It's Getting Harder and Harder not to Admit that Obama's a Success

Elena Kagan. Sonia Sotomayor. Health-care reform. Financial industry regulatory reform. A recovering economy.

One can only listen to the steady drumbeat of the anti-Obama forces for so long before reality slips in despite their best efforts. Barack Obama came into office facing unprecedented challenges – challenges is a nice word; disasters is more accurate. The economy was practically in free-fall. The government's regulatory capabilities had been utterly gutted by the Bush administration and a quarter-century of Reaganism. America was distrusted and in many places loathed around the world. Domestic politics were artificially rigged into an angry culture war that served no good purpose but to deliver votes to the GOP. The U.S. Supreme Court was controlled by the far-Right. Even the president's (and my) baseball team, the White Sox, were suffering ignominy.

Today, many on the Right, and even many in the middle – who like to think of themselves as independent but in this case at least are just parroting what they're told by shallow newsreaders – write off President Obama as a failure. Disingenuously, they point to much of the astroturf noise that they themselves have created as evidence of Obama's unpopularity and his uselessness in the White House.

There have certainly been times when I've wished Obama would move faster or would take down the do-nothing GOP in Congress. But then there are these moments, like today, when I realize something. He's already an historic success.

He's put two respected – albeit not uncontroversial, but who cares? – women on the U.S. Supreme Court. He's had historic legislative wins (with no small help from my own U.S. Representative, a certain Nancy Pelosi) in health care and financial reform. He's had a lot of smaller but still important legislative wins (student loans, for example). He might not be a radical (thank goodness). But he is shaping up to be a successful liberal president.

The Right can hope for a turnaround in this November's elections. I'm sure they'll get significant gains; but if they do it on the campaigns they've been running so far, then those are ill-gotten gains, because they're based on lies. And Obama will still be in the White House. They might be thinking that a strengthened GOP will be something Obama will have to deal with, and won't that be something? But in reality, the GOP will have to deal with President Barack Obama.

And they might as well prepare themselves for the next wave of Obama's agenda: Immigration reform. Don't ask, don't tell. Withdrawal from Iraq. The White Sox in the World Series.

Get used to losing, GOP.

Oh, and his middle name is Hussein.

Discover Magazine Purchased by Kalmbach Publishing

Kalmbach Publishing, located in suburban Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has bought Discover Media, which produces Discover magazine. Discover will become Kalmbach's 17th periodical.

Kalmbach is a respected publisher of "enthusiast" magazines such as Astronomy. It's a great fit; Kalmbach's a good publisher and they should take good care of the magazine, its 700,000+ readers, and the brand. They're not a buy-and-sell type of company.

Discover will remain headquartered in New York, reports Folio:, which will make the staff that works there happier, no doubt, but it'll be a waste of money. Perhaps the location will shift in future years, but for now it probably helps the company retain staff. (Publishers often say they need to be in Manhattan to get visibility among large advertisers and to get media "buzz," but there are plenty of successful publications produced outside of the Big Apple, so we can dispense with those rationalizations for paying sky-high rents.)

Discover was founded in 1980 by Time Inc., and it was then in the vanguard of a new movement of science writing for popular audiences. The articles were written by scientifically literate professional journalists who were able to bring science to mass, non-expert audiences. The magazine has been owned by quite a few companies in the meantime, including the Walt Disney Company and a company that included magazine entrepreneur Bob Guccione Jr (who later flirted with the idea of resurrecting his father's popular science/futurist magazine Omni, but I haven't seen anything on that possibility for years now, so I assume it's not going to happen).

So at least one happy ending in the magazine marketplace these days.

The Starlog Project: Starlog #154, May 1990: The Gremlins Are Back

Anyone remember the Rave Ups song “In My Gremlin”? “Oooweeeeeyoooo-ooo.” Okay, I can’t carry a tune, but you can listen to it on this site, which I found through the difficult task of searching for “in my gremlin” and “song” on Google.

