Weekly Short Stories: '39 Sci-Fi, Part 5

Continuing along with my brief reviews of science fiction short stories from way back in time, I'm getting near the end of the anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 1 (1939).  I read four more tales...next week I'll conclude this book...

HEAVY PLANET by Milton A. Rothman
The genre of science fiction is often divided by fans between stories of a "hard" nature...trying to stick with science, often getting a little bit technical in the process...and "soft" sci-fi, which often gets more into metaphysics and fantasy.  This particular story is of the former type as the author, himself a physicist, speculated what kind of life could live on a planet much more massive than ours, where beings whose matter is very dense could rip through thick metallic spaceship wall as if it were paper.  An Earth ship has crashed on this planet and the mad dash is on between warring camps to retrieve a secret that may help them discover how to finally escape the prison of their world's intense gravity. A very intriguing tale, and quite educational...

LIFE-LINE by Robert Heinlein
A man claims that he can pinpoint to the day when anyone will die and is heckled by an antagonistic body of scientists assembled to hear him.  He skirts the necessary scientific principle of revealing his process so that others can independently test his theory and instead makes a business out of his discovery...in the process making an enemy out of the life insurance industry as his believers and customers grow.  The ending seems to present a moral of sorts...maybe we aren't meant to know when it will all end for each of us...

ETHER BREATHER by Theodore Sturgeon
A humorous story, Ether Breather speculates on the possibility of higher-frequency life in the context of the then-budding technology of color broadcasting.  It seems that some practical joker out there is taking the signals and distorting them into parodies, outraging the people on the receiving end of the broadcasts.  It's all a mystery to everyone...until the end, when the protagonist does something amazingly foolish...

PILGRIMAGE by Nelson Bond
It is 3478 A.D. and humanity...at least in what used to be the United States...has regressed to numerous tribes led by women.  Men are either running around in the wild or being confined and used only for reproduction...and their numbers have dwindled to the point of threatening the species' survival.   Young Meg of the Jinnia tribe, upon reaching womanhood, tells the Mother...that group's leader...that she doesn't want to be assigned to the specialized roles in that society, but rather wants to eventually succeed her as the Mother.  This is agreed to, and Meg's education commences.  The culmination is a long pilgrimage, by Meg alone, to the four gods they worship. The Mother promises her great revelation when she reaches them.  But all is not as it seems, and Meg learns a great deal about their past...men played a much greater role after all.  This story seems the most dated of the four, and gender stereotypes, while examined, are also being reinforced...but we are talking about something written back in 1939.  I could see from early on where the story was going...glad it was short!

Tuesday's List: Local Questions on November Ballot

This articles concerns people living in Alachua County and the city of Gainesville.  On our voting ballot for November 6 (or right now if you're voting early) contain four questions of a local nature, two concerning Alachua County and two just for those living within its seat, Gainesville.  I looked them over and, while I don't completely understand all that they entail, I think I have enough of an inkling to make semi-informed decisions about them in the voting booth.  Here they are:

ALACHUA COUNTY QUESTIONS

CHILDREN'S TRUST OF ALACHUA COUNTY TO LEVY ONE-HALF MILL AD VALOREM TAXES
This measure is to provide funds to help with childcare and postnatal care.  If you're a working family struggling to juggle the expenses and times for your children's care, this is a very good proposal.  Just because my kids have grown and don't yet have children doesn't mean that I shouldn't feel compassion for others.  I'm voting "yes".

HALF-CENT SALES SURTAX TO IMPROVE SCHOOL FACILITIES
Schools are constantly in need of maintenance and technological upgrading.  Since our state government seems disinterested in adequately funding education, at least in Alachua County we can stand up and do something positive.  Again, I'm voting "yes" although the issue doesn't directly affect me.

CITY OF GAINESVILLE CHARTER AMENDMENTS

GAINESVILLE REGIONAL UTILITIES AUTHORITY
Currently the Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) is city-run, meaning that as citizens we have input through our elected city commissioners on how it will be run.  The proposal removes local control and puts it into the state's hands...I'm voting "no".

CITY COMMISSION ELECTIONS AND TERMS OF OFFICE
Our city commission elections have been held in March and April, when they are the only things on the ballot and voter turnout diminishes to around 12%.  This measure puts all city commission elections on the regular November ballot, with primary elections in August.  Also proposed is lengthening the current three-year term of office to four in order that the elections always take place in even-numbered years.  I've long wanted for them to switch to November local elections, so I'm voting "yes".

Now in closing, I need to reiterate something that I've been emphasizing before but which some people don't seem to get.  I'm not endorsing or recommending any candidates or referenda in this election or any other...I'm just stating my own views.  If you happen to disagree with me on my opinions and that fact emotionally upsets you for some reason, I suggest you take a deep breath, count to ten, and move on...

Congratulations to '18 World Series Champs Boston Red Sox

My congratulations go out to the 2018 Boston Red Sox, who won this year's Major League Baseball World Series last night, defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers four games to one.  Although this wasn't one of those classic seven-game series, it did feature some interesting things.  The third game was won by the Dodgers in a series-record eighteen innings and the next one featured Boston, down 4-0 going into the seventh inning, coming back with a three-inning nine-run explosion...powered by series MVP Steve Pearce and his hitting...to gain the improbable win, 9-6.  I was rooting for the Red Sox and also liked how former Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher (and Cy Young Award winner) David Price, one of my favorite pitchers in baseball, performed so well in this series, especially the final game when he pitched seven full innings and gave up only a run...

Baseball seems to have drastically slid in popularity over the past few years.  I remember the first World Series I saw: the Minnesota Twins against the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1965...it was so big back then that they even showed the day games live on TV at my elementary school!  This year Fox Sports channel and TBS showed the playoff series leading to the World Series, which the regular Fox network aired.  "My" Florida teams had mixed results in 2018.  Tampa Bay had a very respectable 90-72 record, but that wasn't enough for them to make the playoffs.  Miami, which under new CEO Derek Jeter had gotten rid of the core of its star batting lineup of Giancarlo Stanton, Christian Yelich, and Marcell Ozuna, dismally finished with the National League's worst record at 63-98.  If the pattern holds for the Marlins, they'll keep improving from year to year until they have produced more standout star players...at which point they will predictably deal them away to other teams and return to last place for some more "rebuilding".  Losers!

Looking Back on D.C. Visit

On our trip to Washington, D.C. this past week, Melissa and I enjoyed exploring the sights, most of them centering on the Mall...this despite the fact that in the middle of it all I experienced a severe, painful dental emergency and had to undergo a root canal!  Still, during the "toothache" part of the stay I managed to dissociate the pain from the very interesting touring we were doing...I really got to dig being in our capital city.  Our hotel was just a block south of the Mall area, right near the Smithsonian Space and Air Museum.  After check-in late Tuesday afternoon, we walked out to the middle of the Mall to survey the scene...the Capitol building to the east and the Washington Monument to the west, with the Lincoln Memorial behind it.  Wednesday we made a day of visiting the Capitol and also ventured into the adjacent Library of Congress for a while.  Thursday, alas, had me first undergo my adventure in D.C. dentistry...thankfully they graciously fit me into their schedule and did a great job...after which we went on an evening open-window trolley tour through the capital, starting from the beautiful Union Station and stopping at the Lincoln Memorial, Iwo Jima stature, and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial.  Friday we explored some of the museums and gardens near our hotel as the rain began to fall outside from the remnants of Pacific Hurricane Willa. And yesterday we returned.  There is so much to explore in this great city and its surroundings that just three full days looking around doesn't even began to scratch the surface.  In coming articles I'll write from time to time in greater detail about some of these and other aspects of our trip and stay.  Right now, I'm very happy to be back home!

Back Home from Nation's Capital

Melissa and I just got back from our trip this week to Washington, DC. It's kind of late at night right now, and both of us need to get up early tomorrow morning...I'll write more about various aspects of our stay there during the days and weeks to come.  I did something similar about a family visit to Manhattan back in 2010 and it seemed to work well on the blog.  Until later...

