Senator Michele Bachmann

This started as a weekend blog. But it got kind of unweekend like so, here we are today.

Be Smart! Be Brilliant!

This weekend, I give you the antithesis of being smart and brilliant. This is more of an editorial that simple quotes (sorry about that), but I find these people so despicable, well, I don't know what else to say other than let her speak for herself.

Since Michelle Bachmann dropped out of the race for President (and I'm not a theist, but "Thank God"), I thought a few unhumble words of hers from my favorite past news reports about her was called for. What we should be concerned with here, is that there are actually Americans who support and have similar beliefs with her, that someone who thinks this way can even make it to any position of power in the United States of America. I don't know what happened, but this isn't my America of education, acceptance, and support.

People like this are a backlash against what America is all about. They are American Spirit killers, another product of fundamental religious beliefs which are most functional for holding Humanity back from evolving, advancing to the higher nature we are obviously predisposed to and religion is built mainly to retard. To be clear about where I stand on people like this, I find her views disgusting.

She belongs in some other backward country, maybe a nice homophobic communist country would be best for her and her throwback types. They want to treat American citizens like defectives, people who for all intents and purposes are productive, caring individuals. If communism was the horror of the old days, this type of person is the horror of the present. I fear for us on who may be the horror of the future, if we don't find a way to educate these people into the real world.

I give you, Senator Michele Bachmann:

I will tell you that I had a mother last night come up to me here in Tampa, Florida, after the debate. She told me that her little daughter took that vaccine, that injection, and she suffered from mental retardation thereafter. –Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), on the HPV vaccine, Fox News interview, Sept. 12, 2011

Carbon dioxide is portrayed as harmful. But there isn't even one study that can be produced that shows that carbon dioxide is a harmful gas." -Rep. Michelle Bachmann, April, 2009

If we took away the minimum wage -- if conceivably it was gone -- we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level." -Michele Bachmann, Jan. 2005

[Pelosi] is committed to her global warming fanaticism to the point where she has said she has even said she is trying to save the planet. We all know that someone did that 2,000 years ago.

''I think there is a point where you say enough is enough to government intrusion. …Does the federal government really need to know our phone numbers? [I haven't been a Bachmann supporter but I do think it's really cool she is apparently all for legalizing Cannabis and same-sex marriages, at least according to the above comments.]

And what a bizarre time we're in, when a judge will say to little children that you can't say the pledge of allegiance, but you must learn that homosexuality is normal and you should try it.

One. That's the number of new drilling permits under the Obama administration since they came into office." – Comment to a conservative conference in Iowa in March.
THE FACTS: The Obama administration issued more than 200 new drilling permits before the Gulf oil spill alone. Over the past year, since new safety standards were imposed, the administration has issued more than 60 shallow-water drilling permits. Since the deep water moratorium was lifted in October, nine new wells have been approved. - From Huffington Post

The farm is my father-in-law's farm. It's not my husband and my farm. It's my father-in-law's farm. And my husband and I have never gotten a penny of money from the farm. – On "Fox News Sunday."
THE FACTS: In personal financial disclosure reports required annually from members of Congress, Bachmann reported that she holds an interest in a family farm in Independence, Wis., with her share worth between $100,000 and $250,000. - From Huffington Post

This is a very serious matter, because it is our children who are the prize for this community, they are specifically targeting our children. — Senator Michele Bachmann, appearing as guest on radio program “Prophetic Views Behind The News”, hosted by Jan Markell, KKMS 980-AM, March 20, 2004.

If you’re involved in the gay and lesbian lifestyle, it’s bondage. It is personal bondage, personal despair and personal enslavement. — Senator Michele Bachmann, speaking at EdWatch National Education Conference, November 6, 2004.

Well, let's hope this is the last we hear of her. But I don't have high hopes. Even if she leaves, some other ignorant fool will find their way into the limelight as they have in the past, Palin, Gingrich, Perry, there's always room for more ignorance at the top. I can only hope that at some point, America will find enough education that they stop supporting the sad, pathetic, the closed minded, and the fearful.

Weekend Wise Words

Be Smart! Be Brilliant!

This is my second attempt at a weekend blog of quotes. My first one, I changed out as Monday's blog because it was about Michelle Bachmann and quickly got pretty negative. I prefer to have a more positive blog for the weekends. But I also like reality. Democracy, it's better than most, but not exactly what we need.

What that is, I have no idea. So in the meantime, it will have to do, as it has had to do since the time of Aristotle and Plato. Thinking, however, never hurts. Here are a few things to consider, the next time you, or someone you knows, think they like someone like Michelle Bachmann, Sarah (I can't finish my term as Governor) Palin, Newt Gingrich, and so on and on and on....

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
Winston Churchill

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried. Winston Churchill.

Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilization.

Winston Churchill [on this one, think about that law Obama signed off on last New Year's Eve that allows detention of American Citizens (AMERICANS!) for an indefinite period of time.]