What brings that up? Because Joe Dante’s nasty little gremlins are back in Gremlins 2: The New Batch. I was never a huge fan of either film in this short-lived series, but there was an energy to them that I had to appreciate, and throwing in Christopher Lee for the sequel ups the interest level right there.

Still don't know why they were named after a car, though. I guess Pacers wouldn't have made a good movie title.

Starlog #154
76 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $3.95

Also of note this issue is the first ad for William Shatner’s book Tekwar, the first of what would become a series of novels and eventually a short-lived television series of its own. It’ll even get its own Starlog cover story, but you’ll have to wait a few years for that. Right now, we’re still in 1990, and those pesky gremlins are messin’ things up something awful.

The rundown: Joey the Gremlin is on the cover – okay, I don’t know if he’s really named Joey, but they’ve gotta have names, and Joey’s as good as any other; meanwhile, another vile creature – a teenage mutant ninja turtle – is featured on the contents page. Letters in the Communications section include lots of weepy reaction to Beauty and the Beast’s cancellation, plus some Back to the Future thoughts; and in David McDonnell’s Medialog, we get the latest speculation on the next chapters in the Star Wars saga.

Ian Spelling talks with Beauty and the Beast creator Ron Koslow about the death of his two-year-old series; Bruce Gordon follows up his article in #108, “The Other Marty McFly,” with “The Return of the Other Marty McFly; Daniel Dickholtz previews the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie with an interview with co-star Judith Hoag; novelist Lois McMaster Bujold is interviewed by Bob D. Gibson; Kyle Counts talks with actress Sally Kellerman, who talks about acting in Boris & Natasha, the live-action film adaption of the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons; in the Fan Network pages, Drew Bittner reports on GURPS games; and Will Murray previews Total Recall, the Arnold Schwarzenegger-Paul Verhoeven film based on Philip K. Dick’s short story, “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale.”

David Hutchison’s Videolog column reports on Millennium, Hansel and Gretel, and other new genre releases; Bill Warren checks in with an article on the sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch; Kim Howard Johnson goes behind the scenes of RoboCop 2 and talks with producer Jon Davison, who says, ‘I swore I would not do another RoboCop picture! It’s the last thing I ever wanted to do! And, here I am!”; Peter Bloch-Hansen talks with War of the Worlds' young actress Rachel Blanchard; in one of the stranger-looking articles, Kyle Counts exposes Space Case, complete with lots of photos of giant rabbits in space suits, plus a sidebar on the film’s makeup artist, Rob Burman; and the magazine takes a biiiiig stretch with an article on The Hunt for Red October, John McTiernan’s adaptation of a Tom Clancy techno-thriller, which isn't exactly science fiction, but who's taking notes, right?; in his Bridge column, Kerry O’Quinn shares some lessons from his father’s death; and editor David McDonnell’s Liner Notes column talks about Bruce Gordon’s Mary McFly speculative article.

“When will George Lucas make the next Star Wars film? ... Until now, the ‘official’ answer was the one given by Lucas at the Starlog Salutes Star Wars convention held in May 1987. There, Lucas said that he planned to begin production on the next Star Wars film (Chapter I of the nine-part saga) by the end of the decade. He didn’t, however, specify which decade. ... Now, there’s a new ‘official’ answer. ... Lucas was again asked the inevitable question. And his reply: ‘I haven’t started thinking about the next Star Wars film. ... I probably will in the next five or six years.’”

–David McDonnell, editor, Medialog

To see more issues, click on Starlog Internet Archive Project below or visit The Starlog Project’s permanent home.

Socially Relevant Science Fiction in China: The Prosperous Time: China 2013

I wouldn't want to be author Chen Guanzhong when the Chinese government comes knocking at his door, but for now I think everyone who's interested in China developing into a prosperous and free country would be interested in this article from Foreign Policy.

