A Point To Ponder…

If chimpanzees and tyrannosaurs went bowling, who would win?

Recommended Libertarian Science Fiction

Science Fiction, at its best, helps us see what could be. Not necessarily what will be – where’s my flyin’ car, dang it! – but what could be – both good and bad.

Libertarianism is often accused of being unworkable in real life. How could people ever work together with all that freedom? L. Neil Smith proposes some ways in a series of books that have been around for years, but I never saw them before. The first is an alternate-universe story called The Probability Broach, published back in 1980. The North American Confederacy began when Albert Gallatin intervened during the Whiskey Rebellion, but on the anti-tax side – and convinced the militia to go with him, back to Philadelphia, to take back his fledgling country from the Federalists – especially George Washington and Alexander Hamilton. No taxes, no Constitution – a stronger set of Articles of Confederation, but focusing on the rights of the individual, not a federal government. No taxes, no government – and the Confederates get along just fine.

The latest is called The American Zone, and it is a direct sequel to the first. There are several in between that take the characters and their decendants further along, but Zone returns to the original characters. Written shortly after 9/11, Smith uses the book as a way to show how a libertarian society would handle terrorist activity.

Smith is a pretty decent writer and his ideas are certainly interesting. Right now, they are very welcome – when the federal government seems hell-bent on taking away all the freedom it can.

Smith’s web site can be found here.

Not to be confused with L. Neil Smith is J. Neil Schulman, another libertarian science fiction writer. His book, Alongside Night, sounds scarily possible right now – even though he wrote it years ago. It’s available at his website, www.pulpless.com.

No time to chat…

School just started. Busy, busy. Talk to everybody later.

The Obama Resistance

The American Thinker has an article on the growing resistance by Americans to the too-fast, misguided policies and legislation of the Obama Administration. Just go and read it. You can also find a large, high-resolution version of this graphic. You know, just in case there’s a “Hope” poster out there that needs to be covered up…

For you rocket and science fiction fans out there

Jon Rogers, co-author of The Spaceship Handbook and The Saucer Fleet, now has a new web site, Rogers Rocketships. Among other cool things on the site are the drawings he did for the books, and they are available for purchase. I don’t think anyone has done more to detail famous spaceships from movies, TV, and even some real and X-vehicle subjects. Jon has really done the research and his drawings are beautiful. You can also buy artwork and both of the books. You don’t have to be interested in modeling any of these to find these books a lot of fun – all you need is an interest in the future that never was, but should have been!

What’s Up With This?

They're from Planet Ten!

From the White House blog:

“There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care.  These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation.  Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.”

OK. I think the health care plan – now called “health insurance reform” – was foisted on us by Red Lectroids from Planet Ten via the 8th Dimension. Gonna turn me in to the Thought Police? You go, dude.

I swear to All That Is Holy, this so-called “administration” is going to turn us into 1984 within a year…

Jokers then and now

Apparently this image is popping up around Los Angeles. It’s interesting, but I kind of like this one by Aussie artist James Lillis:

Here’s a Joker who told you, in 1989:

“Whodoya trust, whodoya trust?”

and

“I’m givin’ away free money!”

<Sigh.>The more things change, the more they stay the same. Where is our Batman now?