Rick McBee's Writings
Explore the magic of new ideas and books to read as well as see what books I have written, my favorite photos, my opinions on may subjects, including Science, Africa, the Caribbean, the Civil War, my Book Reviews, and Much More!
A Weakling Congress Allows The Toppling of Laws in the United States!
Second week of the New Administration and already Congress is Toppling! 
Led by Weaklings the houses of Congress are losing a key battle after only two weeks of a new President!
Congress Makes the Laws! – President Trump has already mandated things that have broken key laws of the land but Congress sits on it’s thumbs as we citizens watch Government By the People and For the People get Trampled!
A. President Trump unilaterally broke the law that requires him get Congressional approval for withholding already approved budgeted funds that support key programs, projects, contracts etc. already entered into by the Approval of Congress and signed by former Presidents.
Where is the Wrath of Congress? They seem to have just rolled over and shrugged their shoulders for an Impeachable offense.
B. President Trump unilaterally broke the law by placing non-governmental employees into a non-approved ad-hoc and un-official department which he calls The Department of Government Efficiency and given that group access to The Treasury data for Confidential Social Security and Medicare Information and Computer Files, cutting off access for the Officials who are responsible for running, securing and paying citizens through the Office of Personnel Management.
Where is the Wrath of Congress? Again – just bend over one more time!
Congress: When are you going to FIRMLY stake out your territory to 1/3 of the Powers of Government?
CONGRESS! YOU BETTER USE IT OR LOSE IT! GUYS and GALS! This is serious business!
Novel: The Women – by Kristin Hannah
The Women by Kristin Hannah
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Kristin Hannah has done an outstanding job of recreating the Chaos, stresses of the operating theatre in casualty hospitals during the Vietnam war as well as giving insight into the ways in which the emergency clinic nurses, doctors, and patients managed and dealt with those stresses during and after the war. The return home from war in the late 1960’s after two tours of duty in Vietnam for nurse Frankie McGrath is in many ways as traumatic as being in the war zone itself, to find how her own family and country had covered up, lied about and concealed even the fact that Army nurses were even in the combat zones, living and travelling via the same modes of transport through the same enemy fire zones as combat pilots and soldiers. Is it really any wonder that our military personnel even today are reduced to having to turn to drugs and strange behaviors when they return from combat when they are ostracized, and shat upon by the very nation that sent them off to do battle for what was a bogus cause? The wonder of the horror, the trauma and the grief that these returnees go through is how many are able to eventually pull their lives together, find a place of peace, happiness and love later in life. The corollary to this of course is the large numbers of those same traumatized persons who are unable to do it alone and are abandoned on our streets and homeless camps in perpetuity. Author Hannah has done a brilliant job of bringing the reality picture of war into the reader’s home. Please read it, pray on it and do what you can to support any and all of the veterans of our wars, male or female. They deserve everything that we can give them and more.
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Government Over-reach Morality Story: Watch the “Birdies”, Don’t Watch my Hands!
Prexy: Here We go again! Watch this one! 
Up we go!!! Watch Now!
JQ Public: Where? Where? 
Where did it go? Which One is it?
Prexy: While you’re watching! Let me sign off on 
Firing 1600 independent Government Watchdogs – The Inspectors Generals!
JQ Public: Can’t the Inspectors General and Congress do something?
Prexy: 
Ha! Ha! Ha! Big Grin – I didn’t even have to give them or Congress, a 30-day notice, as required by LAW, because the SUPREME COURT has said I can do any damn thing I want while I’m in office even if it’s against the law!
JQ Public: What about me? Can’t I do anything? This is taking away Checks and Balances!
Pexy: YOU are supposed to be watching the BIRDIES!
A Monster’s Laugh Echoes across the land: Ha! Ha! Ha! No More Watchdogs to mess with
MY Governance! 
Moral: Watch too Many Birdies and you won’t have Laws & Consitution Protecting You anymore!
