Kowabunga

Former Congressman Cynthia "Assault and Battery" McKinney is using the Green Party in an attempt to make her self relevant again after she was voted from office in 2006. How? By running for the Green Party presidential nomination. How about that? An irrelevant former congressman running for president in an irrelevant political party.

From CNSNews:

"The Republicans have deceived us; the Democrats have failed us," McKinney said in a video news release posted on the runcynthiarun.org Web site last week to announce her candidacy for the White House. "It is time for a new beginning, a time for hope to rise from the ashes of despair.

Well, she is half-right, the Democrats have failed the hard-left in pushing the agenda of surrender in Iraq. I have yet to see any one who makes the claim that Republicans have deceived us actually prove it. Probably because there was never any deceit involved in our Liberating Iraq. There may have been some mistakes made, due to bad intelligence, but there has been no deceit, except on the part of Democrats like Cynthia McKinney.

She goes on to claim that the war in Iraq is: "illegal, immoral and undeclared." There she isn't even half-right. It may be undeclared, but there is nothing illegal about it, and liberating the people of Iraq from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein (who murdered a half-million of his own people) is about as immoral as our liberating Europe from NAZI Germany in 1945. War was also used to end slavery in the United States. Was that also immoral? as for the war in Iraq being undeclared, let's look at some other wars that were also undeclared: the U.S. entry into WW2 (although a declaration of war did come after the first bombs were dropped), the Korean War, Vietnam War, Grenada, the Gulf War, Mogadishu, Bosnia, and the liberation of Afghanistan. And those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

Why is it that the left calls only the Wars in Iraq, both of them, as being "illegal, immoral and undeclared?" Why is it they only get bent out of shape when the U.S. is involved in a war, but not when the aggressors, whether it was Iraq when it invaded Kuwait, or the soviet Union when it invaded Afghanistan, or North Vietnam when it invaded South Vietnam for the final time? I could probably list a hundred other wars, but I think this is enough to get the point across.

According to McKinney, who is also described as "no stranger to controversy and unafraid of speaking truth to power," it is time to "break the vicious cycle where the poor go to war and veterans come home wounded and ignored."

Well, she is "no stranger to" hitting police officers who are only attempting to do their job, then screaming "racism" when called on the carpet for it. And this isn't the Vietnam War we're talking about, where the hard-left, people like McKinney, are the ones who spat upon are soldiers and called them "baby killers" when they returned home from that war. And her claim that it is "the poor" who go to war is also false. Even during Vietnam when there was a draft, this wasn't entirely true. Okay, there were people of wealth and privilege, like Bill Clinton, who milked the system in order to avoid military service, and many others who went to Canada. But there were also many people of wealth and privilege who served in Vietnam.

And if it is only "the poor" who are going to war, then why are active duty re-enlistments at record levels?

On the flip side, McKinney's campaign site gives yet one more reason to NOT support Ron Paul. One of the comments posted there reads:

I'm actually a Ron Paul supporter and was recently thinking "I hope Ron gets the republican nomination and runs with Cynthia McKinney."

That combination could cause me to vote for Hillary.

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McKinney 2008 President Green Party Moonbat

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The amazing thing about the left is their propensity to stoop to name-calling those who disagree with them. Such is the case with the latest from hard-left Liberal Moonbat Dave Lindorff and his piece on the impact of Global Warming on the possible changes to the political landscape in the U.S., published in the Baltimore Chronicle recently.

Lindorff is a poster-child for showing how stupid, hateful, and power-mongering those on the hard-left really are. In his piece, he proclaims that despite the current warming trends and the hypothetical doom-and-gloom scenario pushed by Al Gore and the I.P.C.C. (which is subservient to that pillar of corruption, the United Nations), "there is a silver lining."

He goes on to illustrate that the areas most likely to succumb to the rising sea level are predominantly conservative regions, like Texas and other parts of the south East, and San Diego. We'll set aside the fact that the sea level rise of a few inches over the next few decades is unlikely to cause San Diego to be under water. Only Al Gore and Lindorff believe that the Earth will see a deluge of biblical proportions over the next few years. Even the IPCC isn't predicting as much of a rise in sea level as the Boracle is.

