WEIMAR WORLD SERVICE

2022-11-20T12:14:00.000-08:00

My friends know I'm a lifelong follower of science fiction, and being a Gen Xer, that means I enjoyed reading a LOT of Starlog magazine throughout its life.

I return the favor in my new book, volume I of The Starlog Compendium, now available in paperback and Kindle at Amazon.

2022-01-22T13:02:00.003-08:00

Just released! Science Fiction by the Hour: Exploring Televised SF Through Series Episode Guides. My new book is a fun and (I hope) intelligent look at science fiction through the lens of episode guides to a handful of impressive (and one disastrous) SF series.

You can purchase the book at Amazon.

Interview with Science Fiction Author John Scalzi

2020-04-20T16:26:00.001-07:00

I recently had a great time interviewing John Scalzi, the best-selling and award-winning author of the Old Man's War series and, most recently, The Last Emperox.

Join us for our pandemic-era chat about books, Wil Wheaton, Ohio neighbors, and more.

A Contentious Politics Discussion

2017-03-17T15:04:00.000-07:00

When our political roundtable panelists and I took the stage in The Commonwealth Club’s main auditorium, my main sense was one of relief that the day’s warm temperatures had not made the room too hot. But as we got into our discussion of recent political issues, things got heated nonetheless—first with the audience, where some folks apparently thought they were attending a GOP congressman’s town hall—then even between our normally reserved panelists.

You can see the entire program in the video above.

What caused the emotions to run so high and hot? It’s not that anyone said anything particularly outrageous or at all insulting; this was not Milo Yiannopoulos criticizing his cultural enemies. Someone saying, for example, that they don’t think Russia’s a big threat might be something you or I disagree with, but it doesn’t rise to the level of requiring a shouted response. But it happened, more than once, in what is usually a civil and even fun and intelligent discussion of recent politics.

Why did it happen? It’s certainly in the zeitgeist: people are agitated and angry about decisions being made in Washington, and depending on the side of an issue one is on, it leaves many people feeling either empowered or self-righteous or scared or some other feeling, any of which seem to give people permission to take a leave of their usual good manners.

What do you think? Does free speech entail allowing people you disagree with speak? What are the borders to that free speech? And what are the borders to civil back-and-forth?

Carrie Fisher, 1956-2016

2016-12-28T10:11:00.000-08:00

I don't know if today's audiences are aware of just how big of an impact Carrie Fisher's Princess Leia made in 1977.

Yes, she was the beautiful princess in white waiting to be rescued by the men and then — what? She kicks you-know-what, saves the men, has a tongue sharp enough to cut diamond, and turns out to be a leader of the Rebel Alliance. Back in the day, people talked about her character as being revolutionary; she (and Star Wars creator George Lucas) subverted the roles and gender attitudes of the time.

Fisher will always be known for her Star Wars role, but she also made a name for herself as a writer, becoming a best-selling author and script doctor in Hollywood. She became a hero for an entirely different reason when she talked openly about her struggles with bipolar disorder and addiction.

Princess Leia was revolutionary. And the actress who portrayed her was funny, sharp, and pointed.
And I'm scared to think what else can happen in the next four days of this crummy year.

Introducing My New Political Magazine, Zippererstrasse

2016-06-20T13:29:00.001-07:00

One blustery fall day in 1983, the Soviet Union saw fit to shoot down a Korean passenger plane, KAL 007. That created an international crisis, and it was the talk of pretty much every news media organization, including a think weekly political magazine called The New Republic. I remember it well, because the KAL incident was the cover story of the very first issue of TNR that I ever received after a friend of the family gave me — a high school sophomore — a subscription because she knew my interest in politics.

She also got my political persuasion correct. She herself said she used to like TNR, but she had moved leftward and was more of a Progressive magazine person at that point. But TNR had me right from the start. It was waging a smart and feisty battle for the soul of the Democratic Party, arguing with Democrats, Republicans, and even its own editors and writers about the right policies. Hooked, I read TNR like scripture all the way through college.

