Comparing Create Space with Lightning Source.

Fellow Wayland Alum and chess master, Terry Austin, sent me what it would take to publish on Lightning Source. Thought I'd do a comparison.

Lightning Source (Underlining mine)

Professional Cover Design - $150-175

ISBN - $25 if you buy 10 at a time or I think $100 if you want just one.

             Not a bad price if you're publishing ten books. Initial out of pocket would be $250.00.

Print Set up - $37.50 for cover and $37.50 for interior

Printed Proof (if you want to see one) - $30.00

The cost of each book is calculated according to size:

·        $0.15 per page

·        $0.90 for cover

A 200 page book will cost you $3.90 plus good discounts if you buy quantities.

 

Lightning Source lists the book on Amazon and other sellers and take care of all order fulfillment for them. They send you a check every few months for those sales.

 

Create Space:

Professional cover design starts at $250

ISBN - three choices:

• free, but Amazon has publisher rights and marketing rights
• $10.00, author has publishing rights, Amazon has marketing rights
• $99 author has all rights.

 Print Set up: Free for cover and interior

Printed proof, I've now purchased two at $3.00 + $3.59 S&H = $6.59 each.

Cost of Fan Plan: 180 pages minimum purchase price is $5.03 so I set the selling price at $5.99.

 

Lightning Source                                                           Create Space

$25.00 ISBN                                                                  Better choice for ISBN

$70.00 print set up.                                                        Print set up free

$30.00 for printed proof                                                 $6.00+ per book

 

Initial set up $125.00                                                      Initial set up price of printed proof

 

Long term $4.00/book beats $6.00/book. It would take purchasing 60 books to recover the initial set up costs of Lightning Source. I'm not sure I'll buy that many books. I'm thinking of around 20 or 30 to have an inventory for book sales. There's less temptation to give the books away if inventory is low.

 

Lightning Source does have wider marketing with more outlets than just Amazon, and Kindle. The $99.000 ISBN lets you expand marketing. Amazon does offer wider marketing, but at additional cost.

 

The real decider is shipping and handling costs. If Lighting Source has a better purchase discount for authors and equal or lesser S&H then it might be the better choice. Right now Create Space looks like the better choice.

Here's a reply from my friend:

Pat,

 

I saw your blog post last night and had a couple of thoughts if you are going to compare Lightning Source and Create Space. Since you currently design your own covers, you will not have the $150-175 cost of cover design. Lightning Source does not design anything, that is simply what I pay for a professional designer. If you are simply interested in selling enough books to get your money back, here is the scenario with Lightning Source.

 

·        Pay approx. $100 for setup ($37.50 for cover, $37.50 for interior, $12 for catalog listing)

·        Purchase an ISBN $55.00 (Bowker has a plan for independent publishers)

·        Pay $4 per book (you really don’t want to use a font smaller than 11 pt if you want people to read the book).

·        Set the retail price at $15 (or $14.99 if you wish) so you will make at least $10 per book sold.

·        You have approx. $150 invested

·        Sell 15 books and you have your money back.

 

It’s a pretty scaled down model but it does allow you to get your money back quickly. Also, there is nothing to keep you from selling more books. Unlike Publish America or Create Space, you own the book totally, Lightning Source is simply a printer, you have complete control.

 

Thanks Terry for sharing.

What intrigues me now is that using LS over CS I'm free to e-publish at any price I want. With CS I can put it on KDP which goes out for free to those on Amazon Prime, but it can't be published anywhere else. The e-book and paper book have to be priced the same, I do get a bigger royalty off the e-book. But why pay the same for an e-book? Most of the cost in a paper book is in the materials. E-books are electrons.

Conclusion: I'm already committed to CS for Fan Plan. I like the ISBN options better here. I may revise Human Sacrifices and Vander's Magic Carpet and have LS print them. Something to think about anyway.

Proof book

 
 
 
 
 
Book cover submitted, final edit submitted, Create Space offered a free pdf for proofing or I could buy a printed copy for a little over two bucks, but with their shipping it came to a little over six. Here's a picture of me holding it. When I checked the picture I used for the cover it was copyrighted. So I came up with a new cover from pictures I've taken myself.
First thing I noticed was the print was way too small. I normally use 1.0 reading glasses and I had to use my 2.75 reserved for reading pill bottles. It was rather easy to proof on the hard copy and then make corrections for resubmittal, which I did today. Create Space will get back to me most likely tomorrow and I hit the final submission buttons for it to become a living breathing novel in both hard copy and e-book. I upped the font from 9 to 10 adding 40 pages and upping the price from 4.99 to 5.99. I really wanted to keep it at five bucks, but the print was just too small. It doesn't matter with e-books because the readers let you change the size of the print. I don't expect to sell a lot of hard copy's, but this book is special and I wanted a hard copy of it along with the ones of Optimus.
I'm thinking about turning Human Sacrifices and Vander's Magic Carpet into hard copy too now I've figured out how to get published this way.

A Tale of Two Publishings part three

I started writing The Fan Plan in 2011. The story just took off in my mind and I had fifty thousand words in a matter of weeks. I knew that this was a story that deserved to be in hard cover. I thought about using PA again, but didn't want to be nickeled and dimed like last time. I looked into Create Space when I first started e-publishing, but decided against hard copy for Vander's and HS. There is also the problem of the same price being set for hard copy and e-book. This never made sense to me. I mean there's a printing cost and material cost for a 6X9 paper book. Why charge the same price for something delivered by and read by electrons? The advantage of e-readers is that you don't have to pay 3 to 5 bucks in shipping costs.
I asked around to the other writers at Southwest Writer's Workshop and Writer's 2 writers concerning other POD companies. Many seemed to be better than PA because they will release the book on e-format with the publishing, but again e-book and paper are same price.
I then thought about simply going to a local printer and paying them print the book acting as my own publisher, but they all need a volume of from a hundred to a thousand copies which is way beyond my budget up front.
So wanting this novel to be in paper I started the process with Create Space. It is much more complicated than PA.
I set up an account and started doing their steps. I submitted the manuscript for their review which says takes 2-3 days before they get back to you, but is usually ready in a day. They came back with format problems. I had to download their template and copy and paste from the Smashword's template onto theirs. It makes sense because you're downsizing from letter to a 6X9 page where the left page has narrower margins than the right page. If threw o
ff all the indentations and other formats. At this time the story was 120 thousand words. Going through the story to re-indent and paragraph led me to do a little trimming to move it out of the R rated category to a PG.
They also had me download instructions on making the books cover. Their instructions were for Adobe IP. I downloaded and could use this program for 30 days. It costs $400. I really do hate instructions that say if click on this then this screen should pop up then click on this link, because guess what, when you click on the this the screen they say should pop up doesn't and you can't go on! I did through trial, error and multiple temper tantrums turning my poor German Shepherd into a quivering mass of jelly came up with a book cover complete with spine and back page. All to be told when submitted that the pictures didn't have enough pixels. I've made three other covers using different pictures in HD 1141X1000, it still says not enough pixels. I give up and am using the last cover. My thirty day trial was over by the third try but I've had Microsoft Publisher since it was free for taking an Intel Teach to the Future class ten years ago. I worked with it and came up with the latest cover. When I looked at their pdf of the cover it looked fine to me. The pictures were clear, not blurred as they said it would be.
Cover entered, reworked story entered I submitted them and got to the part about pricing. It calculated the printing of the book at $4.77/copy and I could price it at anything above that. $4.99 makes sense, but that only gives me 23 cents per paper book and a buck thirty seven per e-book. I downloaded a pdf proof copy, but instead did another edit trimming it down a hundred pages to 98,000 words. This cut out a lot of back story, but after a good run through makes the plot quicker. I'm still setting the price at 4.99, but the publishing cost is down to 4.37.
Everything is now re-submitted. I have a pdf proof copy and purchased a hard copy today. The proof copy was 2.62 +3.59 shipping and I will have it in a week. I'll wait to do the proof on the hard copy then transfer them to the pdf for resubmittal. I'll also be able to judge the cover to see if it looks good enough.
All in all I'm happier with Create Space than with PA. They offer professional editors and cover artists, but at way too big a price for a retired educator. I can see how other authors getting tired of paying agents and being pushed around by traditional publishers would go this way. It gives more control over the integrity of your story and affordable pricing.

