The Dragon's Comments of June 3rd 2011

When honor and allegiance to a cause, a service or a religion lead one to unjustified faith in something, betrayal of such is a bitter thing.

Yesterday, I listened to Salidin Ahmed’s story “Judgement of Swords and Souls” has read by Stephanie Morris (Podcastle, 31 May 2011). The story is about having faith is a belief structure encompassed within what is called the “Lodge of God” In this story a girl comes of age in a world of sword fighting and religious piety. Unruly in her desire to honor her dead mother, she is challenged to prove her “purity” in faith with a battle. Trusting that her accusers would follow the same precepts of honor, she wages fair battle and is victorious. But when her compatriot falls due to an apparent poisoning, she appeals in the name of God and all the order stands for to denounce the victor for breaking the rules. When faced with silence and apparent acquiescence, she understands that the honor and piety of the “Lodge of God” is easily discarded in the face of what can only be described as political intrigue. I recommend the story.

Comments about Obama’s chances of re-election with the context of Binyamin Appelbaum’s article “Employment Data May Be the Key to the President’s Job” (New York Times, 02 June 2011)

No dice! The legislative process is in gridlock but the regulatory/bureaucratic machine goes right along inflicting major damage on the private sector. Unless this is arrested, the economy will not improve by any noticeable amount to facilitate Obama’s re-election. But nonetheless, a weak republican candidate could lose to Obama despite Appelbaums’s historically-based assumption that high unemployment spell electoral doom for a sitting President.

Comment about the Washington Post editorial “Germany’s nuclear energy blunder” (2 June 2011)

I agree that it is mistake for Germany to shut-down its nuclear industry out of some irrational fear relating the disaster in Japan. Of course, her neighbors would be happy to supply Germany with power should the sun not shine or the wind blows – at a reasonable price.