Prancing Hippies Found Liable for $667 Million to Pipeline Company

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Greenpeace that ever annoying coalition of environmental dunderheads and nihilists has been found liable for their part in fomenting violent, destructive activities associated with a pipeline that was being constructed in North Dakota.

Add this enormous fine on top of the disruption to access to taxpayer money that DOGE is currently providing and it sounds to me that a lot of grimy, smelly hippies will be quite a bit poorer and disorganized for the foreseeable future.

Whales, polar bears and penguins, better start watching your backs.  You’re on your own.  The eco-terrorists have lost their piggybank.

Short Stories of Robert A. Heinlein – A Short Discussion

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For some unknown reason today, I was thinking of Heinlein’s short stories.  Heinlein was probably as well known for his short stories as for his novels.  I guess my first exposure to this part of his work was when I got a copy of the Green Hills of Earth.  And even as a dopey kid I could tell that Heinlein’s stories had a more polished and professional feel to them than many of his contemporaries.  His stories of the early days of human space flight sounded as if he had been there.  Maybe it was his engineering background.  He made something like a lunar construction site sound not only plausible but almost mundane.  Dealing with the pressure loss from a moonquake (“Gentlemen, Be Seated!”) sounded like something that you would be reading about in a newspaper story someday soon.

One that captured some of the consequences of subjecting humans to the rigors of Heinlein’s “torch ship” technology was “Skylift.”  A pilot runs a virtual suicide mission to reach Pluto with medical supplies in time to save the inhabitants of a research station from a plague.  Surviving multiple g’s of acceleration for an extended period is highlighted in this adventure story.

Of course, some of his short stories were of an entirely different sort.  One somewhat tongue in cheek story (“And He Built a Crooked House”) purports to describe what might happen if an architect built a house in the shape of an unfolded tesseract and then a California earthquake strikes and folds it up.  Very ridiculous but I think quite entertaining.

Then there’s one that could have been used for a Twilight Zone or Outer Limits episode (“They”).  A case of paranoid delusion but with a fun twist.

And of course, it wouldn’t be Heinlein without his tribute to robber barons in space, Delos David “D. D.” Harriman and his dream of putting a man on the moon (“The Man Who Sold the Moon“) and then his tragic finale (“Requiem“) when he tried to go there himself.  I always thought it was a nice touch using Robert Louis Stevenson’s epitaph for Harriman.

Under the wide and starry sky

Dig the grave and let me lie:

Glad did I live and gladly die,

And I laid me down with a will!

 

This be the verse you grave for me:

Here he lies where he longed to be;

Home is the sailor, home from sea,

And the hunter home from the hill.

 

I picked six of the stories I think of as vintage Heinlein.  I probably could include another dozen if I wanted to make this post overly long.  But I’ve included the list of Heinlein’s stories in case anyone wanted to pick their favorites for the comments section.  Enjoy.

All You Zombies Elsewhen Let There Be Light My Object All Sublime Solution Unsatisfactory
And He Built a Crooked House Free Men Life-Line Nothing Ever Happens on the Moon Space Jockey
A Bathroom of Her Own Future History Logic of Empire Ordeal in Space A Tenderfoot in Space
Beyond Doubt Gentlemen, Be Seated! The Long Watch Our Fair City They
The Black Pits of Luna Goldfish Bowl Lost Legacy Poor Daddy Waldo
Blowups Happen The Green Hills of Earth Magic, Inc. Project Nightmare Water Is for Washing
By His Bootstraps Gulf The Man Who Sold the Moon Requiem —We Also Walk Dogs
Columbus Was a Dope “If This Goes On—” The Man Who Traveled in Elephants The Roads Must Roll The Year of the Jackpot
Coventry (short story) It’s Great to Be Back! The Menace from Earth Searchlight
Delilah and the Space Rigger Jerry Was a Man Misfit Sky Lift

 

To Be or Not to Be a Barbarian

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Just when I think Leftists can’t get any more un-American they say, “Hold my soy latte” and show us just how miserably wretched they truly are.  Up here in New England one of the states (it doesn’t matter which one) is debating a bill to mandate 100% voting turnout for all elections.

Now I don’t know the details.  I don’t know how they’ll guarantee that the dying and the late-stage dementia patients are forced to vote.  I’m guessing if you don’t show up the ballot gets filled out for you by the Secretary of State.  I think they’re calling it the 100% Democracy Bill or something brilliant like that.

This sounds like a joke from our side; just a way to make fun of the leftist tendency to dictate behavior for “people’s own good” but this is actual legislation that’s currently under debate.  Actual politicians in this part of the country think this is consistent with the American constitution.  Well, all I can say is these people are insane.