A Tale of Two Publishings part two

Before I get to Create Space a few words about e-publishing. When I published Optimus it was by far the best way to get published. The traditional way of publishing was to find an agent (not very easy), who would send it to an editor who would then send the manuscript back for revisions taking your hard work and squeeze all the life out of it to satisfy the cookie cutter marketing dept's demands. If they accepted it there might be a three to five year delay before it reached print and bookstores. They wouldn't accept a work that didn't merit 50,000 copies. It was that or self-publish with a 2 or 3 thousand dollar up front cost and then buy your books from them. Then came Print On Demand, like Publish America and many others. No up front costs, no large print runs. The bea
uty of this is they can print one or a thousand in next to no time. a revolution in publishing. In 2006 after two years of beating my head against the traditional wall this was a godsend. But as explained in the last post their grip on the price of the book and shipping costs kept me from being able to market it successfully.
Then I discovered e-publishing. Wow what a liberation. I wrote my first novel in 1991 for Ted Turner's Tomorrow Awards. It was gathering dust. While writing Optimus I wrote a short story with a female protagonist as an exercise in strengthening my female characters. For years I would in the evenings find a picture and describe everything about it in detail, this quickly turned into weaving the details into one to three page stories, what later I found are called "flash stories."
E-publishing let's the author set the price from free on up. Anything under 2 dollars gets a 35% royalty over 2 bucks is 70 to 75%. I sold a few stories, but at the same time I started downloading and reading other e-books. I quickly realized that free stories had lots of downloads and anything over a buck was bypassed. I am just as guilty at going for the cheap. I mean I can download on my kindle eight really good novels for a buck, why pay more?
The three anthologies I priced for free. The two novels I priced at .99. Amazon makes you price at least .99, but if you publish KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) those who are members of Kindle Prime borrow the stories for free and you get a percentage of the set amount per year they put into the kitty for every time your book is borrowed. The catch your story has to be exclusive. Smashwords sends your story to Nook, Pubit, I-books, Sony, Diesel, and through them on eight different formats. In the two and a half years since I started e-publishing I've been getting bi-yearly royalties from both publishers. I make about three times as much from Amazon, but I still submit to both. The good thing is that I have my stories being purchased in the UK, Canada, Denmark, France, and Germany. In those two years only one month was nothing sold. Usually I have three to five sales per month and around the holidays I usually have over ten. January seems to be a good month as everyone with a new e-reader starts buying.
I started taking a number of my flash stories and turning them into short stories, then publishing them. My anthologies are: Flash Stories Married Love, Erotic Flash Stories, More Erotic Flash Stories.
Short Stories are: Wife Quest, Woman on the Beach, Car Hop, Super Erotic Bowl, (Sapphire, Misty and Velda), Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair, Convert or Corrupt, Companion, Happy Triple, First Friday: Aug-Oct, Brenda's Story, Companion: Sasha's Story, Esmerelda, and Shari Sadeyes.
Amazon for some reason lowered the price on Convert or Corrupt to free and in three months I had over two thousand downloads. I didn't mind as it got my name in reader's minds.
I republished the anthologies and short stories under the pen name of Javan Tenebrae. With my novels having religious themes it was better to separate the titles. Not that these stories are all that erotic, I'd rate the stories at PG-13 or R, but because it is adult themed I felt it best to label them as erotic. Most erotic stories on amazon and smashwords are pornographic and I hate having mine in that category. The one review I received on amazon for Convert and Corrupt complained that it wasn't erotic enough.
In 2012 I republished Optiumus as an e-book. Of the approx. 140 books I bought in five years I sold maybe sixty. So far in a year and a half I've sold fifty copies in e-book. At only .35/download compared to two or three dollars per book sold, maybe not that much money, but I don't have to keep an inventory that's given away, no book signings taking up my time. Yes at this rate I'll never recover the $70 paid to PA to convert it to e-book and the $200 spent getting my rights back, but I have around ten readers in Europe that I'd never be able to reach otherwise.
The beauty of e-publishing is you can revise and resubmit the stories as you grow as a writer. The more stories or novels you put out there the more your name gets known building a fan base and royalties start adding up.
It's easier to market. Every time I meet someone socially I can give them my card and tell them go to my website (Yahoo website lets you forward to another link which is my Smashword's dashboard, so going to my website of pmprescottenterprises.com and there's my novels.) I can also tell them to look up my name on Amazon to find my books there for kindle. Not always, but after I've given my card to someone I'll get an e-mail telling me someone bought one of my novels.

A Tale of Two Publishings part one

 Optimus: Praetorian Guard was published in Nov. of 2006. I contacted Publish America in August of that year, submitted my manuscript and gave suggestions for the cover, a picture of the author, bio and description in September. In October they sent a pdf galley to proof and got my approval for the cover, which was exactly as I described it. I found a number of changes which I documented and they corrected. It was published in November and I had the first two books in hand to be submitted to the Copyright office with a check for $35. I received a congratulatory letter with a dollar bill on it.
They set the price at $21.95 per book. In five years I bought 126 books from them costing me around $12 per book. I paid $70 to have them convert it to e-book on Amazon, Google Books and their site. They upped the price of the book to $27.95 even for the e-book. I bought 6 copies in hard back at $32.00 each which they priced at $35. This was for vanity to actually sell.
 Most of the books I sold were to my mother. She either gave them to friends or sold them to members of her Sunday school class, pastors and anyone she could brag to for having a son who's an author.
I donated two books to the West Mesa High School library getting my picture in the school newspaper. A few of my teaching friends bought books, even the principle. I gave a lot of them as gifts for birthdays and Christmas. For everyone I sold, most at $15 since no one would buy them for over 20 I gave away at least three. I did a number of book signings at Hastings, Bibles Plus, B Dalton in Cottonwood while it was there. I seemed to sell four books in four hours each time.
The summer of 2007 I spent in Canton Tx helping Mom with Dad while in hospice. I set up book signings before the diagnoses giving him six to eight weeks to live. Mom paid for my flights back to Albuquerque to keep those book signings. While back home I did have a few family things to take care of and get my classroom ready for the coming year. For a book that sold for twenty dollars my cut after the book store's take was three dollars. Let's see $12/4=$3 per hour. They would order ten books and I purchased at retail the remaining so they didn't get sent back. Those book signings proved very expensive.
Fred Aiken teaches a class through Southwest Writers on the business side of writing and he walks his students through how to claim expenses on your income tax. That year I had lots of deductions.
I continued to do book signings whenever a good friend like Dave Corwell invited me join him at a flea market in Tijeras Canyon or Tesuque Pueblo, even did eight hours at the State Fair. Sold books everywhere, but the fair. That's when I gave up on book signings. I started checking Amazon.com for used copies of my book and started rebuying them for around eight dollars including 3.99 shipping and handling, cheaper than getting them from PA.
All told there is about 140 copies out there. Total spent at PA was over $1300. Add the ones purchased from Bible's Plus, three different Hastings, B Dalton's and the used ones from Amazon it's still under the three thousand up front cost to self publish from a college friend who quoted me this price a little over a year ago.
Back to PA. I paid 70 dollars to get the book converted to e-book, but six months later it still wasn't converted. There was no one to contact to complain. I submitted Human Sacrifices and when the editor e-mailed me back concerning it I sent word to her that I wouldn't publish until they did what I already paid for. It was promptly converted and available at Amazon, Google books didn't get it for a year. I never published HS through them.
In 2011 they contacted me since I hadn't bought a book from them in a year letting me know they would sell publishing rights back for $200. I only needed to wait two more years until they were mine for free, but I had some inheritance money and got them out of my life. It took six months to edit and revise it to my liking. It is now available for $.99 at Amazon as an e-book and at Smashwords which sends it out to Pubit, Nook, I-books and other places.
The one real plus from Optimus was the pastor of the house church we started attending read it giving me a glowing review on Amazon. He's also an attorney and when I retired he had a case ready for trial. The first day of my retirement he called me asking if I'd like to work for him. I was retired one whole day. Needless to say P.M. Prescott Enterprises reports more earnings from legal assistance than book sales.
The next post will relate my experience in e-publishing.

