C. D. Sutherland

noreply@blogger.com (C.D. Sutherland) — Mon, 28 Jun 2021 19:42:00 +0000

This publication stands as a testimony of the fourth year Narrow Way Press teamed with a group of Louisiana Christian authors, who assembled their collective muse to create an anthology celebrating the short story. The last three years’ anthologies, Celebrating the Short Story, Over the Moon Travel Treasures, and 2020 Vision contributed greatly to advancing the craft of Christian fiction writing in Louisiana. This year, ten published authors have collaborated to produce another masterfully written collection of diverse short stories. These ten adventures will take you to places you have never been.

C.D. Sutherland’s Nowhere Near Heaven transports you to West Virginia during World War II. Once there, you’ll experience young Marion Dunrobin’s challenge to fit in a broken family struggling against poverty and conflict.

Judy Burford’s Step In will plunge you into the hard life in a wagon train with young Jake Johnson’s family, seeking a better life in Oregon.

Wanda Bush’s One Rock will put you behind the eyes of a twelve-year-old boy coming to grips with how to respond to life’s tragedies.

Beverly Flanders’ The Assignment puts you with Brian Jennings, facing his first day as a freshman as a new kid in town.

Next, Donna M. Copeland’s Intentions will place you with Jordie and Bronlynn in their multi-generational lesson on intentions, choices, and consequences.

Carole Lehr Johnson’s Defiant Devotion puts you with Hodge as he responds to the conflicting calls of country, family, and self, all pulling him in different directions.

Susan Hiers Foster’s Tougher puts you in the circumstances of a jail ministry volunteer, learning the depth of her role in the welfare of the people she works with.

Internationally published author Tammy Kirby’s His Grace Forsaken sends you back to the beginning of Viscount Greyson Brennen’s character-building adventure. Discover what molded him into the man you’ve probably read about in her best-selling novel of the same title in her Haven House series.

Marguerite Martin Gray’s A Promise Shared sends you back to before the American Revolution. There you will get a glimpse of sixteen-year-old Tom Engle, a character in her best-selling Revolutionary Faith series, dealing with loss and duty to family and God.

Finally, the talented and prolific author Mary Lou Cheatham uses Rhoda to teleport you back to the first century Promised Land as seen through the eyes of a young girl.

When you return from these experiences, chances are some will have left you wanting for more. If so, then check out that story’s author page in the back of the book. They might have something else you’ll like. We believe you’ll be glad you did.

These world-class authors' stories are available in the eBook edition for free at SmashWords. If you prefer paper pages, the printed edition is available for your purchase at Amazon.

noreply@blogger.com (C.D. Sutherland) — Mon, 28 Jun 2021 19:22:00 +0000

The seven short stories contained in 2020 Vision are as diverse in technique and theme as previous Narrow Way Press anthologies; nevertheless, they are united in the fact that a mention of the eyes is a common element. The publisher invites you to take notice of the techniques used by this cadre of talented Louisiana authors to weave those eyes-related appearances into their stories.

Enjoy these seven adventures as they take you places you've probably never been. C.D. Sutherland examines how a couple of young boys, Sam Strong and his best friend, Nigel Caruthers deal with bullies and personal crisis in I Can See Clearly Now.

Share Savannah's struggles with finances and grief in the aftermath of inheriting her grandmother's estate in Judy Burford's The Trunk.

Experience how an emotionally damaged man named Stephen deals with the loss of his father and the discover of family secrets in Wanda Bush's What to Do, What to Do.

Explore the symbolism and value of memories in Beverly Flanders' Charmed Life adventure of a lost and found heirloom.

Deal with the suspense of Glenys Perkins' concealed past being uncovered in Donna M. Copeland's Secrets.

Come along and experience Katherine and Tammy Stewart's time-traveling, romantic adventure as revealed in Carole Lehr Johnson's A Shift in Time.

Finally, see how the lives of family and friends overlap through the years with Susan Hiers Foster's debut short short And No More Goodbyes.

You can get the eBook edition for free at SmashWords.

The printed edition is available at Amazon.

noreply@blogger.com (C.D. Sutherland) — Mon, 28 Jun 2021 19:00:00 +0000

This children's picture book is about Steve. He cries because he lost something. Can you figure out what he's lost? Can you help him find it? Could Steve help himself by looking for it instead of crying so much?

Malachi Pauly wrote "Crying Steve" as part of his 8th Grade Job Shadow project in 2020. He lives with his grandparents and his twin brother in Louisiana. Over the years, besides being active in his local church, he has won many ribbons in the Special Olympics. He enjoys making up stories and drawing them. He is quite skilled at designing sets in Mine Craft, and he loves going to school.

This short eBook is an easy read and is available at SmashWords, where you may pay any price you think the book is worth--even free if you so choose.

Over the Moon Travel Treasures

noreply@blogger.com (C.D. Sutherland) — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 19:48:00 +0000

This diverse collection of short stories is 2019's best Christian fiction anthology. The eBook is free from many locations such as Barnes & Nobles, iBooks, and Smashwords. A printed edition is available at Amazon.

The seven short stories contained in Over the Moon Travel Treasures are as diverse in technique and theme as one could hope for; nevertheless, they are united in the fact that travel is a common element, along with the appearance of something to do with the Moon in each of them because this book is dedicated to those brave travelers of Apollo 11, who flew to the Moon fifty years ago.

Take notice for the techniques the authors use to weave the Moon appearances into the marvelous short stories.

C. D. Sutherland reveals life-altering events for Samuel Strong in his coming of age experience found in Uncle Chuck’s Fantastic Story.

Share Casey Stewart’s renewal as she deals with the loss of her aunt in Judy Burford’s New Things.

Experience an aging hero’s challenge as Tom Blakewood deals with a gang of opportunists in Wanda Bush’s Hurricane Heist.

Feel the challenges of sisterly love and elder care in Beverly Flanders’ The Scar of Dementia.

Struggle to understand the meaning of chance meetings and wondering of what might have been in Donna M. Copeland’s Unspoken.

Finally, follow along on the interrelated, time-traveling, romantic adventures of Carole Lehr Johnson’s A Rose in Time and Tammy Kirby’s Crowns of Destiny.

Free at Smashwords

Free at Barnes & Noble

Printed Edition available at Amazon

noreply@blogger.com (C.D. Sutherland) — Tue, 29 Jan 2019 18:05:00 +0000

My father's sister, Peggy Elzinia Blossom passed away on Sunday, January 19, 2019, at her residence in Flint, Michigan. She was 78. I find it interesting how 78 doesn't sound old to me, not anymore it doesn't. So forgive me if your perspective is different when I say, "That seems too young to be gone."

My sisters and I have changed roles with our aunts and uncles, who have left us now. Save one, which is Martha, my grandfather's last child, who is at least a decade younger than I am.

A Funeral Service was held for Peggy at 1 PM Wednesday, January 23, 2019, at Allen Funeral Home, 9136 Davison Rd., Davison, Michigan 48423; Pastor David Miller officiated. The burial was in the Thetford Township Cemetery.

Peggy was born in Worth, West Virginia on August 28, 1940, daughter of the late Charles and Katherine (Reed) Sutherland. She married John "Jack" Blossom on May 3, 1962. Peggy is survived by her husband, John, whom I always knew as Jack; a sister, Martha; many nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents and brothers, Charles and Jackie.

Peggy was an outspoken person, who dealt with everyone however she seemed fit. Sometimes that could be difficult for some people. My Uncle Jack always loved her and took great care to make the last months of her life as comfortable as possible. If you feel like praying for this, please remember him. He misses her more than anyone as those 56 years went too quickly for him.

Nobody is perfect, save one, and that is the Lord Jesus, whom she is with now. The roll is being called "up yonder" and I look forward with a solid hope that I'll join the family circle when it is my time. That time will come much later, as I still have many things to do before I'm done. After all, I'm still young.

Goodbye, Peggy. Rest in peace, I'll see you again. Hug your Mom for me.

3rd Annual ACFW Louisiana Writers Workshop

noreply@blogger.com (C.D. Sutherland) — Sun, 27 May 2018 00:33:00 +0000

Are you an aspiring writer? Do you have a story to tell? If you're going to be near the Shreveport/Bossier area the first weekend in June, you should come hear six local authors share their short story writing journey. You can even get started writing your own short story. Bring something to take notes with and bring a sack lunch.

The American Christian Fiction Writers (AFCW) Louisiana hosts an annual workshop in northern Louisiana. This year's theme is Celebrating the Short Story. In preparation for the workshop, a team of six authors collaborated on an anthology using the workshop's theme for a title. The eBook Celebrating the Short Story was published April 21, 2018, and can be downloaded for free at iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and several other sites online. A printed edition can be had from Amazon for $5.99.

The writing styles used in short stories can be somewhat unusual or surprising to its readers, sometimes their writers use literary techniques which might wear a reader down if employed through the length of a novel. Short stories make the perfect fodder to create anthologies. You will discover the seven short stories contained in this Celebrating of the Short Story are as diverse in technique and theme as one could hope for. Nevertheless, they are united in the fact that they are each in and of themselves short stories. Celebrating the Short Story takes you on seven diverse journeys. Go along with Delores Strong to what might be the end of the world in C. D. Sutherland's Roll Call. Experience a special Christmas celebration between a daughter and her mother in Beverly Flander's The Stroke of Christmas. See a widow solve a case of a missing prize rose in Judy Burford's The Theft. Follow a sister's adventure of discovery in Carole Lehr Johnson's Edge of the Sea. Discover how an entire clan was saved to alter history in Tammy Kirk's Saving the McKinnon. See how a young girl's life was changed because someone cared in Eileen K. Copeland's A Christmas Feral. Finally, experience a launch into space in Eileen K. Copeland's A Dream of Snow.

The workshop will discussion ACFW, Christian Fiction, and the nature of the short story. Each of six authors will share their short story journey with attendees. In keeping with the nature of a workshop, the authors will lead attendees in a series of writing exercises designed to help them organize and create a short story of their own.

The workshop is Saturday, June 2, from 9:30AM to 4:30PM at Bossier Parrish Community College, Building F, Room 203.

The event is free, but remember to bring something to take notes with and a sack lunch. You'll be glad you did.

D-I-K-A for Fiction Writers

noreply@blogger.com (C.D. Sutherland) — Thu, 03 May 2018 13:08:00 +0000

On May 1, Barnes & Noble released their monthly plug for the best novels (Skilton, 2018). Six of them have compelling female protagonists taking on the world around them. One is a comedic mystery thriller set in 1664. Another is a bildungsroman set in London shortly after WWII. One is a dystopian-horror satire set in 2018 America, where the country is carved up by special interest groups. Finally, the list ends with a social novel tying the effects of slavery to the segregation and endemic violence of the 1950s. Such an array of subjects, though slanted toward women’s fiction, can leave an aspiring fiction writer wondering what sort of writing on which would be the best to focus. The D-I-K-A model is a useful tool for educating budding authors and for explaining to those interested as to how fiction authors came up with subjects.

D-I-K-A

Clampitt (2018) explains that data (D) is uncensored facts, figures, & details. It is important to keep in mind that a portion of the data will most likely contain errors. After the available data is filtered and focused on relevant data, it is transformed into Information (I). The stakeholders use that information with their knowledge (K), which includes the skill sets and doctrinal expertise to enable them to not only explain but also predict the outcomes of possible actions. The stakeholders use those predictions with communications to come to decisions and manage their behavior, which is called action (A). Throughout the entire process, feedback is continuous, and under some circumstances, the stakeholder will need to reset the process to stay on the desired path.

Fiction Writers and D-I-K-A

Data: Fiction writers live, read, and learn. They have the option of using not merely their own experiences and imaginations to create a story, but also every piece of data in every library in the world, the entirety of the internet, and any timeline that ever existed in the past or might exist in the future. There are no limits to fiction; however, that much data is obviously too much for a single book.

Information: Fiction writers have to limit the data available to them. Using focused research, they select specific data to populate the story elements for characters, setting, plot, conflict, and resolution. Paula McLain selected the data specific to Martha Gellhorn, Hemingway’s third wife, to tell her story of a journalist and a novelist set during the Spanish Civil War. She takes established historical events, couples them with what is know about the two lovers, and fills in the gaps with her imagination. Contrast that against Chuck Palahniuk’s dystopian satire of the end of the United States. Using the energy of modern political discourse, he imagines special interest groups setting up independent countries where those in charge persecute via the power of the state, that is the barrel of a gun, anyone who does not agree with their particular flavor of intolerance. While fiction has no limits, a single book must have a focus to succeed.

