A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

(C) 1996 G.P. Putnam's Sons In the horrific climax of Debt of Honor, former intelligence official and National Security Advisor (and briefly, Vice-President) Jack Ryan finds himself elevated to the Presidency...and in the sights of foreign and domestic adversaries. Even as the Capitol building smolders and the late President Roger Durling is laid to rest, unfriendly eyes are watching the new and untried President Ryan for signs of weakness...and begin plotting his -- and America's -- downfall.  In Iran, Ayatollah Mahmoud Haji Daryaei (one of the opponents of the Fowler Peace Plan in The Sum of All Fears ) broods in his office and begins to set in motion a series of crises that will tie up America's already over-extended military and intelligence services. Daryaei enlists not only his own operatives in Iran and abroad, but also the leaders of two other nations with global ambitions of their own. By creating a series of seemingly unrelated crises all at once, including

Recently, I was lurking around in Quora (a site where people ask questions about any topic under the sun - from Abstinence to Zulus - and other people answer them). I was looking at my feed for something interesting to reply to when I saw this: Do Democrats realize that nobody hyperventilated over Obama like they are doing over Trump? I, of course, was aghast. The original poster  - who upon seeing the avalanche of replies to his literal whitewashing of the past , deleted the question - was claiming that conservatives and Republicans had never "hyperventilated" (i.e. attacked, lied about, insulted, or even criticized )   President Barack Obama during his two four-year terms in the White House, while poor President Trump was being unfairly attacked by liberals, the mainstream media, and illegal aliens.  This is what I wrote in response: Really, Original Poster? Are you kidding me? A slick bit of right-wing propaganda which falsely claimed that (a) Obama was

Why do some American liberals admire these two Marxist revolutionaries, anyway? Although I used to consider myself a middle-of-the road voter when I was younger, I suppose some of my more conservative friends would call me a liberal. After all, I support women’s rights, LGBT rights, the Civil Rights movement, and I’m very open-minded about sex. I’m also not very religious   and   strongly support a woman’s right to choose. That having been said, there are some issues/opinions that are espoused by many liberals, especially those on the extreme left of the political spectrum. In no particular order, here are my top peeves: Anti-vaccination movement Free universal college tuition The notion that the military and intelligence communities are inherently “evil” and that the U.S. should  never, ever  resort to military force The 9–11 conspiracy theory that claims the attacks on Manhattan and Washington were carried out by the CIA and the U.S. military The idolization of Communist