tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-93779332012-01-30T07:52:44.813-05:00James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.comBlogger3631100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-78332182417737047442012-01-29T17:53:00.004-05:002012-01-29T21:15:31.284-05:00

Newt Gingrich was the subject of much mockery this week when he proposed a permanent lunar colony by the end of his second term. Perhaps he was joking when he said one day it could be the 51st state. But, there are plenty of people who, while they may be dubious of Newt Gingrich's ability to lead us into space, take it as an article of faith that mankind will some day leave the Earth and colonize

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-26159611296149317572012-01-06T07:29:00.002-05:002012-01-06T07:47:51.048-05:00

Yesterday in New Hampshire, Santorum explained his opposition to same-sex marriage by equating it to polygamy:Santorum retorted, “Are we saying that everyone should have the right to marry?”When the audience member told him yes, he shot back, “So anyone can marry can marry anybody else, so, if that’s the case, then everyone can marry several people.”I hear this a lot, and I always find it a bit

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-91676252469711962322012-01-02T18:35:00.004-05:002012-01-02T21:29:57.804-05:00

I've been obsessing over the Decemberist's album the Hazard's of Love. It's a fantastic fairy tale love story told as a rock opera. Most of the story is relatively easy to follow, but there are some gaps that are left open to interpretation. I thought I'd take my stab at interpretting things. If you haven't heard the album, you can probably stop reading right here. I'm addressing this post to

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-91539755696474630722011-12-29T17:56:00.005-05:002011-12-29T18:59:57.486-05:00

I've been seeing a lot of "Best of" lists in recent days, and been thinking about my own favorite music discoveries of the year. This isn't a "best of 2011" list, since most of the albums and artists I've been listening to recorded their work years ago. But, it was all new to me.This year marked a significant shift in my music listening habits. Save for a few rare instances, I'm buying 100% of my

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-15085048538670895662011-12-25T11:18:00.002-05:002011-12-25T12:02:14.590-05:00

First, as an atheist, I'd like to apologize for the behavior of some of my brethren this season. Specifically, I'm talking about the atheists who flooded the lottery system for a town in California in order to claim 15 of 18 spaces reserved in a public park for a holiday display. Ordinarily, these spaces were used by local churches to stage nativity scenes. This year, however, only three churches

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-19631313571123987882011-12-03T10:40:00.002-05:002011-12-03T11:30:03.934-05:00

This week produced one of those moments in politics where I felt, once more, that I lived in a Looking Glass universe. The heart of the weirdness started when Newt Gingrich said something right on the borderline of common sense, always a dangerous place for any politician to wander. Gingrich said, if I may paraphrase, that our child labor laws hurt poor children who would enjoy long term benefits

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-83721640595024918102011-11-23T11:13:00.002-05:002011-11-23T11:22:48.605-05:00

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-47391171227121480472011-11-14T07:35:00.005-05:002011-11-14T07:53:09.200-05:00

Harvest MarriageLights danced below as the Ferris wheel lifted us above the county fair toward a crescent October moon.In the calm above the crowds we kissed and said for the first time, “I love you.”Ours was to be a harvest marriagegrowing from seeds planted long ago.Our love didn’t burst up and blossom following the first raindrops of springlike some eager radish full of heatthat wilts only

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-48681721370073929152011-11-08T20:14:00.003-05:002011-11-08T20:38:02.200-05:00

So, anyway, I'm getting married this Friday. 11-11-11.If the economic picture of the US has improved recently, I suspect economists will be able to trace it to the number of wedding gifts that have been shipped to Cheryl and me these last couple of weeks. Today when I got home from work there was a large box from Khol's sitting on the deck. I went inside and forgot about it. Cheryl came home,

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-28396714607812076242011-10-28T17:58:00.003-04:002011-10-28T18:09:02.499-04:00

I saw a magazine cover reporting on the Occupy Wall Street protests with the words, "We are the 99%." These words have been kicking around in my head for a few days, but probably not for the reason the protesters would like.Is it really possible that 1% of Americans are wealthy? According to census data, the top 1% of earners make more than $390,000 a year. I would certainly consider that wealthy

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-20735405400731470832011-10-24T20:40:00.002-04:002011-10-24T21:03:33.573-04:00

Last night I had a dream that felt like it unfolded over hours. I was supposed to meet my best friend Greg for lunch at some hamburger place downtown. Greg passed away about two years ago, but I remember I was looking forward to talking to him about current political news. I think he would be particularly energized right now by the Republican candidates. Greg was always more animated by the

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-74705872168559482912011-10-22T15:38:00.002-04:002011-10-22T16:23:44.323-04:00

I feel like I'm having a hard time thinking about the news of late. I consider myself a informed member of society, who cares about responsible government, the environment, the economy, the whole shebang. For a long time, I've been content to throw my support to libertarians, whose philosophy matches my own for the most part. But, in this upcoming election, I'm starting to worry about the charge

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-88659591567808137912011-10-19T20:31:00.003-04:002011-10-19T21:10:17.272-04:00

I watched a show on Discovery the other night about prolonging human life. The show laid out a semi-plausible scenario by which a middle aged person today might possibly survive for the next thousand years. Some of the technology is almost certainly heading our way in the next few decades, such as growing new organs from stem cells. Other bits, such as being able to move a human personality from