Jack Reacher #24 – Blue Moon – by Lee Child
Blue Moon by Lee Child
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
In Blue Moon I find that Lee Child’s Jack Reacher has gone from being my favorite “Shane” action style thriller to more of the “OK Corral” type of thrill. In some ways better, and in some ways not quite so good. Blue moon splits up Reacher’s center of focus for meting out justice to the bad guys from a single evil protagonist or group to two ultra nasty sets of underworld groups, the Ukrainians and the Armenians, plus one Wizard of OZ-like mastermind, hiding out until the bitter end in his foxhole. All this extra bad-boy stuff of course makes for more shootouts, cum the later “Mission Impossible ” genres, to make our hero absolutely bullet-proof despite his two-gun suicidal assaults on nasty guys hideouts. So, where am I on this? I like the action, the novel ways that gangs hunt down and dispose of their opponents or traitors, and basics of the plot, but I feel that author Lee Child could have pared down the number of treks around the city blocks on foot or my black windowed sedans for our hero and maybe had him take a shower and change clothes as he pursues his four-night stand romance with one of his co-conspirators. Read it! Enjoy it! But don’t necessarily expect to find your old favorite MP Reacher stepping back into his old hat and uniform.
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Book Review; The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
My rating: 4 of 5 stars 
TJ Klune has written a great novel for looking at the world of bullying, mocking and name calling through the eyes of an educator. But in this great novel, it uses the medium of fantasy to really get us to the point where we realize the dangerous levels that humans can sink to when they start labelling other humans as “The Other” or “The Outcast” or “Weird.” This book takes us into the world of Magical Youth. It’s a world that some of you may say you don’t want to enter, unless you can put your biases aside about Magic and go into the world of the We all fall into this form of labelling starting about the time we reach puberty, when our eyes to the world are opened and we truly begin to notice the world in a different manner than we have for the earlier ages and stages of our lives. Adolescents can be super cruel to others whom they label, but fortunately we have a lot of people who are professionals at directing fact that we discriminate differences, away from the bullying, mocking, and name calling that can ruin other people’s lives in a callus and uncaring fashion. When these same malicious behaviors move into the adult world and are modelled by high level adults to other adults and to our children, we perpetuate this tearing apart and degrading of others by picking on natural human relationships, appearances and differences which have existed since life was first created on the planet. Linus is the Caseworker in this book, but in reality, he is our “Teacher”! As a caseworker he is the investigator and examiner of the schools for the kids who are “Magical” in his part of the United States. His role is to make sure that these boarding schools are run and managed properly by the teachers and administrators so that the special needs of the magical children are always put first, Thus, the students will be able to live in a loving, caring and fulfilling environment as they be if they were able to live with their true families. Linus is therefore looking at each school as if it were a true “Family” and not just another “Institution” where the Magical kids can be hidden from the rest of the world. As the story progresses, Linus is so good at his job that he is selected by Extremely Upper Management to go to the most difficult school on the planet where Gnomes, Forest Sprites, Changelings, and even an Antichrist can live, isolated from the nearby town of Marsyas where the locals eschew any contact with the “Magical”, and even plot against it. I loved the inner tension of the book which continually throws Linus into situations that would tax any normal human’s abilities to handle with anything other than terror, anger, or madness. In the end, we ourselves learn the meaning of acceptance and a lot about our own inner fears and foibles that are the baggage everyone carries. By cogitating on the meaning of the book, which is truly about “Family”, we can all learn to be a bit more accepting of others despite the baggage we were brought up with. Hope you enjoy the read!
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Standing in the Shadows by Peter Robinson (A DCI Banks Novel)
Standing in the Shadows by Peter Robinson My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I certainly enjoyed this mystery which shifts forward and backward to give us clues and hints as to the murderer of Alice Poole. My opinion of boyfriend Nick Hartley shifted back and forth as to whether he was smart or stupid in poking after a long dead trail of clues on this murder case. When a well decomposed skeleton is discovered in a field by archaeologists, the immediate conclusion is, that it is just another old Roman solder’s remains. But there are enough clues that it is not ancient to bring in DCI Alan Banks and a story of the past gradually unfolds as Nick chases after shadows of the past and is eventually connected with Banks in ferreting out the unusual sordid tale behind the whole affair. A fun read, well written and put together in a masterful manner.
