The Girl in the Spider’s Web – Book Review

I just finished reading the fourth book in the Millennium series (which sounds better than admitting that this is book four of the Dragon Tattoo Trilogy). So, let me start with some background and then I’ll tell you what I thought about the book.

The original trilogy (by Stieg Larsson) which began with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was published, first in Sweden, after the author’s death in 2004. It became an international bestseller and eventually spawned four motion pictures. (Just my opinion, but the Swedish movies are the best. Subtitled or in dubbed English, they are excellent! The American version of the first book directed by David Fincher and starring Daniel Craig was underwhelming enough that nobody bothered to make the next two. And the newest movie, based on the fourth book, recently appeared on a list of the year’s worst movies. I haven’t seen it yet, but maybe I’ll review it once I’ve seen it.)

The publisher, with the cooperation of the author’s family, enlisted another Swedish author, David Lagercrantz, to continue the series. This book is his first attempt at recreating the magic of the series. (Supposedly, the partner of the original author claims to have a laptop containing an almost completed original fourth book along with outlines and notes for additional books to comprise a ten book series. Interesting!)

So, here’s my take on the new book. I liked it, but honestly, I wasn’t blown away or anything. On the positive side, the book does a good job of staying true to the characters, in particular the two main ones, Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist. (It’s been a while since I read the original, but I do think Lisbeth is a bit too talkative in this one. I seem to remember her being a lot less loquacious.) And the story is decent, although mainly an action/adventure and less a psychological thriller. Overall, it’s an okay crime novel, and it’s good to see the character of Lisbeth Salander live on!

Now for the negatives. Spoiler alert – the two main characters don’t appear together for 99.9% of the novel. They spend practically the entire book communicating, infrequently, by email or phone! So much for continuing the obvious chemistry between the two of them.

Secondly, the main villain, Camilla Salander is also a disappointment in many ways. Based on her description, the evil twin sister of Lisbeth, a mysterious and shadowy underworld crime boss, I was intrigued, but then she basically shows up for about five or six pages and is pretty much invisible for the rest of the book. And again, spoiler alert – she and Lisbeth never appear together! So, no big sister showdown.

Finally, the ending of the book is somewhat blah. The villain and her main henchman get away and I couldn’t help feel like the whole thing was deliberately set up to produce a sequel, which apparently has already been published. Because I do love the main characters, I will probably read it as well, and when I do, perhaps I will write another review. Until then, keep reading! It’s good for you!

The Latest Presidential Tweet Over-Reaction

Once again, the Democrats (with the help of their closest ally, the media), have declared the President to be a racist. Because what else can you do when you’re a Liberal and someone disagrees with you.

I remember (back in the 70s) when everyone proudly proclaimed “America – Love It or Leave It.” Hell, half the cars and trucks in the country had the bumper sticker! But now, when Donald Trump says basically the same thing to a group of our new baby Congress-persons, the Liberals on the Left suddenly have all their panties in a wad. (Sorry, couldn’t think of a better way to say it!)

Now, I will be the first to admit, our President (Yes, yours too) is often less tactful than he should be, but rude and tactless or not, the message is more than fair. I don’t care if you are a member of Congress, if you hate this country, then leave. And don’t let the door hit you on the butt on your way out! (Sorry again. LOL, not really.)

Here’s a reality check for the Democrats and the media who seem to have forgotten – you can attack that one person all you want and try to assign racist motives to everything he says or does, but there are another 63 million (or more) who share a lot of the same attitudes and beliefs. And we’re not racists either! We’re just people who love our country and who are sick and tired of seeing our flag, our anthem, and everything else symbolic of our country disrespected by people elected to serve this country.

We have governors and mayors and others gleefully promoting sanctuary policies and announcing their refusal to follow federal laws (and actively working to interfere with a federal agency). We have members of Congress who act as if their authority rivals that of the legitimately elected President. We have a captain of one of our national sports teams trying to celebrate victories by stomping on our flag. And we’re supposed to just sit back and pretend this is normal?

So, Donald Trump got 63 million votes (without the help of Russian collusion) and AOC got around 16,000 from her Congressional district, but she parades around as if she has some mandate from the people? Regardless of her zillion suspect Twitter followers, she hardly represents the view of the average American citizen. (Nor does the rest of the squad or Nancy Pelosi!)

So, how about we stop throwing out the race card and the feminist card and the rainbow one as well, and start dealing with the real problems we have in this country. You know instead of wasting time on useless, meaningless resolutions about tweets. Maybe we can start with the problem of elected officials who can’t seem to find a way to support their own country. Can I get an Amen?