Tudorian movies and shows

One of my few remaining blogging buddies Mystery Man of the Shadows has a post about a movie dealing with Henry VIII, and in  a round about way wonders why Hollywood has fixated so much on the time period. To me it's easy: sex, blood, sex, blood repeat often.
I wound up writing a longer comment than his post, which I know is a no-no, but it is my passion.

 Little did H8 know his desire to sire a son would so completely change the course of history. Think about it, no divorce England stays Catholic no King James Version of the Bible. He marries Jane Seymour after Catherine of Aragon dies and when his son Edward VI dies, he's followed by Mary without the Bloody prefix and when she dies without child, Mary Queen of Scots takes over the throne. James becomes King, but as a Catholic and without Puritan interference. See what I mean? No English Reformation, No Virgin Queen, No Spanish Armada, No English Civil War, No Glorious Revolution, No English Bill of Rights, No American Revolution, No Declaration of Independence or Constitution. A Catholic England might not have colonized America until too late to build up the empire it became. A good possibility we'd be speaking Dutch or French.

Here's a list of movies and books on the time period:

A great movie that bombed at the Oscars, eleven nominations and not one statue. Richard Burton got robbed. My favorite line: Anthony Quayle as Cardinal Wolsey: The seat of power does not reside between a woman's legs!
   A little over dramatic leading up to Anne's execution, but it does make the point Henry gave her the opportunity to leave England with Elizabeth, but she chose to die to secure her daughter's claim to the throne.






.

 

Paul Schofied at his best. So many good lines:

Will Roper: Arrest him (Richard Rich),
Moore: What law has he broken?
Roper: God's law.
Moore: Then God can arrest him.

Moore: I would give the Devil himself benefit of law for my own safety's sake

Vanessa Redgrave and Glenda Jackson as formidable adversaries. The sequel by Hal Wallace using the money he made off of Elvis movies, to Anne of the Thousand Days.

Some funny scenes and fantastic performances, but no lines really memorable. Main point was Elizabeth ruled with her head and May ruled with her heart.












BBC followed this with a mini-series with Glenda Jackson called Elizabeth R based on the book Elizabeth the Great by Elizabeth Jenkins.
I agree with Elizabeth Jenkins that Queen Liz was molested as a child and witnessed Katherine Howard being arrested kicking and screaming resulting in her beheading. Sex to her meant death and she would never let a man have that power over her. this series got it right, Elizabeth and Dudley are at a chapel with a priest and she backs out scared to death.
Recently there was another mini-series with Helen Mirren, much more graphic.
Kath Blanchet starred in two movies Elizabeth and Elizabeth the Golden Age that were credible, has the Virgin Queen have an affair with Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester.


BBC had a mini-series on Masterpiece Theater names The Six Wives of Henry the Eighth. I've never seen it, maybe that needs to be corrected if its on Netflix.

TNT did a made for television version of Man For All Season's starring Charelton Heston that followed the play more closely. There are some notable additions not in the movie helping it make sense, but a few quips Schofield put in are left out
.
Shakespeare In Love is set in the time period of Elizabeth and Dame Judy Dench plays a great Queen Bess, but adds little to understanding the politics of the period,

Anonymous which came out a few years ago giving the Oxfordian theory of Edward De Vere being the real writer of Shakespeare's plays is interesting, but so far afield by claiming he was the illegitimate child of Dudley and Elizabeth as to ruin any credence in that theory.
Showtime's series of The Tudors was excellently done even if the actors were too thin for the time period. Like I said earlier lots of sex, blood, sex, blood, repeat often.

Good books on this time period:
Women's romance novels have had a field day in this time period. The most notable for me is My Enemy The Queen by Victoria Holt. A story told by the long suffering wife of Leicester and the mother of Exeter observing all the drama from the sidelines.
The Autobiography of Henry VIII by Margaret George is both a well written fiction with great scholarship, what can sometimes be called fictionalized history because all characters are historical.
Naked to Mine Enemies by Charles Wright Ferguson, a definitive biography on Cardinal Wolsey. I found it a fascinating read, but then I love reading history and it's not everyone's cup of tea.

This is by no means a definitive list of movies or books on this time period just the ones I can think of right now.

In The Works

Next novel going through the publishing process at Create Space. Doing one last final edit and have just done a possible cover.

Sad

A few years ago I had a list of friends to visit on their blogs. I used to meet with two other guys in town that were fellow bloggers and have a dink in a bar once a month. We called ourselves the curmudgeons. My brother started getting everyone in the family blogging so we could keep in touch being scattered all over the place. I'm the last one in the family still on a blog. Bruce shut his down, bummer. I keep up with three blogs now when I used to be able to read blogs for hours. I'm going to shut down all my other blogs but Captain's Log. I still need to vent on some issues from time to time. Kind of sad in a way.

Man of Steel

Went to see the latest in the Superman franchise. First movie to view in 3d. Didn't want to wait three hours for a 2d showing. Not that impressed with 3d. Don't recommend it for fast paced action as it just blurs.
Of all the Superman movies this one has by far the best story line, top actors who give first rate performances instead of phoning it in. Then it devolves into smash and destroy without much redeeming value. I like a Man of Steel who struggles with self control.

Before Yellowstone Explodes

My fourth novel is nearly ready. It is my most ambitious project to date. This literary baby has been so far three years in gestation and the first novel to be multi-generational. I anticipate sending it off for publication by the end of summer. I'm going to try Amazon's Create Space for hard copy publication hoping to have a much better experience than I did with Publish America.

Please leave a comment if you think this is a book you would enjoy.

The novel is entitled The Fan Plan: Before Yellowstone Explodes

What happens when billions of people are hungry and there's no food?
How does humanity survive a volcanic winter without going back to the stone age?