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?
Mohandas Gandhi

The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.
John F. Kennedy [now think of all those ignorant people (strangely, mostly Republicans) running for the highest office in the history of the world]

Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.
Oscar Wilde

In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.
Aristotle

Democracy passes into despotism.
Plato
[Despotism is a form of government in which a single entity rules with absolute power. That entity may be an individual, as in an autocracy, or it may be a group]

Tyranny naturally arises out of democracy.
Plato
[Haven't we been seeing that lately? Not tyranny as a dictator, but tyranny as a process of our government. Not bad like in the Soviet Union, or as it has been elsewhere, but we are headed down a path that people should be very concerned with. Kind of downbeat, right? Well then, I will offer you one more positive quote.]

Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

And that's what I've been saying all along. But education alone doesn't work, you have to educate yourself with the right education, and the bible, ain't it. Now is the Quaran, or the Book of Mormon, or other such things. Critical thinking alone kills those all off as any kind of rational basis for thought.

The Wackness - Living Life Without Foresight

I was just sitting here watching "The Wackness".  Great name right?

A pot dealer was listening to those graduating. They were at a party and they were talking about how they were going on with their life and he was still going to just deal drugs. He was looking himself, at his graduating High School soon.

It got me thinking. When I was just about to graduate High School, there was no talk, among anyone that I knew, about who was going where to do what. I ended up working full time at an Insurance company that my sister had worked at before she went to work as a model, then a Flight Attendant, which she is still doing.

I had applied at a bunch of places and the one hit I really got, that worked out, was the insurance company my sister had worked at. Well, it was a first job out of High School, after all. She had said, tell them I'm your sister and you will have a good chance there. They told me later that once I mentioned my sister's name, I had a job, they were so impressed with her.

To be fair, I only failed on one thing they put me up to and the simply gave me another job. They had wanted me to resetup their warehouse. It was full of legal insurance forms. I walked around there for a couple of hours and then, sadly, went to my boss and admitted a loss of what to do with them. He was very nice about it and said that the last guy they gave the job to couldn't figure it out either. Now were they to give me that job now, I could do it in my sleep. But that has little to do with being a seventeen year old.

Getting that job was kind of my academic history all my young life. I'd hit a new grade level at school, my sister having been there several years prior, and they'd take one look at me, and you could see it in their eyes: "They're related?" they would think. Several people even mentioned it outward: "Are you really related to your sister? By blood? DNA? Etc.?" Yes. We were related. She was the pretty straight "A" student, I was the solid straight "C" student with ADD.

Point being, I did get a job. Kept it for a couple of years too, until I decided to quit and travel before going into the Air Force. Plus, my little brother was busy dying and I helped out there off and on.

But no one from High School, as I remembered it, talked about or expected to get anywhere. I had been told in fact, that at our school, we had the highest incidence of rapists, robbers, burglars, and criminals in general, in the entire city. Twice the  Puget Sound Bank across the street from our school had been robbed by one of our students. One guy, they pulled right out of gym class, his gun and the money both in his gym locker along with his civvies.

Lucky us. A banner group of students at that school. Now to be fair, there were plenty of students that didn't know that culture at school and probably went to college after that. But I didn't know any of those kids.

Anyway, watching this film pointed out to me that in this world of today, kids now talk about where they are going, what they will do, where life is leading them. In my world, when I left High School, I guess I did pretty good in the end, but then, I know now there was an upper middle class group that I suspect most of the school didn't talk to. I suspect my sister knew that group and was surely in it.

Something similar happened when I was in college. About three months before I graduated, I went into the "Career  Center". I said that I was about to graduate and wasn't sure what to do about getting a job, using my new, soon to be, four year degree. They just looked at me and said, "Why weren't you in here back in September?" I said, no one told me to, I had no idea I needed to be. And they replied that most of the kids had been searching for a job since the beginning of their Senior year in college.

News to me. My girlfriend too, who had lived with me since we started college. After graduation, we both went back to our old jobs, well, career fields anyway. She was a veterinarian technician. She had started volunteering before I met her, when she was younger. I went back to Tower Records. This was after I got out of the Air Force, after the Insurance company.

After I started college, I got a Veterans Administration check once a month to pay for my school and board. But it wasn't much so I got a part time job at Tower. Then when I moved to the University after getting a two year degree, I coasted for two years, really not needing a job. At least, needing study time more than job time. So when I graduated, they said to come back if I needed to, until I found a job more based upon my degree (Psychology).

But I never wanted a job as a Psychologist. I only had wanted to learn about people, so I could write. I immediately found that a job as a Psychologist paid the same as I got at Tower. Great, all that time, money and effort, for what? So I looked elsewhere and ended up with a job in the computer field which I eventually excelled at and have made good money at for many years now, raised a family or two and now the kids are out and I'm on my own.

But, I kind of stumbled through things. Foresight would have been awesome. But then again, I have always been pretty good at "surfing" or "dancing" through life. When a waves shifts, you have to be able to stand on that board and keep surfing; or when life shifts on you like music or a dance partner, you need to be able to keep dancing along.