The TNR of today is not the TNR of then. Sadly, there is a dearth of that feisty liberalism that believes it should be critiquing liberals as well as conservatives, subjecting every idea and claim to cross examination as the only way to ensure we come up with the best ideas, the best policies, the best proposals.

So my latest free digital magazine, the self-referentially named Zippererstrasse, is my experiment to try to revive that brand of liberalism. Please take a look. It's free (though you can of course throw tons of money my way should you be so inclined.)

To My Friends Who Are Bernie Beliebers

2016-02-05T08:37:00.003-08:00

I have many friends who are supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders. I have many other friends who are supporters of Hillary Rodham Clinton—as am I. I have a smaller but still nice set of friends who are supporters of various Republican candidates. The GOP candidates have been for the most part self-parodying, so I won't go into them here. But I have been troubled by the bullying, dream-fulfillment approach of some of the Sanders people. Yesterday, in an exchange on my Facebook page, I wrote the following:

For all the revolutionary talk, consider: the last progressive U.S. president to push through a big-scale change was FDR. He had help from a shattered economy (so lots of scared people) and, most important, huge majorities in the U.S. Congress. Sanders would have neither.

Not only that, he would need to have rock-ribbed support from whatever Democrats are in the U.S. Congress, and he wouldn't have that. He hasn't even been a Democrat, fer cryin' out loud, and those congressmen and -women need to know that the president will be on the stump in their districts supporting them at re-election time, when you can bet there would be an extremely well-funded right-wing reaction that would make the tea party movement look like a bunch of marxists.

Those congresspeople would have to know he would raise a ton of money for them to withstand the withering attacks of the right wing reaction. They would have to know that he would have a national messaging effort that could talk to the entire Democratic coalition and could reach beyond; Sanders has the hard-core left of the party, but hasn't gone beyond that. No, momentum isn't luring adults to his banner.

I understand the thrill of thinking your candidate will lead a revolution that will change all. I wanted John Anderson in 1980 and Gary Hart in 1984. But I also know politics (as does Hillary, but y'all hold that against her), and Bernie has no more chance of (a) becoming president (sorry, the rest of the country isn't Iowa and New Hampshire) or (b) if lightning struck and he somehow got the nomination and his opponent was Ted Cruz or some other whackjob so he was able to win the general election, he wouldn't be able to put his "revolution" into effect.

Other than that, party on, dudes.

But also please understand that most of the vitriol that the Bernie Sanders crowd is throwing at Hillary Clinton is regurgitated lies straight out of the playbook of Karl Rove's GOP machine, and the debunkers are getting tired of debunking the stuff you all were supposed to be paying attention to all these many years.

And, serendipitously, right after I posted the above message, I happened to stumble across this article that illustrates just how unable Sanders will be to do the party support work I discuss above. In it, a longtime Vermont journalist who had many interactions with Sanders, recounts how Sanders got irate when he was asked why he didn't lend support to other progressives.

I asked about his unwillingness to endorse his fellow progressives. He said it wasn't his role. I suggested voters might expect him to weigh in. He disagreed, clearly annoyed at the persistent questioning. Finally I suggested that he had a larger moral responsibility to the progressive movement. At which point he jumped out of his seat, told me to go f*** myself and stormed out of the edit board meeting.

The writer, Mickey Hirten, then goes on to highlight reporting by others about Sanders' inability to reach out and support others. Read the full article and judge for yourself.

So when you hear stories about Hillary Clinton going around and raising money for other down-ticket candidates, think twice about just concluding that she's a political machine beholden to monied interests. She's building the best support in Congress she can get, because she'll need them to stick with her when things get tough. And things always get tough for every president.

If you support Bernie Sanders, good for you. I do not dislike the man, and I do agree that he is highlighting some very important things that are wrong with our country. That does not mean I have to believe he has the best plans for dealing with it, nor does it make me conclude that he has the personal abilities to deal with it.

