• Shots columnist Mike Ripley returns with a new month’s load of wisdom and whimsy. Among the topics covered in his latest column: the spy stories of Anthony Price, New Zealand crime fiction, Sam Eastland’s Eye of the Red Tsar, the books that most influenced Lee Child, and the “sort of ‘Continental Op’ approach” Joe Gores takes with his 2009 Maltese Falcon prequel, Spade & Archer.
• Who’d have expected that the subject of New Zealand crime and thriller novels would come up twice in one of these wrap-up posts? But Mystery Fanfare’s Janet Rudolph has the lowdown on a contest whereby readers living outside of that island nation can win “any Kiwi crime novel currently in print.” Act now!
• Well, now he’s gone and done it. Southern California author and freelance writer Michael Hemmingson, who’s already been writing a wonderful blog called Those Sexy Vintage Sleaze Books, has now launched a spin-off that is devoted exclusively to Orrie Hitt--“the noir poet of vintage sleazecore.” Look for it here ... and do look for it, if for no other reason than to swoon over Hemmingson’s amazing collection of paperback artwork.
• Jake Murdock reminds us that it was 60 years ago this week that the TV series Martin Kane, Private Eye debuted on NBC.
• For the site Noir Originals, Nick Stone talks with fellow novelist Tony Black, whose newest book, Gutted, may wind up among my favorite works of this year. Read their conversation here.
• Short-story writers who aren’t already familiar with Corey Wilde’s Watery Grave Invitational competition should jet on over to that link for a rundown of the contest rules. Apparently, it’s a three-stage process, at the end of which a select number of participants will have their work judged by a panel featuring Dave Zeltserman, Aldo Calcagno (of Powder Burn Flash and Darkest Before the Dawn fame), and Wilde himself. The deadline for applying is next Tuesday, September 8.
• Out of power, out of ideas, and obviously out for blood, a minority of U.S. conservatives seem also to have gone out of their minds over President Barack Obama’s planned feel-good address to students bound back to school next week. Reports The Florida Times-Union: “Although the White House says Obama will use the speech to stress ‘the importance of [students] taking responsibility for their success in school,’ Florida GOP Chairman Jim Greer said it would be an attempt to ‘indoctrinate America’s children’ into socialism.” How utterly idiotic. With the country having turned thumbs down on the Republican’t Party after eight years of failures under George W. Bush, GOPers have become unhinged in their attacks upon anything that doesn’t comport with their ideology. Claiming, in the complete absence of evidence, that Obama is trying to indoctrinate young minds in socialism should repulse any moderates who haven’t already abandoned that party. When George H.W. Bush delivered a similar speech to students back in 1991, you didn’t hear Democrats going all loony-tunes on him, did you. Of course not. More on this lunacy here, here, here, and here.
• And speaking of right-wing nutcases ...
Thursday, September 03, 2009
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4 comments:
If you are going to bore those of us who come here to read about Mystery fiction with your politics at least get your facts straight:
1991: DEMS BLAST BUSH 41 SCHOOL SPEECH
From the Washington Post, published Friday, October 4, 1991: Democrats assailed the Bush Administration today for spending $26,750 in taxpayer money to hire a production company that oversaw President Bush's telecast from an eighth-grade classroom here to schoolchildren around the country on Tuesday. The money came from the Education Department's salary and expense budget. As a result, Representative William D. Ford, the Michigan Democrat who heads the House Education and Labor Committee, demanded that Education Secretary Lamar Alexander appear before the committee to defend his "spending scarce education dollars to produce a media event." And the House majority leader, Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, said, "The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the President." The President's spokesman, Marlin Fitzwater, responded by denying that Mr. Bush's talk to the schoolchildren had been a political event and calling the criticism "nonsense."
You think that complaining about the cost in public funds of presenting George H.W. Bush's own address to schoolchildren equates with the lunacy of right-wingers charging President Obama with trying to spread "socialism" in the public schools?
Oh, please ...
Furthermore, we’ve gone WAY beyond mere political debate on this and other matters in recent weeks. You may think that it’s “boring” to talk about politics in a blog that isn’t usually about politics. But I think it’s a mistake for people of conscience who object to the behavior of the lunatic fringe that has taken control of today’s Republican’t Party to remain silent. We have to speak out wherever and whenever we can. We’ve underestimated the willingness of Republican’ts to lie to their constituents, in hopes of advancing their own short-term power--even if it means that Americans suffer in the long run from lack of health care and other assistance.
As The Washington Monthly’s Steve Benen wrote today, “The crazies have a political party, a cable news network, and a loud, activist base. They’re mad as hell and they’re not going to take their medications anymore.”
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/
individual/2009_09/019765.php
Jeff, thanks so much for the shout out on the Watery Grave Invitational. Any crime fic writer who has a story posted at an e-zine should most definitely check this out.
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