I have written before how easy it is to find mysteries for middle grade readers but nearly impossible for older teens. My endless frustration over this genre desert knows no end, mostly because I can’t see a reason why it exists. Kids love mysteries and secrets, adults love mysteries and secrets but for some reason teenagers apparently don’t -- or the assumption is that they will happily read adult mysteries once they get past the age of thirteen. (You would think Veronica Mars had put an end to this but like a literary zombie, it lives on.)

After chasing down every weak attempt at YA mystery that comes my way and being disappointed more times then I can count, I was delighted to come across two recent reissues from Norah McClintock: Over the Edge and Double Cross. These first two titles in the “Chloe and Levesque” series are interesting, indepth, and perfect for their teen audience. High schooler Chloe comes across as honest and sincere -- she reads like a teenager, with thoughts, motivations and actions exactly as you would expect. Most importantly the mysteries that land in her lap are exactly the kind that would involve an unofficial teen detective and could be solved by one as well. There are no false words here and it is because of that the series succeeds so well and should be a winner for readers.

In Over the Edge Choloe, whose stepfather Louis Levesque is the chief of police in her small town, is still reeling due to the recent move from Montreal. When a fellow student she barely knew is found dead from apparent suicide it affects her in only the slightest way. But in the days that follow she begins to notice some odd things in the behavior of others and the dead boy’s mother believes Chloe was actually his close friend. In short order she finds herself knee deep in clues that make no sense unless you consider the possibility that Peter Flosnick was pushed to his death. She has to find out who is lying and who’s telling the truth and with a little help from Levesque she gets to the bottom of what turns out to be a classic high school mystery.

In the sequel, Double Trouble, fellow student Jonah is determined to prove his father innocent of murdering his mother. It’s an old crime but he can’t let it go (for obvious reasons) and it has eaten him up to the point that his anger has gotten him in a lot of trouble. Drafted by a teacher to tutor Jonah, Chloe finds herself sympathizing in spite of herself and starts considering who else might have wanted to see Jonah’s mother dead. Just as in the first book, McClintock again gives Chloe the sort of questions only a perceptive teenager would think to ask which ultimately unravel the clues and reveal the truth. Levesque is ever present again but the teens are key to the solution and Chloe’s stubbornness and determination see her through to a very sticky, but satisfying, end.

There is a ton to love about this series, from the multi-ethnic cast (Chloe is the daughter of Chinese and Caucasian parents), to the great love for Canada in general and Montreal in particular, to the entire cast of smart teens who act in a variety of selfish and selfless ways that makes you love and hate them all in equal measure. Out now from Kane Miller in very inexpensive mass market size from your closest indy bookstore, Chloe & Levesque make excellent stocking stuffer choices. Two more titles in the series are scheduled for the spring.

Not a straightforward mystery but full of all sorts of mysterious revelations, Richard Scrimger’s Me and Death: An Afterlife Adventure presents itself as a traditional Christmas Carol-esque story. (Absent all mention of the holiday and anyone resembling Tiny Tim.) Jim, a very disagreeable teenager who is a bully well on his way to being a serious criminal, is hit by a car in the opening pages and quickly appears to be near death. He is whisked away to a celestial waiting room (ala Beetlejuice and just as depressing) where he is escorted through his life by three ghosts who are hoping to impart some wisdom and send him back to earth a changed boy. We have all seen this movie before and so I thought it might be a diversionary title but little more. Color me seriously wrong on that score.

What’s impressive about Scrimger is that nothing is wasted in his books. Everyone Jim meets in the opening pages, before the accident, is critical to the story. You think this is just Scrimger setting up for the accident but he is a far smarter writer than that. Every interaction is critical, every plot point significant and after Jim comes back to life, bemused by his experience and still unsure what has happened, Scrimger sets him out in the world where events unfold in a way that carry him along to an absolutely shattering final few pages. The ending is unbelievable -- it makes you want to go back to the beginning and read everything all over again so you can see what brought you there and just how Scrimger has crafted a perfectly managed plot. (It’s not a trick like The Sixth Sense but it has similar drama.)

Me and Death is an incredibly quick read and with its message of thoughtful redemption, careful living and why we must never forget that nothing is ever as it seems, this is one that I highly recommend to both hard core bibliophiles and reluctant teen readers alike. In the beginning Jim is a jerk and he doesn’t lie about himself, how he got there, or how screwed up things have become. But his eyes are opened in a believable way and his education is succinct, sincere and painful. You get where this kid is coming from and just why he has a shot at moving in a different direction. Scrimger knows what he is doing here -- don’t doubt for a second what an honest and powerful storyteller he truly is.

In Fixing Delilah author Sarah Ockler is much more straightforward about the importance of finding hidden truths. It’s the summer before her senior year and Delilah has been getting into some trouble. She’s sneaking out, she’s spending time (a lot of time) with a boy who can’t even bother to make sure she gets into her house alright and she was recently picked up for (accidental) shoplifting. Her workaholic single parent mother thinks she is going to hell in a hand basket (cue familiar refrain of “Why are you acting like this”?). Unfortunately there is no time to deal with Delilah because her grandmother has just died and mother and daughter must travel back to Vermont to deal with the family house, the memories it holds and whatever it was that tore the family apart.

Yes, Virginia -- we’re talking serious family dramarama.

As it turns out, Vermont is awesome. The house is on a lake, the boy next door is in residence and eighteen and a seriously cute guitar player and Aunt Rachel is home as well to deal with the mess. Delilah is hopeful that finally the past will be explained. She wants to know more about her Aunt Stephanie who died almost twenty years ago and is still dearly mourned by her sisters. She wants to know why no one can explain how Stephanie died and also what made her grandmother so angry that she cut herself off from her daughters in a bitter fight eight years earlier. And then Delilah finds Stephanie’s long missing diary and begins to learn the questions she needs to ask and slowly, carefully, answers are discovered that explain everything but don’t make it anything easier to accept.

What’s great about Fixing Delilah is how effectively Ockler nails what it is like to be a teenage girl. There is one particular passage as Delilah recounts to herself all the ways in which her life has moved beyond her control -- the simple cruelties exhibited by her classmates, moments that flew rapidly out of control, mistakes that she can not take back. It’s all too much and also, it’s all too typical:

What happened? Right. I want to tell my mother the whole shameful tale, but when I open my mouth, the only words that fall out are “Things are just different this year, Mom.”

