"If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our destiny, then we must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms."
John F. Kennedy
Monday, October 26, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Truthisms
Truthisms, to me, are quotes that just ring true right down to your very core, like this one:
When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.
- P. J. O'Rourke
When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.
- P. J. O'Rourke
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Submitting Short Stories: An Editor's Plea
Please...
...read the submission guidelines. I had to reject a full 1/5th of the stories I slushed today because of submission guidelines violations. It wastes my time and makes you look lazy. I've worked hard to get myself where I am. I expect the same of you.
...avoid using strange formatting, or odd fonts, or variations in the spacing between paragraphs, or... I could go on all day. How your manuscript LOOKS does make a difference in how I FEEL about it. If it looks neat and clean and professional, I'll treat it with a great deal more respect. The vast majority of the stories that end up being published are neat, clean, professional-looking manuscripts. People who care about their writing show it by the care they take preparing their manuscripts. Follow this link to a great article on manuscript formatting:
A Guide to Manuscript Formatting
...proofread your story with your own eyes--or better yet, someone else's. Don't rely on spelling/grammar check software. One or two missed minor errors is not a big deal. It happens to everyone--even the pros. But a lot of errors in your manuscript makes me think you don't take this writing thing as seriously as I expect you to if we're going to pay you for a story.
...don't submit stories told from a cat's POV. (OK, that ones mostly a personal preference. Mostly.) ;-)
Love,
Editor Dakota
...read the submission guidelines. I had to reject a full 1/5th of the stories I slushed today because of submission guidelines violations. It wastes my time and makes you look lazy. I've worked hard to get myself where I am. I expect the same of you.
...avoid using strange formatting, or odd fonts, or variations in the spacing between paragraphs, or... I could go on all day. How your manuscript LOOKS does make a difference in how I FEEL about it. If it looks neat and clean and professional, I'll treat it with a great deal more respect. The vast majority of the stories that end up being published are neat, clean, professional-looking manuscripts. People who care about their writing show it by the care they take preparing their manuscripts. Follow this link to a great article on manuscript formatting:
A Guide to Manuscript Formatting
...proofread your story with your own eyes--or better yet, someone else's. Don't rely on spelling/grammar check software. One or two missed minor errors is not a big deal. It happens to everyone--even the pros. But a lot of errors in your manuscript makes me think you don't take this writing thing as seriously as I expect you to if we're going to pay you for a story.
...don't submit stories told from a cat's POV. (OK, that ones mostly a personal preference. Mostly.) ;-)
Love,
Editor Dakota
Great Quote--Just Wish I Knew Where It Came From
I like good quotes. I have a collection of them. I don't like it much when quotes come to me without credit for who said them. As in days of old, we relegate them to that oft-quoted shadow-figure, Anonymous.
Well, here's another one:
"Obama's Health Care Plan will be written by a committee whose head says he doesn't understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn't read it and whose members will be exempt from it, signed by a president who smokes, funded by a treasury chief who did not pay his taxes, overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that is broke.
What could possibly go wrong?"
Well, here's another one:
"Obama's Health Care Plan will be written by a committee whose head says he doesn't understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn't read it and whose members will be exempt from it, signed by a president who smokes, funded by a treasury chief who did not pay his taxes, overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that is broke.
What could possibly go wrong?"
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Obama's Nobel Unconstitutional?
Article 1 Section 9 of the US Constitution is not overly familiar to most Americans, but it should be.
Here it is:
No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince or foreign State.
Now read this column:
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705337304/Obamas-prize-unconstitutional.html
Here it is:
No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince or foreign State.
Now read this column:
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705337304/Obamas-prize-unconstitutional.html
Friday, October 16, 2009
Health Care Bill? WHAT Health Care Bill?
A quote from Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann (R, Minnesota) said this about the "Health Care Bill" that congress 'voted' on this week:
"...not one word of a law has been written yet and these people took a vote on a bill that hasn't been written. What's worse is the federal government estimated how much this bill would cost. You can't estimate how much it's going to cost if you don't have words on a sheet of paper telling you this is the actual bill language. One word can make all the difference in the bill, and they don't have one word written of an actual legislative language. This is a travesty."
Amen, Congresswoman Bachmann!
Yet another testament to the fact that our government is completely incapable of administering ANYTHING.
"...not one word of a law has been written yet and these people took a vote on a bill that hasn't been written. What's worse is the federal government estimated how much this bill would cost. You can't estimate how much it's going to cost if you don't have words on a sheet of paper telling you this is the actual bill language. One word can make all the difference in the bill, and they don't have one word written of an actual legislative language. This is a travesty."
Amen, Congresswoman Bachmann!
Yet another testament to the fact that our government is completely incapable of administering ANYTHING.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Nobel Should-Have-Been #2
The Smile Foundation.
The Smile Foundation is an organization of medical professionals who donate time and resources to perform facial surgery on children in developing nations who suffer from palate and other cranio-facial deformities.
