Because Fr. Baron is Awesome...

A typically awesome commentary from the inimitable Fr. Baron.  May he live long and prosper.

Battle LA

Yes, I actually saw a movie in the theater!  It happens about once or twice a year.  Actually, this year I’ hoping for a total of four.  In order, Battle LA (check), Thor (likely), Cars 2 (take the kids, almost certain) and Captain America (take my brother, very likely).  All in all, a banner year.  Enough of that though, on the review.

First and foremost, Battle LA is not really an alien invasion movie.  Sure, there are aliens running around trying to exterminate the human race, but that isn’t really the focus.  The focus is entirely on how the platoon of Marines headed by Aaron Eckhart’s Staff Sargaent Nantz deals with the situation.  Nantz, is of course the real focus of the story as we discover quickly when we are introduced to him running on the beach and getting passed by a bunch of younger, faster marines.  As the story moves forward we learn that he is planning on retiring, apparently unable to deal with the guilt and stigma of a tour in Iraq in which most (if not all) of his platoon died.  This of course makes the platoon he gets put in charge of more than a little nervous.  He does eventually win them over, first with a John Wayne moment in the middle of the movie and later with a speech about how the loss of his men in Iraq and the loss of his men that day eats at him constantly. 

I want to return to the John Wayne moment as it highlights some of the movie’s strongest points.  These points come together in the way Nantz behaves after he gets back from blowing up the drone that could have obliterated the platoon.  He isn’t high fiving and saying things like “No problem,” or “yippy-ki-ay!”  John McClain, he isn’t.  Not that I have a problem with Mr. McClain, this just isn’t that kind of movie.  Instead Nantz makes is way to the back of the bus, sits down and shakes.  He may be a hero but he knows he isn’t invulnerable either.  This realism and the way Eckhart pulls it off so convincingly are my favorite parts of the movie.  The rest of the performances area solid, from the father-son relationship of a couple of the civilians they rescue to Michelle Rodriguez doing her typical tough-chick routine, no one really disappoints.

In conclusion, the movie has been called Black Hawk Down with aliens.  Having seen Black Hawk Down just a couple of weeks before seeing Battle LA, I completely agree.  Both are war movies that are more about the people getting shot at than they are about the shooting.  My only complaint about Battle LA is that the ending is too…easy.  Since, this one hasn’t made to video yet, I won’t ruin it but if you are like me, you’ll be willing to overlook the ending in light of how awesome the rest of the movie is.  So, if you haven’t seen it yet, get yourself to a cheap theater or save it on your Netflix cue as soon as you can.  You won’t regret it.

Next:  Thor!

Japan Nuke Plants in a nutshell

First, sorry this took so long.  Work was pretty darn busy all last week and home life is by its nature insane so I just had no time to work on this.  So, let’s get down to business.

The earthquake triggered a shutdown of the plants, which initially went as planned.  The problem was that darned tsunami.  The first thing to note here is that the site was designed to handle a 6.5 meter tsunami.  The one that hit was 7 meters.  Yes, a lousy foot and a half of water is what caused all this mess.  In any case, the tsunami took out at least one of the emergency diesels directly and got the other one either by taking out some power lines or the fuel source.  I don’t have that much detail.  It was at this point that things began to get a little crazy.

Without the diesels , the coolant pumps continued to work off of batteries but after they went out (eight hours if I remember right), the pumps stopped and some important valves failed closed.  That is actually one of the odd things; why on earth would emergency cooling valves fail closed on a loss of power?  Perhaps there was a good reason or perhaps the layout of the plant prevents the establishment of any natural circulation anyway. 

In any case, from here, the water in the core just got hotter and hotter, boiling into steam and increasing pressure in the containment while also reducing the level of liquid in the core itself.  As we know, the pressure was dealt with by releasing the steam into the service floor enclosure.  This would have been fine except that the hydrogen and oxygen in the water had become separated, forming an explosive mixture that went boom.  Now, recall that this is a BWR, with the steam basically coming straight from the core itself.  It was these releases that are responsible for the food and land contamination that you have heard about.

As for the water in the core, the solution as we know has been to keep the core covered with seawater.  Unfortunately, this didn’t happen until the core had been up to ¾ uncovered.  That is very bad, at least for the plant.  Essentially there is no doubt that there was at least a partial core meltdown in at least two plants.  Put simply, they’ll never work again.