There is a wealth in those words and it is all truth; all sad, predictable, eternally repeated truth. Ockler had me with this passage, she had me hard and fast and it is because of moments like this that I’m willing to forgive what later struck me as some over-the-top reactions on the part of everyone involved. Yes, teenagers can be emotional but sometimes authors seem to use that as an excuse to advance the plot and I felt like Ockler was dangerously close to that misstep on a couple of occasions. Even with that caveat however, Fixing Delilah is a novel that takes readers on a tight journey into all the ways secrets can make a family fall apart and what happens when you don’t see that someone is drowning right in front of you; and what you can’t take back when it’s too late.

Another family full of secrets can be found in Beth Kephart’s latest, Dangerous Neighbors, her most beautifully written YA novel to date. Set during the Philadelphia Centennial Fair in 1876 it is the heartbreaking story of Katherine and the death of her twin sister Anna. Katherine is overwhelmed with grief and guilt and spends the book alternately remembering moments with her sister and plotting a suicide to join her. Thwarted early on by Anna’s boyfriend, Bennett, Katherine is determined to climb to a high point at the Exhibition and jump -- literally fly away. She believes this will be the perfect ending to everything that has gone wrong and the only thing left she can do. But Bennett is always watching, determined not to let Katherine disappear and demanding that she see her sister for who she truly was.

It’s hard to qualify Dangerous Neighbors because while it is fluid and elegant and gorgeously constructed -- almost like a literary Chihuly -- it is also nearly absent of plot. Over a span of several days, Katherine moves between home, where her parents are remarkably disassociated from the loss of one child and pending departure of another, and the Centennial. At the same time her thoughts travel back and forth from the time Anna first met Bennett and began to pull away, to the present where her abrupt absence is destroying Katherine. The sisters fought over the changes the secret romance with Bennett brought to their relationship, their caring father struggled to discover what could be causing the shift in his daughters’ friendship, their suffragist mother remained willfully ignorant of any change she did not control and in the end, when one very small moment changes everything forever, it is a revelation that is just a whisper in the narrative. You knew something was coming from the very beginning and now, finally, you understand why Katherine is so determined to go away as well.

First and foremost, this is a love story to the Philadelphia of long ago. Kephart has steeped herself in the city’s history and it shows, especially in the detailed way she writes about the Centennial events and displays. But it is also the story of a secret love and how keeping that secret can be especially appealing to a teenage girl -- how it can lead her to forget about everyone else and how watching that secret grow larger and larger can torment those who keep the secret with her. Dangerous Neighbors is about sisters and a city and a whole lot of love and tragedy. While not a thrilling mystery it is a confection of singular depth nonetheless and just as irresistible.

Charles de Lint’s latest urban fantasy, The Painted Boy boasts a young man hiding something you can not imagine, a town struggling under the weight of gang warfare and a group of friends walking a fine line between that which they know to be true and a deep belief in what might be. It also has an Arizona setting with an Asian American teen protagonist and a host of Hispanic characters who welcome him into their lives as he embarks on a quest to embrace his true self. This journey involves more than one walk on the wild side, some deadly confrontations and a reckoning with destiny. If you know a teen who’s been wondering if contemporary fantasy exists without the standard set of vamp, werewolf or zombie tropes then this is the book for them.

Seventeen-year old Jay Li arrives in Santo del Vado Viejo purely by chance after his grandmother, (who he describes as “kind of like Marlon Brando in The Godfather") challenged him to choose a point on the map that felt right. He does not know what drew him to the small desert town, but he was called nonetheless and now must discover why. A chance encounter brings him the friendship of Rosalita and her family, who run a Mexican restaurant, along with her friends who have a popular local band. It is not long before close quarters reveal Jay’s secret: that a massive image of a dragon is painted across his back and arms. It is not, he explains, a traditional tattoo but rather an imprint that appeared over several days when he was eleven years old. It marks him as a member of the Yellow Dragon Clan and even more, a true dragon.

Now that whole “man on a mission” thing starts to make sense.

The local street gang is run by an actual tiger, the area animal “cousins” ranging from jack rabbits to ravens to lizards to Coyote himself, are present and most of the “five-fingered beings” (aka humans) are just try to keep their heads down low so they don’t get caught in the ongoing gang-related drug and smuggling wars. The cousins are trying to hang on, hoping that the gangs will go away and peace will return to their home, but they can’t take these guys on, they need a champion and that is where Jay, albeit reluctantly, comes in.

If you remove the fantasy elements from the story there is a lot of Joseph Campbell’s (or Clint Eastwood’s) traditional heroic quest at work in The Painted Boy. Jay has come to a town in need of help and he is a hero in search of a challenge to set him on the path to righteousness. He initially fights the call but after a tragic encounter with the bad guys, in which all of their badness is made clear, he rises up and does what he has to do and finally, fully, acknowledges who he really is. (Which in this case is a dragon so the big fight is epic.)

But De Lint has more than one surprise in store for his readers. First, violence is quick and mean in this small town and De Lint doesn’t worry about sugar coating it. There is nothing romantic about the blood that is spilled and it serves the novel’s harsh look at the impact of gangs on the surrounding community. Further, there are still one hundred pages to the story after the big confrontation between Jay and his adversaries. De Lint goes out of his way to show that being heroic carries a heavy price of responsibility not just for the hero but for everyone who has witnessed what he did. Jay and his friends have to find a way back to a normal relationship while accepting who he is now. The author throws readers a curveball by taking the teen from a Sergio Leon-style street confrontation to squatting in abandoned shopping mall trying to find a way to live with the blood on his hands. This elevates The Painted Boy above standard action fare and makes it an excellent coming-of-age story and one of those rare birds that shows, along Francisco Stork’s The Last Summer of the Death Warriors and John Barnes’s Tales of the Madman Underground the sort of necessary steps on the path to manhood.

I was initially drawn to the middle grade novel Zora and Me solely because the main character is based on the childhood of the wonderful Florida novelist Zora Neale Hurston. Authors Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon have created the first project to be endorsed by the Zora Neale Hurston Trust and it is a singular delight -- a laugh out loud and run-for-your-life adventure/mystery that pits young Zora and her friends Carrie and Teddy against everything from ghostly alligators to morphing monsters to the truly horrifying worst of Jim Crow. There are dead bodies, mean girls, and stories that defy all logic and yet Zora will not be stopped in her pursuit of a truth that both terrifies and enlightens. She is a force to be reckoned with, even at a young age and the authors have done an outstanding job of showing just who she must have been back then to accomplish so much greatness later.