Lindorff then goes on with the Midwest:

Then there's the matter of the Midwest, which climate experts say is likely to face a permanent condition of unprecedented drought, making the place largely unlivable, and certainly unfarmable. The agribusinesses and conservative farmers that have been growing corn and wheat may be able to stretch out this doomsday scenario by deep well drilling, but west of the Mississippi, the vast Ogallala Aquifer that has allowed for such irrigation is already being tapped out. It will not be replaced.

This part is news to me. I don't know about the aquifers in most of the Midwest, but here in Minnesota, there are numerous aquifers that haven't even been tapped as yet. I find it hard to believe that the bulk of the Midwest is relying on only the Ogallala Aquifer. Also, no where in his diatribe does he cite who these "climate experts" are that are making such doomsday claims that much of the Midwest will be unfarmable. He also ignores the fact that it is the hard-working farming community that produces the food that Lindorff and his cronies on the Left put on their table. No farm land, no food.

Further, water management and irrigation practices constantly improve. Plus, should the Ogallala Aquifer run dry (unlike to happen in my daughter's lifetime, let alone mine), there are other, deeper aquifers that can be tapped.

Will there be another '30s style dustbowl as the Earth's climate warms? Maybe, but probably not as we've been able to more efficiently tap our underground water resources since that time, allowing efficient irrigation of crops, thus relieving farmers of the necessity of relying solely on rainfall to water their crops, and making desolate places like the San Joaquin Valley, an area that gets maybe 10 inches or so of rain a year, highly profitable farmland.

Lindorff goes on to point out that Southwest retirement communities are being hit with rising energy costs, which may well put them on the path of becoming ghost towns.

What is hilarious about this is Lindorff's stand:

There is a poetic justice to this of course. It is conservatives who are giving us the candidates who steadfastly refuse to have the nation take steps that could slow the pace of climate change, so it is appropriate that they should bear the brunt of its impact.

How about those on the Hard-Left, like Barbara Boxer, Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, John Kerry, John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, and a host of other Hard-Left (and even some "moderate") Democrats who insist that the theory that global warming is man-caused, rather than a natural phenomenon, and are hell-bent to bankrupt working Americans by forcing them to pay higher energy costs while they sit on their laurels jetting to Bali for their CO2 rallies.

Al Gore, one of the biggest champions of "Cap and Trade," the shell game where power companies will be forced to purchase "carbon credits" from "green" power plants, such as wind turbines, owns Generations Investment Management, a firm dedicated to brokering such trades (and provides the Boracle with his carbon credits).

If the Hard-Left has its way, America will be pushed into second world status instead of world leadership, while reducing jobs, raising energy costs, and bringing us higher taxes, all of which will combine to significantly lower the American standard of living. Meanwhile, the wealthy liberals who are pushing this on us will continue to live a life of leisure, prestige, and privilege while telling those of us who have to work for a living (assuming we still have jobs) that we must conserve and use less of everything.

The capper in Lindorff's piece is when he states that conservatives should be denied any future say in government because, in his mind, we've screwed the world up.

The important thing is that we, on the higher ground both actually and figuratively, need to remember that, when they begin their historic migration from their doomed regions, we not give them the keys to the city. They certainly should be offered assistance in their time of need, but we need to keep a firm grip on our political systems, making sure that these guilty throngs who allowed the world to go to hell are gerrymandered into political impotence in their new homes.

There will be much work to be done to help the earth and its residents-human and non-human-survive this man-made catastrophe, and we can't have these future refugee troglodytes, should their personal disasters still fail to make them recognize reality, mucking things up again.

Based on this, Lindorff must be okay with silencing and disenfranchising the hard-left for all of the things they've done to screw up the world: Abandoning South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia to communism in the '70s; abandoning the Shah of Iran thus allowing a totalitarian theocracy to be established in the Middle East that has been supplying terrorists with money, arms and training; hog-tying the nuclear industry by making it illegal to reprocess fuel rods, which has forced nuclear power plants to stock pile spent fuel rods rather than send them to other facilities that can reprocess the rods (like is done in France) and extract more energy and consequently reduce the amount of radioactive waste that needs to stored; not enforcing our immigration laws and allowing a huge influx of illegal aliens and then pushing for amnesty and citizenship for millions of people who do not respect our laws; providing nuclear technology to North Korea and then turning a blind eye as this totalitarian regime develops and tests its first nuclear weapon. I could go on and on listing all of the ignorant and dangerous decisions that have been foisted on America and the World by Hard-Left Liberal Democrats, but what would be the point? Most conservatives are aware of these issues, and Liberal/Progressives don't care.

