Author Archives: Bob Evans

A little surprised

So this site has been up and active since about the end of May and I am little surprised at the amount of traffic I am getting. I really expected nothing until at least I sold a story to a national market of some kind, and even then I expected no traffic for a while.
I am right now averaging about 30 unique visitors per day. Now in terms of the internet that is nothing. It is not even a speck on the google-dar, but it is a lot more than I expected before any sales.

To those people dropping in, Welcome! Please feel free to poke around and read the stories in the trunk it is why they are there.

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Extended Thoughts on Sarah Palin

sarah-palinThe more I think about it the more I think there’s something we do not know about what is going on with Sarah Palin.
The resignation from the Governor’s desk makes no sense unless somethings else is going on. I think it comes down to a few scenarios.
1) Scandal. There’s some big terrible scandal coming down the way and the only way Sarah could avoid it was by quitting. The problem is that quitting doesn’t help. She loses the pulpit of the office and the services if the government lawyers if it is legal trouble. For the life of me I can’t figure out a scandal that would be improved by quitting.
2) She really is tired of the personal attacks. But if that is the case she’s not going to get away from them by campaigning for others and remaining in politics. The nature of modern politics is that lots of nasty personal attacks are hurled and you better be able to stand up to them. Again, without the bullhorn of the job she’s disarming herself in that fight.
3) She’s gotten a better offer. Some sort of TV show or other major media spotlight that pays better and flatters her ego better. This is credible if that’s what she really wants. To be the conservative Oprah would be a gig she is well suited for — but then again I don;t a high opinion of Oprah as a thinker either. If this is the case we’ll hear about it soon, otherwise why quite now?
4) The job’s not fun anymore. With Oil prices crashing and the economy in a shambles it’s no longer fun being in charge of Alaska. Suddenly there are lots of problems and the money’s much tighter. Perhaps she was never suited for a job that required real decision making and when it started to happen, she bailed.
5) She wants to head up a new party. There’s some talk from the Tea Party folks that they;d love Sarah as the head of their movement. Frankly I think it would kill all serious consideration of their cause. She’d be posion.
or finally–
Maybe her ego wasn’t getting stroked enough. The sort of ties into the criticism angle except instead of running away from attack she’s running toward adoration. Places where people pay $150 a dinner to hear her speak and won;t ask any questions that can’t be responded to with a pat answer.

Honestly, I would not rule out that last one.

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Down and Safe

We’re home and safe from westercon 62.

I will return to regular blogging Monday July 6th.

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Westercon update #3

We’ll be leaving about 2pm today. I had a lot of good lit panels yesterday meeting with editors and authors and getting good advice for my writing career.

I have several panels lined up for this morning and expect to have a good time before our 2 pm departure.

The fireworks last night were very good but watching them in a room packed full of punsters trying top each other was quite an experience.

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4th of July

In the hub-bud of the convention we should not forget to observe our nation’s birth.
It hard for those of us more than 233 years distant understand the enormous challenge and risk that our forefathers undertook. More than just our Country has benefitsx from that bold declaration of independence. All of humanity profited from our gamble. Freedom is sought throughout the world and it is in that direction that mankind has been moving.

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Westercon Update #2

Things have turned for the better here as Westercon, Tempe. I had better luck with panels in the afternoon and the parties worked out really well. I was more outgoing than usual and had a decent time.
There are lots of eateries near the hotel so there isn’t any problems in finding food and usually at a good price near by. The biggest problem there is that Tempe is really hot in July. (Today they expect 106) Even a jaunt of just a few blocks can be quite an expedition.

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Wave bye-bye to Sarah Palin

Today a Friday before the 4th of July weekend, Govenor Sarah Palin of Alaska announced she would not only NOT seek re-election but she will be stepping down as Govenor before the end of the month.
I don’t doubt we’ll hear from her a lot, but forget her as a serious contenter for the nomination in 2012.
I for one will not miss her.

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Westcon Update #1

We’ve arrived at Westercon in Phoenix adn I’ve started forming opinons. Sadly these are no good opinions. The organazation of the convention is as though it was put together by epileptic monkeys working a jizsaw puzzle that was missing a few pieces while aboard a storm-tossed steamship.
We checked into the hotel, and then went to registration to pick up our badges. Ha! That’s what we thought we were going to do. We paid for our memberships on line (Paypal) more than a week ago, but they had no listing for us in the membership roles. It was a clusterfuck getting them to recognize we had membership and issuing them.
The program grid does not match up with the Programming booklet so good luck on finding the panels. The programming booklet lists the panels by TRACK. So you have all the Lit stuff together, all the Media Stuff together, but it’s only partially arranged by alphabet.
The size is the convention is small. Sort of like a suped up ConDor or a downgraded LosCon.
I’ve attended a few interesting panels and there’s lots of places to eat.

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WesterCon

I will be spending the 4th of July weekend at the Westercon SF convention in Tempe Arizona. If you;re there stop by and say hi!

If there is internet access I’ll check in and up date from there, otherwise see you next week.

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Political Round-up

So here are a few of the stories popping about in the political realms and my thoughts on them…

San Diego Sheriff’s Office Responds to Political Fundraiser with multiple cars and a Helicopter.
This is a fun one. Some reports have as many as eight squad cars, and a helicopter used when someone called in a noise complaint about a fundraiser going on in an upper-scale area of San Diego County in the later afternoon early evening. Reports are that some of the Democratic fund raisers were pepper-sprayed and treated roughly by the deputies.

From a fund raising email after the events.

It’s the 11th hour to show that you have the courage and the commitment to stand with me
against the strong forces that are gathering against us. It’s also the 11th hour for you to join
with over 650 supporters to help me reach my goal of raising $200,000 by tomorrow. Don’t rely
on others to do this. I need YOUR support to show that we have what it takes to fight and
win. I am asking you to please go to now, before
Tuesday’s deadline expires.

I don’t agree that this represents ‘gathering forces.’ I don’t doubt that the original call was motivated by politics, but I think what the upper-political classes have tasted here is the usual police powers over-reach. I don’t think the Deputies though “Hey, Let’s bust up a Democratic Fund raiser!” but rather expected to find young and noisy kids and college students whom they are used to pushing around. The police in our country still get away with far too much abuse of their powers and positions.

The Democrats move up to 60 seats in the Senate. Al Franken has now officially won his Senate seat. This would have normally made him the 59th Democratic Senator in the current Senate. (The Democrats lost the Georgia seat they needed for a clear sixty.) Thanks to Pat Toomey and the Club For Growth though the Democrats were gifted their sixty seat filibuster-proof margin when Arlen Specter was chased out of the Republican Party and into the Democratic Party to survive. Have no illusion about this, Specter did this to stay in the Senate, he doesn’t want to be looking for work in this recession. Having abased himself by switching parties purely to survive, Specter now appears to be doing whatever it takes to make the Democrats happy. So with Cap-and-trade coming up and Health care and all sorts of other big issues, the republican Base has proved itself the Democratic Party’s best friend.

A Magazine Profile of Sarah Palin ignites a crap storm in the blogosphere.
Vanity Fair published a profile on John McCain’s ex-running mate, Sarah Palin and it was not a flattering one. If you were inclined to not like Palin this article is likely to confirm what you though about her, if you are a fan of the Governor you;re likely to to find fault particularly with a lot of un-named sourcing. What the article has stirred up is all the bad blood between faction of the GOP who love her and who hate her. Personally I think she was not ready for the national stage and she is one of the reasons I simply could not vote for McCain. She was a bridge too far for me and I have never regretted that call. Still she has her supporters I know I have gotten the dirty looks for voice my opinions on her.

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