Told from Carrie’s point of view, Zora and Me takes place in turn-of-the-century Eatonville, Hurston’s hometown and one of the first incorporated African American communities in the U.S. Initially it is all about tall tales and outdoor adventures as the kids respond to life around them through the lens of Zora’s great imagination. Bond and Simon show she was a storyteller from the very beginning with stories that had relevance to her life at the time. Zora is steadfast in the face of schoolyard taunting, insisting her fantastic tales are true. As the novel unfolds readers think initially they are larger than life but slowly things happen and prove that they might not be as outrageous as they seem. Zora is right more often than not, and her unique way of seeing the world proves to be not only dramatic but honest as well.

What happens is someone is killed by an alligator (it’s not very bloodthirsty so no worries for young readers), everyone is abuzz about a new visitor in town, a traveling musician goes missing and Zora discovers a book that holds all the answers to Florida’s myths and legends. Insulated in Eatonville the children have a somewhat idyllic life marred by the absence of Carrie’s father who is long overdue from a job out of town. None of them are wealthy and Zora’s father can be difficult and demanding but the children are loved and safe. This makes the final revelations all that much more devastating but the kids handle it as we know they will and prove themselves to be a lot more clever then some of the adults. Zora and Me thus not only takes its characters on a coming-of-age adventure but shows how peeling back a community’s secrets can often reveal far more than you expect and introduce heroes and villains in the most unlikely ways. This is historical fiction at its best: exciting, informative and achingly real. I’m delighted to see Zora Neale Hurston be introduced to a new generation of readers and hope Bond and Simon will return to these characters in the future.

Of all the titles reviewed here, Holly Cupala’s Tell Me a Secret is probably the most obvious when it comes to the impact hidden truths can have upon the lives of others. This family drama centers on Miranda, a high school student who struggles under the weight of her older sister’s recent death. (Excellent opening line: “It’s tough, living in the shadow of a dead girl.”) Xanda was all things cool and wild and what happened to her and why propels the plot along until the startling revelation in the final pages. In many respects, Miranda is just along for the ride in this story, drawn in Xanda’s wake, tossed about by her parents’ denials and lies, and overwhelmed by a new best friend who exemplifies much of who Xanda was but has mean girl qualities that provoke all sorts of awful misunderstandings. There is also a boy (always, always a boy), and Xanda’s colossal mistake with that boy is what blows everything up. Yes, kids -- we’re talking about an unplanned pregnancy and all the hell breaking loose that goes with it.

There is an undeniable After School Special element going on here but Cupala handles it with aplomb and Tell Me a Secret really is compulsive reading. Miranda is a sympathetic figure and her determination not to forget her sister, and demand more from her parents (both of whom have checked out in rather particularly cliched ways), will be very appealing to readers. You want to know what happened to Xanda and you want Miranda to find out who her friends really are and you want it all to be sorted out. Cupala accomplishes this step by step, taking no shortcuts and making you wait for every blessed second. This can be a bit tedious at times (mean girl Delaney’s motivations are obvious) but it is also typical high school fodder so certainly belongs here. My main complaint is that perhaps there is too much heaped on: a teen that runs away and dies suddenly, a family that caves in on itself, a mother that is overbearing, a father that is absent, a boyfriend that is clueless, a friend who is cruel, another who is forgiving and a kind woman who tragically loses her baby but swoops in for the rescue just when you need her the most. In the end Cupala manages a surprise or two and Miranda certainly finds out everything which means the final pages are turned in a most satisfying manner. Tell Me a Secret is Jodi Picoult for the teen set and I mean that as a compliment. You might see some of the turns in this literary highway from a mile away but that doesn’t meant the trip isn’t enjoyable. It’s meatier fare than most YA dramas and a diversion worth taking so you can find out just what happened and why and what Miranda will do.

COOL READ: At some point, we, as a nation, decided that the Founding Fathers were awesome and while there have always been those pesky rumors about Thomas Jefferson and the children he fathered with his slave Sally Hemmings, everybody else has pretty much gotten off scot free, wrapped blissfully in the flag and forever remembered as “THE MEN WHO MADE AMERICA GREAT.” Allow this former American History teacher a moment to shudder a bit from the latest round of nationalist fervor while asking that everyone go out and get their hands on Liberty or Death: The Surprising Story of Runaway Slaves Who Sided With the British During the American Revolution by Margaret Whitman Blair. This would be the story of the men who were promised freedom if they helped the British and as the Colonists had no equally appealing counter offer, it should come as no surprise that quite a few slaves jumped at the shot to get out from under the boot of oppression. Just how many picked up arms for the British is largely unknown but as many as 20,000 ran to the side of Lord Dunmore in Virginia when he made the offer of freedom in exchange for fighting. (This number included women and children.) What they all wanted was liberty from their oppressors which sounds mighty American to me; they just wanted to gain that freedom by fighting against the Founding Fathers. Oh -- and did I mention that one of them was owned by George Washington himself?

Blair covers slaves who fought for the Colonists as well and what happened to all of these people afterwards. She follows the Loyalists ex-slaves to Canada and Africa, showing their ongoing struggle to find freedom years after it was achieved in America. By taking the long view the author manages to make this more than a historical snapshot and bring history to the present day, as Sierra Leone was the primary location the former slaves who fought for the British ended up seeking refuge. (And found themselves lied to yet again.)

Learning American history demands constant caution against a desire to believe cherished myths (that one about the cherry tree just won’t go away) and Blair has gone a long way against righting a very big one with this title. Her inclusion of one quote in particular from the Revolution war hero and close friend to Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette is especially significant: “I would never have drawn my sword in the cause of America,” he said after the Revolution, “if I could have conceived that thereby I was founding a land of slavery.” It wasn’t all picnics and roses, folks. If you want to know how long the fight for freedom truly was then books like Liberty or Death are essential. (Tons of color illustrations, quotes, etc. are included.)

It's kind of a slow news day today.  Michelle Wie suffered heat stroke during a pro-am in France.  The Canadian Open starts tomorrow.  Tiger has lost $22 million in earnings in '10 compared to '09.  None of those stories really interest me all that much, so I figured I would tell you a little bit about myself.  

Why?  Well, in recent weeks, I've had the pleasure of getting to know some more people associated with this site - readers, some media, and people at other golf organizations.  In those meandering chats, some stuff comes up that surprises people.  So, I thought I would summarize.