Knowledge: Authors create, muse, and organize potential books by synthesizing theme, a point of view (POV), style, and tone with the approved information. Kevin Powers, a retired army veteran, who has established himself as a respected writer of military stories, uses that skill with a backdrop of the Civil War and the effects of slavery on life a hundred years later. It takes some time to develop adequate skills in those areas, but without them, fiction authors will not succeed.

Action: Eventually the writer has to write. After making decisions about story structure the task that remains is to write, hopefully, the next best-selling novel.

Feedback: At any step, a writer might discover they have strayed from a successful path. We do not have the untold stories of the ten authors selected by Barnes & Noble as the best 10 of 2018, but it is entirely possible they had to refocus and restart their paths. Since anything is possible with fiction, a viable focus of the potentially best novel of 2019 might be to tell that story for them.

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Summary

The D-K-I-A model is used throughout the business world, but this paper has explained that it works for fiction writers, too. The reason for that is writing fiction is a business. Unless the books stay forever under the writer’s bed, or hidden in the closet, or stored in perpetuity on a thumb drive hidden in a dusty drawer, good fiction stories are destined to be published.

References

Clampitt, P. G. (2017). Communicating for managerial effectiveness, 6^thed. Thousand Oak, CA: Sage Publication, Inc.

Skilton, S. (May 1, 2018). May’s Best Novels New Fiction. Barnes & Noble Reads.Retrieved from https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/mays-best-new-fiction-2018/

Read 2018's Best Free Christian Fiction Anthology

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

noreply@blogger.com (C.D. Sutherland) — Fri, 23 Mar 2018 12:55:00 +0000

Does GDPR Impact Long-Term Strategies of Organizations in the EU Market?

by: C. D. Sutherland

Abstract

The safeguarding of personal data has made a significant course correction. Any organization that handles personal data of EU residents must comply with a series of six, new individual rights or face draconian fines of up to 20 million Euros or more. Those new rights were written in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), effective summer of 2018. While similar to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) Privacy Rule and the GDPR, there are enough differences to create serious conflict. This paper focused on developments in personal privacy over the last two decades, the rights of data subjects, solutions for compliance, and possible outcomes. Voigt & Bussche (2017) provided a virtual handbook of compliance techniques in their guide on the GDPR. As the EU courts and Big Data will no doubt clash over the details of compliance, the struggle will be to change not only the long-term strategies of the EU in dealing with data security but also of the rest of the world (Zarsky, 2010). While most authors referenced in this paper believe the GDPR forced massive changes on organizations, some believe it did not go far enough, arguing that unless individuals have access to the automated or AI decision-making events, individual privacy has not been achieved (Mittal, 2017). The potential for pseudonymization to become the workaround solution of much of the GDPR requirements has yet to be determined (Goddard, 2017). Likewise, conflicts of interests between the EU and state-owned and large revenue companies are yet to be played out.

Keywords: GDPR, Big Data, rights, compliance, non-compliance, pseudonymization

--------------------------------------------------

This paper began with a discussion of the changes that the GDPR requires of organizations operating in the EU market. Analysis of relevant literature was discussed, and recommendations and observations were made for adapting data handling processes for organizations to become compliant with GDPR. Such adaptation will impact long-term strategies of any organizations functioning in the EU market.

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Introduction

Organizations doing business in the EU market will be forced to either comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) beginning May 25, 2018 or face draconian fines. The GDPR’s two-year phase-in period is ending and has already replaced the obsolete 1995 Data Protection Directive (DPR) along with multiple regional regulations within the EU market. The GDPR provisions were designed to protect individual rights, and they conflict with standard practices used by Big Data. Noncompliance will be dealt with harshly. Organizations that violate GDPR face potential fines up to 20 million Euros or 4% of worldwide revenues, whichever is more.

Literature Review

Since the 1995 Data Protection Directive (DPR) was enacted, technology changed and will most likely continue to increase data processing capabilities. To compensate for the changing environment, EU member states introduced regional requirements. In the process, data legislation became fragmented across the EU, creating a legal minefield for regional interpretations of data protection (Tankard, 2016). For example, France was relatively lenient with little consequence for organizations that violated requirements, while Spain dealt harshly with those that failed to follow their rules. The GDPR will provide uniform, broad-reaching data protection rules for the entire EU. Penalties for non-compliance are not only uniform but also costly, up to 20 million euros or 4% of the organization’s worldwide revenues, whichever is more. Compliance with the GDPR will be time consuming and expensive. Organizations will need to adjust their short and long-term data processing structures and processes (Voigt & Bussche, 2017).

Personal Data Privacy History

The EU and the US use different approaches to personal data protection and data privacy. Americans consider privacy as a property right whereas, in the EU, it is a fundamental right, which must be provided by the government (Ciriani, 2015). In 1995, the EU adopted the Data Protection Directive (DPR) to harmonize the protection of fundamental rights of the individual concerning data processing activities and ensure the free flow of data among EU member states. Since the DPR was enacted, technology changed. Data legislation became fragmented across the EU, creating a legal minefield for regional interpretations of data protection (Tankard, 2016). As technology enabled new capabilities, the age of Big Data emerged, and the handling of data was monetized.

Big Data refers to the practice of creating and analyzing vast datasets, which indirectly involves myriad individuals. Much of Big Data's capabilities matured after the GDPR was initially discussed then drafted. During that period, Big Data voiced their concerns about the technologies that were emerging, but such arguments were received more like science fiction rather than fact. Since then, Big Data's new capabilities have become manifest and provide considerable advantages to businesses everywhere. GDPR will undermine the ability to exercise data analysis, and at the same time, Big Data technologies undermine some of the measures and distinctions of GDPR (Zarsky, 2017). The GDPR will hold controllers and regulators responsible for unfair or discriminatory data practices (Buttarelli, 2017).

Rights of Data Subjects

The GDPR requires organizations to increase their data protection efforts to comply with the data subject’s rights. These rights are mentioned in detail in the 99 articles of the GDPR and include the right to access, the right to erasure, rectification and restriction, the right to be forgotten, the right to restriction of processing, the right to data portability, and the right to object (Voigt & Bussche, 2017).

The law covers the personal data of all EU residents, regardless of the location of that processing. The information protected includes personal data that can directly or indirectly identify an individual. Online data that identifies such things as IP addresses, cookies, location data, and more are affected by wider regulation than US privacy laws (Goddard, 2017).

The right to portability gives individuals the right to have a copy of the data a controller has of them. In the UK, individuals already have some data portability rights. Though resisted by many companies, mostly because machine-readable formats hardly existed when requirements were enacted. Since then, energy companies and banks have taken the effort to produce files. Companies naturally resist providing data on their customers. Their data makes up a large portion of their competitive advance (Mitchell, 2017). GDPR allows data, subject to change for the service providers, and grants more economic flexibility for consumers to move, copy, or transmit personal data from one IT environment to another. While it empowers consumers, depending on the scope of the applications, it could also put business secrets and practices of controls at risk (Voigt & Bussche, 2017).

As much as the GDPR appears to favor the individual over the data controllers, not everyone agrees the rights will be sufficiently protected. Technology has enabled the movement of data across geographical barriers, along with it the capability to outsource data processing jobs to countries outside the EU. Some of the provisions of GDPR remain generically similar to the outdated Data Protection Directive; however, GDPR has incorporated some new provisions. Even though GDPR’s ‘right to be forgotten, legitimizing the role of consent, providing data protection by design and default, increasing accountability of data controllers and expanding the scope of provision of the directive to extraterritorial jurisdiction, it remains to be seen whether GDPR is nothing more than an old wine with the new label or something else in a wine bottle (Mittal, 2017).

According to Mittal, organizations still have enough room to violate the fundamental right of privacy by EU citizens. One area of concern is “the missing right to explanation” wherein an automatic or artificial intelligence algorithm will be legally mandated. When that happens, the individual is not guaranteed transparent and accurate decision-making, and there is no legally binding right to explanation in the GDPR. Because new capabilities are emerging, the details of how data will be exploited are not fully known to data controllers. Providing the algorithms that drive automated decisions to individuals would have little utility, except to minimize one controller’s competitive advantage over another.

Databases have so much information, which can be processed quickly. The output of that processing can provide analysis that was not even considered when the data was initially collected. The technology performs data-crunching when human operators do not know where to start (Zarsky, 2017).

One of the new elements in the GDPR is its call to establish data protection certification mechanisms, data protection seals and marks to help enhance transparency and compliance with the Regulation, and allow data subjects to quickly assess the level of data protection of relevant products and services. To this effect, it is necessary to review privacy and data protection seals from a new beginning so as to determine how data protection certification mechanisms, seals or marks might work given the role they will be called to play, particularly in Europe, in facilitating data protection (Rodrigues, Barnard-Wills, De Hert, & Papakonstantinou, 2016).

HIPPA Privacy Rule versus GDPR

Despite the different approaches between the US and the EU, some similarities exist between the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) Privacy Rule and the GDPR. At the same time, there are enough differences to create serious conflict. The US federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the EU are similar concerning maintaining the confidentiality and privacy of personal data and protected health information. The major differences between the two practices ranged from the narrow focus on the health industry with the HHS and the broad scope of the EU on data controllers. The HIPAA Privacy Rule is more detailed and directive in nature than the GDPR; however, the GDPR has greater regulatory inflexibility with regards to the ease of consent withdrawal, including the concepts of authorization and consent, the rights of amendment and rectification and the right to erasure (Tovino, 2017).

US Federal and state health laws require retention of medical, billing, compliance, and other records for at least five years, if not longer. Without such records, how could adverse drug reactions, allergic reactions, and other injuries be referenced? Without records, how could preexisting health conditions be known? Records are essential for dealing with fraud and abuse, detecting privacy violations, and to detect problematic prescription patterns. The contrast between data erasure provisions in HIPPA and GDPR make the two incompatible; this is an opportunity for global partnerships to work out the enabling compromises (Buttarelli, 2017).

Solution for Compliance

GDPR is already a regulation, which was developed to mitigate the disparity of regional issues associated with the limitations of DPR. Member nations of the EU will add volumes to the 99 articles of this broad-reaching, transnational regulation. To avoid impending fines, companies should reorganize their internal data protection procedures to accommodate the GDPR. Ten steps are recommended (Voigt & Bussche, 2017).

Controllers and processes need records of processing activities to prove compliance. Such records must be thoroughly maintained, providing proof of compliance with the GDPR. Records must contain, among other things, information on the purposes of processing, the categories of data affected and a description of the technical and organizational purpose of the records.

Private entities are obliged to designate a Data Protection Officer if their business strategy consists of regular monitoring of data subjects or personal data on a large scale. Several groups of such undertakings may have a single Data Protection Officers.

If processing activities are likely to result in high risk to data subjects, organizations must conduct preventive Data Protection Impact Assessments for risk mitigation. If the results of the assessment do not enable the entity to determine which safeguards could be applied, it will have to consult with the Supervisory Authorities

As the obligation to develop and implement such concepts is directly enforceable, entities should address the concepts of Privacy by Design and Privacy by Default. The GDPR emphasizes preventive data protection concepts.

Data processors must implement technical and organizational measures to guarantee the safeguard of personal data. The appropriate data protection level must be determined based on the risk potential inherent to the entity’s processing activities on a case-by-case basis.

Individuals will have comprehensive information and other rights against data processors. Organizations will have to proactively fulfill many obligations towards the data subjects, such as granting information on processing, erasing personal data or rectifying incomplete personal data. Especially, the data subjects’ right to data portability may challenge entities as they will have to provide datasets to their customers upon request.

The GDPR introduces a general reporting duty of the controller towards the Supervisory Authorities in case of a personal data breach. Such breach might occur by way of a technical or physical incident. The notification has to take place within a 72-hour time frame after becoming aware of the breach. In case of an incident with a high risk for the rights and freedoms of the data subjects concerned, the controller will have to communicate the breach also to them. In such a case, assistance from the Supervisory Authority will be available to the controller.