Quote of the Week...from W. Somerset Maugham

If you can tell stories, create characters, devise incidents, and have sincerity and passion, it doesn't matter a damn how you write.                                   W. Somerset Maugham

W. Somerset Maugham, the twentieth century British author who wrote Of Human Bondage and The Razor's Edge, has a good point with the above quote.  I've read lots of books over the past few years...most of them critical successes or very popular...and the literary styles the different authors use in them varies enormously from one book to the next...the range of diversity is even more extreme with short stories.  One important thing, I think, is that regardless how outlandish the story's situation or characters are, there need to be prominent elements of it that give the reader a sense of familiarity and reality...even if the tale is a bizarre fantasy.  Stephen King has claimed that he likes to place ordinary, relatable people as his characters into unusual circumstances...and then let them work it all out for themselves, usually without a specific notion as to where the story will lead as he is writing it.  Others, like Isaac Asimov, would outline their stories at the beginning of the writing process and then go on from there.  You know, I really need to begin writing my own fiction...no harm in trying how different successful authors do it, maybe ultimately "my" style will be a combination of others'.  But the main thing is to begin...and with that I'd like to bring up two related and very pertinent quotes, the first by Anne Lamott and the last by Edgar Rice Burroughs:

Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts.  You need to start somewhere.

If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor.

Here's to writing a hundred stories!

10/21 Sermon on Miracles, Part 7

Last Sunday at The Family Church here in Gainesville, senior pastor Philip Griffin closed out his series on seven important miracles, or signs, of Jesus as related in the New Testament's Gospel of John. This message was about the seventh miracle...that of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead...and the scripture of focus was John 11:21-12:3...click on the passage to read it via Bible Gateway...

In discussing the miracle about Lazarus, Pastor Philip concentrated more on the differing beliefs and behavior that sisters Martha and Mary displayed to Jesus while he was a guest at their home.  In reference to Martha, Philip pointed out that spending time with Jesus is more important than our "to-do" lists...Martha was driven in task mode, by the tyranny of the "urgent".  She was also prone to accusing others ("I'm doing all this work, why aren't you?").  But, as Philip continued, we have to each lay boundaries for ourselves so that our priorities don't get overturned...Mary had hers straight...

Pastor Philip structured the passage in three terms: sitting at Jesus's feet, falling at Jesus's feet, and worshipping at Jesus's feet.  Mary made the right decision to be with Jesus and sit at his feet, learning from him.  When Lazarus, brother of Martha and Mary, feel ill, they implored Jesus to go visit him for healing...but the Lord tarried, and Lazarus died.  Both sisters expressed their disappointment to Jesus, but they differed in that Martha did not perceive Jesus's true nature as Lord while Mary, who had spent time with him, fell at his feet in grief.  Jesus, moved by her actions, wept with her, sharing in her mourning...he can provide solace to us in our grief, too, without the need to resort to chemicals, busywork, or others.  Finally, as Jesus approached the tomb of Lazarus, Martha tried to stop him from entering, claiming there would be a bad odor...but in essence trying to block any miracle since she did not know him for who he was.  Likewise, we may find ourselves skeptical of what the Lord can do with ourselves if we had not spent time sitting and falling at his feet.  Worshipping Jesus at his feet, which Mary practiced, happened because she first sought out his presence and then relied on him during her time of trouble.  Pastor Philip concluded by listing four aspects of worship: (1) worship means to value something above all...God does not need our worship: we do, (2) worship is sacrificial...like the expensive perfume Mary poured on Jesus's feet, (3) worship flows from gratitude, and (4) worship...like that perfume...is like a sweet aroma for others, inspiring them to follow in the same way...

You can watch this sermon by clicking on the church's YouTube link: [TFC Videos].  The Family Church is located at 2022 SW 122nd Street and meets each Sunday morning at 9 and 10;30 for services, which include praise and worship music, the weekly message, and prayer.  There are numerous small group and discipleship sessions interspersed through the week that you can participate in as well.  Before and between the services, free coffee is available in the hospitality room next to the entranceway.  And there are lots of friendly folks around who want to meet and get to know you....

Weekly Short Stories: '39 Sci-Fi, Part 4

This past week I continued going through the science fiction short story anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 1 (1939), reading some more intriguing tales.  All the authors were familiar to me, from the wife/husband writing team of C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner to L. Sprague de Camp and the series editor, Isaac Asimov himself.  Here's my reaction to each of them...

GREATER THAN GODS by C.L. Moore
This story, set about three hundred years into the future from its writing, examines alternate futures and how a simple decision a person makes can have a reverberating effect down through history.  A young scientist has a difficult decision to make: which woman he will ask to marry him.  As he looks at each of their three-dimensional pictures on his desktop, their descendants from centuries into the future call out to him through them, each one presenting how the world had turned out as well as how his original marriage went.  The two scenarios he observes point to diametrically different outcomes, with humanity in one dying out in lethargy and complacency and in the other having turned into a totalitarian, militarist nightmare of conquest, brutality and leader worship.  Forced into a decision in the end, he does something I first thought I had smartly figured out earlier...but no, then I suddenly realized that I had read this story before!

TRENDS by Isaac Asimov
One of Asimov's first published stories, Trends paints a picture of how in history the pendulum in society periodically swings back and forth between science and religious fervor.  His protagonist, John Harmon, has designed a spaceship in 1973 to take him to the Moon and back, but the people, led by religious extremists, see it as evil and protest the upcoming launch.  One of Harmon's own people betrays him and sabotages the launch...all looks lost.  But then again, will that pendulum begin to swing back in the other direction?  It's a good little story that, however, exposes the author's own hostility to religion as he depicts it being intolerant and anti-liberty.  Then again, I can't remember ever reading him ever discussing the brutality of state-sponsored atheism as enforced in the Soviet Union, China, and other totalitarian regimes during his lifetime...intriguing because Asimov himself was born in the USSR...

THE BLUE GIRAFFE by L. Sprague de Camp
Athelstan Cuff is a middle-age Englishman living in America with his wife and adopted son Peter.  Peter is sensitive about being adopted, and so his father sits him down and tells the story behind it, one that goes many years earlier in British colonial South Africa...more specifically the Bechuanaland Protectorate (now the nation of Botswana).  In one of the wildlife reserves there has been discovered something remarkable: a blue giraffe.  Cuff, a biologist working in Cape Town, is sent to investigate: a blue giraffe isn't the only anomaly among the animals there.  His investigation points to an earlier missing scientist, Hickey, and what he was trying to accomplish in this area.  In the process Cuff has one hilarious adventure after the other, culminating in the explanation as to why Peter was adopted.  This story was very funny, as most assuredly it was intended to be...

THE MISGUIDED HALO by Henry Kuttner
Not exactly a science fiction story, this story involves an extraterrestrial angel sent on a mission to bestow a halo of sainthood on a Kai Yung, living in Tibet.  On arriving there, he finds Kai Yung living in a drunken state of dissolution and concludes that this one has fallen into sin and no longer merits the halo.  Could it have been a mistake? The angel goes to America and finds a place called Tibbett in the Midwest...and a man named K. (Kenneth) Young.  He concludes that this may have been the intended recipient and places on him the halo, with it always hovering a few inches over his head and quite visible.  When Mr. Young, an advertising executive, awakens the next morning and gets ready for work, his wife points out the strange circle above him.  His subsequent antics while trying to hide it from others and the sequence of mishaps he experiences form the rest of the story, which I think would have played quite well as one of those humorous-type Twilight Zone episodes. I mean, what would you do if suddenly there were a permanent, visible halo over your head?

And the reading continues...

Tuesday's List: Last Six Amendments to Fla Constitution on Ballot

Today I'm continuing my discussion from last Tuesday about the proposed amendments to Florida's state constitution with Amendments Seven through Thirteen, using the very good website Be Ready to Vote. Amendment Eight was struck by the state supreme court, so we're left with six. Several of these frustrate me because they're essentially bundled amendments with different parts to them. Many of the proposals are already a part of state law, but for some reason people somewhere feel the need to enshrine them as part of the constitution. I'll have to be honest here: I'm a bit skeptical about this idea of ordinary people, without the benefit of trained professional staff and legal and scientific experts, directly making sweeping constitutional decisions...our elected representatives in this republic of ours are supposed to be doing this! Still, the questions are there on the ballot, and I'm determined to decide for myself on them one way or another, for better or for worse...it's almost like a crap shoot with some of these questions, though...

7 FIRST RESPONDER AND MILITARY MEMBER SURVIVOR BENEFITS; PUBLIC COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
Exactly what mandating first responder death benefits has to do with requiring a supermajority on college governing boards to increase tuitions is beyond me, but they're lumped together in this strange proposed amendment. I agree with the part that adds paramedics and emergency technicians to the first responder designation...I always thought they already were. I have no opinion about the college part of this proposal, and I want death benefits to go out the way it's described...even though it's not indicated exactly how they'll be funded. Still, I think it's a good gesture and I'm voting "yes"...

