Michael Crichton Dead at 66

For all of you who have e-mailed me or posted, I heard the news earlier this afternoon. I just could not find time to post anything. Crichton, whom I had the privilege of speaking with on two occasions, was an amazing thinker. He was always criticized for his lack of character depth, but for those of us who absolutely loved his material, understood that he could take the most complex concept and make it digestable to us.

Ironically, Crichton told me that Orwell was the one who inspired him to write, and he said that Orwell was the one whose style he admired most. As all of you know, Orwell runs a close third to Crichton and Chekhov in my book. While Orwell was the better writer and more apt to prognosticate, he lacked the ability of Crichton to keep me awake all night reading.

Finally, as most of you know, despite the constant attempt to convince me otherwise, I hold no credence, that's zero credence, in the concept of global warming. In STATE OF FEAR, Crichton, a Hollywood Insider and screenwriter, attacked the very concept in the only way he could; he used scientific fact. This further ingratiated him to those pundits who existed for the purpose of finding fault in his writing. It took guts. It was occupational suicide in a crazed society determined to find an explanation for what I believe is a natural phenomena.

However, Crichton, a former medical student, attacked the science that was anything but science. He exposed the nearly fanatical religious belief that man is the cause of global warming. He showed how governments, corporations, celebrities, and yes, you are I are kept in a constant "state of fear", which is necessary to keep us from having the confidence to question the experts, the corporations, and oh yes.....the freakin' government.

Thus, I bid Mr. Crichton farewell, and I thank him for always writing in a way that made me feel like I was being spoken to personally. I didn't always believe in your politics or morality, but at all times, you kept me entertained, educated, and in almost all cases, enlightened. Rest in peace.

MjB

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