Where feasible based on an entity’s budget and resources, compliance with the GDPR might be implemented and monitored by way of a Data Protection Management System. It is an internal compliance system that will monitor the fulfillment of the data-protection-related and safety-related requirements.

Organizations that fall within the scope of application of the GDPR without having an establishment in the EU are obliged to appoint an EU-located representative. The EU representative will serve as a contact point for data subjects and the supervisory authorities.

Finally, while not mandatory, a self-regulation mechanism, such as Codes of Conduct and Certifications, will have higher practical relevance under the GDPR. Whereas Codes of Conduct specify the obligations under the GDPR for a certain sector or technology, Certifications will prove compliance with the certified activities with the GDPR. The use of these internal guidance instruments will facilitate the burden of proof for compliance towards the Supervisory Authorities.

The solution to becoming GDPR compliant is obviously a reorganization of grand scale. With the right precautions in place, organizations should have little to fear. Tankard (2016) insists the time and effort required to achieve compliance will vary significantly from one organization to another, but it would be well worth the effort and expense.

Some have suggested that pseudonymization will become the default for all research projects. Done right, the data record can be disassociated with actual people; however, it also provides a future pitfall and costly punitive actions for organizations that maintain decoders for re-identification (Goddard, 2017).

Potential Outcomes

GDPR is the reality for organizations in the EU market. The impending clash among global partners, Big Data, and the EU suggest three potential futures: One where the EU leads the world into a new age of protecting individual data, another where the world rejects the EU and leaves it behind politically and economically, and a third future where many compromises must be made (Zarsky, 2017). Whatever the outcome, the EU courts will be the final decision-makers for the EU market. The effort to protect individual rights is a noble one, but solutions that negate Big Data and place the EU in a non-competitive situation with the rest of the world would have a long-term impact on the economy of its member states.

Companies with less than 500 million euros of annual worldwide revenues will significantly change their long-term strategies to comply with GDPR unless they make the unlikely decision to withdraw from the EU market. State-owned and high revenue companies may employ political and economic instruments of power to influence EU decision-makers that favor their long-term strategies regarding GDPR.

US-based companies that have not entered the EU market need to consider the requirements of GDPR as they establish and update their data control systems. The serious differences between HIPPA and GDPR suggest there are years before a worldwide system of regulation will be uniform; however, common logic suggests a growing global economy will eventually find a way for individual privacy rights to be guaranteed while still providing a viable and profitable market for business.

Conclusions

As technology has enabled Big Data and organizations that thrive on the services they provide to monetize their activities, the GDPR data security requires processes to change. The primacy of the individual rights over the data put the data handlers in a comply or be punished scenario. Organizations that operate in the EU market have had two years to reorganize and adapt their data processing procedures, so some think the clash between the courts and the organizations is imminent. The solutions to compliance are readily available (Voigt & Bussche, 2017). The EU effort to protect individual rights is a noble one, but some concerns over the impact on Big Data are yet to be resolved (Zarsky, 2017).

Future Research

This paper focused on the speculation about the impact GDPR was expected to have on organizations operating in the EU market. Beginning with the summer of 2018, challenges to the GDPR are most likely to become available in the public domain. A viable source of information should be open-source news data as companies found out of compliance are brought into the EU courts. A ubiquitous source might be the absence of large and state-owned companies that are not penalized by the EU. While interviewing companies with EU customers may produce useful information, the front line of the EU court system may be a better source. Ultimately, the changes organizations make based on the actual enforcement of the GDPR should be researched and considered.

References

Buttarelli, G. (2016). The EU GDPR as a clarion call for a new global digital gold standard. International Data Privacy Law, 6(2), 77-78. http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/10.1093/idpl/ipw006

Ciriani, S. (2015). The economic impact of the European reform of data protection. Communications & Strategies, (97), 41-58,153. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/1678885971?accountid=27203

Goddard, M. (2017). The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): European regulation that has a global impact. International Journal of Market Research, 59(6) 3. doi:10.2501/IJMR-2017-050

Mitchell, A. (2016). GDPR: Evolutionary or revolutionary? Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, 17(4), 217-221. http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/10.1057/s41263-016-0006-9

Mittal, S. (2017). Old wine with a new label: Rights of data subjects under GDPR. International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science, 8(7) Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/1931130276?accountid=27203

Rodrigues, R., Barnard-Wills, D., De Hert, P. & Papakonstantinou, V. (2016). The future of privacy certification in Europe: an exploration of options under article 42 of the GDPR. International Review of Law, Computers & Technology 30(3) doi: 10.1080/13600869.2016.1189737

Tankard, C. (2016). What the GDPR means for businesses. Network security, 6, 5-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1353-4858(16)30056-3

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Voigt, P. & Bussche, A. (2017). The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) A Practical Guide. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.

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The Eric H. McClellan Memorial Garden

noreply@blogger.com (C.D. Sutherland) — Sun, 11 Dec 2016 23:51:00 +0000

As presented by Anita McClellan (my sister) at the garden's dedication:

I'd like to thank everyone for coming to represent Eric during this Memorial Garden Dedication.

Eric's life ended way too soon. I'm still waiting for him to come through my front door and end this nightmare, I can't believe he has been gone for almost a year. It is difficult to view the world without Eric being a part of it. He was the sort of man who made an impact on many people's lives. He made a point of greeting everyone he encountered. Eric met many of his friends by going out of his way to have conversations with people he didn't know at the time. He had friends all over the world.

When we first met the conversation flowed, there were no awkward silences; it was like we had known each other our whole lives. We talked in the parking lot of the restaurant until 4 am and couldn't believe how the time had flown by. When Eric set his sights on something he wanted he would not accept no as an answer. We had only known each other a month when he asked me to marry him. He wouldn't accept no for an answer and asked me every day for a month before I agreed. I think it shocked everyone we knew. When I met his Mother she told me she didn't know anything about me but she sure liked the way I made her son walk. I loved Eric just the way he was, I wasn't about to try to change the man I fell in love with. We brought out the best in each other because all we wanted to do was to make each other smile. Didn't matter what was going on in the outside world when we knew we had each other to rely on. We wanted ours to be the last face we saw each night and the first face to be seen in the morning. Eric didn't like working overtime because it took time away from us. Once he entered our home, he knew he was in a sanctuary where all was good. Other than the mountains our home was his favorite place to be.

Eric was a hard worker but he played even harder. He loved his motorcycles and the mountains. He would tell me "any day you do a wheelie is a good day." He was doing them in the back yard the Sunday before he died; I just shook my head and laughed watching him through the kitchen window. I thought "that boy will never grow up," I was partially right as now he will never grow old.

He attended most of the Yamaha FJ rallies over the years and as the years rolled by the younger guys would push the envelope farther in their riding. One of the guys tried to tease Eric about being too slow so he looked him in the eye and said, "You may have been faster than me but I guarantee you didn't have more fun." Eric was always game for a motorcycle ride; it was normal for him to go on a 200-400 mile ride in a day. If the weather man said it was 40% chance of rain, he was going because that meant it was a 60% chance of sunshine.

Eric believed no one could get through this life alone. He knew life was not fair. He felt it important to offer a kind word to people because you never knew what was going on in their lives. A cheerful hello might just be what they needed at the time and it allowed people to start their day on a positive note. He was willing to help those in need. When he found out one of the people on his motorcycle forum had been diagnosed with cancer, Eric looked hi up and went over to his house to rebuild his truck engine for him to make it easier for him to get to the doctor. He was always answering forum questions on how to fix motorcycle problems and offering mechanical solutions when friends would call him on the phone with vehicle problems.

Eric liked to stay busy because it made the day go by faster. He would tell me "if you don't have time to fix the problem correct today when will you have the time?" He didn't believe in band-aiding a problem only to have it break later. I use to tell him he was an artist. I heard a bunch of noise from an engine but when he heard a motor it was like a melody and knew which part was playing off key.

We use to watch survivor shows on TV and Eric asked me one time what would be my one item to take to make life easier? I looked him in the eye and said, "I would take you." He laughed, but I knew if he were by my side I would want for nothing.

More than anything I wanted him happy. When he would smile it would light up the room, I encouraged him in his dreams and desires. We use to laugh because I would say I knew him all his adult life and most of his childhood. We had 28 good years together which I wouldn't trade for the world. Neither of us could believe we had been together over half our lives; the years just flew by.

He didn't believe in throwing a fit when something went wrong. Because when you were done with your tirade you still had to fix the problem and you only found out you wasted valuable time and the problem was still there. It is an imperfect world and screws fall out. Keep it simple and break it down into basic components, push, pull or twist.

Eric had an eye for detail. He liked all his screws to line up, liked parts to be shiny and new looking, he never wanted his repairs to stand out; he told me they should be seamless. He said the magic was in the details. Nothing was too hard to fix or modify. He loved the speed and handling of his 91 FJ1200 but didn't like the old suspension, so he upgraded the entire suspension to a 2005 model. He would laugh when other men would admire his bike and then slowly catch on at how much modification had been done on what appeared to be a stock bike.

I recall one cold January morning when he was rushing to get to work only to encounter ice on the porch. His feet flew out from under him, and he fell down the stairs. Instead of continuing to his truck he crawled back inside to warn me of the pending danger so I wouldn't suffer the same fate he had. He was always watching out for my safety.

Eric met me at our door after work every day during our marriage to give me a hug and kiss. He wanted it clear to me to know how he felt. He said marriage to me was easy because he had married his best friend. When he had his stroke six years ago he told me that if he were to die tomorrow that he had no regrets, we had led a good life together and he had been happier than he ever thought he would.

We can't demand to know the reason why things happen, or shout at the world when bad things occur. Life isn't fair, no one ever said it would be, but I trust that at some point everything will make sense to me. Until then I trust in Eric that I shouldn't have a temper tantrum and waste my energy on things I can't change. I put one foot in front of the other until it becomes natural again. I continue doing the things we had planned and following the course we had set together.

If we have learned anything from Eric, remember to hold your loved ones tight and be sure to let every single person that means something to you know it. You don't want to leave this world with regrets and have the people you cared about not know how much they meant to you. Memories with people you care about are more important than the material items this life has to offer; your last thoughts won't be how big your house was, how green your yard was, or what type of car you drove. When your life flashes before your eyes, see the people you loved not the things you regret.

Eric and I both believed you experience two deaths in this life; the loss of your physical body and when people no longer mention your name. I know I will be speaking his name for the rest of my life because a life which doesn't include him is unimaginable. I hope with the Memorial Garden Eric will be mentioned and continue to live long after I'm gone.

Serving Susah as Something New

noreply@blogger.com (C.D. Sutherland) — Fri, 21 Oct 2016 17:58:00 +0000

When Edgar's quill scratched the parchment lit by a candle on the floor, did the etchings softly whisper subtle clues to Nevermore?

When Clive's keys punch against the platen firm, denting paper white, did the ribbon twist then bind, musing Screwtape to his mind?

When armed with computer such as I, to join Alan or Staples, dare I try?

Dragons and Susah, shall they show to be as tasty as wardrobe or crow?

Take a bite, and then you'll know.

AMAZON

SMASHWORDS

NOOK

My Father, My Mentor

noreply@blogger.com (C.D. Sutherland) — Sat, 16 May 2015 14:31:00 +0000

I spoke these words at my father's celebration of life on 15 May 2015, before a room full of family and friends at Sheets Memorial Baptist Church in Lexington, NC.

Charles Earion Sutherland overcame much, giving me a better start than he had.

Growing up in the prevailing poverty of depression-era Gilliam Bottom, a coal-mining community in West Virginia, limited a young persons options. It was sometimes said that a young man had three choices: coal mine, moonshine, or moving on down the line.

The harshness of a rough start can distract a young person from doing well or from finishing school. That is what happened to Dad. My father’s grandpa, James Buel Sutherland, took notice and invited him to join him in the coal mine.

"Since you are done with school, it's where you'll will wind up, eventually."

Still just a boy he must have been impressed with the long elevator descent into the deep darkness of the coal mine revealed a dank world where hard-working men traded their health for the wages to put food on the table for their families. He remembered the water as waist-deep, and the spectacle of a rat swimming from one wall to another remained fresh in his mind decades later. That was the last time, the only time he went into the mine. He decided to move on down the line.

Grandpas are important, but that’s another story.

