Making a series of announcements can offer an excuse to slip in one extra posting, this month... so....

Here's a special offer for Hugo Award voters (and everybody else)! Baen's UNIVERSE Magazine has now posted my new novella "Shoresteading" online for open-free access to anybody who wants to r… Read full post »

Like anybody sensible, I have reservations about the great big Christmas Tree Stimulus Bill.  Half a dozen GOP senators are doing what the whole party ought to do, pointing out reasonable objections and negotiating about them in good faith.  Partly because there are still a few reasonable&n… Read full post »

...by "that one" Barack...

 Get it?  Rolls off the tongue? Ah well. Having cut back my political screeds to once a month - and maybe twice a month for other matters - let me start February's mensual political flashflood with....

1. THE OTHER “C-WORD”:  In my previous missiv… Read full post »

Even amid my pleasure and relief, that the moment had finally come,  I  felt compelled to examine Barack Obama's Inaugural Address, closely and critically.  If for no other reason, then to see if the new president would telegraph something different and revealing, about his underlying… Read full post »

One benefit of "change" is my fond hope that politics will be less important in coming years, letting folks like you and me relax enough to go back to stimulating the world with great projects and keen ideas! 

But first, let me announce that the series  of "unusual proposals" that… Read full post »

First an announcement that I should be on the History Channel January 7 in a 2 hour special about the end of the dinosaurs.

Many people - both in comments and emails -- have written in to urge me not to stop blogging here.  Thanks very much for the kind words! Still,… Read full post »

Let’s finish this series of “unusual suggestions for America and the Obama Administration.)”  with the one that is simplest and most basic. Something that seems so easy and wise, you really have got to wonder why it hasn’t already been done.  Or at least tried.

Let me… Read full post »

Concluding this series of “unusual suggestions for America and the Obama Administration.)”   I will offer a list of notions that are even more unusual -- some possibly borderline strange -- befitting a guy who earns his living partly from sci fi!  

Then I’ll finish with a f… Read full post »

Amid all the attention given to the presidential election, something politically earth shaking went almost unnoticed, in California, where Proposition 11 imposed neutral redistricting upon the state.  Since this change will be much to the detriment of the majority Democratic party, it amounted t… Read full post »

These suggestions have, more often than not, steered toward pragmatic problem solving and away (mostly) from partisan matters. Frankly, I dislike having to line up with a particular party on all issues and very often seek themes that cut away at unusual angles. (I even once keynoted a Libertarian Par… Read full post »

Following up on the last two unconventional suggestions, with a little deep perspective.  All this talk about dealing with recent crimes and “truth commissions” has got me thinking about the Big Picture Context -- where all this may fit in the epic of human history.  So let&rsqu… Read full post »

Last time, we talked about the need to bring light to the festering skullduggeries that were rife, during the last eight years -- either through official malfeasance or private turpitude that was fostered and enabled by a general atmostmere of lawlessness. Many people are frothing for a time of comeu… Read full post »

It’s time to explore one of many political minefields that lie in front of President Barack Obama, and some of the hardest tradeoffs he must face.

Yes, American national governance may finally be back in the hands of grownups, who (by all appearances, so far) consider power something to be used… Read full post »

These are “unusual suggestions” and everybody else is already talking about health care.  So why would I weigh in?  Three words. Start with kids.

The greatest mistake Hillary Clinton made, way back in 1993 -- the calamitous opening she gave the neocons, who then came roaring into… Read full post »

I’m proud to have lent some modest help to the ScienceDebate2008
 effort, which got both the Barack Obama and John McCain campaigns to answer questions on science and technology policy.  Before making my own science-related recommendations, let me clip a recent statement from the folks… Read full post »

Here is an important way that the Obama Administration might recoup many billions of dollars.  It would also be an ideal topic for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.  Contracting rules may sound boring, but they are a big part of making government work.

 Earlier, I spoke of how, un… Read full post »

We'll take a pause, in honor of the holiday, to offer something a little more poetical -- commemorating one of humanity's great moments, th Christmas Day sojourn of Apollo 8 in orbit around the moon, in 1968.  The following is a book review I wrote -- it appears in my new… Read full post »

Part of a series of “unusual suggestions for America and the Obama Administration.”

If I seemed to lean a little “left” in some of my earlier missives criticizing a worldwide drift toward crony-aristocratism, and then to the right in supporting a repair of the U.S. military, a…

Read full post »

Restoring our military reserves (topic#9) should be only the beginning. If we're serious about preparing for dangerous times, more should be done to deepen the supply of Americans who are ready to help, rather than be helpless, in future crises.

 This principle holds fast to a basic, grassroots… Read full post »

See my cover story on Salon Magazine (online) tonight, about “Is the Internet Helping Us Evolve?” Also see me Tuesday night on "The Universe" on the History Channel!     And now...

=== Save the US Army and National Readiness ===

During the election, both parties had r… Read full post »

The new Congress gathers January 6  in a whirl, hoping to hurry something to President Obama, his first day. Meanwhile, outgoing Treasury Sec Paulson, having blown through the first $350B of  TARP funding, is asking the old Congress to release the second lump.  Congress must not do thi… Read full post »

Last time, we pondered the “4th branch of government,” the Civil Service, and how the Obama team should reach out to the skilled men and women who were so beleaguered during the Bush years. I ended recommending an important post - Inspector General of the United States... or IGUS.  L… Read full post »

Some of the proposals I’ve been offering may be “unusual” - unspoken elsewhere - simply because they seem... well... boring!  Have you heard anyone else raise the plight of the civil servants, for example?  It sounds like a tedious “process issue.”  And ye… Read full post »

Those who brought us the Financial Implosion have set the stage for another, worse calamity.  We must act to prevent a similar disaster in the Real Economy -- that could affect manufacturing, commerce and possibly survival -- exacerbated by a dangerous over-reliance on "just in time."

To be clea… Read full post »

We've heard a lot about the benefits of an international economy that is globalized, fast-paced, information-driven and “flat.”  But there are also worrisome downsides.  For example, when international elites and corporations can shift funds at the speed of light, jet to new loc… Read full post »