8 SCHOOL BOARD TERM LIMITS AND DUTIES; PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Removed from ballot by court.

9 PROHIBITS OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS DRILLING; PROHIBITS VAPING IN ENCLOSED INDOOR WORKPLACES
Another weird combo amendment. I'm against offshore oil and gas drilling, but think that making rules about vaping in enclosed indoor workplaces should be a matter for each organization to decide for itself...for the record, I've never smoked a single cigarette and therefore have no personal interest in vaping. The ban on the drilling is already part of state law...why do we have to make every piece of already-passed legislation part of the constitution? I'm voting "no" because the vaping section overreaches...

10 STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE AND OPERATION
This one sets specific dates for the convening of the state legislature and makes Florida's already-established Dept. of Veterans Affair constitutionally-mandated: so who's trying to abolish it? And it mandates elections for sheriff and other public offices for all counties, affecting only five of our sixty-seven. I don't yet know how I'm voting: this proposal seems inconsequential to me...


11 PROPERTY RIGHTS; REMOVAL OF OBSOLETE PROVISION; CRIMINAL STATUTES
The main thing this amendment does is to remove the obligation of the state to pursue criminal charges against someone after the law on which the prosecution is based is changed...sounds like a no-brainer to me. Also there's supposedly an old state law allowing for messing with the property rights of non-citizens that will go by the wayside if this amendment is approved...I'm voting "yes"...

12 LOBBYING AND ABUSE OF OFFICE BY PUBLIC OFFICIALS
In essence this proposed amendment extends the time span that legislators, statewide elected officials, and judges must wait until they are allowed to go into lobbying...from two to six years. There's also a provision prohibiting state officials from receiving "disproportionate benefits" from their employment. Sounds like a good amendment, voting "yes"...

13 ENDS DOG RACING
Well, this one seems simple enough: should we finally end pari-mutuel gambling on dog races? The sport/industry has been in decline for some with few tracks remaining in the state. I have childhood memories of my father being a big greyhound racing enthusiast, although I think he got a little carried away with it all, including the gambling aspect. It's sad that there's been documented abuse of these beautiful animals...I always enjoyed watching them run their little races during the few times I attended them. I'm voting "no" because I want to give the people running these tracks and caring for these dogs a chance to turn their profession around and return it to a more prominent place in Florida as an entertainment destination. After all, we are a tourism-oriented state...

Mr. Irwin Goes to Washington

This Tuesday Melissa and I will be traveling to Washington, D.C. to stay there a few nights and check out many of the sights, including the Capitol, the White House, the Smithsonian, the various monuments, memorials, and museums...and just have a fun, enlightening time.  Melissa went there on a school trip with our daughter Rebecca and classmates, teachers, and other parents back in 2005...I have no memory of the place although I once was there...as an infant back in 1957.  I don't know whether Congress will be in session during our visit, but it sure isn't right now...I think they're all scrambling about back in their home states and districts, campaigning for reelection.  After we get back, I'll probably write some blog articles here about different aspects of our trip...I plan to take a lot of pictures, too. Should be interesting...

Alachua County Commission Structure Antiquated, Needs Reform

As a citizen both of the city of Gainesville and its county, Alachua, I live under the government of two coexisting commissions: the city and the county.  The city commission, which employs term limits for its members, has three at-large commissioners (including the mayor) elected by the entire city and four districted commissioners who respond to the needs and priorities of those belong to their respective districts.  This system strikes me as being eminently fair, both discouraging career politicians from dominating the commission as well as encouraging a greater political diversity within it...from time to time we get a conservative voice or two there, although Gainesville as a whole tends to vote Democratic.  The Alachua County Commission, on the other hand, neither employs term limits nor does it elect its commissioners by district: although it assigns each elected commissioner a district, they are all voted on county-wide.  The result has been a liberal Democrat-dominant county commission with little conservative opposition and entrenched, powerful commissioners with little desire to ever give up their seats...Mike Byerly's been there since 2000.  This coming election has two seats up for vote...wait, make that one: "District" 4, held by Democrat Ken Cornell, is unopposed, so he's already "in".  The other is between Democrat Marihelen Wheeler (a former candidate for state legislature and the U.S House), Libertarian Party candidate Gregory Caudill, and non-partisan candidate Scott Costello. The traditional party of opposition, the Republicans, apparently have seen the pointlessness of tying to put up and fund candidates in races that they have little-to-no chance of winning.  That's too bad: although Gainesville as Alachua County's population center heavily leans Democratic and liberal, the outlying communities and unincorporated, more rural areas tend to be conservative and more supportive of Republican candidates.  If the county commission were to adopt the city's system of combining districted seats with at-large ones, I think we'd see a better, more inclusive county commission that properly addressed its people's concerns...the way it ought to be.  And just what is it with their refusal to enact term limits, anyway?

Political Talk Has Become Pointlessly Personal and Rancorous

One of the things I learned as a part of growing up into a mature adult capable of getting along with others in a civil manner is that whenever someone asks me how to do something, what the rules are, or which is the better choice, not to answer them in absolute terms as some do, laying down the law in capital letters and multiple exclamation points, so to speak.  Instead, I have gotten into the habit of expressing myself in terms of how I would handle the procedure, policy, or choice, usually with reasons given.  If there were alternate choices or approaches involved, I'd also try to mention them as well, giving the person asking me a sense of empowerment and of being properly informed.  I don't think a lot of folks approach this in the same way, though, and almost never whenever politics are involved...

Yesterday afternoon while driving to the library I was fiddling around with my radio tuner and landed on a station broadcasting the Sean Hannity show. To this individual, anything goes as long as it promotes his political views...and that includes personally vilifying people he disagrees with.  I parked my car, went in, checked out my books, and walked out.  Along the sidewalk was a row of newspaper racks, one of which contained the local left-wing political rag The Gainesville Iguana.  I grabbed a copy and went to my car.  As I browsed through it, I noticed the same blunt, in-your-face kind of "my way or the highway" mindset I was just picking up from Hannity...except that these viewpoints were promoting the far left, not the far right.  There was no attempt on any level to respectfully address the opposing views on any issue, just as Hannity refuses to ever try to see anything from his political opponents' perspective...

I suggest that one of the cable channels start a new kind of talk show, but one with a special format: guests who normally argue for one viewpoint over another would, during their time on the air, agree to take the opposite position and plead their opponent's case instead. Wouldn't you like to watch a debate in which Ted Cruz tried to see things from a liberal perspective and Bernie Sanders from a conservative one?  Never will happen, of course...but at least I'd like to see media opinion makers and politicians start displaying some basic, common respect toward those on the other side, including complimenting them and pointing out areas of common cause.  But the trend nowadays...for some time, sadly...is for people to condemn in the most vicious personal terms those whose political philosophies differ from their own priorities, while either ignoring the behavior of those on their own side or going through great semantic contortions defending them.  As Marvin Gaye once sang, "Yeah, it makes me wanna holler and throw up both my hands"...

Quote of the Week...from Philip K. Dick

Each of us assumes everyone else knows what he is doing. They all assume we know what we are doing.  We don't.                                               Philip K. Dick

I think one of the major blunders that people make, both when they are assessing the behavior and intentions of others in their lives as well as judging and ascribing motives to those in the public limelight...especially politicians...is that they assume that everyone else is always competent and sure-minded about what they are trying to accomplish...and have their reasons all laid out in a perfectly logical pattern.  I for one disagree with this notion, as apparently did the great twentieth century science fiction author Philip K. Dick, who said with the above quote what I'd been thinking for years.  Many, many years, in fact...

One of my most vivid memories was when I was a thirteen-year old eighth-grade student sitting in a drafting class.  I was very awkward then, especially when it came to being around others.  I was sitting there quietly, pretending to be working...I'm sure the others around me thought this was what I was doing...but I was actually observing several of my fellow students interacting around me.  I got the impression...a strong impression...that they all either were supremely confident and showed it as they talked with one another showing such apparent poise...or that they were all putting on a monumental collective act of deception.  I came away from that experience realizing that when people grew up, they learned to wrap themselves up in images they want to project to others about themselves, images that don't necessarily reflect their own realities...especially their uncertainties, confusion, and self-doubts...

