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Politics

Jeff Baker, Boogieman In Lavender: “All That We Can Do.” January 11, 2025

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All That We Can Do by Jeff Baker There’s a meme floating around the web; a quote to the effect that you should thank the part of you that helped you get through this year before you start listing the improvements you’re going to make this year. That got me thinking. I post a monthly progress report about my writing. Listing how much stuff I finished, what I worked on and any sales and the like. I look through them and I get a little discouraged about my progress and my career. But I shouldn’t. I have published at least … Read more

Jeff Baker; Boogieman in Lavender. Brown Grass.

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Brown Grass By Jeff Baker A lot of things make me nostalgic this time of year, especially since I outlived my immediate family. I have some distant cousins I rarely see and some found family that I talked about in last December’s column. https://www.queerscifi.com/jeff-baker-boogieman-in-lavender-found-family/ All of them have been hugely supportive. But that’s not what I want to talk about. I live in Kansas. Driving from one town to the other involves covering a lot of ground, usually on the highway. Lots of farmland and a lot of grass by the roadside. In spring and summer that grass ought to … Read more

“Now What?” —-Jeff Baker, Boogieman In Lavender.

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Election Night I wrote a very angry, very scared, very depressed version of this column. Apparently a lot of voters voted against their own self-interest and against society’s. Events like confidential documents probably shared with our country’s enemies and the attempted overthrow of an election in January 2021 have sunk down the collective memory hole of the American people. I’m upset, I’m depressed and I’m angry. All at people who should know better. People who voted and will probably be surprised at a tide of vengeance coming from the White House next year. People who voted for a guy who … Read more

U=(N/T)M*G: Meltdown

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Computer chip

I guess Google had a meltdown? It lasted long enough for people to notice? I must have been at the day job when that happened and missed it. It’s pretty funny how weird that sounds. I first jumped online as a wee teenager back when AOL and Netscape were the major players, when dial up was the only way to get online. When the first Diablo game was super popular. If something like Google crashed back then, we’d collectively shrug and find a different search engine. No big deal. Not to get political about this, but this is why monopolies … Read more

Boogieman In Lavender: Ban This Book!!!!! (Now That I Have Your Attention…)

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books - deposit photos

AUTHOR’S NOTE: I had planned on running something for Halloween (in fact had it already been written.) But disturbing trends call for something else for this, the October of our discontent. October is in the air. Halloween, falling leaves, football. And book bans and challenges are roaring into high gear. A decade or so ago, Conservative talk radio would grumble about “The American Library Association and their Banned Book Week,” claiming that “no books are being banned” even as they slyly attempted to remove books from libraries and bookstores. Now, with more conservative-friendly judges and organizations energized we see supposed … Read more

U=(N/T)M*G: ISS

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International Space Station floating right above curved edge of Earth.

I saw this in the news a few weeks ago and only got around to reading what was going on in the last couple of days. I gotta say, I’m pretty damned sad its come to this. Russia has decided it will no longer participate in the ISS after 2024. This ISS is an amazing triumph for humanity, not just the US and Russia. It was a symbol of hope for a lot of people, that no matter what drama was happening on the political stage, those who could actually do good for our world were still working together without … Read more