Days Volume Two

* Why am I here, says the silence, what have I done, echoes the emptiness, why have I ruined myself... At first the Consul felt a queer relief. Now he realised he had been shot. He fell on one knee, then, with a groan, flat on his face in the grass. "Christ," he remarked, puzzled. "this is a dingy way to die." A bell spoke out. Dolente... dolore! It was raining softly. Shapes hovered by him, holding his hand, perhapts still trying to pick his pockets, or to help, or merely curious. He could feel life slivering out of him like liver, ebbing into the tenderness of the grass. He was alone. Malcolm Lowry. Now was the time, those distant cries, those shapes far-off. He was turning away, but kept looking back, even now just the memory of smiles, the shapes of lost faces, distant. He couldn't be sure of what lay ahead. He kept looking back, seeking strength, guidance, courage. Grant me decency, grant me strength. But in these strange, twisted moments, the rivers of in...

* Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand. The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds. The darkness drops again; but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? W.B. Yeats. If all was lost, if these days were never to be ours, if he had...

* The working poor make great victims. They are often trusting and financially unsophisticated, and with wages stagnant, they’re desperate for cash. These folks hold jobs, so they have a money stream and possibly equity in their homes - all ripe for plunder. Corporate America has decided there’s gold in draining the low-income masses of what little they have. Loan sharks and con artists once dominated this territory, but big businesses have moved in and are proving to be far smoother than the mugs who break legs. Their legal fine print can trap the uneducated in outrageous debt contracts without rousing the authorities... Dump a few of these loans on the working poor and see them spiral downward. Preying on vulnerable people is a disgusting business model. Does anyone in Washington have a conscience? “Does anyone in Washington have a conscience?” No. Runaway unregulated Reaganite corporate capitalism is ALWAYS about screwing the little guy. Every piece of legislation related to busines...

* "Prefect, ask yourself this: what could I possibly stand to gain from lying now? My crew has been slaughtered, burnt alive aboard their own ship. They let me hear their screams, their pleas for mercy. My vessel has been rippped apart like a rapid animal tossed to the wolves. I have been tortured and welded to the hull. Very shortly I am going to die." Alastair Reynolds, The Prefect. How do we parlay the author of one great book into "a great author"? It's easy to stick to the great book, which you can read over and over, but you're left with the problem of one. It's odd to think how much a literary reputation depends on the author's implicit offer - or threat - to do it again. In the case of Malcolm Lowry, I've tried it both ways. I get out Under the Volcano, at least once a year and, starting either somewhere in the middle or (and this is a little unusual) at the beginning, read for a day or a week, really for the pleasure of the consciousness...

* "'I was just being polite,' Dreyfus replied. 'My personal belief is that beta-levels have no claim on consciousness. As far as I'm concerned, you're just an item of forensic evidence. The fact that I can talk to you - the fact that you might claim to feel alive - is entirely irrelevant. 'How reassuring to meet someone with such an enlightened viewpoint. What's your opinion on women? Do you consider them capable of full sentience, or do you have lingering reservations about them as well?' 'I don't have a problem with women. I do have a problem with software routines that pretend to be alive and then expect to be accorded the rights and privileges of the living. 'If I'm not alive, how can I 'expect' anything.'" Alastair Reynolds, The Prefect. There's a whiff of the lynch mob or the lemming migration about any over large concentration of like-thinking individuals, no matter how virtuous their cause. PJ O'Rourk...

* I have taken an oath to support the Constitution of the United States. I cannot in good conscience sit idly by and watch the destruction of that Constitution by a judiciary that is no longer independent. Despite a tradition of silence by judges on such topics, I can no longer keep quiet about what I, as an insider, have seen happening in, and to, our courts. I may be accused of unethical conduct and threatened with professional discipline, as I was in the past. If that is a risk I must take, so be it. Others before me have taken much greater risks in defense of republican government. I have witnessed liberal totalitarianism on many fronts as both a lawyer and a judge, but it is fair to say that I probably would not have written this book if I had not had my own, very direct run-in with the tyrants of tolerance. That unpleasant personal experience forced me to do some serious thinking about what is happening to American law, how it is happening, and who is making it happen. And finall...

* The disturbing thing here is that censorship and intolerance have become so mainstream - depending on WHO and WHAT is being censored and not tolerated. We are being told which words we can use, and which words we can’t use. Some people can use certain words, but others can’t use the very same words. One group of people can be insulted, but another group cannot. One offensive word is okay, but another isn’t. A group of people can put so much pressure on a radio and TV network that they can get someone fired within a few days of uttering TWO words that they feel are offensive. The radio and TV networks were absolutely spineless in their reaction to pressure. Median Sib. Blog. Often I am told how certain people value tolerance. The most irritating are a certain species of left/liberal/progressive. If it doesn’t apply to you, please don’t be offended. This species claims it is tolerant based on certain beliefs they have. For example, they believe homosexuals deserve equal marriage righ...