That's all great and everything, but really, it's not a bad idea to learn about what is coming up. To be forewarned about what to expect next, to be prepared to jump on the next train, or answer that door when opportunity when it knocks. In a way, I didn't have that in my life. But that didn't mean that others didn't have it, or that I can't have it now.

I'm sure there are others out there who also have had this experience. Sometimes, all it takes to counteract that, is to have someone to tell you to look up, look around, go ask people. Find out, what you need next, what the next step will be in the direction you are headed. Ask those who have been there, ask them far enough ahead of time so that when it is your turn to do something, you have either already done it, or you are prepared to do it.

The wackness of life doesn't need to bring you down. Rather than it wacking the Hell out of you, you should be wacking the Hell out of it.

I had this happen in Canada once when I was 17, she said she was 13 and I politely found another new friend.

Just remember Look Before You Leap, sometimes, way before. The next time you have that thought (or no thought at all) about a big change in your life, seek professional help from therapists, career advisers, doctors, lawyers, whomever know what you will be encountering. If you are going to get married, seek counseling about it, now, beforehand. If you are thinking about divorce, same thing. If you are about to graduate college (and don't tell me you are most of the way through your final year), seek counseling. Set yourself up. Let the world know what you want and that you are ready for them.

One other thing. We should be raising our kids to look ahead, too. We should be raising our kids to believe they need to retire by fifty. It may be the only way we get this society to actually start to look at that. In case you haven't noticed, we are retiring older and older. We need to be retiring younger and younger. We need to be thinking ahead, in many different ways.

Simply consider, that any change you are going to be going through, that a year ahead of time, you have already started full speed to set yourself up for success. Yes, you may be able to dance your way through anything, if you find at the last minute, that you need to have already done this, or that. But consider how much further down the line you will be, how much richer your life will be, if you are already to go, when the time comes.

Don't seek to ride the wave. Be the wave.

Childrearing in Christianity without denying evolution

In a forum, this question was posited:

"How would you teach a child about Christianity without denying evolution?"

"I have a friend who wants to raise his son Christian but doesn't know how to get thru the evolution cliche that the bible and science have. Any Ideas"

My response to that First, and no offense, but I wouldn't raise a child Christian, or with religious expression as any form of intelligent consideration or paradigm by which to live one's life by. I would teach them about it, but not raise them in it as a viable way by which to live one's life by.

But if I were, there need be no disparity between evolution and a God concept. The issue is religion and how it was diluted with misinformation (See Mormonism, Scientology, they both prove you can create any nonsense and turn out good people, as you can with atheism, or Shintoism (ancestor worship) for that matter).

You can, in Christianity, separate out the old and new testaments, the new with what Jesus said and with what was said about him, although it all is hearsay anyway. I would agree that it would be better to teach them what the desired end result is, how we treat one another, than following specific and adulterated indications by using a book that was compromised any amount of times throughout two thousand years.

Christianity, and religion in general is rampant with picking and choosing what you want to believe. So pick the best, and teach that. When your child comes up to you pointing out the disparities in the teachings (and they will if they are intelligent or have been shaped to use critical thought), just skip to saying, don't worry about the specifics, what is important is who you are as a person.

After all, there will always be people pointing out how you are going about it all wrong anyway. You have to, when you delve into such questionable philosophies, close your mind's eye and bully onward, get through life, die, and hope that those whom you left behind you, those whom you have touched with your model of how you live your life, and what you have stated as truth, have gotten the best you had to offer; and that it helped them make it through their life until they die and those whom they have touched have similarly been affected.

Religions are not created on a large scale to encompass all and every. They are created small, as a kernel, for a specific people in a specific place at a specific time. They then try to evolve as they grow, though some fundamentalists try to keep that healthy thing from happening. Still, they immediately begin to devolve as they grow because as you can easily go wrong, when at the beginning of a boat journey across an ocean, you make on minor miscalculation, and you end up on another continent altogether, so to with a religion created without foresight or a sense of what is out there that it will encounter, eventually it goes awry.

You can teach a child to grow up with critical thought inherent in their being, then introduce them to religion, and allow them to find the good in it, but you cannot learn and grow appropriately from the inside of religion, rather you have to experience it from the outside, otherwise you become contaminated and the lack of insight about the real world all around you; especially those parts of the world you, and the religion (created by geoethnocentric individuals who are most likely uneducated in other areas as well), have no knowledge of and will eventually incorrectly interact with and adversely affect.

You can raise a child with a religion like Christianity, but only if you avoid all the facts, only if you teach only some of it. For to divulge all, as has been known for centuries, you destroy the religious elements, because even a child can see at some point, how it all makes little or no sense, and doesn't function well in the real world.

You cannot "prove" God, by using the Bible as the proof. Sorry. But if a text is called into question, you cannot use that text to prove it isn't false by quoting from it. The initial step off point by theocrats is always to start with the assumption that to deny their beliefs is where to start the argument, from that point forward. "God exists, now prove that false." But it lies the other direction. "God does not exist" isn't an argument either.