The Census and the Supreme Court

Here’s a question for you: How many illegal immigrants are currently residing in the United States? (Sorry, didn’t mean to offend. How many non-citizens without the legal authority to be here are living in our country? Better?) The answer depends on your source of information and the exact number may vary greatly. The PEW Research Center, a commonly cited authority, says 10.5 million. MPI, the Migration Policy Institute, says 11 million. A paper written by three professors from the Yale School of Management says between 16 to 29 million. Political commentators seemingly pick whatever figure suits their particular argument. So, who knows? Maybe we should count or something.

That brings us to the U.S. Census Bureau. According to the Constitution, the U.S. population must be counted every ten years. The next such count is scheduled for 2020. Recently, the President attempted to add a question to the survey regarding citizenship. Not surprisingly, the Liberal Left immediately filed a lawsuit to stop him.

Let’s consider the history. As early as 1820, the census asked residents about their citizenship status. Since then, the question has been asked in different ways many times, but not always. Apparently, there is a long form and a short form that are used for the census, and the question has most frequently been used on the long form which doesn’t go to everyone. Interesting enough, questions have been added and removed many times over the years, and the Supreme Court has rarely gotten involved in such routine matters.

This year, however, the courts are involved. As with everything this President endorses, the Left is sure to mount a vigorous challenge. If President Trump declared the sky to be blue, there would no doubt be a lawsuit before a Liberal federal judge before the end of the day. The media would spend the next week reporting it and maybe we could even get a special prosecutor to investigate the claims. In this case, not only did the challenge reach the highest court, but the supposedly Conservative Supreme Court ruled that the question of citizenship could not be added to the census. Wow!

What truly boggles the mind is their argument against the issue. According to Justice Roberts, the “sole stated reason seems to have been contrived.” So, basically, because they didn’t like the reasons given for asking, they won’t let the question be added. Justice Thomas was as dumbfounded as me stating, “For the first time ever, the Court invalidates an agency action solely because it questions the sincerity of the agency’s otherwise adequate rationale.” So instead of deciding the case on its merits, or in this instance, trying to determine if the question serves a legitimate purpose, five of our justices made their decision based on the motives of the President. Sad!

There are, of course, legitimate reasons for asking about citizenship, primarily federal funding and representation, both of which are calculated based on population. If certain states (for example, California) claim a greater number of citizens than are actually residing there, they receive more federal money and a higher number of Representatives in the U.S. House. Other states then suffer by receiving less money and fewer Representatives than they deserve.

And how does California claim a greater population? By counting enormous numbers of non-citizens! Now, these may be wonderful people, but should they be gaining the benefit of federal money, or to be more accurate, our tax dollars? Or should our hard earned taxes be used to benefit American citizens first? And representation? How do non-citizens deserve any form of representation in our federal government? But the Supreme Court thinks these are not good enough reasons to ask about citizenship on the census?

Let’s use some common sense. If we’re going to spend the time and money to do a census as mandated by law, why shouldn’t we use the opportunity to learn some things about our population? Information is power. Information helps us make wise decisions. In this case, information helps us allot federal funds appropriately and ensure fair and equal representation in Congress. And if we aren’t going to use the census to gain knowledge, maybe we should just go house to house with a clipboard and use tally marks to count heads. Again, anyone think some common sense should be applied here?

(By the way, regarding the PEW Research Center mentioned earlier. When they estimate the number of illegal immigrants in our country, they start by using general population figures. And where do they get these numbers? The U.S. Census Bureau. You know, the government agency that isn’t allowed to just ask. In which case, we wouldn’t need to bother the PEW folks for an estimate.)

The Little Mermaid and a New Controversy

I recently came across a series of Twitter rants about the casting choice for Disney’s latest live-action remake. Honestly, when I saw a picture of the actress chosen, my first reaction was “Isn’t Ariel supposed to be a white girl with red hair?” About 2 seconds later, my brain actually kicked in and the absurdity of my first thoughts became obvious. Duh, fictional character!

In response to the announcement, the internet was flooded with lots of dumb people who seriously objected to the casting. Because of racism, right? Of course, the real shock (not really) came at the revelation that the majority of the viral tweets stirring up the controversy were in large part fake and not tied to real Twitter accounts. Leave it to the media to once again widen the racial divide in our country by reporting on these comments without bothering to check if they were even real.

For the record, the choice for the part is Halle Bailey, a nineteen year old singer/actress known as part of the singing group Chloe x Halle. Although I was not familiar with her, she seems to be an excellent choice and more than capable of handling the acting and performing the songs from the movie. Other casting choices are only rumors at this point and no release date for the project has been announced.