Writer Xujun Eberlein describes the book The Prosperous Time: China 2013, which is a pretty rough critique of the Chinese communist political system and the people's acquiescence and complicity in the authoritarian system. A rare social science-fiction story in a country where SF tends to shy away from commenting on political matters, The Prosperous Time was first published in Hong Kong and then offered by the offer free of charge to mainland readers.

It's of interest to anyone concerned with Chinese science fiction, which has had a turbulent century or so, notes Eberlein – and it continues to be turbulent, as recent turmoil at its leading SF magazine has shown.

Prop 8 Unconstitutional, Federal Judge Rules

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Handing a rare and overdue victory to gay-rights supporters, U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker struck down California's Proposition 8 referendum, which outlawed same-sex marriage in the state.

Sayeth the judge:

Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples. Because California has no interest in discriminating against gay men and lesbians, and because Proposition 8 prevents California from fulfilling its constitutional obligation to provide marriages on an equal basis, the court concludes that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.

That's just one paragraph of a lengthy ruling, of course.

According to BBC News, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger quickly praised the ruling:

For the hundreds of thousands of Californians in gay and lesbian households who are managing their day-to-day lives, this decision affirms the full legal protections and safeguards I believe everyone deserves, ... At the same time, it provides an opportunity for all to consider our history of leading the way to the future, and our growing reputation of treating all people and their relationships with equal respect and dignity.

That's a particularly welcome endorsement, because Schwarzenegger has waffled on this issue over the years, appearing at different times to be willing to follow whatever the voters decide, rejecting legislation ending marriage discrimination, saying the courts should decide, etc. I think he's got it right now. He's always at his best when he follows his basic fiscal conservative, social liberal inclinations.

All sides of this controversy have known that this ruling isn't the end of the line for the gay marriage fight. Whichever side lost in this round was sure to appeal it further up, and it will not end until it gets to the U.S. Supreme Court (where, unfortunately, the hard-Right has a safe majority). Even before this ruling was issued, the pro-Prop 8 side had filed a request for the judge to keep Prop 8 intect during the appeal.

But at least now the people supporting legalized discrimination know that not all judges are drinking their kool-aid.

If you're in the Bay Area, you have a chance to see David Boies, one half of the bipartisan power-lawyer team that argued the case against Prop 8, tomorrow (Thursday, August 5) in San Francisco.

Prop 8 Court Decision Due This Afternoon

Drumming fingers on desk, waiting for announcement...

New York Mayor Bloomberg Defends Religious Tolerance

In this age of crazy, we need a little more of this:

and less Sarah Palin and Tea Partiers.

China's New Super-Bus. Or, Why Isn't America Building the Future Anymore?

In her landmark science-fiction novel China Mountain Zhang, writer Maureen F. McHugh takes her young hero to China, where he rides a fantastic public bus that assembles and disassembles its separated cars depending on their individual destinations. When they're all together as one, they make up a large, multi-car, double-decker bus, but each car will go soaring off on its own route, or will join up with the rest of the bus as their routes merge.

From my sloppy description, that might be hard to imagine. I heartily recommend McHugh's very good book to you if you want to get her idea in better form. But the key point is that in the book, China has become the leading power in the world, the United States reduced to a near vassal-like status. All of the innovation and energy in the world comes from China.

I think it would be overstating things to say that that's becoming the situation today. But when I heard about proposals for a Chinese super-bus that would coast over other vehicles on the road, I thought, Isn't that the kind of so-crazy-it-might-work futuristic idea that America is supposed to create? Or Germany created before it went kablooey last century?

When I lived in Chicago a decade ago, the city buses were being fitted with technology that would let them prolong a green light if they were approaching an intersection. This was expected to speed up bus service, where buses were averaging something like a mere 13 mph in city traffic.

Now watch the video below for an illustration of the Chinese concept for speeding up urban transportation. The video is in Chinese, but even those of us who don't know Mandarin or Cantonese can still get the gist of the idea from the video. (If the embedded video doesn't work, you can watch it here.)