But they’re also running the show up here.  The insanity is baked deep into everything they think and do.  They don’t realize how this looks to people on the outside.  This is so close to North Korea and Sadaam’s Iraq where “free elections” end up with the dear leaders garnishing >99% of the vote every single time.

Well, that’s enough about that.

I was thinking today about the definition of literary science fiction.  I guess it’s any science fiction that has enough character development and enough verisimilitude to the way real people act and talk and feel to convince “serious” literary critics that your story is literature and not entertainment.  I guess it has to be in some sense “real.”

Unfortunately, I understand that what it’s mostly become is racial and sexual grievance screeds very unconvincingly disguised as science fiction.  So outside of a specific population of people primarily dedicated to reading such stuff it’s not going to very interesting to most of the human race.

But putting this political sub-genre aside what is the difference between genre fiction like science fiction and fantasy and actual literary fiction?

Well, I think that’s still quite subjective but I get the point of some of the criticism of some genre fiction.  The story can be so stereotyped that the action feels cartoonish, the characters are one dimensional and the dialog is completely predictable.  I can think of some pulp stuff that seems that way now.  But by the same token, there are literary “masterpieces” that have long stretches of boring plot where nothing much happens.  And even the most widely hailed protagonists can have whole chapters where the story drags and the dialog is meh.

So, what’s the calculation?  Can a pulp story have 95% of the story composed of space opera and still be “literature” if the author gives the hero a scene full of heartbreaking humanity and emotional conflict?  Sure, we’re not expecting Conan the Barbarian to break into a Shakespearian soliloquy when one of his comrades is skewered by a neolithic monster.  But if you write a story that has an interesting plot surely there is no shame in trying to make, some of the characters at least, recognizably and honestly human.

Now, I’m not thinking about Hamlet showing up in any of my stories.  But Macbeth might as well be a medieval urban fantasy story.  It has witches and magic and ghosts.  Just because it’s in iambic pentameter and has “thou” and “thee” scattered around in it doesn’t make it any less a crime drama.  So, who’s to say that a genre novel can’t be legitimate literature?

Just something I was thinking about.

Soak in the Sunshine

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Meriam Webster defines, “bellwether” as:

  • one that takes the lead or initiative
  • leader
  • an indicator of trends

Later on, they explain etymologically and for historical perspective, that wether means sheep and the original meaning of bellwether is the sheep that wears a bell and is the leader of the flock.  But nowadays the last meaning dominates.  A bellwether is an indicator of trends.

And so today I have declared Camera Girl as an American economic bellwether.  Today she told me that eggs are now priced less than five dollars a dozen and officially back within her budget again.  And later she told me that gasoline had fallen below three dollars a gallon.

Not one to waste such a moment I informed her that she needs to credit Donald Trump for these improvements.  And with a minimum of eye-rolling she unironically credited the forty seventh President of the United States with this economic turn of events.  Thank you, Camera Girl.

Alright I’ve banged the drum and declared victory over inflation based an a pretty small sample of prices.  But you have to remember people who go grocery shopping look at the world precisely from that angle.  When a dozen eggs costs eight dollars the sticker shock is visceral.  When gas goes from two dollars to three seventy-five a gallon that’s an outrage to motorists.  Especially if you don’t happen to have a six-figure salary.

So, what’s my point?  Well, for the last couple of months I’ve been reading the Democrats talking points and the most consistent advice is for the Democrats and the media to flood the field with the fact that inflation is not decreasing but increasing.  Okay, that’s a pretty potent strategy since inflation is primarily what got Biden and Harris bounced out of the race for the White House.  Allowing inflation to go unchecked for even two years would be suicidal for the Republicans.

So it is with great satisfaction that I note that at least some of the most noticeable and irritating consumer prices have headed in the right direction.  Now I can’t say exactly why this is happening.  Is it Trumps policies already making an impact?  Is it just the beauty of karma kicking the Democrats in the teeth and then patting Donald Trump on the shoulder like an old friend?  Maybe.  But whatever it is the guys at the Wednesday zoom call were kind of giddy about some of it.

So, I don’t know how long this will continue.  But every week that it does seems to take its toll on the mental health of Chuck Schumer, Hakim Jeffries and AOC.  All three seem to be close to a paranoid nervous breakdown.  I saw a little bit of Schumer on a show (maybe the View) and he was gesticulating with his arms and rattling on in a high-pitched whine as if he might be working up to a seizure or a stroke.  This is definitely where we want the Democrats.  When their heads look like they might explode I don’t think we have to worry about them convincing the American people of much of anything at all.  Well, maybe they might convince viewers that they’re unhinged.  That they might do.

So, am I laying it on a little thick?  Yeah, probably.  But it’s not every day or even every year that our enemies look so flustered and tongue-tied.  It’s a moment worth savoring.