See? The starting point really starts before a "God" concept, which is how atheists always fail in their arguing the point with theists. It's like arguing a point of logic, by switching types of logic, yes, you can win an argument that way, but only if you are arguing with someone who has no knowledge of logic. And logic isn't really that necessary. So atheists, always get stuck with "prove God does not exist" when really it is, "prove God does exist." End of argument.

But the question was about children. I think my previously stated points are still relevant. Raising a child Christian, should be easy. Simply deny what doesn't make sense. The entire religion is set up that way, right? So, if you are going to immerse yourself in such a format, why should it be a problem? Do not worry about making it logical, that is the wrong way to go.

You just say, as we've heard so many times before, "you just have to have Faith", which is actually a way to point out a defect in oneself and saying that you cannot handle many challenges in life so you choose to ignore them. Giving your fears over to an outside force, real or unreal, has been proven to be effective for humans and can allow them to achieve great things. Thinking beyond oneself is after all, noble.

That, is a viable choice in one's life. This is America. We are loosing freedoms one after the other. So I will defend your right to believe in whatever crazy beliefs you want, as long as you are that way with others who believe what you may choose to think is crazy to you (atheism, perhaps). Although, I believe we would have a better world with a realistic belief system worldwide.

But if you choose to go that direction, then be proud of you choice of believing in a structured (albeit poorly) ethereal belief system. Just don't try to make it sound otherwise. It takes all kinds to make the world go around. We just need, from here forward, to be sure it doesn't have anything to do with harming other people as too much has been made about God and killing as we have seen for some time now. And there are Christian elements starting to think, around the world, that maybe Muslims are right and that has to be watched for, and put down.

"Regarding my Christian theistic belief, I have said more than once in previous posts that I do not, and cannot offer scientific "proof" for my position ... that is not a burden I need to carry."

Seriously? Okayyyy... that leaves me somewhat speechless and leaves one thinking that way, with a belief based upon shifting sands. It is good to ask theists to take on the burden of proof, as all though history they have pushed the burden onto the few rational ones who tried to stand up to them, and typically were murdered, by the way.

I also do not consider myself an atheist. To me that presupposes I am against a condition that did not exist to begin with, as we start with there being no God, then the addition of a belief in God comes after the beginning. Theists have chosen the non-theist argument all through history since this argument began, a very productive method used by theists to obfuscate things. The Bible, after all, is only a few years old in comparison to the entirety of time, even historical (recorded) time.

Again, I suppose if one wishes to have a belief based not in scientific or rational thought which is based upon something more solid, that is one's choice. Still, it is curious to desire to believe in things which are based all upon hearsay, and edited over time by those with a vested interest in control of those uneducated masses, as they saw it, beneath them.

But they are your kids. I leave you with a video from Hitch.

9/11 conspiracy

I'm watching a film on Netflix. I'm busy editing a novel I'm finishing up. I like to watch movies while I do that. If I hit an especially difficult passage of the book, I pause the movie.

So I saw this film, rated four out of five stars. It is called, "The Reflecting Pool", from 2008.

Directed by the star, Jarek Kupsc. The production values aren't "A" level but the story is solid and engaging. The write up on Netflix says "A journalist teams up with a man who's daughter died in 9/11 to investigate the U.S. government's possible involvement in the destruction." Okay, this is a movie. You make a drama, you make it work, it is not a documentary. But the web site for the film has an interesting research page available for people to look things up for themselves. And they have an intriguing story, because it asks reasonable questions.

I have watched the twin towers go down in replays, since it happened, over and over again. I listened to the explanations. I heard all about the Pentagon, the plane that crashed in the field because of heroic efforts of the passengers. It all sounded to me like Bin Laden did it, from the information we heard over the months and years afterward. But every since I first got the news that it was happening, I've had questions.

I've had friends talk to me about conspiracy, over the years. I first heard of conspiracies over Vietnam, decades ago. They are fun, interesting, intriguing. But then I looked into the phenomenon of conspiracies, how they work, the psychological process, etc. They are easy to build in hindsight, even when there is nothing there, we tend to find patterns. Many things that look like a conspiracy, just aren't. So I wasn't really interested in hearing 9/11 conspiracy theories.

Now, that being said....

This film brings up some good points. Some that bothered me too, right from the beginning. For instance, building seven at the World Trade Center, goes down pretty symmetrically. Why and how? The twin towers drop straight down. Now, the explanation was that the jet fuel burns hotter than what the buildings were designed for, so when one floor drops, it brings down all the rest beneath it.

The pentagon was just being rebuilt to protect against just that kind of attack that happened, so the terrorists struck a part of the building that had few people in it and had been reworked to prevent a really devastating event. How convenient. There were cameras pointing at the pentagon, the film of which we were never shown, with only five frames made public that showed nothing but an explosion. We saw no plane, before, during or after. There were no pieces of a plane at the crash site that we saw. The flight pattern was too sophisticated for bad pilots to have pulled off. On and on.