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-54810773743089118402011-09-27T16:56:00.003-04:002011-09-27T17:18:35.255-04:00

I've been thinking further about my concerns that 401ks may be having the perverse effect of ruining people's savings by creating bubbles in the stock market. The governmnet has designed a system where people blindly pump money into stocks and bonds week after week, whether the markets are rising, falling, or spinning in circles. I keep reading that, long term, the stock market will continue to

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-44224283785380703422011-09-21T18:00:00.002-04:002011-09-21T18:18:02.780-04:00

For years, I've been a cheerleader for 401ks where I work. I personally have helped at least a dozen people get set up over the years. To me, it seems like a no-brainer. Our company matches the first 5% of your pay that you contribute. If an employer wants to boost my pay by 5%, it seems a little rude to say no. And, for that first 5% that I contribute, I instantly double my money. That's a

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-61778894539394217412011-09-11T18:51:00.002-04:002011-09-11T19:33:01.875-04:00

Did 9-11 change the world forever?Perhaps, but what day doesn't?The terrorist attacks of 9-11 created a lot of hub bub, but I would say that the world has been far more transformed by smart phones or the collapse of the housing bubble. It's true that we spent hundreds of billions of dollars and lost thousands of lives by letting the 9-11 attacks seduce us into two open-ended wars, but how much

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-6846052655054406202011-09-03T09:44:00.002-04:002011-09-03T11:06:50.089-04:00

A few weeks ago, GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry referred to evolution as "a theory that's out there." There is nothing in his political history to indicate that he believes the theory to be accurate. Does this disqualify him from being president in my eyes? Probably not. Unlike, say, global warming, a politician's thoughts on evolution play a fairly trivial role in shaping political policy.

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-88050787316313771002011-08-23T11:31:00.002-04:002011-08-23T13:03:07.204-04:00

Michelle Bachmann's best day of her political life and her worst day were probably one in the same. She rose to the very top of the pack of contenders for the GOP nomination by winning the Ames Straw Poll... and completely vanished from national media attention within 48 hours due to Rick Perry announcing his run from President the same day. Perry appeals to almost exactly the same voters who

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-50173878749956063372011-08-07T16:33:00.002-04:002011-08-07T17:06:04.804-04:00

So, last week, it was announced that in the Ultimate Spiderman comic, Peter Parker is being killed off and replaced by a half-black/half-latino teenager named Miles Morales. My immediate reaction was... again?Not because Spiderman has been replaced with a black character before, but because the list of superheroes who've been replaced by black characters, at least temporarily, is at this point an

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-71195431973066851322011-08-07T10:10:00.005-04:002011-08-07T10:16:46.093-04:00

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here's 8000 words about my beach trip.

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-36275970459082043122011-07-25T21:19:00.002-04:002011-07-25T21:55:24.094-04:00

I've been watching the debate about raising the debt ceiling with morbid fascination. For most of my life, I've disliked politicians who seemed to lack a spine, and who would say whatever it was they needed to say to get elected, then just go along with the flow when they got to Washington. Our current fiscal situation isn't the blame of radicals, be they left or right. Ron Paul, for instance, is

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-49169412514772993252011-07-05T07:49:00.002-04:002011-07-05T09:46:10.711-04:00

Used properly, credit is one of the most powerful tools of capitalism. It makes it possible for individuals to purchase items that would require impractically long periods of time to buy simply by saving. If credits for mortgages weren't available, most of us would probably need decades to save enough to buy a house outright. If student loans weren't available, only the children of the very

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-29880472033139275082011-06-18T08:22:00.003-04:002011-06-18T08:28:52.642-04:00

I saw this ad on World Net Daily this morning and it caught my attention, since it looked to me like a little girl about to push her brother off a cliff (albeit playfully). I thought at first I was seeing an inappropriate ad for some vacation spot, like the Blue Ridge Parkway, but then I read the text and discovered it was an inappropriate ad for higher education. "Attending our school is like

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-61407637835812858102011-06-01T16:16:00.002-04:002011-06-01T16:49:58.321-04:00

The press has mostly moved on from the question of whether President Obama was born in Hawaii or not. Donald Trump kicked the hornet's nest and got some people worked up about the question, but most people accept that the two birth certificates (short form and long form) released by the Prez are the real thing.However, I was over at World Net Daily earlier today and notice that they are running

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-17327627749505127052011-05-18T14:49:00.003-04:002011-05-18T15:05:40.270-04:00

I was a guest on the State of Things today, along with Henry Jenkins and and James Daily, talking about Superman renouncing his US citizenship. I mentioned briefly one of my short stories in which a hero gets restored to life by a time travel paradox and the Supreme Court must decide whether or not the murder conviction of the hero's arch enemy should be overturned. If you're interested in

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-45907428665328561722011-05-16T20:57:00.002-04:002011-05-16T21:45:19.421-04:00

Superman isn't an American. He's a known alien whose only official place of residence is an underground bunker in Antartica. While he does spend a lot of time in Metropolis, he's certainly got a good track record of saves all around the world. He's saved planes with bad engines in Argentina, put out brush fires in Africa, plugged failing dams in Korea, and rescued stranded subs in Russia. He's

