Will McLean

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• Commented on How I learned to stop worrying and love the concept of punitive slating....
  "If you agree with our slate below — and we suspect you might — this is YOUR chance to make sure YOUR voice is heard.” If the "slate below" exactly and entirely fills 3 out of the first five categories,...
• Commented on How I learned to stop worrying and love the concept of punitive slating....
  "And I'm not particularly concerned by a repeat performance of an all-slate ballot, because I suspect that it'll be hard for the people who failed to push a slate winner through in 2015 to muster a lot of interest from...
• Commented on The Biggest Little SF Publisher you never heard of pulls on the jackboots
  I scrolled through this thread twice without finding the one I wanted to answer. Banks wrote very well. I would courteously recommend starting with Consider Phlebas, because the protagonist starts the story with an imperfect understanding of the Culture, and...
• Commented on The Biggest Little SF Publisher you never heard of pulls on the jackboots
  LeMay was so popular that he never held a national office. Jackson was president twice. The difference, I suggest, is that at New Orleans Jackson had to persuade his allies to do what he wanted. LeMay could simply issue orders...
• Commented on The Biggest Little SF Publisher you never heard of pulls on the jackboots
  And yet Jackson managed to win two elections by landslides. Pretty good performance for an autocrat....
• Commented on The Biggest Little SF Publisher you never heard of pulls on the jackboots
  I do indeed include Jackson as #3 on the list. I wouldn't put him on Mount Rushmore, but I do rate him ahead of every ex-general besides Washington and Eisenhower....
• Commented on The Biggest Little SF Publisher you never heard of pulls on the jackboots
  It is worth noting that the three best U.S. presidents that were fomer generals were all military leaders in coalition wars. Which actually require some political skill....
• Commented on The Biggest Little SF Publisher you never heard of pulls on the jackboots
  Grant wasn't personally corrupt, but he appointed men who were. And reconstruction was defeated on his watch. So a below average president although a superb general....
• Commented on The Biggest Little SF Publisher you never heard of pulls on the jackboots
  Martin @ 341: For successful military leaders who were less wonderful in civilian politics, see Franco, Petain, Jefferson Davis, Curtis LeMay and President Grant....
• Commented on The Biggest Little SF Publisher you never heard of pulls on the jackboots
  @317: Mastery of military matters often correlates poorly with other fields, as evidenced by the number of very successful generals that did poorly in civilian politics...
• Commented on The Biggest Little SF Publisher you never heard of pulls on the jackboots
  Burnside's piece may be an exception to the general rule that anything from Castalia House is horrible, but Burnside himself has said over at Making Light that nothing in that category on the ballot is as good as Letters from...
• Commented on The Biggest Little SF Publisher you never heard of pulls on the jackboots
  Another reason for nuance is the movies: I'm confident that in a world without puppies Interstellar would still be on the short list....
• Commented on The Biggest Little SF Publisher you never heard of pulls on the jackboots
  NotaBotnet: It's a little Finnish publisher that few have heard of, but Beale is its lead editor, and this interview describes him as its founder: http://www.reaxxion.com/6589/game-designer-vox-day-speaks-on-women-in-gaming-his-upcoming-game-and-more We know quite a bit about his politics, and he'd certainly find a lot...
• Commented on Why we're not going to see sub-orbital airliners
  What about suborbital sneakernet?...
• Commented on Ask the Author
  "Sortition with the possibility of re-election/de-selection? Interesting; not sure I've seen that wrinkle. How do you stop the incumbents forming a cartel to ensure they remain incumbents?" One option would be to have a periodic culling. Every ten years the...
• Commented on Ask the Author
  Here's my plan for a more democratic House of Lords. New peers are chosen at random from the adult citizens. Each peerage is potentially for life. But: You can lose your peerage for chronic truancy, and: Every ten years they...
• Commented on Ask the Author
  Who, besides yourself, would you recommend as an author who is writing good SF without violating, or probably violating, the laws of physics and other science as we know them today?...