Hey. What's Up?

Obviously haven't been blogging much. Blogging is a habit and one that you can get out of and then it becomes easy to just not do anything. Lots of stuff crossing my mind, just nothing I have been interested in enough to blog about.

While I have not been blogging, I have been reading a fair amount. Mostly light fiction, nothing terribly meaty. I just recently reread the original Dune book and have the next one in the series from the library. I read the series when I was young and seem to recall not liking the rest of the series after the first book very much, I guess we will find out. I have also been reading a sci fi series called The Lost Fleet that I have really been enjoying. Unlike most sci fi that happens in space, the Lost Fleet series embraces the reality of space battles in the vastness of space rather than head to head instant fights. Getting from point A to point B can take hours or days, going too fast makes it impossible to hit anything, etc. It is pretty well written with an interesting premise and a "realistic" setting, such as sci fi goes!

So right now I am reading a couple of new books I got from the library. The first is a brand new book by Radley Balko, a libertarian author, titled Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces. As the title indicates it is a look at the increasing militarization of the police force adopting tactics and weapons from the military and especially focusing on the rise of SWAT teams and over the top raid techniques, raids that often are at the wrong address. More and more we are seeing a morphing of the military and the civilian police force, something that would have deeply alarmed the "founding fathers" and should also alarm regular citizens. One need

Another book I am getting ready to start is Karlstadt's Battle with Luther, a look at the conflict between Martin Luther and Andreas Karlstadt. Karlstadt was best known for a more radical approach to the Reformation in contrast to Luther's more incremental approach to reformation. That might seem a bit jarring given that Luther is often considered the first Reformer but after the Reformation began there were many Christians who were less willing to retain some of the aspects of Roman Catholic doctrine and practice and demanded more immediate, radical change. Karlstadt was one of those early leders, someone who is often portrayed as a wild eyed radical but I think his was an important, if overlooked, voice in the earliest days of the Reformation.

So that is what is up with me, hoping to get back to more regular blogging but I have said that before.