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-41401868604903054072011-05-07T11:15:00.002-04:002011-05-07T11:56:30.035-04:00

Yesterday marked the five year anniversary of Laura's death. Thursday, I took Simon and Veronica to place flowers at her grave. The headstone continues to accumulate sea shells; Laura loved to go to the beach and collect shells and beach glass. Each time I visit her grave, it seems as if the shells have changed. Some probably get washed off by rain, then chewed up by lawn mowers. But new ones

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-34771600014572536372011-05-04T07:34:00.002-04:002011-05-04T09:31:08.766-04:00

The latest attempt by DC to grab a few headlines involves Superman renouncing his US citizenship. I haven't yet read Action Comics 900, the issue this happens in, but my understanding from news reports is that Superman takes a stand in support of Arab rebels that the White House is unhappy with, so Supes goes before the UN to renounce his citizenship since he's tired of having his personal

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-66548544277390688702011-04-20T07:49:00.004-04:002011-04-20T09:14:48.215-04:00

I've been doing a lot more posts about writing than about politics lately, which is natural since I'm deep inside the process of writing The Dragon Apocalypse series. When I'm writing, the rest of the world turns into murmuring shadows at the periphery of my awareness. I'm only dimly aware of friends and family. Hell, I'm only dimly aware of myself. So, while I've been following politics just

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-27587417987899223952011-04-05T19:43:00.003-04:002011-04-05T19:52:48.712-04:00

I'm turning today's blog post over Andy Remic, a fellow Solaris author with a truly dizzying array of books. Now, as if being an amazingly prolific writer wasn't enough, he's decided to be a multi-media publisher as well! I'm giving him this blog space to help spread the news:My name's Andy Remic, I'm the author of various SFF/thriller novels like Kell's Legend for Angry Robot Books, and the

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-83095626789909666932011-03-30T09:19:00.008-04:002011-03-30T13:01:32.578-04:00

I'm releasing an anthology of my short fiction very soon to Kindle and Nook, and will be posting several articles about it over the next few weeks over at dragonprophet.blogspot.com, my writing blog. But, I'm placing this essay here on my "politics and religion" blog, since this essay isn't so much about the book as it is about my central understanding of life.One of the great debates of the last

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-76895146693503303132011-03-13T13:11:00.000-04:002011-03-13T13:12:40.614-04:00

I’ve given a lot of advice on how to be a writer over the years, but today I’m going to give my absolute top bit of advice on how not to be a writer. All you need is one single thought, a basic assumption that you build your future on. That single dangerous thought is this: When I’m a writer, I’ll finally have time to write.I used to firmly believe this. When I was in my late twenties and early

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-46681017160730716432011-03-04T12:34:00.003-05:002011-03-04T13:17:30.511-05:00

So, somehow I skipped a whole month without finding anything in politics to rant about. Primarily, this was due to my being distracted by writing. I'll be announcing news soon about a new multi-book deal, the second of which I'm now writing, and it's been difficult to focus on the "real" world when the world of fiction is proving so satisfying.Then, there was also something tiresome about the

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-85129484169106746112011-01-23T18:20:00.002-05:002011-01-23T19:03:39.104-05:00

This weekend, about every third editorial I read was about what can and should be done by government to promote the creation of more jobs. One common theme among the articles was the seeming paradox that corporate profits are improving, but this isn't resulting in a new wave of hiring.At the risk of sounding like a cranky radical (you may judge left wing or right wing), corporate profits are

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-29742373697407845412011-01-10T20:53:00.002-05:002011-01-10T21:37:58.702-05:00

The shooting of Gabriel Giffords has caused me to think about some of my basic assumptions. As a libertarian, I'm relatively pro-gun. I think the Supreme Court has things about right. The second ammendment does plainly guarantee that any citizen should have the right to own a gun, but doesn't prohibit reasonable laws regulating these arms. I firmly believe that 99% of gun owners are honest folks

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-1019948923573519822011-01-07T17:50:00.003-05:002011-02-18T17:57:28.116-05:00

These are the most important truths of writing I've learned to date. At various points in the past, I've posted all these rules in various configurations, but, these are my writing mantras, and the whole point of a mantra is that it's something you repeat:1. The worst novel you put on paper is better than the best novel you have in your head.Suppose you sit down and bang out a manuscript that is,

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-43876408515133857212010-12-18T09:54:00.002-05:002010-12-18T09:57:38.456-05:00

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about an even more fundamental building block of writing, the words themselves. My musings were kicked off by an episode of Radio Lab that basically put forth the premise that what we humans think of as "thinking" is impossible without words. At the risk of oversimplifying a very complicated subject, the argument is that if we don't have words like democracy, God,

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-12510517961427044382010-11-27T17:48:00.002-05:002010-11-27T18:13:06.021-05:00

Unemployment among teenagers is sitting close to 24%. It's easy to shrug this off, since most teens live with their families and their lack of income isn't likely resulting in some great wave of human suffering. Still, it has long term repercussions; the kids who don't wind up working in their teens go into the work force as adults with significant disadvantages. They haven't learned such basic

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-36155414774497465482010-11-25T09:58:00.002-05:002010-11-25T11:44:28.548-05:00

