Snott Smelley – Journalist

photog Current Events, Humor

Good evening Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea.  And it goes without saying (although I will say it) good evening too to Ms. America and to all the pronouns that represent the gorgeous mosaic that is America in 2026.

I come to you tonight, not on the Sunday, 8pm 60 Minutes program where I belong but from my “man cave” in the basement of my home.  I have followed various YouTube videos and purchased the hardware and materials to assemble my very own television studio.  I will “upload” this video to YouTube, as the kids say, and get my story out to the world.  You might think that the recent interview with the New York Times would have set the record straight about the outrageous, fascistic and catastrophic events going on at CBS but I sensed that just as at CBS, the New York Times is now also being censored by the Trump administration and I must get the word out before the thought police have a chance to shut down all dissent.

And because I was trained in the Socratic Method in journalism school, I will structure this podcast as an interview between me and myself.  For the sake of clarity, whenever I am asking the questions as the interviewer, I will wear a hat with the letter J on it to show I am the journalist.  And when I am answering the questions, I will wear a hat with the letter S that stands for “source” and also Snott since that is my name.  Here we go.

J – Thank you, intrepid whistleblower for daring to blow the whistle on Donald Trump, The Ellisons and Bari Weiss while they lay waste to a once magnificent journalistic miracle, 60 Minutes.

S – Thank you for acknowledging my bravery and for building this state-of-the-art studio on such short notice.

J – What was the hardest part of speaking truth to power during your harrowing ordeal with those destroyers of free speech and haters of freedom of the press.

S – I would say that the worst of it was not being allowed to document my firing for an upcoming segment of 60 Minutes.  I would say off the top of my head that truth dies in darkness and unless I’m allowed to produce a fourteen-part series that covers every facet of the coup currently being perpetrated against this land of liberty I can’t see the world surviving for more than a few more weeks.

J – Will you make this series available to the American public.

S – I’m glad you asked that question journalist.  At the bottom of this video there will be a post office address.  If you send me a check for $1,400, you will receive a full set of 14 DVDs (or VHS tapes).  Or you can send $200 for each episode separately but that will be less economical.

J – That seems like a very fair price to pay.

S – Yes journalist, because what they will be paying for is freedom.  And who can put a price on freedom.  Although I guess that price is $1,400.

J – Thank you Mr. Whistleblower and good night, America and good luck.

The Green Hills of Earth (1951) by Robert A Heinlein – A Science Fiction Book Discussion

photog Book Reviews, Reviews, Science Fiction / Fantasy, SF&F Book Reviews , , , ,

Well, I’ve been having so much fun with the recent science fiction discussions I thought I’d reminisce about the science fiction stories that had the biggest effect on me when I was first starting out reading science fiction.  And the one that really impressed me the most early on was Heinlein’s short story collection “The Green Hills of Earth.”

I think it was my introduction to his “Future History” stories.  And I remember that reading these stories was different from anything else I had read up to this point.  With the space opera stories even as a child I could sense that there was a lot of handwaving going on to justify all the faster than light travel, humanoid aliens and super-duper energy weapons and shields that somehow translated 19th century naval exploration and warfare into interstellar adventure.

His stories attempted to describe the nuts and bolts of building space stations and lunar colonies based on the best information that existed at the time.  Some of the stories (about Mars and Venus) were highly inaccurate.  But the stories about the Moon are still quite close to what could and maybe will be accomplished.  In that vein I think the story that exemplifies Heinlein’s ability to make believable his picture of a lunar human environment is “Gentlemen, Be Seated!”  And the plot and characters are both so skillfully sketched that disbelief is completely suspended right through to the end.

Now some of the stories aren’t that believable.  “—We Also Walk Dogs” involves a very clever story about a consulting business that accepts the assignment of inventing artificial gravity in order to accommodate aliens from worlds that have both higher and lower gravity than Earth during a conference on Earth.  Basically, they bribe a brilliant physicist to accomplish this “simple” task by stealing a museum artifact that he covets.  As I said, it’s a ridiculous premise but Heinlein portrays the Machiavellian machinations of this seemingly unlimited consulting firm very skillfully and with great gusto.  So that even a story as unbelievable as this one is enjoyed on its own terms.

