According to the dictionary, a bulwark is a defensive wall-sort of like the wall President Trump wants to build on the southern border to prevent illegal immigration. Hadrian's Wall and the Great Wall of China are probably the two best known examples of bulwarks constructed in an attempt to halt the advance of an invading army. The Bulwark is a website that curiously describes itself as “a news network launched in 2018 dedicated to providing political analysis and reporting free of the constraints of partisan loyalties or tribal prejudices.” Which really means The Bulwark probably ought to be called The Bulls##t instead, because they are full of it. Question: do podcasts count as televised news programs? These people certainly are not competing with Fox News or even CNN for viewers. Founded by former conservative, former radio host Charlie Sykes, The Bullwark employs Never Trumpers such as Bill Kristol, Sykes’ former boss at The Weekly Standard, and Mona Charen, the theoretically conservative author of propaganda such as “How a Democrat Can Win Over a Never-Trumper”, published at Politico. They are the closest thing resembling conservatives that this alleged “news network” employs. Most of the other writers seem to be pure liberals with credentials as contributors to CNN and MSNBC, or members of Common Cause, which is currently raising money and advocating for mail-in voting. Tim Miller is described as “senior adviser to the anti-Trump Our Principles PAC”, whatever that’s supposed to be. This might explain why the website hasn't become more popular…I remained … [Read more...]
A Universe From Nothing
I've been thinking about writing another nonfiction book in the same vein as Divine Evolution and Counterargument for God. The tentative title of this planned new work is God or Good Luck? The difference between this new book and those first two books is that I don't plan on quoting anybody else, only to cite their work and suggest to my readers that they should investigate on their own. No footnotes, or end notes, and no need for a bibliography. In my opinion, not only should you doubt everything I say and investigate it on your own, you should take that approach with anything you read, no matter who wrote it. This time I plan to begin my argument at the beginning and take it straight through to the end in the most coherent manner possible, so the point I'm trying to make is so crystal clear and no one could possibly claim to be confused, not even my harshest critic (who skipped over most of the book he critiqued). Even the title of this proposed new book is pretty self-explanatory...the best explanation of "everything" or anything can be easily boiled down to a dichotomy of only two real choices: it's either God or good luck. Any and every other potential answer can ultimately be shown to be an inferior (and inadequate) substitution for one or the other--whether that suggested alternative is claimed to be science, nature, multiverses, quantum physics, string theory, an invisible wizard who lives in the sky, or even a flying spaghetti monster. Every one of them is a form of good luck, or represents a god. Absent a creator God, the existence of our universe becomes … [Read more...]
My Top 10 Song Covers
I've been working hard for a while now, mostly editing with a few articles written for American Thinker, and hard work isn't always a lot of fun. When I'm not writing, I'm usually reading something, and even my "pleasure" reading has a purpose...for example, as I continue finishing what has turned out to be an almost complete rewrite of my first novel, Coastal Empire, and my editing and "other" work on the Rootstock epic fantasy series written by L. H. Leonard. Legend of the Storm Hawks and Path of the Spirit Runner are already available in ebook or print (audio still to come), and the final two novels in the collection are scheduled to be published before the end of summer. John Sandford Like I just said, when I'm not writing, editing, entertaining animals or trying to clean house, I'm usually reading something, and it was probably written by John Sandford, my favorite author of mystery and suspense novels. Quite frankly, John Sandford is my role model. Before I die, I can only hope that one of my novels will be half as good as his average effort in the "Prey" series featuring Detective Lucas Davenport, or his other series of novels featuring BCA Investigator Virgil Flowers. Sandford's plots are typically brilliant, and his dialog both razor sharp and realistic. His timing is impeccable, whether comic and dramatic. John Sandford is so good that it was more than ten years and maybe twenty novels before I ever found what I clearly knew was a mistake in one of his novels. And if the reader wasn't a John Sandford fanatic like me, the mistake wouldn't have even been … [Read more...]
A passionate letter opposing impeachment
Guess who? Well, this ought to frost your Wheaties. Let's play a game: I suspect you might have a little trouble guessing the identity of this letter's author, now that I've edited the content enough to mask it and the president to whom he was referring, but let's see how you do. Now, I've got some pretty smart friends on social media. Some of you will guess correctly, I'm sure. Some of the letter's content that would constitute a dead giveaway had to be deleted in order to maintain our aura of mystery. So, I shortened the original content and changed a few words to hopefully keep you in suspense for a couple of minutes, anyway. Without further ado (I don't want anyone thinking too much and guessing before reading the letter), who wrote the following, and about whom? Mr. President, this is a day of solemnity and awe. I rise humbled that we are participating in a process that was mapped out more than 200 years ago by the Founding Fathers and that the words we say today will be looked upon by historians and future Congresses for guidance. That is quite a responsibility.I began this process in the House where it degenerated quickly into bitter acrimony. I would like to say to the Majority Leader and Minority Leader, and to my new colleagues who have wrestled with this case, that I deeply appreciate your fairness and patience and the way this has been handled with such dignity in the Senate.Growing up, our country and its government seemed like a mighty oak — strong, rooted, permanent, and grand.It has shaken me that we stand at the brink of removing a President … [Read more...]