THE PROBABILITY BROACH by L. Neil Smith
- Thread starter Melvin Loh
- Start date
Are they not aware that Jefferson Davis also did it? If memory serves, he even hanged people in East Tennessee without the benefit of trial.
Spengler
Banned
Being autistic I'd really have to agree with that. Actually I've noticed alot of autistic who seem to be enthralled by extremist ideologies and I think it might have something to do with the fact that it makes things so much easier if the world is black and white.
That's hilarious!
Question- what if the 220 lb thug also has two pounds of iron?
Shoot her before she has a chance to pull out a gun, I guess. These arguments always seem to me to confuse actual thugs with the mythic schoolyard bully, always scared of the one who fights back: given the level of murderous violence in gang society, it seems that thugs are not particularly intimidated by _other_ thugs with guns, and being armed certainly does not seem to have made gang society a polite society.
Bruce
Hendryk
Banned
I personally roll my eyes whenever I come across--whether in Libertarian fiction or in online debates--the old canard about an armed society being a polite society. The Wild West was an armed society, was it a polite society? Somalia is an armed society, is it a polite society?
I might also add that the comparison with Somalia, which in online debates seems to really annoy Libertarians, is perfectly relevant in the case of L. Neil Smith's fiction and other works available at Big Head Press such as Escape from Terra. The authors make a point of stating that the system they depict is anarchic and retains at most one percent of the functions of government. In The Probability Broach, it's stated that what passes for a Congress hasn't convened in 30 years (nor, apparently, has there been any election since then), and in Escape from Terra, it's explained that the Ceres asteroid settlement doesn't even have a head of state (they have to pick one up on the spur of the moment to meet with Earth representatives).
Max Sinister
Banned
To be fair, there are presidential elections in his TL. (Although at some point, "None of the above" is "elected", and finally they elect "None of the above" as *president for life*. Shouldn't later generations be allowed to correct that??)
Not sure how the political system of his world really works. The Continental Congress might be something different from the other congress. It's not that he was describing a real, working system.
Not sure how the political system of his world really works. The Continental Congress might be something different from the other congress. It's not that he was describing a real, working system.
Spengler
Banned
btw I found this uncompleted timeline on space battles.com that is basicly a giant take that to the Probability broach.
http://forums.spacebattles.com/showpost.php?p=2952998&postcount=44
http://forums.spacebattles.com/showpost.php?p=2952998&postcount=44
Uh...actually, in like 99 percent of Western towns, it was illegal to carry guns and weapons into city limits. And the highest deaths in the bloodiest towns per year were like ...4, so that gun rights myth kinda gets blown out of the water there.
I've started reading the graphic novel of Roswell, Texas tonight. Story is pretty good, although it seems like he's trying to cram as many historical people as he can into the story. He even has current mayor of Denver John Hickenlooper (Germanized as Hickenluper) as a Nazi captain for some reason. I'm not sure but I believe he was shot by John Wayne and fell out of an airship. 
Hendryk
Banned
Yes, he blithely ignores the butterflies if they get in the way of featuring a historical figure who should normally not have been born. He did the same thing in Broach, though it was less blatant.I've started reading the graphic novel of Roswell, Texas tonight. Story is pretty good, although it seems like he's trying to cram as many historical people as he can into the story. He even has current mayor of Denver John Hickenlooper (Germanized as Hickenluper) as a Nazi captain for some reason. I'm not sure but I believe he was shot by John Wayne and fell out of an airship.
It's a trope I submitted a while ago, it's called Richard Nixon the Used Car Salesman.
I've started reading the graphic novel of Roswell, Texas tonight. Story is pretty good, although it seems like he's trying to cram as many historical people as he can into the story. He even has current mayor of Denver John Hickenlooper (Germanized as Hickenluper) as a Nazi captain for some reason. I'm not sure but I believe he was shot by John Wayne and fell out of an airship.
In the old Roswell thread we tried to make a list of all cameo (the story wasn't done at the time mind you and I'm pretty sure they are innacuracy)
Thank you Greg Grant
1. Santa Anna
2. Davy Crockrett
3. Houston
4.Linbergh
5. Wild Bill
6.Bettie page
7.Audie Murphy
8. Judah Benjamin
9.Meir Kahane
10. Malcom X
11.Gene Roddenberry
12. Alice restaurant
13.Harold gray
14. C.S Lewis
15.Al Capp
16. Henry Wallace
17. Harry Hopkins
18.Charle deGaule
19.Jolliot Curie
20.Lawrence of Arabia
21. Elliot Ness
21. "Cactus Jack" Garner
22. Adolf Hitler
23. Ernst Röhm
24. Walt Disney
25. John Wayne
26. LBJ
27. Frank Sinatra
28. Pope John Paul
29. Roy Williams
30. Jimmy Dodd
31. Jerry Lewis
32. Ian Fleming
33. James Mason
34..Edward VIII
35. Abe Lincoln
36.Nathan Bedford Forrest
37. Diego Rivera
38.Frida Kahlo
39.Samuel Colt
40. Mark Twains
41. Victor Mature
42. Fidel Castro
43.Stepin Fetchit
44.Jingles" Devine
45. Bette Davis
46. Basil Rathbone
47.Erroll Flynn
48.Chang Kaishek
49.Mussollini
50.Clark Gable
51.Humphrey Bogart
52. Thomas Dewey
53. Carol Lombard
54. Esther Williams
55. Roland Bird
56. Earl Warren
Speaking of the Draka, there's a timeline somewhere where the author pits Smith's NAC against the Domination. The snakes pwned the NAC.
Looks good for as far as I've gotten. A couple points though.
4. I think the president of Texas in 1964 is the Lindbergh Baby, with Charles Lindbergh having been a past president.
19. This is actually Irene Joliot-Curie, daughter or Marie Curie
A couple missing from the list are Ayn Rand (of course; ITTL maried to C. S. Lewis) and Sam Hamilton Walker.
Just a odd point, I found this strip in the "Roswell, Texas" comic, and thought it deserved reporting here.
The American (fellow in green) has just had his grammar corrected by T. E. Lawrence (in white suit). Isn't this exactly the image you get when our British members get impassioned about such things?
The American (fellow in green) has just had his grammar corrected by T. E. Lawrence (in white suit). Isn't this exactly the image you get when our British members get impassioned about such things?