The Raven

Recent Actions

• Commented on I can't even
  Prop. 13 was written by Paul Gann to protect LA landlords from tax increases....
• Commented on I can't even
  You missed you should’ve called his post “Anarchy in the UK.”...
• Commented on I can't even
  As I asked before, "Is there no-one the country might rally behind? Anyone? Leaders of vision and courage are now needed - are there any who might emerge?" Put it another way, can anyone think of any group, any faction,...
• Commented on London Bridge
  I don't think a republic, in the 18th-century sense of a state governed wisely by disinterested people, as advocated the Stoic social critics of Rome (Cicero, Cato), has ever been anything that existed in history for very long. Democracy, with...
• Commented on The gathering crisis
  oh, noes! Cue the revolution! Peace, prosperity, and beer!...
• Commented on Chicon 8 schedule
  See you there, I hope!...
• Commented on The gathering crisis
  Well, they could let the Scots run the UK. They seem to know what they're doing. No? Is there no-one the country might rally behind? Anyone? Leaders of vision and courage are now needed - are there any who might...
• Commented on Roe v Wade v Sanity
  Second Amendment, baby! (Charlie, this may turn into a threadjack. If it does, feel free to delete it. But I've studied this, and I'd like to share my knowledge. There is also a bit of Scottish history in it.) The...
• Commented on Roe v Wade v Sanity
  "If this ruling stands I expect there will in due course be an American Savita Halappanavar case." There has already been a near one, in Washington State, where 40% of the hospitals are run by the Roman Catholic church. A...
• Commented on Bad news day
  Ironically, the US Conservative Political Action Committee is having its big do today through Sunday. They are divided and confused on Ukraine, and seem to have decided not to have more of the fight in public, see Laura Jadeed https://twitter.com/LauraJedeed/status/1496850594262392833?s=20&t=6cQzVWUowKlEEhJS2iIhdQ....
• Commented on Oh, 2022!
  And then there's the question of the ability of the decaying US infrastructure to support a massive increase in electricity demand. And where does all that electricity come from, anyway? I am deeply cynical of the US ability to come...
• Commented on Oh, 2022!
  One vaccine possibility I see you haven’t mentioned: a more effective malaria vaccine. Now there’s a basis for Afrofuturist stories!...
• Commented on Starship bloopers
  "A rip-roaring yarn about shuffling papers in a soulless bureaucracy." wasn't that The Star Beast? And one the major characters of that story was African, most likely Black, though I don't think that was stated in the text. (Not likely...
• Commented on Starship bloopers
  "It's glaringly obvious that the real threat to democracy in the USA today emerged after the plutocrats discovered they could directly buy bread and circuses" and this was also so in Rome. Heinlein did some decent historical research, but he...
• Commented on Books I Will Not Write #8: The Year of the Conspiracy
  Slightly OT: did you see my "Robots Discover Mental Vulnerability in Humanity" post? "So the engagement algorithms of YouTube, Twitter, and, above all, Facebook find the versions of the Q story that provide the most fear and anger and, above...
• Commented on Sucker bet (a thought experiment)
  I think at least some faction of the "ruling class" subscribes to your plan. Disgusting, isn't it?...
• Commented on Sucker bet (a thought experiment)
  One thing: work to promote the education of women worldwide. (Are all the commentators here men?)...
• Commented on Tentative hypothesis
  "The rumour I've heard is that there is no follow-on to Win 10, just a thin client, and your whole desktop, etc, is in the cloud. The ultimate SAAS." Plan 9 conquers the world? "I'll ask again, could someone tell...
• Commented on CASE NIGHTMARE BLONDE
  "Personal supremacy" is isomorphic to (white) male supremacy. As I have been saying for over a decade, there are very few things in right-wing politics that cannot be explained, in whole or part, as expressions of threatened masculinity. Lord, hominids...
• Commented on CASE NIGHTMARE BLONDE
  I think bitching about the monarchy is rather beside the point at this point. The republic has failed. Strange women handing out swords would probably be an improvement....
• Commented on Someone please cancel 2019 already?
  Please, name some of them. Real question, not a rhetorical trap....
• Commented on Someone please cancel 2019 already?
  Considering that we have few, if any, current political figures of the intellectual stature of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, or Hamilton the Constitution deserves respect, perhaps even some worship. Federalism and the separation of powers are protecting us to this...
• Commented on Dread of Heinleinism
  Mmmmm. I don't know enough about the political science literature to say if it's been studied before; my guess would be it has. In any event, you are certainly right: mass hate rallies are part of fascism....
• Commented on Dread of Heinleinism
  I think perhaps Heinlein's vision, which is some ways is very supportive of women, came into conflict with the mores he was raised with, which perhaps explains the ambiguity in his fiction....
• Commented on Dread of Heinleinism
  Heinlein clearly liked and respected mentally and physically strong women. On the other hand, many women I have known find his characterization of women unreasonable (but you plainly do not), and there's few people now who are sympathetic to his...
• Commented on Dread of Heinleinism
  No, the rallies are new to US politics....
• Commented on Dread of Heinleinism
  "Why the ongoing critique of Heinlein?" There is the problem that started this discussion; that Heinlein has founded a subgenre of Heinleinism, probably very much against his will, and he is much more imitated than emulated? Beyond that, many people...
• Commented on Dread of Heinleinism
  I don't believe it could have emerged as Heinlein said it did and I don't believe it would have sustained itself if it did emerge. I don't know any history that suggests otherwise. It is easy to fall into de...
• Commented on Dread of Heinleinism
  Paws4thot@520: '"Government by those who had served" arose because the veterans who developed the concept trusted each other and no-one else.' But this is aristocracy. They trusted their Peers. How it got from there to meritocracy is never plausibly explained....
• Commented on Dread of Heinleinism
  Aristo- derives from a Greek root meaning more-or-less excellence; merit- derives from a Latin root meaning more-or-less excellence. The words "aristocracy" and "meritocracy" have almost the same literal meaning, though their idiomatic use is different. But in practice they work...