Since then, we know that there have controlled on uncontrolled releases of contaminated water into the ocean.  Fortunately, most of the contamination is due to iodine so it will decay quickly.  However, there was so much of it that at least some of the water was 100 Rem on contact (just found that out the other day).  That is HUGE!  You don’t want to be anywhere near that stuff.  It most likely won’t kill you, but it will make you very sick for a very long time.  And if you stay around it to long (say a few hours) it will kill you.  Or turn you into a superhero.  

As for the radiation in general, the area of the site only got up to an average of 12millisieverts or 1.2 Rem/hour with some areas peaking at 400mSv or 40R/hr.  The 40R/hr is bad, don’t walk, run out of that field if you can help it.  The 1.2R/hr general area dose rate is also a lot hotter than anything I have to deal with but it shouldn’t hurt you unless you spend all day in such a field, and even then, it should only make you sick. 

Concerning the way TEPCO has handled things, it would seem to me that for the most part they have done a good job, except in certain instances such as when they claimed that plutonium found on site was left over from old weapons testing.  Also, they apparently don’t play nice with WANO which is a global monitoring agency for nuke plants.  I’m willing to get that that will change or they’ll get out of the nuclear industry all together.  We’ll see. 

Finally, it would seem that they finally have their leak plugged so it should be all uphill from here.

One more thing.  I wanted to just say that the guys who stayed behind to restore emergency power to those plants are nothing short of amazing and should be recognized as the heroes they are.  I read some leaked emails and those guys were working for days even weeks without sleep or food, not knowing what happened to their families in the tsunami.  Please pray for them. 

One last thing.  If you want to see the plant for yourself, you can find it on Google Earth.  Just type in Fukushima, move to the eastern coast, zoom in and scroll south.  When you come to an obviously industrial site that has four primary rectangular buildings in a row, only three of the buildings aren’t so rectangular any more, you’re there.  The destruction that you will see is the result of the hydrogen explosions. 

Someone has done my work for me.

We got a powerpoint from Areva the other day at work.  Areva is one of the bigger and better contractors in the industry, so they have some good info on what happened.  Unfortunately, I can't post the powerpoint for some reason or another so I'll need a day or two to distill it.  I'll post the results afterwards.  After that, maybe I can get to some other things.

What is Contamination and Radiation?

Contamination is something that we have heard about a lot in the news lately.  However, as with most things in the news explanations have been sorely lacking.  So here is a brief primer on contamination and radiation.

Contamination is basically radioactive material in a place where it isn't suppossed to be.  It comes from a number of places such as byproducts of the fission process itself or from materials that have been "activated" by exposure to radiation.  That is, the energy from the fission process has actually rendered normally non-radioactive materials radioactive by adding energy to their atoms and making them unstable.  Contamination typically origniates in the reactor core, and is then carried around in the primary coolant.  Through various leaks in different systems and planned transfers to others the contaminated coolant makes its way to various areas of the plant.  The leaks of course present the biggest hazard for the spread of contamination.  Even when the water dries, it will leave the radioactive material behind to possibly be carried into the air or picked up on a boot or a tool.
Raidation is essentially the energy emitted from and unstable material.  It takes the form of gamma particles, beta particles (electrons), alpha particles (two protons and two neutrons, basically the nucleus of a helium atom), and neutrons.  The alpha particles are the most likely to cause damage as they have most mass and are the slowest moving and are therefore more likely to interact with the cells of your body, the can however, be stopped by a piece of paper.  Betas have less mass and are faster moving and so require more material to stop them, such as your clothes.  Gammas have little to no mass and move very fast and so will likely pass right through you without doing anything.  However, they are also the most plentiful form of radiation and so this is the kind to most wary of.  Basically, a handfull of pebbles won't hurt you much but a storm of them will.  Neutrons have mass but no electrical charge and so are unlikely to interact.  However, this also makes them harder to stop, like the gammas.  They also have a relatively large amount of mass making them dangerous when they do interact.  However, they are only present in appreciable quantities during the actual fission process. 
How dangerous a given piece of contamination is depends entirely on its makeup, that is, what sorts of fission products are present and how much?  Obviously, more material means more radiation which means more danger.  Also, if the contamination is largely something like nitrogen 16, it will not be dangerous for long as this has a half-life of minutes or hours.  Something like iodine has a half-life of days.  Potasium (like in your bannana) has a longer half-life.  The longer the half-life, the longer a bit of contamination will remain dangerous.