It'll all come out in the primaries.

Make The New Republic Liberal Again

2016-01-12T08:31:00.000-08:00

So The New Republic is up for sale. Again. The Facebook exec gave up on it, apparently after first the staff and then the readers gave up on it.

My suggestion? Someone buy it and make it a liberal magazine again. And I mean "liberal" in the real sense — a magazine where ideas are debated and argued and investigated.

Current owner Chris Hughes made it into a magazine that all too often was filled with the same leftwing conventional wisdom that comforts the people who already believe it but doesn't do anything to convince those who aren't already believers. Liberalism doesn't exist without vigorous debate; for all the "old" New Republic's failings (diversity certainly one of them), it was a platform for intelligent people to try to come up with the best way to address the country's (and sometimes the world's) problems through the process of thinking, researching, arguing, and reconsidering. The magazine's editorial offices were famous for the sometimes heated arguments.

Liberalism isn't about party lines and trigger warnings and microaggressions and political correctness. Those are for people who don't want to think. Liberalism is about the sloppy workings of a republic; sometimes it isn't pretty, it's often very noisy, but it is the best way we have of sifting out the good ideas from the bad, of exposing the fraud and the lies, and being sure we're as close to truth as possible.

Any buyers out there who still care about such things? Any readers till care about such things?

Science Fiction TV Preview

2015-11-08T14:58:00.000-08:00

Excited about all of the new and resurrected science-fiction TV programs coming out? Read my SF TV preview—learn about some shows you might not have heard about, learn more about some you know about, and wonder why the heck I left out some you already know about.

News Quiz Time! For Friday, September 11, 2015

2015-09-11T09:12:00.002-07:00

My latest Week to Week News Quiz is out! See how much you know about current events.

What Tina Brown Taught Donald Trump

2015-09-04T12:49:00.002-07:00

My theory on the connection between Donald Trump and Tina Brown. Seriously. Let me explain.

Donald Trump currently leads the Republican Party's primary presidential polls. People keep expressing surprise that he can hold that much popularity, despite his sometimes outrageous behavior and his straying from Republican conservative ultra-orthodoxy. But it's not that surprising, if you think about it.

Anyone else here old enough to remember when Tina Brown was editor of The New Yorker? When she took the reins of that legendary beast, some people were aghast—barbarians at the gate and all of that. She then proceeded to make changes to one of the most conservative (in terms of not changing) magazines in the entire country. New layouts, new sections, new types of articles, new contributors, new attitudes, and so on. People were impressed or nonplussed or angered, but the magazine went on. Eventually Tina Brown went on, too, to other jobs and others took the reins at The New Yorker. They were able to continue making changes, and the magazine is the better for it. It's an excellent publication, year after year. What Tina Brown might most be remembered for at the magazine is that she showed you COULD change it without destroying it.

For far too long, far too many GOP politicians at all levels have been terrified about touching certain third rails in the subway of politics. Raise taxes on the rich? Perish the thought. Gay marriage? WWJD! And so on. Trump has broken both of those taboos, plus others, and though many people are outraged or upset or nonplussed, he has shown that it can be done and it's not the Republican political kiss of death. Yes, he was able to do it because he's self-funded, but he has still pointed out that the GOP voter's emperor has no clothes, if you get the point, and I think we'll see other candidates in future years continue to break political taboos.

I'm not a Trump fan. Far from it. (Team Hillary Clinton 2016!!!) But I do find it interesting to watch what Trump is doing to the Republican Party that could be good for the party and the country itself, freeing it from a stifling policy conformism that hasn't been seen since the Comintern disbanded.

Maybe that will counterbalance to some small degree the damage Trump has done with his insulting racial and sexual comments.

Tonight's Hugo Awards Are World Famous

2015-08-22T18:44:00.000-07:00

The Hugo Awards are being given out tonight. And it's a big controversy — one that has the Atlantic, Wall Street Journal, and other non-genre pubs writing about it. See what the controversy is in my latest digital science fiction/science magazine, Galaxis. See page 16.