The most common misconception about me is that Waggle Room is my full-time job and I am a full-time reporter/blogger/whatever I am.  I'm not.  I actually have a day job involving technology.  I run this site as a passion for writing, reporting, and golf.

That leads into the natural follow-up: how do you post so often?  Honestly, in most cases, I have what I want to say in a post already written in my head before I type it.  I'm fortunate enough to not have word counts, particular sourcing requirements, or anything like that behind each story that I do.  And since I can dictate the topics, I cover things that appeal to me.

After that, I usually get: would you like to write about golf full time? It's a long answer with some caveats.  Let me tell you the journey to here.

I got into the game of golf when I was 12.  I was playing three sports at the time: baseball, soccer, and basketball.  During baseball season, I would go to the batting cages which were located at the driving range.  After I would hit in the cages, I started going to rent a driver and hit golf balls.  I quickly realized that I was much better at hitting golf balls than baseballs.  My parents hooked me up with four 30 minute lessons (the only ones I've ever had), and I ditched the stitchball.

Eventually, I ditched soccer and baseball just before golf season of my freshman year of high school.  That February was a two day tryout to make the team.  Back then, we only had a varsity squad, so space was thin.  On the first day, I went out at Rolling Road CC in like 44 strokes for nine.  Nothing great, but not bad.  I needed to do better the next day.  On day two, I somehow pulled a 39 out of nowhere - including a birdie at the last in front of the whole squad - to make varsity.  I stayed there for four years - played other great tracks in the area like Baltimore Country Club and Caves Valley.

When it came time for college, I decided not to pursue it.  I knew professional golf was not in the offing for me, so collegiate golf would be a dead end in exchange for losing a lot of fun time.  But, I did go into college to be a journalism major.  On day one of JOUR 100 (no lie), the dean of the school said to the hundreds assembled that we could expect to make between $11,000 and $41,000 in year one.  Realizing that I could make more fixing computers, I never went back.  I switched majors to business.  (Sell out!  Yes, I am.)

Fortunately, I knew a guy by the name of Sean O'Connor, through my good buddy and groomsman Scott Wasilewski.  They ran a company now called All In Broadcasting - streaming collegiate and high school sports, as well as sports talk, before the advent of podcasting, internet radio, and smartphones.  I was hoping to get in and do a golf talk show.  They said, "Sure." So I started The 19th Hole Golf Show.  Just me and a mic at a table for an hour with likely just my parents on the other end.

Bored with that idea of babbling, I decided to make something of the show.  I started emailing people.  Writers, the tours, other people in the business.  I got Scott Van Pelt to come on the show a handful of times.  Christina Kim was introduced to me in her freshman year on tour.  We've become good friends since.  I even caddied for her once.  Talked to Paula Creamer before she became Paula freakin' Creamer.  Had Martha Burk on the show.  Sally Jenkins said our interview was "fun."  It was great stuff.

Problem was that I wanted to write.  I had to find an outlet to write.  I picked up some work at what were then known as "fan sites" - the precursor to blogs where less the traditionally trained writers talked sports.  One was Sports Central (which I still contribute to) and the other was Sports Fan Magazine.  My editor was Greg Wyshynski, a talented writer with a knack for hockey.  His Jester's Quart column was the bomb.  Now you know him as one of the best hockey writers in the biz over at Yahoo!'s Puck Daddy.

Eventually, the writing and the show took off.  With the advent of podcasting, my audience increased by thousands almost overnight.  As blogs became more prominent, I started my own.  People were beginning to take at least a tiny notice at my work.  All the while, I was getting my Master's degree in Public Policy through the summer of '06.

That takes us to the summer of 2008.  With some steady growth at my old, self-created GNN Blog, I was starting to think a little bigger.  More traffic, better arrangements, and the like.  Then the big opportunity hit.  Mulligan Stu, who founded this site, had to step away because he was unable to maintain this site as he would like.  With a void at a respected blog, I asked the good folks at SB Nation if I could have a shot at it.  Luckily, they said yes.

If you want to know the details of my adventures here at Waggle Room, just scour the archives.  Those are stories unto themselves.

So, why share this? Well, I realize that I don't share a lot of myself in my writing.  You know that I cry from time to time, apparently particular to the subject of Tom Watson. It's known that I got married (which was a post that people really enjoyed).  And you all know that I am bald.  That's it.  But, I wanted to share with you where I come from when I write and what I do.

Also, I want to hear about you.  Why do you come here?  What's your connection to golf?  The beauty of this place is the community.

Women-directed horror films are finally getting the (blood) red-carpet treatment! The Viscera Film Festival, showcasing women-made horror shorts, is this Saturday, July 17th in Los Angeles. The film festival came about through the team-up of Shannon Lark, who started the Chainsaw Mafia to encourage independent filmmakers to produce (and whose email signature reads, "Never forget, if a woman can go through the process of pushing out a baby, she can make a horror film!") and Heidi Martinuzzi, a film journalist and director, and founder of Pretty-Scary.net which covered women in horror films (behind and in front of the camera). Besides the film festival, Martinuzzi and Lark are combining powers (well, websites) to make Fangirltastic.com (still under construction) to keep the spirit of Viscera alive all year-round. I asked Lark and Martinuzzi about the festival and how feminism and horror overlap. 

***

How did the Viscera Film Festival come about? Why was it important to celebrate women horror filmmakers? 

Shannon Lark: I came up with the idea of Viscera after making a film with a small group of female friends in San Francisco. The idea suddenly dawned on me, as it had many times before, how rare it is that women set out on creative crusades with each other, particularly in film. Thus the Viscera Film Festival was born, to honor modern female pioneers who are making a mark in horror cinema (typically the most objectifying genre, on the surface), with an emphasis on all-female productions. Viscera intends to help stop women from ostracizing each other to reach the goal: it's a positive movement to create more jobs and more creative power.

Heidi Martinuzzi: There is no other annual film festival on earth dedicated to female horror filmmakers.The horror genre has many emerging women filmmakers, but their films aren't as heavily promoted by genre magazines because the horror press business, like the film industry as a whole, is dominated by men who run the publications and the male friends they promote.

Shannon and I wanted to make Viscera a festival where people could come out to see really great horror directed by women that had not gotten the attention they deserve. Viscera is also a place to see really new horror made from a female point of view - the stories, characters, and ideas behind the horror are often very different from the ones created by male filmmakers in this genre. We think that's really beautiful.