China Mountain Zhang aside, China's ascendancy to the pinnacle of world power is not likely in the near future, but it is rapidly ascending to the height of economic power. This year it became the number-one user of energy on the planet, outdoing even us profligate energy-wasters in America. Last year it overtook Germany as the world's third-largest economy, and this year it is claiming to have supplanted Japan as the world's second-largest economy, though many people are disputing that claim. (Not a big deal if it's wrong, because it'll be true soon enough.)

I'm not afraid of a wealthy and powerful China. I would prefer it be a democratic and free China, rather than the authoritarian and sometimes brutal China that it is. But it is no longer a Maoist China, thank god, and its rise – along with India's – will help counterbalance the threat of violent extremism in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Also, China is unlikely to supplant America as the world's most influential and powerful nation any time soon. Or possibly any time. China faces incredible internal pressures from economic dislocations, income disparities that surpass an American Republican's wildest dreams, and widespread corrupt officials, and it's surrounded by often pliant but also nervous neighboring nations. No country rises so far without tremendous disruptions. The United States tore itself in two with its civil war.  England went through horrific civil wars and persecutions. France invented modern state terror and marauded across Europe. Germany lost control of its crazies and thereby lost control of its civilization. Japan turned itself over to brutal imperialist leaders who left mass murder in their wake. And the list goes on. I hate to say it, because I'd much rather see eternal peace and freedom and prosperity, but China is just as likely to hit the wall of its internal contradictions at some point. We can only hope it comes out of it freer and more peaceful than it came out of the horrors of the Maoist period.

But until that happens, we've got the possibility of giant buses soaring along Chinese streets. America should be building those, or dreaming those dreams. Instead, we're busy entertaining our populist crazies, we're spending ourselves into long-term oblivion (and no, I don't mean the stimulus spending, that's a different, temporary, and necessary profligacy), and we're fighting wars we should be handling differently.

I want the buses.

The Starlog Project: Starlog #153, April 1990: Quantum Leap into the 1990s

In its early years, every autumn Starlog published a science-fiction television issue, with previews of all of the genre series and specials for the fall season. That tradition died out in the early 1980s, though Starlog would continue occasionally to produce issues with heavy concentrations of TV-related articles and bill the issues as SF-TV specials.

Same with this issue, which is cover-dated April and which therefore came out in March 1990. Not exactly the beginning of the television season. Nonetheless, Starlog #153 features a show that would be iconic for many fans: Quantum Leap, starring a very pre-Star Trek Voyager Scott Bakula as a time-tripping and body-swapping hero.

Starlog #153
76 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $3.95

Odd/intriguing classified ad of the month: “SCREWED BY DWFCA? Join the national club that remembers its members! Send $5.00 to The Friends of Doctor Who, ...”

The rundown: Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell are the Quantum Leap cover boys this month; meanwhile, the contents page image is an SF illustration by artist Darrell K. Sweet. The Communications letters include comics writer Jan Strnad writing about the MPAA and the movie ratings system, a number of readers exploring Trek-analia, and more; and David McDonnell’s Medialog column reports on Disney plans to bring Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars stories to the big screen (and there’s also a photo of sometimes-genre star Sean Connery in the un-science-fiction film The Hunt for Red October, which would get its own article in a future issue, un-science-fiction-ishness and all).

Marc Shapiro interviews Alien Nation star Terri Treas; Kyle Counts profiles actress Lee Meriwether, who talks about acting as Lily Munster in The Munsters Today, as Catwoman in Batman, and as Losira in the Star Trek episode “That Which Survives” (which gets a great photo caption, commenting on her character’s ability to kill with a touch: “Meriwether as Losira from ‘That Which Survives’ will go down in Trek history as the one woman Kirk (William Shatner) didn’t want to be touched by.”); interplanetary correspondent Michael Wolff explores the implications of the Gremlins movies (with illustrations by George Kochell); Peter Bloch-Hansen talks with actress Catherine Disher, who portrays Mana in TV’s War of the Worlds; well, there might be dissension among the Doctor Who fan clubs, if the classified ads are to be believed, but the old shows continue to unspool in the video market, as David Hutchison reports in his Videolog column; and Bill Warren interviews “the man in that wonderful ice cream suit,” Ray Bradbury, who talks about USA Network’s Ray Bradbury Theater.

