heinleinblog

A member of the Gilroy Dispatch’s editorial board invokes Heinlein to explain the need for seperation of church and state:

Walker was responding to my recent column in which I argued that while personal faith is a perfectly valid basis for personal decisions, personal faith is irrelevant as a basis for deciding public policy in America. I gave several examples of some faiths’ assertions that the vast majority of Americans would not want enacted into law (modern medicine, technology and birth control are bad according to some faiths, so if faith is the basis of our laws, modern medicine, technology and birth control should be banned). In the incisive words of author Robert Heinlein, “One man’s theology is another man’s belly laugh.”

I notice that Walker did not answer my simple question: If you base laws on personal faith, whose faith do you choose?

The current ban on stem cell research is just one example of how George W. Bush’s religion is causing some people to die because cures are being delayed.

Some belly laugh, huh?

From Blogcritics:

In Robert Heinlein’s classic novel Starship Troopers, he largely embraced the notion of a human military which operated along the same paradigms as the contemporary version, albeit with a few more toys (indeed, many people are still enamored of the idea of a self-contained “army of one” inside a super-powered suit of armor, as evidenced by the enduring popularity of the Xbox game Halo).

The Starfist series, written by Dan Cragg and David Sherman, walks a similar path. An ongoing exploration of the combat infantry units of the future, it employs a “grunt’s eye” view of military activities, complete with heroic marines and moronic commanders. The latest installment, Flashfire, does a pretty good job of describing a futuristic civil war.

This article in Live Science says that the parasite called Toxoplasma may play a role in Schizophrenia. The writer evokes The Master to make a point:

Are parasites like Toxoplasma subtly altering human behavior? As it turns out, science fiction writers have been thinking about whether or not parasites could alter a human being’s behavior, or even take control of a person. In his 1951 novel The Puppet Masters, Robert Heinlein wrote about alien parasites the size of dinner plates that took control of the minds of their hosts, flooding their brains with neurochemicals. In this excerpt, a volunteer strapped to a chair allows a parasite to be introduced; the parasite rides him, taking over his mind. Under these conditions, it is possible to interview the parasite; however, it refuses to answer until zapped with a cattle prod.

The Space Review details the candidates for the award in the field of commercial space flight.

The Columbia Spectator includes “Starship Troopers” on its short list of provacative battlefield literature.