Michelle Obama for First Lady

Anybody else watch Michelle Obama's speech last night at the Democratic National Convention?

This is part one of her speech, which doesn't actually start until about four minutes, thirty seconds into the video. Part two and three.

Personally, I was seriously impressed. She spoke about her life, her husband's life, and the American Dream. She spoke about keeping your word, about honor and integrity, about dreams and hope, and about love of country. She spoke of humble beginnings and unlimited horizons. Every single thing she said I agree with wholeheartedly. I thought it was an excellent speech, an inspiring speech, an amazing speech - and should she become the First Lady, I think she'll do more than just a credible job, I think she'll be an outstanding First Lady. She's articulate, passionate, supremely well spoken, confident, outspoken, idealistic, and obviously thoughtfully intelligent. And she's deeply in love with her husband - does that matter? I think it does, at least to me.

It is apparent to me, and has been for some time, that many of the things said about her are patently false. Last night's speech just cemented that opinion in my mind.

This morning the pundits are taking her speech apart word by word, criticizing everything from her Princeton education to her sincerity to her choice of apparel and hairstyle.  Predictable, and no less nauseating for being predictable.  I read somewhere this morning, a comment from some vitriolic idiot who said in essence, "So what? She's just parroting the words some speech writer wrote for her." Bullshit. Obvious bullshit. Listen to her words, watch her speak, watch her eyes. Her eyes are on America, on the crowd, not on some teleprompter. I've given a lot of speeches in my time. I've stood in front of a lot of people and have spoken passionately and from the heart.  And I know it when I see it. Those are her words, not some speechwriter's, and she believes every one of them. True sincerity, you cannot fake that. You cannot, not in front of me anyway.

I've seen a dozen reports this morning regarding her tip of the hat to Hillary Clinton. The most ridiculous being Fox News (of course. Tediously, predictably, of course) who sneeringly questioned her sincerity with regards to Clinton's achievements and iconic status.  CNN went so far as to hire a so-called "body language expert" to analyze Michelle Obama's stance, posture, and gestures during that portion of the speech - just to determine if Mrs Obama was actually, you know, sincere in her acknowledgement of Clinton.  The expert determined that she was "ambivalent."  

Bah.

Again, listen to her words, watch her talk - she's not blowing smoke up Clinton's tailored pantsuit with empty, politically expedient flattery. She was sincerely acknowledging Clinton's achievement - Hillary Clinton came closer to the Presidency than any woman before her, and her accomplishment paved the way for those woman who will follow the trail Clinton blazed, straight into the Oval Office - maybe one of those women will be Malia or Natasha Obama.  Michelle Obama can, and did, acknowledge that fact without reservation. 

Was it a calculated olive branch to Clinton's supporters? Sure, probably.

So?

Welcome to politics. Was is disingenuous? No. No. No. Again, listen to her words, she spoke about unity, about all Americans standing together. All Americans. And those aren't empty words, she demonstrated her commitment to unity by reaching out, right there in Denver, to one of her husband's most bitter rivals.  Far from insincerity, I take this as a sign of the Obamas' sincere commitment to represent all Americans, to reach across the aisle, to unify instead of divide.

Insincerity? No, wrong word.

It's called class, and grace, and style.

 

I look forward to hearing Cindy McCain speak at the GOP Convention. I'm sure it'll be equally impressive.

What?

Caution, Addictive Time Waster

I stumbled into this. Normally I would have gone right on past, since online games rarely interest me - however there is something strangely weird about the graphics and addictive about the game. I managed to make it to level 9, let's see how you do.

Sobics

Corporate Dúnedain of the Week

In yesterday's post I said that I was ambivalent about Veteran's Day - mostly because I despise the hypocrisy of politicians [and corporations] who use the day to make empty promises to vets. However, I failed to mention that there are those who do literally 'put their money where their mouth is' when it comes to veterans.

... all 485 Golden Corral restaurants across America will offer any person who has served in the United States Military (including National Guard and Reserves) a free dinner buffet and beverage – no identification required and no questions asked.

I'm not much of a buffet fan (Jimmy Buffett, yeah BIG ugly parrot-headed fan - 'All You Can Eat Buffet', not so much), but these people rock. Seriously. This was 7th year that the Golden Corral has offered free meals to veterans, in partnership with the Disabled American Veterans organization. This is more than a token gesture, Golden Corral has served over 1.5 million meals to vets over the last seven years. That's pretty dammed outstanding.

Fleet of Worlds

I'm an unabashed Larry Niven fan.

Ringworld is still one of my very favorite novels in any genre - and I actually own a first edition copy, the one in which Niven mistakenly has the Earth rotating in the wrong direction, it's a rare and valuable book. I'm a huge fan of the Known Space series. For years I eagerly bought anything with Niven's name on the cover. I loved his clean, crisp writing style. I thought his characters and especially the alien worlds he created were incredibly interesting - I still want to visit Mount Lookatthat and stare down into the 'vast searing black calm' of Plateau. And I want to explore the Ringworld via skycycle under the light of the heaven spanning arch. I want to battle the Kzinti and fly between the stars in a ramscoop.

