to read epic sci-fi! The “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy” is now a bundle. You can read the Chaos Chronicles Trilogy Collection for $5.99—one ebook that costs less than the ebook for the first novel in the trilogy. The novels, Survivors of the Chaos, Sing a Zamba Galactica, and Come Dance a Cumbia…with Stars in Your Hand!, take you from the Chaos years of an Earth dominated by multinationals and controlled by their mercenaries to Humans’ first interstellar colonies and a first encounter. You will meet strange ETs, good and bad, bipeds and collective intelligences, and experience mystery and intrigue, as Humans expand into near-Earth space. Now available on Amazon and Smashwords and soon at all the latter’s distributors (Apple, B&N, Kobo, etc).

In libris libertas!

Save your breath; don’t worry about Death.  A better praxis is to worry about taxes.

***

Now’s your chance to read epic sci-fi! The “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy” is now a bundle. You can read the Chaos Chronicles Trilogy Collection for $5.99—one ebook that costs less than the ebook for the first novel in the trilogy. The novels, Survivors of the Chaos, Sing a Zamba Galactica, and Come Dance a Cumbia…with Stars in Your Hand!, take you from the Chaos years of an Earth dominated by multinationals and controlled by their mercenaries to Humans’ first interstellar colonies and a first encounter. You will meet strange ETs, good and bad, bipeds and collective intelligences, and experience mystery and intrigue, as Humans expand into near-Earth space. Now available on Amazon and Smashwords and soon at all the latter’s distributors (Apple, B&N, Kobo, etc).

In libris libertas!

I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.—Thomas Watson, IBM chm, 1943

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Now’s your chance to read epic sci-fi! The “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy” is now a bundle. You can read all the books in the “Chaos Chronicles Collection,” a $5.99 ebook that costs less than the ebook for the first novel in the trilogy. The novels, Survivors of the Chaos, Sing a Zamba Galactica, and Come Dance a Cumbia…with Stars in Your Hand!, take you from the Chaos years of an Earth dominated by multinationals and controlled by their mercenaries to Humans’ first interstellar colonies and a first encounter. You will meet strange ETs, good and bad, bipeds and collective intelligences, and experience mystery and intrigue, as Humans expand into near-Earth space. Soon available on Amazon and Smashwords.

Gaia doesn’t have to end in a nuclear bang. She can end in the whisper of climate disaster.

Freedom for Catalonia!

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Smashwords book sale. Mystery, suspense, sci-fi, conspiracies, and a multitude of thrills await you with the “Mary Jo Melendez Mystery Series.”  Mary Jo, an ex-USN Master-at-Arms trying to get her new civilian life established, is framed in Muddlin’ Through.  Her search to prove her innocence takes her around the world from one skirmish to another, a gypsy romance, winning new friends, and a new self-understanding.  In the sequel, Silicon Slummin’…and Just Gettin’ By, the bad guys are back, she acquires a stalker/serial killer, and she finds a new love. On sale on Smashwords from November 1 through 30—use the coupon code during checkout.

In libris libertas!

Our nation cannot survive morally or economically when so few have so much while so many have so little.—Bernie Sanders

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Sci-fi book sale: More than Human: The Mensa Contagion and Rogue Planet are now on sale at Smashwords from October 1 through October 31. Their prices are reduced to $1.99—that’s one-third off. In the first novel, an ET virus changes the world, but in a good way, and leads to the colonization of Mars. In the second, there’s a wee bit of “Game of Thrones” fantasy mixed into the hard sci-fi as Prince Kaushal leads his Second Tribe in their fight against the First Tribe’s brutal theocracy. Both books are stand-alone, not part of a series. Use the Smashwords coupon numbers when you check out. Note that the second book is also available in paper format at Amazon. Lots of exciting fall entertainment for a reasonable price!

In libris libertas!

To learn which questions are unanswerable, and not to answer them; this skill is most needful in times of stress and darkness.—Ursula Le Guin

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Sci-fi book sale: More than Human: The Mensa Contagion and Rogue Planet are now on sale at Smashwords from October 1 through October 31. Their prices are reduced to $1.99—that’s one-third off. In the first novel, an ET virus changes the world, but in a good way, and leads to the colonization of Mars. In the second, there’s a wee bit of “Game of Thrones” fantasy mixed into the hard sci-fi as Prince Kaushal leads his Second Tribe in their fight against the First Tribe’s brutal theocracy. Both books are stand-alone, not part of a series. Use the Smashwords coupon numbers when you check out. Note that the second book is also available in paper format at Amazon. Lots of exciting fall entertainment for a reasonable price!

In libris libertas!

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.—Arthur Schopenhauer.

***

Sci-fi book sale: More than Human: The Mensa Contagion and Rogue Planet are now on sale at Smashwords from October 1 through October 31. Their prices are reduced to $1.99—that’s one-third off. In the first novel, an ET virus changes the world, but in a good way, and leads to the colonization of Mars. In the second, there’s a wee bit of “Game of Thrones” fantasy mixed into the hard sci-fi as Prince Kaushal leads his Second Tribe in their fight against the First Tribe’s brutal theocracy. Both books are stand-alone, not part of a series. Use the Smashwords coupon numbers when you check out. Note that the second book is also available in paper format at Amazon. Lots of exciting fall entertainment for a reasonable price!

In libris libertas!

Would-be totalitarian rulers usually start their careers by boasting of their past crimes and carefully outlining their future ones.—Hannah Arendt

***

Sci-fi book sale: More than Human: The Mensa Contagion and Rogue Planet are now on sale at Smashwords from October 1 through October 31. Their prices are reduced to $1.99—that’s one-third off. In the first novel, an ET virus changes the world, but in a good way, and leads to the colonization of Mars. In the second, there’s a wee bit of fantasy mixed into the hard sci-fi as Prince Kaushal leads his Second Tribe in their fight against the First Tribe’s brutal theocracy. Both books are stand-alone, not part of a series. Use the Smashwords coupon numbers when you check out. The second book is also available in a paper version on Amazon. Lots of exciting fall entertainment for a reasonable price!

In libris libertas!

It’s not just that both Putin and Trump lie, it is that they lie in the same way and for the same purpose—blatantly, to assert power over truth itself.—Masha Gessen

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Last days for book sale: Some authors bundle a series or part of a series.  Here’s an alternative: from now through September 30, all three books in the “Clones and Mutants Trilogy” are on sale only AT SMASHWORDS, $1.99 for each ebook, reduced from $2.99—that’s one-third off.  The clones make their appearance in Full Medical as part of a complex government conspiracy, they combine forces with the mutant in Evil Agenda to thwart another plot, and they all save the world in No Amber Waves of Grain.  These aren’t comic book characters like X-Men—they’re real people who work to halt an apocalyptic future.  Use the link and go directly to Smashwords, enter the coupon codes during checkout, and get hours of fall reading for only $3.  (Amazon addicts, did you know Smashwords also sells .mobi files for your Kindle? They handle all popular ebook formats and distribute to many retailers and lenders—Apple, B&N, and Kobo include.) Pass the word about this sale to your relatives and friends. And, for librarians purchasing ebooks for their libraries, I’ve reduced the price of most of my ebooks on Smashwords fpr library purchases. Use the link to see my entire oeuvre.

In libris libertas!