I Stand Corrected.

 

In my recent post, A Few Thoughts on "Common-sense Gun Reform" I voiced a criticism of so-called "red flag laws". In that post, I wrote "There's no evidence that such a law would have prevented the Uvalde shooter from buying a gun". However, I've come upon an article at Foxnews that says Salvador Ramos harassed users on the YUBO app before the Uvalde shooting.

According to the report:
Social media messages that have reportedly surfaced on the platform Yubo following a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, show the suspected killer made threats toward other users and was casually referred to as the "Yubo school shooter" before the shooting.
Salvador Ramos, 18, harassed people online on social media and made other threats before Tuesday's tragic shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead, Sky News reported.

It would appear that users of the app were aware of Ramos' violent messages, although, of course the average user would not have known his true identity. Perhaps, if users had reported Ramos' messages to the app's administrators and had those administrators reported his online behavior to police, the tragedy might have been prevented.

A Few Thoughts on "Common-sense Gun Reform"

 

After the recent school massacre at a Uvalde, Texas Elementary school, the White House issued a statement that President Biden is not considering 'doing anything' to get rid of the Second Amendment. Biden simply wants "common-sense gun reform".

I've been hearing the call for common-sense gun reform for quite some time, without any real understanding of what the term actually means.

Putting the term into a search engine, I found a few proposals.
Vermont Congressman Peter Welch
New York Congressman Joe Morelle
bradyunited.org
Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

Although there are some differences in the proposals, all seem to agree on

1) "red flag laws"
2) expanded background checks
3) a ban on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

I'm sure these "common-sense gun reforms" will prevent some of the mass shootings plaguing the United States.

The so-called "red flag laws" would work only in those situations where a potential gun owner has exhibited certain types of behavior. There's no evidence that such a law would have prevented the Uvalde shooter from buying a gun. The same would apply to the expanded background check proposal. In this case, the killer passed the required background check in Texas. He had not committed a felony before purchasing the weapons and ammo.

I can't see any problem with the 3rd proposal - the ban on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. I've no objection to people owning weapons to protect home and family, but does anyone really need an assault weapon? I know, some will claim that citizens in the U.S. need military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines to guard against a rogue government, but does anyone believe they can withstand the full force of the U.S. military?

For its worth, IMHO, the first two proposals will prevent some, but not all mass killings. Proposal #3 seems reasonable to me.

UPDATE
Please check my post I Stand Corrected for further thoughts on "red flags".

A Personal Matter - Kenzaburō Ōe

When I wrote a blog post recently on Kenzaburō Ōe's collection of novellas - Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness - I mentioned that I had first read the short story (novella) Aghwee the Sky Monster in the 1980s, and upon reading it I located copies of two of Ōe's novels, A Personal Matter and The Silent Cry . When I wrote that post, I would have sworn that I had read both novels those many years ago.

It seems that I was wrong, at least on having read  A Personal Matter . I was not so far along in this current "reread" when I had to tell myself that no, I've never read this novel before.

I had a memory of the main character (nicknamed Bird) and his obsession with Africa and his horribly deformed newborn son. Obviously, it was a memory of something I had read about the novel.

Bird is not a responsible, stable individual. Months before the birth of the boy, Bird had gone on an alcoholic binge that lasted several days. He is reluctantly sober when the child is born, but his learning of the deformity sends Bird into a cycle of depression and sexual deviancy.

The book is very disturbing and shocking; definitely not for the fainthearted.

I'm not inclined to include spoilers in my book reviews, but I will say that the ending came as a surprise. It's hardly an easy read, but in my view it's worth the effort.

The Autobiograpy of Malcolm X

Before rereading it again this week, it had been over fifty years since I last read The Autobiography of Malcolm X. That was well before Alex Haley became a household name with the publishing of Roots ; I don't recall his name being used as a selling point for the Malcolm X book when I first read it. The edition I have (as mobi) has a lengthy epilogue by Haley. I don't recall the epilogue from my earlier reading, although I do remember other parts of the autobiography reasonably well.

Reading his story, it's certainly understandable that Malcolm Little would become angry at white America at an early age. It is also not surprising that that hatred led him to the Nation of Islam and Elijah Muhammad. Fortunately of Malcom, he left the Nation of Islam and became an orthodox Sunni Muslim. The change in the man, who took the name Malik el-Shabazz, was nothing less than amazing.

Malcolm X had changed following his pilgrimage to Mecca and the Hajj, but sadly, he was assassinated less than one year after his return from Mecca. Most of the video available today of Malcolm X is from before the Hajj, so present day observers of the history of Malcolm X do not see the man he would become.