That's it for the primer.  Later this week, we'll start to get into exactly what the heck went on in Japan and how it will affect us here.

App on Fire

If you haven't checked out Fr. Rober Barron's blog and ministry Word on Fire, you need to do it now.  Actually, you need to do it last month.  He offers articles on everything from anti-Catholicism, abortion, doctrine, and reviews on popular movies.   As you can imagine, I particularly enjoy the latter.  There is also an igadget app which provides easy access to all of his movies reviews, sermons, etc.  Get over the App Store and download the free Word on Fire app now!  Really, stop reading this and go now.  Oh, here's a link to his website:  http://www.wordonfire.org/Home.aspx

How Does Nuclear Power Work - Part 2

In the United States, we have two basic kinds of reactors.  These are Pressureized Water Reactors (PWR) and Boiling Water Reactors (BWR).  In a PWR, the reactor is cooled by water that is kept under high pressure to keep it from boiling.  The water is pumped to a steam generator, which is basically as very large heat exchanger.  The primary coolant flows through little tubes which are completely covered by what is typically called the feedwater.  This feed water then gets hot and turns to steam which then makes it way to the turbine.  The turbine blades spin a shaft that is connected to a generator at the other end, providing relative motion between a current carrying conductor and a magnetic field which generates the electricity that powers this laptop.  The steam goes from the turbine to a condenser and is then pumped back to the steam generator.  There are losses along the way which are replenished by water from a nearby water source, either a lake, a river or even a man-made pond.

BWRs differ primarily in the fact that the water boils in the core and the steam goes directly from there to the turbine.  Otherwise the process is the same. 

That one difference leads to others though, such as the fact that BWRs are potentially contaminated throughout the whole system with the entire plant being what is called a radiologically controlled area (RCA).  In a PWR then, there is an extra layer of separation between the fission products in the core and the rest of the world.  Naturally, this is something of an advantage is certain circumstances.  BWRs have the advantage of being cheaper and easier to run due to the fewer number of systems that need to be maintained.

Now, what I said about BWRs sounds bad from a radiation standpoint.  In our next installment we’ll take a quick

How Does Nuclear Power Work - Part 1

This is the first of a series of articles concerning the situation at the nuclear power plants in Japan.  I’m keeping it simple for two reasons.  The first is length; the second is the fact that most people don’t know much about it.  So going into detail would likely go over most people’s heads.  Still, if anyone wants more info, I’ll do my best to provide it.  I guess a third reason is that going into a lot of detail would also require me to do some review so as I don’t provide confusing information.  But again, I’m more that willing if anyone asks.  Here it goes.

First thing to keep in mind is that all non-renewable power  (coal, gas, oil, nukes) all amount to fancy ways to boil water.  The only difference is how the heat is being generated.  Nuclear of course generates an awful lot of energy for the mass involved. 

We start with a bunch of uranium.  There are numerous different versions of this element that are found in nature and still others that are produced through enrichment processes.  Most reactors need one kind of enriched uranium or another.  Some, such as the CANDU reactors used in Canada can pretty much process the raw ore and can even be refueled online.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.  Why uranium?  Uranium is a heavy element.  If you look at a periodic table, you will see that it is way down there with a big dang number.  The bigger the number, generally the more unstable the element is.  That is, it naturally decays into something else, emitting energy in the form of subatomic particles.  This is what makes it useful for nuclear power.  Get enough of it in one contained place, such as a nuclear reactor core and what happens is that the particles emitted through natural decay get absorbed by other uranium atoms, rendering them more unstable so that they decay faster, and so on until the energy is enough that that atoms split, releasing a ton of energy and leading to a self-sustaining reaction.  The reaction is controlled by a combination of controlling the temperature and pressure of the coolant, altering the amount of boron (which absorbs neutrons emitted by the fission reactions and helps slow the reaction) and control rod position (which are also loaded with neutron absorbing material).

Next, we'll  look at the difference between a PWR and a BWR reactor. 

What makes a person an atheist?

This is just a couple random thoughts and not really an essay yet. 
I think that what makes many people an atheist is the same thing that makes a person a fundamentalist.  That would be a desire to understand everything and if one cannot wrap one's head around something, or reconcile it with seemingly contradictory thoughts, then it must not exist.  Thus, the fundamentalist cannot figure out how to reconcile evolution with Genesis and so rejects evolution.  The atheist cannot reconcile miracles with materialism and so rejects miracles.  Usually, one holds such views from an early age and doesn't alter them much, if at all as the years go by.  However, sometimes one becomes the other.  This happens when one does begin to ask questions and finds that there are not good answers in his current belief system.  From there, he rejects the one and embraces the other, but maintaining that desire to understand everything.  Thus, the fundamentalism is just as strong, just from the opposite end of the spectrum.