I have a tendency to be skeptical about conspiracy theories of all kinds because of this awareness of peoples' generally muddled and mixed-up inner natures, their outward presentation of themselves notwithstanding.  We're not robots capable of creating and implementing exorbitantly complicated algorithms that require so many things to go "right" in order for some of the so-called conspiracies I've heard to be real and successful.  Neither are our political leaders all that deliberately evil as whoever happens to be their opposition likes to portray them.  If you're going to say some bad things about the last three presidents...Trump, Obama, and Bush...I say that calling them on their lapses and failings in the end is probably much closer to the truth than saying that any of them were (or are) part of some coordinated, convoluted scheme to "take over".  It might behoove some of us who are entrenched in an "our side vs. their side" mindset to try to recognize that most folks...and politicians...like my old eighth-grade classmates...are largely concocted images on the outside and disarray and conflict within...

10/14 Sermon on Miracles, Part 6

As Gainesville's Family Church continued its Sunday morning sermon series about miracles that Jesus produced as revealed in the Gospel of John, Colin Griffin, our senior pastor Philip Griffin's son and a committed international missions worker, stood up as guest speaker.  He presented the story of Jesus healing the blind man as related in John 9...click on the passage to read it through Bible Gateway...

Colin laid out the stages in the blind man's physical and spiritual healing: first he hears Christ, then he sees him...and then ultimately he knows him and his true nature.  It's important to recognize, Colin continued, that the blind man responds in obedience to Jesus: God listens to people who do his will. The blind man stands up for Jesus against the criticisms of the surrounding religious leaders, who want to persecute him for healing on the Sabbath...eventually resulting in his being thrown out of the temple. He is not only physically healed, but also comes to a deeper understanding of Christ: first Jesus is a man to him, then a prophet...finally, the Lord, his Lord.  Colin concluded by emphasizing that knowing Jesus necessarily means coming to him and involves stepping out, often if not usually, into very uncomfortable situations. It consequently demands total commitment. And, he added, those who understand their own spiritual blindness can receive Jesus, but not those who deny theirs... 

You can watch Colin's sermon through the church's YouTube video website...just click on the following link: [TFC Videos]. I very much appreciate this talented and inspired speaker and enthusiastically look forward to a future day when he will once again bless us with another message. The Family Church is located at 2022 SW 122nd Street, holding its Sunday morning services at 9 and 10:30.  After being welcomed by the friendly greeters at the door, you can chat with any number of folks before the service while drinking complimentary coffee offered in the hospitality room.  Then the service commences, starting with beautiful and moving praise and worship music, then the weekly message, and finally opportunities for prayer.  The church also offers a number of small groups and courses that meet during the week at different times.  This Sunday: Miracle Number Seven...

Weekly Short Stories: '39 Sci-Fi, Pt. 3

This week I continued reading through the science fiction anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 1 (1939), in which he and Martin Greenberg selected...forty years later...what they thought was the best of that year in short fiction.  I finished three more stories, and here's my discussions for each of them...

THE ULTIMATE CATALYST by John Taine
Known more for his non-fiction, especially his biographical series on mathematicians, Taine wrote this one with a well-developed sense of biology and chemistry.  It is sometime in the future and the last dictator on Earth has been exiled to a confined area in the Amazon jungle...unfortunately he still is a tyrant within that domain.  Trapped there is a scientist and his daughter...he reveals to the dictator that he has developed a plant food that tastes like meat, handy in that vegetation is the only viable form of food in this region.  But the scientist has ulterior motives, and this tale just might send anyone prone to queasiness right over the edge...probably a good idea not to read The Ultimate Catalyst while eating...

THE GNARLY MAN by L. Sprague de Camp
Anthropologist Matilda Saddler, after studying cultures from all over the world, finds her most interesting subject right in the middle of a Coney Island carnival show: Ungo-Bungo, a supposed ape-man whose skull bone structure seems strange to her, turns out when she meets him to be a well-spoken. amiable Irishman...until he reveals his true identity: he is the last surviving Neanderthal, some 50,000 years old.  Interesting this tale is, especially in light of the Lester del Rey story The Day is Done about a different "last Neanderthal", appearing in the same anthology and which I discussed last week...

BLACK DESTROYER by A.E. von Vogt
The "black destroyer" in this tale is a "coeurl", a ferocious but highly intelligent cat-like predator...but with vibration-inducing tentacles emanating from its shoulders...inhabiting a very remote, nearly dead planet.  Although essentially immortal, it is running out of food: salvation seems to have arrived with the landing of an exploratory spaceship from Earth.  The humans encounter the beast...and the intricate chess game ensues between them, with not only their survival but also the future of space dominance at stake.  I liked the way the author presented the coeurl's viewpoint as its remarkable adaptability is progressively revealed.  But I didn't like the way that von Vogt explained its origin and even less how the story ultimately resolved itself.  Plus, as is often the case with hard science fiction, much of the dialogue...especially toward the end...got too bogged down in esoteric technicalities.  Still, as an adventure story it was suspenseful and interesting...it would carry over well to film...

More stories from this book next Wednesday...

Tuesday's List: The First Six Florida Constitutional Amendments on the Ballot

A few weeks ago I listed the thirteen amendments to the Florida State Constitution that are up for vote this November 6th...since then Amendment Eight has been withdrawn.  Today I'm discussing...very briefly...each of the first six amendments and my take on them.  For any of these amendments to be accepted in the state's constitution, they need to receive approval of at least 60% of the voters in the election.  I learned a lot about them from the website Be Ready to Vote...click on it to get some needed information, complete with pros and cons for each proposed amendment.  I plan to discuss Amendments Seven through Thirteen next Tuesday...

1 INCREASED HOMESTEAD TAX EXEMPTION
This amendment increases up to a maximum additional $25,000 homestead tax exemption on properties valued at $100,000 or higher.  For those eligible who want to save tax money for themselves, this seems good...but local governments stand to lose an enormous amount of needed revenue should this pass...I'm voting "no".

2 LIMITATIONS ON PROPERTY TAX ASSESSMENTS
This is only for non-homesteaded property and limits to 10% the taxable value increase for such property.  Apartment renters and vacation home owners in particular stand to personally benefit from such an amendment, but as with the first one, this is estimated to cause a serious shortfall in local government revenue.  Again, I'm voting "no".

3 VOTER CONTROL OF GAMBLING IN FLORIDA
This amendment seems to be getting the most media attention, with supporters pointing to other states of differing political orientations that have this amendment in their constitutions...let the people decide if they want a casino or not, right?  But the way I see it, since casinos are a good source of government revenue, I'd rather see people voluntarily fund it playing at them than forced to through more compulsory taxes...and I really don't want to see Florida feel as if it needs to resort to a state income tax. Since voting "yes" will inhibit casinos, I'm voting "no" although I'm personally no fan of gambling...

4 VOTING RESTORATION
This amendment restores full voting rights to convicted felons...excluding murderers or those convicted of sex crimes...once they have completed their sentences and are no longer on probation or parole.  The current state law, which is undergoing a court challenge right now, mandates five years before a felon can even begin a tedious application process to restore voting rights.  I'm voting "yes"...I believe in the restoration of rights (and hope) after criminals have served their punishment, otherwise rehabilitation means nothing...

5 SUPERMAJORITY VOTE REQUIRED TO IMPOSE, AUTHORIZE, OR RAISE STATE TAXES OR FEES
This amendment, pushed by Tea Party Governor Rick Scott, makes it very difficult to raise taxes and may in the end necessitate cuts to important state services, including those to people unable to fend for themselves.  If you're a "never tax" Floridian, vote for it...I'm noting "no"...

6 RIGHTS OF CRIME VICTIMS; JUDGES
While increasing the mandatory retirement age of judges from 70 to 75, this amendment gives emphasis to crime victims.  The website I referred to mentioned that many of this amendment's provisions are already state law.  There is also proposed a further time limitation on convicts' appeals...and eliminates a section already in law that prevents victims' rights from interfering with those of the accused.  I'm fine with letting judges work to 75. About the time limit on appeals I'm unsure...how far does it go?  But what killed this amendment for me was allowing victims' rights to impinge upon those of the accused...as a friend of mine recently remarked: innocent until proven guilty and let nothing unfairly interfere with due process.  This amendment in a revised form might be acceptable to me as I also care about crime victims, but I'm voting "no"...I'm also wary of the distorted TV ads in favor of it that appear to equate suspects with convicts...