My Dad joined the Navy, who schooled him to be a machinist. During a shore leave in 1952, his mother, Katherine, introduced him to my mother and what farm girl can resist a wiry young man in uniform?

After he had left the Navy, General Motors employed him as a tool and die maker in Flint Michigan. Not long after that, he was laid off and instead of waiting to be called back, he moved his family to Martinsville VA where he searched for full-time employment. Being a skilled machinist but lacking a high school diploma meant, he was able to obtain only one temporary position after another. When I was a boy, he often told me “to stay in school” because he had lived the consequences of not having done so.

He also followed his advice, after he rejoined the military, the Army. He completed his GED along with many other military schools, and after he was working for the Civil Service, he even earned his MBA. Of course, he knew it would have been better to have completed his education as a young man, but he also knew you can’t start where you were, you have to move on from where your are.

His naval experience proved invaluable in 1965 when the Army commissioned the USNS Corpus Christi Bay (T-ARVH-1), a helicopter repair ship designed to perform depot level maintenance for the extensive helicopter corps engaged in combat and support operations in Vietnam.

Two years later, while assigned to the 5th Infantry Division, he was awarded the Bronze Star for saving two American lives during close-quarters combat, where he was also awarded the Purple Heart for a bayonet wound and other serious injuries.

The nature of bayonet wounds suggest a personal level of violence, the details of which would be upsetting for many people; therefore, I will end my description here, but for anyone interested I will freely share them with you during a sidebar discussion, if you ask me for them. Needless to say, his example of physical courage under difficult circumstances influenced me throughout my life. I believe such examples are essential for boys to reject child-like fears and to become men, and here’s a secret all men know and women would do well to try to understand, men desire to be known as dangerous men. My Dad was the most dangerous man I ever knew.

After his Vietnam tours, he went on to serve in the US Army in various capacities in many other assignments, culminating with his retirement as the Army promoted him to Sergeant Major. For personal reasons he elected to retire shortly after that, having served a total of 28 years in uniform, he then served another 20 years with the Department of Defense as an exemplary maintenance repair facilities manager.

During that time, he celebrated the significant milestones of my ongoing military career, and we maintained an increasingly close relationship, albeit from long distance, most of the time.

One event we shared was the passing of his closest friend. After the funeral, my Dad and I spent the night in his RV. Experiencing the loss of his friend, my Dad began asking me questions about the Bible and Jesus. From 8:00 PM to around 2:30 the following morning I answered questions until my voice eventually failed. At the time, I'd been a Christian for 22 years, and in those hours I shared most of what I'd learned. Later than morning, Dad accepted the salvation of our Christ, the Lord Jesus. How cool is that?

Over the next three months, my Dad read the Bible straight through. He later told me how he had been both impressed and embarrassed that his son knew so much about the Bible, while he did not.

When my mother had a debilitating stroke in 1998, he began another journey of personal service. Aided much by my sister, Anita, and later on by his mother, whom many of you knew, he cared for my mother for 2 1/2 years during her most dependent years, until she passed away.

Then something extraordinary happened.

A series of interesting coincidences merged and my father met Vernell. What followed was 14 years, where he was the happiest I’d ever known him to be. During those years, they visited my family in Louisiana and many other places as they completed their great adventure. I count myself fortunate to have shared a small portion of those best years with them.

Some of you have experienced a close relationship with my father in his mature years, where he transformed into a philosopher of sorts, for me he maintained the role as mentor by example, where his actions were object lessons from which I gleaned wisdom as I could. That remains true, even today, after his passing.

His form of teaching requires the learner to add value to the lesson, in order to discover the treasure hidden behind the words and actions.

My Dad taught me a lot of things; I will share six of them with you:

1. Stay in school: In other words, “School, which includes high school, college, graduate programs, trade schools, profession education, etc., will reward the graduate with knowledge, credentials and a network which will establish the foundation of your reputation.”

2. You don’t have to stay where are, but you can’t start from where you were. We all have to move on from where we are to get where we decide to go. In other words, “you have the freedom to make your choices, but ultimately your choices will make you.”

3. Do things with your family and make friends wherever you go. Go places, dance with your Mom, and take a few pictures when you can. In other words, “Our life isn’t complete unless we share memories with other people. Those memories will be what remain after our family members, friends, and even when we reach the end of our life on this earth. God gives us a family to start our lives with, but He arranges opportunities for us to expand our network with friends, who can become closer than family.”

4. Help your friends when you can. Chances are your friends will survive the challenges that come their way; however, if you can help them, then you get to celebrate the victory with them. I’ve had several people share personal/private testimonies over the last few days of how my Dad had helped them during their challenges. The cool part is that he had never told me those stories; I remained impressed with his humbleness. In other words, “Leave your friends some good, untold stories to tell others about you when you are gone.”

5. When he left his childhood behind, he decided to live his life without fear. Imagine how great was his joy when he discovered that the “Sutherland Coat of Arms Family Motto” read “Without Fear”. He often advised me to avoid trouble when possible, but when trouble leaves you with no escape, then hit it with everything you can and get out of there as fast as possible. During such times, surviving is paramount; smiling is optional. In other words, “Don’t live in fear of anything; go around trouble if possible, but when that’s not possible, boldly go through it as quickly as possible.”

6. This brings me to the final lesson. We’re living it right now. My Dad taught me not to be sad because something was over; instead, I should be happy because it happened. Today we are celebrating my Dad's life because it happened from July 28, 1930 to May 10, 2015. Thank you for being part of this celebration.

Pain Might Be Your Last Warning

noreply@blogger.com (C.D. Sutherland) — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 20:24:00 +0000

I am scheduled to have coronary bypass surgery because I was lucky enough to have bronchitis. Sound funny, but it’s the truth. If not for the bronchitis I might have delayed seeing a cardiologist until after a heart attack.

In most ways, I’m a typical man, and my type of behavior is predictable. Though older than I admit and heavier than I should be, I have always considered myself capable of answering any challenge regardless of a few aches and pains.

Over the years, I have modified my exercise routines to avoid injury and pain risks. As an aging martial artist, my tournament-training days of tornado-like spinning heel kicks are behind me. In their place, I’ve adapted to a routine of lower and shorter-reaching but effective techniques to both promote fitness and maintain something of an emergency arsenal should the occasion arise. I have enough skeletal issues to discourage running, but walking has been enjoyable, until recently.

At first I found myself out breath much quicker than in the past, and then my blood pressure elevated after even short workouts. As fate would have it, a flare-up of reoccurring bronchitis emerged. Naturally, I credited my bronchitis with the exercise-induced shortness of breath and elevated blood pressure. Wisely, I decided to lay off my exercise routine until the bronchitis cleared up.

Then it snowed in Louisiana. My four-year-old grandson had never seen snow, and the idea of going outside into the white stuff captured his imagination.

After I gave him a demonstration of how to make a snowball, he quickly became an expert, too. Of course, I had to help him make his first snowman. What kind of grandpa would pass up such an opportunity?

As the base of the snowman grew to sufficient size, I realized that I was in trouble. I leaned on a nearby fence while I encouraged my breathing to return to normal and for an angry tightness in my chest to relax. The closest thing I’d had to this level of discomfort had been during the last few hundred yards of an Alabama 10K in 1985. Back then, I had the good, or you might say, bad timing of approaching the finish line beside another runner, who was as determined to finish in front of me as I was to be in front of him. Understandable consequence for then, but this time, all I’d done was roll up a medium-sized snowball.

After I recovered my breath, and the pain left me, I blamed the bronchitis and rolled another ball to make the middle of our snowman. Then it happened again.

When I recovered, we finished the snowman. My grandson thought it was a great invention. I think he’ll remember at least a little about his first time whenever he makes another snowman, or as he called it, a snow dragon. Because his grandpa writes books with dragons in them, he often sees dragons where others can't.

When I explained the breathing, blood pressure, and pain issues as part of a plea to get my desired antibiotics, my doctor suspected more than bronchitis. A flurry of test and procedures: EKG, x-rays, stress test, and eventual heart catheter confirmed the suspicions.

I have many blockages, some quite serious. The doctor told me that the good news was that my heart was healthy. Sounds funny to you and me, but in cardiologist talk, that means I haven’t had a heart attack. I presume many of their patients wait too long. Good thing I didn’t.

When there isn’t enough oxygen-carrying blood flowing to a part of your heart, you get pain, sometimes called angina. Fortunately, the pain goes away when you rest. It’s not a heart attack, but it’s a sign you might have one.

It’s not always an indication that you’ve allowed yourself to get out of shape and need to push yourself to the next level. Telling yourself, “pain is weakness leaving the body,” and then trying to push through the barrier can very well kill you. I think that may be what happened to a few of my old friends. I didn’t understand it until now. As demonstrated, a typical man may not be able to distinguish the nature of these pains until he gets some help from a cardiologist.

Not all problems like this require coronary bypass surgery. Depending on the severity, some solutions are relatively simple, but you need a trained professional to make the determination.

Naturally, my story is not a substitute for qualified medical advice, but I hope it serves as a warning to all those typical folks like many of friends who chose to push back at the pain.

Think of pain as a light on the master caution panel. Don’t push it and forget it, hoping it stays away. Investigate it; you might have multiple problems confusing your symptoms. Take the proper action.

Be good to your heart. Talk to a doctor about chest pain and shortness of breath.

It might not be what you want it to be.

The Chronicles of Susah

If you haven't already done so, check out my antediluvian novels at Amazon. You'll be glad you did.

If you have read them, then I ask you to consider posting a review wherever you acquired the books. Thanks for reading my books.

They're also available for your Nook and iBook.

The Dragoneers
The Lost Dragoneer
The Last Dragoneer

You Decide

noreply@blogger.com (C.D. Sutherland) — Sat, 21 Mar 2015 01:04:00 +0000

Available wherever good books are sold, but originally found at Amazon:

Choose Your Consequences

noreply@blogger.com (C.D. Sutherland) — Thu, 19 Mar 2015 11:36:00 +0000

The Constitution Says So

noreply@blogger.com (C.D. Sutherland) — Mon, 09 Mar 2015 20:59:00 +0000

A dear friend of mine and I were discussing forms of government and the question, "what is the United States" came up.

I said, "Republic."

He countered by declaring, "We're a Federal, Presidential, Constitutional Republic because we have a democratic, representative, and electoral congress. Nothing is simple in what he have. Perhaps there's some despotic legislation in there, too. What's a legislature called where the head of the executive branch has his hand in the cookie jar?"

As usual, the correct answer was mine, but here's the explanatory version of it.

The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America; it delineates the national frame of the federal government. Anything the federal government does, to include the President (a.k.a. head of the executive branch of the government) outside of the Constitution is illegal. The violations are myriad, but they do not make them legal.

The Constitution of the United States is the first constitution of its kind, and has influenced the constitutions of other nations. That's American Exceptionalism.

The people of the States existed first, and then created the federal government to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. The central government has no legal authority to grant rights to the people, the powers not delegated to the federal government by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

By being a member of the union, the States are not allowed to violate the provisions of the Constitution. For example, Alabama may not have slaves and Illinois may not infringe the right of the people to bear arms.

Ah, but one might argue that they do.

Alabama has slaves? No! Of course not, if they did the Federal government would take legal and if required move Federal troops into to prevent Alabama from having slaves. Not only would they free the slaves, but also they would intern those who organized, planned, and executed the slave-holding provisions. No state may violate the Constitution and get away with it, unless both the State and the Federal government work in tandem to violate the civil right of the people.

"Not Alabama," one might response to such a statement, supposing it was either a diversion or a misunderstanding.

Some States and cities infringe on the right of the people to bear arms. Maryland is one, Illinois does or at least used to, D.C. has some anti-gun laws, New York City, Detroit and others have some restrictions. So those places do it, how do they get away with it?

As I said, when the State and the Federal government work in tandem to violate the civil right of the people, then they appear to get away with it, but it doesn't make it legal.

In Nazi Germany, everything the central government did was legal, even though it wasn't right. If the central government did that sort of things here, it wouldn't be legal, even if they wore badges and carried guns. As long as the Constitution has people willing to defend it, there is the hope of freedom. Keeping the federal government purposefully weak is part of the Constitution's design.

The Constitution provides protection for the people by dividing the federal government into three branches, supposedly with three separate functions, but with overlapping checks and balances.