As for Dave Lindorff, congratulations, you are the latest winner of the Moonbat Award.

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Moonbat Lindorff Global Warming

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Tragic events are taking place in Pakistan; Benazir Bhutto, a former Prime Minister of Pakistan, was assassinated. She was shot in the neck and chest, died of her wounds. A suicide bomber also set off a bomb killing 20 other people at the campaign rally that Bhutto spoke at.

Details are available just about anywhere you look.

There is potential that the elections scheduled for early January may be delayed, which could prove disastrous for Musharraf, whose leadership has suffered primarily due to his alliance with the U.S. in combating al-Qaeda.

Hopefully Musharraf will be able to move quickly to identify and arrest all those who were involved in Bhutto's assassination and the murder of so many of her supporters.

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Benazir Bhutto Pakistan Assassination

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(Colma, CA) Hillary Clinton made one of her famous campaign stops in Colma today, where she hosted a midnight rally at the Hills of Eternity located in the heart of the City of the Dead. Colma seems like an unusual place to hold a campaign rally as it is best known for two things: cemeteries and car dealerships. It was not the auto dealerships to which she was making her appeal.

"After the remarkable awakening of the dead in the State of Washington during the 2004 election cycle, it seems only natural to appeal to the dearly departed across the country in 2008. This is the first on my list of campaign stops to solicit the living dead for their votes in the upcoming election," Senator Clinton said.

Clinton went on to state that just because the living dead are, well, dead, doesn't mean they should be denied the right to vote. Clinton also noted that the State of Washington is on record as extending the franchise to zombies and other creatures of the night in 2004 which helped put Christine Gregoire over the top with a very narrow 129 votes after recounts.

"Minnesota is also a prime target for my campaign to gain the franchise for the living dead. I'll have to compete with Jonathon Sharkey for the vote of the zombie there as he is the current front-runner amongst the living dead," Clinton said.

She quick to squash reports that Sharkey is on her short list of potential running mates, should she secure the Democratic Nomination in the primaries, as a means to shore up her support with the undead. "Sharkey is a big hit in Minnesota amongst his fellow vampires and other denizens of darkness, but he has failed to catch fire with the living dead in other states, especially in Indiana," Clinton said. "Besides, he has to watch out for all those Republicans with wooden stakes. It's only a matter of time before Buffy catches up to him."

When asked what she could do for the living dead should she be elected president, Clinton was quick to respond by citing her Universal Healthcare Plan would give the undead improved access to blood and tissue banks, as well as transplant donors. "Just think, a pint of blood for every vampire and a brain for every zombie," Clinton quipped.

"I would also make it a Federal Felony to be armed with wooden stakes, thus protecting vampires from self-proclaimed vampire slayers like Buffy."

Senator Clinton will be making additional campaign stops at Forest Lawn in Glendale and Hollywood Forever, both in California, with additional stops planned in areas known for large amounts of undead activity.

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Hillary Clinton Democrat Liberal Satire Undead Living Dead Zombies

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Al "Carbon Bigfoot" Gore, at the U.N. sponsored conference on Climate Change may be undiplomatic enough to "name the elephant in the room," he is also able to prove, in one fell swoop, who the "jackass in the room" is.

From the Financial Times:

Al Gore savaged the US government's "obstructing" attitude and urged delegates at the UN conference on climate change to ignore Washington if necessary to pursue the "moral imperative" of a new global regime.

"My country is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali," the former US vice-president told 2,000 of the 12,000 people attending the conference on Thursday. "[But] over the next two years the United States is going to be somewhere it is not now."

