Michael Z. Williamson's Blog, page 8

DRAGONCON

Title: Year Two
Time: Fri 02:30 pm Location: Atlanta GH - Westin (Length: 1)
Description: You've survived the first year of the "apocalypse". Now what? Our experts discuss the practicalities, and reality, of long-term survival.

Title: Beans, Bullets, Band Aids: Bring On The Apocalypse
Time: Fri 05:30 pm Location: Atlanta GH - Westin (Length: 1)
Description: Gear-up and get ready for the coming apocalypse. We show how you too can survive, and thrive, through the chaos!

Title: Writer's Roundtable
Time: Sat 01:00 pm Location: Atlanta CDEF - Westin (Length: 1)
Description: What do you get when you combine authors and improv? Come find out as we take audience ideas and work to create apocalyptic-themed stories... live!

Title: Libertarians in Space
Time: Sat 04:00 pm Location: Fairlie - Hyatt (Length: 1)
Description: From "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" to "Freehold" the concept of how the libertarian philosophy may work in the future has been popular in the genre.

Title: Global Insurgency
Time: Sun 01:00 pm Location: Atlanta GH - Westin (Length: 1)
Description: Discussion on the effects of terror strikes, including medical, sociological, and financial effects on the public, military and the infrastructure.

Title: Inside The Mall: Urban Survivalism
Time: Sun 05:30 pm Location: Atlanta GH - Westin (Length: 1)
Description: Will that shopping habit pay off if it has you in a mall when the zombies come? We discuss survival in this and other urban environments.

I will be signing books at The Missing Volume in the Exhibit Hall, Saturday at 2.  So will Larry Correia.  The Baen slide show is at 2:30 pm.  I will be filling in on a science panel on Monday at 1.  I may be helping out on a panel with Larry Friday night.

I will have some of my books with me, if you can't find them at The Missing Volume, and I'll have some of my sick T shirts with me http://www.sharppointythings.com/tshirts.php if you are looking for those.

See you there.

Read more

Military Appropriations

(8:54:07 PM) EvlPenguin: hmm, interesting question.  if the US military had a time traveling military unit, what service would it belong to?
(8:55:07 PM) OnyxHawke: you'd want the airstrip for getting the Delorean up to 88mph
(8:56:16 PM) mzmadmike: yeah, AF takes everything tech, and I'll explain why:
(8:56:44 PM) mzmadmike: The Navy has to assign everything to "Surface" or "Sub."  Surface wouldn't know how to deal with it, and would never let sub have it.
(8:56:52 PM) OnyxHawke: because they can convince people they pay $5000 for toilet seats.
(8:56:55 PM) Monika: we're smart enough to A/C the comps?
(8:56:58 PM) mzmadmike: The Marines wouldn't know where Mickey's hand was.
(8:57:38 PM) mzmadmike: And the Army can manage to take brilliantly designed rifles and trucks and destroy them.  They'd try to fix a time machine with a hammer.

Read more

A FREE Story For Your Reading Pleasure

http://baen.com/BruteForce.asp

Please feel free to download and share.

Read more

Minneapolis!

I will be in Minneapolis on 10 Sep, signing books at Uncle Hugo's SF Bookstore, including the signed edition of Rogue.

I'll have a little time on Friday night, Sat evening and possibly Sunday to catch up with fans I haven't seen in several years, and take care of other business.

If you're in the area, do please swing by the store and say hi.

http://www.unclehugo.com/prod/index.shtml

Read more

Another InDUHVidual of the Press

http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2011/08/nuts_allen_wests_one-word_resp.php

First, this is very clearly (to anyone who made it past 6th grade) a reference to Gen Anthony McAuliffe's laconic (oops, is that a Spartan reference?) response to German requests he surrender during the Battle of the Bulge, at Bastogne.  I hardly expect any member of the press to either know basic history, nor have the care or intellect to ask someone for clarification.  It's too much like work.  Fortunately, the meaning is obvious to most Americans of normal intellect, and several commenters helpfully explained it.

The reporter's response?  "So you think CAIR are Nazis."

As I said, expecting useful, accurate information out of the Special Olympics of Writing (newspaper and TV reporting) is asking too much.  So I snickered and moved on.

Here's a brief refresher for the members of the media:

The First Amendment confirms an innate human right to free expression that does not incite harm to others.  Had West said, "Kill all Muslims," he could be charged with a crime.  However, what he was saying was, in politer language, "Go fuck yourselves."  He has every right to say this, and mean it, just as they had every right to make their request.  Open, shut, done.  I'm not going to wade into the he-said-they-said of the merits of their request or his chosen platform.  They both have the right to express their positions.  I shouldn't be amazed that reporters don't understand this, because I've met so many who don't.

However, a friend of mine made this statement: "I do find it adorable when bigoted war-criminals compare themselves to famous generals."

(Which proves that Americans of normal intellect, regardless of party (He leans Dem), are aware of the reference.  I cannot state enough that reporters are by and large contemptible, lazy, and worthless, which is why most of them don't even earn enough to pay income tax.  Still, it keeps them from working at McDonald's, where they'd probably be unable to follow health code rules, and might set themselves and others on fire.)

