That’s not true.

I hated the insurance companies yesterday, but I wasn’t posting about actually killing anyone.

People have been talking about guillotines in the abstract. Now they are talking about it in concrete terms.

I don’t agree.

Individuals and their actions matter.

Look at what this thread is about. We wouldn’t be talking if the shooter hadn’t acted.

The state of healthcare in the US is exactly the same as it was yesterday. But the discussion has changed dramatically

The tensions between the USSR and the West were as bad as the ones pre-WW1. Individual actions kept things from going into all out war.

No, it’s sarcasm.

John Varley is pretty underrated. “Titan” is an anime ready adventure story and “The Ophiucci Hotline” is good old fashioned hard SF. He’s the first writer I think of who compares with Smith.

I can’t believe that they haven’t made an anime out of the original catgirl, C’Mell.

Someone talked about seeing ‘The Sting’ for the first time. They couldn’t believe that anyone in the audience didn’t know all those cons, then realized that when the movie was made, all those gags were fresh.

That’s the biggest problem with militarizing the police.

You get cops who think they are the Punisher and citizens who hate the cops on the beat.

Remember, it’s dangerous to talk to random strangers on the interwebs

https://www.amny.com/new-york/manhattan/nyc-neighborhoods/harlem/two-teens-charged-gang-shooting-7-year-old/

It will take just a bit more pressure for people to also walk in squads. There’s plenty of guns to go around.

Read some history. The Minute Men thought they could stop the British. It didn’t work. The Redcoats were stopped by a British style army and the entire French navy.

Also, you can’t talk about squads and lone gunmen at the same time

`

Almost as if you need a military wing and a smart political wing.

I wish I could live in a world where there’s no such thing as ricochets and friendly fire deaths.

Try expanding your imagination to include things like that. Life isn’t a movie or a video game where every bullet only hits the intended victim.

Also, WW1 started because one brave shooter decided to stand up and be counted.

Unintended consequences are a bitch.

Let me guess. You’ve never actually been in a gunfight, or been in the ER after a gun fight.

[off topic]

Here are a few old movies that, imho, are well worth a watch. No particular order

The Dirty Dozen

The Magnificent 7

Body Heat

The Three Musketeers [Oliver Reed]

Altered States

enjoy

[off topic]

Back in the day, I heard a lecture on the tactics of terrorist groups.

The IRA was particularly effective in assassinations. People thought they had an vast army of trained killers on hand.

Actually, the number of shooters was small, maybe fifty in all.

What made them so dangerous was that they had a powerful ‘rear echelon.’

When the shooter arrived in town, he’d have three or four drivers waiting for him, a choice of safe houses, and more than one doctor to go to if he were to be injured.

I think the name of the paperback was ‘The Best Of Cordwainer Smith.’ I read it years ago.

Fun bit of trivia. Harlan Ellison used the pen name ‘Cordwainer Bird’ on projects he’d written but had been badly produced. ‘Bird’ appeared as a character in at least one short story.

https://woldnewtonresource.fandom.com/wiki/Cordwainer_Bird

On the other hand, IRA assassins are much more productive than most Americans.

Why are you booing? You know it’s true!

The process by which one thing becomes a beloved icon and another fades away is always baffling to me.

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/74098/74098-h/74098-h.htm

War No. 81-Q by Cordwainer Smith. Written in 1928.