A meteorite hits Northwestern Wyoming on April 1, 1965. The geology department of Trans Global Oil's computer predicts that the magma under Yellowstone will erupt in forty or fifty years caused by this impact. In geologic time from impact to explosion is a split second.
Realizing that when this super volcano explodes the shit is going to hit the fan and billions of people on this planet will die. The Chairman of the Board and President of TGO develop a plan to save civilization and our modern scientific and technological world.
The Fan Plan not only takes measures to ensure food, shelter and energy for the coming ten years of cold and darkness, but a Scientific Secret Police to protect all acquired knowledge, scientists and others from being blamed as the cause of God's wrath to keep humanity from going into another dark age.
Starting in the 1920's when Lyman Drake hits his first gusher in Breckenridge, Texas and creates Trans Global Oil to the 1950's when James Eastman marries Lyman's daughter, Sylvia, and becomes president of TGO to 1965 when the meteor strikes and the three of them develop the Fan Plan; up to 2010 when Patrick Eastman with his half-brothers and sisters with their children continue preparing for the Fan to hit in the predicted year of 2027. The Fan Plan covers the intricacies of an expanding family in an increasingly diverse society, the rise of technology over the last forty years that will aid the pending disaster as well as cultural and political upheavals along the way. 

Ironclad

I waited until it was on Netflix. I do have a thing about chain mail and head bashing. For a movie like this is does have an A-list cast. James Purejoy has been in a lot of things, but I recognize him more from HBO's Rome where he played a remarkable Marcus Antonius. Derek Jacobi is always in movies like this, but he's never been a top name since I Claudius in the 70's. Paul Giamatti gives his usual understated performance until he gives both barrels when its needed. A little irony here after he played John Adams arguing so forcefully on rebelling against the abuses of King George to giving a diatribe in support of Divine Right of Kings while chopping off hands and feet. Kate Mara is excellent eye candy to offset the blood and gore.
Blood and gore wise this is Braveheart on crack. Its the first time I've seen a movie show the result of a two handed sword cleaving a man from shoulder to waist. It does not pull any punches on the carnage bladed weapons wreck on the human body. The middle age version of Saving Private Ryan's opening minutes.
Okay that said I liked that this movie is about the actual reign of England's Bad King John. Hollywood loves to make movies like Robin Hood and Ivanhoe where King Richard comes home from being held for ransom and saves the day for England sparing them his terrible younger brother. The Lion In Winter gives a good idea of how this royal family was really really messed up.
The setting of this movie takes place after John was forced to sign the Magna Charta. He gets the Pope, not mentioned in the movie, but it was Innocent III, who nullified the Charta. He hires an army of Danes and starts tracking down all the Barons who forced him to sign the document and hang them. Much is made in the movie that the Knights Templar were instrumental in the rebellion, but that's nonsense. It gives the reason for Purejoy, who's a Knight's Templar to lead the fight along with the Duke of Albany against Bad King John by taking a hand full of men and defending a vital castle protecting London waiting for a French army to cross the channel and relieve them. There are numerous assaults and the movie shows just how brutal siege warfare is.

The historian side of me laments what this movie leaves out of a crucial and fascinating time in history that is very often overlooked. High school and even college history texts which is what most of the population knows of history; mention the Barons forcing Bad King John to sign the Magna Charta, but nothing about the fight to keep it valid. This movie attempts it, but is too simplistic. So history teacher decides to set the record straight in a simplified summation.

• Yes the Pope nullifies the Magna Charta and John does raise an army.
• The Barons appeal to King Phillip who sends an army.
• While the fighting is going on John's baggage train with all the crown jewels is caught in a flood while crossing a river and washed into the North Sea, only a couple of items have ever been recovered. When you go to the Tower of London and view the crown jewels they all start from the reign of Henry III.
• John dies. This is where the movie ends and the crown jewels are mentioned, but not the flood.
• John's Queen, Isabella rallies the English people around the infant Henry III against the Barons and the French. She declares that her son will honor the Magna Charta.
• Phillip of France, who the barons would put on the throne of England states openly that there is no way he would abide by the Charta. Big irony here that the barons who forced John to sign the Charta are now fighting against it.
• Phillip decides that the little island isn't worth the cost and pulls his men home. The barons left alive leave for France.

And that is how the Magna Charta becomes the bedrock document of England's and our Constitution.
So remember there are three GOOD things that come from the reign of Bad King John:

1. He loses all land in France uniting the crown with the island. From William the Conqueror through Richard the Lion Heart they are all buried in France, not England. You will find all kings of England from this time buried on the island.
2. Trying to retake his lost lands on the mainland he creates the English navy. Hard to think that Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves starts with John.
3. The Magna Charta, he was so bad that the barons forced him to sign a document placing the crown under the rule of law and not above it.

footnote: Richard's queen Berengaria, is the only queen of England that never in her lifetime set foot on the island.
Sometimes good thing come from failures. Don't get me started about Cardinal Wolsey.

Family safe

Brother and his family that live in Oklahoma are all safe. Living South of Oklahoma City the storms seem to pass above them. I can remember going to my neice's wedding and she was rather upset when everyone left her reception early due to a tornado warning. We stayed in the hotel on the tenth floor that night. Contrary to what that asshole televangelist is saying believe me WE PRAYED THAT NIGHT.
Forty years ago I was exiled to Texas for five years going to college in Plainview and a year in Fort Worth. In those years I came to learn what real weather was like. Albuquerque's weather is so mild by comparison that it was a rather rude awakening my first years away. After enduring the constant 30-40 mile an hour winds of West Texas, the humidity of East Texas, instant weather changes, ice storms, dust storms, thunder storms where the booms can shatter glass and spending nights in storm shelters or riding out the warnings and watches praying the bit one misses you I was glad to get back to the relatively safe Rio Grande Valley where Sandia Mountain acts as a weather buffer. Now if it would only rain a little! Guess you can't have everything.

White Noise

 

National White Noise

• Anyone else getting tired of the Republican Sound Machine ratcheting up and inventing scandals to scream about? I mean, give Bengazi a rest already. It has long since stopped being four Americans who gave their lives and should be remembered with dignity. They do seem to be getting sloppy when it comes out they used false e-mails to stir up this fussing point. Maybe the American Public will get wise to this garbage and tune it out.
• Maybe it's me, but targeting the Tea Baggers was a good idea and Obama should have praised those who had the guts to put those assholes on the hot seat.

Local White Noise

• The golf course closest to where I live recently planted seed to replace winter kill. They now have the fattest pigeons in the city. A real shame if they could get grass to grow there it would be a great course, but with the alkali in the soil and this drought it's not very playable.
• City is going through its anual maximum stress quotient for drivers. You can't go anywhere that isn't under construction.

Mother's Day Golf

 For Mother's Day Paako Ridge, which is on the East side of Sandia Mountain, let mother's play for free. When we drove up there was this vintage Bentley on display and it made for a great picture.

 Grinnygranny and I booked a tee time and did a wonderful 9 holes. Wifey doesn't play much golf over the winter and is starting to get into playing shape. Still riding 9 holes at Paako is equal to walking 18 on any of the municipals in Albuquerque. The area is gorgeous, there were clouds keeping it cool most of the time we were out on the course. We stopped in the snack bar afterwards for Green Chile Cheeseburgers and watched Sergio Garcia hit two straight balls into the water hazzard to ruin 70 good holes in the Player's Championship and a tie up to that point with Tiger Woods for first place dropping him way down the leaderboard. Over all we had a really great day and GG is getting the golfing bug back so we'll be hitting the links together more over the summer. In a few months we'll hit their senior's rate and they let you play for free on your birth month if you're on their e-mail list so we'll be going back to Paako a number of times this season.

How do you steal Social Security?