Now all this may be explained by the explanations given. But that would have taken a "perfect storm" of events to have all happened together. Occam's Razor states that from among competing hypotheses, selecting the one that makes the fewest new assumptions usually provides the correct one, and that the simplest explanation will be the most plausible until evidence is presented to prove it false. Unless, an event, or events have been designed so that it appears one way, when it is actually, something else. A kind of Rube Goldberg event, if you will. An event that makes no sense, unless Occam's Razor makes the most sense, but would be totally incorrect.

Typically, this falls through, as it requires incredible planning, high caliber individuals to pull it off and secrecy the likes of which government's don't seem to be able to pull off. Not in democracies anyway, unless there is a controller behind the controllers; a government inside the government, a rogue element the size of which requires secrecy beyond the point of believability. Sounds like Churchill's vision of the old Russia, doesn't it: "Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma."

Anyway, I assume that the pilots on 9/11 were Bin Laden's. I can assume luck had some part to play in it. I assume most of what we've heard about 9/11 is true. But that is how to build a good conspiracy theory so that people will discount it. Sometimes you can see what is there by looking at what is not there. Make it mostly true but manipulate things behind the scenes so they point away from the truth. What about all the peripheral elements? The film does a good job of pointing these things out, of building a plausible scenario with previous incidents that allowed a country to go to war by faking attacks against itself. This has been done in the past, as the film also points out. A scene, that is a little bit chilling, to say the least.

I have to assume that this is in a way, the same situation as with the Kennedy assassination. We may never know what happened; at least, not until no one is alive any longer who really cares. If we ever find out what happened, and it was our people attacking our country, then those people should be put to death over it. If the president did it, it would send a good precedent and bolster our claims of what a great country we truly are. Those responsible should either be brought to justice, or a future president should sign off on their demise. I would say, maybe Guantanamo, for life would be a choice appointment.

Now, let's change gears a little.

Ron Paul recently made a statement about the demise of our country: “I fear there will be eroding civil liberties, a Soviet Union-style economic collapse, violence in the streets, dogs and cats living together – mass hysteria!” Then he said: “If you really think about it, there have been multiple warning signs – possible government shutdowns, natural disasters, the Kardashians…”

Obviously, the man has seen "Ghostbusters" and has a sense of humor. But if you think about it, what is going on here? Yes, it's going on all over the world. We seem to be going through the death throes of the old ways. Something, is changing anyway. But what? The question is, is it what is best for "We, the People?"

Doubtful.

I had the same questions that the film I've discussed brings up. What took so long to respond to the 9/11 attacks?  If you stand back and look at the overall picture, it does make you wonder. Bush wanted to hit Saddam Hussein (so did I); it would seem, he wanted to clean up the mess his father left in Iraq when he was in office and took on the Nut in Bagdad. Saddam had to go. I agreed. But I was offended when Big Bush had the guts to take on Saddam, got him out of Kuwait, but then didn't kick him out of his (life) office in Iraq. I felt offended for the Iraqi people.

But we sent in the CIA with Special Ops troops to take out the Taliban from power in Afghanistan within weeks of 9/11, as they were supporting Bin Laden. We pretty much took them out in short order and got Bin Laden on the run to Pakistan. Now, Ole' Bin is done. That should have been the end of it. So, why'd we hit Iraq again, after getting Bin on the run?

Even if Bin Laden sent in those pilots to take out a few locations in the US, some of the peripheral events leading up to, and after the fact, are very peculiar. When you put that all in context with how things are going now in the US, it's really very strange. If you then look at the "Arab Spring", it throws more dust in the eyes of history. Are these all simply disconnected events? Is anything anymore, disconnected, in the world stage?

We helped the Soviet Union to fail by scaring them so bad militarily, that they ran themselves into bankruptcy over their military industrial complex, among other things, including their own bad management and greed. Have we done that here now, too? Manipulated change? We've seen bad management, and greed. Obviously, but does it include 9/11? And does it include what else is going on? Or did the banking and home mortgage bubble bursting throw dust in the eyes of those with plans, against us? I say against us, because I find it hard to believe, with what I've seen, that they, whoever they are, are doing this for us, for the majority of Americans, for the guy or gal in the street.

Who is it, and why are we making changes in the US that are so questionable? Why do our civil liberties keep eroding? I'm not really seeing any changes myself; life for me seems to be pretty normal, but then, I still have my job, I'm one of the lucky ones. But is that all part of the plan? That we don't notice because we are looking in the wrong directions? We've long known when large events are about to happen, the government will do something big to distract the people. Mostly, not a big deal, but sometimes, sometimes, it gets out of hand. In some cases, millions have lost there lives over it.

But not to worry, that could never happen, here.