Well, let’s look at that:

While serving in Taji, Iraq, West received information from an intelligence specialist about a reported plot to ambush him and his men.[11] The alleged plot reportedly involved Yahya Jhodri Hamoodi, a civilian Iraqi police officer.[11] West, who was not responsible for conducting interrogations in Iraq and had never conducted nor witnessed one, had his men detain Hamoodi.[11] In the process of detaining Mr. Hamoodi, soldiers testified that Hamoodi appeared to reach for his weapon and needed to be subdued.[11] Hamoodi was beaten by four soldiers from the 220th Field Artillery Battalion on the head and body.[12] West then fired his pistol near Hamoodi's head,[11] after which Hamoodi provided West with names and information, which Hamoodi later described as "meaningless information induced by fear and pain."[11] At least one of these suspects was arrested as a result, but no plans for attacks or weapons were found.[11] West said "At the time I had to base my decision on the intelligence I received. It's possible that I was wrong about Mr. Hamoodi."[11]

West was charged with violating articles 128 (assault) and 134 (general article) of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. During a hearing held as part of an Article 32 investigation in November 2003, West stated, "I know the method I used was not right, but I wanted to take care of my soldiers."[12] The charges were ultimately referred to an Article 15 proceeding rather than court-martial, at which West was fined $5,000.[11] LTC West accepted the judgment and retired with full benefits in the summer of 2004. Asked if he would act differently under similar circumstances again, West testified, "If it's about the lives of my soldiers at stake, I'd go through hell with a gasoline can."[13] After Lieutenant Colonel West was relieved of his command, an interpreter employed by a private contractor said that without his presence the region he previously oversaw "became more dangerous and chaotic".[11]

At his hearing, West pointed out that there were no further ambushes against American forces in Taji until he was relieved of his leadership post on October 4.[6]

So, Article 15 is nonjudicial punishment that does not constitute a conviction, or even a charge.  Therefore, West is not a war criminal, and to call him such publicly WOULD violate the 1st Amendment, by being slander or libel.  I'd suggest not doing so in your blog.

Nor do I see anywhere where he "Compared himself" to a famous general.  He simply quoted a famous general, as has been done by others.

As to CAIR, there are positive Muslim groups.  I would be hesitant to call CAIR such, given that:

In 2008, the FBI discontinued its long-standing relationship with CAIR. Officials said the decision followed the conviction of the HLF directors for funneling millions of dollars to Hamas, revelations that Nihal Awad had participated in planning meetings with HLF, and CAIR's failure to provide details of its ties to Hamas.[59][60] During a 2008 retrial of the HLF case, FBI Special Agent Lara Burns labeled CAIR "a front group for Hamas."[61] In January 2009, the FBI's DC office instructed all field offices to cut ties with CAIR, as the ban extended into the Obama administration.[62]

Critics of CAIR, including six members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate,[59][86][87] have alleged ties between the CAIR founders and Hamas. The founders, Omar Ahmad and Nihad Awad, had earlier been officers of the Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP), described by a former FBI analyst and US Treasury Department intelligence official as "intimately tied to the most senior Hamas leadership."[88] Both Ahmad and Awad participated in a meeting held in Philadelphia on October 3, 1993, that involved senior leaders of Hamas, the Holy Land Foundation (which was designated in 1995 by Executive Order, and later convicted in court, as an organization that had raised millions of dollars for Hamas) , and the IAP.[89][90][91] Based on electronic surveillance of the meeting, the FBI reported that "the participants went to great length and spent much effort hiding their association with the Islamic Resistance Movement [Hamas]."[92] Participants at the meeting discussed forming a "political organization and public relations" body, "whose Islamic hue is not very conspicuous."[93]

Critics also point to a July 1994 meeting identifying CAIR as one of the four U.S. organizations comprising the working organizations of the Palestine Committee of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood, the parent organization and supporter of Hamas.[94][95] At a 1994 meeting at Barry University, Awad said that he was "in support of the Hamas movement".[citation needed] CAIR has responded by noting that Hamas was only designated a terrorist organization in January 1995 and did not commit its first wave of suicide bombings until late 1994, after Awad made the comment.[96][97]

Daniel Pipes and investigative reporter Steven Emerson accuse CAIR of being a front for Hamas, having ties to terrorism, as well as "offering a platform to conspiratorial Israel-bashers."[citation needed] The Anti-Defamation League and Emerson have also accused CAIR of having a long record of propagating antisemitic propaganda.[98][99][100][101][102] Journalist Jake Tapper criticizes CAIR for refusing to condemn specifically Osama bin Laden and Islamic extremism, but rather making only vague and generic criticisms.[103][page needed]

Not provably criminal behavior, but would you really want them to stand up as character references at your trial?

As to bigotry, it is not a crime, which is fortunate for quite a few on the left (I DO NOT include my correspondent in this.  I believe his moral position is valid, and, if I had all the details of the exchanges between West and CAIR I might even agree, or I might not.  That's not what I'm looking at here).  I do meet quite an impressive number of "tolerant" "liberals" who can give me a lengthy list of things they don't tolerate, and why if I tolerate them I'm intolerant and they won't tolerate it.  Once again, there's no point in arguing with idiots.