Someone needs to inform the Boracle that winning the Nobel "Peace" Prize in Propaganda does not turn science fiction into science fact. Especially when the person receiving the propaganda award has a financial interest in the outcome of any talks on global warming (Generation Investment Management - "got carbon credits?").

Quite frankly, the U.S. is not, nor are Republicans, standing in the way of reducing carbon emissions. Coal burning plants are now cleaner than they were half a century ago, reducing emissions. Nuclear energy is cleanest and most economical means for generating electricity, but the Dems have hogtied the nuclear energy industry since the Carter administration, preferring to set up countries like North Korea with nuclear weapons at U.S. tax payer expense rather than easing the way of building new and modern nuclear reactors in the States; not to mention allowing for the reprocessing of fuel rods so as to reduce the amount of radioactive waste that power plants are now stockpiling.

Although the hard-left claims there is a "consensus" that the current warming trend is man caused, there is more scientific evidence coming to light everyday that indicates that the trend is, in fact, natural and not attributable to the extremely minor amount of trace gases, such as carbon dioxide, being dumped into the atmosphere.

The amazing thing is the amount of carbon dioxide that is being dumped into the atmosphere thanks to this Climate Summit. From Bloomberg:

Government officials and activists flying to Bali, Indonesia, for the United Nations meeting on climate change will cause as much pollution as 20,000 cars in a year.

The delegates each will produce an average 4.07 metric tons of carbon dioxide, or CO2, to reach the resort island 950 kilometers (600 miles) from Jakarta, according to estimates e- mailed to Bloomberg by the UN agency holding the conference.

Over 4 metric tons per attendee? Including Senator Barbara Boxer, champion of reducing said emissions? And Al "I need a paycheck" Gore? Okay, Gore probably dumped more CO2 on this junket, but then he owns Generation Investment management which supplies him with carbon credits, a product that that company deals in. No doubt the Boracle is writing the whole trip off as a business expense while he pushes his product line of carbon credits.

Now the Moonbats in Bali want us to believe that they can offset their emissions by planting trees, which take years to grow, and takes lots of, to absorb that much carbon. Then they forget to tell you that trees also produce CO2, though the decomposition of tree litter (leaves) and through photorespiration, which is the night time process trees go through. Offsetting one's emissions is nothing more than a shell game for people with the means (and in this case, via tax dollars) to continue to live a life of luxury and privilege while those of us who work for a living get stuck holding the bill.

As if the "Cap and Trade" shell game to tax working Americans isn't bad enough, here is what the U.N. is cooking up (from the EPW blog):

A global tax on carbon dioxide emissions was urged to help save the Earth from catastrophic man-made global warming at the United Nations climate conference. A panel of UN participants on Thursday urged the adoption of a tax that would represent "a global burden sharing system, fair, with solidarity, and legally binding to all nations."

I have no doubt that the hard-left in America will go along with this, despite the fact it goes against the U.S. Constitution and everything America stands for: No Taxation Without Representation! The U.N. has no taxing authority over the United States, its members are not elected, which is the baseline for representation when it comes to taxation, and any move by the U.N. should be met with a veto by the Security Council.

Such a global tax would be more harshly applied against the United States as a punitive move against Americans, forcing our energy prices to increase even more.

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Bali Carbon Tax Cap and Trade UN Al Gore Boracle

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Last week, the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee passed from its committee a bill that would implement "The Gore Initiative", or, more formally known as "Cap and Trade" which would put limits on the amount of carbon dioxide energy companies can produce, and companies exceeding these government determined levels would be forced to either pay fines or purchase carbon offsets from greener companies; most likely these carbon offsets will be brokered through a company such as Al Gore's Generation Investment Management.

Essentially what this will do is cause increases to the cost of producing electricity while at the same time providing subsidies to less efficient and more costly production means such as wind turbines and solar energy. The end result is that working Americans will be forced to pay for these increases in costs as these expenses will be passed on to the consumer in their electric bills.

Business and Media reports that the costs of this "Cap and Trade" initiative, should it become law, is set at $4 to 6 Trillion over 40 years, which works out to about $500 per year for every person in living in the U.S., including your children. That is a huge cost increase for working Americans to incur.