If someone keeps changing the laws so that they can one day, "if necessary", take all your money, and then one day, they deem it necessary and all your money disappears from your bank account, isn't it then, too late for you to do anything about it? Won't they just say then, that they are "only following the law"? Sounds pretty reasonable, right? Following the law. Wouldn't you then feel that you should have done something about it, ahead of time?

We are asleep. All this protesting makes us think we are awake, alive, but we're not. Changes are continuing to be put into place, right under our noses and we're not doing a thing about it. And who do we have speaking out? No one, no one who can do us any good. Only crackpots and people who never have a chance of getting into power. No one who is really playing in the game, will speak up. Why? Because then they will no longer be playing in the game.

We need to keep our eyes open, and start asking questions. All the time. Be annoying. Question authority.

It's been said that Thomas Jefferson said that "A government afraid of it's citizens is a Democracy. Citizens afraid of government is tyranny!"

I'm not sure if I'm afraid of my government, yet, but I'm not feeling real secure about it anymore.

Anyway, as I said, I don't typically believe in conspiracy theories. Because they are so easy to pick out, in hindsight. But when you have so many elements that don't make sense, you have to stop and ask yourself, "what's going on here"? Because obviously, something is going on here. I just don't know what.No one seems to. Now there, is a conspiracy theory.

Yes, I am concerned. We should all be concerned.

Becoming a Screenwriter

To become something like a screenwriter, one needs to read how to do it, learn the format, and do it, right?
There is a little more to it than that. Yes, you need to know how to do it, and you need to be able to do it well. But you also have to survive. Allow me to explain.

In May of 2012 it will be three years since I decided to put all my energy outside of my day job into writing, in the effort (and not hope) that I can change my career into something I love doing. I have been working in information technologies for a couple of decades or so, back since about 1986 and I'm ready for a change. I stuck with it, even though I wanted to write for a living, because of the steady paychecks. I made attempts to change over the years, but never could get it to click. It's hard to do raising a family and being the only breadwinner.

Some of this will be rehash to some.

I started out as a mainframe computer operator and worked my way into being a Technical Writer. I eventually tired of that and moved in to web development, network administration, server administration and platform administration. I am now being cross trained in many other technologies. But, I simply want to be a writer, full time, and make a living at it. But not just any kind of writing, fiction writing in particular: short story, novels, screenplays.

Years ago I had read Isaac Asimov's first autobiography, "In Memory, Yet Green", which affected me so much, that the first short story I ever got published, "In Memory, Yet Crystal Clear", was in tribute to his writings, and his attitude toward things like writing, life and being a forward thinker. Yes, I've heard the stories about Isaac's penchant for the ladies and partying.

A friend of mine said she was at a convention once and ended up on an elevator alone with him. She called him a "leech" to me, meaning that he thought she was cute and she didn't appreciate his advances. To be fair, she was in costume. And he was probably drinking. Not that this is any excuse. Other women who knew him have basically said, "That was Isaac and we loved him."

To the point, Isaac had said in his book that all the great original sci fi writers started as tech writers for the military during WWII. It taught you perseverance, extreme attention to detail, finishing what you start and, producing, typically large uninteresting products like manuals for things you probably know or care nothing about. In my experience as a tech writer for some big companies, I found in the end that a lot of it was being a psychologist, a journalist, and a scribe. You sometimes had to pull information from Subject Matter Experts, with a mental pair of pliers.

I finally got tired of it, as I only wanted to write, not interact with people who really weren't interested in talking to me at all and to whom I was only a burden. I wanted to write what entertained me, intrigued me, and entertained others. As I once said (as I was almost blowing a job interview), "there is just no story development in tech writing, and no character development with no fun punch at the end. You had to get all the information out there up front, there was no tension allowed."

There was some research done a few years ago, where they tried to teach children how to play piano. One group were taught traditionally. Another group were taught by teaching the melodies with mistakes in them. These mistakes were obvious, as there would be one note off. The kids would pick up on it and it bothered them. In the end, the researchers found that the children they taught in this defective way, learned the melodies better and faster than those taught in the traditional ways.

And so I feel I have learned fiction writing to a much higher degree, which I had actually already gotten down pat pretty good according to feedback I had in college. But after years of tech writing, I think I had learned so much more.

When I started this process a few years ago of getting back into writing, this time, to actually switch careers, I bought a box full of carefully chosen books on writing. Some specifically on screenwriting, some on peripherals, such as comedy writing, novel writing, even the poetics by Aristotle, a must have book for any writer. I felt that by the time I finished reading all these books, I'd be ready for an agent. So the last books I had purchased were for getting an agent. I've now read all these books, and even picked up some new ones.

The last book I finished just today was Karl Iglesias' "The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Screenwriters - Insider secrets from Hollywood's Top Writers." I found it very enjoyable, enlightening, delusion breaking, and in the end, it gives great hope to a struggling writer. I suggest this book to anyone who is writing their first screenplay, or thinking about it.

