Author: Kevin

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Two “Must Reads”.

The first has been making the rounds, but if you haven’t read it, I strongly urge you to. It’s a piece by Science Fiction author Dan Simmons – a “message from the future.” The post at Dan’s site seems to be down, but Google has it cached.

The second was posted tonight at Mostly Cajun. Titled A View from the Eye of the Storm, it’s a look at the current conflict through the eyes of someone with an insider’s perspective.

Read them both. Think on them hard. Because it will be your children and your children’s children who will be living in the future that these two pieces discuss.

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Low Humor.

Tonight I got to do one of my favorite jokes. When I got home from work, my wife was preparing to take the grandkids out to ride the carnival rides at a nearby shopping center (yes, yes, I know…). Anyway, she asked me to pick up a few things at the grocery store, and I said that, seeing as I needed to go anyway, I’d just make a list and pick up everything tonight rather than tomorrow.

So, as I’m pushing my cart up and down the aisles, I come upon the section where they have the cooking oil. A woman is standing there with her teenage son, and she is saying to him, “Olive oil comes from olives, and corn oil comes from corn…”

I immediately piped up, “So where does baby oil come from?”

Unfortunately, she didn’t get it. Junior was a chip off the old block, too.

A good joke wasted.

But she was wondering what canola oil came from. (I should have said “Cannolis.”)

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Almost Late BAG Day Reminder.

Just a reminder. I bought mine a month early.

(Unfortunately, I understand that Aaron – originator of BAG day – got his site hacked by somebody in Saudi Arabia and is still recovering.)

Let Me Repeat Myself…

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(…on a different topic.)

Remember this post?

It’s the only power Congress really has. They’re not going to give it up, short of being at gunpoint.

Instapundit links to an Opinion Journal piece on the Republican’s failure to live up to their purported principles. Excerpts:

If Republicans lose control of Congress in November, they might want to look back at last Thursday as the day it was lost. That’s when the big spenders among House Republicans blew up a deal between the leadership and rank-in-file to impose some modest spending discipline.

Unlike the collapse of the immigration bill, this fiasco can’t be blamed on Senate Democrats. This one is all about Republicans and their refusal to give up their power to spend money at will and pass out “earmarks” like a bartender offering drinks on the house.

—

Jeff Flake of Arizona wanted each spending “earmark” to be identified along with the Member who requested it, so perhaps lawmakers might be shamed into using tax dollars more responsibly. He assumed, wrongly as it turned out, that a legislative body that has allowed these pork projects to quadruple in the past five years is still capable of being embarrassed.

I repeat myself: No reform unless it’s at the Point. Of. A. Gun.

Which means, no reform.

Ah, politics. And it’s been this way literally for decades. Just ask Henry Louis Mencken or Will Rogers.

The more you read and observe about this Politics thing, you got to admit that each party is worse than the other. The one that’s out always looks the best. – Will Rogers

This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer. – Will Rogers

The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can’t get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods. – H.L. Mencken

It is the invariable habit of bureaucracies, at all times and everywhere, to assume…that every citizen is a criminal. Their one apparent purpose, pursued with a relentless and furious diligence, is to convert the assumption into a fact. They hunt endlessly for proofs, and, when proofs are lacking, for mere suspicions. The moment they become aware of a definite citizen, John Doe, seeking what is his right under the law, they begin searching feverishly for an excuse for withholding it from him. – H.L. Mencken

And, finally:

The ideal Government of all reflective men, from Aristotle onward, is one which lets the individual alone—one which barely escapes being no government at all. This ideal, I believe, will be realized in the world twenty or thirty centuries after I have passed from these scenes and taken up my public duties in Hell. – H.L. Mencken

I’m afraid his timeline might have been a little optimistic.

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Cultures.

Publicola has written an excellent piece on the differences between those of us who support and defend the right to arms, and those who support “gun control,” and I think he’s nailed it. Money quote:

What I think the conflict boils down to is a struggle between the collectivists & the individualists. It’s not a question of trust per se, it’s a question of faith. It’s a belief that one system is better, more ideal than the other.

Read the whole thing. He’s exactly right. I wish I’d written it.

Yesterday afternoon on my way home from work I was listening to Hugh Hewitt‘s radio show. He had Dennis Prager on for about an hour, and I caught most of it. Dennis said something that relates to what Publicola is saying in his piece:

It is not possible to think clearly and be on the left. It is not possible. It is possible to think unclearly and be on the right. Not everybody on the right thinks clearly. But everyone on the left thinks unclearly. It is not possible to have a leftist view of the world, and think clearly. It is feeling and passion.

And that, in short is the difference between, as I see it, individualists and collectivists. Collectivism comes from wishing things were not as they are, and refusing to see what is. Those on the right can be guilty of this as well, but it’s a requirement for those on the Left.

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Remember “The Only One in This Room Professional Enough…”

“…to handle this Glock .40”?

Seems that Lee Paige, the DEA agent in question – who was so professional, he shot himself in the foot in front of the class after making that proclamation – is suing the U.S. government for letting the tape get into the public domain. The Smoking Gun has the, well, smoking gun:

A Drug Enforcement Administration agent who stars in a popular online video that shows him shooting himself in the foot during a weapons demonstration for Florida children is suing over the tape’s release, claiming that his career has been crippled and he’s become a laughingstock due to the embarrassing clip’s distribution. Lee Paige, 45, blames the video’s release on DEA officials in an April 7 federal lawsuit filed against the U.S. government.

Crippled his career? What about his foot??

