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Letter from Paul Bonneau

Re: “Armed and Deadly Mouse” by J. Neil Schulman

This is one of those events that might be called a “corner case”. Corner cases are important to physicists, because they illuminate and test the equations describing some physical system. But they aren’t very important in human affairs, which are not like physical laws of the universe. What guides humans are rough rules of thumb, not perfect physical laws. Human institutions and tools are never going to be even close to perfect. So, it won”t matter much one way or another whether Shelby goes to jail. There is so much wrong and evil in the human universe, that this case fades into insignificance. It's just an example of a highly improbable event that will bear in no significant way on the other events around it.

Paul Bonneau
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Letter from Jeff Fullerton

A robot can print this $32,000 house in as little as 8 hours

I think this might be what Heinlein was talking about in Grumbles from the Grave. Everyone from the contractors unions to the greenie weenies are going to be unhappy about this and that is reason alone to want one! I can see this becoming my next house someday. [Link to article]

Jeff Fullerton
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Letter from A.X. Perez

Updates

SB 16 (reducing the fee for a handgun carry license to $40.00) has passed the Texas State Senate and has been sent to the Texas House of Representatives. Meanwhile the House version of this bill (HB300) has been sent to the Calendar Committee and will be forwarded to the floor for a vote soon. The two Bills will soon be reconciled and bounced back and forth between the Texas Senate and House to get a final version to pass and send to the Governor. Not as good as free (as the bills originally called for) but a lot cheaper than before.

Except for using your HCL as ID to vote or buy beer this may be moot as HB 375 and HB1911 (essentially no license to carry a handgun required) are pending before the Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee. God willing, a bill combining ideas from both, hopefully getting rid of many of their flaws, to pass the House before the end of the month. Whether the Senate will pass their version on time for the governor to ratify Constitutional Carry (or an unreasonable facsimile thereof) is a very good question.

For acrimophiles (knife lovers) HB 1935 is pending before the Criminal Jurisprudence Committe This would throw out the idea of illegal knives and end bans based on style or length of a knife. Waiting as a consolation prize is HB 790, which would end ban on double edged knives five and a half inches long or shorter, also sitting before CJ. One should pass this year.

I have been writing reports on the above bills to TLE for the last few months. Please keep in mind that in about a month and a half the Texas State Legislature adjourns and is considering other bills. Even on the issue of guns I've focused on four out of just under 20 or so.

Some of these bills are pro freedom, many anti freedom, most are neutral.

What's going on in your state?

A.X. Perez
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Letter from Jim Woosley

Re: Last issue

To Mr. Perez, regarding his letter of comment:

Take Back Your Government is a good depiction of politics of the 40's based on Mr. Heinlein's activism. It was supposedly written in 1946 as How To Be a Politician, but sat unpublished for decades. It was finally issued by Jim Baen with an introduction by Jerry Pournelle basically in support of H. Ross Perot's third party run in 1992. The short story "A Bathroom of Her Own" is drawn from the same inspiration. Like any good book of strategy, much of it is timeless.

I was not aware of the 2013 Phoenix Pick edition that you linked. The first review was clearly by somebody who had read the older Baen edition and liked it, but objected to Jerry's commentary. When I first read it I had no problem with Jerry's notes (that was before I had done more than met him in passing at one convention; it's no secret that I'm now a frequent commentor on his Chaos Manor blog at jerrypournelle.com). They might not be as relevant ten year later.

As to Tramp Royale, I have read it twice, perhaps surprising for a then 40-year-old travel journal, but as Spider Robinson noted, Mr. Heinlein “is incapable of writing dull.”

To Mr. Schulman, regarding his essay "Armed and Dangerous Mouse."

I understand your concerns about being tall, obese, and of limited mobility, suffering those same failures myself. I hadn't thought of that concern; a mitigation seems necessary.

PS—Reading the Heinlein Interview. Thank you.

Jim Woosley
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Letter from Don Templeton

Re: “Jethro and Duke” by L. Neil Smith

Dear L. Neil and Ken:

Congratulations. You are the first libertarian I’ve ever laid eyeballs on which will openly revise “beliefs” in the face of “facts”. The reality of open borders in the face of stone-age rape fiends is not only a bad idea—it’s a lethal agenda to pursue. Yes, I agree with your “purist” interpretation of the idea of borders. This lofty ideal is MEANINGLESS in the eyes of a transgressor that does not recognize thou lofty ideals. In order for libby ideals to apply to a given population, the population in question, at a minimum, must generally agree to the ideals being proposed as the Bedrocks For Operating Society By. Islam means submission. Nothing in its philosophy allows for free inquiry, freedom of speech, freedom of expression, or just plain FREEDOM, period. Islam is a giant step backwards to the Dark Ages, when Christianity was just as insane as the Muslims still are.

Frankly, I’m sick of “libertarians” so inflexible in their dogmas as to practice complete political inaction in the face of a candidate who would have meant the end of civilization as we know it. These hardliners will not cooperate with anything or any movement which does not RIGIDLY adhere to every libertarian ideal perfectly. This characteristic of the breed which I’ve violently combusted with in the past and with the lip service paid to the Non-Aggression Directive by most all libertarians has led to my vigorously removing the label from my descriptions.

Explain this purely intellectual masturbatory exercise libertarians engage in called the Non-Aggression Directive. The directive says that no WoMan shall initiate aggression against thy neighbor and if any WoMan findeth themselves the target of illegal aggression has the right and the duty to counter said aggression with counter-aggression potent enough to stop thy aggressor from continuing to aggress. Nobody lives by this ideal. If anyone did in any significant number, the State would be burning into slag right now.

My point? Live up to thy ideals or revise thy ideals in the face of pragmatic reality.

Don Templeton
[email protected]
www.BlueFalconPress.com
The Planet’s Most Politically Incorrect Publisher of Extreme Genre Fiction.
Home of the Extreme 1st Amendment Project.
“Use language like a baseball bat!”

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