The Fan Network pages include Lia Pelosi’s compendium of fan organizations; Ian Spelling – who would one day write a syndicated science-fiction news column called High Trek – interviews Quantum Leap star Scott Bakula – who would one day star in Trek; Tom Weaver contributes a Q&A with actress Mala Powers, who discusses her roles in Flight of the Lost Balloon, Doomsday Machine, The Wild Wild West, and more; artist Darrell Sweet (illustrator of many genre book covers) is profiled by Erik A. Venema; Kris Gilpin checks in with actress Bibi Besch, who talks about facing The Wrath of Khan with her clueless ex; R. Erwin Kennedy reports on a stage musical version of Plan 9 from Outer Space, arguably the worst movie ever made; Jimmie Hollifield II talks with actor David Frankham about his career on screen, including Return of the Fly, Master of the World, and more; Desire Gonzales profiles actor Edward Albert (yes, the son of Eddie Albert), who discusses his role in Beauty and the Beast; Kerry O’Quinn’s column, anachronistically called From the Bridge again and not just Bridge, views the collapse of European communism through the lens of science fiction; and David McDonnell’s Liner Notes column explores his theories for why he hates making deadlines.

“I’m the most cinematic writer around – all of my short stories can be shot right off the page. If necessary, I wouldn’t do teleplays for the series, I would hand the directors the short stories and say, ‘Mark it with a red pencil.’ Each paragraph is a shot, and by the way the paragraph reads, you know whether it’s a close-up. ‘He said such-and-such-and-such’; that’s a close-up. ‘They were sitting around the room; they were discussing their problem.’ That’s a long shot, obviously. Then when someone speaks, you move in.”

–Ray Bradbury, author, interviewed by Bill Warren: “At Play in the Business of Metaphors”

To see more issues, click on Starlog Internet Archive Project below or visit The Starlog Project’s permanent home.

The Starlog Project: Starlog #152, March 1990: Indiana Jones and Otto Rahn

Writer Robert Dassanowsky-Harris pens an intriguing cover story this issue, “The Real Indiana Jones,” that seeks to tie the fictional film hero to real-life attempts to find holy relics. Dassanowsky-Harris identifies German Holy Grail seeker Otto Rahn as the Indy prototype. Frankly, I’d prefer that he had focused on the Rahn story, which is odd and compelling in itself, rather than try to link every character and plot development to some real-life or mythical antecedent.

Rahn was a young adventurer and author who got caught up in the romantic quest for the Grail, ended up serving the Nazi regime (which apparently was, as indicated in Raiders of the Lost Ark, really obsessed with finding religious artifacts that allegedly imparted earthly powers). He died a mysterious death, believed either to have been killed in the Nazi death machinery or to have killed himself in a bizarre religious ritual.

Yes, those Nazis were evil and vicious, but definitely not boring.

Starlog #152
76 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $3.95

Photo caption of the month: “Under Hitler’s funding, Otta Rahn may have actually been more of a Belloq than an Indiana Jones. (By the way, there are no photos of the mysterious Rahn.).’” Ah, yes, the innocent days before a Google Images search of “Otto Rahn” turns up many photos of the teutonic adventurer.

Classified ad of the month: “MOTHER TRIBBLE GIVES BIRTH to a litter of three. Send $10.00 + 3.00 s&h, check, or money order to ...”