The Japan Nukes

As some know, I work at a nuclear power plant.  Because of this, I am naturally interested in what is going on with the Japanese reactors following that horrible natural disaster.  I am also extremely annoyed with the way the media has been covering the situation.  First, let me just say that yes, the situation is bad.  But it is not "dire" and doesn't threaten the whole of Japan or anything like that.  Most of the reporting on levels of radiation in and around the plant are obviously not written by people who know anything about nuclear power.  I plan to work on a long post about the situation and make it somewhat educational to boot.  For now, I offer my prayers for the men who have stayed behind to get things under control.  I also offer a minor briefing we got on the first hours of the incident as a hold over.  As I said, it only covers the first few hours of the incident and thus is somewhat old news but here you go:

American Nuclear Society Backgrounder:
Japanese Earthquake/Tsunami; Problems with Nuclear Reactors
3/12/2011 5:22 PM EST
To begin, a sense of perspective is needed… right now, the Japanese earthquake/tsunami is clearly a
catastrophe; the situation at impacted nuclear reactors is, in the words of IAEA, an "Accident with
Local Consequences."
The Japanese earthquake and tsunami are natural catastrophes of historic proportions. The death toll is
likely to be in the thousands. While the information is still not complete at this time, the tragic loss of
life and destruction caused by the earthquake and tsunami will likely dwarf the damage caused by the
problems associated with the impacted Japanese nuclear plants.
What happened?
Recognizing that information is still not complete due to the destruction of the communication
infrastructure, producing reports that are conflicting, here is our best understanding of the sequence of
events at the Fukushima I‐1 power station.
 The plant was immediately shut down (scrammed) when the earthquake first hit. The automatic
power system worked.
 All external power to the station was lost when the sea water swept away the power lines.
 Diesel generators started to provide backup electrical power to the plant’s backup cooling
system. The backup worked.
 The diesel generators ceased functioning after approximately one hour due to tsunami induced
damage, reportedly to their fuel supply.
 An Isolation condenser was used to remove the decay heat from the shutdown reactor.
 Apparently the plant then experienced a small loss of coolant from the reactor.
 Reactor Core Isolation Cooling (RCIC) pumps, which operate on steam from the reactor, were
used to replace reactor core water inventory, however, the battery‐supplied control valves lost
DC power after the prolonged use.
 DC power from batteries was consumed after approximately 8 hours.
 At that point, the plant experienced a complete blackout (no electric power at all).
 Hours passed as primary water inventory was lost and core degradation occurred (through some
combination of zirconium oxidation and clad failure).
 Portable diesel generators were delivered to the plant site.
 AC power was restored allowing for a different backup pumping system to replace inventory in
reactor pressure vessel (RPV).
 Pressure in the containment drywell rose as wetwell became hotter.
 The Drywell containment was vented to outside reactor building which surrounds the
containment.
 Hydrogen produced from zirconium oxidation was vented from the containment into the reactor
building.
 Hydrogen in reactor building exploded causing it to collapse around the containment.
 The containment around the reactor and RPV were reported to be intact.
 The decision was made to inject seawater into the RPV to continue to the cooling process,
another backup system that was designed into the plant from inception.
 Radioactivity releases from operator initiated venting appear to be decreasing.
Can it happen here in the US?
 While there are risks associated with operating nuclear plants and other industrial facilities, the
chances of an adverse event similar to what happened in Japan occurring in the US is small.
 Since September 11, 2001, additional safeguards and training have been put in place at US
nuclear reactors which allow plant operators to cool the reactor core during an extended power
outage and/or failure of backup generators – “blackout conditions.”
Is a nuclear reactor "meltdown" a catastrophic event?
 Not necessarily. Nuclear reactors are built with redundant safety systems. Even if the fuel in the
reactor melts, the reactor's containment systems are designed to prevent the spread of
radioactivity into the environment. Should an event like this occur, containing the radioactive
materials could actually be considered a "success" given the scale of this natural disaster that
had not been considered in the original design. The nuclear power industry will learn from this
event, and redesign our facilities as needed to make them safer in the future.
What is the ANS doing?
ANS has reached out to The Atomic Energy Society of Japan (AESJ) to offer technical assistance.
ANS has established an incident communications response team.
This team has compiling relevant news reports and other publicly available information on the ANS blog,
which can be found at ansnuclearcafe.org.
The team is also fielding media inquiries and providing reporters with background information and
technical perspective as the events unfold.
Finally, the ANS is collecting information from publicly available sources, our sources in government
agencies, and our sources on the ground in Japan, to better understand the extent and impact of the
incident.