One of those books I have bought since, I had found one day browsing through an antique store. It is Lee Server's book, "Screenwriter - Words Become Pictures - Interviews with twelve screenwriters from the golden age of American movies." I'm looking forward to reading this.

My point in all of this is that you need to practice to write, whatever you have decided to write. But you also need to practice writing a wide scope of things. You need to read, a writer, reads. You need to read about the craft, specifically, and examples thereof. So, screenwriters need to read books on screenwriting, but also screenplays (specs, not shooting scripts which are typically sold to the market). You not only need to read books on the technical side of screenwriting, you should also read books about the screenwriters themselves.

The skill is all important. A poorly formatted screenplay won't get you very far. But you have an emotional side to this, too. You need to keep up your energy levels, your emotions, your passion for what you are doing. You also have to love doing it, love the process. Love writing, and love rewriting. Writing is rewriting. Few can write a single draft and be done. They do exist, but mostly with short story writing.

You have to write for the right reasons. Otherwise, you may not maintain the level of dedication you will need to survive. There are lots of barriers to getting anywhere with writing but the biggest is not having a catalog of works. The larger the better. That being said, you shouldn't just write and never get them out there, but try to get a catalog built up and after you have five or so, completed screenplays, start getting them out there. And keep writing new ones.

Also find other writers who you can talk to. Join a group, either in person, or online. To finally get somewhere, you will need to persevere through the years, through multiple drafts, through ten, twenty, even thirty screenplays before you sell one. You will need to pitch, to talk to people in order to sell it. You will need to deal with rejection, repeatedly.

It can be done. Just know that many get into it for the wrong reasons. Or with delusions of grandeur. It's hard work and requires a lot of it, for years. There are a lot of people out there trying to make it as a screenwriter, so there is a lot of competition. In order to make it, you will need to be the best you can be, and then some. But it is possible.

For those who think they can write a single screenplay and make it, yes, it's been done. Just don't expect that to be you without first putting in the work.

All that being said, best of luck. Go out and kick some Hollywood butt!

HearthTales - a screenplay

Okay, this is just funny, I guess. I set this blog to post today, but in 2011, forgetting to increment one year, forgetting it's no longer 2011. As you can see, I've now corrected this. It happens to me every year, until I write the new year date for the very first time. Usually I catch it, but I was tired last night when I had realized I hadn't set up a blog for today.

So, obviously, we're off to a bang up New Year here! Anyway, all the best to you and yours, and may your new year start off better for you.

I have been working on a kind of portmanteaux screenplay called, "HearthTales". It was a concept I came up with in the late 90s and put away. Just submitted this to InkTips. I put it online for their week trial, and submitted to a ProdCo who was looking for pretty much that type of script. Again, maybe nothing will come of it, but it's either scary or exhilarating. I'm going with the latter. :)

The original thought was to build a screenplay around three short stories I had and wanted to do something with. So I threw them into a quickly drawn up screenplay. I thought it had potential and needed a lot more work. So I put it away as I was getting ready to move with my family and then I forgot about it. About a year ago I was looking through my old writings and found it again. So I brought it back out and started working on it. I found it was pretty entertaining to play with and then I had to put it away again.

I had come across Producer, Writer, Actor Chris Soth and spent a few months working with him on another script called, "America". I had to stop that for a while and went back to my novel. Then I got a reader review from WILDSound on HearthTales and they liked it but found some problems. I decided to fix those. So I fixed the easy ones.

Some others were harder to fix and one or two were structural. Not big changes, just changes, but still at a structural level. So I put it away and went back to the novel. But then something came up where I might have to show it to someone and I was back on the screenplay and have been ever since. Because I think I can finish up pretty quickly, and have a decent draft available if I need it and then go back to the novel. But also because I'm enjoying working on it.

A few things evolved since then in the screenplay that have come off quite well.

Initially, I liked the image of friends sitting around a warm fire on a cold, rainy Seattle night, eating snacks, drinking something tasty and a little inebriating, and telling stories, entertaining one another. I liked the idea of two of them being old friends, and one of them being a new friend. Romance in the air, is always nice. Add to that a touch of scary stories and a clock ticking with doom on its way.

To add to that, while this is going on, the wife down in Beverly Hills has her own much darker, threesome (of a kind) going on. Bryce's den is styled in antique Middle Eastern. Franks living room is styled with some antique Japanese.

HearthTales is the story of Bryce, a world class Horror writer, a cross between Stephen King and Clive Barker. An Irish ex-patriot who had fought along with Frank, in the Irish unit of the UK Special Services in Iraq and Afghanistan, his heroics had been honored in his saving his men and his friend Frank.

The story revolves around a trip he makes to Seattle for business. He takes his assistant, Eva, an attractive and faithful individual who crosses that line between perfect manager and good friend. H leaves behind his wife, Dawn, a sexy, attractive, manipulative woman who will walk over anyone to get what she wants and takes whatever she wants, whenever she wants. His home life is unsatisfactory, even to that of his friends. For a good friend, he must travel. Bryce is at the end of his rope with his unfaithful, conniving wife, but having been raised Catholic, he has difficulty in getting divorced... again.

