The statement of authority of Law over the king goes back well before 1688. The precept that only God and the Law are above the king was in existence, if not during the reign of Henry II in England, then soon thereafter. (This is the foggy memory of an aging history major working without a net.) I believe that it was the dissemination of this concept that helped encourage those disgruntled barons to draft Magna Carta.
I don't have any easy answer to number 2. An author who is our mutual friend would probably agree with the statement that machine guns are the answer to many questions.
3. Punishment doesn't count unless it hurts. If you also happen to punish the innocent, well, that'll just encourage other people to not do anything to make them look guilty. And this is all okay when you're God's Annointed Instrument. Kids, don't try this at home.
My take on this story is that about the only place where Gunn can really claim wrong is if he can show that his plagiarism was recognized early, and the that university decided to keep him there, paying tuition, with the intent of expelling him just before graduation.
Jeremy, you've got the correct story title, and it is by Heinlein.
Ah, the efect of fatigue. I was looking at the link "Behold the Powers of Self-publishing" and lost a comma. One of the author's interests became paranormal horseback-riding, and my mind boggled.
OTOH, I think there might be a better story in that failed visualization than this book sounds to be.
My perception of the last few years suggests that Bush, Cheney, Ashcroft, and Rumsfeld have been so deeply in each other's pockets that if any were to go the whole administration would collapse in flames. Lovely as that would be, I doubt that any one of them will take action to ignite the Guy Fawke's Day bonfire under their own feet.
My perception of the last few years suggests that Bush, Cheney, Ashcroft, and Rumsfeld have been so deeply in each other's pockets that if any were to go the whole administration would collapse in flames. Lovely as that would be, I doubt that any one of them will take action to ignite the Guy Fawke's Day bonfire under their own feet.
I've just been hearing NPR reporting that Taguba is to appear before Congress today. At military insistence he isn't going to be there alone, as was asked by the committee. He will be flanked by two officers senior to him.
Way to encourage a frank and open discussion, guys! And how far up the chain of command did that one come from? What? Oh, there is no chain of command anymore? Harry Truman's old "The Buck Stops Here" sign has been replaced with one that reads "The Buck Stops in my Cayman Islands Account" and no one is responsible.
Certainly, no one seems to be planning to fall on their sword for the good of the rest of the (mis)administration. (Do we even want to remind any of them that the phrase has been used metphorically rather than literally for a few years now?)
BTW--for the early poster, yes the general was "promoted," but it was to a backwater Pentagon posting that sounds as though he'll be encouraged to seek retirement if he ever wants to see daylight again.
I'll take a moment to join the chorus of those hoping that you truly are feeling better now.
And thank you, I think, for posting the grammar quiz. As with so many of my fellows, with each question my barely conscious mind grew more and more confident that I was missing something truly basic and that I'd get some awful rating. I'm sure that any and all production people who feel insecure about what they do can understand the trepidation with which I told it to grade me.
I passed the test. I shall fade, and pass into the West, and still remain... Sorry. Wrong book.
But I do seem to have been established in the firmament with you and the other Grammar Gods out there. For now, anyway.
Ilona, there was nothing in your reply to me to apologize about. Pardon me. Nothing for you to apologize about. Messrs. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al sure as shooting should be apologizing about a lot of things.
The local network news has carried reports about families and friends of members of units being deployed toward Iraq. It seems they've been pooling funds to buy complete sets of body armor for our troops to take with them. The official military response has been to say that "there was a problem in supply but we have it worked out now."
I think those friends and family members will be wise to keep up the purchases.
Those civilian transports that happen to look like the military model are due to be replaced. Just as soon as the makers can retool the assembly lines. The replacement military-grade vehicles will start arriving for use by our men and women in Iraq sometime around May. Of 2005. (At the earliest? I may be remembering the news reports I saw about this with excessive optimism.)
I've got an open question as to whether one point in the post represents a shift in military use in Iraq to reflect one of the sad details about how well prepared our forces weren't.
I'm curious about the reference to the "SUV." I'd normally expect to hear a reference to a Hummer (or HMMWV, if memory serves for the proper military acronym), but I've also run into references indicating that more than half the "Hummers" sent to Iraq for Operation Testosterone Storm were civilian models, without armor. This has contributed to the casualty rates associated with roadside bombs and snipers.
Are our forces now referring to these unhardened vehicles as SUVs to distinguish them from real military equipment?
As it's an open thread, I'll toss in my appreciation of the new HBO series, Deadwood. Ignore the hype about the bad language. Yep--there's salt in them words, but not over the top and not wrong for the context. Our good friend Yog can tell you that the modern navy is at least as bad.
The show proper has an unexpectedly fine nineteenth-century quality to its language and sense of humor. There are some excellent performances, and the show is doing some really interesting character interpretation of the familiar historical figures. Keith Carradine makes an astonishingly good Hickock, and the woman playing Jane is doing an amazing job.
Somewhat related, on a board having to do with the show I just found this link to Digital Deadwood, which takes the history of the town and makes it into an interactive game of sorts. I just need to find time to really explore it....
http://www.digitaldeadwood.com/
Wow! Patrick and Theresa are in contact with telekinetic dolphins! If we all play nice, can we be introduced too?
Kip, your reply was wonderful. But you forgot the other production people who worked on the book. They also got to read it before the rest of us....
Gosh! What kind of prescience is assumed here? After all, I've known you for darned near thirty years, and have always enjoyed your company. I've enjoyed Patrick's company since I first met him. I don't write. But, according to this guy, I've been playing toady to you for thirty years getting ready to try to cozen you into buying that book I'm going to write any day (year? decade?) now. Who knew that I was so foresighted?
There's a story, perhaps apocryphal, that James Michener's first book had been sitting in an editor's home office for some time, quietly nesting in a box. The editor's cat jumped into the box and expressed an editorial opinion on the ms. The editor was so chagrinned that they bought the book rather than explain what the cat had done to it.
So, what was in the Fantasizing about Dick Cheney link that caused the site to go away? Was the site run by CBS or something?
Especially after the little "Oopsie" relating to the last reported discovery of new transuranics.
"I was thinking of trying to get help from Einsteinium and Californium."
"That's absurd! You can't depend on the Transuranics--they're unstable!"
(paraphrased from Sapphire and Steel, episode 1)
So, um, what happened with what you were supposed to remember. Sheet music? Something with notes....
Maybe they should also expand to cover another way all those terrorists could find out about events in an area, what might attract crowds of wealthy and influential people, and what buildings are significant. Toss in details about food supplies, public transit, and maybe even the utility grid, and it's obvious: all those newspapers are far too dangerous.
How do I get a security bulletin issued? Or could that also give sensitive information to the Great Enemy?
Stefan,
projects for Jackson? I agree about The White Company. Umberto Eco's book, Foucault's Pendulum. Kathryn Neville's The Eight. Any part of Peter Whimsey. (And, yes, I know it goes into F&SF, but he might be able to do some terrific things for Lord Darcy, The Movie.)
Or, as an original project, the story of Douglas Bader, a pilot who lost both legs in an air crash in the early thirties, and went on to become one of Britain's top aces in WW II. He was shot down over Germany late in the war, and after his third escape attempt wound up being sent to Colditz. That could make a pretty cool movie.
Utterly unrelated, but Nancy just pointed out a site to me for a movie due out next summer. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow looks like a classic thirties or forties movie serial done up for lots of fun with a really neat cast. Check out www.skycaptain.com for the trailer.
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2004 | 19 |
| 2003 | 6 |
Total: 25 comments. View all these comments on a single page.
The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Elric:
Show all comments by Elric.