Roughly a decade ago, I stopped celebrating religious holidays like Easter and Christmas. It was really difficult to reconcile the celebration of these things with my professed atheism. Thanksgiving, on the other hand, is a bit more open ended. Despite it's Puritan roots, it's mostly non-sectarian. If you strip away the core supernatural element of giving thanks to an imaginary force for your

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-48739118530618490822010-11-16T20:02:00.001-05:002010-11-16T20:04:37.282-05:00

ReviewThe Exploration of Dangerous Placesby Jonah KnightAt Capclave a few weeks ago, I attended a late night ghost story gathering. A few people told stories, some read, but one guy pulled out a guitar and sang about a haunted house. This was Jonah Knight, performing “Empty House,” and instantly I knew I had to hear more from him. “Empty House” fit right into my typical daily playlist of songs by

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-628901104285618212010-11-06T22:01:00.002-04:002010-11-06T22:23:41.043-04:00

I've said before that I'm essentially a nihilist on the question of whether life has any greater meaning. I reject that there is any non-human power judging us, deciding if we are living correctly or not. From a universal perspective, it makes no difference how you live your life. You can be a nun, a ninja, or a nutcase, but hundred years from now all you'll be is dust.But is the absence of

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-8758544794393751842010-11-05T07:40:00.002-04:002010-11-05T08:53:40.632-04:00

Last Tuesday, I did something extremely unusual for me: I voted republican for my US congressman. Not that it did much good in my district; my current congressman, David Price, is pretty well gerrymandered. If this election season couldn't budge him, he's probably safe until district lines are redrawn a few years from now.Whenever possible I vote libertarian, since I'd rather vote for someone I

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-57885076052647223872010-10-16T09:49:00.002-04:002010-10-16T10:49:28.879-04:00

This week it was announced that there will be no cost of living increase for social security recipients since inflation is essentially flat. Immediately, Obama announced that he was proposing a $250 "stimulus" check for social security recipients.It's easy to assign less than honorable motives to this action. 1. He could be motivated by fear, worried that pissing off the elderly will cost him at

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-27164926158789738962010-10-06T18:02:00.003-04:002010-10-06T18:46:14.655-04:00

With the mid-term elections less than a month away, I'm starting to feel a building sense of doom. Our country is facing genuine problems and I worry that present political trends are only going to make these problems fester.I won't play Nostradamus and predict whether Republicans are going to win the house or senate. I will ask, does it matter? If they do reclaim power, it will be by feeble

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-26998199818114025762010-10-01T11:03:00.002-04:002010-10-01T11:10:52.145-04:00

Joseph Mallozzi has used his blog to spotlight the Masked anthology during September. He passed along a bunch of reader questions to the various authors and today has posted the collected answers in an interview that offers some great insights into both story telling and superheroes. My own contribution includes a confession of a potentially embarrassing recurring fantasy from my teen years. Also

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-25215510391990220752010-09-08T21:30:00.004-04:002010-09-08T21:51:39.283-04:00

So, there's apparently some preacher somewhere in the South who plans to have a Koran burning ceremony on September 11. (I could google his actual name and location, but these details seem unimportant to the point I'm about to make.) His plans have drawn the condemnation of a lot of people, including General Petraeus, who argue that this is going to be offensive to Muslims and unhelpful to

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-62687253397811505282010-08-23T09:04:00.004-04:002010-08-23T10:36:11.930-04:00

Last year, I did a series of posts called Ten Reasons to Believe in God. I dealt with the most frequent arguments I've heard for the existence of God, such as the argument from design, eye-witness testimony, and documentary evidence such as the Bible or Koran. In the end, I remained firmly in the atheist camp, but I hope I gained at least a little insight as to why some people are believers.

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-1965477652174902062010-08-14T17:27:00.003-04:002010-08-14T17:53:20.718-04:00

For a couple of weeks, conservatives have been in outrage mode about plans for a Muslim mosque to be built in New York only a few blocks from the former site of the World Trade Center. Liberals have been the main defenders of the mosque, arguing that religious freedom means freedom even for unpopular religions. I honestly don't see how this argument is going to sway a single conservative. The

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-2021702778852029952010-07-30T17:19:00.002-04:002010-07-30T17:41:28.974-04:00

My thoughts on turning books into movies can be found at fellow fantasy writer Andy Remic's blog, where I've written a post called "Your Book Would Make a Good Movie! (And Why I Know It Wouldn't). While I would be happy to cash any checks Hollywood would care to write me, I tend to have a dim view of the rubberstamp tendency to turn any successful book into a film.In other news, I'm keenly aware

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-33758353649993821012010-07-11T16:30:00.001-04:002010-07-11T16:30:47.740-04:00

I'm down at the beach this week, making a feeble attempt at relaxing. As always happens when I have time off from my day job I have massive writing goals before me. I'm prepping Bitterwood for Kindle, and I've decided to do a full rewrite. I'm not changing the story much, but I am polishing the prose a good bit. I'd like to finish by Friday, which means I'll likely put in a full fourty hour week.

