It's Official: The Government is Broken

The reboot cast of The Three Stooges, with Ted Cruz a very convincing Moe

Today, the federal government does the unthinkably self-destructive act and refuses to raise the debt ceiling. Don't for a moment fool yourself that this is a repeat of 1996. The House of Representatives this time is far more hardline than it was in the previous shutdown. The Representatives are far less responsive to their constituents. Many of them are millionaires themselves in the pockets of  billionaires. Many have jobs lined up with companies for which they've done favors. This time there's going to be no retraction.

The economic dimension of this crisis is also worse. In the '90s it was just Congress refusing to fund the government, and only did it short term. Now Congress is refusing to pay debts for money that's already spent, for programs it already approved. The government is going deadbeat. Economically, I'm afraid this will be an unmitigated disaster. If it goes on for months, it might make the troubles 2008-2009 look like average years.

I smell a rat.

Is Ginger up to no good, here?

Anytime you introduce a character by counterpointing her with a rodent or weasel, that says something bad about the character.

How to form a writers' group.

My writers' group has been the best educational experience of my life. I won't give the name of the group, because we're on the edge of being victims of our own success. We have a simple game plan. Write, read, critique, and meet to do it face-to-face every week. Members bring their work in, pass out copies and read it aloud one-by-one. That's the procedure for fact, fiction or poetry. If it's a screenplay or stage script, the member assigns parts and has people read them aloud. A person can read or play out 2,000 words maximum. Then the rest of the writers can either give live critiques or write them (and any corrections) on the copies, which are also used to make minor corrections.

And I've been finishing 2,000 words every week. There were two weeks I took a vacation because the novel went off track and I was stressed-out over it. But I came back with the story straightened out and ready to progressed.