It's Out! Galaxis #5

2015-08-19T08:47:00.000-07:00

The latest edition of my little digital free magazined devoted to science and science fiction is now out.

It's Galaxis #5, and it's a special science-fiction television preview issue, with a roundup of upcoming genre shows—Foundation, The X-Files, and more. We've also got an interview with author David Gerrold, a portfolio of Mandelbrot art, a report on the Hugos controversy, seasons 2 and 3 of our Star Trek: The Next Generation episode guide, and much more, including our big reviews section.

Much Trumpage and More in Week to Week Political Roundtable

2015-08-03T15:09:00.001-07:00

My recent Week to Week political roundtable at The Commonwealth Club of California, featuring panelists Daniel Borenstein, Josh Richman, and Debra J. Saunders.

Hillary Clinton on Charleston

2015-06-20T18:29:00.005-07:00

The former U.S. secretary of state and current Democratic presidential candidate made these remarks this week:

As a mother, a grandmother, and a human being, my heart is bursting for the people of Charleston.

Once again, bodies are being carried out of a black church. Once again, racist rhetoric has metastasized into racist violence.

This is a history we wanted so desperately to leave behind, but we can’t hide from hard truths about race and justice in America. We have to name them, own them, and ultimately change them.

In America today, blacks are nearly three times as likely as whites to be denied a mortgage. Our schools are more segregated than they were in the 1960s. Black children are 500 percent more likely to die from asthma than white kids -- how can that be true?

We must address these issues as a nation, and we must also address them as individuals. Cruel jokes can’t go unchallenged, offhand comments about not wanting “those people” in the neighborhood can’t be ignored, and news reports about poverty and crime and discrimination can’t just evoke our sympathy -- even empathy -- they must also spur us to action and prompt us to question our own assumptions and privilege.

We have to embrace the humanity of those around us, no matter what they look like, how they worship, or who they love. Most of all, we have to teach our children to embrace that humanity, too.

As all of us reeled from the news in Charleston; a friend of mine shared his reflection on the hearts and values of those men and women at Mother Emanuel: “A dozen people gathered to pray. They’re in their most intimate of communities and a stranger who doesn’t look or dress like them joins in. They don’t judge, they just welcome. During their last hour, nine people of faith welcomed a stranger in prayer and fellowship.”

“I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”

That’s humanity at its best. That’s America at its best. And that’s the spirit we need to nurture in our lives and our families and our communities.

Thank you,

Hillary

C-SPAN2 Discusses Lyle Lahey

2015-03-05T08:37:00.001-08:00

Here's a link to a C-SPAN2 BookTV segment on my stepfather, the late Lyle Lahey.

Go to video on C-SPAN.

VIDEO: Pre-election Political Roundtable

2014-11-26T13:22:00.001-08:00

Featuring a panel of Debra J. Saunders, Josh Richman, and Dr. Tammy Frisby.

Remembering Joe Shattan — and What I Learned About Him from His Office

2014-10-20T15:47:00.000-07:00

The Eisenhower Executive Office Building. (Public domain photo)

Former Dan Quayle and Dick Cheney speechwriter Joe Shattan died this past summer. I'm late in hearing about it (it happened in early June), but I would like to share some memories I have of him.

"What? John, you know a Quayle/Cheney speechwriter?" Yes, in the summer of 1990, I had an internship in the Office of the Vice President of the United States. Of America. It was thanks to the Institute for Educational Affairs (an organization that I think continues today under a different name).

Anyway, I was assigned to work with Zelda Novak (daughter of the "Prince of Darkness" conservative columnist Robert Novak), and I spent the summer doing pretty useless work in appropriate obscurity. But on the other side of my desk (stuffed in a cubby hole) was the office of Joseph Shattan, who was often traveling with the VP and who allowed me to spend my lunch hours in his office when he wasn't there. I never got to know him well or much at all, but I did get a good sense of him during those lunch hours, and you can see why.