Heidi Martinuzzi on a particularly bad date

What are some of the ways that Viscera Film Festival filmmakers are able to subvert traditional misogynistic tropes of the horror genre?

SL: The wonderful thing about women picking up cameras and creating horror films is that generally the stories tend to turn out different: if a woman's pain is exploited, it's because people should know how it feels to be a woman experiencing pain. It's more of an internal, visceral (pardon the pun) feeling, as opposed to T&A slasher flicks created to make a buck. It's incredibly important for movies to be made that show how disturbing it is for a woman (or a man, for that matter) in a terrifying situation, because it happens all the time all over the world. Men should know how it feels for women to be encased within our own flesh: experiencing societal pressures, extreme loss, insanity, sexual dysfunction, obsession, and heartbreak. The more women making horror films, the more men will know.

Horror is the perfect genre to jump into for intense filmmaking, and women are really taking the bull by the horns by exploiting their perspective of fear and pain to their audiences. It's incredibly liberating for the female gender to explore horrific situations, and very therapeutic. I have a deep appreciation for women who make horror films as opposed to romantic films where women are typically shown as feminine, dainty, over emotional, confused, and dependent.

HM: Personally, I feel that stories in which traditional horror roles are reversed, and a male is attacked by a psychotic female who avenges her rape/attack on all males is just as sexist and misogynistic as a traditional slasher movie. Stories in which women are real people to whom we can relate are the ones that defy sexism because they do not allow for objectification. You can't objectify a character who is passionate, complex, interesting, or conflicted. Good writing and innovative characters are the primary way to fight sexism in horror movies, and that's something the Viscera filmmakers have consistently done.

 

Shannon Lark in the director's chair

And to follow-up, what are women filmmakers and/or actresses doing in the horror film industry to shake up traditional gender standards?

HM: Viscera Filmmakers tell stories about issues that pertain to women's ideas of what "horror" is. Hollywood Skin (directed by Maude Michaud), Wretched (directed by myself and Leslie Delano), and When Sally met Frank (by Victoria Waghorn) are all films that explore the horrors of eating disorders, body image, sand societal pressures of beauty - concepts rarely tackled by men in horror. They also get to tell stories with female protagonists who do not fit the '"lasher victim" mold. They get to be funny, to be atypical, and to have open-eyed audience eager to accept their message and wanting to be terrified by it.

SL: More and more horror actresses are becoming filmmakers to create the films they want to make. They are learning all aspects of production (writing, directing, producing, cinematography) so they don't have to wait for the male gender to notice them and appreciate them for their "talents." Why should we wait? If you are an actress struggling in Hollywood, I urge you to pick up a camera and take charge of your own life and creative mind. It will set you free!

A still from When Sally Met Frank

 

Some people might see a disconnect between women-directed/produced horror films and feminist horror films. How would you address that?

HM: They're right - just because a film is made by a woman does not make it a feminist film. A feminist film is one in which equality between the sexes is addressed or promoted as part of the storyline itself. And not all the films in Viscera touch on those ideas. But the idea of a film festival created solely to bring about an equal appreciation for films made by women is a feminist event. When you sit around and wonder why certain areas of the arts, like horror films, tend to ignore the women who are a part of them, taking a step to bring those films to the forefront of horror movie fans minds is a feminist act.

SL: I believe that any horror film made by a woman is a feminist film, because it's fundamentally from her perspective. I've had the pleasure of screening many films in the past few years that focus on the varying types of experiences women have in relation to the male gender and the idea of what a woman should be. Because there are so many different types of feminism, when a woman puts out a piece of art, it is her feminist statement, especially if the content shows women in bondage and being tortured. We should explore that horrific idea and how we can take the terrible things that have happened to women from the dawn of time and turn it into positivity through art: teaching us to be safer; treat ourselves, colleagues, and counterparts with complete love and respect; and help the women of the world be liberated in their own way.

Where would you like to see the Viscera Film Festival in five years?

SL: Viscera intends to become a non-profit organization that gives grants to female horror filmmakers, an active participant with charities such as CARE and RAIN, a mentoring program to budding filmmakers, and an annual festival that showcases women directed/produced short and feature films from all over the world.

HM: I'd love to do it every year, and each year have a whole new batch of interesting and amazing movies to show to interested horror fans. I'd love to find new filmmakers who deserve to have their movies screened to a public that things women bring something awesome to the genre.

What are some of your favorite female-centric horror films and why?

SL: INSIDE, Santa Sangre, Heidi Martinuzzi's Wretched, because the films display how a woman's emotions can create disastrous situations, deeply affecting herself and those around her.

HM: One of my all time favorites has to be the Alien series. Ripley is never treated any differently than any of the other characters because she's a woman - her sex is never made an issue by the characters, the director, or the story itself. She's a woman who gets to act like she's actually being chased by giant aliens on a spaceship; frankly, its refreshing to see a woman allowed to be a woman but not forced to focus on her sexuality, a romance, or any other cliche attribute while she's trying to survive.

I also like Neil Marshall's The Descent I and II, films about a group of female friends who go spelunking and get lost in the caves with a bunch of monsters. It explores female friendship without resorting to cheesiness, but still makes sure we get to see these women fighting for their lives the way real people would - without worrying if their hair gets messed up.

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Again, the film festical is this weekend! Learn more about the Viscera Film Festival at their website!

