Operation Political Suicide: Let's Just Nominate The Craziest One Of The Lot

"It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that a politician in search of an electoral victory must be in want of a muckraker." ~ Jane Austen, Pride and Politics

Well, Iowa and New Hampshire are behind us now. The primaries have kicked the endless Republican nominations into high gear (emphasis on endless). South Carolina and Florida lie ahead for the poor fools (candidates and party voters alike). The President and his staff spend their time taking notes on the best ways to destroy whatever's left of whoever's left standing (it won't be Michelle Bachmann, of course, since she's out). And the editorial cartoonists of the country and the world continue to skewer the candidates....

Yes, well, maybe it would help if you'd come up with a better slate of candidates, wouldn't it?

And so the field has narrowed again. Huntsman is still in the game, of course. Rick Perry, aka Dubya 2.0 (wait, Dubya is smarter then Governor Rick) will stay in until his ego or his campaign funds run out (rumor has it it'll be the latter)....

And then there's Newt, who just doesn't know how to take a hint and quit...

 

Surprisingly Santorum and Paul had a good showing in Iowa, though they still have Governor Mittens to contend with...

Yes, Governor Mittens, the inevitable Republican candidate that the GOP wishes could be someone else....

You would think that Governor Mittens might have had enough of having the GOP desperately seeking anyone else to run. Who knows? Maybe in his inevitable acceptance speech, he'll just say, "You know what, you all treated me like an afterthought for months on end. I'm retiring to Aruba. You're all so hopelessly screwed."

Sorry, Ricky, but your showing in Iowa notwithstanding, there's no way you can stay in for the long term. Not with what your last name is also defined as being.

And Ron Paul, the Crazy Old Man of the Republican Party? He's like the deranged homeless guy on the street corner. Just in a better suit. Well, not the all white one that he likes to pretend he never wore.

Yes, it's a bad year to be a Republican candidate. You're being torn to shreds by your own party. If there's anything left of you, the President's team has gotten its hands on lots of ammunition against you in the debates. In other words, my friend, whoever you end up being (safe bets on Governor Mittens)... well, in two words: you're screwed.

I'll be back soon enough with another one of these election blogs, but I'll leave you with this one. Hey, if the Republicans dig deep enough, there must be a Ned Brown out there somewhere who's not Mitt Romney, right?

An Island Castle, An Italian Harbour... Oh, Yes, That's Really Roughing It

This place turned up in the travel section of one of the newspapers I read during the holidays. I was, of course, intrigued and fascinated. It's a beautiful spot, after all. The location is Ischia, a volcanic island paradise near Naples. The castle above on the small island (with a causeway) is Castello Aragonese, which first has its roots in the fifth century BC. Today it's become a destination for tourists and religious pilgrims alike.

The island itself is quite mountainous, and makes its living from tourism, who come for the thermal hot springs, the beaches, the history, and the scenery. The volcano itself hasn't erupted for the last seven hundred years (cross your fingers, in geological time, that's a millisecond). It struck me as an astonishingly beautiful spot. Just the sort of place one could write into a novel.

In Heaven & Hell, location has often come across as a character in and of itself. I've paid close attention to- and made use of- the places my characters have passed through. The history and scenery of places throughout Israel- Jerusalem, the Masada, Tel Aviv, the Golan Heights- and beyond into Syria have been very much on my mind throughout the book. And in the final phase of the book, on the island of Andros in Greece, the topography of the island and the achingly beautiful location (I could spend months in the Aegean, just saying... and I'm not even Greek) have certainly been influences on me. And down the line, in future books like Sword of the Faith and A Cold Day In Hell, location will continue to have an influence on my writing, to the point where the land takes on a character of its own.

Ischia and particularly that castle fortress are certainly inspiring for a location. As a writer in the spy genre, I could see using it for a meeting between adversaries. Yet it lends itself well to so many other possibilities. The romance genre would practically salivate at such a location. And I imagine at night, the grounds of that island castle would be just the perfect place for a murder in a mystery novel. And just think... wouldn't it be the perfect setting for a ghost story?

What would you do if you had the chance to use this place in your own writing?

Six Sentence Sunday

Today I thought I would do another Six Sentence Sunday blog, from Heaven & Hell. The following passage features the very start of the assault on a villa in the Aegean. The passage is from the perspective of two members of the counter-terrorist team sent in to take down the Covenant. Yes, I know, blasting the hell out of a villa in such a lovely place is a cardinal sin, but considering what I did earlier in the novel, that's comparatively little more then kid's games....

No, this isn't the villa in question, but a nice spot in Greece, don't you think?

Tarif and Kalvos had started moving when they heard the explosives charges go off. They bolted out from behind the cypress tree to head for the terrace, and saw the columned arch around the front door to the villa. Tarif recognized the shapes of Devon and Stryker there, along with the momentary light of the small detonation fading into the night. He and Kalvos were both sprinting, aiming their MP5s as they went. Both men opened fire at the terrace windows. The glass began to shatter.

Word Clouds From Heaven, Hell, And New Jersey... Wait A Minute, New Jersey Is Hell

I've been playing around with text over at Word It Out. Inserting some of the text from your work will create word clouds. If you haven't seen them yet, check out what Norma did with a word cloud over at Sam's Story, or with some of her writing at Windchaser's Journey. The links will take you right to the specific blogs themselves. And we also did word clouds over at our joint blog Basking In The Afterglow, which, of course, resulted in rather risque word clouds. What can I say? Our alter egos get frisky from time to time.

Today I've got several word clouds from Heaven & Hell, and I'll just say that one of them contains the essence of the Very Bad Thing. I'll leave it to you to figure out which one. Have fun!

Hardly An Endangered Species: Homo Sapiens Politicus Idioticus

It's a brand new year, and the election campaign grinds on in the United States (someone tell me November's coming early this year). And as we all know, the day after the election is done with, the pundits are going to be talking about the 2016 election.

It never ends!!!!

Anyway, the first of the primaries are at hand (more on them in the next election blog), and the Republicans have continued their travelling circus, while the President waits, watches, and gathers together ammunition to dismantle whoever actually gets the nomination. Memo to the GOP: you guys are doing all the work for the Democrats, you do realize that?

Since we last went through this, the Bloated Ego (otherwise known as Donald Trump) cancelled his moderation of a debate, musing on the notion of running as an indie candidate. No one else has dropped out yet, but political fortunes have declined, none quite so much as Newt Gingrich, who only a month ago looked like he'd do the impossible and clinch the nomination. Things change, don't they?

And so with Gingrich beginning to fall by the side of the road, like Michelle, Sarah, and the Second Coming of Ross Perot before him, it appears yet again that Governor Mittens is going to get the nomination. This despite the fact that many in the party desperately wish someone else was running.

I've called it a travelling circus. And it really is. I've also asked the question before in these blogs... is this pack the best the Republicans can come up with?

Of course, the media and the party at large have pretty much ignored Ron Paul, who's something of a crackpot, but has managed to stay in the thick of things. The question remains, will he wear an old outfit to the final night of the party nominations? Or will that one stay hidden in the panic room, never to see the light of day?

American elections: the never ending process by which the rest of the free world looks at, and sighs a deep sigh of relief. After all, we do have our own problems, but at least we don't have to deal with that.