The irony of the passage of this Global Warming bill from committee is that it took place during a week in which many parts of the Northern United States received record setting snowfall.

From Maine Today:

Portland tied the record for the date set in 1890 with 8.5 inches of snow on Monday, according to Bob Marine of the National Weather Service.

Elsewhere, Marshfield in Washington County had 18 inches of snow, Lakeville in Penobscot County 17 inches, Island Falls in Aroostook County 16, Brassau Lake near Moosehead 15.7, Farmington 14.7 inches and Andover 13, the weather service said.

Then there is Business and Media:

Nothing inspires taking on the "planetary emergency" of global warming like the first snow of the winter in Washington, D.C.

Ain't that the truth.

Even here in Minnesota we have more snow on the ground than we have had in the last five or six years. And it is staying cold enough for it to persist. Not surprising as temperatures have been struggling to break into double digits, and most mornings I am greeted with the outdoor thermometer registering ZERO, and occasionally in single digit negatives, making this the coldest December I have experienced in my seven years in Minnesota.

From Reuters on Boston:

New England dug out on Friday from a record-setting storm that dumped 10 inches of snow on Boston, more than the city typically sees in the entire month of December.

Even North Dakota has reported record snow falls. From KXMB:

The National Weather Service says the Grand Forks airport had 8.1 inches of snow yesterday, setting a record for the date. And Fargo set a record with 5.9 inches.

The previous mark in both cities was set back in 1926.

Grand Forks and Fargo also had record snowfall last Saturday.

From VOA News:

"We are facing a crisis that will hit our children and our grandchildren the hardest if we do not act now. Not to act would be wrong, cowardly, and irresponsible," said Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, chairwoman of the committee.

Yep, higher energy costs and a lower standard living for working Americans while Senator Boxer, Moonbat extraordinaire, jets off to Bali for the big climate conference, dumping even more of that evil gas, carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere and, according to Boxer, contributing to Global Warming. Well, at least it is warm and sunny in Bali unlike most of North America.

What a week, and it only gets better.

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Loons Gone Wild Energy Carbon Tax Cap and Trade Senate

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The "man caused global warming" zealots are really showing their (lack of) brain power. This time, from Australian Barry Walters, who claims to be a doctor (of what, I don't know) is pushing a plan to apply a birth levy of $5000 (Ausie) for each child a couple has after the first two, and then the couple would be taxed an additional $800 per year for the lifetime of the child. I'm not joking, this guy is serious about it. His letter was published in the online version of the Medical Journal of Australia.

What then should we do as environmentally responsible medical practitioners? We should point out the consequences to all who fail to see them, including, if necessary, the ministers for health. Far from showering financial booty on new mothers and thereby rewarding greenhouse-unfriendly behaviour, a "Baby Levy" in the form of a carbon tax should apply, in line with the "polluter pays" principle.2 Every family choosing to have more than a defined number of children (Sustainable Population Australia suggests a maximum of two3) should be charged a carbon tax that would fund the planting of enough trees to offset the carbon cost generated by a new human being. The average annual CO2 emission by an Australian individual is about 17 metric tons,4 including energy usage. As the biomass of trees in a mature forest sequesters about 6 metric tons of CO2 per hectare (104 m2) per year,4,5 each child born should be offset by planting 4 hectares of trees, to allow for the time they take to reach maturity, and attrition through crop losses, bushfires, dieback and so on. This infers a levy per child of at least $5000 at birth (to purchase the land needed and plant trees) and an annual tax of $400-$800 thereafter for the life of the child (for maintenance of the afforestation project) (based on 1990 figures,4 and probably much more now).

First off, CO2 has not been proven to be the main contributor of the current warming trend of the Earth. It's a theory, and, unlike evolution, it is a bad theory at best. Clearly, this is yet one more attempt to take money from people, their hard earned dollars, in order to push a social agenda based on BAD science.

But this champion moonbat of the left gets even better by suggesting that the use of a variety of contraceptives and even sterilization should be rewarded with carbon credits.

By the same reasoning, contraceptives, intrauterine devices, diaphragms, condoms and sterilisation procedures should attract carbon credits for the user and the prescriber that would offset their income taxes, and lead to rewards for family planning clinics and hospitals that provide such greenhouse-friendly services.