I'm from Green Bay, Wisconsin. If you're a Green Bay person and there exists a photo of you with a Packer player, you've got it framed on your walls, and probably in a prominent place. In Washington, D.C., people are the same way about big politicians, and usually their desks and walls are covered with framed photos of them shaking hands with or at least photobombing presidents, vice presidents, senators, governors, and representatives.

But Joe Shattan? In his quiet, neat, book-filled office, he had plenty of photos, but they were of him and his family. Wife. Kids. I saw all those and didn't see the other celebrity-suck-up photos, and thought to myself, "This guy has his priorities right. Good guy."

When I stumbled across the news today that he had passed away (on June 8, 2014, at the young age of 63, felled by cancer), I found a couple things that reminded me of my fondness for this person. First, other people were writing about what a kind and genuine person he was — not something you generally associate with political people, especially conservative political functionaries who spent decades in government.

The other thing was a link to an article Shattan had written in 2009, in which he remembered how much he loved visiting the library in the Old Executive Office Building (a large old building next to the White House where the vice president has his office and staff). Shattan, a writer and clearly a book lover, really enjoyed going to the library, taking in the atmosphere of books and busy librarians and available information in that pre-internet age. Back then, I hadn't known about his joy for that library, but I had also enjoyed escaping to it when my useless tasks allowed. I can still remember that library well, with its beautiful columns and spiral staircases and awesome collections of books. I especially recall the corner where I dug through countless old copies of The New York Review of Books. It was the summer in which I had just discovered John Updike and Philip Roth, so I loved searching for old reviews of their books. The library was the one room in the Old Executive Office Building (now known as the Eisenhower Executive Office Building) that had the same nice vibe as Joe Shattan's office.

I never knew Joe Shattan well, but I apparently knew him well enough to know that this book-loving intellectual whose politics were quite different from what mine became was a good man. I'm very sorry to hear about his passing. R.I.P.

Airbnb Plays Ball

2014-09-29T13:06:00.000-07:00

From the latest Marina Times:

REAL ESTATE INVESTOR
Airbnb goes legit?
Home-sharing service begins collecting mandated hotel tax as city clarifies regulation
BY JOHN ZIPPERER

Short-term residential rental companies such as Airbnb, VRBO, and HomeAway might be the biggest disruption to hit the real estate market since public online listings took away the Realtors’ MLS exclusivity. But recent developments in San Francisco show that both regulators and the new market entrants are learning to work with each other.

David Owen, Airbnb’s regional head of public policy, announced in late September that beginning in October ...

Read the entire article

One of My Cats Is Stupid

2014-09-29T12:58:00.001-07:00

In the latest issue of Marina Times, I explore the social conundrum of the age: sweet but dim kitties.

CATHOUSE
Captain Skycat
BY JOHN ZIPPERER

Marina Times (October 2014) — There are many reasons to doubt the natural intelligence of Ashes, our little tuxedo cat.

How do I know she’s not an Einstein? For the sake of research, I found some online feline I.Q. tests (for example, see catchannel.com/cat-iq-test.aspx). Ashes scored quite poorly, and our other cat scored very highly.

Even without a test, I knew...

Read the entire article

Galaxis 4 ... Is not the Last One

2014-08-31T14:34:00.000-07:00

I've decided not to end my digital science/science fiction magazine Galaxis with the current issue, #4. I'm working up plans to have a fifth issue after all, and this one should appear in digital and in limited print editions.

So while I put the finishing touches on the first Galaxis Reader book and start pulling together the fifth edition of Galaxis magazine, it's a good time to remind everyone that Galaxis #4 is still available for you to read, free, online.

Read the magazine:

Everything I Know about Cats I Learned from Krazy Kat

2014-08-31T14:22:00.002-07:00

Whenever Charlie does something particularly wild or stupid, I tell him he’s a crazy cat. Except in my mind, I’m spelling it “Krazy Kat,” even though I know he and perhaps most of you don’t get the reference.