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Book Review of “The Wager” by David Grann
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Author David Grann recounts a seafaring adventure like non other from the mid 1700’s. The British scheme to hijack and capture a Spanish galleon carrying a king’s ransom worth of Peruvian silver ingots and coins is to be carried out by a squadron of five British warships under the command of a Commodore Anson. One of these ships, HMS The Wager, is placed under the command of up-and-coming Captain Cheap who revels in the idea that he will have battles befitting his desire to become a war hero. When the flotilla departs Britain, they are hounded across a section of the Atlantic by warships under the command of Don Jose Pizarro. After typhus strikes the crew and they finally reach neutral Brazil for a respite, the fleet continues south to Cape Horn despite continued disease, scurvy and malcontent withing the sailors. Disaster strikes south of the Horn, separating the ships and leaving The Wager alone, damaged and essentially unable to sail, off the coast of southern Chile. When the weathered ship finally is blown into rocks off an uninhabited coastal island, she is abandoned, raided of her stores, lifeboats, weapons and gunpowder. The fragmented survivors set up camps for each faction on the island and try to survive on limpets and seaweed as summer ends and the cold Chilean winter sweeps in from the Antarctic south. What ensues is an adult real-life version of Golding’s “Lord of the Flies”, leading to near mutiny, death, starvation and feuding that eventually sends the few survivors off in tiny makeshift boats in different directions. Captain Cheap and his remaining followers headed North toward Chiloe Island governed by the Spanish. Meanwhile, the Gunner, Bulkeley and a larger group head south to weather Magellan’s Strait in hopes of reaching England. The few survivors who do make it back to Britain then must convince the Admiralty and public that they are not mutineers and subject to justice by being swung from a yardarm. The book is a masterful piece of British Naval history, and well worth the read for anyone interested in the human ability to survive under the most horrendous of conditions at sea.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
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Brr! Dec. 1, 2023 – Winter Finally comes to Oregon!
Brr! It snowed five inches last night! 
The Swallows have all gone South! 
Snowbirds are back! 
The Giant Cottonwood is about to lose all It’s Leaves! 
Hurray! Winter is finally here!
Enjoy the Snow! 
Beachcomber Sea Shells of the Caribbean: Thank You for a Review on Amazon!
‘Occasionally I look at a Review of onew of my books and say “WOW, That person really likes my book and spent the time reviewing it!
Here’s what the reviewer says. She bemoans the fact that she couldn’t afford the paperback. If I had her address I would send her a copy. I’ve still got an interactive touch screen prototype which I built but never knew how to market.
The sales over the past 8 years of the e-book version make me happy!
5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant idea, very reader-friendly!
Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2022
Although the plain cover design of this book does not entice the reader, it is a master work for identification of shells of the Caribbean region. Formatted with the basic concept of a simple dichotomous key (choose A or B) and illustrated with quality photographs, the author has gone to the time-consuming but oh-so-helpful step of cross-referencing each shell with five of the standard shell identification guides, one or more of which most serious amateur collectors own. I am using the Kindle Unlimited version since regrettably the cost of the print copy is rather high. An excellent resource that I highly recommend for shell identification.
Thanks again for the great Review! Rick
Good Persons doing Nothing: Congress Kowtows to a Junta of 8
The Halls of Congress tilted!
Losing a grip on Democracy is fairly easy. We saw it in action last week! Right here in our own country! As a paraphrase of John Stuart Mill’s 1867 inaugural address at St. Andrews University pointed out, “Bad persons need nothing more than that good persons to look on and do nothing in order to accomplish their ends.” Thus we have just seen this past week, how a small council or committee, a ‘Junta’ according to the Merriam-Webster definition, kicked out their leader for practicing a time honored facet of Democracy: Making a Compromise. Congress just tilted! This Junta is controlling the governmental processes of the United States of America by unilaterally taking control of the House of Representatives.
We ask ourselves: How can the 435 members of The House seemingly decide to abrogate their power of government and responsibility and kowtow to such a tiny group, instead of faithfully using the processes of open debate, compromise, and voting in order to in order arrive at solutions to our numerous national problems?
The whole body of The House is responsible for this breakdown of Government because there were things both sides could have done along the way to stop the Junta from taking control. The following are pertinent:
A. Why was there no large body of the majority party not willing to pressure the Speaker to compromise with the minority party to middle ground agendas in order to gain some votes for retaining the normal power structure?
B. Why has no group in the majority party come out and said that their party manifesto is less important than compromising with the minority party to keep the United States Government solvent and operating?
C. Why does Congress not have a legal mandate to automatically pay for all approved expenses which they have mandated through laws by using the power of taxation rather than play Russian Roulette with the operations of government which impact all of their constituents.
D. Why is Congress allowed by the Executive Branch to pay itself wages when it cannot pay its own employees in the military, civil service and mandated program personnel who are required to work without pay?
E. Why does Congress not get rid of some of its outdated archaic procedures?
I could go on….. But it’s more appropriate to ask CONGRESS –
WHEN will your 
to Preserve Democracy START!
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Rick McBee's Writings 