When I started rereading the autobiography I hadn't realized that today (May 19, 2022) is the 97th anniversary of his birth. While reading the book, I watched a Netfix documentary on Malcolm X and the boxer Muhammad Ali. According to the documentary Ali turned his back on Malcolm when Malcolm X became disillusioned with the Nation of Islam. The documentary goes on to say that in later life after he left the Nation of Islam, Ali regretted his turning away from Malcolm X.

There is also a documentary on Netflix called Who Killed Malcolm X? I've watched one episode of that series. Interesting, but I'm not sure if the entire story will be revealed.

Touch by Claire North

Catherine Webb is a prolific British author; she has published eight young adult novels under her own name, six fantasy novels for adults under the name Kate Griffin, and eight science-fiction novels as Claire North.

It was under her Claire North persona that I first discovered her time travel novel,The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August .

I've just finished reading her second novel under that pen name - Touch .

Touch is the story of ghosts who are able to enter the bodies of human hosts by use of the sense of touch. The ghosts must inhabit these bodies in order to survive, completely taking over the host's consciousness. The human host has no awareness of the possession, and when the ghost moves on, the former host has no memory of the time he/she was possessed.

Critics have described the book as electrifying and mesmerizing. I agree.

As usual, I have no spoilers.

All My Sins Remembered - Joe Haldeman

In March, while reading Sci-Fi novels pertaining to time travel, I read Joe Haldeman's The Accidental Time Machine. This was my first time reading anything written by the veteran science fiction writer, and in my blog post on the novel, I said that I had enjoyed the humor in the beginning, but I was disappointed at how the story had devolved into a "cautionary tale" involving a scientist/atheist time traveler who confronts a Christian theocracy. I found Haldeman's dig against religion unnecessary.

In spite of that, I enjoyed enough of  The Accidental Time Machine to read one of Haldeman's non-time travel Sci-Fi books.

For that, I choose Haldeman's 1977 military science fiction novel, All My Sins Remembered.

In many ways, I found the earlier work to be superior. With one exception, however. 30 years before The Accidental Time Machine, Haldeman had the need to find a way to have his anti-religion dig.

The book tells the story of Otto McGavin, a Prime Operator for the Confederacion who undergoes "immersion therapy & hypnotic personality overlay" when going undercover for the Confederacion's secret service, the TBII.

In many ways, it seems like the novel is a trilogy of short story adventures. I enjoyed the book, although I might have enjoyed it a bit more had Otto McGavin's third mission involved someone other than a wayward Catholic priest.

Madonna Jumps the Shark (again).

On May 5th, the has been, formerly known as Madonna asked, via Twitter, if Pope Francis would grant her audience that she might talk with him about "some important matters".

"Hello @Pontifex Francis —I’m a good Catholic. I Swear! I mean I don’t Swear! Its been a few decades since my last confession. Would it be possible to meet up one day to discuss some important matters ? I’ve been ex communicated 3 times. It doesn’t seem fair. Sincerely Madonna," the singer tweeted.

The Pope did not reply, although a number of priests did.

"Madonna, if your heart needs peace, God has already put in it the first step to recover it. It is never too late to return to Jesus, who loves you. You are his daughter by baptism in the Catholic faith. I pray for you," Father Jorge Enrique Mújica tweeted.
Fr. Matthew P. Schneider said, "I don’t know if the Pope himself can meet with you, but I can find you a priest near where you are to help you. Just DM me if you need help or have questions."
"Hi Madonna. I am a catholic priest. Do you know what ex communication means? Just checking… Praying for you!," said Fr. Guillermo Serra.

A week later - as if in response to Pope Francis ghosting her - Madonna reveals fully nude NFTs — and a shocking 3D model of her vagina.

Reporting on the NFTs (Non-fungible tokens) the headline at dailymail.co.uk reads:

'There's aging gracefully... then there's this': Madonna sparks HORROR with graphic NFT videos that feature digital depictions of her vagina and show her birthing trees and bugs, as critics call 63-year-old 'desperate' and 'creepy'.

You'll have to search for the visuals yourself.

Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness - Kenzaburō Ōe

I first became aware of Kenzaburō Ōe in the 1980s when I purchased a collection of modern short stories translated from Japanese into English. I was especially impressed with Ōe's contribution to the collection - Aghwee the Sky Monster - the story of a young musical composer haunted by the ghost of his dead child. Like Ōe, the composer's child had been born with brain damage. 

Ōe's son Hikari would influence much of his writing.