These children are not only given the gift of being able to do things such as eat and breathe normally, but they are given the gift of social acceptance in societies in which they are often shunned by their peers, viewed as the product of wickedness, hidden away, or abandoned and left to die.
The Smile Foundation is an organization of medical professionals who donate time and resources to perform facial surgery on children in developing nations who suffer from palate and other cranio-facial deformities.
These children are not only given the gift of being able to do things such as eat and breathe normally, but they are given the gift of social acceptance in societies in which they are often shunned by their peers, viewed as the product of wickedness, hidden away, or abandoned and left to die.
Nobel Should-Have-Been #1
The Grameen Foundation.
The Grameen Foundation is an organization that has worked to pull people worldwide out of poverty through low-interest microfinance loans to help them establish small businesses. This program has especially helped women and children in the world's poorest nations.
The Grameen Foundation is an organization that has worked to pull people worldwide out of poverty through low-interest microfinance loans to help them establish small businesses. This program has especially helped women and children in the world's poorest nations.
Obama Wins Nobel? Are You Kidding?
When I think of the Nobel Peace Prize, I think of giving the award to a person who has spent a lifetime achieving, working, molding a world that is better for everyone.
But 9 months? Really? Is 9 months long enough for someone, especially someone in a position similar to President Obama's, sufficient time to prove what kind of person he is, and to accomplish much of anything by way of world peace?
No. It's not.
Astoundingly, I'm not railing against President Obama today. I'm railing against the Nobel committee and lamenting a world apparently bereft of people truly deserving of the prize.
In my eyes, the Nobel committee just lost enough credibility as to make them irrelevant. But I guess they've been without any real credibility for some time--at least since awarding the prize to Yasser Arafat in 1994, and to alarmist hypocrite Al Gore in 2007.
So why, in light of the Nobel's lost grace, do we care?
Because we should. We should care that the most prestigious prize of any sort, the prize that is known by people worldwide, doesn't mean anything anymore. We should care that the world is apparently so bereft of good people doing good things that the Nobel committee decided it was a good idea to award the prize to an untried American president who hasn't had time to accomplish much of anything--I mean, besides tripling the deficit and dividing the nation even further than it was before his election and proving himself to be just another elitist politician in a position of power.
Where are all the good men and women of the world?
I'll have to look around and see if I can find some.
But 9 months? Really? Is 9 months long enough for someone, especially someone in a position similar to President Obama's, sufficient time to prove what kind of person he is, and to accomplish much of anything by way of world peace?
No. It's not.
Astoundingly, I'm not railing against President Obama today. I'm railing against the Nobel committee and lamenting a world apparently bereft of people truly deserving of the prize.
In my eyes, the Nobel committee just lost enough credibility as to make them irrelevant. But I guess they've been without any real credibility for some time--at least since awarding the prize to Yasser Arafat in 1994, and to alarmist hypocrite Al Gore in 2007.
So why, in light of the Nobel's lost grace, do we care?
Because we should. We should care that the most prestigious prize of any sort, the prize that is known by people worldwide, doesn't mean anything anymore. We should care that the world is apparently so bereft of good people doing good things that the Nobel committee decided it was a good idea to award the prize to an untried American president who hasn't had time to accomplish much of anything--I mean, besides tripling the deficit and dividing the nation even further than it was before his election and proving himself to be just another elitist politician in a position of power.
Where are all the good men and women of the world?
I'll have to look around and see if I can find some.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Interesting Quote
Do not blame President Obama, blame the people of America who have so enthusiastically acclaimed and adored him and rejoiced in their loss of freedom and danced in his path and gave him triumphal processions . . . . Blame the people who hail him when he speaks in the Capitol of the 'new, wonderful good society' which shall now be America's, interpreted to mean 'more money, more ease, more security, more living fatly at the expense of the industrious.' Obama was always an ambitious villain, but he is only one man.
Now, read the quote as it originally appeared:
Do not blame Caesar, blame the people of Rome who have so enthusiastically acclaimed and adored him and rejoiced in their loss of freedom and danced in his path and gave him triumphal processions . . . . Blame the people who hail him when he speaks in the Forum of the 'new, wonderful good society' which shall now be Rome's, interpreted to mean 'more money, more ease, more security, more living fatly at the expense of the industrious.' Julius was always an ambitious villain, but he is only one man.
Thank you, Cicero, for showing that truth is truth, no matter how ancient, no matter how modern.
Now, read the quote as it originally appeared:
Do not blame Caesar, blame the people of Rome who have so enthusiastically acclaimed and adored him and rejoiced in their loss of freedom and danced in his path and gave him triumphal processions . . . . Blame the people who hail him when he speaks in the Forum of the 'new, wonderful good society' which shall now be Rome's, interpreted to mean 'more money, more ease, more security, more living fatly at the expense of the industrious.' Julius was always an ambitious villain, but he is only one man.
Thank you, Cicero, for showing that truth is truth, no matter how ancient, no matter how modern.
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