| Author | Message | ||
     Chauly |
Patrick, "Fear No Evil"? | ||
| Aesquire |
I don't think we're quite up to that tech level, but the social stratification seems it's getting closer. | ||
| Ducbsa |
This officer is a real hero! https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-police-h eroism-in-compton/ | ||
| Aesquire |
Chauly, good catch on a fairly obscure reference, too. Heinlein caught a lot of crud for that book. Many people make the mistake of thinking an author is advocating ideas in their work. Sci-fi is often written as a warning. Revolt in 2100 is a good example, with the United States ruled by a theocracy. Or Starship Troopers, ( not to be confused with the movie made by a Dutch director who either never read, or never grasped the novel ) a coming of age in the military story, ( a classic trope ) with a political warning & original technology prediction as background and icing. What happens when the Military revolts in a Republic? That's a theme best placed in a different time. Soviet SF often criticized the System by placing the story on a Mars Colony or other distant place, but certainly not condemning the Glorious Revolution! | ||
| Chauly |
I just re-read "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress".I had forgotten how insightful such a simple story could be. It raised a whole lot of questions about how we "have always done it this way..." Especially the place that taxation holds in our psyche, having to pay for this that we don't need, and certainly didn't ask for... | ||
| Aesquire |
And it's a great primer in revolutionary cell structure, and using computer tech that ( still isn't available ) was unthinkable in Lenin's time. (Antifa & BLM use twits and social software to plan & organize revolutionary riots, assaults, and "protests". ) Plus both an early prediction /speculation on A.I. & kinetic energy weapons. And another good example of author not being his work. Heinlein had strong libertarian leanings, but like Professor de la Paz, believed anarchy without structure was untenable. Just as his "hippie" "free love" and sexual liberation attitudes are expressed/speculated on in Fear No Evil, Time Enough For Love...etc. Surprisingly the Wikipedia article seems reasonably balanced on his political views. Must be fans fixing it continually. To Sail Beyond The Sunset is, among many other things, a great representation of turn of the 20th century American Midwest attitudes and culture. I highly recommend https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Return_of_Will iam_Proxmire but you might want to read it before spoilers! Kipling, Clarke, Heinlein, Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle, and Spider Robinson all are huge influences on myself, and in many ways the real world. The water bed, communication satellites, the Strategic Defense Initiative..... I'm still waiting for the first orbital dance performance. | ||
| Aesquire |
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/09/nfl -player-draws-criticisms-for-honoring-dead-vet-not -drive-by-shooter.php A Patriotic American. | ||
| Chauly |
I, for one, lament the slow demise in the production and consumption of good SF in our time. I think that the role that SF played in my generational development has not been fully appreciated. It's not difficult to point out the inspirational moments in novels that waved an arrow in a possible direction. Some young person read that stuff, and said: "What if?", and the results have been impressive. | ||
| Hootowl |
My sister is a die hard seahawks fan. She has more 12 clothing than anything else. She is done with them now. She voted for Obama, and is now voting for Trump. She said all her friends have made the same transition. | ||
| Ebutch |
 | ||
| Aesquire |
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/09/so_wh at_happened_to_all_the_missing_paprika_on_the_stor e_shelves.html | ||
| Aesquire |
From Chinese Communist Party dominance of markets, and failure to provide food ( Communist States Always Starve the peasants while the leaders eat Plenty ) to a graphic view of American opinions. https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/09/a_too l_to_check_out_how_polarized_the_us_has_become.htm l | ||
| Aesquire |
https://xkcd.com/2149/ I think I figured it out. We live in an alternate history series written by a guy with severe depression. The next edition's premise will be "what if the intelligence increasing virus never escaped from Area 51 ?" | ||
| Ratbuell |
On the paprika note, onr thing I have been unable to find? Caffeine free diet soda. Anywhere. Its all gone. I have atrial flutter - an electronic issue in my heart. My heartbeat gets messed up and blood pressure plummets (and I've actually collapsed from it once). 2 contributors? Alcohol, and caffeine. So, I quit both last year. Now, though....there is NO caffeine free soda. WTF? | ||
| Aesquire |
https://thefederalist.com/2020/09/19/why-arent-we- allowed-to-talk-about-george-soross-plan-to-remake -america/ I see Amazon has some caffeine free diet stuff for high prices. ( Amazon food is expensive ) Do they even make speed free soda with sugar anymore? | ||
| Chauly |
Joe, I just noticed that last Wednesday. My wife inhales caffeine-free Diet Coke, I there was none to be found... It sounds like the next Black market thing, right after 9mm ammo... | ||
| Ratbuell |
It's like toilet paper. All I can think is...WHY??? Or, have coke/pepsi just given up on unleaded because there's no money in it? I guess it's OK...I've just been drinking a ton of vitamin water... | ||
