heinleinblog

I am sure I am the last warblogger to post this humerous, yet wise advice, which I found here. But it is remarkably consistant with the philosophy behind the Robert A. Heinlein quote from my previous post.

With all of this talk of war, many of us will encounter “Peace Activists” who will try and convince us that we must refrain from retaliating against the ones who terrorized us all on September 11, 2001, and those who support terror.

These activists may be alone or in a gathering…..most of us don’t know how to react to them. When you come upon one of these people, or one of their rallies, here are the proper rules of etiquette:

1. Listen politely while this person explains their views. Strike up a conversation if necessary and look very interested in their ideas. They will tell you how revenge is immoral, and that by attacking the people who did this to us, we will only bring on more violence. They will probably use many arguments, ranging from political to religious to humanitarian.

2. In the middle of their remarks, without any warning, punch them in the nose.

3. When the person gets up off of the ground, they will be very angry and they may try to hit you, so be careful.

4. Very quickly and calmly remind the person that violence only brings about more violence and remind them of their stand on this matter. Tell them if they are really committed to a nonviolent approach to undeserved attacks, they will turn the other cheek and negotiate a solution. Tell them they must lead by example if they really believe what they are saying.

5. Most of them will think for a moment and then agree that you are correct.

6. As soon as they do that, hit them again. Only this time hit them much harder. Square in the nose.

7. Repeat steps 2-5 until the desired results are obtained and the idiot realizes how stupid of an argument he/she is making.

8. There is no difference in an individual attacking an unsuspecting victim or a group of terrorists attacking a nation of people. It is unacceptable and must be dealt with. Perhaps at a high cost.

We owe our military a huge debt for what they are about to do for us and our children. We must support them and our leaders at times like these. We have no choice. We either strike back, VERY HARD, or we will keep getting hit in the nose.

Lesson over, class dismissed.

The editors of the Science Fiction Book Club has included Robert A. Heinlein’s “Stranger in a Strange Land” to its list of the top 50 most important science fiction/fantasy works of all time. It was fourth on the list, behind (1.) J.R.R. Tolkien’ “Lord of the Rings”; (2.) Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation Trilogy”; and (3.) Frank Herbert’s “Dune.”

According to a press release:

Ellen Asher, Science Fiction Book Club Senior Editor, described Heinlein, author of “Stranger in a Strange Land,”; as “the single most popular and widest-read science fiction writer of all time. ‘Stranger’; was not only a phenomenon for science fiction readers. It jumped the borders into the wider culture, giving a new lexicon to the late ’60s and a new way of looking at the world.”

USA Today reporter Bob Minzesheimer chose a more sarcastic description:

Heinlein’s “Starship Troopers” was listed as 46th on the full list, while Joe Haldeman’s “The Forever War” sort of a liberal’s version of “SST” was 24th on the list while Heinlein’s “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” didn’t make the list at all.

Did Heinlein get the respect he was due in this list? Well, you can’t really complain about finishing fourth. And as much as I love and respect Heinlein’s work, Tolkein’s masterpiece is much more influential. I like Asimov’s work, too. I think his Robot novels were more influential than the Foundation novels (although he later merged them into the same universe). I could never get past the first few pages of “Dune.”

I also would have included L. Neil Smith’s “The Probability Broach” and Spider Robinson’s “Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon.”

UPDATE: All complaints, criticisms and insults directed at this list concerning numbers 11-50 are invalid. It was just pointed out to me that except for the top 10, the books are listed in alphabetical order. In my defense, there is no explanation of this anywhere on the site, and it took someone with a better eye for detail than I to catch it.

The Heinlein Society plans to celebrate the 100th anniversary of science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein’s birth with a variety of events, products, and programs. A special Web page has been set up to detail these events as they unfold.