Space Cadet by Robert A. Heinlein in ebook form from Barnes & Noble: $9.99.

Cost of the very same book when I bought it as a brand-new paperback at a store in 1981: $1.95.

Explain.

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Not long ago I was given a Nook Color as a gift. I love books - I own at least six or seven thousand - and some of them are, alas, starting to show their age. Their spines are cracking and their pages are yellowing.

So getting electronic… Read full post »

Skype is in a war of sorts with Google Voice. And today, I discovered that Skype had taken my system hostage as a prisoner in that war.

I used to be able to use my Google Voice account to call any phone in America for free from my Gmail… Read full post »

There is a simple series of four facts about current US politics  which no one - left or right - seems to be willing to perceive. No, strike that: they do not seem able to perceive it. It seems incredibly obvious but is somehow invisible to virtually everyone. And it… Read full post »

I've been working up a list of all the ways in which the teabagger parties are incredibly ironic.

1. The vast majority of the attendees surely make less than $250,000.00 per year, so they are effectively protesting having their taxes cut - although they almost certainly don't realize that.

2. This des… Read full post »

I don't like writing this sort of thing, and I'm going to try to avoid doing so in the future. It started as a reply to a piece by Glenn Greenwald of Salon on the sudden turn-around by Senate Democrats on the issue of torture. Senators Feinstein and Wyden, fierce advocates… Read full post »

I didn't intend to post on open salon again, but...

 I was essentially driven off of two online forums today. My crime: noting that I couldn't understand how 9/11 justified our new national policy of torture.

 For these remarks, I was roundly excoriated. I had, I was told, brutally and call… Read full post »

This isn't the article that was lost due to glitches in the Open Salon site. That article sang. This one lumbers. But I need to get this off my chest, or it will stick in my craw forever.

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I'm really tired of having to say this. I'm tired of… Read full post »

I was just buzzing along on a post; thought it was really going well. It's a good sign when you find yourself smiling uncontrollably as you write.

 Then I made the mistake of clicking on "Save draft and preview".

The post is gone.

 Why didn't I compose it offline?… Read full post »

The automobile has been an essential part of the American national character for more than seventy years. It's arguably the definitive American characteristic, far more pervasive than pale pretenders such as baseball and apple pie. An America without cars is virtually unimaginable. But now that it/… Read full post »

Open Salon sucks.

I spent an hour or two working on a lengthy article. The interface flaked out on me throughout, inserting and deleting lines and spaces randomly. Then when I clicked on "Save Draft and Preview", the whole post disappeared - forever. I was invited to log in… Read full post »

Open Salon sucks.

I spent an hour or two working on a lengthy article. The interface flaked out on me throughout, inserting and deleting lines and spaces randomly. Then when I clicked on "Save Draft and Preview", the whole post disappeared - forever. I was invited to log in… Read full post »

I just attempted to make my first post on Open Salon, and the result was a complete disappointment.

As I typed, the interface became totally flaky; spaces between words were often deleted for no reason that I could see, and at other times line breaks were inserted without warning./… Read full post »