Then, somehow, somewhere in the nineties, I started to become a little less enthusiastic about Niven's work, somehow the characters in his books started making intuitive leaps that I just couldn't follow, Ringworld Throne was dammed near incomprehensible to me. There were strange jumps of logic in The Integral Trees and The Smoke Ring, I enjoyed both books but there were some chapters where I just had no idea how the characters made the leaps of logic that they had. I still don't get it, despite careful rereading. Crashlander, the fixup of Beowulf Shaeffer stories tied together with the story Ghost, was the same. The characters kept making logic leaps that I just couldn't follow, it became frustrating.

Maybe the change was Niven, or maybe my mind was just no longer agile enough to follow him, but somewhere a few years back I stopped buying Niven in hardcover. I still read him, but I waited until the cheaper paperbacks came out.

Then something funny happened. He wrote Ringworld's Children, I read it in paperback. Then went out and bought the hardcover, because I enjoyed it so much. Then came Building Harlequin's Moon, which he co-wrote with Brenda Cooper, and which was one of the best SciFi books I've read in years. Moon reminded me of the very best of the Niven and Pournelle collaborations. I went back to pre-ordering hardcovers.

Two weeks ago I got my copy of Fleet of Worlds, set in Niven's Known Space, two hundred years before the events described in Ringworld. Co-written with Edward M. Lerner. Once again, Niven shows that his very best work comes when he is working with somebody else. FOWs is outstanding For those who are fans of Known Space, FOWs is a complex tale of deceit, betrayal, furry alien love, freedom, adventure amongst flying worlds, exploding galaxies, and Puppeteers.

The story revolves around what is essentially a group of human servants, descended from a lost colony and enslaved by the deceitfully paranoid alien Puppeteers. The story ties together many loose ends from the Known Space series, reshapes things you thought you knew in strange and interesting ways, and revisits some characters that have appeared elsewhere in Known Space.

I will say that while the story does stand on its own, it will probably be somewhat less enjoyable if you haven't read Ringworld and the Beowulf Shaeffer stories. Also, the ending(s) is/are a little odd. Not the way the story ends, but that there are at least three small chapters past what I thought was the logical end of the book. I'm not complaining actually, I enjoyed those extra chapters and they provided some detail about things I wanted to know - but it really felt like the authors where doing the "oh yeah, and another thing" bit. Still, overall I thought Fleet of Worlds was outstanding, and very much a worthy addition to the annuals of Known Space. I sincerely hope Niven and Lerner do more work together in this universe.

I won't spoil Fleet of Worlds for you. If you're not a Known Space fan, you won't care. And if you are, you'll go buy this book right now.

The Accidental Time Machine (corrected)

Being somewhat limited in my activities today (see previous post), I decided to spend the morning reading Joe Haldeman's new book, The Accidental Time Machine. I'm a fast reader, 2 hours last night before bed and two hours this morning, 278 pages, and I'm done. That's about average for me.

Don't worry about spoilers, I won't ruin it for you.

I've always been a fan of Joe Haldeman. The Forever War is one of my favorites, especially the author's special edition, with the central section restored to Haldeman's original. I reread the Worlds trilogy every couple years, and All My Sins Remembered. I didn't much care for the sequel to The Forever War though, Forever Free* because I just didn't like the ending. And I really didn't like Old Twentieth, for the same reason, I hated the ending. But, hey, it's Haldeman, and there are dammed few authors I really like, so when Amazon offered me a discount on a hardcover of the The Accidental Time Machine, I bought it.

And I'm glad I did.

The Accidental Time Machine is like the Haldeman of old - only more light hearted and funnier. There's a humorous undertone to the narration that is missing from his more serious books. The story is interesting, the characters are thoroughly enjoyable people, the pacing is fast, and it ends on an upbeat. There's a little of everything, danger, technology, religion, mysterious intelligences with unexplained motives, and a turtle. Haldeman doesn't explain everything, you're left with a few mysteries to flesh out for yourself. Haldeman gives you plenty of clues, but doesn't beat you over the head with the details - in other words, he assumes his readers are smart and imaginative and they don't need every little subplot explained. I consider that a compliment.

Unlike much of Haldeman's previous work, The Accidental Time Machine is not military, the protagonist is a lowly, under-achieving research assistant at MIT, who makes an accidental discovery resulting in a strange and sometimes dangerous trip into the future.

Haldeman is back on track with this one, and I'll give the book the highest compliment I can - I wish it was longer, because I would have liked to have seen just a bit more of the world he created.

* Correction: In the original post I had incorrectly said the sequel to the Forever War, was Haldeman's Forever Peace. David Kletcha pointed this out in the comments and I fixed it in the post. So David's comment no longer makes any sense, but that's OK, better he look crazy rather than me. Thanks David.

Me likey

I just finished watching the 2nd season premier of Heroes, and I just gotta say, I'm giddy, like a schoolgirl. What a truly excellent show.