He figures if he can just stop by his friend, Frank's house, to blow off some steam and have a mini vacation, maybe he can go back home and face his life again. Maybe he hopes she will leave him. But he is also approaching the point of no return with his spouse, and avoiding that as much as possible. Eva would like nothing better than for Dawn to be out of the picture and Frank feels the same way.

Connolly in Boondock Saints

Frank is an old Scottish warrior and another ex-patriot who is based on comedian and actor, Billy Connolly. The character of Frank has much of that same humorous view on life and a bit of the acerbic. And he can't stand Dawn.

Bryce has recently received a book of the occult from his and Frank's old friend from Afghanistan, Saleel. But this book cannot be given away unless someone accepts it or there will literally be Hell to Pay. There is danger in the transfer for both the giver and the receiver. Because of this book now being in his protection, Bryce has made two major mistakes. One, he unknowingly let his wife find out the combination to his safe; and two, he told her too much about what the book can do. Worse, she believes it.

Thinking she can use it to kill her husband (or, use it as a ruse for the guy she hires to perform the ritual to simply have him killed), she hires through an intermediary, Jacques, a Voodoo Priest, to perform a conjuring ceremony. A demon conjuring ceremony. A demon to find and kill Bryce. She also figures that even if the ceremony doesn't work, she will at very least have an interesting experience in the dark arts, one including including sex with a random anonymous model type.

She had a damaged childhood, what can I say?

pictured, Geoffrey Holder

Jacques is nothing like she expected when he arrives and she finds herself attracted to him. But he isn't all she thinks he is. Assuming he is just some sleazy witch doctor for hire. But, he puts in a call, in order to protect those for whom he really is going to set a demon upon with murderous intent. Those to whom he assigns this task, are the Steampunk duo of Gray and Lover.

The other night I was on a Vokle video chat with the truly warm and lovely, Felicia Day (Eureka, The Guild, Dragon Age: Redemption, Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog, etc.) and her crew and fans. Vokle is an interesting platform. Everyone was enjoying it quite a lot.

 During the two hours and ten minutes, someone asked Felicia if she would consider doing anything with the SteamPunk motif. She said yes, but she hadn't come across a good concept as yet. I was quite enjoying the interaction between the Dragon Age production crew and fans, including myself. Then it occured to me. I was working on a screenplay with two women in it who are Steampunk. So I've been trying to contact her so she can take a read and see if she might want to extract and use them.

Back to HearthTales....

Dawn invites Jacques in, little realizing he has a hidden agenda. He sees the book, meets the duo, the anonymous model type needed as a sacrifice to conjure the demon and once satisfied, calls his protection team of demon fighting steampunk warrior girls: Gray and Lover. Up in Seattle, they are partying at the bar of their friend and fellow ("heavyweight") demon fighter, Patrick. See, Patrick takes on the really tough cases. Getting the call from Jacques, they are now on assignment and just wait for Jacques "Go" call, once the demon is in town.

Eventually, the demon appears and happens by the bar the girls are at. As Jacques has programmed in that the demon will pass by their bar before taking off after Bryce, the girls sit tight. Once Gray sees the demon through the window, they are off.

However, because of Dawn's interference in the ceremony, the demon has been incorrectly conjured to no fault of Jacques and a smooth situation evades rapid resolution and the girls have trouble tracking down the demon, just as the demon is having trouble tracking down Bryce. This is dangerous for Jacques, more so for Bryce however, as well as the city of Seattle. But this also leads to rather humorous situations with the demon as his powers are slightly off and so is he. Or, it.

After a few encounters with Seattle citizens and the Space Needle, the demon finally tracks Bryce down. But his trail has been easy for the girls to follow and hopefully, they can arrive in time for Bryce to survive.

What is unclear is, what is Jacques alternative agenda? Will the girls make it in time? What will happen to Dawn, no matter what happens? Will Frank and Eva survive? How many people will die before the demon finds its prey? And once found, then what? After all, the ceremony was defective and can the girls take down a demon like this alone? Or will they need Patrick, too? Who is Jacques working for and why does he want the book? What happened to Saleel?

We also see the demon's dimension that he lives in, the horrors it has to live with and its mortal enemies.

Then there is the burning question, just what does Osama Bin Laden have to do with all of this? That is something you find out in the opening just after, FADE IN.

Wrapped by all this are the three stories the friends tell around the hearth at Frank's house. Can Eva hold her own in telling stories around a fire with two of the greatest Horror writers in the world today? Do they try to "out Horror" one another, or just mess with each other's minds?

The screenplay has been well received so far and I've made some very good changes since then and blended in some good advice I've received.. Now all I need to do, is sell it. Wish me luck!

You know in writing this article, I really didn't give away any of the good stuff that happens and I leave out a lot of the twists and turns, but I discovered two elements I need to fix, one of which I hadn't seen until I wrote this summary up. So, thanks guys!