Paul Krugman has a good summary of the economic theories in play during the Great Recession. It's an interesting read if you haven't been following him since Enron collapsed like I have.
One of the many things he's said consistently is: Some of them see the crisis as an opportunity to dismantle the social safety net. And just about everyone in the policy elite takes cues from a wealthy minority that isn’t actually feeling much pain.
I'm going to refer to those who want to dismantle the social safety net using a phrase from Jim Hightower, the title to his book Thieves In High Places or TIHP's for short.
So how do you take down the social safety net? Okay social security works on the principle that those working contribute which pays for those receiving and when you retire the younger ones keep the program going. As long as there are a substancial number of workers more than retired the trust account keeps growing. THIP's started drooling over the Social Security trust the day it was created and about to grab all that wonderful cash. To the greedy there is never enough money. So what plan did they come up with? I'm not an insider but this is one way it could be done:

• Control the Media. This can't be done if there are owners of News Broadcasts, radio stations and newspapers who let Woodwards and Bernsteins run amok. Reagan deregulated the media and the limit on how many stations and newspapers one person or corporation could own and soon all our news was in the hands the TIHP's. Spin everything the way the Billionares want it and the zombies watching their televisions will believe it. Remember Citizen Kane? Wife: Really, the things you say in your editorials, what will people think?  Kane: What I tell them.
• Buy all the politicians. Citizens United may have paved the way lately for unlimited contributions by the rich, but the cost of campaigning since 1948 with the introduction of television turned all of our politicians local, state and national into money whores. Since TIHP's own all the propaganda outlets this lets them buy politicians so they can use their product so what you give with one hand is given back to the other. A nice closed system.
•  Dehumanization. As with all things you want to destroy it has to be dehumanized. Ronald Reagan started it with his Welfare Queens feeding the lie that all those getting foodstamps don't need them. This led to Bill Clinton "Changing welfare as we know it." A neat trick when you can get both political parties to do your dirty work for you.
• Fear tactics. Tell the Big Lie over and over again until everyone knows it's true. The baby boom will use up all the money in the social security trust. We can't afford universal health coverage. Illegal immigrants are ruining this country. These lies strike at the pillars of the safety net. It makes people doubt their future, while reducing the number of workers paying into the system to keep it working.
• Ruin the economy. The social safety net after all isn't anyone's concern if there's only a few unfortunates using it and what money is spent on it is relatively small. Well Reagan launched the attack by deregulating the Savings and Loans. A few at the top partied hardy wiping out over a Trillion Dollars of tax payer money, but the elite took some hits. Keating and some others went to prison even. The agencies then in place shut down the institutions in trouble, reorganized them, stabilized the industry recovering much of what was lost. What FDR put in place worked, but for the TIHP's it worked too well, so they again reached out to Good Old Boy Bill Clinton who signed the bill ending the Glass-Steagal act. This was the bill that as Paul Krugman and others said kept banking boring. I cost the tax payers 800 billion dollars that the banks have been sitting on like a dragon watching over it's pile of gold for the last six years.  If our economy doesn't recover to the pre-2008 level until 2020, how much money that would have gone into the social security trust under a normal economy is lost? We are looking at an economic lost generation. A generation the social security trust depends on for its continuence. This alone explains why the stimulus was labeled by the media as a failure the minute it was passed and austerity has been the accepted economic policy ever since, even after five years of dismal failure to revive the economy. If your'e going to raid social security you have to starve it first.
• Fight expensive, futile and needless wars. Trillions of dollars spent with no end in sight running up a huge national debt with nothing to gain. Both King George I and his idiot son bragged about winning, but what did they win? To win there has to be something that was better before the war than after it and that hasn't happened.
• Tax cuts for the wealthy, tax increases for the middle class. Before Dubbya stole the 2000 election when it came time to figure my income taxes I didn't need to pay, and didn't get a refund. My tax preparer did a good job of keeping a ballance between what was owed and what we earned. After Bush's tax cuts we had a rude awakening because the tax code raised the deduction percentage to income so high that even with a mortgage and medical bills we never reached that percentage resulting in a $1,500 to 2,500 increase in taxes all eight years of his miserable reign. Obama has settled things down again. Those whose income was under $250,000 did not get a tax cut instead they paid more, but no one in the media ever pointed this out. The middle class was also hit with higher property taxes, sales taxes, and governmental fees while getting few pay raises.
• Kill the unions. Good Old Uncle Ronny started this by busting the Air Traffic Controllers Union and non-stop union bashing by every Republican over the last fifty years. Transferring jobs overseas has effictively destroyed the unions in the private sector and now they are focusing on Police, Firefighers, civil workers, state workers, teachers. Anyting goes wrong blame the unions.
• Privatize everything. Schools, prisons, road repair, motor vehicle liscensing and registration, redlight and speeding tickets with cameras where the private corporations gets most of the money. This destorys one of the mainstays of the middle class: government workers with good salaries, benefits, and job security and turning it over to minimum wage drones.
• Make the sick and elderly an economic burden. Didn't Ebinezer Scrooge when told that there are poor and sick who may die say it best? "Then it will decrease the surplus population" Never let there be universal health care, affordable nursing care for the disabled and elderly. Why should octogenarians and older keep drawing their social security checks. Cut off all medical care and bury them. Only the rich should live this long and have the luxury of decent doctors and facilities. It looks bad when minimum wage drones live longer than Billionares. What else explains all the lies, screaming and caterwallering about the National Health Care Act? Of course even to get this sickly and weak national health coverage it was purposely turned into a poison pill for the unemployed and minimum wage workers.
• Raid the Social Security Trust Fund. It started again under Reagan. The screaming that the roof was going to cave in and something had to be done. He fixed it by raising what is withheld from our of pay checks. No one likes a pay cut. It didn't need to be fixed, but this started everyone being worried, and then the news media starts telling everyone going to college that by the time they retire there won't be a social security. Then with the new media telling everyone something needs to be done again, the TIHP's come up with a plan to turn the trust over to Wall Street. Maybe they were a little too obvious with this, because when Dubbya after stealing the 2004 election tried to sell it he hit a brick wall. Oops maybe their lies didn't have everyone that scared yet. Now they've shifted to a voucher system.

The one thing I know about the TIHP's is they never give up and they hold all the cards as long as people keep electing their lap dogs.

Oh My!

Wife called this morning, someone at work picked up an abandoned dog and wanted to know if anyone wanted it. We have a persnickety cat and a German Shephard that's two years old and still very much puppy. We'd talked just this morning before heading out to work that the mutt needed a companion to help settle him down. So I said yes.
A little later a guy called and I gave him directions to the office. He showed up with an adorable looks like a mix between a small fox terrior and a border collie. Wife wanted me to drive up to her office and he was fine sitting in the seat next to me on the way up. All the ladies in her office had to hold  him and pet him, he just ate it up. On the way back he insisted on sitting in my lap. I don't know why people spoil small dogs like this because it's not easy trying to drive that way. Son came up and took him home now the debate is on over the name. I keep telling everyone to wait until we get home and can discuss it, but they keep texting me with suggestions. Evidently he's getting on with the other mutt, not too sure about the cat.

My client took me out to lunch today for Administrative Assistant day. I've never thought of myself as a secretary, (more of a gloried gofer) and since I bill him and am not an employee it caught me by surprise. It was a nice lunch.

Catch up

• I'm still working on the story Bona Dea which is about bringing the Good Goddess back to life who starts a religion of Love and Happiness to restore and rehibilitate all the damage that's been done on the planet by evil forces that destroy everything to make money. Whew! Got all that out in one sentence. It's not only complicated in trying to write from a New Age point of view, but I've chosen to write all the narrative in present or future tense. At 33,000 words after dusting off a short story to turn it into a novel in November it's proceeding slowly, but I feel my writing improve in this process.
• Novels Fan Plan, Stephanus, and others in the works are on hold right now, but that's the good thing about having more than one iron in the fire. When I get blocked on one story I turn to another work on it a bit and pick up where I left off on the other story with fresh eyes.
• Last week I did a lot of driving between the office down to the courthouses in Los Lunas and Bernalillo. Part of me wishes this screwy case will finally close so I don't have to drive so much, but the other part kind of likes cashing the checks this case is putting into my bank account. The week before I did get a lot of writing done, but generated no income. Still nice to have a place where I can sit and write undisturbed.
• Taking daughter down to Los Cruces Friday. She's going to the State Democratic Convention meeting on Saturday. While she's rubbing shoulders with all the politicians wooing her vote I'm hoping to get a round of golf in on a course I haven't played before.