| Aesquire |
So far, the most remarkable thing about 2020 is that nobody has died of natural causes. http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0920/hamilton0921 20.php3#.X2iqvp8pB0t | ||
| Aesquire |
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-e ast/articles/pflp-funding-eu-un One sign of insanity is funding terrorists that murder your people. Or if not insanity, Evil. Since it's the Left that has adopted terrorism as a way to gain more power and steal more wealth. The loss of life is a Feature, not a Bug, in their Social Programming. | ||
| Aesquire |
https://www.independent.org/pdf/policy_reports/202 0_09_23_greco_roman.pdf Warning. pdf file! But it scanned clean with and it's a good read. From a history professor. | ||
| Aesquire |
https://amgreatness.com/2020/09/27/the-progressive -medusa/ College campuses are the opposite of intellectual pursuit. Today questioning the Woke Establishment is Heresy. Obey The Holy State or be Destroyed. The News is gone, replaced by morality lectures from ignorant liars, and promises to burn it all down. Obey & chant our Hate, or be Destroyed. Sports was our heroes and relief from the daily grind. Now it's Millionaire entertainment assets complaining that their fans, bosses, and the water boy are oppressing them. While supporting Chinese slave labor and mental punishment camps in the hope that there's big money there. Let's see the names of murdered Chinese freedom seekers on NBA uniforms... Not allowed! All hail God King Xi! America is Evil. Pay me to lecture you. The Silicon valley ultra rich sell you while censoring you. Thought crime is punished by erasure. Cancel culture is into!erant. Lives are ruined. Monsters run the land into ashes. | ||
| Aesquire |
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/09/t he_upsidedown_world_of_the_woke.html Racist shopping software! Only by years of indoctrination could such obvious racist 'tudes sell in America. | ||
| Aesquire |
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/10/02/prop osition-16-ad-you-are-a-neo-nazi-if-you-oppose-rac ial-discrimination/ If you ain't for race based discrimination, you're a Nazi! War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. George Orwell | ||
| Glitch |
•••• that's for real | ||
| Aesquire |
https://www.yahoo.com/news/rochester-mayor-indicte d-felony-campaign-192055497.html And then the Democrat Party Agitators protested outside the prosecutor's home. | ||
| Aesquire |
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/10/03/chuc k-schumer-irresponsible-dangerous-move-forward-amy -coney-barrett-hearing/ I'm going to have to agree with my Senator! Until he understands germ theory and the concepts behind hygiene, he shouldn't be allowed to speak in public! If it's impossible for a small group of the best paid public servants in the World ( not counting the E.U. ) to be in a room the size of a basketball court without spitting on each other, he should stay home. Oh, they can confirm her without him, just fine. | ||
| Aesquire |
https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/10/antifa-ideo logical-threat-to-united-states/ | ||
| Aesquire |
https://amgreatness.com/2020/10/02/is-our-fate-rea lly-out-of-our-hands/ | ||
| Ducbsa |
That does point to the question of who would run after term two; Cotton, Pompeo.??? | ||
| Aesquire |
According to the Media "term 2" means the second Harris term. Just kidding! "term 2" is actually blasphemous hate speech ! But, to actually answer seriously. I don't think either have a shot, as of today. Not enough brand name recognition. Which can be good. If you're not leading the pack you aren't as big a target for defamation and lies to destroy you. If Bloomberg wasn't a repellent uber rich commie autocrat, and so obviously bought his way into the race, AND in the process getting the Klan Party to kick the blacks and minorities off the stage! Then his late entry might have worked, by limiting the time to destroy him. The other candidates had too much time, over a year!, To show how crummy they were. Too much time for the Party/Obama/Clinton Machine to dig up or make up dirt. So it's both "too soon" and too open a race in 2024 to give an informed opinion, imho. I doubt Just Joe will be a viable option by then. Certainly not the annointed alternative to Bernie the Socialist who the Party Leaders didn't let win. ( I don't blame them. Bernie isn't a team player and technically isn't even a Party member. He wouldn't have kept the status quo of them in power. ) I doubt Bernie is going to be much excitement in 4 more years either. More likely is Andrew Cuomo or a current "unknown" bought by Soros. But I could be wrong. Evil rich old perverts seem to be nigh immortal. And in the Republican Party? It's split between the Party Establishment Elite Never Trumpers and the Tea Party influenced New Guard. Who dominates in 2 years when the Campaign kicks in? Good question. And your question may be moot. If you buy the Hysterical Pundit line, which is basically just pointing out Democrat threats, fraud, projection, and Hydra Riots Until Democrats Win policy, then 2016 will be known as The Last Free Election and who the Establishment Republicans put up as a sure loser to maintain the illusion of Democracy doesn't matter. I don't quite consider that Hysterical Pundit think prophesy. Not a sure thing. But possible, and devoutly desired by the Hollywood Media crowd. |