In the landmark case, District of Columbia v. Heller it was found that D.C.'s handgun ban and trigger-lock requirement (as applied to self-defense) violated the Second Amendment. The total ban on handgun possession in the home amounts to a prohibition on an entire class of arms that Americans overwhelmingly choose for the lawful purpose of self-defense. This prohibition would fail constitutional muster under any standard of scrutiny. Similarly, the requirement that any lawful firearm in the home be disassembled or bound by a trigger lock makes it impossible for citizens to use arms for the core lawful purpose of self-defense and was, therefore, unconstitutional.

When the citizens elect people to office who compromise on the basic freedoms of the citizens, certain rights are never taken away. They are merely being infringed.

For example, you have the right to life, which demands the implied right to breathe. If the President ordered his Secret Police or an ATF officer to choke you until you could no longer breathe, and they complied, they still haven't taken away your right to life. It is still your right, but they would be illegally infringing on your right to do so. Throughout history, governments have denied people their rights under the guise of sovereign authority. The illusion of legality is supported by the lethal force the governments use to control the people. In the United States, the federal government is only legal when it operates within the constraints of the Constitution. Therefore, when people, using the cover of an office, infringe your rights, it's not legal. When the government people commit crimes against you, you have a few options.

Your choices would be to summon your state police, a sheriff, or even the local police to intervene, as it is their duty to protect your right to life, but sometimes they can't get to you in time. Law enforcement is focused primarily on the public at large and sometimes individuals are left to fend for themselves. If you had time you could have your lawyer by paying him or her to file suit, hoping to make it to the supreme court for them to declare the act unconstitutional in the hopes the offenders would obey the SCOTUS.

Lacking the ability to do those things, you might decide to take action on your own. To take up arms and fight for your rights, with the full realization that when you act as an individual to violently defend your God-given rights against out of control government agents, they are probably going to kill you.

Maybe your death would spawn a local uprising, convincing the local police to join in the battle, maybe the State would follow, and then maybe other States would join in. What a mess.

Stop the madness. There has to be a better way.

The better way is for the citizens to elect people of good character who honestly mean it when they swear to defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. Much better to have a limited government as directed by the supreme law of the land than to depend on self-serving office holders, who want to parcel your rights to you when and where as they see fit, when by their actions they are neither fit to control your rights nor to hold office.

Elections have consequences.

Dr. James McHenry reported, at the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, when queried as Benjamin Franklin left Independence Hall on the final day of deliberation the Constitutional Convention.

A person who had been anxiously waiting outside shouted, “Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?”

Benjamin Franklin tipped his hat and said, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

We're a Republic.

It's as simple as that. Keeping it is the challenge.

The Chronicles of Susah

The Last Dragoneer

Reject Obama's Proposed Joint Resolution

noreply@blogger.com (C.D. Sutherland) — Tue, 24 Feb 2015 02:49:00 +0000

President Obama’s proposed Joint Resolution to deal with ISIL is a fraud. What it does is:

- Give prestige and recognizes unacceptable aspirations to the terrorists,
- Limit where and how we will use force,
- Expires quickly,
- Repeals the AUMF.

What it says it will do is to authorize limited military force against the terrorist organization that calls itself ISIL.

In intellectual isolation, that sounds like a noble cause. To believe it, is to ignore the fact that the US military has been conducting limited force actions against various terrorists organizations for more than thirteen years. Along the way, there have been ups and downs.

After the infamous suicide terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the 107th Congress passed the Joint Resolution known as Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF).

The AUMF is a piece of political genius, a work of art. In the past, congressional use of force and declarations of war were targeted against the governments deemed responsible for aggression; however, the terrorist attacks of 09/11/2001 were not attributed to a state actor. Confusion existed at many levels as to who to focus our revenge upon and as the best way to prevent future attacks. As public debate raged, Congress acted.

The AUMF authorized the President to put the hurt on nations, organizations, or persons to avenge the terrorist attacks and to prevent future attacks. Adding weight to the Presidents empowerment under the AUMF, it did not specify the states and non-state actors.

President Bush called it the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) and the war was waged with political, economic, and military power. From its beginning, President Bush expressed his highest regards for Islam. For the terrorists, he promised to a global dragnet to bring the terrorists to justice and to help prevent future terrorist acts.

With no geographical restraints, due to wording of the AUMF, force was applied in Afghanistan, the Philippines, Georgia, Yemen, Djibouti, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Iraq, and Somalia. With no named terrorist groups, the US was free to pursue them around the world and on the high seas. Terrorists could not hide in any country, under any name, and expect to have a safe refuge.

After President Obama had taken power, some changes were made. In 2009, the military was banned from using the term GWOT; instead, the term Overseas Contingency Operation (OCO) was to be used. The media and an occasional government official uses it today, maybe to patronize the citizens who believe GWOT objectives still are in play.

Today, many people are complaining about what words Obama’s administration will or will not use to refer to the enemy. Some of his supporters have suggested naming the enemy is a distraction. Maybe it is.

Under AUMF, the enemy had many names, but it did not matter. We were acting as required to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons. Under OCO, we have lost that vision. The rules of engagement became blurred. The success of terrorist attacks, fueled by a common ideology, are becoming more frequent, and it should alarm us.

Oh yes, we got Bin Laden, we heard the briefing, but somehow we lost Iraq. In the quagmire of Obama’s wars, the leaders of Libya and Egypt were sucked into the chaos of whatever we are allowed to call those organizations that follow a common extreme ideology. Somehow Obama got away with using NATO as a cover to apply US airpower, which destroyed the Libyan air force, leaving the dictator vulnerable. After the insurgents mauled, humiliated, sodomized, and killed him, the situation devolved. Egypt recovered before it was too late by killing their way back to power, but in Libya we lost an ambassador, and our government still has not told us the truth about why that happened.

Obama’s joint resolution to Congress seeks authorization to do a small portion of what the AUMF already authorizes. Additionally, it calls the growing terrorist organization that is infamous for raping women and children, cutting off heads, and burning captives, by the name they once wish to be called: Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Ironically, Obama declared ISIL to be neither a state nor Islamic. The irreconcilable declarations assail anyone capable of thinking. Giving formal recognition of the insurgent group through legislation makes no sense. Making the logic more ridiculous, the organization dropped “Levant” from its name this summer.

Maybe this suggests they have greater ambitions than just the Levant, the countries bordering on the Eastern Mediterranean. Using the term ISIL in his joint resolution, Obama limits US actions to that organization and in that region. Currently, there are groups in Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, and Afghanistan with ideological ties and allegiance to the group in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. Additionally, it is public knowledge they are recruiting people from Europe and the United States. Neglecting to identify this global ideological threat is folly.

Zeba Khan, in a Boston Globe editorial recommended using the insulting term Daesh for the bad guys. The French government is using the Arabic term because it is apparently appropriate and insulting. Two fine reasons to use it. If the word is too offensive for Obama, them maybe we could piggy-back on something he said about the Daesh using a twisted interpretation of Islam. We could call them the TWisted Interpretation Terrorists, or Twits for short. Any name that denies them respect and prestige would be fine.

Section 6 of Obama’s resolution repeals the AUMF. Destroying the terrorist organization can not be the intent, because section 2 (c) prevents the use of enduring offensive ground combat operations. We heard various experts declare, “You can’t do this with airpower alone. You need boots on the ground.” By boots on the ground, they are talking about enduring offensive ground combat operations.

As a noted airpower doctrine authority, I agree that you can’t do everything with airpower, just as you can’t do anything without it. Modern wars are fought and won using the best mix of well-funded, well-trained, doctrinally-compliant joint forces. Using anything less is an open invitation to failure.

Recent experience clearly demonstrates that quickly winning a war, where nation-states are secondary players, especially when restraint is used, can't be done. Section 3 in Obama's proposed resolution terminates the use of force after three years, three years. That is never going to work. If passed, the only thing for certain would be the termination of the AUMF, which is something the bad guys would appreciate.

Because it makes no sense, Obama’s joint resolution needs to be placed in file 13. Because it summons terrible consequences, it should be vocally rejected by anyone who rejects the vision of the Twits, or whatever you want to call them.

Daesh? Or a few other names that come to mind are trolls, ogres, finks, pucks, anything you like, just don't be nice about it.

The Chronicles of Susah

Lyndon B. Johnson’s Remarks at the 12th National Prayer Breakfast

noreply@blogger.com (C.D. Sutherland) — Wed, 18 Feb 2015 00:50:00 +0000

After the November 1963 assassination of JFK, President Johnson had greatness thrust upon him. He reflected on his source of strength, which helped him make his unexpected transition to becoming the leader of the free world as he addressed the nondenominational group of laymen gathered at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington on February 5, 1964:

Senator Carlson [Senator of Kansas and chairman of the board, International Council for Christian Leadership], Mr. Speaker [Representative John W. McCormack], Mr. Chief Justice [Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the United States], Members of the Cabinet, Dr. Graham, my fellow Americans:

No man could live in the house where I live now or work at the desk where I work now without needing and without seeking the strength and the support of earnest and frequent prayer.

Since last we met, it has fallen to me to learn personally the truth Thomas Jefferson spoke so long ago, when he said:

"The second office of the Government is honorable and easy--"The first is but a splendid misery."

In these last 70 days, prayer has helped me to bear the burdens of this first office which are too great to be borne by anyone alone.

We who hold public office are enjoined by our Constitution against enacting laws to tell the people when or where or how to pray.

All our experience and all our knowledge proves that injunction is good. for, if government could ordain the people's prayers, government could also ordain its own worship--and that must never be.The separation of church and state has served our freedom well because men of state have not separated themselves from church and faith and prayer.

Senator Carlson, I believe that these annual prayer breakfasts serve a most useful purpose in both reminding and reassuring the people that those who hold their trust are themselves godly and prayerful men and Women.

In saying this, there is a personal thought that I would like to express to you: This federal city of Washington in which we live and work is much more than a place of residence. for the 190 million people that we serve and for many millions in other lands, Washington is the symbol and the showcase of a great nation and a greater cause of human liberty on earth.

In this Capital City today we have monuments to Lincoln and to Jefferson and to Washington, and to many statesmen and many soldiers. But at this seat of government there must be a fitting memorial to the God who made us all.

Our Government cannot and should not sponsor the erection of such a memorial with public funds. But such a living memorial should be here. It should be a center of prayer, open to all men of all faiths at all times.

If I may speak this morning as a citizen and a colleague and a friend, I would like to suggest to this group, which has done so much through all the years, that it undertake the mission of bringing together the faiths and the religions of America to support jointly such a memorial here in this federal city--the capital of the free world.

The world is given many statistics about the per capita vices of Washington, but the world knows all too little about the per capita virtues of those who live and labor here.

I believe--and I would hope that you would agree--that the true image of Washington is not that of power or pomp or plenty. It is, rather, that of a prayerful capital of good and God-fearing people. (1)

[The President spoke first to the gentlemen in the hotel's presidential ballroom and then to the ladies in the east room.]

Mrs. Lanford, [wife of Representative Richard E. Lankford of Maryland and president of the congressional wives prayer group] Dr. Graham, ladies:

I am glad to be with you again this morning at your annual meeting, but I still believe that when the prophet Isaiah said, "Come, let us reason together," he did not have in mind that the men and women should assemble in separate rooms.

Since we last met 1 year ago, all of us in this land have known the need of prayer. None has known that need so keenly as I have. If I may, I would like to relate to you a little personal experience from these days which fortifies anew the great teachings of the Book of Proverbs:

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

In my childhood, like your children-had the great blessings of a devout and faithful mother. In our home, as in yours, there was always prayer--aloud, proud, and unapologetic.

Through the long, busy, and sometimes hectic years since, observance of some of that training became irregular, especially the practice of returning thanks before each meal.

But in those first dark days of November, when the pressures were the heaviest and the need of strength from Above the greatest, Lady Bird and I sat down together to eat a meal alone. No word or glance passed between us, but in some way we found ourselves bowing together, and I found myself speaking the words of grace that I had learned at my mother's knees so many years ago.

We of this land have so much to be grateful for. The God above us has been good to us from the very beginning of this Republic.

With the duties which rest upon us, we have much to pray for--that we may, as a nation, be just in our strength, wise in our actions, and faithful in our trust.