Even A Blind Squirrel

The Legend of Bagger Vance: Walter Hagan says, "Even a blind suirrel gets an acorn everyone once in a while."

Got up early today to walk the Dam Nine at Arroyo Del Oso. I felt like beating the heat and wind of the afternoon and tomorrow another storm is set to hit. It was nice with no one ahead of me so I set a good pace and comfortable rythem which always makes for a good round. I parred the two par threes, which is good, but nothing spectacular. I don't want to think about what happened on #7, but it's about the hardest par 4 in the state. Then came #8. Now I'm not a long bomber so I usually reach the green on my third or fourth shot and settle for a bogey or double bogey. Average for someone with a 29 USGA handicap. I hit my usual drive just barely getting over the arroyo of pebble size granite and around a 170 yards from green. I hit a left fading right second shot with my five wood which landed a good thirty yards short of the green. I was anticipating a pitch and maybe a putt or normal 2 putt for par or bogey. The closer I got to the green I couldn't find my ball and slowly it dawned on me it rolled up onto the green about ten feet from the red flag pin. Miracle of miracles I sank the putt for a birdie. I've been playing on this course for over ten years and a par on this hole is difficult. Needless to say the biggest problem was the fact I played alone and where's the fun in having a great score on a hard hole and no one to share it with. So before putting I took a picture of where my second ball landed as partial proof that I actually did it. By the way I parred the last hole, which I very seldom do as well.

 

 

 

 

Prayers and Sympathy

Prayers and sympathy to all those injured in this senseless bombing of the Boston Marathon and also to the families of those who lost loved ones. May those who committed this crime be swiftly brought to justice.

Tiger Woods Compromise

Tiger Woods had a bad 15th hole on day two of the Masters. The best I can figure this is what happened: His approach shot hit the flag stick and bounced into a water hazzard. He then had three choices A. hit from the drop zone B. rehit from his original spot or C. In a straight line from where the ball entered the water on the other side of the hazzard he could drop as far back as he wants. He didn't like the drop zone saying the grain of the grass was against him and it was soggy, so he dropped a couple of yards behind the drop zone.
He suffered a bogey on the hole and no one whether tournament officials or news commentators thought anything was wrong with his drop. He finished the round, signed his scorecard and by end of play the officials verified all scores as official and that should have been the end of it. In my humble opinion.
Enter some pinhead who calls the tournament officials overnight to basically say Tiger couldn't, according to the rules, drop from behind the drop zone and that when he signed the scorecard without a 2 stroke penalty the card is inaccurate and he should be disqualified.
Purists would say the rules are the rules and that's that. Well there are loopholes for every rule in golf. Or should I say compromise rules.
I'm a different kind of purist which says the rules should be overseen by officials in real time like just about every other sport. Some pinhead watching on TV may see a guy throw the first punch which starts a fight in a football game or basketball game, but the official only saw the retaliation and player 2 gets the flag or foul. You don't after the game is over and score is official then say oops someone watching the game on TV says that was a penalty on the other team and they should lose the game. There would be riots in the streets of the team shafted by such a ruling.
So there are two sides here: Side A says he broke a rule and should be penalized even if it is over twelve hours since play ended and the card was ruled official by end of play. Side B says once all scores are ruled official they're set in stone and can't be changed even if some pinhead using HDTV and a pause button is technically correct.
Enter the compromise HDTV rule, which says Tiger is not disqualified, but does have to accept the two stroke penalty. That turns hole 15 from a bogey to a triple bogey. That's tough, but better than being disqualified and losing whatever money he's going to collect at the end of the tournament.
Side A fusses because he should be disqualified for signing an inaccurate scorecard.
Side B fusses because the score was ruled official by the end of play and should stay as recorded, no delayed penalty.
As with all compromises both sides get a little of what they want and aren't happy because they didn't get all that they want. But it is a practical solution to stop the argument and get on with playing the game.

On a later broadcast the information I had was incorrect (surprise surprise) Tiger took a drop at the original spot saying he stepped back two yards. On picture evidence using divot marks he was only a few inches off from the original mark- so the two stroke penalty was assessed because he opened up his big mouth and shot it off without thinking.

Life of Pi

Finally watched the movie Life of Pi. I found it interesting and have some ideas about it, but would welcome instead a discussion with others who've seen it. If you would like to comment your thoughts I would welcome all who wish to discuss the movie.

Trips to the Round Insane House.

Third trip in two weeks up to Santa Fe while the Educational Retirement Board changes are beforeethe House (bill 64) and Senate (bill 115). They love to play games up there. First trip was a general joint session on both the PERA (governement workers) changes and the ERB (Educational Retirement Board). Second trip was the House Finances and Labor relations committee which is where the Republcan tried to add a poison pill amendment which would keep current retirees from getting a cost of living increase for the next 20 years. It was tabled. Last Wednesday the House Education committee had Bill 64 way down on the docket so most of the stakeholders didn't attend knowing they wouldn't get to it. They moved it to the top of the docket, fortunately with a 5 to 4 vote along party lines the amendment was tabled again.
Today I went up to the Senate Education committee hearing and they didn't get to it. It's hard to know when to go up and when not to go up. The meetings are at 0800 which means leaving Albuquerque by 0630. It's important that retirees be there for these meetings to be heard, but when they play games on when what bill will be discussed when and where it makes it very difficult.

Catch up

• Taking Mom up to Santa Fe to lobby for the two bills making changes to our educational retirement board (ERB). It's going to be a challenge to keep it intact and not messed with by legilators intent on ruining it. One poison pill amendment was tabled in the house last week, but there's still many more committee hearings and floor debate as well as a hostile governor before we can breathe easily. It's going to be a long 60 day session.
• Amazon's Create Space is holding a contest and a novel needed to be submitted by Jan 27. I submitted mine on the 26th. I've been working on it for a couple of years so it didn't take but two weeks to get it ready. The first round is based on the pitch, second round will be on the excerpt and third round will be ont he total novel. If I'm chosen then they will help with the editing and publish it. The ten thousand dollar prize would be nice too. Crossing fingers I get past the first round.
• The weather and my health improved and I got to take a nice walk spoiled by a litte white ball. Didn't do too badly for not making it out to the course in six weeks.
• Good news. Writers2writers the West side writing group I've coordinated for the past three years found it difficult to meet where we've been meeting and I've spent the last two years trying to find a better venue. I gave up after the November meeting where we were meeting refused to turn off the music for our meeting and actually turned it up. I took the hint. We don't meet in December and still not finding a place canceled the January meeting. Other members of the group tried valiantly to find us a place, but they're all on the East side and that defeats the purpose for West side writers who want to meet close to home. If found us a place and the Feb. meeting is back on.
• A fellow writer new to blogging is Jonathan Miller aka the Rattlesnake Lawyer. He told me about Southwest Writers Workshop at one of his book signings and from that I found out about Publish America which led to getting Optimus: Praetorian Guard published in 2006. He's spoken numerous times at Writers2writers. I've read a number of his novels and he has a new one Rattlesnake Wedding coming out on Valentine's day. His blog is about the trauma of waiting for the big day. Check it out, but if you buy and read his books without buying and reading mine I'll be really pissed.

