As the draft of Atheist's Prayer gets nearer to completion, a major rewrite and re-release of Coastal Empire came to be in order because the dialog simply wasn't up to standard. In fact, it was pretty terrible. But it's been fixed. The plot was always a good one and the characters remained the same, but virtually every line of dialog in the novel was rewritten, and much of the narrative retold as well. Naturally, a new edition called for new cover art, which my talented wife provided. On the other hand, the plot of Premonition was already fairly solid, so the necessary revisions were considerably less significant (after cutting the first third of the first chapter.) Nevertheless, once we entered rewrite mode, we didn't want to stop with the first Mercer novel and ignore the sequel. The second novel also needed to match what I hope to continue with Atheist's Prayer in terms of total quality. The worst thing about Premonition was the title. The second worst thing about the novel was the cover. Both of those issues have been resolved (along with a few minor revisions) and we are pleased to announce the release of Hunter's Omen. Won't these look good on your bookshelf? Signed copies available upon request for $20 each. … [Read more...]
Why you should NEVER buy Nike products
To be fair, you've probably already got your own reasons for not buying Nike products. Their open support for Colin Kaepernick and his modus operandi of causing racial divisiveness might be one reason people have openly called for boycotting Nike, for example. Their reputation for allegedly using sweatshops and abusing child labor to produce their products, if true, is another excellent reason. But do you want to know the very best reason not to spend $100 on a pair of horribly overpriced and crappy Nike tennis shoes? They can literally fall apart on you during a match. Here's the evidence. Notice that other than the sole coming completely unglued, the shoes don't look like they are in bad shape. That's because they sat in my closet for a couple of years after I bought them because I needed surgical repairs on my elbow. Sitting in a closet unused does not qualify as normal wear and tear on the product, in my opinion. Yet as you can see in the photo below, the soles are still in very good, "almost new" shape, except for one little problem...they literally came unglued, when my partner and I were in the middle of an intensely competitive playoff doubles match. [Note: The stuff that looks like fuzz on the outside of the shoes is actually dog hair that stuck in the glue residue. The fur babies have been shedding like crazy in this heat, and I accidentally stepped in some dog hair when the soles were not in place.] Notice that the heel pads are also detached. I didn't even realize it until I got home. I had four different, moving surfaces under my feet … [Read more...]
Do All Black Lives Matter?
Do all black lives matter, according to the protestors? Or only some? Do white lives ever matter? Asking for a friend…which happens to be me. My life matters to me. Call me selfish if you want, but it's true. Nobody wants to be a victim. Though I've accepted the idea that I'm going to die one day, all things being equal, I'd rather not die today. Several decades from now, preferably in my sleep, would be my preference, but we don't always get to choose when and how we die. I think it's safe to say nobody would choose to die lying on a street with someone's knee on their neck. With the possible exception of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin and his three fellow officers on the scene, it would appear safe to say we can all agree that George Floyd’s life mattered. His life ended much too quickly and violently for an overwhelming majority of Americans. Most of us have seen the video; we’ve felt helpless outrage from seeing the life of a human being so perniciously ended by law enforcement for no justifiable reason. It was awful. Outrageous. Way beyond the pale. It's like Selma all over again, if you believe the movies (I'm not old enough to remember the news coverage of Selma.) It's like looking at a picture of Emmett Till's mutilated body and realizing that's the butchered corpse of a child. If you could watch a video of George Floyd's "arrest" and think what was happening was perfectly all right, I'm going to offend you by saying there is something really wrong with you. While it may be debatable whether or not the suspicion of … [Read more...]
The price of a soul
What is the intrinsic value of a human soul? Perhaps the better question is, what is your own soul worth to you? Do you even believe you have one? Some people (like me, for example) believe that their soul is their most valuable possession and that it is priceless, meaning it is not available for sale, no matter how much wealth is offered in exchange. Notice that I said wealth, not money. I may not be the smartest person on earth but I'm not stupid, either. A lot of people don't grasp the true concept of what money really is -- a colored piece of paper that only has value if everyone else agrees. If you don't believe me, the next time you're going to the grocery store just reach into your Monopoly game and grab a few hundred dollars, and see how much you can buy with it. Hint: you won't leave the store empty handed. The store manager might allow you to leave with the "currency" you brought with you if he/she believed the ruse was just a prank, but you also could also end up sporting a pair of shiny silver bracelets provided by law enforcement and arrested for counterfeiting and fraud if the management has no sense of humor. But one thing is certain--you can't even buy a bottle of water with money printed by Milton Bradley. So what, you say? So history--after World War I in the Weimar Republic, hyperinflation caused the Papiermark to become worthless. People literally needed a wheelbarrow full of useless currency to buy a loaf of bread. The British probably would have won the Revolutionary War if their plot to destroy the value of the Continental dollar hadn't … [Read more...]
The problem of evil
A headline at The Drudge Report made an absurd claim: "Mankind's belief in evil 'caused by disease'." The headline of the actual article in the UK Daily Star was slightly more ridiculous--it prefaced the unbelievable claim with "Scientists discover..." Both headlines are nothing more than click-bait; the substance of the article doesn't come remotely close to justifying the claims of that sensational headline. In fact. if you actually bother to read the article found at the Daily Star claiming that "Scientists discover mankind's belief in evil caused by disease" what you, the reader, will discover is that scientists haven't said they have discovered any such thing. The only thing Brock Bastian and his team of researchers from the University of Melbourne have actually said is that there seems to be some sort of correlation between geographic locations where diseases were known to be more common and a cultural belief in the existence of demons and evil spirits. Once you get into the real "substance" of the article, you'll find the bold declarations have been considerably watered down by the use of all sorts of conditional words...the backpedaling begins with the article's subtitle that says "A potentially-massive breakthrough in our understanding of evil may have been found." Well, which is it? Has this amazing breakthrough been found, or hasn't it? You won't know for sure unless you read beyond the headline. The headline itself is nothing more than a hook to lure readers into learning about what amounts to simply a secular version of a false cause fallacy based on a … [Read more...]