One thing about the above amendments, as well as those that follow: the fact that they are on the ballot in the first place, to me, seems to be an indictment against the ability or willingness of a sitting  state government, composed of the governor, the senate, and the house...all controlled by the same party...to govern and pass meaningful legislation.  After all, didn't we elect them to represent us and pass laws? Oh well, as I said, the election is November 6th... 

Just Finished Reading The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

The Three Musketeers, by French novelist Alexandre Dumas, is one of those books that I probably should have read back in school...better late than never, I say.  Dumas published in it 1844, but this historical novel's theme goes back to the 1620s during the reign of France's Louis XIII and England's Charles I.  The two kingdoms seem to be in a perennial state of conflict, either in war or preparing for it.  The French king has a special guard unit, called the musketeers, that operates independently of other forces, and the Cardinal has his own guard that often battles that of the King's...most particularly those musketeers.  There are special musketeers, called "the inseparables", named Athos, Parthos, and Aramis...hence the book's title.  A young man from Gascony province, d'Artagnan, has arrived seeking to be accepted by the musketeers and trained into their group.  But he gets drawn into a scuffle with a mystery man and loses his father's letter to their leader.  Disappointed, d'Artagnan finds himself first accidentally drawn into duels with the three musketeers and then, united with them, fends off an attack from the Cardinal's guards...in doing so gaining the good graces of the King and resulting in his appointment to the King's guard...

The Three Musketeers is full of "honor" and dueling to the death in its defense, something I'm not very enthusiastic about.  It all seems so immature and pointless as it is near-to-impossible for one man to have a simple conversation with another without it ending in an insult and an invitation to fight it out.  While this nonsense is going on, there is intrigue between the King of France, his wife Anne (who is also Queen of Austria), the Cardinal, and Lord Buckingham of England...the most powerful man there behind King Charles.  Rochefort, the mystery man d'Artagnan earlier encountered and is always seeking for revenge, along with Milady de Winter, one of literature's greatest villainesses, work for Cardinal Richelieu while Constance Bonacieux, working for the Queen, is d'Artagnan's love interest.  The plot gets pretty convoluted, and predictably in this context of international conflict and intrigue, not all survive to the end...

There apparently really was a historical d'Artagnan as well as the three musketeers: Dumas derived much of his material from his knowledge of that era's history as well as another Frenchman's semi-fictional work from 1700.  As it turns out, The Three Musketeers was the first of a series that Alexandre Dumas wrote, and he had a collaborator with these novels: August Maquete.  Probably needless to say, I read an English translation of this work, not the French original.  Did I like this novel?  Once I got past the buffoonery with the incessant dueling, I began to enjoy the different characters as well as learning quite a bit about early 17th century European history...including an important assassination that occurred in 1628...

Comments and Cognitive Reverie

One of the problems, which incidentally is simultaneously a blessing, when I dutifully post in Facebook each of this blog's articles (which are published through Google's Blogger site), is that readers tend to not only know me personally but also know, should they choose to place a comment, that their opinions will be open for all to read and that they will be instantly identified with them.  Sometimes, as mathematician John Nash, while speculating on a win-win mathematical model scenario, once remarked to a friend in the movie A Beautiful Mind, "You have no respect for cognitive reverie", I like to just sit back and look at things from different perspectives.  I want this blog to be more oriented toward open speculation and "cognitive reverie" as well, but I'm afraid that, with a couple of noteworthy exceptions, folks just aren't comfortable with opening up with their thoughts and reactions.  There is a solution to this, though: anyone reading this blog, whether through Facebook or directly on the web, can submit their own comments to me.  I have it set up on my blog to directly take comments (bypassing Facebook) without them immediately appearing. Before I publish any, I need to first review them...my initial primary reason for this was to avoid publishing the numerous spam comments that were beginning to proliferate.  Now, though, pre-screening is useful in that anyone can submit to me his or her comment and then ask me NOT to publish it...I'll comply with any such request.  Also, anonymous comments can be submitted as well...if they don't sound like spam and aren't demeaning or profane, then likewise they'll be published at the end of the article (within the blog).  In any event, I always endeavor to respond to any reasonable comment, regardless whether I agree or disagree with the expressed view, in a respectful and appreciative manner...

Cognitive reverie to me is an activity in which one isn't tied down to any kind of dogma or ideology, instead just taking a particular subject and breaking it down...sometimes coming to conclusions that don't fit the mainstream of socially-promulgated thought.  Therefore it grieves me somewhat when I go down this road and then get a reaction from someone who is an ideologue, forming their opinions on just about everything based on what somebody else wrote or said that fits their "party line"...to me, that is the opposite of what I would call cognitive reverie.  Such people can easily disprove this about themselves by simply revealing to me at least one issue (the more the better) in which they agree with the "other side's" views.  Another way is to make their opinions more personal and to explain how they interact with their own life and experiences...or explain the thinking process that led them to their conclusions. To me, a natural product of thinking for yourself is to sometimes arrive at different conclusions to things that a particular ideology or doctrine espouses.  Thinking for yourself through the vehicle of open speculation and cognitive reverie also makes you more interesting to others instead of sounding like an obvious one-dimensional, unimaginative copycat hack...

This Week's Football Polls Perplexing with LSU, Fla, and Ky

As games across the South are either finished, in progress, or scheduled for later, the two standing college football polls, the Associated Press and USA Today/Coaches, currently have several Southeastern Conference schools in their respective Top 25...no surprise here since it's the premier conference in the sport.  Three 5-1 teams...LSU, Florida, and Kentucky, are ranked in the "teens": LSU is 13th, Florida 14th, and Kentucky 18th in the AP, while with the coaches it's LSU 12th, Florida 16th, and Kentucky 20th.  So all three teams have the same win-loss record.  However, Florida beat LSU...so why are they ranked behind them?  And Kentucky beat Florida...so why are they likewise ranked worse?  This is one of the problems I have with these polls...I remember many years when the Gators would play and defeat Tennessee early in the season...as the season wore on, Florida would play well but usually lose one or two more games, while the Volunteers, ending up with no better a record than Florida, would stack up win after win, ending up ranked higher at the season's end.  Is there a built-in prejudice here? Probably in both cases...nowadays LSU is expected to be highly ranked, Florida hasn't cracked the Top Ten in years, and Kentucky has traditionally been identified with the league's doormats.  But things have changed, and you might think that the sports journalists and coaches would be up-to-date on them, especially which teams won in head-to-head competition...

By the way, at this writing LSU is beating Georgia 16-0 at halftime, Florida came back from a 21-3 deficit to win over Vanderbilt 37-27, and Kentucky has a bye week.  Two weeks from now the Gators face Georgia in Jacksonville...

Quote of the Week...from Stephen King

Get certain. Do your job. Vote.                              ---Stephen King

Often when I present someone's quote on this blog I don't know the context in which he or she is making it.  Gladly, this is not the case with Stephen King's quote: he posted it yesterday on Twitter, with a link to a tweet from USA Today that read, "A new survey found that just 35 percent of Americans ages 18-29 are 'absolutely certain' that they will vote in November."  King wasn't very happy about that number, consequently his admonition.  I, on the other hand, am astounded in a positive sense with it, as I will explain...

As I showed in my Tuesday article this week, the percentage of registered voters aged 18-29 has been utterly dismal for off-year general elections, i.e. elections in even-numbered years when the presidency wasn't being voted on (like 2018).  Their voting turnout for 2002, 2006, 2010, and 2014 was 18.2%, 20.3%, 20.3%, and 16.3%, respectively.  So for registered voters in this age range to rise up to 35% for this coming election is certainly encouraging...but that's not all.  The USA Today report expressed 35% of Americans 18-29, not just registered Americans in that group!  Maybe they misreported this part, but if even if they did, we may be looking at a lot of surprises on election night, November 6th...

10/7 Sermon on Miracles, Part 5

This past Sunday at The Family Church here in Gainesville, senior pastor Philip Griffin discussed the fifth of seven signs, or miracles, performed by Jesus as revealed in the New Testament Gospel of John.  This miracle, in which Jesus revealed himself as "Lord of the Storm" when he walked on water and calmed that storm, is described in John 6: 16-21...click on the passage to read it via Bible Gateway.  In introducing this message, Pastor Philip reminded us that these miracles served the purpose of pointing to who Jesus is and what he does...

