Welcome to the Mockingjay

I've been thinking about starting this for a while; I already have a blog, but it is a blog for an organization to which I belong and is for said organization rather than my own personal playing field. So that's where "The Mockingjay" comes in; this is my personal blog, for what it's worth, where I can post...well, whatever I want. Hopefully it leans toward being erudite rather than whatever comes to mind.
What's my goal? Yes, I do actually have a goal aside from having an outlet for my personal thoughts. My idea is that this will not only be a place to share any thoughts, especially reviews of books I read or what few movies I see, but this is a place dedicated to shining the light of truth upon false claims and ridiculous ideas of all stripes. Too much passes for knowledge and information that is utterly untrue, irrational or simply stupid, and in the last few years my tolerance for this has grown progressively lower. Time for Reason to push back against irrationality.
Why "The Mockingjay"? Aside from the fact that I enjoyed Collin's "Hunger Games" trilogy, the Mockingjay bears the same symbolism here as it does in the books. For those who haven't yet had the joy of reading these books, the mockingjay was originally intended as a Capitol weapon against the rebels, but it failed and, having mated with the mockingbird, remained in the wild as a perpetual symbol of the Capitol's failure. It, naturally, became a symbol of resistance. That is the goal then, to be unafraid to point out error, flaws and hubris wherever they are to be found, whether on the street or in the corridors of power. Speak truth to power and take down error? Well, that sounds easy enough.
And, as Effie Trinket would say, "May the odds be ever in your favor!"

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A Film for Our Time

The jurors take a break in 12 Angry Men On the hottest day of the year, the trial of an eighteen year old boy for the murder of his father concludes--the jurors withdraw for deliberations, tasked with determining whether the defendant is guilty. If they agree, a death sentence will be handed down. The case seems an easy one, with the jury ready to reach a verdict in less than five minutes of deliberation, but one juror is not convinced. Over the objections of the others, he demands a recounting of the evidence presented, arguing that surely a man's life is worth more than a few moments' thought. Over the course of several hours, the jurors weigh the evidence of the case, and with it weightier issues of class, justice in the United States, and the intersection of the two. 12 Angry Men remains relevant to us as we continue to deal with these issues nearly sixty years after the film's release. The great strength of the film lies in the fact that only two of the jur...

Endless Forms Most Bizarre

Anyone who knows me for more than ten minutes knows of my deep and abiding fondness for dinosaurs. It's a holdover from that phase most children go through, re-ignited during a summer class on the extinct beasts during college. Yet the drawback of being an adult who loves dinosaurs is readily apparent when you visit the shelves of your local library or bookstore. Most dinosaur books published are aimed at a far younger audience than myself, and the books for adults are often more technical works. Imagine my delight in seeing the newest book by John Pickrell waiting to be cataloged at my library! I placed a request for the book as quickly as I could pull out my smart phone, and I was not disappointed! Weird Dinosaurs: The Strange New Fossils Challenging Everything We Thought We Knew , is an excellent overview of many of the fascinating and bizarre new discoveries, and rediscoveries, of the past decade. A journalist and editor by trade, Pickrell is passionate about dinosaurs, ...

A Tale of Sound and Fury

Since the week before it was to be published, Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House has been, by far, the most-talked about book in the country. The furor, prompted by an angry denunciation-by-tweet from the President, a cease and desist letter from his lawyers, and salacious details from the book making their way into the press, immediately catapulted it to bestseller status. Being a political junkie, of course I couldn't resist giving it a read. While the book sold out almost immediately in print, I was lucky enough to borrow the digital audiobook from my local public library. I rushed through it in just a few days - not only because of how engrossing it was, but also knowing that there were a lot of people waiting to read it after I was done. As enjoyable a read as Fire and Fury was, the deep irony of the book is that it would likely have received little attention had it not been for the attacks by the Trump Administration. In attempting to st...

The Questioning Librarian

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