Season One 101 "Emissary, Part I" 46379.1 David Carson Rick Berman and Michael Piller January 3, 1993 (1993-01-03) 401 A new crew is assigned to a former Cardassian space station: Deep Space Nine. It is a joint Federation/Bajoran force, with Commander Sisko in charge, but his life is dramatically changed when he is declared the emissary to the prophets by a Bajoran priest. 102 "Emissary, Part II" 46392.7 David Carson Rick Berman and Michael Piller January 3, 1993 (1993-01-03) 402 The Bajoran wormhole, created by the Prophets, is found and a crisis with the Cardassians ensues. 103 "Past Prologue" Unknown Winrich Kolbe Katharyn Powers January 10, 1993 (1993-01-10) 404 A Bajoran terrorist with ties to Kira arrives on Deep Space Nine, however he is pursued by the Cardassians. 104 "A Man Alone" 46421.5 Paul Lynch Gerald Sanford and Michael Piller January 17, 1993 (1993-01-17) 403 Odo is accused of the murder of a Bajoran murderer. 105 "Babel" 46423.7 Paul Lynch Sally Caves & Ira Steven Behr January 24, 1993 (1993-01-24) 405 A mysterious virus plagues the station, causing speech distortions and eventually death. 106 "Captive Pursuit" Unknown Corey Allen Jill Sherman Donner and Michael Piller January 31, 1993 (1993-01-31) 406 O'Brien befriends an alien from the Gamma Quadrant who has been bred to be hunted. 107 "Q-Less" 46531.2 Paul Lynch Robert Hewitt Wolfe and Hannah Louise Shearer February 7, 1993 (1993-02-07) 407 Q and Vash arrive on Deep Space Nine. However Vash has realized the annoyance of Q and wants him to leave her alone. 108 "Dax" 46910.1 David Carson D. C. Fontana and Peter Allan Fields February 14, 1993 (1993-02-14) 408 Jadzia Dax is accused of a murder committed by her symbiont in another lifetime. 109 "The Passenger" Unknown Paul Lynch Morgan Gendel, Robert Hewitt Wolfe and Michael Piller February 21, 1993 (1993-02-21) 409 A sinister criminal is hiding in the mind of someone on Deep Space Nine, but Bashir struggles to understand how it works. 110 "Move Along Home" Unknown David Carson Frederick Rappaport, Lisa Rich, Jeanne Carrigan-Fauci and Michael Piller March 14, 1993 (1993-03-14) 410 Quark is forced to play a game by the Wadi, a newly encountered species, and the lives of the crew depend on the outcome. 111 "The Nagus" Unknown David Livingston Ira Steven Behr March 21, 1993 (1993-03-21) 411 Quark is named as the head of the Ferengi Alliance by Grand Nagus Zek, but he is now surrounded by enemies. 112 "Vortex" Unknown Winrich Kolbe Sam Rolfe April 18, 1993 (1993-04-18) 412 Odo discovers he may not be the only one of his kind when a visitor from the Gamma Quadrant claims he can contact Odo's people. 113 "Battle Lines" Unknown Paul Lynch Hilary J. Bader, Richard Danus and Evan Carlos Somers April 25, 1993 (1993-04-25) 413 The spiritual leader of Bajor, Kai Opaka, travels with Sisko on a trip to the Gamma Quadrant but is stranded with him on a world where the dead are resurrected. 114 "The Storyteller" 46729.1 David Livingston Kurt Michael Bensmiller and Ira Steven Behr May 2, 1993 (1993-05-02) 414 O'Brien is recruited to save a Bajoran village from destruction by a mysterious cloud creature. 115 "Progress" 46844.3 Les Landau Peter Allan Fields May 9, 1993 (1993-05-09) 415 Kira has to deal with a stubborn farmer who refuses to leave his home even though it is slated for destruction. 116 "If Wishes Were Horses" 46853.2 Robert Legato Nell McCue Crawford, William L. Crawford and Michael Piller May 16, 1993 (1993-05-16) 416 Deep Space Nine is put in jeopardy when the crew's thoughts manifest themselves, and such figures as Rumpelstiltskin appear. 117 "The Forsaken" 46925.1 Les Landau Jim Trombetta, Don Carlos Dunaway and Michael Piller May 23, 1993 (1993-05-23) 417 The Federation ambassador from Betazed, Lwaxana Troi, visits the station, but develops an affection for Odo. 118 "Dramatis Personae" 46922.3 Cliff Bole Joe Menosky May 30, 1993 (1993-05-30) 418 A Klingon ship comes through the wormhole and explodes. After this, a mutiny begins, with Kira leading the way. 119 "Duet" Unknown James L. Conway Lisa Rich, Jeanne Carrigan-Fauci and Peter Allan Fields June 13, 1993 (1993-06-13) 419 A visiting Cardassian may in fact be a notorious war criminal, and Kira is determined to bring him down. 120 "In the Hands of the Prophets" Unknown David Livingston Robert Hewitt Wolfe June 20, 1993 (1993-06-20) 420 Friction escalates when Vedek Winn arrives on Deep Space Nine and discovers schoolteacher Keiko O'Brien is teaching about aliens in the wormhole. Darryl

Some time ago I posted a blog proposing that many of the most common fears are related to evolutionary adaptation, Are we Born to be Afraid? I attempted to show how specific fears-that are universally distributed--- have survival value in a primitive environment. This includes fears of heights, water, closed spaces, open fields, etc. A recent comment on that post will give me an opportunity here to clarify some common misunderstandings of evolutionary theory. I want to thank the commentator for his or her critical points, because they deserve attention.

 

Comment: First of all, not everyone fears open spaces, or heights, or even spiders. If this is evolutionary, then why are there so many exceptions?

Response: I never said everyone has these fears. Evolutionary theory proposes wide variation within a trait-such as height, metabolic rate, intelligence, fear. Indeed, if there were no variation there could be no evolution. Keep in mind that evolution is about "selection" which means that you need variation to select the trait that is adaptive to the environment. Moreover, environments change-as Darwin noticed---and, therefore, traits that are useful in one environment confer little advantage in a different environment. In regard to universal distribution, I am simply indicating that the most common fears are found in all cultures, largely in the same proportion. There are some cultural differences in certain fears but many of the most common fears are found everywhere-and, in some degree, similar distribution.

 

Comment: Your post claims that certain fears require hormones or events to activate, but this suggests learning rather than the activation of genes.

Response: The commentator does not understand the difference between a genotype and a phenotype. Genes interact with other biological processes and with the environment. An example is Phenylketonuria (PKU) which is an inherited trait characterized by a deficiency in phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH) which can be managed by dietary control of phenylalanine (Phe) levels. Another genetically determined trait-height--- is also affected by nutrition. The phenotype (height) is not the same thing as the genotype. In regard to the role of learning, we can think of different kinds of fear-and of fear itself-as genotypic but as interacting with the environment in various ways. This is what is meant by "constraints" on learning (Seligman). We can think of certain fears as examples of "prepared learning". Thus, it is far easier to learn to be afraid of dogs than flowers. It might be better to think of genetic determination as "preparedness" rather than as inevitability.

 

Comment: Lastly, your theory on agoraphobia lacks basic logic: if humans are afraid of closed spaces, then why did they live in caves? And if humans are afraid of open spaces, why are there large atriums built all the time? These ideas are contradictory.

Response: The concept of agoraphobia has "evolved" over the last forty years. We now view agoraphobia in terms of specific stimuli or situations that are feared and that might trigger, for some, a panic attack. Not all agoraphobics have panic attacks. We view agoraphobia as a fear of specific stimuli, such as open spaces, closed spaces, traveling, and places or situations where exit might be blocked (e.g., crowded places).