My late stepfather was a political cartoonist. Like most such artists, he would use characters out of the day’s news to populate his graphic editorial commentary, but he also ...

Read the entire article

From the September 2014 issue of the Marina Times

George Takei Introduces David Boies, Ted Olson, & Gavin Newsom

2014-06-27T12:54:00.001-07:00

Last night, actor/director/activist George Takei gave the introduction to a Commonwealth Club of California program with bipartisan legal team David Boies and Ted Olson; it was moderated by the state's lt. governor, Gavin Newsom.

The sound isn't the best; my apologies, but I recorded it on my phone. And I'm afraid I wasn't quick enough turning it on to catch his opening trademark "Oh, myyyyyyy," which is what the laughter is for at the beginning of this clip.

This program took place on the one-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's decisions overturning DOMA and California's Prop 8.

The $2 Billion News Quiz

2014-05-30T14:02:00.002-07:00

My latest news quiz on Huffington Post San Francisco is up:

Take the quiz

And if you're in the San Francisco Bay Area, join us Monday, June 2, at 6:30 p.m. downtown for a live news quiz and a lively political roundtable (preceded by a lovely social hour with wine and snacks)

Gregory Benford & Larry Niven's Bowl of Heaven

2014-05-25T11:18:00.000-07:00

An hour ago, I finished reading Bowl of Heaven, a 2013 science-fiction collaboration between Larry Niven and Gregory Benford. I am left feeling refreshed — it has been a very long time since I read a hard-science, deep-space SF novel — and stunned. Stunned because the book reads at times as if it went right from the writers' computers to the printer, without going through an editor. I'm sure that isn't true, but how else to explain mistakes that had me wondering if I had missed a couple pages or was losing my mind?

It started early in the book where one character is injured; a metal shard had been embedded in his leg during an accident. He is tended to by a teammate, who removes the shard and applies medication. A few paragraphs later, however, a different teammate is removing the shard and medicating him.

It continued throughout the book. People who are described as being in a room are suddenly in a different room. An alien who is on the bridge of an airship descends a stairway and goes to ... the bridge. People who left a room are suddenly back in the room. The amount of time that has passed since the launch of the humans' spaceship is stated, but then it's given as a different amount of time later.

On and on.

I have read Benford's books before, but I'm surprised to say that I don't believe I have ever read anything by Niven, which is an admission not to my credit. Niven is a science-fiction legend with numerous big books to his credit. But, for whatever reason, I had never read his work. That was part of what made me select this book to read next after I finished reading a couple history books (Anne Applebaum's post-World War II history book Iron Curtain — a book that was stunning in a good way, though telling a very sad tale — and Robert Graves' historical novel Count Belisarius). This was my chance to read Larry Niven.

I actually enjoyed the grand-premise tale of Bowl of Heaven. The characterizations and relationships are a bit out of date (sorry guys, but having interpersonal relationships be key to the characters and their organization but not even mentioning a gay character — and then in the most oblique way — until the book is nearly finished suggests being a bit out of touch), but I'm willing to overlook that. However, I was astounded at the poor editing. It's old news that even big publishers don't do proper editing any more, but these mistakes (repeated incidences, actions described twice — just a few paragraphs apart — but differently, and more) are incredibly unprofessional. If it was a mind-bending game of fluid reality with the readers, that would be something, but of course the story would make use of that. No, that just was not the case. Bowl of Heaven was a normal hard-science SF novel, and publishers Tor did themselves, their authors, and their readers a major disservice — publishing malpractice, really — by releasing a hardcover book with this many major, obvious errors in it.

The writers should have caught some of this in the various drafts they would have proofed. But writers are often focused on making sure other aspects are correct; that is compounded by working with a collaborator. We'll give Niven and Benford a small slice of the blame, but the majority of the blame cake has to be served up to Tor.

The sequel to what apparently is the first of a series has been published. Called Shipstar, it was published by Tor in April 2014. Think they had an editor do a good line-by-line on this one?