The severe and dire storm that the disciples endured on their boat in the Sea of Galilee connects with the storms that we experience nowadays in our lives: Jesus is instrumental in both.  For storms, as Pastor Philip related, are unavoidable, Jesus comes to us in our storms, and he wants us to trust him to get us through them.  Not only weren't the disciples spared from their storm, but Jesus had in fact sent them into it. Pastor Philip speculated that the disciples, during their long ordeal fighting the storm, may have grumbled "this isn't fair" or "why did Jesus lead us here", but at the darkest hour of the night he came to meet them. Jesus likewise comes the closest to us in our own darkest hours. Philip noted that when Jesus reached where the boat was, he began to pass them by...why? Jesus wanted them to call out to him and invite him into their boat and into their situation...this way letting him be Lord of the Storm for them.  God's greatest desire is for us to depend on him and trust in him.  A lot of us are mad at Jesus and are unwilling to ask him into our boat for different reasons...here are four that our pastor mentioned: "I don't believe he can do anything about the storm", "I'm mad at Jesus for allowing the storm", "I'm proud, so I won't ask for help, and "I think Jesus has given up on me". But on that night on the Sea of Galilee, as Pastor Philip concluded, Jesus changed everything, calming both the storm and his disciples...his presence calms us as well in our storms...

You can watch this week's sermon by clicking on the following link to the church's YouTube video website: [TFC Videos].  The Family Church meets each Sunday morning for the weekly message, praise and worship music, prayer, and fellowship.  The people are friendly and there's free coffee offered in the hospitality room before and between services.  The series on miracles continues this Sunday...

Weekly Short Stories: '39 Sci-Fi, Part 2

This week I continued reading through the science fiction short story anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 1 (1939), which DAW published in paperback in 1979, as I read two more stories: Cloak of Aesir by Don A. Stuart and The Day is Done by Lester del Rey.  The former is about humanity's fate in a distant future under the yoke of alien conquerors while the latter goes thousands of years into the past as modern humans witness the end of the Neanderthals, which they supplanted...

Cloak of Aesir is the longest story in the book and may also be the one most loaded down with technical details...it might help you if you're adept at the intricacies of subatomic physics...I'm not.  Don A. Stuart is the pen name for John W. Campbell, Jr., the noted long-time editor of the magazine Astounding Science Fiction.  The story revolves around an uprising of humans against the planet-wide despotic-but-relatively benevolent rule by the Sarn, a humanoid-like race that conquered Earth in a very destructive war some four thousand years earlier in our late twentieth century.  One man has invented a cloak...hence the story's title...that not only shields him from any weapon the Sarn can throw at him, but can also produce its own effects on the occupying enemy through the concept of "negative energy" (referring back to my aforementioned suggestion about subatomic physics).  The Sarn leader, a virtually immortal woman (their society is strictly matriarchal), is wise both in tactics of rule both over the humans and her own power-hungry rivals, but four thousand years is a very long time in which her foes can develop their own brilliant secret strategies.  How the story develops and ends...well, I'm not going to spoil it for you.  I will say this: the ending is worth plowing through all the technical details, much of which was over my head...

Much shorter and more to my liking is Lester del Rey's The Day is Done.  This is the writer who, three years later in 1942, would write Nerves, a story about a nuclear reactor meltdown, thirteen years before there was ever such a thing as a nuclear reactor!  Del Rey goes back in time and speculates about Hwoogh, the last Neanderthal on Earth.  Marginalized and ridiculed but still cared for by the band of Cro-Magnons he lives with, this is what I call a tear-jerker of a tale.  Hwoogh has his own memories of life with his kind, and how his world drastically changed with the advent of the "Talkers", which he called the Cro-Magnons.  Although it deals with the distant past, there are applications to this story in today's world, in any setting in which people find themselves marginalized and often demeaned and abused by others due to their disability, disfigurement...or even just looking different.  I strongly recommend The Day is Done, but you might want to keep a box of Kleenex handy should the tears start flowing...

And onward I march through this book: five stories down, fifteen to go...

Tuesday's List: National Voter Turnout Since 2000

I have often berated registered voters for skipping off-year elections, i.e. the general elections in which the presidency is not at stake.  Still, the entire U.S. House of Representatives is elected in each of those years as well as one third of the Senate and a high percentage of state governorships...not to mention the many state and local political seats.  Your president is not the king: there's a lot more to our republic with its elected representatives on several levels...but if you won't vote in these elections, don't then turn around and complain about the politicians that you allowed OTHERS to elect.  I say this in particular to the younger voters, who are notorious as a group for only voting in presidential elections.  I'm not picking on today's millennials, either...this apathy among the 18-29 age group consistently goes back many years...

I compiled a list of national voter turnout for general elections in even-numbered years since 2000.  With each year I have listed the national voter turnout percentage, the percentage for voters 60 and older, and then the percentage for that group of 18-29.  If you're wondering about the voters in the 30-59 age group, their percentages are consistently between the oldest and youngest groups.  Florida usually has a higher turnout than the national average by a few percentage points, understandable since it also has a higher percentage of seniors in its population.  Here's my list, with the data derived from the United States Election Project website. To make my point as clear as possible, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016 were presidential election years while 2002, 2006, 2010, and 2014 were off-year elections.  Need I say to my younger friends that the upcoming 2018 general election beckons you to buck the trend and get to the polls this time around?  Well, I'm saying it anyway: VOTE!

YEAR  NATIONAL  60+   18-29
2000         55.3           67.3    34.5
2002         40.5           57.1    18.2
2004         60.7           69.7    45.0
2006         41.3           57.6    20.3
2008         62.2           71.0    48.4
2010         41.8           59.0    20.3
2012         58.6           71.2    40.9
2014         36.7           54.9    16.3
2016         60.1           71.4    43.4
2018         ????           ????    ????

Just Finished Reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Last year when I visited my sister in Austin, Texas, she had on one of her bookshelves the entire collection of L. Frank Baum's Oz series of children's books.  Intrigued by them, I resolved to read through them some day: after all, the 1939 The Wizard of Oz, for most of my childhood, reigned supreme by far as my favorite, must-see movie.  LibriVox is a free site that provides audiobooks for works that have fallen into the public domain, as is the case for Baum's series.  I was able to listen to the first book from 1902, appropriately titled The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, through LibriVox via YouTube...pretty cool!  The book story differed in a number of ways from the movie, most strikingly in that while the film version with Judy Garland as Dorothy and Margaret Hamilton as the very scary Wicked Witch of the West can be pretty frightening for little children, Baum in his preface to this book wrote that he deliberately set out with this series to provide a set of modern fairy tales that weren't as scary as older, more traditional ones.  Also, in the movie it's all a dream in the end: not the case in the book.  There are numerous other differences between the two versions as well (e.g. Dorothy's ruby slippers from the movie are silver in the book)...all in all I enjoyed the book, and the person recording it did a good job...much better than I would have done.  Now I'm moving on to book #2, titled The Marvelous Land of Oz...

After Confirmation, My Take on Brett Kavanaugh

For a while after President Trump had nominated federal appeals judge Brett Kavanaugh to replace retiring associate justice Anthony Kennedy on the United States Supreme Court, I would from time to time weigh in here on this blog about Kavanaugh, usually expressing my approval...in spite of me being generally of a more liberal political orientation.  To me, it was obvious that we were going to get a conservative justice from this conservative administration: this nominee struck me as conscientious and scrupulous in his view of the law, most likely better than others Trump might have selected.  When I watched and listened to the confirmation hearings, I was dismayed at the numerous heckling disruptions, the unwarranted interruptions by Democratic senators, and the generally rude and cold line of questioning they imposed on Kavanaugh...I thought the nominee acquitted himself very well and weathered this storm of opposition.  And then came the allegation from an anonymous source, a woman claiming that Kavanaugh had attempted sexual assault on her back in the early 1980s when they were both in their teens while attending a party.  The accuser stepped forward as a California college professor, Christine Ford, and she ended up testifying before an extended meeting of the Judiciary Committee.  After a very limited FBI investigation of her claims and those of others, the Senate ended up confirming Kavanaugh to the Court, with the final vote being 50-48, Joe Manchin of West Virginia being the only Democrat voting for him.  Friday the confirmation hung in the balance until "moderate" Republican senator Susan Collins of Maine announced her support of Kavanaugh...Manchin closely followed her, saying that he believed Ford's testimony in spite of his support for the nominee.  I said that I would wait until I could compare the testimonies of Ford and Kavanaugh before I would say where I stood on the nomination.  Now it's over...at least the part leading to Kavanaugh's seating on the high bench...so I'll say it: I believe Christine Ford's account, I think Kavanaugh lied about his past, and I would have consequently voted "no" had the honor been accorded me...