Crony Capitalism or Political Bribery

Excerpt from James A. Michener's The Source: Twilight of an Empire
Kaimakam Tabari had one simple rule of administration, and it was understood by all his subjects: In Tobariyeh positively everythingw was for sale. If an Arab youth was summoned for military service it was obvious that there was no possiblility for escape; but if his father paid the kamakam enough, he could escape.... For the issuance of the simplest government paper, an established scale of bribes was in force, and in either the civil court of the qadi or the religious court of the mufti, any decision that was wanted could be had by the paying of the proper baksheesh to the kaimakam....
As a result of this constant drain on the people of Tubariyeh, there was no money left for schools, or sewers, or water supply, or a jail in which a human being could survive. There were no hospitals, no adequate policing, no fire fighting, and no roads.

Is America devolving to a country of corruption and bribery? Do our elected officials charge for every service required like in 1880 Palestine?
We have a different form of baksheesh, more modern and sophisticated: Election campaign warchests. Every representative who is elected either to the national or state legislatures spends 18 months out of the 24 months in office raising the money for re-election. Is it any wonder the Republicans openly disdain the masses who contribute little and fight only for the wealthy and corporations who contribute much? Or that the Democrats talk about helping the middle class, but accomplish so little? Elections have become a way of circulating all that campaign money into a closed set. Corporations give the money to the politicians who then give it to advertising agencies who buy time and space from the media. The corporations who give the money own the agencies and media outlets where the money goes so just like water it gets boiled, evaporates and rains back down. Little of all this money reaches the masses who are brainwashed into buying the political product sold to them.
Since Ronald Reagan became president and forty years of trickle down economics many of the signs Michener mentions showing the cost of corruption are prevalent.

• Our public schools are being starved of qualified teachers, proper rooms and materials for learning so political cronies can make a fortune coming up with standarized tests that prove absolutely nothing about the state of learning in America. Private schools are not held to this testing standard, but when their test scores are compared with public schools they show little to no improvement. Paul Krugman told Bill Moyers in an interview that replacing the hundreds of thousands of teaching positions lost since 2008 would add an extra 200 billion dollars to the economy which would help out with housing, automobile sales, retail sales, insurance premiums, and increased tax revenue across the economic spectrum. I really wish our politicians would fight as hard about closing schools as they do about closing military bases. The same economic principle applies.
• Amost all cities are faced with aging sewer systems and waste disposal plants that contaminate our shorelines, our underwater aquifers, land and are repaired only when they break. Add to this polluted air from factories, lakes and rivers from fertilizer runoff, fracking for oil and natural gas and chemical discharges and toxic waste in land fills we are truly soiling our own long term nest for short term profits. The polluting corporations can bribe scientists to refute all claims that they are doing harm or export the toxins to third world countries so their populations are poisoned as well as buy the votes they need to keep sane regulations being placed on them. 
• Privatized prisons are filled with non-violent offenders mostly on marijuana charges in substandard facilities that are poorly staffed due to low wages with little training. The corporations pay the baksheesh to the congress critters and rake in the money with little accountability.
• The most fought over issue for fifty years is health care and even after the passing of the Affordable Health Care Act in the next twenty years the ever growing poor population (due to austerity measures by the government) millions will die due to lack of being able to get proper medical care until it is too late. Who cares about the millions of people finally getting health care and are not denied because of a pre-existing condition, but horrors of all horrors insurers will have to pay for birth control, the morning after pill and abortions. Employers who pay for this insurance are appalled that their employees want to control thier own bodies without permission.
• It's a no brainer that when the economy goes down and there are few jobs crime rises. So at a time of more criminals; states, towns and cities facing budget problems are laying off police and fire fighters. Neighborhoods are forced to pay extra for fire protection and if a homeowner doesn't pay then the fire fighters stand by and watch it burn down. Baksheesh in action. The entire criminal justice system is swamped because all the money is being siphoned into the profits of private security firms and prisons. Maybe city hall should open up a line for bank robbers. Walk up, hand in a note demanding money, get arrested, plead guilty to the judge sitting next to the clerk and police officer, get sentenced to prison so you don't have to sleep under a bridge in sub-zero temperatures. Isn't that the way corporations like to make everyting an assembly line? Maybe if we create enough prisoners from our surplus population there will be enough money in transporting them to the moon to work as slave laborers extracting minerals for the corporations to invest in such a transportation system. After all there are no more places on earth to set up penal colonies.
• When America's corporations paid taxes instead getting subsidies, and all citizens paid taxes, not just those who make less than a hundred grand a year, and thanks to the GI Bill college was affordable, the schools that are crumbling today were built, the sewer systems that are breaking were dug, the interstate highway system was stretched all across the continent and this led to high employment, a growing middle class, and the highest standard of living in world history with a small prison population. Schools could afford athletics from elementary through high school with large bands to play and perform at games. Teachers taught their curriculum, not how to take a test with high graduation rates. We were able to pay for the space race, Vietnam war, and create Medicare and Medicaid plus food stamps from the taxes raised from this standard of living. In the last forty years of regressive instead of progressive taxation, deregulation of industry, and outsourcing of employment that produces goods instead of services everything we built is falling apart and crumblind like our roads and highways. What good will all the new fancy cars with fantastic sound systems, hybrid engines, and all the other fancy gadgets imaginable be if the drivers are stalled in traffic because a sewer line burst, roads are being patched intead of repaired ruining suspension systems or you're forced to drive a hundred miles our of your way because a bridge collapsed between Dallas and Denver? Is a toll road from Brownsville, Tx to Minneapolis where every driver has to throw money into a booth every twenty or thirty miles really better than maitaining I-35?
• Was life ideal, no, before Title IX there was little opportunity for women in athletics outside of cheerleading and pep squads; little was done for the handicapped or mentally impaired; inner city was just as crime ridden and the schools suffered not to mention the problems of segregation and racism but the burst of prosperity led to correcting those problems even if they haven't been eradicated. The future I grew up in was a hell of a lot better than the future my children and grandchildren face today with a shrinking middle class and a policital system sucking all the money out of the economy to enrich .01% of the population. Would it be so hard for the Walton family to take a smaller cut from the profits of Wal-Mart and Sam's club so the employees could make enough money to not need food stamps, medicaid, and be able to rent a two bedroom apartment and buy a decent used car? Not to pick on just the Waltons as the same could be said of almost all international food and retail stores.

Good Reads for the New Year

      

 Looking for a good read this new year. Here's a couple of e-books for only a buck each at Amazon, I-books, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords

And don't forget my science fiction novel also only a buck.

A proposito

In the ancient world some marvelous structures were built. Of the seven chosen at the wonders of the world only one is still standing: the pyramids of Egypt. There was a beautiful temple named one of these wonders. It was the temple of Artemis in Ephesus built in 550BC. In 356BC it was burned down. The arsonist was arrested and tried. He plead guilty explaining that he was a person who would never be remembered after his death and this was his way of having his name in the history books. He was naturally sentenced to death and the judge ruled his name to be stricken from all records so his name would not go down in history, thus depriving him of the one thing he committed the crime for.
Now no one died in this arson, and you might ask "So What?"
Well it seems to me that today's serial killers and mass murderers have a parallel motive. Serial killings and mass murders are done by nobodies. Nameless and faceless non-entities living lives of quiet desperation. With over 300 million people in this country the overall vast majority of our citizens fit into this catagory. A great many seem to derive some meaning vicariously by identifying with Royal families, athletes, actors, actresses, celebrities famous for being famous. The paparazzi make a fortune invading the privacy of the aforementioned to feed the appetite of nameless, faceless nobodies who look at and read in a frenzy everytime Kate Middleton or Kim Kardassian sneeze.

