In This Edition

Being gratuitously verbose, I have a total of six articles this week rather than the usual three. As such, I have created an index to this week’s ramblings, as they have fallen off the front page and I do not wish them to be missed entuirely.

Books
Recently read, recently acquired, and heartily recommended books.

Health Care
A rant about the U.S. health care bill and its effect on businesses.

Jacko
Meanwhile, Michael Jackson is still dead and we continue to allow our media to dumb us down.

Cheeseburger
My green chile cheeseburger recipe.

PDF
Why I’m no longer buying PDFs, and why print shops are dillholes.

Vanity
How I’m doing, what I’m up to, blah blah blah.

Books

In 2008 I swore to not buy any books for a year, in order to get caught up on (and re-read) books that I already owned. This actually went on from November 2007 until about February of this year. I still have stacks of unread books, so I’ve continued to be frugal and only buy books that are of immediate use (research value, playing in a game) or the next book in a series I’m already embroiled in. Rarely, I would buy something outside those rules because it just interested me and I planned to read it immediately (that would be Death’s Daughter by Amber Benson).

This week I engaged in a little “retail therapy” and bent those rules. I had Amazon credit, which I spent on a birthday present for my wife, but I also snuck Legion by Dan Abnett into the cart since I was already getting free strade bait, I acquired some used books. I was specifically hunting for Patriot Witch by C.C. Finlay, the first book in the Traitor to the King series. Fantasy set during the American Revolution. As I’m currently into that period of history, fiddling with Colonial Gothic, and running Whiskeyjacks, it dovetails nicely. I also discovered a book call The Nature of Monsters, by Clare Clarke. The title caught my eye as I was passing by. By the blurb, it appears to be a Rosemary’s Baby-type tale set in the period between 1666 and 1718. Again, kismet, it had to come home.

As I was ready to check out I spotted Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulk “writing as Ian Fleming”. A new James Bond novel, just released in paperback this past May. I’ve never been impressed by the non-Fleming Bond novels, because my interest in Bond is piqued again. Not only will it provide a nice break from reading fantasy and history, but I also just completed my James Bond 007 Roleplaying Game collection, acquiring the last few adventures that I was missing.

A few days ago I finished Victory of Eagles, the fifth book in Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series. The Napoleonic era, with dragons. Likeable characters, an interesting and logical alternate history, dragon cultures that make some sort of sense, and good solid stories. The fifth book was every bit as good as the first, and I highly recommend them. I may pick up the sixth book, In His Majesty’s Service, in hardcover if I have the funds.

Jacko

The media has been all-Michael Jackson, all the time for the past two weeks, and those of you who follow me on Twitter have heard me bitching about it the entire time. My beef really doesn’t have anything to do with Jackson. It has to do with hype, and he was nothing but 5′11″ and 120 lbs of pure grade-A hype at the end. Of all the people to idolize and/or weep over, he wouldn’t make my list. Talented entertainer? Check. Seriously disturbed individual? Check. As time went by, he was less known as a singer/dancer and more for his insane antics. He ceased to be a musician and transformed into a one-man circus freakshow. In watching the so-called “tribute” shows I felt as if I’d been transported to the Victorian era, when people would tour asylums to be alternately frightened and amused by the antics of the mentally unsound.

But that wasn’t my point, either. It was an endictment of what “news” is, or has become. There is no journalism, there is only Zuul. News is driven by ratings, ratings are driven by hype, hype is really just a form of entertainment. Give the people what they want. There’s not duty to inform the public. So long as people continue to suck up anything about Jackson, they’ll keep spewing that out, to the detriment of covering things like the G8 conference, the nuclear arms treaty with Russia, and [YOUR LOCAL NEWS HERE]. Just like the endless coverage of Jon + Kate before that, and “octomom” before that, and whatever was before that.

The purpose of the media today is to make us feel good. It’s just another form of escapism. It’s to provide us with watercooler gossip, a common hero to cheer or a common enemy that we can all look down on. FOX News is about making conservatives feel that their opinions are validated. Talk radio is to allow people to have their sense of snarky righteous rage. NPR is about allowing intellectuals to feel as if they’re smarter and better informed than other people. And they have a place in this great American experiment, but the cost we pay is fact and truth. And yes, we pay this cost, you and I, because we watch and listen to and read this crap, and we don’t demand anything better.