After reading Aghwee the Sky Monster, those many years ago, I would go on to read two of Ōe's novels - A Personal Matter and The Silent Cry .

I recently discovered a website which allowed me to download several ebooks by Kenzaburō Ōe and one, Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness, was put in the queue for my Kindle. This work is a collection of four novellas (or short stories), one of which is Aghwee the Sky Monster.

Also included in the collection - The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away (the story of a man who lies in a hospital bed waiting to die of a liver cancer that he has probably imagined, wearing a pair of underwater goggles covered with dark cellophane), Prize Stock (the strange relationship between a Japanese boy and a captured black American pilot in a Japanese village), and Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness (yet another father with a mentally defective son).

The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away is the longest story in the collection, taking up nearly 50% of the book. It's a difficult read that I had a hard time getting my head around. I found the last three stories less difficult (and more enjoyable) - finding Aghwee the Sky Monster even better than I remembered.

It's been about 40 years since I last read  A Personal Matter and The Silent Cry, so those two are due for a re-read. Most likely they'll make it into the June reading queue.

The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois

Having read the report on Harvard University and the Legacy of Slavery , I wanted to read the work of a graduate of Harvard who knew firsthand the racism prevalent at the University - W. E. B. Du Bois.

For this, I choose Du Bois' 1903 collection of essays, The Souls of Black Folk . I realize that this particular book is read by students of Black History, but like most white Americans, I was not introduced to this brilliant man and his work while I was in school. I knew his name, but little else.

I'm reminded of a quote of George Santayana often thrown about by folks upset over the removal of Confederate monuments and memorials a few years ago :

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" .

These people would do well to follow their own advice by reading The Souls of Black Folk.

Maigret and the Yellow Dog

I was not familiar with Belgian writer Georges Simenon or his fictional detective Jules Maigret until recently when a Facebook friend posted that he had just finished listening to an audio book of Simenon's Maigret and the Yellow Dog. Of course, I had to do a web search.

I learned that Simenon had published 75 mystery novels and 28 short stories featuring his police commissioner.

I found a copy of Maigret and the Yellow Dog as mobi, and put it to the queue of books to read this month.

Naturally, I couldn't help by mentally compare Maigret with Agatha Christie's Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot. It isn't, however, a fair comparison. I enjoyed the story....enough to download the entire 75 novel collection. Unfortunately, I'm unable to read these mystery novels in the original French, so I'm forced to read English translations. When reading Christie, I'm reading a master of the English language. Simenon's story is top notch, but being a translation, the words don't flow with the same smoothness as in Christie's novels. That's not a criticism of Simenon or his mystery novels......this is my weakness, not his. 

This particular novel is #6 in the Maigret canon. I'll eventually get around to reading #1, Pietr the Latvian but not this month. I've still books by other writers in the queue.

Bellwether by Connie Willis

Anyone familiar with this blog knows that I'm a big fan of Connie Willis. I choose her four part Oxford time travel series as my #1 favorite time travel book.(I had classified the four volumes as one "book").

For the first non-time travel book by Willis, I picked her 1996 novel, Bellwether.  Like her novel To Say Nothing of The Dog , this book is clever, witty and funny in the right places. I highly recommend it.

That being said, I am puzzled by one thing regarding this wonderful book. I don't really understand why it is classified as "Science Fiction". Sure, it's fiction and there are loads of scientists in the book, as well as lots talk of science in general. However, there's no time travel, nor aliens nor space travel as you'd usually associate with Sci-fi.

Still, I can't say enough how much I enjoyed this novel.

The April 2022 Reading List

 

As I mentioned before, after two months of reading strictly time travel novels, I decided that for April, I'd head off in a different direction. I wanted to read non-time travel books by some of the writers who had made my time travel list. For the most part, I've stuck with that.

There are two exceptions, however.

After having read an article at CNN.com on a report of Harvard University's legacy of slavery since it's founding in 1636, I wanted to read the actual report. A link to the report as a pdf is below. The pdf is 134 pages. I'm counting that as a "book". That report led me to the Booker T. Washington "book" - also linked to below. Next month, I will follow up on this theme with something by W.E.B. Du Bois (to be determined later).

I've reviewed 6 of the books (not including the Washington or Harvard works) and links to those reviews are given below as well.

Declare                                         by Tim Powers
Fledgling                                      by Octavia Butler
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater     by Kurt Vonnegut
The War of the Worlds                  by H.G.Wells
The Massacre of Mankind            by Stephen Baxter
The Story of Slavery                      by Booker T. Washington
Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery
Her Fearful Symmetry                  by Audrey Niffenegger