Miscellaneous Musings and Random Ratiocinations...

Despite the fact that he was a RWNJ in the mold of Alexander Haig, Darth Cheney and few others, the late novelist Tom Clancy was a helluva storyteller. One of his most endearing (not) techniques was to take the proclivities of the conservatives, and transfer them to liberals. I just finished Locked On, currently the penultimate novel in the Jack Ryan/John Clark series.  Here are some of the things the libruls did, in an effort to oppress the innocent conservatives:

• Out a (former) CIA operative -- John Clark -- for purely political purposes (attempting to prevent the re-election of Jack Ryan as POTUS);
• Use federal law enforcement resources for purely partisan political reasons;
• Assist Islamist terrorists in avoiding justice;
• Use CIA personnel in domestic operations, targeting American nationals.

Of course, Clancy also reprised most of his other favorite themes: the violence inherent in Islam (which, based on current behavior, may not be all that farfetched); the portrayal of Islamists as deluded, ignorant buffoons (despite their having acquired and deployed nuclear weapons in at least three of his novels); the infallibility of the conservative viewpoint, and the concomitant inevitable failure of the liberals; and the belief that violence cures all ills.

Every once in a while, his lack of attention to continuity sticks out like a sore thumb. In The Sum of All Fears, Charles Alden was in the State Department,National Security Advisor and was instrumental in the initial stages of a brokered peace in the Middle East; in the later stories, however, those featuring Jack Ryan, Jr., Alden is a venal, corrupt (liberal) political appointee in the CIA.

Another drawback to Clancy's later novels is his use of the deus ex machina of a secret, extra-governmental agency to protect America (not unlike the Men In Black franchise).

And don't get me started on the lunacy of casting Ben Affleck in the movie version of The Sum of All Fears.