The question of why some humans might fear closed spaces is interesting. Of course, fear of closed spaces-or spaces where exit is blocked---can trigger hyperventilation symptoms and a feeling of suffocation. Indeed, evolutionary theory suggests that those ancestors living in caves were especially vulnerable to being trapped by predators at night and exposed to poisonous gases emanating from the cave. Open fields also confer vulnerability, since bipedal humans crossing an open field are vulnerable to attack from predators. Agoraphobia often reflects vulnerability to danger or attack-whether it is an open field during daytime or a closed space or crowded room where exit is blocked. There is no contradiction if you can see that vulnerability to attack or other dangers is the key.

 

Common Processes in Fear

In my book, Anxiety Free: Unravel Your Fears Before They Unravel You, I identify common processes that cut across each of the anxiety disorders. These are of evolutionary advantage. They include threat detection, catastrophizing, attempts to control, and escape or avoidance. Each anxiety disorder (panic disorder, OCD, PTSD, generalized anxiety, specific phobia, social phobia) reflects these common processes in specific ways. Fear of strangers is the right fear at the wrong time-since strangers were correctly feared by our ancestors---strangers could kill you. It is my hope that recognizing the adaptive value of many of our most common fears and anxieties will help those suffering from these problems feel less "crazy"----if your ancestors survived because they had these fears, then you have an adaptive trait. It's simply the wrong time in evolutionary history.

We can think of each anxiety disorder as following a prepared software rulebook that tells us how to have OCD or social phobia. We can then rewrite that rulebook, using cognitive and behavioral therapy and practicing the behaviors and thoughts that can help reverse this obsolete software. The integration of evolutionary theory and cognitive behavioral theory can help liberate us from the fears that protected our ancestors but which make our daily lives more difficult.

All right, So I hitch the country and busk state to state, And I'm sorry but I didn't read all the pages of responses so I apologize if I name any songs someone named before me (I'm lazy and admit it) ... I usally go for the well knows: I know I saw MS AMERICAN PIE - Don McLean (also weird al's THE SAGA BEGINS star war version gets good response) Tenacious D - Tribute is a fav, Keilbasa sausage (Mostly G F C) FLOYD's - WISH YOU WERE HERE, and THE WALL (everyone knows em) ROLLING STONES - WILD HORSES, and DEAD FLOWERS VAN MORRISON - BROWN EYED GIRL (Orginaly Brown Skined Girl, Van said he changed it cause it 'Sounded better or something) MATCHBOX 20 - PUSH (You know 'I wanna push you around well I will Well I well I wanna push you down Well I will Well I will, I wanna take you for granite' ... Yeah that one) 3RD EYE BLIND - SEMI CHARMED (People love the do do do dodododo do do do dodododo) BOB DYLAN - I saw it metioned before that any Dylan is a good idea, and even if they don't know the whole thing or the history, They'll want you to think they're cool and automaticly like it. So always a must. BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD - FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH ('Stop hey, what's that sound, everybody look what's goin down) made me a $15 kick in Idaho just cause I knew it Lynnard Skynard - (If I spelt it wrong I am sorry, I know there are common misconceptions about the spelling, Just I am a 5th grade graduate and must spell things out ... I shoulda finished school) FREEBIRD is classic and CURTIS LOWE seems to do me pretty well TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS - MARY JANE, FREEFALLIN', LEARNIN' TO FLY, WON'T BACK DOWN, AMERICAN GIRL, Actually any Tom Petty (I had a guy near seattle pay me $2 for every Tom Petty song I knew, I know the whole greatest hits album + some so it worked out great) CHARLIE DANIELS - UNEASY RIDER 88 (About a democrat hippy who stumbles into a redneck mississippi bar, Long but always worth $) and SIMPLE MAN (Great for areas like Texas, Oklahoma, and wyoming) JOHNNY CASH - ANYTHING (The 3 most offensive words in the english language are 'F*** Johnny Cash' ... Always remember that ... Everyone loves Johnny) If you're in a College town you may lean more towards BLINK 182, SUBLIME, NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL, BLUES TRAVELER, and BECK RURAL AREAS seem to like more TOBY KEITH, BRAD PAISLEY, and older ROCK (Such as WAYWARD SON BY KANSAS, I think hard to pull off on acoustic but I only been playin 2 years so I am not that great) Almost everywhere knows theme songs; I play songs such as: The Simpsons, Futurama, King Of The Hill, The Meow Mix Jingle, Flintstones, Jeporady, Scooby Doo, Smurfs (which gets stuck in their heads), Mario (Super Mario and the level from the orginal nintendo 2nd LVL in the caves that goes DUN-NU-NU-NU ... Um what kind of overalls do the mario brother wear? - ANS. DENIM-DENIM-DENIM <<< That song) Family Guy, Brady Bunch, Pink Panther, and other popular shows/movies PUFF THE MAGIC DRAGON, Which I think is Peter,Paul, and Mary SCOTT McCENZIE - ARE YOU GOING TO SAN FRANCISCO RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS - UNDER THE BRIDGE & CALIFORNICATION (Which is just AM, F most of the time) JIM CROCE - LEROY BROWN and DON'T MESS AROUND WITH JIM That's all I got for now I relize I am rambling (RAMBLING MAN also good) if you want more I will be glasd to post more songs I play but this all seem to be well know and have ended up paying my way from California to texas to arkansas to oregon ... All walks of life enjoy almost all these songs, I hope you do well, And remember, IF YOUR GUITAR IS IN IT'S CASE, HOW THE HELL ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO PLAY IT??

I am one of those who have been noisily and prayerfully hoping that President Obama’s inexhaustible deferences to America’s critics, and blandishments heaped on the world’s most antagonistic regimes, were just part of a coalition-building exercise before bringing appropriate pressure on them. After nearly eleven months, it is difficult to sustain such a hopeful view.

The glibness with which the Mideast peace process would be restarted, like the assault on nuclear arms, carbon emissions, and health care, was cautionary. But in the election of America’s first non-white president, there was room for hope, including by Mr. Obama himself, that the United States could disarm some of its international critics with the assurance of a new start in Washington from a fresh perspective.

