So there has been some discussion about pushing through this new 1200+ page law that no one has read, that will take our already weakened economy and kneecap it with a baseball bat, all in order to stop global warming.

Wow.

Does this actually make sense to any normal person? Does anyone in America who isn’t a complete idiot think this is a good idea? It is just one more power grab mega-tax, and even if you believe in the global warming/climate change stuff, it won’t work because our industry will scale down, and China, India, and Brazil, who couldn’t possibly care less about the environment, will pick up our slack.

So nothing will change in the enviornment, except that maybe Americans won’t consume so much… because we’ll all be too POOR! 

Barack thinks he’s FDR, and sure enough, just like FDR, he’s going to take an economic downturn that should have been over in a few years and make it last a decade. However, Barack is reaching for the stars. He’s making FDR look like a piker. FDR only dreamed of controlling 2/3 of the domestic auto industry, the insurance industry, and the finances. So, if we continue our FDR train to its historical conclusion, then I’m excited to see what kind of epic war Barack gets us into that could have been avoided if only we’d exercised a little preventive maintenance.  (I’m still hoping the Brit’s get a Churchill again, fingers crossed).

I was having a conversation with someone last night who thinks Barack is doing an okay job. I asked how he figured, when you looked at our out of control government spending, that was going to wreck the dollar, and enslave our children to eternal debt. He responded that George Bush was bad too. Okay, a given, but just because the previous guy sucked doesn’t excuse doing the exact same thing only multiplied by four times in one eighth of the time, and then it is okay. So he said what was more important was that Barack gave us Hope, and that the economy doesn’t matter anyway, (and he was totally serious) because something terrible is going to come along and reboot everything, like a plague, or a big meteor, or a nuclear terrorist attack…

So… if I’ve got this right, putting my Finance Manager hat on, your economic exit strategy is to spend your way into a hole, and then to pray for death? Hmmm… That sounds about right. 

And while we’re looking at this 1200 page Boost the Chinese Manufacturing Industry Bill, they’re ramping up for government sponsored health care. Yay.  The only thing the government is even half efficient at is the military, and anybody who’s worked with it knows that things get done there despite the bureacracy and not because of it, so now we’re going to take 1/7th of our economy, and our health, and our very lives, and turn it over to the same douchebags who brought us Polar Bear protection and Bullet Trains from Vegas to Disneyland.   Oh, this is going to go so very well.

At least now all those uppity Canadians who talk about how friggin’ wonderful socialized medicine is, but then come over the border to get surgery here before they die while waiting in a government que, can now just shut the hell up and die like the rest of us.

And no, from the title, I don’t even know how to read music, let alone write it. They just look like a bunch of squiggles that go up and down, and my wife always cringes when I try to sing along with the hymns in church.  I’m talking about the music I listen to as I write.

I always listen to music as I’m writing. I find that it helps me set the mood. The most common playlist sets the mood entitled “Owen punches monster in face”. But anyone who’s read my stuff shouldn’t be surprised that my action sequences are fueled by a constant stream of heavy metal.

Many writers won’t listen to music while they’re working, because they say that the music influences them. That’s cool. Others say that they will, but only music like classical or soundtrack themes that don’t have words. Personally for me, it doesn’t matter, since it is just kind of in the background.

I got to thinking about this subject because my kids bought me $50 of Itunes for my birthday. I purchased the latest Disturbed album (Owen Z. Pitt’s favorite band), the soundtrack from the movie 300, a bunch of Hans Zimmer (including the superb Black Hawk Down soundtrack, Last Samurai, and some from Gladiator).  Some Mogwai (check out the Miami Vice soundtrack for some of the most awesome prog-rock mood setting ever, plus how can you not love somebody with a song called Glasgow Mega Snake?)

There is a scene in MHI:2 that exists because of the Disturbed song Darkness. A major blow is struck, people have died. It is sad, haunting, and it made me want to cry writing it. (and no, I won’t tell you who dies).

