Author Archives: Bob Evans

Playing with the crystal ball

So let’s warm up the crystal and see if I can peer into the future.
Let’s say that the Supreme Court upholds the ACA either in it’s entirety in a 5-4, or a more narrow ruling with something like a 6-3 split. (Sounds like bowling for precedents.)
The Republican base, energized by the need to repeal the ACA, recovers their enthusiasm, holds the House, takes the Senate and the White House in the trifecta of American Politics, but their hold on the senate is less than 60 votes.
What happens after that?
Well the Republican base demands that the House pass the repeal of the ACA, Romney says he will sign it, and the Bill goes to the Senate, where the Democrats filibuster it. ACA= tyranny and as tyranny cannot be allowed on a procedural trick, the Republican initiate their nuclear option and destroy the filibuster. The repeal passes on a party line vote, amid a storm in insults, shouting, and images of sick people without healthcare, and Romney signs it.
The filibuster once broken, even if the rules were changed for just one vote and then changed backed, is forever a dead letter. The Republicans, knowing that all power is fleeting, use the newly empowered government to pass tax cuts and changes along more party line votes.
What happens, when it must eventually occur, when the Democrats have the three institutions under their control? Of course they will pass the legislation they have long desired and wanted, using the same techniques with the same party line vote tallies.
This could also start the other way, ACA is struck down, and the Democrats hold the Senate and White House and regain the House. (Fairly unlikely I think.) Then blowing up the filibuster and on a party line vote they sweep into existence a single-payer system. Etc etc.
Of course, by that point, we no longer a system of stable laws and government as each change in power can lead to a whiplash of new laws, repeals, and changes controlled only by the whim of political passions.

This is not a good thing. This scares me.

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Nook tablet vs. Apple iPad

I purchased a couple of years ago an ebook reader, the EZReader Pro. It worked fine, but I discoverfd I adopted too soon and the device while perfectly functional doesn’t meet all the needs I have for a good portable reader.
I know that one day I want to get myself a tablet, the question is which one? Continue reading →

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Getting back into the groove

So now that injuries, illness, and contests have been taken care of, at least for a little while, I can get back to the writing schedule I was trying to maintain.

Today I managed to pull out the short story “A Question Of Justice,” and resume work. This is the mystery story and represents a departure for me. I have never written a mystery and certainly never one that lacked all the fantastic elements found in SF, Horror, and Fantasy. (Though I suppose an argument could be made that ghost stories are often mysteries, with the reader and protagonist trying to unravel the reason for the haunting. My story “The House Of Bad Blood,” falls into that vein, but I would still maintain I have not written a proper mystery before.)

While I did not get much written today at lunch – when I am working on short subjects – I did get the story moving again. (Sadly I was unable to resist the sirens of the internet.)

Tonight I will get back to work on “Command and Control,” my new Seth Jackson novel. If that goes well tonight then I shall be happy to be back in the saddle.

 

I’ve also had a setting, more properly a concept, floating around in my head for a new SF novel. It would concern a nebula as seen from Earth, but from a vantage point much closer the nebula vanishes and instead there is a planetary system with inner rocky planet and out gas giants. Of course a ship is sent to study this stranger system up close.

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Learning to walk

Normally that would be a metaphor, but in my case it is the precise truth. I am learning to walk again.

Luckily it is not from a serious injury of disease, but rather it seems I never walked properly at all. My right foot turns out and that, apparently, has been the source of my knee issues. So I am trying to retrain my giant gait and all my stances so that my foot point forward and not out.

 

My knees feels better, but it is a long process learning a new habit.

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A very decent day overall

Today started early as I had an appointment to see my sweetie-wife’s chriopractor about my bum knees. Now I will admit to being skeptical as to the usefulness of this visit, but I agreed to hear the man and see what sort of things me might try.

He agreed with a physical therapist that had diagnosed my giant gait as being off. (Apparently I walk with my feet pointed outward.) After just one treatment the pain in my knee was gone. By the end of the evening it was coming back but far from as severe as it had been. I will stick with this and see how it goes for the next two months.

In the evening I ran my D&D game and that game went pretty well.

edited for spelling

 

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A surprisingly productive year – so far

I’m a little astounded at how well my writing productivity has turned out this year.  We’re not three months into 2012 and I have completed three short stories, two are about to be sent out for possible publication and the third is for a special project with the Mysterious Galaxy Writer’s Group. I have outlined and started a new novel. (A project delayed due to injury and illness at home, but now that both are safely in the past tense I can get back to work on Command & Control.) I’m now writing a mystery short story that has no fantastic elements, a genre I have never attempted, and several more short stores and a new setting for a novel are beginning to come together in my mind.

For a short period, less than 90 days, this has been a real race horse start to my writing year.

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