But in international relations, all that really matters apart from questions of overwhelming moral clarity, such as existed in favor of Roosevelt and Churchill over Hitler, and with Reagan and Thatcher over Brezhnev, is military and economic strength. It is helpful to have unusually capable expositors of foreign policy, like Dean Acheson or Henry Kissinger, but, as Bismarck famously said, the issues between Great Powers are resolved by “blood and iron,” whether they are actually deployed and expended or not.

Richard Nixon was able to build a relationship with China only after that country’s relations with the USSR had descended to the verge of war, the U.S. had effected an almost complete withdrawal from Vietnam without bringing down the non-Communist government in Saigon, and all unusual political unrest in the U.S. had subsided. President Truman was able to set up a functioning Western Alliance when the U.S. was, as Mr. Churchill stated, all that stood in the way of Stalin’s occupation of Western Europe. The United States has not been strong in the world since the debacle of Iraqi nation-building, in about 2005, after which almost the entire U.S. ground-forces conventional military capability has been mired in the Near East, while harebrained bipartisan economic policy has colossally indebted the country.

Mr. Obama had little chance of achieving any of his ambitious targets on the world stage until the U.S. was again objectively strong, if then. At a minimum, this would require the end of the terminal current-account deficits, the emergence of a robust and sensibly based economy, and a satisfactory de-escalation of the Afghan and Iraqi commitments. There is cause for hope on the first point, great hope on the last, but only elemental progress on the economy, which is battered by the specter of a decade of trillion-dollar annual federal budget deficits and ludicrous distractions of health care and energy-use extravagance. The idea that the world and America could be remade on the strength of the Obama brand was just an effusion of wild egotism and naïveté that has sullied the brand. Little could be achieved and little has been.

In a triumph of hope over reason, I chinned myself on the theory that the talk of abolishing nuclear arms was atmospheric mood changing to assist in organizing a response to the nuclear military ambitions of North Korea and Iran. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty requires the nuclear powers to work toward nuclear disarmament, which they have not done, apart from containing the superpower arms race by the bloodless disappearance of one of the superpowers.

As with any club, the members have tried to close the membership-admission door behind them, and turned a blind eye to some crashers and not others. France, Israel, China, and South Africa (which has since disarmed) entered with little or no comment, while the Clinton administration took upon itself the insane response to India and Pakistan when they became nuclear powers of a double embargo, which failed, increased tensions, and facilitated terrorism throughout the world. Reversing that policy was one of the foreign-policy successes of the George W. Bush administration, as both countries are now behaving as allies.

There are indications that China, which is the only power that can seriously influence North Korea, is finally responding to the great chicken game, and may be blackballing its Dear Leader from the nuclear club. But Iran is flaunting its sponsorship by Russia and China, who, along with Pakistan, have colluded to assist Iran’s nuclear military program. The Iranians have a respectable technical argument that they have as much right to such weapons as the countries that already possess them.

The counter-argument is that Iran is an enthusiastic terror-sponsoring country, especially through Hezbollah and Hamas, and its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has often called for the elimination of Israel. The Obama effort to “engage” the Iranian regime has included soft-pedaling the fraudulent reelection of the president and enduring insolences and acts of negotiating bad faith with a stoicism that makes Job seem like a hothead. It has been a fiasco. Secretary of State Clinton has threatened “crippling sanctions,” but Russia and other countries are unlikely to participate and sanctions have never really worked.



This backs into the administration’s desire to press the “reset” button in its relations with Russia. The author of that expression, Vice President Biden, also declared that Russia, with its shrinking population, alcoholism, collapsed state, and uncompetitive industry, would have to bend to American will. Yet the reverse has occurred, as the U.S. has ignored Russian aggression against Georgia and scuttled its missile-defense system for Western Europe in favor of a less plausible system, despite Defense Secretary Gates’s manful claims to the contrary. The Germans and some other Europeans are too concerned about natural-gas imports from Russia to stand up to the Kremlin. (Biden also wanted to divide Iraq into three countries and fight the terrorists in the caves of Waziristan with sea-launched missiles. The famine of strategic sense in the administration has reached the point where the regime’s most slavish media apologists, Newsweek and the New York Times, are touting Biden as the wise, strong man of the government.)

The U.S. has to decide, after years of huffing and puffing, whether it is going to acquiesce in Iranian nuclear military capability. If not, it should mobilize an air-strike coalition and not leave it to Israel, once again, to do the world’s dirty work for it (much less follow the uncharacteristically demented advice of Zbigniew Brzezinski, almost the last Democrat who said anything sensible about foreign policy, to shoot down Israeli strike aircraft).

If it can live with a nuclear-armed Iran after all, the U.S. must build as leak-proof an anti-missile defense as possible for the benefit of all of its allies, if it expects to retain any allies. This is what is provisionally being done for Japan and South Korea opposite North Korea. This, and an agreed definition of an unacceptable nuclear power, binding all the existing nuclear powers, should be the core of the president’s arms-control policy, not a hell-for-leather pursuit of the unattainable, unverifiable, and undesirable goal of nuclear disarmament. The warmth of relations with Russia should depend entirely on the responsibility of that country’s conduct.

In foreign affairs as in other fields, it is not too late for this administration to be successful. I eagerly grasp the wind-blown straw of the evolution of the U.S. position on the Honduran controversy, from solidarity with Chávez, Castro, and Ortega, in favor of unconstitutional leftist activity, to respect for the results of a clearly democratic election.

The president’s move on Afghanistan is promising. The stage setting of West Point and the defensive, tentative tenor of his remarks were unfortunate. Secretary Gates had to do another Fifth Avenue poop-scoop tour of disquieted allies. It was the most ungalvanizing martial tocsin since Spanish premier Manuel Azaña greeted the outbreak of civil war in 1936 by announcing that he would take a nap.

Ironically, Mr. Obama, who voted against funding the Afghan war in 2007, will likely succeed there, because the Taliban and al-Qaeda can’t withstand 250,000 massively supported NATO and Pakistani troops in serious combat for more than a few months. He could then resuscitate his popularity as successful small-war presidents do, e.g., Polk (Mexico), McKinley (Cuba and the Philippines), and Bush Sr. (the Gulf War).

This would be the political equivalent of Sergeant York, the conscientious objector who won the Medal of Honor in 1918. Sonorous speeches are no substitute for strength and determination, but sometimes luck can be. Despite reversible vulnerabilities and serious problems, the U.S. is still the world’s most powerful country. It must now act like it, consistently, if it wishes to keep that status.

— Conrad Black is the author of Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom and Richard M. Nixon: A Life in Full. He can be reached at cbletters@gmail.com.

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