I noticed he left out granting carbon credits for getting an abortion. Must be an oversight on his part.

He closes his piece in the MJA by pushing the "citizen of the world" line (I am not a citizen of the world, but a citizen of the U.S. of A.!) and that Australia (and assumedly the rest of the world) should adapt the same population controls of India and communist China.

A response to the piece published on News.com has this:

Australian Family Association spokeswoman Angela Conway said it was ridiculous to blame babies for global warming.

"I think self-important professors with silly ideas should have to pay carbon tax for all the hot air they create," she said. "There's masses of evidence to say that child-rich families have much lower resource consumption per head than other styles of households.

Sounds like a plan to me. Can we add Al "Carbon Bigfoot" Gore to the list?

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Loons Gone Wild Walters Carbon Dioxide Baby Tax

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A Klingon Christmas Carol, produced by the Comedia Beauregard, with support from several members of the IKV Rakehell (Klingon Assault Group), was an adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic into Klingon, and told from the Klingon point of view.

SQuja' (Scrooge), is a conniving money lender who has a bodyguard/strongman, QachIt (Bob Crachit) who collects his money and does his fighting for him. SQuja' has told many stories (lies) about his past deeds of glory to his nephew, vreD (Fred) who has yet to find anyone who was, or even knows anyone who was, there when SQuja' supposedly performed his great deeds of honor. vreD invites Squja' to join his annual celebration and tournament.

SQuja' is visited by the ghost of his dead partner, marlI', who is doomed to forever battle and yet never win his fights. He warns SQuja' that a similar fate awaits him, but there is still a chance that SQuja' might redeem himself, and will be visited by three spirits.

The spirits are, of course, the Ghost of Kahless Past, the Ghost of Kahless Present, and the Ghost of Kahless Yet to Come. They guide him through his past, where SQuja' is forced to revisit his youth where the seeds of his cowardice planted. In the present, he sees that the warriors use his name as a pejorative meaning "coward." He is beginning to see the error of his way and though the entire process learns to deal with the fact that he has been a craven coward and still a child.

He makes amends by ordering his assitant, QachIt, to spend more time with his crippled son, Tim-Hom (Tiny Tim) to prepare him for the Right of Ascension, which SQuja' vows to walk with Tim-Hom.

The play is a mix of serious dramatics and humor, narrated by a straight-faced Vulcan from the Vulcan Institute of Anthropology. It was the brain-child of Chris Kidder and Sasha Wallach of the Comdia Beauregard, and supported by Laura Thurston and Bill Hedrick of the IKV Rakehell.

Chris played QachIt, Bill and Laura both had several roles in the show that was directed by Sasha Wallach. Michael Ooms, who played SQuja', put on a marvelous and convincing performance of the main character. I got the feeling that they all had a blast putting on this show, and their hard work payed of. Did I mention that it was performed in the original Klingon?

The show only played for one night only, for an audience of a couple of hundred. Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll put it on again next year.

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Klingon Christmas Carol Comedia Beauregard Scrooge KAG IKV Rakehell

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The first I heard of the Pasadena, Texas, burglary shooting was this week when a bunch of Black Panthers showed up in protest and stating that they would not be surprised if the shooting of two burglars by a neighbor as being racially motivated.

Now, some new facts have hit the wires. The burglars were illegal aliens; the owners of the target home were immigrants, and, according to reports, based on their surname, probably Vietnamese; the shooter, Joe Horn, is white.

The dead preps both had multiple identification documents and aliases; they may have been involved in a crime ring. One of them had been deported back to Colombia in 1999 and previously convicted on felony cocaine charges.

There are "activists", such as the Black Panthers, that are outraged that Joe Horn shot and killed the perps. They want us to believe that Joe Horn is the bad guy and the perps did not deserve to die. Maybe they are half right. Maybe they didn't deserve to die. I don't know the full circumstances under which Horn was forced to pop those two perps. Horn may have been in fear of his life. I don't know. They were criminals in the act of committing a crime and Texas law may well be on Horn's side.

