Close Guantanamo for Christmas

This time of year, we are all reminded that most Americans worship a shaggy haired Middle-Easterner who was brutally tortured and killed by a superpower.

While I recognize that sometimes not even Middle-Easterners can avoid killing other Middle-Easterners, we probably should leave out that whole torture thing. I don't want us to be the antagonists in somebody else's New and Improved Testament centuries from now.

Small rant and rave about Tom Clancy books

My biggest complaint about these books is the rear cover. It's the same thing as with Stephen King's books: it's just a big picture of the author. I find it frustrating because I might be looking at the book rack, semi-contemplating an impulse purchase. I see Tom Clancy's name on a paperback. I instinctively turn the book over to see what it's about, but all I see is Clancy in his sunglasses and USS Iowa hat. The publisher likely expects me to buy this book based on the author's name recognition. Or maybe his target audience has a lot of people who only read something if they know what the writer looks like.

I recently got done reading "Executive Orders". I enjoyed it, even though it reads like a neo-con masturbation fantasy. I still got a big kick out of the ending. The subplot about the Mountain Men looks like Clancy cut and pasted that part in after the Oklahoma City bombing.

"Executive Orders" is the sequel to "Debt of Honor", and both books contain fictional events similar to real life events that took place after the novels were published: the use of a commercial airliner in a suicide attack, a second Persian Gulf war, the death of Saddam Hussein. These books are very eerie to read nowadays.

Book coupons are often available for Clancy's books.