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-85707305538373713902010-06-21T07:52:00.002-04:002010-06-21T09:17:10.237-04:00

Few issues unite American's more than the opposition to gay marriage. Even among Democrats, you normally will find few politicians willing to proclaim the union of two homosexuals a marriage, even if they are open minded about allowing civil unions or some other legal partnership.I admit to having been on the fence. Gay marriage shot to the top of the culture wars after judges in Massachussetts

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-38364315113082722332010-06-10T08:45:00.003-04:002010-06-13T09:52:08.363-04:00

I think it's a relatively undisputed premise that Americans are falling behind in scientific literacy. Most objective measures of how our students rank compared to other countries show declining proficiency relative to other nations. Partially this decline may be due to other nations improving their scientific education. Still, while I know that eye-witness testimony is the worst kind of evidence

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-12115908054467943372010-06-06T18:50:00.003-04:002010-06-06T19:30:42.626-04:00

I just arrived back in Hillsborough from ConCarolinas. I'll write more about the con on my other blog when I have the time, but right now I want to continue making an argument that I took part in during my last panel at the con. The panel in question was on censorship. I was making the deliberately provocative statement that there was no true censorship in America, not compared to the censorship

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-20994582127543027642010-05-28T16:12:00.002-04:002010-05-28T16:21:18.862-04:00

I was recently in a discussion with folks who expressed skepticism that a libertarian could ever be an environmentalist. You need a strong government to defend the environment, was the general gist of their argument.But, any government big enough to save the environment is a government big enough to harm it. BP may have dirtied the gulf, but it took a government to tame the Mississippi to the

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-53442756340897674712010-05-07T20:51:00.004-04:002010-05-07T21:47:32.701-04:00

Yesterday was the 4th anniversary of Laura's death. I had fully intended to post something last night, but two things stopped me. The first and biggest obstacle was that I didn't feel like I had all that much to say. I've experienced several deaths of people close to me this year, namely my father, my best friend, and my grandmother. When my father died, I spent several days in the hospital by

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-82541562600157054182010-04-24T10:27:00.002-04:002010-04-24T11:44:45.234-04:00

First, a little good news. Back when the housing bubble burst and banks tightened up on credit card lending in the fall of 2008, I was one of many people who started worrying about public debt. I don't just mean our federal debt, which I've been worried about for a long time, I mean the debt that we, the public owe to various banks in the forms of loans, credit cards, mortgages, etc. We live in

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-12287521958256226842010-04-08T08:44:00.004-04:002010-04-08T09:21:40.368-04:00

Blood and Devotion is the latest anthology from Fantasist Enterprises, edited by William Horner and Illustrated by Nicole Cardiff. The theme of the anthology is summed up on the FE website: "Brave warriors and devotees to the gods follow the paths their faiths have put before them, and when religious fervor meets skill of arms and magic, kings will fall, armies will collide, and men and women

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-64334667928457018892010-04-08T08:07:00.002-04:002010-04-08T08:43:51.687-04:00

A few comments on political developments this week:1. New Nuke Policy. Obama announced this week that we will not use nukes against any non-nuclear nation, even in self-defense. Right wing talkers immediately denounced this as projecting weakness. But, honestly, can you imagine any scenario where we would ever use nukes if they hadn't been used against us first? The truth is, no actual state is

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-91203497886305243362010-04-04T09:49:00.004-04:002010-04-04T10:18:43.076-04:00

That's me in the hat. I was two years old. The other child is my cousin Tony, age 1, and my grandmother, Ilene Hall Maxey, who would have been 48 at the time. She passed away on Tuesday last week at the age of 92.She lived alone in her own home; she was far too independent ever to move in with one of her children. And, in my memories, it's difficult to untangle memories of my grandmother from

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-43418742712246993862010-03-27T08:13:00.002-04:002010-03-27T08:56:45.122-04:00

So, Obama finally has a health care bill he can sign. I confess, I was certain the whole affair was doomed after Scott Brown was sworn in and Republicans had the power to filibuster again. But, in a truly amazing display of legislative force, Nancy Pelosi found the votes to pass the already passed senate bill. You can complain about backroom deals and legislative tricks all you want, but you have

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-5151464073914586692010-03-16T21:29:00.002-04:002010-03-16T22:34:21.615-04:00

I came home from work today and built a fire in the backyard. Cheryl has one of those little steel fire-bowls. She's had some pretty big limbs in her yard that blew down months ago and there was something in the chill of the wind as I arrived home that made me think, "It's time to stare at some flames."Staring at fire is good for people. At least, it's good for me. I find it almost impossible to

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-62643849513845547942010-03-13T09:35:00.005-05:002010-03-13T10:14:54.946-05:00

Recently in Wake County, a republican majority was elected on a plank of wanting to eliminate the bussing programs that helped ensure diverse student populations. This post will not be about that subject. Instead, it's going to be about a discussion I've been following on a local atheist meetup board where the bussing policy is being hotly debated.Most people probably assume atheists are usually

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-70635295144848531662010-02-26T09:12:00.002-05:002010-02-26T09:27:20.155-05:00

I've been an atheist for all my adult life, and believe strongly that my view of the world is correct and that the understanding of the world of Christians, Hindus, and Wiccan's are fundamentally flawed. But, sometimes when I read the writing and listen to the opinions of my fellow atheists, there seems to be a desire to see religion just go away. It argued by some that tolerance of religion is

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-1743093958714258732010-02-13T11:39:00.002-05:002010-02-13T11:54:32.534-05:00