• Add to this equation our high stress environment. This economic downturn is making the young adults work longer and harder for fewer rewards. The number of 20 somethings and 30 somethings unable to buy a decent car or afford an apartment, much less buy a house is very discouraging. Frustration breeds thoughts of violence.
• The American dream has always been a white American fantasy sometimes achieved by minorities, but pretty much taken as for granted by WASPS. The dream is now a nightmare. Getting married, stay at home Mom, buying a house, two cars and having 2.5 kids with dogs, cats, goldfish and hampsters comprises less than 7% of the general population and shrinking fast. So much for Family Values.
• Factor in a polarized political climate each of which demonize the other ramping up the nastiness like putting rifle scope crosshairs over the other party's candidate and speaking of 2nd ammendment solutions.
• Include religious loudmouths blaming every bad thing happening on God's wrath changing the Love of Christ to the Hate of Christ.
• Include the cheapness and ease of access to high powered firearms with mega magazines and their scare tactics blaming Democrats of wanting to ban guns in order to sell sell sell sell. Remember in 2009-11 the bullet shortage? This creates a perfect storm for a lone gunman or a few friends deciding to go out like Butch and Sundance or Thelma and Louise.
• The deciding factor is that everytime a serial killer is caught comes fame and their names forever placed in the history books. The same for mass shooters. Does anyone remember outside of friends and family members the names of those killed at Columbine? At Fort Hood? The Murrah Building? But we all know or can read the names of the killers in the numerous books and articles written about them. Sure it all pseudo psychological or sociological analysis of why the did what they did, blah blah blah.

Alright what can be done?

1. Sensible gun control, not the banning of guns, but good God regulate who buys and who can keep lethal force. Don't give me a silly argument that knives are just as deadly. Yes they are, but the magnitude of destruction is not the same as an assault rifle with a 30 round clip.
2. Stop glorifying mad dog killers. The media's wringing every last drop of grief for the victims is appropriate, but even saying the killer's name or why he did what he did shoud face silence on airwaves and newspapers. There needs to be an agreement not to glorify or contribute to the notoriety of someone who would committ such an act to get 15 minutes of fame.

Will this stop the violence? No, but it might reduce the carnage if those living lives of quiet desperation know thy won't get what they seek this way.
Did it work in 356BC? No Herostratus is the arsonist, but it takes someone really wanting to dig deep to find that name.

That Season Again.

A merry Christmas or Winter Solstice, or or or...

May this time with family and friends be joyous and the memories last a lifetime.

Favorite Christmas Songs

So I was a little Scroogy in my last post. Yes, Virginia I do have some Christmas songs I dearly love.
So here are my top Christmas songs with some of my favorite performers who sing them.
Drum roll.....
1. O Holy Night -- Michael Crawford's version is spectacular.
2. What Child Is This -- Barbara Mandrell really belts this one out.
3. Snoopy's Christmas -- The Royal Guardsmen may be mostly remembered for Snoopy and the Red Baron, but this song, woefully underplayed on radio, goes past satire and explains the German Yule of giving gifts and celebrating Winter Soltice with their enemies. "Christmas bells those Christmas bells ringing through the land..."
4. Pas De Deux from The Nutcracker. Last year I recorded five different showings of this ballet off Ovation channel just to watch the five different ways this song was performed. I never tire of yearing this song or watching the dance. It's beautiful.
5. Blue Christmas -- Beach Boys version is best, wife love's Elvis.
6. O Tannenbaum -- Nat King Cole, makes your heart melt.
7. Carol of the Bells -- It's snappy

Christmas Music Overload

This is the time of year to hear carols everywhere you go. I do remember the day, many years ago when I too was one of those insufferable people walking through neighborhoods ringing doors with other of my kind singing to those who opened the door three or four songs written a hundred or more years before our births. A kinldy medical doctor joined us playing a saw like a violin. The fond memories of those times last a lot longer for the singers than for the poor souls scratching their heads wondering who the hell those idiots are.
On the radio whether XM or local they pull out the seasonal songs. All singers who want cheap royalties for life do a Christmas Album. Even well known Jews like Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond sang Ave Maria and O Holy Night then sing What A Friend We Have In Jesus while they cash their checks. Those albums have been out for over thirty years, but they're still played on the airwaves and downloaded from the internet. The estates of Gene Aurty, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Andy Williams, Perry Como, Elvis Presley, Beryl Ives and on and on cash in on it, or I one would think, maybe the recording companies clean up on the old singers whose roayalties have played out. Talk about pure gravy! Would anyone remember Jose Feliciano if it wasn't for Feliz Navidad? Poor Trini Lopez, why didn't he do a catching latin Christmas song? Lemon Tree is only remembered if you really like watching The Dirty Dozen over and over again.
It seems with so many channels to choose from on satelite and cable half of them are doing some country singer's Christmas special. Wife made me watch Scotty McCreary's. Problem is he had everyone else singing and only sang one song. Not sure about that as she didn't collar me and force the torture on me until the opening part of the show was over, so he may have started the show with a song and then finished it. I like his voice even if it is Randy Travis coming from Opie Taylor.
I really avoid stores as much as possible because they blare seasonal Muzak. Most of it generic like Frosty the Snowman or Let It Snow Let it Snow. Is the song Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire where the term "Chestnut" for a stale joke originated?
I guess I get my aversion for some of these songs because I worked in department stores while in high school and college. I remember standing in the lobby of a Skaggs drug store behind a counter with cigarettes (yes back then they were in the open so all the customer had to do was grab a carton or package or two, hand it to me so I could ring it up, sack it and give change) candy (sounds silly today to be selling those side by side, but that's how they got the kids hooked on both vices) meanwhile back to the original train of thought. Standing there with the music blaring overhead for eight hours of looped holiday music 1) takes away all meaning from the songs, 2) destroys your ability to listen to songs in 3/4 or 4/4 time (that's walz and fox trot to you dancers) 3) and years later when you hear them it brings back all the memories of hurried and short tempered customers and why I was so grateful to spend most of my life trying to educate ungrateful children on the importance of knowing the difference between an noun and verb as well as the three branches of our government and the need for ballance of power between them.
Not all of my aversion to some music is about Christmas Music. Working at Skaggs the summer before going off to college I was tortured by the looped songs of Melany's I Have A Brand New Set of Roller Skates and You Have a Brand New Key followed by Jeannie C Riely's Harper Valley PTA.
Now you know why out of the huge collection of .45's collected while growing up I took none of them with me to college. I only took one lone album (lp) and that was what I tortured my mother with my senior year in high school, Iron Butterfly's Inagodadavida.

Story slowly coming along

Up to 20,000 words on story so I'm a little behind. Still doing paying work is more important.
Wednesday I pick up our Thanksgiving turkey. Last year we bought 3 turkeys. We ate one for Thanks, ate another one between holidays and had the third for Christmas. We haven't wanted turkey for a long time. This year we're only getting one. We used to get a smoked turkey at Powdrell's barbeque and they are absolutely fabulous, but the price kept going up and finally out of our reach. I mean when you can buy a 25lb turkey for $13.00 paying fifty for a smoked one seems silly, but that's what we're doing this year. If we're going to eat turkey again we decided it needs to be memberable for something other than fatigue. BTW, Mom's fixing a roast for Christsmas.