Interestingly, the complaint indicates that the DEA took possession of the original (privately filmed) tape, and they censored out the (forgive me) footage of Agent Paige making an example of himself. Therefore someone or someones unknown inside the DEA released the footage. Further, the complaint claims, Google records some 347,000 hits for “DEA Agent shoots himself.”

Is this an example of someone shooting himself in the other foot?

Or, hey! He’s famous! Perhaps he should run for the Florida State Senate!

MORE Books!!

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Via Heinleinblog, here’s a list of 100 Science Fiction Books You Just Have to Read:

1. Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke *
2. Foundation by Isaac Asimov *
3. Dune by Frank Herbert *
4. Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
5. Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein *!
6. Valis by Philip K. Dick
7. Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
8. Gateway by Frederick Pohl
9. Space Merchants by C.M. Kornbluth & Frederick Pohl
10. Earth Abides by George R. Stewart *
11. Cuckoo’s Egg by C.J. Cherryh
12. Star Surgeon by James White
13. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick
14. Radix by A.A. Attanasio
15. 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke *!
16. Ringworld by Larry Niven *!
17. A Case of Conscience by James Blish *
18. Last and First Man by Olaf Stapledon
19. The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
20. Way Station by Clifford Simak
21. More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon
22. Gray Lensman by E. E. “Doc” Smith *
23. The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov *
24. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
25. Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock
26. Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon
27. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells *
28. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
29. Heritage of Hastur by Marion Zimmer Bradley
30. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells *
31. The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester *
32. Slan by A.E. Van Vogt
33. Neuromancer by William Gibson *!
34. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card *!
35. In Conquest Born by C.S. Friedman *
36. Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
37. Eon by Greg Bear *
38. Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey *
39. Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
40. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein *!
41. Cosm by Gregory Benford
42. The Voyage of the Space Beagle by A.E. Van Vogt
43. Blood Music by Greg Bear
44. Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress
45. Omnivore by Piers Anthony *
46. I, Robot by Isaac Asimov *
47. Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement
48. To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip Jose Farmer
49. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
50. The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold
51. 1984 by George Orwell *!
52. The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyl And Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
53. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson *
54. Flesh by Philip Jose Farmer
55. Cities in Flight by James Blish *
56. Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe
57. Startide Rising by David Brin *
58. Triton by Samuel R. Delany
59. Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner
60. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
61. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury *!
62. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller *
63. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes *!
64. No Blade of Grass by John Christopher
65. The Postman by David Brin *
66. Dhalgren by Samuel Delany *
67. Berserker by Fred Saberhagen *!
68. Flatland by Edwin Abbot
69. Planiverse by A.K. Dewdney
70. Dragon’s Egg by Robert L. Forward *
71. Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh
72. Dawn by Octavia E. Butler
73. Puppet Masters by Robert Heinlein *
74. The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis *
75. Forever War by Joe Haldeman *!
76. Deathbird Stories by Harlan Ellison
77. Roadside Picnic by Boris Strugatsky & Arkady Strugatsky
78. The Snow Queen by Joan Vinge
79. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury *!
80. Drowned World by J.G. Ballard
81. Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
82. Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson *
83. Upanishads by Various
84. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
85. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams *!
86. The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin *!
87. The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham
88. Mutant by Henry Kuttner
89. Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
90. Ralph 124C41+ by Hugo Gernsback
91. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
92. Timescape by Gregory Benford
93. The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
94. War with the Newts by Karl Kapek
95. Mars by Ben Bova *
96. Brain Wave by Poul Anderson
97. Hyperion by Dan Simmons *
98. The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton *!
99. Camp Concentration by Thomas Disch
100. A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

(* indicates that I’ve read it, ! indicates that I heartily recommend it.)

The link takes you to the list that’s hyperlinked to short synopses of the actual works.

Well, perusing this list I see that I’ve read (carry the one…) 41 of the recommended 100. I notice that some of these are short-stories or novellas (unless the authors went back and made full-length novels of them, as I know Orson Scott Card did with Ender’s Game). Some of these I know I’ve read, but couldn’t give you a synopsis without checking the link. Some of them still burn brightly in my memory. Some of these I’ve read quite recently. For example, I finished The Earth Abides (#10) just last Friday. I picked it up in Barnes & Noble a couple of weeks ago on a whim. James Blish’s A Case of Conscience I read about six months ago. I picked it up in the local used book store.

Many of these books, I’m afraid, have suffered somewhat from age. The Earth Abides was published in 1954, and it’s an interesting look into the worldview of the time, but some of the scenes jangle from being fifty years old. The Gray Lensman (#22) is classic space-opera – and just not my style. But most of these, I’ll bet, hold their own, regardless of age. I never tire of re-reading DUNE (#3), or Starship Troopers (#5). Everyone, I’m sure, has some argument with some selection on the list. Mine is with Dhalgren (#66). I really shouldn’t say I’ve read it, since I quit about 2/3rds of the way through. My brother got to the next to last page and quit.

Whatever people see in it eludes me.

I would have put The Moon is a Harsh Mistress on the list LONG before The Puppet Masters (#73). I’ve read pretty much everything Heinlein wrote, and IMHO Mistress is a far better and more important work.

Now, if I’m going to recommend one book for someone with little to no experience in Science Fiction, it’s going to be an anthology of short stories and novellas – The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. I. It contains Flowers for Algernon, (#63) and 25 other superlative pieces, most by authors mentioned above. Thankfully, it’s back in print again (as I hug my 1970 edition hardcover copy.)

One thing I can say, I need to read some more of Philip K. Dick. All I’ve read of his work is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the novel that inspired the film Bladerunner.

In case you haven’t noticed, I love Science Fiction.