I discover that as I write, individual characters will pick up theme songs.  Lorenzo from the Dead Six books has best been described as a self-absorbed, godless, narcissist. He’s a jerk and a scumbag, but he’s trying hard to do what he thinks is best. He has his own peculiar, violent, sense of honor. At some point in time No Such Thing as Nothing by Chris Cornell became his song. When I first heard the lyrics, I realized that it was written for him, and when we make the movie, it is in the closing credits. Though his favorite song is War Pigs by Black Sabbath. No, I didn’t plan it that way either. He’s a classic metal kind of guy. 

Mike’s POV character, Valentine, gets .45 from Shinedown. Song Ling, from the same series (originally a character of Mike’s but we’ve both written her), gets Flower of Carnage from Kill Bill. It goes on and on.  My half of Dead Six runs on vaguely middle-eastern sounding movie soundtracks and classic rock.

I was in a bit of a quandary when I started Grimnoir. I had no music from the 20s and 30s, but my old pal, Pirate Bob, came through for me with his massive music collection. Only I discovered that it is really hard to write to 20s-30s music. I suppose I’m just a child of my time, but I just can’t get into that age, though it did help me better understand the feel of the world. (that and rereading the collected works of Raymond Chandler, another accountant turned writer!) 

So the main character from The Grimnoir Chronicles: Hard Magic gets the theme song of Only the Strong, by Flaw. And once you read him, you’ll understand why.  As decent as I can make myself, in time, we all know, that only the strong survive.  He’s a hard man in a tough time, and he’ll do the right thing, no matter how many bodies he has to stack up in the process.

I find that music can be a valuable tool for a writer. I’ve got about 20 hours of songs that form my core writing list, and those are broken into action scenes, quiet time, contemplation time, romance (which is my weak spot to be sure), and Other.

http://sendables.jibjab.com/originals/hes_barack_obama

My favorite line is the nuts and corn.

I was thinking about this for a moment.

Put yourself in China’s shoes. You are a growing superpower. Your greatest competitor, and reigning champ, America, is acting like a drunken doofus, spending money on crap, and wrecking their economy.  The only spending they’ve cut is military stuff (because remember, stimulas money is to create jobs, just not at Lockheed building F22s).

Meanwhile, since the reigning champ is currently being managed by a complete wimp, you’ve got another country in your neighborhood who is getting really lippy. North Korea is run by a lunatic, and is in such bad shape that its people are eating each other like something from Mad Max, and they’re trying to build a nuke program, just to be dicks.  There is zero chance that the reigning champ will do anything about this, except for having its manager apologize to other random scumbags.

So, part of being the world’s superpower is holding the title of World Cop. You can argue the rightness or wrongness of this philosophy from a Libertarian point of view, but it has been this way since the Perry’s Black Ships sailed into Edo.  You get a lot  of perks by being the one with the Big Stick.

So since America won’t take care of North Korea. I’m making a prediction. I think that China will use North Korea as an excuse to flex their muscle, and show that they’re a superpower too. I can see China stepping in once North Korea does something really crazy, offing Elton John (sorry, Kim Jong Ill, get those two mixed up), overthrowing the government, and then spinning it as if they were just doing their duty to make the world a better place… Look, America has been doing it for a century, but now they’re weak, and we’re strong, so it is our turn to shape the world.

The North Korean people traditionally hate the Chinese. But when you’re starving, and the new scumbags in charge are feeding you better than the old scumbags in charge, I think China would be seen as a liberator.

China gains power, prestige, and gets to spin themselves as the goodguys for once on the world stage.  (no argument that Kim’s got WMDs since he’s already detonated some) America looks weak.  Normally when America takes action against another nation, the usual suspects will come out and condemn us. In this case, none of those usual suspects will condemn the Chinese, because China A. owns their debts. B. sells them all their military hardware. C. is the new rising star, and everyone likes to be on the winning team.

This might sound a little crazy now, but check back with me in a year.