Friday, November 08, 2002

Just watched the Normandy invasion - Band Of Brothers version. DTS sound is an amazing thing....stuff went boom, and stuff went boom with STYLE. Though I really found myself feeling sorry for the guys parachuting in...not for the obvious reasons, but because I bet they weren't able to bring much in the way of reading material with them. It's a relatively miniscule issue in the greater view of things, but damn - it'd damn near kill me to not have books. Eek.

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Read this (American Prospect). And this (Liberal Oasis). Send emails to Tom Daschle asking him to please step down from the Minority Leader positoin. We're getting somewhere - Pelosi's almost certain to be Minority Leader in the House, giving us our first woman in such a senior leadership role. And a liberal, at that. The fight's starting - we've got the beginnings of a gameplan and are starting to put together our lineup.

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More commentary on that sci-fi book list, prompted by the Raven's comment: My favorite weirdness (after getting all the way through) was seeing the Upanishads. Uh...why not the Old Testament as well? But yeah, there's a number of real screamers on the backend - The Demolished Man that low (93)? I guess that's alright - since the far more imporatant The Stars My Destination is ranked closer to where it belongs (31). Then again, that should be at least 10 or 15 higher. Lathe of Heaven (86)? The only Ballard - Drowned World at 80? Vonnegut at 81 with Cat's Cradle? Delany's absolutely stellar Dhalgren, the most challenging and (IMHO) artisically important sci-fi novel of the '70s? 66. A Canticle for Leibowitz? 62. Brunner's Stand On Zanzibar, which Raven rightly says should be read by everyone by age 20, clustered with two other absolute essentials - Clockwork Orange and Farenheit 451...at 59-61. 1984 at 51, Brave New World at 49... So what made the top thirty, which is where I'd put all of these books? Let's look at 'em: 1. Childhood's End Written by Arthur C. Clarke 2. Foundation Written by Isaac Asimov 3. Dune Written by Frank Herbert 4. Man in the High Castle Written by Philip K. Dick No real problem on the top four - Man in the High Castle is an unorthodox choice, but I agree. I consider it Dick's finest work, and in many ways better than any of the three above it. I'd personally have flipped Dune into #1 and Childhood's End into #3, but that's nitpicking. The top three are just that - The Top Three. Man in the High Castle is about as close to that pantheon as anything else ever written in the genre. 5. Starship Troopers Written by Robert A. Heinlein Here's the first question mark - Starship Troopers is very good, and Heinlein needs to be represented in the top five - yes, it's symbolic more than anything, but he's HEINLEIN. I wouldn't put Starship Troopers here...instead, I'd go with Stranger in a Strange Land, an orthodox yet apt choice (ranked 40 here). 6. Valis Written by Philip K. Dick Alright, I love Philip K. Dick as much as the next man, but two of his books this high? And one of them Valis? Not one of his most spectacular works - I'd put Ubik and A Scanner Darkly well ahead of Valis. This drops off the list entirely. 7. Frankenstein Written by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley No complaints. The original - since I bumped Valis off, this goes at #6. 8. Gateway Written by Frederick Pohl Never read it - but from what I *have* read, Pohl's most vital work seems to have been earlier in his career. Bumped. 9. Space Merchants Written by C.M. Kornbluth & Frederick Pohl It's a classic, sure, but way lower on the list. 10. Earth Abides Written by George R. Stewart Never heard of it. 11. Cuckoo’s Egg Written by C.J. Cherryh C.J.'s good, but not THIS good. 12. Star Surgeon Written by James White Uh...never heard of it. 13. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch Written by Philip K. Dick Again, great work - but not in his top three, let alone all-around top 20. 14. Radix Written by A.A. Attanasio I plead ignorance. 15. 2001: A Space Odyssey Written by Arthur C. Clarke Not really that good, actually. 16. Ringworld Written by Larry Niven Good? Sure. Popular? Definitely. Great? No. 17. A Case of Conscience Written by James Blish 18. Last and First Man Written by Olaf Stapledon 19. The Day of the Triffids Written by John Wyndham 20. Way Station Written by Clifford Simak 21. More Than Human Written by Theodore Sturgeon 22. Gray Lensman Written by E. E. “Doc” Smith No complaints with the six above. 23. The Gods Themselves Written by Isaac Asimov Not that great, really. Asimov's fiction-writing abilities are almost all used up by the brilliance of the Foundation trilogy. 24. The Left Hand of Darkness Written by Ursula K. Le Guin Much, much higher. Top 10. This, along with Stars My Destination, 1984, and A Canticle For Leibowitz, is one of the most atrocious under-rankings. 25. Behold the Man Written by Michael Moorcock Great but lesser known book. Moorcock's sci-fi is soooo much better than his fantasy. 26. Star Maker Written by Olaf Stapledon Ok, Olaf's great and all - but not so great to have two books in the top 30. 27. The War of the Worlds Written by H.G. Wells There's one author important enough to have two books in the top 30 - and he's H.G. 28. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Written by Jules Verne Uh, duh. 29. Heritage of Hastur Written by Marion Zimmer Bradley Nah - not that great. 30. The Time Machine Written by H.G. Wells So that's the top 30 - at least 12 or 13 definitely don't belong. The next twenty have some real iffy choices too, but this is enough to nitpick for now.