I have recently been on jury duty, something that you probably already know if you've read this blog any amount of time.  There was the defendant, who was charged with attempted sexual battery, and the prosecution presented a very detailed case involving witness testimony and physical evidence of the crime.  The Kavanaugh confirmation process was by its intended nature a political one, and the same criteria for making decisions as a jurist did not apply here.  After all, they were considering someone for a very powerful, lifetime seat that could affect the lives of untold numbers of people in this country for decades to come.  Given the fact that, had Kavanaugh's nomination gone down to defeat, Trump would have picked another equally-or-more conservative person as the new nominee, it makes no sense for any senator who, after stating that they believed the accuser...meaning by direct implication that Kavanaugh did attempt to rape her...to vote Kavanaugh into such a high position of honor, responsibility, and trust.  And had he been voted down, he still would have retained his lifetime position as a federal appeals court judge...something I'm not so keen on either.  So for Senator Manchin to state that he believed Ford while voting for Kavanaugh is cynical politics at its worst: he's running for reelection next month as a Democratic senator in staunchly pro-Trump West Virginia...I'm now hoping that he gets his ass kicked...

So what do I think now about Brett Kavanaugh?  Well, there's a small sliver of hope that I hold out for our latest Supreme Court justice...let me explain.  In looking over this individual's life-span, two personality traits have come out about him as I see it.  One, whatever he happened to be involved in, be it studying hard in school, assisting an independent prosecutor in trying to take down a sitting president, assisting another sitting president in his various policy matters, marrying and raising a family, serving as an appeals court judge...and, yes, as a youth partaking in the rowdy, drunken party scene...involving the degradation of women...with his fellow rich, privileged classmates, Brett Kavanaugh has jumped into it with focused enthusiasm while at the same time compartmentalizing each area, acting fuzzy with his memory whenever it suits his interests.  The other is that he has insisted on being the "Alpha Dog", the "head-honcho" in all of these, quite content with being the leader.  Now that he's going to be on the Supreme Court, will he fully commit himself to this institution, trying to excel to his best while assuming the role of a consensus-forming leader?  Who knows, I'd like to hope this will happen, but I have serious doubts.  Oh, by the way: this morning Stephen King tweeted, "When Al Franken was accused of sexual impropriety, Susan Collins demanded he resign. Without a hearing." What a difference political expediency makes with one's so-called "principles"...

One footnote to all this is the extensive protesting that I'm seeing about Kavanaugh.  I wonder how utterly misguided people can be when all they have to do is get off their collective butts and vote in each and every election...but instead seem to believe that demonstrating like this defines their democratic experience!  You can stomp around with your signs and yell to your hearts' content: it won't throw out a single bum...but voting will...

Just Finished Reading The Door Into Summer by Robert Heinlein

The Door Into Summer, besides being the title of a good 1967 Monkees song (with Michael Nesmith on vocals), is also a 1957 science fiction novel by Robert Heinlein.  In this story, Heinlein reverted back to his old love, which was writing about time travel and speculating about interesting scenarios that can arise from it.  Dan Davis is a talented inventor of robots living in 1970...the future from the author's perspective...and has just survived a limited nuclear war and the end of communism.  His future looks bright with his fledgling company and engagement to pretty Belle Darkin.  But Davis's business partner Miles Gentry and Belle conspire to take over the company and boot him out, leaving him with his only real friend left...his pugnacious cat Pete.  But Davis hasn't thrown in the towel: he makes financial preparations and takes advantage of the burgeoning market in "cold sleep", i.e. suspended animation, ending up awakening in the year 2000...way off there in the future.  There are all sorts of plot manipulations that happen...this is where I leave you, the potential reader, to discover what ensues.  But the bottom line is that Dan Davis uses both cold sleep and time travel to change his life and that of others, much in the same fashion that Harry Potter and Hermione Granger pulled it off in J.K. Rowling's third Harry Potter book, The Prisoner of Askaban...after reading Heinlein's book, Rowling didn't seem quite as ingenious to me as before...

The Door Into Summer has a humorous undertone throughout, and it's a book for cat lovers as the author most likely was one as well.  What stood out to me, besides the usual missed predictions about the future, was one that was eerily on target: Heinlein's (remember he's writing this in 1957) relating of the Stock Market Panic of 1987...which actually happened!  Another thing that made an impact on me was that the author, himself of no religious persuasion, seemed to be acknowledging the presence of a guiding intelligent force in the universe, one that enabled the time-travelling protagonist to avoid committing paradoxes by altering outcomes ever-so-slightly.  I enjoyed this book, but in all honesty prefer some of Heinlein's others...

Quote of the Week...from Neil deGrasse Tyson

Knowing how to think empowers you far beyond those who know only what to think. 
                                                                               ---Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Noted American astrophysicist and popularizer of science Neil deGrasse Tyson, one of my favorite public figures (run for president, Neil!), has a birthday today, turning 60, almost exactly two years younger than me.  Whenever he's on as a talk show guest on TV, he brings a sense of decorum and reason to the table...even when the host happens to be an ultra-partisan, embarrassing, and tactless annoyance.  As for his above comment, I'm not clear on the "empowers" part, but I know that it's far too common for people to be content with allowing those in the media to spoon-feed them opinions...and then spout them back out almost verbatim to others, often in the form of creepy rants.  Or even, in our social media/internet society, bypassing that by simply inserting links to "their" information sources when encountering a differing argument (that's happened to me with comments on this blog).  Whenever I encounter someone who talks like a clone copy of some opiniated media figure, I wonder to myself where does this veneer come off and where do individuals like this begin to think for themselves?  I've heard just about every sort of opinion and narrative about various topics and issues...somebody who just repeats the same tired old crap isn't going to sway me in the least.  But if they instead were to open up a little about themselves and how they came to their way of thinking, along with the values that they prioritize the most highly...well, that's a sign that they do know how to think, as well as effectively communicate.  But a lot of us, while real adept on the attack and copying and pasting pithy slogans, are suddenly reticent when it comes to coming clean about ourselves and what motivates us philosophically and politically.  I respect and appreciate an expressed opinion...even when I vehemently disagree with it...when the person promoting it lays out his or her thought processes in arriving at it.  If I just wanted someone to inject finished viewpoints directly into my consciousness, conspiracy theories and doomsday scenarios included, well...there are plenty of overpaid fools on TV and radio more than willing to oblige me, and I'd be the bigger fool for letting them...

9/30 Sermon on Miracles, Part 4

At The Family Church here in Gainesville, Florida, senior pastor Philip Griffin continued his examination of seven signs, or miracles, that Jesus performed and which are related in the New Testament's Gospel of John.  The specific sign for this day was the feeding of the thousands, described in John 6:1-14, 30-35: click on the passage to read the entire chapter via Bible Gateway. The overriding theme, as Pastor Griffin stated, is that Jesus is the Bread of Life, satisfying the hunger of our souls...

Pastor Griffin broke his message down into four parts: Jesus leads us into a life of compassion, trust, satisfaction, and evangelism.  When Jesus was ministering throughout the land, he was exhausted, hungry, and discouraged...he sought solitude to seek and receive solace and strength from his heavenly father.  But the crowds, many of whom saw in Jesus a political figure who could overthrow the Romans and reestablish an independent Jewish kingdom, pursued him and his disciples.  Jesus's reaction to them was counterintuitive, but in line with God's love for us: he felt and demonstrated compassion toward them, in so doing pointing to us the role that compassion has in ministry and that it is a sign that we are truly following him.  With trust, Jesus tested Philip, one of his disciples, to point him to trusting in him and not his own knowledge.  No, the numbers did not add up: they had five pieces of bread and two fish, and to feed the five thousand men (and many more women and children who were there) the financial cost would be staggering.  But while it is good to be responsible with one's resources, the ultimate authority over them all is God.  Our pastor continued, noting that if we put what little we have in God's hands, he will provide abundantly for us: God's provision will never run out and his love will never run dry.  But the people wanted a political solution to their physical problems...but as Pastor Philip said, this sign pointed not only to a physical level of hunger, but also a spiritual one.  And with evangelism, Philip related a definition that he had heard from a Sri Lankan evangelist: "it is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread"...in the end we're all beggars and the bread is the Bread of Life: Jesus Christ...