So, I used to have a "Darwin fish" logo on my car (s). I finally stopped because they kept getting stolen. I suspect it wasn't fellow atheists snatching the symbols, but Christians who were offended by the insult to their faith.And, in fairness, the Darwin Fish has some drawbacks as an atheist symbol. First and foremost, it is a direct parody of a Christian symbol, and I'm not an atheist only of

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-16653377878276396322010-02-07T08:25:00.002-05:002010-02-07T08:55:31.280-05:00

I played around with an iPod touch a few weeks ago. It was an unsatisfying experience. I navigated to a few of my favorite webpages, or tried to, and was constantly thwarted by my inability to hit the letters I wanted on the tiny onscreen keyboard, even in landscape mode.I feel as if most of the fanciest, flashiest technology these days is being targeted toward 10 year old girls, based on the

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-58307762027828482752010-02-03T16:45:00.002-05:002010-02-03T17:18:51.876-05:00

Recently, the Supreme Court threw out about a hundred years worth of restrictions on political speach by corporations and opened the door to unlimited spending on ads by corporations and unions. Obama went out of his way to condemn the ruling during his state of the union, and pundits have generally panned the decision.I, on the other hand, think it's a perfectly good ruling, and should be

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-85966714540395155572010-01-16T08:53:00.004-05:002010-01-16T10:03:02.010-05:00

Anyone who's read my blog knows I'm a godless heathen who never misses an opportunity to make fun of religion. This week, Pat Robertson popped up to provide an easy target with his inane assertion that the Haitian earthquake was God's little smack-down for a pact made the the devil a couple of hundred years ago. There's something of a battered-woman syndrome in comments like this. Presumably,

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-30472857408359183112010-01-06T01:40:00.002-05:002010-01-06T02:23:41.279-05:00

Despite my vow last year to cut back on my news consumption, I fear I'm in deeper than ever, listening to talk radio and NPR non-stop while I'm driving, reading a dozen news sites. The idea that I'm actually learning anything new from all this media consumption is debatable. Instead, I feel even more than ever that the same debates just keep being rehashed, with the left and right moving ever

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-21076294447828817452009-12-30T13:00:00.002-05:002009-12-30T13:09:14.321-05:00

I was invited to speak at Greg's memorial service yesterday. I had originally written about five hundred words to read, avoiding the subject of Greg's atheism. I knew his mother was deeply religious, and didn't want to appear confrontational. But, some of the speakers before me framed Greg's life in religious terms, and I realized that it wouldn't really be Greg's funeral without an argument

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-5193464727346201372009-12-27T13:47:00.003-05:002009-12-27T14:33:30.149-05:00

Back in 2004 I posted an entry called "Entropy and Death," in which Greg played an important role in helping me define my world view when I was thirty, which, at the time, was summed up as, "Things tend to go wrong. Then they get worse. And, eventually, something will kill you."This doesn't sound like the punch line to a funny story, does it? And yet, that was the beauty of my friendship with

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-8313902715077109402009-12-26T12:46:00.003-05:002009-12-27T17:38:35.769-05:00

I just learned that the memorial service will be held Tuesday. 3pm atBurroughs Funeral Home1382 Hwy 65 WestWalnut Cove 27052336 591-4341Since there's not going to be a wake, and since Greg and I have a tradition of almost 25 years of getting together for dinner once a week to talk about politics, I'm going to go to San Luis Mexican Restaurant in Greensboro that evening at 7:00pm for dinner and

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-75251171301872654572009-12-25T21:42:00.002-05:002009-12-25T22:25:22.506-05:00

First, for friends checking in for funeral information, I still don't have any firm dates or times as of Christmas night. I promise I'll post information the second I have it. Driving home in the rain tonight, I mindlessly cruised past the exit I was supposed to take go home; missed it by about ten miles, in fact, before I came out of my memory fog and realized I was pretty far off course. I was

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-88147684685926702862009-12-24T20:06:00.002-05:002009-12-24T20:40:38.558-05:00

My best friend passed away last night. He'd been admitted to the hospital on Sunday after fainting with his pulse and blood pressure at frighteningly low levels. He'd been having a wide variety of health problems for a while, and before this incident there had been discussion that he might require a pacemaker. He finally had the surgury yesterday, and seemed to emerge from it in good shape. Then

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-13429946358482418252009-12-23T09:44:00.003-05:002009-12-24T00:56:34.887-05:00

Last year, before the whole collapse of the housing market, I wrote a column called "Will things get better or worse?" As a science fiction writer, I spend a lot of time trying to figure out where the future is going based on present trends. I filter the world for odd bits of data that serve as omens, both good and bad, seaching for clues as to whether the world twenty years from now is going to

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-3245852779828508322009-12-11T00:14:00.002-05:002009-12-11T00:58:53.806-05:00

So, if you are even moderately paying attention, you've probably heard two bits of news lately:1: There's a conference in Copenhagen where the countries of the world are going to band together to save the world from man made global warming and2: global warming has been exposed as a hoax cobbled together by a conspiracy of scientists, as revealed by the publication of their stolen emails.I'll

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-86654054896640781272009-12-05T09:18:00.003-05:002009-12-05T09:58:20.342-05:00