So about my initial reaction. I suppose it could be that I am just another racist white guy full of internal prejudices and hidden bias. (You know, like the media thinks we all are.) OR. Maybe it’s just that I’ve seen so many pictures of the cartoon Ariel over the years that the image is just stuck in my head. Obviously that image is in sharp contrast to the newly cast Ariel. No big surprise that anyone would notice a difference.

But the main thing is that different is perfectly okay. Disney aside, I am generally not a big fan of movie remakes. My frequent complaint is that Hollywood needs to stop copying itself and come up with more original stuff. I will occasionally watch a remake and when I do, I really expect that the new version will be different, in some small ways at least. It just seems a waste of time to remake a movie and follow the exact same storyline or script. If you don’t have anything new to add, or any new twists to reveal, just leave the movie alone.

Anyway, I have plenty of other reasons to not be a fan of Disney, but in all honesty, I hope the new Little Mermaid turns out great. And even though my kids are grown and I’m just an old white guy, I may even go and see it. But first I have to see the new Lion King!

The Democratic Debates – Dumpster Fire or Clown Show?

Prior to last week’s highly anticipated (LOL) Democratic Debates, someone on Twitter suggesting posting photos, memes, gifs, etc. to show what we might expect to see. Hilarity ensued! By far the majority of responses fell into two categories. Who knew there were so many videos depicting dumpsters on fire? Or so many pictures of clowns assembled?

Sadly, the debates themselves were not very funny. Shocking, maybe, but not funny. I confess that I did not watch either night. I did read the recaps the next day and watched several clips of some of the so-called highlights. Honestly, how could any American, in good conscience, vote for any of these people to be their President?

Should we pick the one who speaks Spanish the best? Or maybe just go with the one who promises the most free stuff? How about the one who promises to spend the most money killing babies? Or the one who plans to use the most of our taxpayer dollars to provide free health care for non-citizens? Seriously? Massive tax increases, open borders, anti-gun, anti-Christian, anti-Capitalism, impeach, impeach, impeach.

I realize that most of the Liberal Left passionately hate the President. And they hate the slogans Make America Great Again and America First and pretty much anything else promoted by him, but what’s so wrong about wanting your country to prosper? These candidates are apparently perfectly content to bankrupt the entire country if necessary to turn America into a socialist welfare state where the government is the great provider and everything is free. For some people anyway.

Unfortunately, the middle class will always bear the burden, working till the day we die to pay for all the free stuff we’ll never see. The rich will move their companies to other countries to avoid paying outrageous taxes. (And honestly, how is it fair to take 90% of someone’s earnings regardless of how much money they have?) The incentive to work will vanish when the government decides everyone gets an allowance whether they work or not. College will be free, but why bother to go? If you don’t have to work, why should anyone spend the time to prepare for a career?

Sorry, I’ve depressed myself enough for one day, mostly by thinking about how many people are likely planning to vote for one of these wackos no matter how outlandish their positions. Sad.

Will Gender Identity Ruin Women’s Sports?

Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with assigned sex at birth or can differ from it. (Wikipedia)

For fifteen years of my career in education, I coached girls’ sports. At various times and at various Texas high schools, I coached cross-country, volleyball, basketball, track, and tennis. Although I had not set out to coach girls, I took the first position I was offered and thanked God I had a job! Once I got started, I loved (almost) every minute of it.

When I first began (in the 80s), most of the young women I coached were decidedly less athletic than their male counterparts. Over the following years, I watched as they caught up. Granted there are still some small schools with poorly trained and coached athletes, but anyone watching women’s sports these days will find just how athletic the female can be. They are stronger, faster, and more highly skilled than the ladies I coached long ago, and they are a joy to watch.

Because of my love and admiration for female athletes, I have watched in wonder and horror as changes in society have had profound effects on women’s athletics. Title IX changed the face of sports for women. The feminist movement has empowered young women across our country. But now, the transgender movement, and Liberal politicians and their agendas are threatening to destroy all that has been built over the years. Recent legislation threatens to hasten the process. (Here’s a good article about the so-called Equality Act: https://reason.com/2019/05/16/equality-act-vote-in-house/)

Let me say up front, I am not in favor of discrimination. The problem with this act is that by expanding the definition of sex to include sexual orientation and gender identity, we are opening a Pandora’s box of epic proportions. (Gender identity is not just a slippery slope, it’s a whole damn mountain crashing down upon us!) I will ignore the tremendous political and societal impact for the time being and focus on just the effect such legislation will have on the future of women’s sports.