The men of public life have a very special debt--a special debt--to the strong women who, as their wives and as mothers of their children, make possible the service of the public trust.

I think the Nation may understand this a little better now since the unforgettable inspiration offered so gallantly before the entire world by the widow of our gallant and beloved President, Mrs. John F. Kennedy.

Ours is a great nation, but we must always humbly remember that much of our greatness in the world is born of the godliness that we practice in the homes that you keep.

I believe, as I know you believe, that our children should be taught to pray; but I know and I believe, as I think you believe, that this teaching is our task in our homes-a task much too sacred to ever be touched by the state.

I would hope that we might all remember the petition of the father of our Country, George Washington, who urged his countrymen to offer "humbly our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and ruler of nations, and generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best."

(2)

Quiz

Questions to review and understand President Lyndon B. Johnson's remarks of 1964:

1. Why has the separation of church and state served our freedom well?
2. What useful purpose has the annual prayer breakfasts served?
3. President Johnson believed that the true image of Washington D.C. is not that of power or pomp or plenty, but instead is what?
4. Who has been good to us from the very beginning of this Republic?
5. President Johnson believe that our children should be taught to what?

Use the transcript above to grade yourself. Each question is worth 20 points.

The Chronicles of Susah

Answers

Here are answers to the quiz on President John F. Kennedy's remarks of 1961:

1. What were the two propositions of our nation's founders?
- First, a strong religious conviction, and secondly a recognition that this conviction could flourish only under a system of freedom.
2. What principle is required for the principle of religious freedom to have significance?
- Religious conviction: "Religious freedom has no significance unless it is accompanied by conviction."
3. Name the seven religions identified as sharing both principles.
- the Puritans, the Pilgrims, the Quakers, the Catholics, the Presbyterians, the Methodists and the Baptists
4. (True or False) Though previous Presidents came from a variety of religious backgrounds and held a variety of beliefs, each of them placed trust in God.
- True
5. What are the two hallmarks of American society?
- "Religious freedom and religious conviction are the two hallmarks of American society"

How did you do?

REFERENCES

(1) Lyndon B. Johnson: "Remarks at the 12th Annual Presidential Prayer Breakfast.," February 5, 1964. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=26057

(2) The Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) has reviewed designed for the 2015 and 2016 Presidential Dollars. http://news.coinupdate.com/cfa-recommendations-for-presidential-dollars-3217/

President Kennedy's Remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast

noreply@blogger.com (C.D. Sutherland) — Wed, 11 Feb 2015 19:27:00 +0000

By the time John F. Kennedy assumed the office of the President of the United States in 1961, the President's participation at the annual National Prayer Breakfast was expected by everyone. Kennedy was no stranger to religious concerns by Americans. Enough people were so alarmed over the implications of where a Catholic President's loyalty would lie, that he sought to salve those concerns.

"I am not the Catholic candidate for president. I am the Democratic Party candidate for president, who also happens to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my Church on public matters, and the Church does not speak for me.

Whatever issue may come before me as President, if I should be elected, on birth control, divorce, censorship, gambling or any other subject, I will make my decision in accordance with these views, in accordance with what my conscience tells me to be in the national interest, and without regard to outside religious pressure or dictates. And no power or threat of punishment could cause me to decide otherwise.

But if the time should ever come, and I do not concede any conflict to be remotely possible, when my office would require me to either violate my conscience or violate the national interest, then I would resign the office; and I hope any conscientious public servant would do likewise." (1)

Kennedy questioned whether the 40 million Catholic were considered ineligible for the office of President based on their baptism. Catholics had a long tradition of making the same kind of sacrifices as Protestants had. He once stated, "No one asked me my religion [serving the Navy] in the South Pacific." (2)

The 35th President continued Eisenhower's tradition by taking the podium at the ninth annual National Prayer Breakfast on February 9, 1961 and addressed the crowded room.

Mr. Chairman [US Senator Frank Carlson from Kansas], Dr. Graham, Mr. Vice President--gentlemen:

I think it is most appropriate that we should be gathered together for this morning's meeting. This country was founded by men and women who were dedicated or came to be dedicated to two propositions: first, a strong religious conviction, and secondly a recognition that this conviction could flourish only under a system of freedom.

I think it is appropriate that we pay tribute to this great constitutional principle which is enshrined in the First Amendment of the Constitution: the principle of religious independence, of religious liberty, of religious freedom. But I think it is also important that we pay tribute and acknowledge another great principle, and that is the principle of religious conviction. Religious freedom has no significance unless it is accompanied by conviction. And therefore the Puritans and the Pilgrims of my own section of New England, the Quakers of Pennsylvania, the Catholics of Maryland, the Presbyterians of North Carolina, the Methodists and the Baptists who came later, all shared these two great traditions which, like silver threads, have run through the warp and the woof of American history.

No man who enters upon the office to which I have succeeded can fail to recognize how every President of the United States has placed special reliance upon his faith in God. Every President has taken comfort and courage when told, as we are told today, that the Lord "will be with thee. He will not fail thee nor forsake thee. Fear not--neither be thou dismayed."

While they came from a wide variety of religious backgrounds and held a wide variety of religious beliefs, each of our Presidents in his own way has placed a special trust in God. Those who were strongest intellectually were also strongest spiritually.

Today our Nation is passing through another time of trial. In many ways, our dangers and our problems are far greater--and certainly infinitely more complex. We will need to draw upon the best that this Nation has--often--and draw upon it physically and intellectually and materially.

But we need also to call upon our great reservoir of spiritual resources. We must recognize that human collaboration is not enough, that in times such as these we must reach beyond ourselves if we are to seek ultimate courage and infinite wisdom. It is an ironic fact that in this nuclear age, when the horizon of human knowledge and human experience has passed far beyond any that any age has ever known, that we turn back at this time to the oldest source of wisdom and strength, to the words of the prophets and the saints, who tell us that faith is more powerful than doubt, that hope is more potent than despair, and that only through 'the love that is sometimes called charity can we conquer those forces within ourselves and throughout all the world that threaten the very existence of mankind.

Keeping in mind that "when a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him," let us go forth to lead this land that we love, joining in the prayer of General George Washington in 1783, "that God would have you in His holy protection, that He would incline the hearts of the citizens .... to entertain a brotherly love and affection one for another .... and finally that He would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with .... the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, without an humble imitation of whose example we can never hope to be a happy nation."

The guiding principle and prayer of this Nation has been, is now, and shall ever be "In God We Trust."

Thank you.(3)

[The President spoke first to the gentlemen in the hotel's main ballroom and then to the ladies in the east room. ]

Madam Chairwoman [Mrs. Olin D. Johnston, wife of US Senator Johnston of South Carolina], Dr. Graham, Mr. Vice President:

It seems to me that in the true Christian spirit next year we should all sit down together, and that we should have gentlemen and ladies pray and reason together, and not confine them in different rooms.
But we are glad we came here--the Vice President and I came under the protection of Dr. Graham.
I do want to say that it is a pleasure to be here and to have participated in the breakfast this morning. I had an opportunity in the White House the other day to talk to a group of men and women from the Baptist World Alliance who have been missionaries, some in the Congo, one lady who has been in Bengal, India, since 1926, others who have been in Thailand and Korea.

I do not regard religion as a weapon in the cold war. I regard it as the essence of the differences which separate those on the other side of the Iron Curtain and ourselves.

The whole basis of the struggle is involved in the meeting this morning: our strong belief in religious freedom, our strong conviction, as I attempted to say in my inaugural, that the blessings which come to us come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God--and this alternate concept that the state is the master and the people the servants.

This is really the essence of the issue. We cannot have religious freedom without political freedom, and therefore what we really need is not to confuse a system of freedom with one of disinterest, uninterest, cynicism, materialism, but like the ladies and gentlemen whom I talked to the other day, who have been willing to spend their lives under the most difficult of circumstances, in great hardship, in order to carry the message in which they have such great conviction, it seems to me it shows a lesson for us all.

We must match that faith. We must demonstrate in our lives, whatever our responsibility may be, that we care deeply.

I see no reason why the servants of the Communist system should be marked by a discipline and strong conviction in the ultimate success of their cause. I believe that our cause is just, that ultimately it will be successful. But it can only be successful if we demonstrate our strong conviction in it.
Religious freedom and religious conviction are the two hallmarks of American society, and therefore as a strong believer in both, I wanted to say that I deem it an honor to share this evidence of our common belief in these two great principles at this breakfast this morning. What we do this morning, I hope we can do every day.

Thank you.(3)

Questions to review and understand President John F. Kennedy's remarks of 1961:

1. What were the two propositions of our nation's founders?
2. What principle is required for the principle of religious freedom to have significance?
3. Name the seven religions identified as sharing both principles.
4. (True or False) Though previous Presidents came from a variety of religious backgrounds and held a variety of beliefs, each of them placed trust in God.
5. What are the two hallmarks of American society?

Use the transcript above to grade yourself. Each question is worth 20 points.

If you haven't already done so, check out my antediluvian novels at Amazon. You'll be glad you did.
If you have read them, then I ask you to consider posting a review wherever you acquired the books. Thanks for reading my books.

They're also available for your Nook and iBook, if that helps.

The Dragoneers
The Lost Dragoneer
The Last Dragoneer

Here are answers to the February 10 Quiz on President Eisenhower's remarks:

1. What was the American objective for the first year of the Revolutionary War?
- To establish our right to be free British citizens.
2. What is the very basis for the American government?
- We hold that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain rights.
3. Why is prayer a necessity?
- By going our imperfections and making the effort to get in touch with the Infinite, there is something that ties us together.
4. Why should we remind ourselves occassionally about the basic truth our forefathers in 1776 understood so well?

- We can hold up our heads and be certain that we in our time are going to be able to preserve the essentials, to preserve as a free government and pass it on, in our turn, as sound, as strong, as good as ever.

How did you do?

REFERENCES

(1) John F. Kennedy: “Address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association,” September 12, 1960. Online by American Rhetoric. http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jfkhoustonministers.html

(2) Richard Reeves (1993). President Kennedy: Profile of Power, page 15. New York: Simon & Schuster.

(3) John F. Kennedy: "Remarks at the Dedication Breakfast of International Christian Leadership, Inc.," February 9, 1961. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=8211

Why does the President speak at the National Prayer Breakfast?

noreply@blogger.com (C.D. Sutherland) — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 18:01:00 +0000

President Obama's recent remarks about the misdeeds performed in the name of Christ in the middle ages caused quite a stir in the social media arena. Interestingly, many people diverted their discussion to justifying the Crusades based on the conquest of the Jihadist. The debates are quite heated, and there is much to learn about ancient history, assuming one was interested in ancient history. While I am interested in history, there are people doing a better job so I won't delve into that subject here; at least, not for now.

What about separation of church and state?

On February 5, Obama said, "Our government does not sponsor a religion, nor does it pressure anyone to practice a particular faith or any faith at all." Irony? The President, the head of the Executive branch of our government stood there remarking at the National Prayer Breakfast, a yearly event held in Washington, D.C., on the first Thursday of February every year since 1953.

Since the 1980s, the breakfast has been held in the Hilton's International Ballroom, and is typically attended by some 3,500 guests, including international invitees from over 100 countries. The United States Congress hosts the event, which is organized on their behalf by The Fellowship Foundation, a Christ-centered organization.

As with most things, if is difficult to understand why things are as they if you are ignorant of the history behind it. To shed some intellectual light on how all of this came to be, let's look at the President's remarks. Not Barrack Hussein Obama, the 44th President, but Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, the 34th President and the first President to speak at the National Prayer Breakfast, which was held at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington on February 5, 1953:

Mr. Chairman (US Senator Frank Carlson of Kansas), distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:

This has been a wholly enjoyable occasion for me except for the one second when I opened the little blue slip and found that it said there would be an address by the President. I assure you, both for your sakes and for mine, there will not be.

There are a few thoughts, though, that crowd into my mind. With your permission I will attempt to utter them in a very informal and homely way.

First, there is a need we all have in these days and times for some help which comes from outside ourselves as we face the multitude of problems that are part of this confusing situation. I do not mean merely help for your leaders or the people in Congress, in the Cabinet and others in authority, because these problems are part of all of us. They face each one of us because we are a free country. Each of us realizes that he has responsibilities that are equal to his privileges and to his rights.