The facts of the matter are that if the Feds spent the effort to enforce our immigration laws and secure our borders to prevent people from entering our country illegally, then this incident would not have happened. Both the perps would be alive, just not living in the U.S. and Horn would not be the center of a controversial shooting of a couple of criminal illegal aliens.

Ortiz and Torres have become two more reasons why we need to secure our borders and enforce our current immigration laws, and that any plan to "reform" current laws without first securing the borders is flat out wrong, especially any plan that would grant amnesty and a path to citizenship to scumbags like Ortiz and Torres.

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Texas Horn Pasadena Burglary

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This year being the Centennial marking the birth of Robert A. Heinlein, a lot of renewed interest in his works has been sparked. While attending Convergence (this was opposite the Heinlein Centennial Celebration taking place in St. Louis) there was a discussion on his works and Starship Troopers was brought up and some comparison was made to Haldeman's The Forever War. The impression I got from most of the people attending the open discussion is that they were basing their opinion of Starship Troopers more on the movie of the same name rather than on the actual novel.

I have read Starship Troopers numerous times, and am only now reading The Forever War for the first time. Both books have received numerous awards, including the coveted Hugo Award, which is voted on by the fans.

The general theme that runs through both books is the story of a young recruit entering military service in order to fight an interstellar war; they go through basic training (and survive) and then are sent off into battle. Both stories are told in the first person, with a strong, smart guy as the point-of-view character. One was written in response to Cold War era decisions made by the U.S. and the other a response to the Vietnam War.

Heinlein was an Annapolis graduate (1929) and served in the Navy until medically retired in 1934. Haldeman was drafted and fought in Vietnam. Two completely different military experiences resulting in completely different stories despite some similarities on the surface.

A lot of SF fans today remark that Heinlein's Earth in Starship Troopers is a fascistic society where the right to vote (and other things) is linked to military service. This take on Starship Troopers comes from the movie, not the novel.

In Starship Troopers, the right to vote and hold political office is earned, not through military service, but through Federal Service. Military service is but one way someone can serve and gain their franchise. As Rico put it when he was going through the enlistment process, he selected anything that was military rather than the hundreds of other choices because if you are going to serve, you may as well serve in the military. His best friend gets assigned to Starside R and D, specializing in electronics (Carl is killed when the bugs attack Pluto where he is stationed). Service is strictly voluntary and anyone can quit at any time for any reason.

In The Forever War, the military is made up of draftees into a United Nations (God forbid) military elite force. The selection criteria were high IQ, exceptional physical condition, and youth. They do not have the option to quit at anytime or for any reason. Many of the draftees are killed during training.

Government Differences

First and most obvious, in Starship Troopers we have voluntary Federal Service whereas in FW we have military conscription by the United Nations.

Focusing on that, the United Nations has gone from controlling aspects of space travel and the war with the Taurans to full control of the Earth.

Socialism is in full force on Earth by the time Mandella returns to it after being away for some 20 years real time (2 years subjective time…Relativity plays a significant role in this novel). The United Nations controls who gets a job, and who doesn't get a job as well as who gets drafted and who can leave the Earth.

The Earth's population is 9 billion by this point with a roughly 65% unemployment rate. Crime rate is high, and there are armed brigands. What is unexpected is that everyone is either heavily armed or has body guards. Or they get killed on the streets.

Currency is in calories, originally associated with the food wars that broke out while Mandella was off fighting the war. That Earth based war significantly dropped the population, bringing it down to 4 billion. However it didn't take long for it to rebound to 9 billion.

Politics isn't touched on, so you don't learn anything about the active political system.

Most contemporary illegal drugs are legal in Haldeman's future Earth, as is prostitution, while getting a job is illegal unless you get it through the United Nations. Corruption is rampant as there are "dealers" who can arrange for you to masquerade as someone who has a job, drawing part of their pay while they go into retirement, so to speak. Highly illegal, but tolerated. Also bodysnatchers, who go out and find people in serious trouble with the law and give them new identities in which they become serfs, so to speak, on the communal farms; many of these people do better in the farming communes than in the outside world.