Where have I been?

Been busy. Lots of work and NPR much time to spend on the computer at home. Hopefully post some info on the Japanese reactors tomorrow or the next day. You can see what I plan on posting at Mark Shea's blog if you don't want to wait. All for now since I have to be at work at four in the morning.

Good News!

Remember, Sayed Mussa, the Christian imprisoned in Afghanistan?  They let him out!  Praise God.  The best part is that I found out from my congressman.  Here's the email he sent.

Thank you for contacting me with your concerns with Sayed Mussa's imprisonment in Afghanistan. I appreciate hearing from you.
 
Afghanistan's Constitution, established in 2004, guarantees that people are "free to exercise their faith." But it also leaves it open for the courts to rely on Shariah, or Islamic law, on issues like conversion. Under some interpretations of Shariah, leaving Islam is considered apostasy, an offense punishable by death. Sayed Mussa was jailed in Kabul last year for converting from Islam to Christianity. As you may have heard, due to international pressure, Mr. Mussa was released from prison and has reportedly left Afghanistan.
 
Through the U.S. Embassy and Department of State, the United States has consistently promoted human rights with Afghanistan, including educating the Afghan government on the issue of religious freedom. I have serious concerns with the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and hope that the United States will continue to do all it can to promote religious freedom and tolerance.
 
Thank you again for sharing your concerns with me.
 

Sincerely,
Bill Huizenga
Member of Congress

Atheism

Recently, I have uncovered a reason to explore the phenomenon of atheism.  This will probably lead to another intermittent series of essays on its causes, effects, basic features, etc.  Should be fun.  In a sobering sort of way.  Anyway, to get that started, here is a link to post that is something of a biography of the blogger formerly known as the Raving Atheist, now known as the Raving Theist.  Enjoy.

http://www.elizabethesther.com/2010/03/a-conversation-with-former-atheist-blogger-raving-theist.html

Updates

At last, my basement is complete.  I have also managed to organize my library.  And beat Arkham Asylum.  So, I've been busy.  I've also started doing some preliminary work on getting some pro-life stuff going at my parish.
Hopefully, I will also be disciplining myself to blog some more with all of this spare time during Lent.

Genre Fiction as Literature

Like many men of my generation, I enjoy what is typically referred to as genre fiction, that is science fiction and fantasy as it is presented both in print and on film. In fact, I think that I am probably a bigger fan most, with an extensive array of quotes and pop culture references at my disposal, often so obscure that even other nerds don’t get them right away. However, almost since the advent of literary and film criticism, these genres have been dismissed as irrelevant by the critics.

Now, to be honest, there is good reason for this. In most science fiction and fantasy, there is a great deal of action, slender women in revealing clothing carrying huge swords and/or lasers and a cadre of adjectives that even Roger and his thesaurus find daunting but very little in the way of plot and character development. Even in classics such as the Martian Tales books by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the story exists solely to serve the action and the whole comes off as though Burroughs was simply writing out his childhood fantasies. There is much better out there of course but the bulk of it really is junk fiction.

In recent years though, there has been a growing appreciation of the fact that there is also quality science fiction and fantasy out there. Literature has softened up a bit due in no small part to the crusading efforts of Stephen King who simply demands that quality be recognized no matter where it be found, and also the rise in popularity of things like Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and comic books. Film in particular has come recognize quality genre fiction. Iron Man was well received, District 9 was graced with a Best Picture nomination and Return of the King is one of the most decorated films in history.

Why the sudden turn around? It is hard to say. Personally, I think it has a lot to do with amount of money such properties bring in. That said, it is also possible that there is a genuine recognition of what such stories have to offer. Which brings me to the issue at hand, does genre fiction have something unique to offer as opposed to what is generally referred to as literature? Or if it doesn’t offer anything unique, does it at least present what is offers in not just a unique, but valid way?

