The Sudden Curve

Trekkers infographic

Source: SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration

posted By Tom Novak who says, "who says I don't post anything here anymore"

Science Fiction Writers Should Rule the World

I’m not a science fiction writer but I am a fan, and have been since a few months before I turned 12. So I’ve been familiar with the genre and the writers for a quite a while, and so have decided that science fiction writers should be in charge of the government. I’m not kidding about that, either.

I hold nearly all politicians in contempt and suspect most of them are intelligent psychopaths (dumb psychopaths end up in prison). There are some exceptions, of course. Ron Paul is one of them. But most politicians are self-aggrandizing liars, murderers and thieves. Oh, I forgot – they’re also drunks and sexual perverts.

Is there anything lower than a politician? A serial killer? A child molester? The damage they’ve done is a drop in the ocean compared to the millennia of wreckage left by politicians.

Government has killed more people in history than everything else put together. I’ve read estimates that in the 20^th Century anywhere from 177 million to 200 million people were killed by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – another name for the State.

All governments are based on force and fraud, without exception. Force and fraud, the two things that sent most people straight to Hell in Dante’s Inferno.

Why should science fiction writers rule? Because they are far more intelligent, sensitive, imaginative and empathic than politicians or the average joe. Most of them have libertarian sympathies, which is a prerequisite for good rulers.

Libertarianism – or classical liberalism – believes in the smallest necessary government (except for the anarchist libertarians, who are leftist fools). If the purpose of government is to, as John Locke wrote, protect “life, liberty and property” then what automatically springs up is political liberty and the free market. And that maximizes the well-being of everyone.

Politicians always try to expand government, and for that matter, so does much of the Herd. The Herd, unfortunately, isn’t merely dim-witted. It has no brains at all.

This Blob-like growth of government is why it always collapses. It gets too big and destroys or absorbs everything in its path, like the Borg. There in fact hasn’t been a government that hasn’t collapsed.

The first science fiction novel I remember reading is Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Fighting Man of Mars. It’s not exactly a libertarian novel but the Bad Guys are the power-mad rulers who want to conquer the planet and the Good Guys want freedom for everyone. I can’t tell you the effect this novel, with its swordfights and “radium pistols” and flying ships, had on my 11-year-old sensibilities.

There were other stories. Eric Frank Russell’s …and Then There Were None, a very funny story about a society that keeps its freedom by figuring out a fool-proof way to avoid being conquered: they just ignore their wannabe-be conquerors. In fact, they end up absorbing those who want to conquer them, just the way early America absorbed the Hessian mercenaries who wouldn’t go back to the Statist hell they came from.

There was A.E van Vogt’s The Weapon Shops of Isher, with its famous line: “The Right to Buy Weapons is the Right to be Free.” I still remember the frustration I felt that there were no Weapon Shop pistols, which threw up an impenetrable energy field about the owner and would not fire unless he was attacked. Imagine what that did for crime. Most especially, the crimes committed by the Empire, which, not surprisingly, hated and feared the Weapon Shops.

There are many others. James Hogan. Jerry Pournelle. L. Neil Smith. Neal Stephenson. I’m sure there are others I’ve never read, maybe even heard about.

When people are imaginative they have the ability to empathize with other people, to put themselves in their shoes. That’s why Stephen King is so popular: he can put himself in all of his character’s shoes.

I doubt a literal-minded person could easily sympathize with others, especially the more different those others are. I am reminded of something I read: the stupid don’t learn from their mistakes; the more intelligent do; and the smartest of all learn from other people’s mistakes. And you’ll certainly have a very difficult time learning from others unless you have some imaginative empathy.

Imagination, when united with reason, is my definition of creativity. And creativity is what advances all societies. And no society can go anywhere unless it has small government.

And who else besides science fiction writers are imaginative, reasonable and libertarian?

The world has given other types of government its chance. Kings, constitutional monarchies, republics. They’ve all degraded. It’s time to try something different. Just don’t ask me what kind of government we should have, because I don’t know. I just know who should be in authority.

It’s too bad those damn Weapon Shop pistols don’t exist. We wouldn’t need anyone to rule.

Posted by Bob Wallace, who should be Benign Dictator.

F&SF

Besides MAD magazine, the only other one I subscribed to as a kid was The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (which I still think of as F&SF).

Lots of time, the cover art was just as important as the stories, and I still remember some of the names, such as Chesley Bonestell.

