The Writer's Life 7/15 - Hobgoblins

In an op-ed piece in today's NY Post, Bjorn Lomborg takes on the intransigence of one of liberalism's sacred cows. Here's an excerpt: "Calling GMO food 'Frankenfood' is a brilliant scare-mongering term, heavily promoted by Greenpeace. But it has no basis in reality. Just a couple of months ago, the National Academies of Sciences found in its latest report that GMO's 'are as safe as' non-GMO foods. The European Union has concluded after 130 research projects and 25 years of research that 'there is, as of today, no scientific evidence associating GMO's with higher risks for the environment or for food and feed safety than conventional plants and organisms.' And the American Association for the Advancement of Science concludes that 'the science is quite clear: crop improvement by the modern molecular techniques of biotechnology is safe.' Why, then, does Greenpeace insist these foods could be 'a threat to human and environmental health?' When it comes to global warming, Greenpeace and other environmental organizations are quite clear. They correctly insist that we should listen to the overwhelming scientific evidence that global warming is real and will cause significant problems. Yet they ignore the overwhelming science on GMO's." Ralph Waldo Emerson is often quoted as having said: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." In this instance, Greenpeace is the hobgoblin.

British publishing house Hesperus has announced it will translate and release a novella by Saddam Hussein, who is credited with having written several other novels, although it is suspected they were ghosted. The release date is scheduled for December, just in time to add it to the Christmas list.

I usually post where the floating book shop will be and what time. Given that the heat index was supposed to be in the triple digits, I didn't advertise on Facebook or Twitter. I'm 66 and not nearly as tough as I used to be. During the first hour of today's session, I doubted I'd put in my usual three, despite be armed with bottled water. I stayed in the shade the entire time and parked my butt on the ledge that surrounds the garden of the apartment building many more times than usual. Nobody said it was going to be easy -- and it wasn't, but I somehow put three hours in. Perhaps I'm a hobgoblin as well The cloud cover and occasional breeze negated the heat a bit. My thanks to the woman who purchased Richard Adams' Watership Down and Anita Diamint's The Red Tent, to the gentleman who bought the two works of non-fiction, to Herbie, who donated a Reader's Digest edition of four abridged novels, and the FedEx Guy, who donated a large tome on the deaths of every president up to Gerald Ford. They certainly are not hobgoblins. Afterward, I spent 45 minutes in the library cooling off, doing a crossword puzzle. There's no sense reading there, as people talk in regular conversational tones.

Vic's Short Works: http://tinyurl.com/jy55pzc

Vic's 5th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/okxkwh5Vic's 4th novel: tinyurl.com/bszwlxh

Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3

Vic's Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
Vic's Short Story Collection: http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tiny.cc/0iHLb Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/kx3d3uf
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tinyurl.com/l84h63j

Website: http://vicfortezzaauthor.my-free.website/