Perhaps the most obvious thing differentiating literature from genre fiction is the setting. Literature is generally set in the real world, typically, but not always contemporary with the time and place of the author. They also concern events that could plausibly happen. Even the world war scenarios of Tom Clancy’s novels could possibly occur given the right circumstances. There are of course exceptions such as the gods and goddesses actions in the work of Homer. Such works are included in the canon of respectable literature for the simple reason that they have stood the test of time.

The ways in which genre fiction differ here are obvious. Lightsabers, giants, far away worlds in habited by aliens who send out black monoliths and trigger impossible novas are clearly not part of our everyday experience. Even in more restrained science fiction such that of Jules Verne, one finds ideas and props that are typically slightly beyond the current time and place. They are also very often essential to the story, sometimes absolutely so as in the case of H.G. Well’s Time Machine or the Martians of his War of the Worlds.

This brings us to another difference, the nature of the central conflict, or rather, the way the conflict is portrayed. In literature, the action is very often (though not always) character driven, filled with lots of dialogue or introspective narrative. And the conflict often involves a relationship, whether it be natural tension between personalities or the subtle class/social status conflict of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. The English Patient is driven by a love triangle, as is the movie The Piano; whatever the case, the issue at hand usually revolves around a relationship.

Social issues are also a central feature such as in the book and movie How Green Was My Valley about how the Industrial Revolution gradually tore apart a family in a small mining town in Wales.

There is of course plenty of plot-driven literature out there as well such as Homer, John Grisham, Tom Clancy and Michael Crichton (for the record, I am not putting any of these other guys in the same league as Homer, just making a point).

With science fiction and fantasy, the action and conflict are generally plot driven. There is a sword to be found, and alien invasion/meteor/virus/dragon to be stopped. Relationships are often important, the greatest example being the friendship of Frodo and Sam in the Lord of the Rings. Others abound such as the father and son relationship in Star Wars and friendship of Jim, Bones and Spock in Star Trek. However, these relationships are not necessarily what the story is about, or the mover of the action, regardless of how essential they may be to resolution of the action.

Superficially then, genre fiction is often about an invasion, the restoration of a kingdom, or some other outlandish set up. But such settings usually mask what the story is truly about. The aforementioned District 9, superficially is about one man’s transformation into a member of an alien race that he used to oppressing. What it is really about is racism, apartheid and how it takes walking in another man’s shoes (or skin) before one understands him. The novel War of the Worlds is at least in part about the scarcity of resources, while the movie is also about man’s tendency to descend into irrational fear on one hand and the power of faith on the other. Remember, at the end, everyone is praying in Church when the germs get the aliens. The stories of Philip K. Dick generally explore the nature of free will and just what it is that makes us human, such as in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (better known as Blade Runner). A lesser known work is the Pre-Persons which takes place in a world in which children can be aborted up to twelve years of age, the age at which (it has been decided) a person is able to handle basic algebra. The main character, an adult male, challenges this foolish notion by saying that he can’t remember how to do algebra and therefore must not be fully human either.

In the realm of fantasy, there is none greater than Tolkien and his Lord of the Rings. In this work, we find issues of destiny, sacrifice, the power of grace over physical might, the value of friendship, etc. Even more impressive is the fact that is was done unconsciously. All these were simply elements of the story he was trying to tell.

The point of all of this is to illustrate that not only do the highly imaginative settings and props of genre fiction not impede the exploration of serious ideas, they often aid it by throwing the ideas into sharper relief. In fact, it could be argued that in some ways genre fictions is better than mainstream literature at doing this. The settings allow for thought experiments that take many ideas of today out their logical, or at least logically possible conclusions (just think of how Huxley and Heinlein used trends in entertainment and manufacturing in Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451) which in turn provide excellent opportunities for exploring the human condition in ways that rarely seen in any other medium except formal philosophy. Mainstream literature is capable of this as well but it’s focus on present-day realism and the subjective experiences of the characters makes it much more difficult. Again, there are exceptions, such as the aforementioned Jane Austen and those works of fantasy and science fiction that have been around long enough to be accepted by the critics (Frankenstein, the works of Verne and Wells).

In terms of sheer literary achievement, a good genre fiction story also has much to boast about, considering that they can take characters in utterly fantastic situations and make them engaging believable. That takes a fair amount of talent as well as a thorough understanding of human nature. More conventional mainstream literature has a different, though no less difficult challenge; take characters living ordinary lives and make them interesting enough that you want to take a few hours out of your life to read about theirs. This ability is what made authors like Mark Twain, Shakespeare, and Austen famous. Both tasks are daunting and worthy of admiration, even if one prefers on brand over the other.