Several weeks ago, I wrote a post critical of Obama dragging his feet on deciding what to do in Afghanistan. Now that he's made a decision, I'll continue to be critical, since I'd rather we just pack up and come home. Note that I think we should pack up and come home from pretty much everywhere in the world, including Germany, Japan, Korea, Iraq, etc. I fear that we are following the path of the

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-34806872753915348242009-11-22T10:33:00.003-05:002009-11-22T12:19:06.742-05:00

One argument for for God is that, even if he's merely a creation of human imagination, he still serves some useful functions. First, by creating an imaginary parent of all mankind to dish out punishments and rewards, there's an incentive for people to be good. The world is full of personal testimony of people who will tell you they were hard-drinking, wife-beating, mother-robbing, dog-kicking

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-68583454188332534972009-11-18T00:05:00.003-05:002009-11-18T00:56:26.007-05:00

In a perfect world, everyone would be prepared for death. You'd have the funeral arrangements made in advance, the headstone selected and paid for, and the coffin purchased and stored, waiting for the right moment of use. In the real world, even when people have been in declining health for months or years, death still comes as a moment for which the survivors are usually ill prepared. A lot of

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-89607472571117595172009-11-15T09:52:00.005-05:002009-11-16T11:55:19.732-05:00

When Dad passed away earlier this month, I did what I could to help with the expenses by buying the coffin. I had to put it on a credit card, largely due to the fact that I've managed to reach the no longer youthful age of fourty-five pretty much flat broke. On paper, I look okay. With the 401k rebound of the last year and some aggressive debt repayment, plus the equity in my house, I'm nicely in

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-41494629125860333682009-11-08T11:29:00.004-05:002009-11-08T11:56:02.184-05:00

Sidney W. Maxey, Jr.February 20, 1940 - November 7, 2009You were once a presence full of light upon this earth,and I am here to witness to your life and to its worth.--the Mountain Goats My father passed away yesterday a little more than a month after he suffered a severe heart attack. The days that followed were mostly spent in hospitals. There would be promising news one day, discouraging news

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-82944544501045042962009-10-28T09:54:00.002-04:002009-10-28T11:51:25.712-04:00

The big development this week in the health care debate is that it looks like the senate will move ahead with a public option, i.e, a plan via which the federal government will offer medicaid or medicare like insurance to anyone willing to pay the premiums. Presumably, these premiums will be priced well below premiums of private insurers, since the government doesn't need to worry about running a

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-58071028218776112402009-10-23T00:18:00.002-04:002009-10-23T01:08:13.187-04:00

I just got back from Washington, DC, where I stayed with my friend Mr. Cavin and his lovely bride Sunshine. They were courteous hosts for me and Cheryl, and we definitely saw parts of DC with them that we wouldn't have found on our own, like ass-kicking Ethiopian food, a trapeze school, and the Red Bull art exhibit at Union Station. (I think it was Union station... everything is a blur at this

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-22184687769503979512009-10-19T09:05:00.002-04:002009-10-19T09:41:51.359-04:00

After my anti-Obama peace prize rant of two weeks ago, this morning I wake up to discover that Obama is issuing a directive telling federal law officials not to pursue prosecutions of pot-smoking patients in states that have legalized medical marijuana. (Details are here.)This isn't quite the first thing I've agreed on with Obama. I thought he was correct to raise the federal restrictions on

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-7480010870750312332009-10-12T12:12:00.003-04:002009-10-12T13:19:23.595-04:00

This weekend at Capclave, I'll be on a panel discussing Darwin. The panel description reads:Darwin was born 200 years ago. Why are his ideas still controversial? Is the voyage of the Beagle the prototype for sf missions of scientific discovery? Why aren't there more books about Darwinism?It's been a while since I've had a science post, so I'm going to do a little warm up for the panel with a gut

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-38711900259531385592009-10-09T09:38:00.002-04:002009-10-09T11:04:26.052-04:00

I hurt my hand at work yesterday, pulling one of my flexor tendons in my left hand. I was told to try to lay off using the hand until it heals, including no (or very little) typing. Obviously, I was worried about not being able to work on my latest novel, Greatshadow, and I also thought about not being able to blog. How is the world ever going to get by without my banal, scatter-brained ramblings

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-46568837877034967362009-10-05T10:31:00.002-04:002009-10-05T10:34:44.658-04:00

Since the relaunch of Bitterwood.net, the boards have been plagued with adbots. Browsing the board this morning, I was struck this morning with a grim vision of the future. All technology eventually becomes a tool of advertising. My dragon age books assume that we will be able to genehack our way into creating dragons and unicorns and other fancifal beasts for our amusement. This morning, however

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-79731560050752545172009-09-25T12:17:00.003-04:002009-09-25T12:35:49.029-04:00

One thing has been bugging me in all this Acorn video frenzy. (If you don't know what the Acorn videos are, google them.) It's true that, if the workers caught on video should have immediately picked up the phone and called the police once they had the names of two self-confessed child-slavers. There's really no excuse; this is bad behavior.Still, take out the child-sex ring angle, and what you

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-4530821893269801332009-09-20T11:07:00.002-04:002009-09-20T11:39:37.307-04:00

