An Open Letter to G.W. Bush

Dear Mr. Bush,

In more than five years, since the day you first sent troops illegally into the nation of Iraq, more than 1,000,000 Iraqi nationals have died due to the actions of this war. In addition, over 4,000 American men and women have been killed by war-related injuries, as have hundreds of other individuals from around the world¹. This number does not count those who have been seriously injured yet still live—itself a number that is likely comparable to the first. Despite the fact that you are in large part responsible for this travesty, I expect no remorse from you, no apologies. That’s not the kind of man you are, even though you claim to be a Christian and Christians are supposed to be honest, humble, and full of love for their fellow human beings².

I would, however, like to share with you the following excerpts of poetry. I believe that even a person with a mind as simple as yours should be able to understand them, and I hope they may cause within you a change of heart, that you may finally stand up and be the man the American public hopes you can be and the man your God expects you to be.

The American Language

As with many of my blog posts, this is just a random thought that popped into my head. I was sitting there with the computer in front of me and reading an article on today’s primaries in Oregon, my home state, in which Barack Obama is put forth as the likely nominee. No problems for me there. What does bother me, though, is the comment left by someone with the charming and unsurprising moniker of Spincycle. I quote: “Oregon,San Francisco,France are taylored maid for leftist progressives like Obama no news here.”

Ye gods! Is it just me, or is that a mutilation of the English language fit for Dubya? Which leads to the question: Why is it that Republicans want to make English the official language of the USA when they don’t even know how to use it properly?

Late Obit for the Late Chuck Heston

So, in case you haven’t heard—and how could you not?—Charlton Heston is dead. I planned on posing this question earlier, but I haven’t had the time until now. Has anyone pried the gun out of his cold, dead hands? Hope so; it’d serve him right. (Not that I don’t like him. Well, as Col. Taylor, anyway. “Get your stinkin’ paws off me, ya damn dirty ape!”)

Word Formations: Marching Out of Step

I’ve been reading a book on politics lately, and, as such things are wont to do, it has caused me a great deal of aggravation—nay, downright anger. I need to take a break from politics, so you get to read about language today. Specifically, I’d like to write about my tendency to coin new words in my writing—or, at the very least, to use words that don’t exist in the dictionary, or to come up with new meanings for words (although this last one is more for fun than anything else).

This actually began a few years ago. I was writing, and I wanted to describe a character’s speech as basically meek and quiet due to fear. The words flowed as I typed, and what appeared on the screen was “trepidly.” What appeared right afterward was a red squiggly line beneath the word, indicating that the word processor didn’t recognize it. Surely, I thought to myself, this must be a word. After all, if one can be intrepid, one must be able to be trepid, as well. I consulted my OED—or, rather, my NOAD—only to find that it was true: “trepid” isn’t a recognized word. What to do?

A Writer’s Life for Me

Well, it’s been a while (a long while where the lightspeed connections of the Internet are concerned) since I’ve posted, so I figure I’ll go ahead and write something, since that’s what I do—and, being a writer, I suppose I’ll write about writing. Specifically, what I’m doing as a writer at the moment.

My big project right now is a novel, the working title of which is The Twilight Journey. I started this novel in December, and it’s been slow going, but that’s because I’m a perfectionist. I’m not one of those types who can sit and pound out a novel just to get the story finished and then go back and do the rewrite. No, I have to have it “just so” the first time around. Of course, editors can always find something wrong, and it will have to be “fixed” for technical reasons after I’m done, but as far as what I want to say is concerned, that has to be done on the first go. I know it’s a little slower that way, but it makes me feel better.

RIAA vs. GTMO

Just a quick thought:

Have the military types at Guantanamo Bay paid licensing fees for the music they blast at detainees? If not, then I move to send the RIAA’s litigation gestapo after them to collect the royalty money the artists of that music so rightly deserve. Can I get anyone to second this motion?

The Future of Nation-States

OK. So, this is an idea I want to develop a little further. I’d like to do a paper on it…but I really don’t have much background in poli sci, so if there’s actually stuff out there about it, then I’d be glad to know, and if anybody else wants to take this idea and work with it, feel free, because honestly, although I think about it quite a bit, I’m not sure how much writing about it I’ll actually do. This blog entry might be all you get. (Of course, it might not. We’ll see.)

I guess you could say this particular post is “divinely inspired.” See, I was doing some research for the novel I’m working on, and I searched for the name Melchizedek, referring to the king of Salem mentioned in Genesis 14:18. Of course, the Wikipedia entry was at the top of the Google search results, but–if you clicked on that last link, you’ll know this–right below the Wikipedia entry was the official website of the Government of the Dominion of Melchizedek.

It sounded vaguely sf-esque, and thus unrelated to my research, but the blurb about it caught my eye, and so I followed the link anyway. What I found surprised me–if any of it’s true, that is. A new nation just up and declares itself sovereign, manages to get its hands on some islands in the middle of nowhere, decides to claim parts of Antarctica (and its population?) as its own, and somehow gets other countries to recognize it? Now, I haven’t fully researched this, so I realize it could be complete bunk–but the Dominion of Melchizedek isn’t my main point here. What I’d like to point out is that bit on their welcome page that states: “Due to the fact that information about Melchizedek was almost exclusively and early found on the Internet, the Dominion was declared by NBC News to be the first nation on the Internet.”¹

And so it begins… (part 2 of 2)

If you made it through my last entry, I’m sure you’ve been waiting with bated breath for the continuation. Well, here it is.

When last I posted, I posed the question, “What was I to do?” Now, I answer. Here’s what I did:

And so it begins… (part 1 of 2)

OK. I’m going to confess something here. You can feel free to laugh all you want; I don’t mind.

*Deep breath…sigh*

Here goes….

I’m not sure how this blogging thing is supposed to work.

…

…

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Done snickering yet? OK.

It’s true, though. It’s all a fairly new phenomenon for me. This whole Web 2.0 thing—whatever that means—is a little daunting. If you don’t mind taking a brief trip into my past, you might come to understand why….