You can watch this message on the church's YouTube video website through the following link: [TFC Videos].  The Family Church, at 2022 SW 122nd Street, holds its weekly services on Sunday morning at 9 and 10:30. Along with the sermon is praise and worship music, prayer, fellowship, and opportunities for learning and discipleship.  Free coffee is available in the hospitality room...the series continues this Sunday...

Weekly Short Story Review: '39 Sci-Fi, Part 1

Although I'm still devoting Wednesdays to discussing short stories I've read, this week I'm going in a different direction.  I own the entire collection, covering the years 1939-63, of the anthology series Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories.  I am now going through each book, starting with #1, covering the science fiction stories that editors Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg deemed the best in short science fiction literature for 1939.  Starting it off were three stories...

I, ROBOT...by Eando Binder
The name "I, Robot" has come to be identified either with a questionable movie starring Will Smith or a collection of stories written by Isaac Asimov.  The original is a 1939 short story by Eando Binder, the pen name of a two-brothers writing team.  It is told from the perspective of the robot, created by a kindly tinkerer/scientist, and delves into emerging self-awareness as well as how sadly human nature will turn anyone appearing "different" and out of the ordinary as being evil monsters.  A very endearing but unsettling tale...

THE STRANGE FLIGHT OF RICHARD CLAYTON...by Robert Bloch
Robert Bloch, a name you're probably unfamiliar with, later wrote Psycho, the horror thriller that Alfred Hitchcock turned into a blockbuster movie.  In '39 he produced this little story about a man, the title character, who singlehandedly designed and built over a span of years a rocket ship to take him to Mars and back.  But as his spaceship takes off, he unexpectedly loses control and contact...fortunately, as he sees it, the controls have already been set to automatic.  But in the meantime Richard Clayton is completely cut off from others, even unable to mark the passage of time.  The ending reminded me of Carl Sagan's movie Contact...

TROUBLE WITH WATER...by H.L. Gold
This to me was more of a fantasy story than science fiction, especially since one of the characters is a water gnome who swims with his ears! Greenberg, the protagonist, has offended this little man and now must pay the consequences: henceforth water will steer away from him...he no longer can drink it or bathe with it.  The comedic implications play out in this funny yarn, but since the human body is about 6o% water with the percentage dramatically rising to 92% with blood, wouldn't Greenberg have imploded in a horrible instant?  Well, as I said, Trouble with Water was more fantasy than science fiction...

The best science fiction short stories from 1939 continue next week...

Tuesday's List: Historic Landmark US Supreme Court Decisions

Depending on what your area of interest is, what constitutes a "landmark" United State Supreme Court decision will vary from person to person.  On the below list, I'm sure I left out some important cases...I took a course on the history of Court rulings back in 2002 at the University of Florida.  My two sources for this list, which I merged, rearranged, and modified, were USA Today and Constitution Facts, which you can access buy clicking on their names.  I wanted to demonstrate by presenting my list how divided the U.S. Supreme Court has become in recent decades: 10 out of 11 of the most recent listed decisions have been by single-vote 5-4 majorities (the exception being 6-3), while out of the first 25 decisions below, only 5 were decided that narrowly.  It's true: once a deliberative body of consensus-building and a push for unity, the Court has deteriorated into two camps of opposing ideologies...which accounts for the fury (or with the recent case of Merrick Garland, stonewalling) unleashed on nominees nowadays whenever that precarious"balance" seems threatened for one "side" or the other...

1803 MARBURY v. MADISON (4-0)
1809 MCCULLOCH v. MARYLAND (7-0)
1824 GIBBONS v. OGDEN (7-0)
1837 CHARLES RIVER BRIDGE v. WARREN BRIDGE (5-2)
1857 DRED SCOTT v. SANDFORD (7-2)
1877 MUNN v. ILLINOIS (7-2)
1896 PLESSY v. FERGUSON (7-1)
1905 LOCHNER v. NEW YORK (5-4)
1918 SCHENCK v. UNITED STATES (9-0)
1931 NEAR v. MINNESOTA (5-4)
1937 WEST COAST HOTEL v. PARRISH (5-4)
1944 KOREMATSU v. UNITED STATES (6-3)
1954 BROWN v. BOARD OF EDUCATION (9-0)
1961 MAPP v. OHIO (6-3)
1962 BAKER v. CARR (6-2)
1962 ENGEL v. VITALE (6-1)
1963 GIDEON v. WAINWRIGHT (9-0)
1964 NEW YORK TIMES v. SULLIVAN (9-0)
1965 GRISWOLD v. CONNECTICUT (7-2)
1966 MIRANDA v. ARIZONA (5-4)
1967 LOVING v. VIRGINIA (9-0)
1969 TINKER v. DES MOINES (7-2)
1973 SAN ANTONIO INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT v. RODRIGUEZ (5-4)
1973 ROE v. WADE (7-2)
1974 UNITED STATES v. NIXON (8-0)
1978 REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA v. BAKKE (5-4)
1989 TEXAS v. JOHNSON (5-4)
1990 CRUZAN v. MISSOURI DEPT. OF HEALTH (5-4)
2000 BUSH v. GORE (5-4)
2003 LAWRENCE v. TEXAS (6-3)
2008 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA v. HELLER (5-4)
2010 CITIZENS UNITED v. FEDERAL ELECTIONS COMMISSION (5-4)
2012 NATIONAL FEDERATION OF INDEPENDENT BUSINESS v. SEBELIUS (5-4)
2013 SHLEBY COUNTY v. HOLDER (5-4)
2013 UNITED STATES v. WINDSOR (5-4)
2014 OBERGEFELL v. HODGES (5-4)

Just Finished Reading The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) was one of those authors against whom I used to feel an unreasonable kind of bias, almost exclusively as a negative reaction to the kind of "instruction" I received throughout my high school English class years.  I do remember reading The Old Man and the Sea in 1971 as a reading assignment in the ninth grade and thought then that it was okay, but didn't get around to reading any of his other more famous works until recent years, when I went through For Whom the Bell Tolls (my favorite Hemingway novel) and A Farewell to Arms.  Well, I finally got around to reading one of his earlier books, The Sun Also Rises from 1926.  As for my following reaction, English teachers are welcome to read it but so are truck drivers, construction workers, policemen, and anyone else: their opinions are equally valid and authoritiative, as far as I'm concerned...

During the 1920s there was a very large American and British expatriate community residing in Paris, France, partially due to the more liberal social environment there, partially due to many having fallen in love with the place from their World War I experiences, and partially due to the fact that, while in the States Prohibition was a Constitutionally-mandated law at the time, overseas the American ex-pats could openly drink to their hearts' content.   Ernest Hemingway was one of these folks and decided to write a story that reflected the expatriate lifestyle, in the process reportedly drawing upon his own experiences and those of friends and acquaintances.  The result, The Sun Also Rises, is something that, were it to appear in some form of media today, would probably most closely resemble a TV reality show like Jersey Shore, The Shahs of Sunset, or the numerous Housewives series.  I say that because Hemingway's characters are continually going around from café to restaurant to hotel while getting themselves "tight", i.e. drunk.  Their lives seem to be in a state of stagnation, just drifting from one thing to the next.  At the same time these people (first person narrator/protagonist Jake Barnes, his "love" Brett Ashley, Mike Campbell, Bill Gorton, and Robert Cohn as the main characters) practice a kind of social insulation separating themselves from the people they encounter. I'll have to admit that some of these characters remind me in various ways of people I've personally known over the years, especially that tendency to insulate themselves as a "group apart"...or as Hemingway referred to it, the "gang".  They hobnob around in Paris, go fishing in French Basque country, and end up watching the bullfights in Pamplona, Spain. If you're looking for anything substantial happening in this story, forget it: more than anything this is a character study as well as a detailed description of 20s' Paris and the sport/tradition of bullfighting.  Hemingway's writing style was stark and plain, using short sentences and making dialogue the preeminent feature.  I can't say that I disliked The Sun Also Rises once I felt that I understood where the author was going with it...I'm just not sure that he would have appreciated the generally unfavorable reactions that I felt about his characters and their lifestyles, which I suspect he might have been promoting and defending...