Red Planet Noir has won the Next Generation Indie Book Award for science fiction. So that’s pretty great. If you’re curious about the book, download the first chapter here [pdf]. If you like what you read, you can buy it here. It’s also available for the Kindle. I suggest you buy both.
Indie Book Award Winner
May 8th, 2010 § 8
Incommunicado
July 24th, 2010 § 0
I’ll be incommunicado for the next seven days. All emails, Twitter DMs, Facebook messages, voicemails, smoke signals, and telegrams will be returned August 2nd. Thanks for your patience.
Guest-blogging at The Atlantic
July 23rd, 2010 § 0
The Atlantic kindly invited me to guest blog this week, and I was thrilled to accept. Here’s a roundup of the pieces I’ve written so far:
- One Giant Creep For Mankind
41 years ago today, Neil Armstrong cracked open the hatch of the Eagle lunar module and took one giant leap for mankind. Then mankind rolled up its sleeves, picked up a shovel, and dug in. That was quite enough adventure, thank you very much.
UPDATE: Spotlighted on The American Prospect. Thanks!
- The Company He Keeps
Gallup reports that President Obama’s job approval average during his sixth quarter in office ranks on the bottom half of chief executives to date.
- Somalia’s Spreading Cancer
As it turns out, those three pirates snuffed by SEALs last year are not only bad guys in Somalia. Though it’s made few headlines of late, life in the post-apocalyptic African state has gone from bad to worse.
- Clinton Calls Out Burma
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke out this morning against the Burmese government, which is delaying elections announced for this year. Because the military junta has yet to announce a date, Secretary Clinton says, they risk “raising questions about their commitment to such elections.” One would, of course, think being a military junta would have raised an eyebrow in the first place.
- Gingrich Denounces Ground Zero Mosque
Yesterday evening, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich announced on his website opposition to the Park51 community center — the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque.” According to Gingrich, “There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia. The time for double standards that allow Islamists to behave aggressively toward us while they demand our weakness and submission is over.”
- Chad Refuses to Arrest Bashir
This week, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is in Chad for a regional summit, and human rights groups are pleading for his arrest. Bashir presided over the conflict in Darfur, where an estimated 300,000 people were killed and over 2.5 million displaced. He is wanted by the International Criminal Court for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
Give This Man Five Stars
July 7th, 2010 § 2
Over at The Atlantic, I call for the promotion of David Petraeus to General of the Army.
It’s difficult to find a war in American history where so much depended on any one man. He is the face of this war, the spiritual commander in chief amongst presidencies deficient in military authority. He is the only man, general or civilian, who can stand before the American people, the American soldier, and military families, and discuss the conflict without being second-guessed or dismissed out of hand as a partisan hack. Long gone are the days of “General Betray Us.” Indeed, even MoveOn.org has scrubbed its website of the controversial advertisement. Petraeus is the Army. He is the war. The fate of the region is in his hands.
For that reason, and because President Obama has recommitted this nation to war in Afghanistan and the continued campaign in Iraq, General Petraeus should be promoted to General of the Army, and given a fifth star.
Read the whole thing here.
Photograph by Jonas Fredwall Karlsson
UPDATE: Linked by Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit. My thanks, good professor.
UPDATE 2: The ever-thoughtful Daniel Foster comments at National Review.
UPDATE 3: A link from the Washington Post!
UPDATE 4: Spotlighted on The Week as Best Column on Afghanistan. Thank you.
Christopher Hitchens diagnosed with cancer
June 30th, 2010 § 0
This is heartbreaking news.
“I have been advised by my physician that I must undergo a course of chemotherapy on my esophagus. This advice seems persuasive to me.”
From Vanity Fair.
A recent Washington Post profile.
Amazon Acquires Woot!
June 30th, 2010 § 0
Regular readers of this website know that my loyalties lie with three companies: Apple, Amazon, and Woot. Today, Amazon and Woot have become one. In the single best announcement ever issued by a CEO to his employees, Matt Rutledge breaks the news. “Don’t think of it as a buyout; think of it as NATO!”
Over the next few days, you will probably read headlines that say “Matt Rutledge revealed to be monstrous pseudo-human creation of Jeff Bezos.” You might even see this photo making the rounds. Rest assured that these rumors have nothing to do with our final decision. We think now is the right time to join with Amazon because, quite simply, every company that becomes a subsidiary gets two free downloads until the end of July, and we very much need that new thing with Trent Reznor’s wife on our iPods.
Other than that, we plan to continue to run Woot the way we have always run Woot – with a wall of ideas and a dartboard. From a practical point of view, it will be as if we are simply adding one person to the organizational hierarchy, except that one person will just happen to be a billion-dollar company that could buy and sell each and every one of you like you were office furniture.
Read the whole thing.
Killing the Horse Midstream
June 23rd, 2010 § 0
Over at The Atlantic, I throw rocks at the Obama administration for sacking General Stanley McChrystal. A snippet:
General Stanley McChrystal is the best in the world at what he does, so long as the world is not watching. As commander of JSOC, the Joint Special Operations Command, he oversaw and engaged in missions that put bullets into thousands of terrorists, including Al Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. As Michael Hastings reports in the now-infamous Rolling Stone profile that proved the general’s undoing, “He went out on dozens of nighttime raids during his time in Iraq, unprecedented for a top commander, and turned up on missions unannounced, with almost no entourage.” Hastings relates the sentiments of a British officer: “The fucking lads love Stan McChrystal. You’d be out in Somewhere, Iraq, and someone would take a knee beside you, and a corporal would be like ‘Who the fuck is that?’ And it’s fucking Stan McChrystal.”
Read the rest here. Send hate mail here.
For background, here is the Rolling Stone piece referenced.
On a different note, my last piece for The Atlantic was a profile of heroic war correspondent Michael Yon. I conducted a lot of interviews for that article and took a lot of heat for defending Yon, but in the end, he was right. That piece was the first (of any I’m aware) to suggest:
- McChrystal’s days were numbered.
- Petraeus would be the most likely successor.
- The ascent of James Mattis, who is now rumored to take over CENTCOM.
A few side-notes as well. The McChrystal piece was submitted seconds after the Petraeus announcement, so I mention him only in closing. I have nothing but respect for General Petraeus. He is the definition of an American hero, and will one day be mentioned in the same breath as Washington, Alexander, Agrippa, Napoleon, and Patton. By taking command of the war in Afghanistan, General Petraeus is taking a demotion, and I believe he is doing it out of loyalty to Stanley McChrystal. The nation owes General McChrystal a debt it can never fully repay. His achievements in Iraq are second to none, and his plan for Afghanistan is both humane and insightful. To see him go is a great loss to the Army and the war. It’s a sad day when warriors survive daily firefights only to be taken down by media firestorms.
Also: I’m not sure but I think I may have set a record for most uses of the word “fuck” in an Atlantic piece.
“This was their finest hour.”
June 18th, 2010 § 0
The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, “This was their finest hour.” - Sir Winston Churchill, 70 years ago today.
- The complete text.
- The audio.
Kindle Update Released
June 16th, 2010 § 0
Louisiana Book Festival Canceled
June 4th, 2010 § 2
Because, you know, literacy is already so lavishly funded by the state and burdensome upon the tax payers, the Louisiana Book Festival has been canceled. If you listen closely, you can hear John Kennedy Toole, Truman Capote, William Faulkner, and Robert Penn Warren rolling in their graves. Some news to chew on:
Book Festival victim of budget cuts
Budget cuts for cancellation of Louisiana Book Festival
Don’t worry, though. I’m sure Tiger Stadium will receive a fresh coat of paint, and the Hornets will get a well-equiped gym.
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