A mid-week diatribe

Apparently the military judge overseeing the charges against Bradley Manning (the whistle-blower accused of leaking diplomatic cables to Wikileaks) ruled that his pre-trial treatment was illegal and inappropriate.

The military put the poor kid in solitary confinement and on suicide watch. They kept him in restraints in his cell and apparently denied him garments at some point.

And he hadn't even been charged with a crime.

Yeah... I'd say that call is valid. Go military judge lady!

In net, he gets something like 112 days served to his credit against any potential sentence. I'm sure that will be a huge comfort to him if they convict him and sentence him to life.

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I got a "Worst Case Scenario" daily calendar for Xmas. You know those books. They're the "what do I do if an alligator tries to bite off my arm" or "how do I parry a sword" or "what do I do in an avalanche" kinds of scenarios written up in a semi-humorous fashion.

I love 'em.

So today's tip: "How to Survive in the Line of Fire If You Are Not the Primary Target".

Handy these days. Fortunately I haven't been directly exposed to the insane levels of gun violence we see in the news, but that means exactly nothing.

The tip is - boiled down - go prone. Get behind cover (a car's wheel, the lip of a curb, etc.).

You know, stuff that a sane person would do when bullets are flying.

I say this knowing full well I'd panic like a crazed chicken in a coop if I were on-the-spot.

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While I'm still bitter about Ronald D. Moore's final season of "Battlestar Galactica", I am suitably attainted when it comes to certain dialog.

So when the news has articles on "fracking", my first thought is "dirty intercourse?" instead of "shooting fluid into the ground to get at oil".

I guess if the results are as dangerous as critics believe, people are getting "fracked" no matter how the term is intended.

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Pinched nerves suck.

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I miss good, rousing, science-fiction adventure stories. Space opera-style stories where you have rag-tag heroes with blazing blasters fighting unequal odds against sinister foes.

You know. Han Solo, "Firefly", "Blake's 7". That stuff.

Only in books.

The late Brian Daley had a great series that captured the feel of what I'm craving. They were the Adventures of Hobart Floyt and Alacrity Fitzhugh. I think the titles were "Requiem for a Ruler of Worlds", "Jinx on a Terran Inheritance", and "The Fall of the White Ship Avatar".

Those were great, as was Daley's "Han Solo" stories.

Timothy Zahn's "The Icarus Hunt" had that sort of feel. Kind of.

I just really miss that. I can't seem to find new authors who go there anymore. Makes me sad.