To anyone who still peeks in here from time to time, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Have a couple of MidJourney Christmas images on the house. Christmas is also a time for lovers, so…snuggle up to your sweetie and have a nice evening.
Timelines Universe Novel Sale — 99 Cents Each!
Thank you to all who purchased my three Timelines novels while they were on sale for the past week! And now…the next promotion!
From 5AM EST Saturday December 2 till 5AM EST Saturday December 9, the two Timelines Universe novels are on sale (in ebook format) for 99 cents apiece.
Timelines Novel Sale — 99 Cents Each!
I don’t normally advertise my books on this blog (other than in the sidebar) but I don’t know how much traffic my author blog gets…so here is a self-plug for a sale on the three Timelines novels to date. This sale will run for a week starting at 5AM EST Saturday (Nov. 25) and running through 5AM EST next Saturday (Dec. 2).
You can of course read these novels for free on KU, but eventually you have to give KU books back. You can now own all three of these for under $3. (And what were you going to do with that $3? You can’t even buy a latte for that.)
Anyway, here’s the link to the sale article on my author blog. And thanks to any and all of you who are readers.
This judge deserves sainthood.
The Hon. Roger T. Benitez, United States District Judge for the Southern District of California, in Duncan v. Bonta, p. 70, opinion issued today:
One government solution to a few mad men with guns is a law that makes into criminals responsible, law-abiding people wanting larger magazines simply to protect themselves. The history and tradition of the Second Amendment clearly supports state laws against the use or misuse of firearms with unlawful intent, but not the disarmament of the law-abiding citizen. That kind of a solution is an infringement on the Constitutional right of citizens to keep and bear arms. The adoption of the Second Amendment was a freedom calculus decided long ago by our first citizens who cherished individual freedom with its risks more than the subservient security of a British ruler or the smothering safety of domestic lawmakers. The freedom they fought for was worth fighting for then, and that freedom is entitled to be preserved still.
(My emphasis.) No kidding. Thank you, Judge Benitez. Maybe people will sit up and take notice, now.
And by people I mean “non-communists.”
Yes, the site has a revamped look
And no, the header image is not a mistake. It’s an absolutely mad, crazy, fucked-up world out there, now, and my header image fully reflects that.
It’s two Japanese characters that read, “BAKA”. Or, “Crazy.” Or, when applied to a person, “Fool,” “Idiot,” “Joe Biden,” or similar terms in English. (That last may be my own interpretation.)
The most common explanation for this comes from Chinese history, where we are told
The kanji characters for baka together translate as “horse deer” or “point at a deer and say horse.” This is in reference to Zhao Gao, a Qin Dynasty politician who attempted to test his troops before committing treason. To test them, he presented a deer and called it a horse, which many rightfully found foolish. Those who wished to serve under him, however, followed along with his tomfoolery. The 11th-century book The Tale of Genji used this same explanation to talk about someone calling something another name to suck up to authority.
— https://www.cbr.com/what-does-baka-mean-anime/, accessed 8 Sep 2023
Sounds about right to me. These are the baka years, after all.
Never forget
67
Happy birthday in heaven, love. This is what Midjourney thinks you’d look like if you were still with us and healthy.
Requiescat in pace to my little writing buddy
Saturday morning, about 5AM, we were awakened by a yowl from our 14-year old Lynx Point Siamese cat, Frankie. Those who know, know that he was affectionately known as the Lord High Preventer of Work, or LHPoW for short. He’s the cat sitting on my desk in my current author picture on Amazon and at the back of my books. And he spent a lot of time on that desk, “helping” me write.
As it turns out, he had a bad case of congestive heart failure and had thrown a blood clot that cut off circulation to his legs. Though we got him to the emergency vet very quickly (we were there within 30 minutes), there really wasn’t anything they could do for him. They gave him methadone to kill the pain and get him back to a comfort level where they could examine him better, but the conclusion was simply that his time had come, so we authorized euthanasia at around 6AM.
Needless to say, my wife and I are both in shock. Frankie was fine Friday night when we went to bed; he jumped up and lay down on the pillow above my wife’s head as he has done for months. And there was no indication after that of any problem until he started yowling several hours later and woke us up.
Frankie was something of a feral rescue. I won’t say he was entirely feral but his mother was more or less feral and of course daddy cat was a traveling salesman. We got him in 2009, when he was five weeks old, and our older cat, Tiggr (RIP) sort of became a mommy to him. They were great friends until Tiggr passed away in 2015. At any rate we always spoil our cats and Frankie was no exception to that rule. And now he has left a paw-shaped hole in our hearts that will, eventually heal…but there will always be a scar there, just as there is for our other cats, Snoopy and Tiggr.
So the mantle of Lord High Preventer of Work now falls to its fourth holder, our void cat Tux. The LHPoW is dead; long live the LHPoW.
Rest in peace, little buddy. Your remembrance shall be for a blessing.
いや、うるさいよ！
For those who don’t read Japanese, the title of this post says, roughly, “No, shut the fuck up!”
And one could add,「バーカ！」(“Fool!”)
NO!
It’s time to stop freaking out about a fucking cold. Yes, there are small cohorts who should take sensible precautions; people who have pre-existing respiratory ailments, diabetes, etc., as we have been told over and over and over again. But nobody who enjoys good health should be getting yet another dose of Pfizer Poison or Moderna Malicious, and the whole “stock up on tissues” is reminiscent of the run on toilet paper from February-March 2020. The over the counter tests are useless in most cases; too high a rate of false positives (and the ones the government mailed out came here, at least, in freezing weather, so they were no good to begin with).
Honest to fucking shit, does ANYONE believe this crap anymore?
At least they left out masks. Because the masks are worse than useless; they promote their own problems, particularly among those of us who already have respiratory issues.
Stop listening to “experts”. They know nothing, they just have a perverse wish to control your lives as they cackle with glee at your gullibility. Don’t let them have the satisfaction.
Speaking of commies…
I offer Jefferson Shreve, the alleged GOP candidate for Mayor of Indianapolis.
Alleged, because here’s his public safety policy in re: guns.
- Raise the Minimum Age to Purchase All Firearms to 21 in Indianapolis
- Ban Assault Weapons in Indianapolis
- Restore the Requirement for a Permit to Carry a Concealed Firearm in Indianapolis
- Pass a City-Wide Ordinance Prohibiting Discharge of a Firearm with Maximum Allowable Penalties
(Read the linked PDF for details and attempted justifications.)
The first has been thrown out by courts when imposed in other states (notably New Jersey, recently, if I recall correctly). The second and the third are not something the city can do; we have this little thing called state preemption (see previous post). Also the trifecta of Heller-McDonald-Bruen is controlling. I mean…sure. Waste taxpayer money trying to defend anti-2A legislation in the courts. You won’t win. And it will cost beaucoup money before it’s over.
The fourth may make sense only because there is already such an ordinance inside the “old” city limits and various other places in Marion County. But before adding yet more law about such things is fruitless unless the old law was being enforced. Was it? I don’t know.
None of this smells like the GOP to me. Indeed, I don’t see where there’s a dime’s worth of difference between Mr. Shreve and his opponent Joe Hogsett in this regard. (Mr. Shreve thinks differently; he’s full of shit.)
I voted for this clown in the primary, but I won’t vote for him in the general. Scratchity scratch. Or write myself in like I did last time.
Stupid ass. Stop penalizing law-abiding citizens for the offenses of a few bad actors. And why not promise to clean up the gang-ridden parts of town, first? That would go a long way toward stopping many of the shootings you profess to abhor.