Patrick’s Rants

Quartzsite Arizona is a small town during the heat of the summer. During the winter it is a haven for rock hounds, Canadians, and those trying to sell to them. Traveling to Quartzsite involves driving on I-10 until the desert glows silver in front of you. It’s not a mirage, it is the aluminum roofs of tens or even hundreds of thousands RVs parked on every square inch of free government land that surrounds this two traffic light town. The biggest businesses in Quartzsite are the swap meets. Food, beads and gems, and all forms of RV supplies and accessories are the main products.
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As he walked up to the ball field, he noticed two women on their smallish blanket on the ground. The woman to his right was sitting, legs crossed, leaning forward. Her thin white shorts hugged her hips, tugging against the curves of her buttocks. Behind his sunglasses he watched her in that practiced way that a casual onlooker might not notice.
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As the cattle hauling truck pulled past me, I spied this gem:

Hungry? Out of work?
Eat an Environmentalist

Source: Bush to escalate fight over Iraq funds - CNN.com
He has said that Congress has sent their message, now send the money. Like a kid getting broccoli when he wants candy, Bush is throwing a fit. He is going to stand up and say, “sorry troops. Congress passed a spending bill, but it had broccoli in it. They want you to come home. I don’t.”

Now let’s see how good of a job he can do pushing this off on the Dems. They did their jobs.

Cheney is doing his best to not become marginalized in the sunset of his career even as he makes speeches critical of the Dems, saying “[Democrats are trying to push the president into accepting] unwise and inappropriate restrictions on our commanders.” Mr. Cheney, why don’t you say what you really think? The American people are complete and utter drooling idiots who need you to tell us what to do. Oh, I forgot. You, Dubya, Congress. You all work for us. That’s the stone cold truth no matter whose phone calls you tap or financial records you seize.

Even Condi has decided that Cheney should be left out of the loop lately though. She’s trying to get some real things done around the world repairing the “dogs of war” attitude that has been so pervasive in this White House. If that sounds like minor praise for a cabinet member whom I despised for backing the President to a fault - especially during the 9/11 Commission hearings, I have to admit that it is.

Bush needs to buck up. Dems won the last election. The people spoke and they said, “bring ‘em home.” You work for us, and yes we can fire you.

David Plotz poses the question, “What happens when an ignoramus reads the Good Book?” The answer is at slate.com. The thing is this particular ignoramus is a self-described proud Jew. So what happens when he opens the bible to read about Sodom and Gomorrah? He writes this:

“But the chapter’s not over. After the attempted mass gay rape, the father pimping, the urban devastation, uxorious saline murder, it looks like Lot and his daughters are finally safe.”

I dare you to read this without flipping through your own bible to read it with fresh eyes - that is if you ever did read it.

Jenny White brings us The Sultan’s Seal: A Novel. This is a book that must not be put down until finished - otherwise you lose track of what the heck is happening. The novel is not written from the classic “one style” approach. Jenny White jumps from first to third to omniscient viewpoints at the flip of the chapter. I found myself wanting to keep a score card of sorts to keep track of whose perspective I was reading and at which point in time. Ms. White jumps backward in time - writing in the present tense is a slightly jarring experience as dead characters are alive for a page before snapping back into the “current” state.

Set in the late Ottoman Empire at the turn of the 19th Century, it begins with the death of a young European woman. While the magistrate in charge, Kamil Pasha, works to solve the crime, he determines that the death of another European woman some years past might be related. The inability to solve the prior crime forced Kamil’s father out of the same position making this all the more important for Kamil to solve. Many of the characters turn out not to be who they first appear to be.

Ms. White writes about the countryside and scenery in a manner that expects them to become more than the two bit characters they really are. I’m not sure that she’s found her niche, she writes in whispers where whole stories could erupt. Her talent seems to be hiding as demurely as a woman’s face behind the veils of the harems she describes.

As I turned the final pages, I found that I was looking forward to the sequel. In proper literary license Jenny White leaves me thinking that I might know some of the answers, but I am less sure of myself than Kamil Pasha is.