And that’s the thing with most of these stories.  The writing is so skillful that the reader never feels let down by the quality of the stories.  The characters are interesting and for the most part believable.  The plots are clever and as I said in many cases plausible.  And at the time this was far from typical in the stories that could be found on the science fiction shelf in the library or book store.

Here’s a list of the stories that were in that collection.  See if any are or were favorites of yours.

“Delilah and the Space Rigger” (1949; originally published in Blue Book)

“Space Jockey” (1947; originally published in The Saturday Evening Post)

“The Long Watch” (1949; originally published in The American Legion Magazine)

“Gentlemen, Be Seated!” (1948; originally published in Argosy Magazine)

“The Black Pits of Luna” (1948; originally published in The Saturday Evening Post)

“It’s Great to Be Back!” (1947; originally published in The Saturday Evening Post)

“—We Also Walk Dogs” (1941; originally published in Astounding Science Fiction)

“Ordeal in Space” (1948; originally published in Town & Country)

“The Green Hills of Earth” (1947; originally published in The Saturday Evening Post)

“Logic of Empire” (1941; originally published in Astounding Science Fiction)

Just a Rant for Today

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Today was an insane day.  I was enmeshed in a bureaucratic maelstrom of political deadlines and ideological absurdity.  People were running around in circles getting signatures on petitions and trying to dot the i’s and cross the t’s needed to beat the clock.  And I got gypped out of my day off.  But as Camera Girl would say I was the “better person” (I think).

So, I didn’t have much time to look at the news.  What I saw was more of the same.  Scott Pelley was crying (literally) about Bari Weiss trying to make 60 Minutes slightly less leftist.  Graham Platner was winning the Democratic Maine Senatorial primary while reports of his sub-human antics continue to pour in from all directions.  Donald Trump was booed at an NBA playoff game at Madison Square Garden.  And apparently the California absentee ballot scam is still working effectively six years into the new era so that as long as unlimited time is allowed for fake ballots to be printed up no Republican will ever be elected (or even get past the jungle primary) ever again.  Check, check, check, check.  Yep, full speed forward and steady as she goes.

And based on my personal experience today and what passes for the news of the day, we have entered the after-time where we no longer worry about getting things back to normal.  There is no normal anymore.  We just roll with the punches and when we can’t keep our heads above water, we take a deep breath and hope to fight our way back to the surface before our lungs explode.  All in all, it’s pretty great.

Okay, end of acerbic rant.

Actually, the day ended pretty well.  I had a very nice dinner, watched a fun old movie (American Graffiti) and even sold a few books on Amazon (two paperbacks and a Kindle Unlimited).  But it is undeniable that we have passed into a new era where normalcy is no longer a universal concept in our society.  Strangeness is the new normal.  And we must accept that, to those around us, we are the abnormal ones.

And that’s okay.  In fact, I now embrace my status as an outsider with a definite stigma attached.  It’s a badge of honor and a qualification for a secret society that lurks in the dark corners of the daylight world made up of vapid adherents of the “normal” world of the stupid and the weak.  We can embrace and support the sensible and logical pursuits and actions that have always been there.  There is so much reality that can’t be avoided by the stupid that just using common sense will guide us to how we should navigate around the catastrophic errors of our age.  A good example has been the green energy revolution.  Those who have gone along with the band wagon are now saddled with electric cars they can’t afford to charge and heat pumps that cost too much to heat their homes.  By just doing the math you could have seen that coming.  And that is the template.  Look carefully at the propaganda and avoid the worst of the pitfalls.  And most importantly stay away from the cities where we’re told that crime is at an all time low (despite the daily body count in the news).

Okay, have a good day.