Just the way I remember Roy Krenkel, Jr.'s name, who did the ACE covers for Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom novels, especially the first one I read, A Fighting Man of Mars.

Perhaps I should renew my subscription to them, too

Posted by Bob Wallace, who also remembers all those cartoons by Gahan Wilson.

Star Trek XI from an Australian TV interview

Here's some stuff to kind of explain the new Star Trek movie for everyone....

posted by Tom Novak who has no idea what "Today Tonight" is but thinks this movie is going to be goood.

Hunter Prey Trailer released

Finally, this one is a very highly anticipated film by Sandy Collora. It's about a team of commandos chasing an escaped alien prisoner that's escaped after a crash landing. Very Star Wars looking. Check it out ::

posted by Tom Novak who says there are a lot of nifty things in the media pipeline for Retro Sci Fi fans lately.

Terminator Salvation trailer

Finally found a preview - has a commercial, but still ::

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

posted by Tom Novak, who likes MTV again now... thanks for the vid!

Star Trek 11 the Awesome Movie Trailer with Original Series Mashup

... and here is the new version mashed up with the original cast and crew ::

posted by Tom Novak - who can't wait to see this little old Retro Sci Fi film.

Alien Trespass

posted by Tom Novak who thinks everyone needs to see this ....

Shubian's Rift

Posted by Tom Novak who just saw a screening of Shubians' Rift - and really liked it.

My new CON shirt

posted by Tom Novak who is a bricklayer not a doctor and was sporting this very t-shirt over the weekend at Chattacon 34. Stylish huh?.

Just realized that it was (Bill Haley and) THE COMETS

Of course - Comets!

posted by Tom Novak, who is smackin' hisself upside the sputnik

Keanu Barada Nikto ~ the making of The Day The Earth Stood Still remake

posted by Tom Novak, who still hasn't seen TDTESS2  in the theater but has seen Army of Darkness about 50 times ... close enough?

RAQ' doing the Space-Girl Dance

posted by Tom Novak, who can't explain this at all, not that it needs explanation.

Trek through Time

Dr Who meets Star Trek ::

posted by Tom Novak who likes Star Trek mash ups and says this is only part one ...

Cat-Women of the Moon

This is what I am watching right now ~ on DVD ::

posted by Tom Novak who says, these guys have the best Space Suits and, of course the actual movie comes without the Radar Love cover overdub

Caroline Munro in Star Crash (1978)

Speaking of Caroline Munro in The Spy Who Loved Me, she almost got the big break she deserved playing intergalactic bounty huntress Stella Star in an epic Retro Sci Fi film called Star Crash. But it wasn't a big-budgeted Hollywood or British film, it's Spaghetti Sci Fi.

Here is the wonderful Caroline Munro roaming the galaxy the way the galaxy ought to be roamed in the trailer for Star Crash ::

posted by Tom Novak, who laments, it's not bad -  but if only this had been made at Pinewood it would have been a classic.

Today Only ~ Huge Stargate SG-1 Series Sale

The entire Burroughs' Tradition Sci-Fi television series Star Gate Sg-1 is on sale today at amazon. 54 episodes for 99 bucks featuring Sidebar and Space Babe Amanda Tapping?

Wow, what a gift idea for the Retro Sci Fi Enthusiast.

posted by Tom Novak, who says ... yes, that's a hint :)

Beverly Garland R.I.P.

posted by Tom Novak, who says Hail and Farewell to another of TSC's first and favorite sidebar babes (sigh).

The Day The Earth Stood Still 1 & 2 Trailers

The remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still opened on Dec 12.08 - as if that's news. But I've paid no attention to it except that it looks kind of cool. Every review I've read of it is pretty lame, as usual these days as far as movie critics go. But, anyway, here's what they put out for it::

and here is the original (gotta love Drew Pearson's fedora) trailer for what is a classic retro sci fi movie and an excellent film ::

Posted by Tom Novak who is (hoping that Wally goes to see TDTESS II as usual and posts a review) wondering which one of these films will still be watched everyday in 50 years, hmmmmm?

Woody Woodpecker explains astrophysics from Destination Moon (1951)

That corporate PR Raytheon description of a hunter-killer anti- missle MKV satellite was a little too campy for me.

Now ... this from about 12 minutes into George Pal's Destination Moon is how you really explain Space stuff ::

posted by Tom Novak, who says, "gimme' Rocket Ship Galileo vs Space Nazis any time."