The rundown: It’s an action-packed issue. Despite the fears of one reader last issue, Harrison Ford’s Indy is back on the cover, but this time in support of an historical article, not a movie preview or interview. (And it's still not the final Ford/Indy cover.) Another Raiders-era Indy photo is featured on the contents page. Communications letters include feedback on recent author interviews, the obligatory Star Trek letters, and more; and David McDonnell’s Medialog tells us that former Starlog staffer (and Future Life editor) Ed Naha is lined up to script Short Circuit 3, plus other news.

Peter Bloch-Hansen interviews handsome actor Adrian Paul, who joins the second season of syndicated TV series War of the Worlds; Desire Gonzales talks with Beauty and the Beast actor Jay Acovone, who starts off with, “When I heard that Linda Hamilton was leaving the show, I panicked! There goes my house!”; David Hutchison’s Videolog tells us about the latest video releases, including the final (well, so far as of 1990) Indiana Jones film, The Last Crusade; Sean Six, who portrays “Buck Francisco,” the “most restless member of an Alien Nation,” is interviewed by Marc Shapiro; the Fan Network pages include Lia Pelosi’s directory of fan clubs and publications; Kyle Counts interviews veteran TV producer Leslie Stevens about The Outer Limits and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century; Edward Gross talks to Star Trek: The Next Generation writer/producer Maurice Hurley, who notes that “Star Trek has absolute rules that cannot be broken, and nobody knows that until they get into it. It’s a problem that all writers have had for the most part”; and Ian Spelling reports on the music of The Little Mermaid, via songwriters Howard Ashman and Alan Menken.

Robert Dassanowsky-Harris’ cover story on “The Real Indiana Jones” is part historical essay, part speculative brainstorming. He spends too much time (in my humble opinion) trying to find echoes in every major character and plot development from past historical incidents or legends, and I think he just over-stretches some of the time. But the parts of the article that cover Otta Rahn are worth the price of admission – and ideally would have been the sole focus of the article. That’s because his life does echo (with darker shades) the high-flying adventuresome character of Indiana Jones, and it’s a nice real-world reminder that adventure and excitement isn’t only in movies; there are real people in the world who climb mountains, or who travel the globe searching for relics, or who go up against tremendous odds. I think every young reader (and not-so-young ones) of Starlog could take away something positive from that message. Just not the Nazism, I hope.

Jami Bernard talks with director Volker Schlondorff (is there a more German name in the universe?) about his latest effort, The Handmaid’s Tale, the adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s feminist tale; Margaret Baroski profiles The New Avengers star Gareth Hunt; T.L. Johns interviews science-fiction writer Melissa Scott (The Kindly Ones, A Choice of Destinies); Bill Warren chats with actor Rex Holman, who appeared both in an episode of the original Star Trek (“Spectre of the Gun”) and in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, plus a sidebar by Mark Phillips checks in with actor Ron Soble, who also appeared in “The Spectre of the Gun”; in part three of his interview with Ray Harryhausen producing partner Charles H. Schneer, Steve Swires reports that Schneer nixed the idea of Arnold Schwarzenegger appearing in Clash of the Titans, thank God; in his Bridge column, Kerry O’Quinn uses his nephew to illustrate a story about overcoming fear of the future; and editor David McDonnell wraps it all up in his Liner Notes column by asking readers to tell him what they’d do if they were Starlog’s editor, plus listing winners of recent book give-aways.

“You know, when I was watching Star Trek: The Motion Picture I kept thinking to myself, ‘My, how the Klingons have changed!’ And during The Wrath of Khan, I kept thinking, ‘My, how the uniforms have changed!’ And during The Search for Spock, I kept thinking, ‘My, how Lt. Saavik has changed!’ And during The Voyage Home, I kept thinking, ‘My, how the production values have changed!’ Now during The Final Frontier, I kept thinking, ‘My, how the actors have changed!’”

–Christopher Haviland, reader, “Communications”

To see more issues, click on Starlog Internet Archive Project below or visit The Starlog Project's permanent home.