So, does genre fiction offer something substantial that mainstream literature does not? That is debatable. What I do hope to have show though is that genre fiction can do as good a job as mainstream literature at examining the highs and lows of human nature and even of exploring various issues of import. Happy readying.

Currently, in Afghanistan

I just found out about the story of a Christian jailed in Afghanistan who is awaiting execution for the crime of converting from Islam.  The story can be found over at www.ncregister.com.  Here's a copy of the letter that I sent to the appropriate politicians:

I have recently read an article about the plight of a prisoner in Afghanistan.  His crime is apparently being a Christian convert from Islam in a land where punishment for such conversion is death.  He somehow got a letter out that partially describes his incarceration and abuse by inmates and guards alike.  The following is an excerpt from the letter.  The full letter can be found at the Barnabas Fund (http://www.barnabasfund.org/Said-Musas-handwritten-letter.html).  His English is rudimentary but it is possible to understand what he is saying. 

“My name is Said Musa 45 years old. I have been working since 15 years as a Physiotherapist in I-C-R-C [International Committee of the Red Cross] orthopaedic centre in Kabul, Afghanistan. About four and a half months before by security force of Afghanistan I [was] captured, due to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Saviour of the world.

...Since that time I am in jail. The authority and prisoners in jail did many bad behaviour with me about my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. For example, they did sexual things with me, beat me by wood, by hands, by legs, put some things on my head, mocked me ‘He’s Jesus Christ’, spat on me, nobody let me for sleep night and day. Every person spat on me and beat me. Also the prosecutor wrote something wrong against me. He told from himself something wrong against me on my file.

Supposedly, our embassy has expressed concern and called for his release.  This needs more than concern.  After all, if this kind of government is going to be the result of our war on terrorism, what exactly are we or anyone else gaining from this war?  If we are going to let them set up such draconian laws, fine.  But we should get out now and let them fend for themselves instead of finding ourselves propping up yet another dictatorial regime in the name of national security.  Better still, we should enforce a minimum standard of human rights so that such things simply do not happen in countries that we support. 

They should just rename Detroit...

...and call it Gotham.  Just set it up with a bat-signal and call it a day.  Maybe you could even get some money from the WB for advertising.  Seriously though, I was just reading an article in the local paper about how bad the situation is and it is just staggering.  I've been there a couple of times in recent years and have found the city very depressing.  Here are some facts from the article:

Water (yes, water), garbage and ambulances are no t available in all parts of the city. 

A third of it (an area the size of Boston) is basically deserted.

The mayor's security vehicle was left on blocks.

To his credit, mayor Bing is trying hard to turn it around but he really needs our prayers.

The Big Time!

My brother just emailed me the following link:  http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/reviews/view.cfm?recnum=4460 in which Catholic Culture reviews his website.  And very favorably I might add. This makes me happy for two reason's; it's my brother's creation and I also contribute on occasion.  Anyway, get yourself over to catfoundations.com and start reading.

Local Racism and local reactions

So, early last week, so moron on the campus of local Hope College posts a flier for a mock fraternity with a message akin to the KKK's brand of hate.  Naturally, the school board reacts, disciplining the student responsible and issuing some statement disavowing the whole thing.   You can check that out here.
What that little report fails to tell you is that students were not only responding to the flier but also the college's response.  The local paper, Holland Sentinel reported that students were at least responding to the wording of the college's statement, which signaled out the African-American students as gracing the campus.  Now, the students are not of course protesting the idea that African-Americans are a valuable part of the student body.  Rather, they are upset at the notion that they are more valuable.  Essentially, they're saying "They are no different than us!  We are all people and valuable!"  Basically, they echo a statement that Morgan Freeman recently made on 60 minutes, which was basically, "If want to get rid of racism, stop talking about race all the time."  Seems simple enough to me.
I'll grant that this seems a little overly sensitive on the part of the student body, but it still represents a way of looking at racial issues that I would like to see a lot more of. 

Knights of Columbus and Respect for Life

Well, recently I joined the local Knights of Columbus Respect Life committee.  How does one join?  By showing up of course!  Anyway, I'll be working on rounding up some education materials and trying my hand at organizing an event or two along the way so any prayers or suggestions would be welcome.