So, as he approaches them at times, he says: "If we only had the simple, the good old days, how easy all this would be. What a nice life."

Once in a while it might be a good thing for us to turn back to history. Let us study a little bit of what happened at the founding of this Nation.

It is not merely the events that led up to the Revolutionary War. All of the confused problems that we were then called upon to solve were as difficult as those we face now. Did you ever stop to think, for example, that the first year of that war was fought in order that we might establish our right to be free British citizens, not to be independent. From April 1775 until July 4, 1776, there was no struggle for independence. It was a struggle to make people understand that we were free British citizens. So you can understand the confusion of thought that was going on.

So when we came down to the Declaration of Independence, our forefathers had difficulty in meeting their problems which was probably as great for them as we feel our problems today. In the Declaration they acknowledged the need to respect public opinion. They said, "When in the course of human events"-and they went on to say a decent respect for mankind impelled them to declare the decisions which led to the separation. They realized that the good opinion of the whole world was necessary if this venture was to succeed. At least they felt that an understanding of this venture should be abroad in the world.

They went on to try to explain it. What did they say? The very basis of our government is: "We hold that all men are endowed by their Creator" with certain rights.

When we came to that turning point in history, when we intended to establish a government for free men and a Declaration and Constitution to make it last, in order to explain such a system we had to say: "We hold that all men are endowed by their Creator."

In one sentence we established that every free government is imbedded soundly in a deeply-felt religious faith or it makes no sense. Today if we recall those things and if, in that sense, we can back off from our problems and depend upon a power greater than ourselves, I believe that we begin to draw these problems into focus.

As Benjamin Franklin said at one time during the course of the stormy consultation at the Constitutional Convention, because he sensed that the convention was on the point of breaking up: "Gentlemen, I suggest that we have a word of prayer." And strangely enough, after a bit of prayer the problems began to smooth out and the convention moved to the great triumph that we enjoy today--the writing of our Constitution.

Today I think that prayer is just simply a necessity, because by prayer I believe we mean an effort to get in touch with the Infinite. We know that even our prayers are imperfect. Even our supplications are imperfect. Of course they are. We are imperfect human beings. But if we can back off from those problems and make the effort, then there is something that ties us all together. We have begun in our grasp of that basis of understanding, which is that all free government is firmly founded in a deeply-felt religious faith.

As we sympathize with our great friends in Holland and Britain today in this distressing disaster that has overtaken them, it is good to know that the American soldiers, the American Navy, the American airmen, are sharing those disasters and are moving in as units and as individuals to help. I have had messages from both of those countries expressing their great thanks to America for the work they are doing. They, to my mind, are part of this understanding that a government such as ours hopes to produce people who are moved by sympathy, by all of those wonderful qualities that are implicit in a deeply-felt religious faith. They are living up to what we hope for our government, both as units and as individuals.

I think my little message this morning is merely this: I have the profound belief that if we remind ourselves once in a while of this simple basic truth that our forefathers in 1776 understood so well, we can hold up our heads and be certain that we in our time are going to be able to preserve the essentials, to preserve as a free government and pass it on, in our turn, as sound, as strong, as good as ever. That, it seems to me, is the prayer that all of us have today.

It has been very wonderful to meet you. Until I started over I had the picture, which Frank Carlson gave me last summer, of a small Congressional group of Congressmen and Senators who met on a morning each week. I had an idea of coming over to see 20 or 25 or maybe 50 people. I had no idea that our host had such a party as this. I do hope I may speak for all of you in thanking him for such a breakfast, the like of which I have not had in 10 years. As long as you feed me grits and sausage, everything will be all right.

Thank you.*

Surprise Quiz:
Questions to review and understand President Eisenhower's remarks of 1953:

1. What was the American objective for the first year of the Revolutionary War?
2. What is the very basis for the American government?
3. Why is prayer a necessity?
4. Why should we remind ourselves occassionally about the basic truth our forefathers in 1776 understood so well?

Use the above transcript to grade yourself. Each question is worth 25 points.

Check out my books at Amazon. You'll be glad you did.

Also available for your Nook and iBook.

The Dragoneers
The Lost Dragoneer
The Last Dragoneer

------------------------------
* Reference: Dwight D. Eisenhower: "Remarks at the Dedicatory Prayer Breakfast of the International Christian Leadership.," February 5, 1953. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=9851

American Sniper

noreply@blogger.com (C.D. Sutherland) — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 20:37:00 +0000

I usually go to the movies during less than peak hours to avoid being mobbed by the fans of my best-selling, antediluvian steampunk novels: The Dragoneers; The Lost Dragoneer; and The Last Dragoneer. This strategy must be working because I haven’t been mobbed once this year. At the cinema, the only person in front of me was a retied Navy SEAL, wearing a hat proclaiming his Vietnam veteran status and sporting a golden SEAL badge on his jacket. He commented on my “USAF Retired” hat, and we talked a short while as we waited in the popcorn and soda line for the popular movie, American Sniper.

Directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle, the movie is based on Amazon’s best selling book American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History. Currently rated as the #1 Paid book in the Kindle Store, it has over 6210 reviews with a new one being added every hour or so.

My novels and his autobiography are miles apart in theme and category, but as an author, I am impressed by the readers’ response. I bought the book before I sat down to write this review but have not read it yet. My comments are about the story as presented in the movie and my opinions.

Chris Kyle learned to shoot from his father. During a hunting trip, we see a young Chris impress his father with marksmanship skills beyond his years. Growing up, Chris learns to face bullies with physical force. We watch as he rescues his younger brother from an merciless, oversized schoolyard bully, who had been so harsh that we didn’t mind seeing his face get bloody. Maybe the bully would change his ways, after being taught his lesson.

The moral courage to face down bad guys seems to have been born inside of Chris. This unusually talented marksman with the courage to take on bullies grows up to be a rodeo cowboy, who has an epiphany after the 1998 terrorist bombing of U.S. embassies. There are bad guys scheming to do great harm against his country and others, and Chris is convinced he should step up and do his part. The Navy recruiter sees the potential dangerous man looking to sign up and invites him to become a SEAL.

Enough of the SEAL training is shown to illustrate that warriors are made, not merely born. When warriors are forged from the natural talent and determination of such men as Chris Kyle, they become remarkable. After 9/11, he finds himself supporting Marines as a sniper. He is so good at it that people around him start labeling him, calling him the Legend and a few other things. Several times during the movie, it becomes apparent that Chris is not keeping count, but those around him are. Chris remains focused on doing his job to protect his brothers in arms. On multiple occasions, we observe him struggling with the decision to shoot or not.

There are a lot of moving parts in urban warfare. Not everyone is a bad guy, but bad guys abound and they don't wear traditional uniforms. One man might be calling his wife to say he’ll be late for supper, but another might be calling in positions of American soldiers so that his co-terrorists can load up children with explosives to execute suicide attacks.

Good guys hesitate killing children, so they make an attractive delivery platform for bad guys. Then another child might be simply watching the action without evil intent. A sniper has limited time to make the determination; wait too long and your brothers may be dead. An observer warns Chris during one situation that he’d better be right or he’ll be sent to Leavenworth. Fear of going to prison doesn’t sway his actions. Stopping bad guys from harming others is his goal.

The viewers are shown enough of what bad guys do to understand that evil exists. Evil is something like a raging forest fire, it will not stop until everything it can destroy is consumed or unless someone stops it. Good guys stop bad guys. Sheep dogs are needed to stop wolves because the sheep are never going to do it. Showing that bad guys are evil, helps confused viewers from giving pity and emotional support to the bad guys when they are stopped. Not all attacks are physical.

The combat scenes are intense, representing the chaos and physical demands of battle. Movie-goers will not be disappointed, but such a life cannot sustain itself to a man with more to live for. His wife grows weary of his long absences. On his trips home, she pleads with him to rejoin her, saying that she's making memories on her own. After a particularly intense battle, he decides to agree with her.

War often leaves scars that are deeper than skin. Back home, Chris tells a VA counselor that he was prepared to account for each pull of his trigger to God. All along, Chris was motivated by physical courage to use his training and natural talents to save his brothers. The counselor suggests he can still save some.

With the horrors of war mostly behind him, he returns to his family and dedicates his life to helping damaged veterans reclaim their lives. Unfortunately, he falls victim to a veteran he was trying to help. The real-life trial is pending, but regardless of the outcome, we’ve lost Chris. If we didn't have the pleasure to know him before his death, we can learn a little about him through this movie and his book.

It is interesting to hear people vilify Chris Kyle. When I pay close attention to their words, I am inclined to believe there are some people who loathe all American veterans, and those same people seem to uniformly loathe the concept of American exceptionalism. In spewing insults at Chris Kyle they mostly serve as a warning to the rest of us to make the difference we can, while we still have the time and strength to do so. America needs less attempts at fundamentally changing our way of life, and more men like Chris Kyle, doing the best they can.

Chris Kyle did not cause evil to attack us. He did not make the sovereign decisions, which set his nation at war. Like myriad others, he offered up his life to protect his country. Chris was motivated to do the best he could at everything he did and he was remarkably talented. This movie is his story.

American Sniper has all the emotions anyone could want from the cinema. You will have plenty of opportunities to chuckle, cheer, cringe, and cry. Take advantage of those opportunities as you see fit, but you owe it to yourself to go see this movie.

Don’t forget the popcorn.

Sylvia Frances Author Interview

noreply@blogger.com (C.D. Sutherland) — Fri, 12 Dec 2014 04:02:00 +0000

Deciding to interview other authors is a big step for me. First of all, I have to stop ringing the Antediluvian Steampunk bell and beating the Dragoneers drum and focus on other outstanding works of literature. After considering how long it takes for me to finish new books, I decided it would be best for me to share this page with authors my readers might be interested in. My first author interview is with Sylvia Frances.

After facing much death in her life, Sylvia came face to face with Christ and was called to write the Immortal series. The blessings Jesus has given her overwhelms her with joy each day. She is happily married, has two furry children (a shih tzu and a cat), and recently graduated college with honors. One of her careers, besides working as an author, is a newspaper journalist for her local town.

American Christian Fiction Writers and The Paranormal Romance Guild are two large writing organizations of which Sylvia is a proud member. Sylvia's two debut Christian novels Immortal Memory Books One and Two were released on Amazon on December 9, 2014. She's dedicated part of her website to reveal others’ testimonies who have also faced death and found life in Christ.

C. D. Sutherland: So nice to have you visit the Antediluvian Steampunk Operations Center (ASOC). Please, have a seat on my dragon-skin couch, uh, it's just mock dragon-skin, of course.

Sylvia Frances: It certainly looks the way I'd imagine dragon-skin to appear. I’m honored to be interviewed for your website, Charles. May I call you Charles?

C. D. Sutherland: Certainly. After all, it is my name as it is my father's, and before him, his father's.

Sylvia Frances: Oh, quite the family tradition. Your books are very intriguing, and I look forward to reading the next one. I take great interest in reading and learning what I can about the supernatural, such as angels and fallen angels. Most importantly, there can never be enough read or learned about Christ Himself. He is the Ultimate Immortal in my books and in my life.

C. D. Sutherland: Amen to that, but let's get to our interview about you and your books. I have a few questions.

Sylvia Frances: Fire when ready.

C. D. Sutherland: In your own words, what is the Immortal Memory series about?

Sylvia Frances: Immortal Memory (Book One) is about how Simra Reece, owner of Reece Alzheimer's Care Facility, is determined to prolong her grandmother's life at the home and find a cure for the horrendous illness. Nothing will stop her from taking care of her precious grandmother, who is the only family she has left. But Simra's world comes crashing down when her ex-fiancé, Tristan, returns with a deadly obsession on forcing her into marriage. Tristan is a danger to Simra and her grandmother, but he isn't just any normal man. He is dark and powerful. The only chance Simra has of survival is placing her trust in his tall and handsome twin brother, Zach Hanley, who seems to have a hidden, dark past with her grandmother. Together, she and Zach must release their guilt of the past, learn to forgive, and place all their trust in Christ for their protection against the evil forces surrounding them.