First, let’s take a moment to consider a few examples of transgender athletes in the news recently and how they have dominated their female competition. In Connecticut, the state track meet was hijacked by a couple of biological males who dominated the sprints. True female athletes had to be content with third place and down. https://pjmedia.com/trending/again-transgender-athletes-dominate-at-connecticut-girls-track-state-meet/

In Texas, a girl’s state championship in wrestling went to a transgender athlete for the second consecutive year. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2018/02/25/transgender-wrestler-mack-beggs-wins-second-texas-state-girls-championship/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.1068441eebec

And who would not be shocked by the devastating knockout suffered by the female athlete who had to face a biological male in the MMA ring? https://bjj-world.com/transgender-mma-fighter-fallon-fox-breaks-skull-of-her-female-opponent/

(As a conservative Christian, I have a definite opinion of the transgender movement. Without going into specifics, I will simply say that I have many problems with their beliefs. I am not trying in any way to impose my beliefs on others, but rather sharing my opinion on the impact on women’s sports. Allowing males, biological or otherwise, to compete against females will never be fair. At the risk of sounding very politically incorrect, there are profound physical differences in males and females. The best female athletes I ever coached could have competed against their male contemporaries, but they were the rare exceptions. The average female athlete will always be at a disadvantage when forced to compete against male athletes, regardless of the labels they wear.)

But the transgender athlete is just the tip of the iceberg. The biggest issue at the moment is that by protecting everyone under the banner of gender identity, many are at the point of seriously considering granting anyone the right to compete based entirely on their own preference. By that logic, any man who chooses to self-identify as a woman will be free to jump onto the track or field or into the ring and dominate the female competitors. Are we seriously willing to allow this to happen? Where are all the feminists who have fought for so many years to protect the rights of women? Have those rights now disappeared in order to satisfy the demands of those who claim gender is fluid and anyone can be anything they want if they just wish it so?

Of course, several well known female athletes including Martina Navratilova have spoken out only to be vilified by the Left. I’m not a big fan of Piers Morgan, but let me share a clip in which he clearly points out the potential problems we can anticipate if we don’t put an end to this nonsense. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I75kfAVF64A

In conclusion, I will admit, I don’t have all the answers to the problem. I do have some opinions. The strongest one is simple – let’s do all we can to preserve women’s sports and keep them pure. I don’t really know where all those other non-biological female athletes will have to go to compete, but let’s keep them out of women’s competitions or simply put, those sports will cease to exist. And that would be a tremendous loss.

Representing Your Country Poorly

I confess to not being a real fan of soccer. Still, I will watch the highlights and pull for the American teams when the World Cup and other international competitions roll around. I was truly saddened to read a recent article about the pathetic Megan Rapinoe who has to decided to put herself before team and do her best to make it all about her.

https://sports.yahoo.com/megan-rapinoe-national-anthem-sing-us-soccer-world-cup-211549494.html?.tsrc=daily_mail&uh_test=1_12

I remember her kneeling for the anthem a few years ago and thinking how stupid it was. If you are playing for the national team, representing your country on the world stage, how can you disrespect your country and it’s anthem and flag? Makes no sense to me. If our country is such an embarrassment to you, find another place to play.

She no doubt has the ability and talent to compete at the top level, but seriously, you put on the red, white, and blue uniform with USA boldly emblazoned on it, and you have the nerve to say you only stand because the cowardly organization passed a rule making you, but you won’t put your hand over your heart or sing that song. What a farce!

She claims she was inspired by Colin Kaepernick and his social justice stance. I call BS on them both. I wish I could be as oppressed as these world famous athletes who have privileges I will never see. If you are sincere in your beliefs, then do something. And I don’t mean some symbolic gesture that shines a spotlight on you and how wonderful and caring a person you are. (At least CK is spending some of his millions on social programs to help underprivileged kids.)

I guess I’m just really tired of all these athletes and celebrities who feel their political opinions should count for more than the rest of us. Maybe they should just shut up and do their jobs. On the other hand, maybe I’m being a bit hypocritical myself. I do believe that athletes and others in the public eye should strive to be (positive) role models. I guess I expect them to show more by their actions and less by their sometimes empty words. Just my opinion.

Anyway, back to our team captain. In addition to her stance on the anthem, I also question her leadership in general. Already our team has drawn criticism for vigorously celebrating meaningless, late goals against comparatively weaker opponents. Celebrations that include our wonderful captain. Back when I coached, I always thought the choice of team captain was crucially important. Who you pick to represent your team as captain says a lot about your team and its members. Maybe we should have picked a better person to represent us, someone who better represents our country. Since we are the USA national team, you know.