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More fun with Law and Order and recognizing actors from HBO shows - Artie Bucco from the Sopranos just made a five second appearance. =) EDIT: check that, it's more than a bit part. And Busmalis from Oz just showed up as a spokesman for the mayor.
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Science fiction books. I've read nine out of 100. Of course, this list of 100 top science fiction books reminded me of Wired's Top Twenty Sci-Fi Movies, previously mentioned. [markpasc.blog] I've read something like 20 of the first 53 - and #53 happens to be a travesty. Snow Crash is ranked #53 - which is ridiculous. I'd rank it at least #20, if not higher.
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ARGH! I just wrote about three pages on my truly bizarre afternoon, and accidently deleted the whole thing. ARGH. ARGH. ARGH. I'm going to go whack my head into the wall and just cut out the middleman.
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Diamonds? Who Cares? Give Me HDTV. If there's a segment of the population that really wants digital television, it's women. According to a recent study, women prefer a DTV to a 1-karat diamond ring. By Elisa Batista. [Wired News] Well, huh. Guess I've got more in common with women than I thought. =)
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Just the Numbers. In the United States, 3.5 million people will experience homelessness this year. Forty-five percent of them will be employed. One-third of the families will be turned away from shelters. This is part of a housing disorder that has been growing since the 1980s. In Boston from 1983-1995, shelter beds rose from 972 to 3,362 -- a 246% increase. The city's annual homeless census recorded a 40% jump from 1988-1996. These numbers continue to climb all across the nation. In Minnesota, the daily number of homeless shelters has quadrupled; in a similar time frame the Los Angeles shelter population soared from 3,495 beds to over 10,800. The number of homeless in Wisconsin state-subsidized shelters more than doubled from 11,000 to 24,600. [kuro5hin.org] Does it even have to be said these numbers are only going to get worse with the Bush Junta controlling every wing of the government?

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Europe's mid-term crisis. World dispatch: The EU can check the actions of the rejuvenated Bush administration, says Simon Tisdall - it just needs the guts. [Guardian Unlimited] In all the hubbub (did I just say hubbub?) of the last couple days, I have completely ignored the overseas issues. Sure, Chirac is right-wing by French standards, but he's a Kennedy liberal by American standards. Blair in the UK has been a lapdog, but that won't last forever. And Germany? Yeah, we know that situation pretty well. Domestic opponents aren't the only thing Bush has to worry about.

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The question has never been, "Are Bush and his handlers going to embroil the US in a quagmire of a war in Iraq?" It's always simply been, "When?" We now have a better idea of when that would be. The BBC, as I linked to below, projects mid-January as a possible time for the inspectors to present their results to the Security Council. That seems realistic - January is about as late as war could start before next fall. Any later, and even the over-optimistic hawks in the Bush administration would have to admit that the fighting would go into the beginning of the brutal Iraqi summer. That said, I'm willing to go out on a limb and say that even if the fighting starts in January, it'll still be in full effect come April or May, the dust-storm season. This isn't going to be Afghanistan (which, by the way, took a good few months to reach what we deemed a victory). The street fighting's going to be nasty and extended, the guerilla war even longer. And everyone at the UN is willing to go along to get along - wouldn't want to either mess with their chances at grabbing some of the oil or pissing off the States, now, would they?

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Countdown to war [BBC World] Y'know, that's really not the kind of headline I want to see at the Beeb. According to their schedule, we're 105 days out from war now.
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"Thousands out of work? Our war will thin the herd," [Maxine 's Radio Weblog]
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UN poised for vote on Iraq. The Security Council looks set to approve a US-backed resolution on disarming Iraq¸ after key members overcome their misgivings. [BBC News | Front Page] Is anyone at all surprised by this? Or the timing? The vote happens after the election - meaning that all the discussion and bluster to get the vote passed happens to have taken place before the election. Ramadan has just recently begun, which means that it should be over by the time the hawks have decided they're ready to invade...ack. I'm just being cynical, aren't I?

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Iran Sentences Reformist to Death for Insult to Prophet Muhammad. Iran's hard-line judiciary today sentenced an outspoken reform activist to death, 8 years in jail, 74 lashes and a 10-year ban from teaching, the Iranian Student News Agency reported on Thursday. By Nazila Fathi. [New York Times: International] Question about one thing here: if he's going to be executed, why bother with a ban from teaching?

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