I've discussed this topic before, but after Max Baucus announced his health care reform bill this week, I've found myself once more obsessed with an aspect of lawmaking I don't understand. Why is every bill that now emerges from congress a 1000 page plus monster? The second the Baucus bill was arrived, critics from both the right and left took their knives to it. Everyone could find one

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-39104357557723027242009-09-12T11:01:00.003-04:002009-09-12T12:12:41.259-04:00

In the context of the health care debate, I've been hearing a lot of people assert that access to health care is a fundamental human right. During my years of following politics, I've heard any number of things proposed as rights that aren't specifially spelled out in the US constitution. Among some of the more common ones:A right to work.A right to housing.A right to nutrition.A right to an

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-51806774794861525092009-09-04T22:47:00.003-04:002009-09-04T23:00:04.527-04:00

Frequent visitors to this blog have probably noticed the name Loren Eaton in the comments section. Loren recently invited me to write a guest post at his blog, the poetically named "I Saw Lightning Fall." Apparently, he and his wife were having a new baby, and some how this event was more important to him that writing on his blog! Tsk, tsk.Anyway, I was just informed that the newest Eaton has

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-70113311685704312872009-09-01T10:24:00.002-04:002009-09-01T11:07:15.518-04:00

I'll admit it: Most of my posts focus on gripes and frustrations. Readers of my blog might come away with the impression that I'm kind of a jerk who wanders around looking for things to argue about, complaining ceaselessly about government and corporate stupidity to anyone in earshot. That impression is mostly correct. Today, I'd like to shift gears. There are some human behaviors I take note

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-83569879910396787862009-08-19T23:32:00.002-04:002009-08-20T00:27:25.058-04:00

For the last couple of months, the stock market has climbed almost as fast as it fell around the end of last year. A lot of people were wondering if this was a sign that the recession was over. I've read some predictions that the stock market could get back to its former highs before the end of Obama's first term. I'm not an economist; the fact that I've tried to make money writing fiction

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-64099915080799659722009-08-04T08:29:00.002-04:002009-08-04T09:53:50.012-04:00

I'm more than a little conflicted on the issue of health care reform. Seldom has an issue presented such a contradiction between my philosophical principles and my actual practical needs. Philosophically, I'm a free-market kind of guy. I view most government intervention with a fair amount of skepticism. On my purely libertarian principles, I'm rooting for the failure of the health care bills

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-34494742767255989092009-07-28T10:18:00.002-04:002009-07-28T11:17:25.182-04:00

One reason it hasn't been too dificult to cut back on my news consumption (see my previous post), is that some of my once favorite right-wing news sites have stopped running any news stories at all other than articles calling into question Obama's status as a natural born citizen. Some of my favorite left wing sites are also having problems; sites like "buzzflash" are still running non-stop

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-8492836867778274182009-07-25T09:53:00.002-04:002009-07-25T10:37:43.003-04:00

So, I spent most of the week steering clear of the news, but broke down yesterday and read a newspaper at lunch. I'd been hearing chatter over the arrest of professor Henry Louis Gates in his own home, but yesterday was the first day I'd really stopped to absorb the details. I googled and read the police report to get the facts as clear as possible.Conservatives have predictably come down on

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-9365920602851584072009-07-22T09:19:00.002-04:002009-07-22T10:03:50.755-04:00

Sorry for the lack of updates the last two weeks. I took a vacation and went down to Myrtle Beach and avoided the internet as much as possible. While there, I read a book called "The Black Swan" that deals with what is in some ways an really obvious premise: we can't know the future. However common sense this is, businesses and governments are often blind to it. They make forecasts, because

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-7011908416164548362009-07-06T22:18:00.002-04:002009-07-06T22:33:32.490-04:00

As of July 1, Team Dragon met its fundraising goal of $1000 for the Susan G. Koman Foundation. I've had 33 contributors, a couple of whom already had copies of Dragonseed, so I still have 20 copies left to give away. But, on the fundraising page, it showed my goal had been met 100%, and donations have pretty much stopped since I hit $1000. I just raised the goal to $1500. I have mixed feelings

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-36182765808253783062009-07-03T15:08:00.003-04:002009-07-03T15:20:09.137-04:00

Below is the screen shot of the Amazon home page when I signed in earlier today at a public computer. It's tiny, but if you click on it, you'll be able to see it better. Even small, however, you might notice that the world's premier online bookseller seems to have stopped pushing books. The main page does feature a prominent add for the Kindle, but everything else is electronics, sporting gear,

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-46069521487667992272009-06-28T12:53:00.002-04:002009-06-28T13:25:15.108-04:00

Yesterday, Books for Breasts passed the $1000 mark on funds collected, and I still have about 20 books left to give away! Back in 2004, the Mountain Goats put out an album titled We Shall All be Healed. I suspect they borrowed the phrase from the prayer, "Heal us, Lord, and we shall be healed." I first listened to the album in Laura's bedroom. She was on chemo at the time, and was spending

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-11960006856322108312009-06-22T13:08:00.006-04:002009-06-23T10:11:49.588-04:00

Followers of my blogs, and the readers who read the acknowledgement pages of my books, will know that I lost my partner Laura Herrmann to breast cancer in May 2006. I've been interested in cancer research since then and have privately made contributions to cancer related charities, but I've never put out any sort of appeal on my blogs to solicit for this cause, until now. Last week, I received

James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com8