In ST, the Earth is run by a Federation, politics plays a significant role (relativity doesn't). In Heinlein's future Earth, Federal Service is strictly voluntary and military service is merely one of the options. The political system seems to be a form of democracy or Representative Republic where the only people allowed to vote (or hold elected office and a very limited number of other jobs) are those who have completed Federal Service.

Civilian armaments are not mentioned, nor are the various other vices.

Crime, although still occurs, is pretty low, as is unemployment.

What we have is a difference between a free society and a socialist society. Based on this, Haldeman and Heinlein both speak the same language in that socialism is not a good thing. At least that is how Haldeman's book comes across to me, whereas Heinlein is quite blatant about his political views.

By the end of The Forever War, Earth has changed substantially as humanity is cloned, apparently off of one genetic template. Not a lot of information is given except money is no longer used, the war is over, and there is no longer a need for the military. Planets where normal humanity still thrives are referred to as breeder planets in the even that the cloned Man finds that the use of one genetic template proves to be a mistake.

Science and Technology

Heinlein doesn't focus a lot on science and technology in Starship Troopers, except for that which directly impacts the Mobile Infantry (or Cap Troopers as they are sometimes called), mainly their powered armor, and secondarily their weapons and capsule drops. Various technologies, such as the star drive are mentioned for color, but no details are provided.

Haldeman is pretty much the opposite as he not only gives details on the powered armor and weapons of his future infantry, but also about space travel and how relativity plays a role. Time dilation is a critical plot device, as well as being real science, and the whole story relies heavily upon that piece of Relativity. This is all important to the story as it relativity has an impact on the soldiers in that Earth society changes dramatically the longer they stay out in the deeps of space traveling from star to star fighting the war.

Summary

Both novels are very good and deserving of the accolades that they won in their own time. They are also surprisingly similar in their views on war just as much as they are different. Heinlein is more of a "sometimes wars need to be fought" while Haldeman comes off as more anti-war (I don't know of anyone who is "pro-war" and would question the sanity of anyone who said that they were "pro-war"). Both give the appearances of being against military drafts (Heinlein especially so!). Both make it clear that pacifism only works when everyone feels that way. Both downplay the concept of heroism while showing that true heroism happens as a result of circumstances and ingenuity rather than brazenly charging the enemies guns.

As I wrote at the beginning of this article, Starship Troopers has been a favorite of mine and I have read it maybe a dozen times. This was the first time I have read The Forever War. I expected to come out of it hating the novel, but, in fact, I find it to be a darn good book that I'll read again. Where Heinlein was writing for more of a teenager/juvenile audience, Haldeman's story is distinctly for a more mature/adult audience. Both novels are well worth reading and I can see where pairing the two books for a comparative discussion can make for a lively debate.

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Heinlein Haldeman Starship Troopers Forever War Science Fiction

Posted by Sqotty at 7:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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Commedia Beauregard was on Fox 9 News here in Minnesota with a preview of what is in store this Saturday for the Klingon Christmas Carol that several members o the IKV Rakehell had a hand in.

They've put in a lot of effort and it looks like it is going to be a real hoot to see.

Info at the Commedia Beauregard website.

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Commedia Beauregard A Christmas Carol Klingon Rakehell

Posted by Sqotty at 7:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Looks Like Comrade Hugo Chavez of Venezuela will NOT be able to become "El Presidente Vitalicio" any time soon as his plans to rewrite the Venezuelan Constitution that would move his country into a Cuba-like Communist regime has gone down in defeat.

From Myway News:

"I understand and accept that the proposal I made was quite profound and intense," he said after voters narrowly rejected the sweeping constitutional reforms by 51 percent to 49 percent.

I've been wondering if the people of Venezuela will wake up and smell the stuff Chavez has been spewing for the last several years for being what it is, and it looks like at least 51% of Venezuelans have done so. Hurrah for the people of Venezuela!

Unfortunately they are still stuck with the Castro wannabe through the election in 2012, which is a long time to wait to get rid of him. The question is, will he continue to push for changing different aspects of their Constitution, breaking the changes down into smaller, more "palatable" chunks? Probably. We'll just have to wait and see what Chavez does next. They have to remember that Comrade Chavez still wields tremendous dictatorial powers that were granted to him early this year.

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Posted by Sqotty at 7:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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