Immortal Memory, A Cursed Affair (Book Two) is the prequel to Immortal Memory, which is Simra's grandmother's story. Twenty-year-old Lucinda Glenn travels to Texas from Louisiana for one mission only. She wants to find her missing father who has been gone for far too long. Everything is mysteriously falling apart back home, and the family needs him. When she runs into Detective Zachriel Hanley and Melton Reece, foreign feelings awaken in her that she's never felt. They offer to help her, but something is strange about Zachriel. When Zachriel's more than charming twin brother offers more help than what Zachriel offers to find her father, she is swept off her feet by the charming and wealthy man. But looks can be deceiving. As she feels her and her family's lives threatened by Zachriel's twin, Lucinda realizes that Melton and Zachriel are the only ones she can trust. When Melton tells her Zachriel's twin is responsible for much evil committed against her and Melton and how he plans to force her into marriage, she becomes aware that she and Melton must learn to understand that God allows certain situations to happen for a reason. But they must trust Him. Love and patience is the only way to break evil's curse.

C. D. Sutherland: What inspired you to write these two books?

Sylvia Frances: My great-grandmother had Alzheimer's when she was alive, and I saw how deadly and tragic this illness can be. But a terrible curse can always lead to a blessing later on.

I've also witnessed that there can be toxic, obsessive, and abusive relationships that can change the victim being abused. During the relationship the victim feels like they are in an inescapable prison with no faith in God. All they have is fear and sadness. But God ALWAYS has the miraculous power to give the victim an escape, to destroy their fear, and find glorious faith.

C. D. Sutherland: What drives you to keep writing?

Sylvia Frances: God. He's the one who gives me all the ideas and gives me the determination to write each day. My husband also is a huge inspiration and support.

C. D. Sutherland: What are you currently working on at this moment?

Sylvia Frances: I'm currently working on Immortal Memory: Her Darkest Hour (Book Three), which will be a surprise. It starts close to where Book One left off. In Book Three, we find out if Azazel returns to claim what's rightfully his. Simra. Or is it just Simra facing several traumatic experiences? Book Three will release in April 2015.

C. D. Sutherland: Where can readers connect with you and keep up with your latest releases?

Sylvia Frances: Readers can go to my website: www.sylviafrances.com, like my facebook page entitled Sylvia Frances, and find me on Twitter Sylvia Frances@SylviaFrances1.

C. D. Sutherland: This has been great. I'm so glad you could visit with me.

Sylvia Frances: It has been my pleasure. I couldn't help but to notice all the interesting objects in here. That glossy black thing looks like the Cainite blasters described in your novels.

C. D. Sutherland: Oh, that. It is just a mock up. Not functional at all.

Sylvia Frances: But this thing on the coffee table, it looks like a Yomadayom. Could it be?

C. D. Sutherland: Oh, that's just a mock up--don't turn those dials, don't touch that!

Sylvia Frances: If it's just a mock up, what harm could it do?

C. D. Sutherland: [nervous laughter as he moves the object out of reach] No harm, no harm at all. Whew, it is getting late, so it's time for you to go. Best wishes for success on these two fantastic sounding novels. You're doing great things for all the right reasons.

What is Antediluvian Steampunk?

noreply@blogger.com (C.D. Sutherland) — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 16:09:00 +0000

I'm glad you asked.

Antediluvian SteamPunk is an emerging Retro-Futurfantastic genre that synthesizes Literary/Biblical Fiction with traditional Science Fiction/Steampunk. It is void of profanity and doesn’t have gratuitous sensuality, but it does have emotional tension and physical conflict. It incorporates Biblical history to support the fantasy elements, which dominate the adventure, without being preachy. Someone expecting a Sunday school story will be disappointed, but those who enjoy high adventure will be rewarded.

Three novels of the The Chronicles of Susah series: The Dragoneers, The Lost Dragoneer, and The Last Dragoneer. At 110,000+ words, the shortest of the three novels is the first book. The eBook of The Dragoneers is available for 99 cents at Amazon, but can be downloaded for free at B&N, iBooks, and Smashwords. As with many other books, the first few chapters can be read at Amazon before make the 99-cent investment.

Susah, the 17-year-old protagonist struggles with her desire for high adventure against the call to follow her brothers’ example to help her father built the ark. Yes, that ark, but this is no typical flood story.

Antediluvian steampunk is something different. If the first book doesn’t capture the reader’s imagination and leave them wanting more, then the rest of the series probably won’t be for them either. With increasing velocity, the subsequent adventures build on the same theme, until the expected comes in an unexpected way at the end of the third novel; however, this reading adventure is not so much about the destination as it is about the journey through a complex labyrinth of metaphors, strange technologies, and cultural challenges woven together with spiritual interpolations and uncommon imagination so different, that it might create a thirst for more answers to questions yet unasked.

Lauded by readers of all ages, the thematic challenges faced by the protagonist make it especially suited for young adults.

The Dragoneers at Amazon

The Lost Dragoneer at Amazon

The Last Dragoneer at Amazon

Culture Change, i.e. Furgeson

noreply@blogger.com (C.D. Sutherland) — Tue, 18 Nov 2014 22:17:00 +0000

Photo credit: Kerry Perry from breitbart.com

A community organizer training the mustering Ferguson rioters says, "...we’re not going to get change in this society unless white people are just a little bit afraid..."

http://www.breitbart.com/…/Organizers-Train-Newly-Minted-Pr…

Change society?

Fundamentally change America?

Familiar words, and any reasonable person should be willing to change the things that are wrong; however, we've seen a lot of change in the last 6 years that most reasonable people would never have hoped for.

No reasonable American would have for hoped the national debt to double with no end in sight;
No reasonable American would have for hoped for a 30 year low in employment;
No reasonable American would have for hoped for the dollar to have lost its place in international commerce;
No reasonable American would have hoped for our enemies to become so bold and rampant as to publish videos of them killing our citizens;
No reasonable American would have hoped for Benghazi, Fast and Furious, and throngs of Americans losing their jobs because of an "affordable care act" that was marketed on a series of lies;
No reasonable American would have hoped for us to alienate our most important and longest standing Arab allies, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, nor to reignite the old Cold War with Russia;
No reasonable American would have hoped that community organizers would boldly declare their goal is to make white people afraid and then to have nobody resist the effort.

I don't know about everybody else, but I'm a little tired of these types of changes.

And another thing, since I'm on a rant.

Fear is a hell of thing.

The early settlers of this land were afraid of wolves, bears, and a few other things. We don't have to worry about those things today, because previous generations removed those threats. The only place most of us have seen bears and wolves are in zoos or via some visual media. There are still some left wandering around, but most of them know to leave people alone. However, we still have some things to fear.

Like you, I'm a little afraid of the flu virus. I wash my hands often, use spray disinfectant, and hand sanitizer when washing isn't possible. All those things take a little of my time, but I surrender it willingly in the hope that I won't come down with the flu, which could kill me.

Like you, I'm a little afraid of black widow and brown recluse spiders. They've been known to kill, but usually they just hurt you. I don't like being hurt. Besides keeping an eye out for them, I often apply insecticides on and around my property. Additionally, I regularly employ interior-appropriate insecticides in my home. Those poisons work well on other undesirable pests, but I know I have to remain persistent, and persistence is a price I'm willing to pay.

There are other things we're a little afraid of. If we're thinking people, we've taken mitigation measures for all of those things; at least, I know I have. Yes, it takes some resources and time, but we should willingly surrender those in hopes of avoiding the loss we might suffer if we don't.

Don't make us afraid of you.

No reasonable American should ever again passively nod in agreement when somebody says we need to change society, until they explain the details.

We're not that stupid anymore, are we?

Columbus Day

noreply@blogger.com (C.D. Sutherland) — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 16:35:00 +0000

I was going to wish you a happy Columbus Day, but I have to put on my historian hat and say something else first.

Europeans enjoyed relatively safe land passage over the “silk road” to India and China for centuries until the Muslims conquered Constantinople. Most everything traveling the silk road after that was confiscated by the raiders who lived there. Eventually, the seafaring Portuguese developed a sea passage route around Africa. The Italian explorer, Columbus envisioned another way, but it required bravery and boldness.

By 1492, Columbus had lined up investors to finance about half of his great adventure. During the two years prior, he had lobbied the Spanish court. Having just evicted the Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula, Queen Isabella rejected Columbus, and he headed to France. Had King Ferdinand not intervened, France might have become his sponsor and the resulting world which would have emerged provides for interesting discussion and muse material, which goes beyond the scope of this article.

Because you should already know about Columbus’s four voyages, I won’t discuss them here; instead, I will discuss a few things about the holiday’s history.

Columbus Day began as a celebration of Italian-American heritage in San Francisco in 1869. In 1905, Jesse F. McDonald, the Colorado governor proclaimed it a state holiday. In 1937, Columbus Day was elevated by Congress and President F.D. Roosevelt to become a Federal holiday.

When I was a child, the celebration of Italian-American heritage had spilled over into a general celebration of ethnic-European influence on the American journey, but we didn’t call it that. It was presented as a part of the foundational history of America. Our history classes taught how he had ventured only onto some islands in the Caribbean, never putting a foot on the mainland of America; nevertheless, we simplified the lessons by saying, “Columbus discovered America.” To aid us on our history tests, we memorized the first line of an old poem, “In fourteen hundred ninety-two; Columbus sailed the ocean blue.”

Today, not everybody is enthusiastic about Columbus Day. Quite the opposite, a lot of folks actually hate the idea of celebrating the bravery and boldness of Columbus. If you Google the hate, you’ll find he’s blamed for just about every crime against humanity you can imagine and some you can’t.

This year, you might have heard that the city counsels of Seattle and Minneapolis have declared the second Monday in October as “Indigenous People’s Day” in opposition to the long-established Federal Holiday.

Locally elected government can do anything they want as long as they don’t violate Federal or State law. So all I have to say about that is, good luck to them.

But for now, let’s think about this for a moment. Considering the myriad diversity celebrations happening all over this land, thinking people might ask themselves, “Why do some people hate Columbus Day?”

Is it because Columbus Day began as an ethnic-Italian heritage celebration?

Is it because Columbus Day evolved into an ethnic-European heritage celebration?

Is it because Columbus Day became a foundational American celebration?

Few will confess to such a hate. Because, at least for now, saying they hate Italians, or Europeans, or American is mostly unacceptable, the dissenters frame their arguments based on their view of the negative aspects of Columbus. The facts the dissenters present mostly lack reliable primary sources, but I suppose that matters only to historians and thinking people. If you’ve been following this, have you noticed how the stories of atrocities get worse every year? It is as if the dissenters are being visited by imps and fairies with new revelations because they are not held to the standards demanded from professional historians. Interestingly, the unsupported stories are accepted by many people without challenge. Is it hate or something else?

I don’t know their hearts, but in the interest of consistency, thinking people should consider the typical response to any argument focused on the negative aspects of any other group celebrating their diversity.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve seen it before. Regardless of the data supporting the argument, the offended release their hate like rabid hounds on a bunny rabbit. Eventually, the one who had offered the argument is personally attacked, sometimes physically, until the dissenter simply fades away. When civility is abandoned, the dissenter remains an object of ridicule and harassment while the “defenders of diversity” are lauded for their bravery and boldness. Anyone who considers suggesting the dissenter had a valid argument knows they will be dished out an equal measure of hate, too.

Finally, thinking people need to ask themselves, “Why shouldn’t ethnic Italians and ethnic Europeans, or for that matter, Americans in general respond likewise to arguments against the observation of Columbus Day?”

Where has all the bravery gone?

Where has all the boldness gone?

Gone to flowers everyone?

With that said, I now wish you all a wonderful Columbus Day.

Sylvia Frances Interviews C. D. Sutherland

noreply@blogger.com (C.D. Sutherland) — Sun, 14 Sep 2014 00:10:00 +0000

One of the fun things about have a few published novels is occasionally answering a few question during an interview. I was my honor to have Christian romance author and blogger Sylvia Frances interview me. Her technique was a little different. She read and then reviewed all of my novels before the interview.

If you'd like to learn a little more about me, check out the interview here.

If you provide a comment in the next day or so, you'll be eligible for a special surprise, according to Sylvia Frances on her blog.

C. D. Sutherland

If you're interested in reading my books on your eReader, you can find them here:
Kindle
Nook
Smashwords
Kobo (The Dragoneers)
txtr
Flipkart
The Dragoneers, The Lost Dragoneer, and The Last Dragoneer are available in iBooks also.