You'll notice I'm admitting a bigotry toward idiots and reporters (Sorry for the redundancy).  Everyone has prejudices and acts on them to some degree or another.  When religion and politics step into play, the name calling starts.  That's part of the game, and a certain amount of it is actually human nature:  http://www.brookings.edu/articles/2007/0313technology_hammond.aspx (first article I came to.  This is a lengthy field of study).

Politics and positions aside, I think there's a very important issue here that still needs resolved:  If I were to wipe my ass with pages from the Bible and Koran, there are very few Christians who'd take overt action.  Many would be disgusted, some would pray for me, others simply turn away.  There are a substantial minority of Muslims who would threaten or attempt violence.

Those particular Muslims need to get over it.  This is the 21st Century, not the Dark Ages, and they need to accept that large numbers of us have no interest in or outright distaste for their god and prophet (may bees pee on him).  People DO have the right to burn the US Flag, crap on their holy book (or any other holy book), call them names and otherwise express positions that are valid, invalid, well-considered or off the cuff.

So regardless of what anyone thinks of West's statements, I believe they are necessary, and I endorse their presence, without comment on their content.

And for anyone who has a problem with that, go fuck yourself.

That's what free speech is.

Read more

Four Stories Out This Month!

Friends,

It's a busy month for my books.  Below are the August releases:



http://www.amazon.com/Exiled-Clan-Claw-Book-One/dp/1439134413/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1299294988&sr=1-1

In an alternate Bronze Age where the Chicxulub meteorite never impacted, sentient saurians and felines must fight for territory, as the Mediterranean Basin infills.  A shared universe with Harry Turtledove, SM Stirling, Jody Lynn Nye, John Ringo and myself.



http://www.amazon.com/Lawyers-Hell-Janet-Morris/dp/1937035018/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0

In Hell, airborne lawyers including Joseph McCarthy and SV Benet must seek the head of the most honest man in Hell, to be deposed by Satan himself.  Also catch my friend Leo's story, "Revolutionary Justice," wherein Che Guevara is condemned to be recognized as, "That guy off the T shirt."



http://www.amazon.com/Citizens-John-Ringo/dp/143913460X/ref=tmm_mmp_title_0

A collection of stories by veterans, including several classic works and some new ones. Eric Frank Russell's "Alamagoosa" is my favorite.



http://www.amazon.com/Do-Unto-Others-Michael-Williamson/dp/1439134596/ref=tmm_mmp_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1259774149&sr=1-1

A paperback reprint of last year's Ripple Creek story.  A family that owns an entire system of resources hires Ripple Creek's best team to keep them alive in a domed mining colony of hostile agents.

"Are Short Stories Dead?

http://www.amazon.com/forum/anthologies/ref=cm_cd_dp_rft_tft_tp?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=FxZ8FZHFP6EYOQ&cdThread=Tx2TJYCXTCHU620

Interesting discussion.  I note that half or more of the comments are by people pimping their own short stories or fanzines.

Then there's this comment:

 says:
Absolutely not. Simply asking the question shows that the medium still has relevancy.

Er, huh?

"Does anyone still speak Linear B?"

No, I think that reply is a logical fail.

Consider the work of the following authors: Dave Eggers, Etgar Keret, Wells Tower, Roddy Doyle, T. C. Boyle, Miranda July, David Schickler... You cannot possibly tell me that you are unable to parse out a heartbeat there.

So people are writing short stories. The followup question is, are they making money at it, and are their publishers?  I also get the impression he's trying to impress us by namedropping. Keret hasn't published anything in several years, and his Amazon rankings are not impressive.  Eggers is doing well, but he's also one of those literati darlings. He may be an excellent writer, but I suspect his sales have more to do with zeitgeist than quality.  Schickler has published two whole books, one of which is out of print and one ranking down around 1,000,000.  So regardless of quality, sales seem to...suck.  July dabbles in everything, her last book was 4 years ago from a small press.  I had to google them and I haven't heard of the others.  They're certainly not "Stephen King," who did write a lot of shorts but now mostly writes whole books, nor Hemingway.

In SF, Heinlein got paid 5c a word in the 1950s.  That was serious money.  And around 2006, SFWA raised the minimum "professional" rate for SF to....5c a word, from 3c.  You are not paying any bills with that.

Someone comments:

The mid-length short story may be in somewhat of a (temporary?) decline as print magazines are struggling with all the publishing changes. However, ultra-short fiction forms (flash fiction, micro fiction, hint fiction etc.) are on the rise as more people discover (free) online reading and the range of ezines available.

Oh, it's hardly temporary.  Magazines that had circulation in the hundreds of thousands have dropped into the mere thousands, and there are less all the time.  The specialty mags are happy to get hundreds of readers (out of a US population approaching a third of a billion).  As for free content--it's worth what you pay for it.

It is true more content is moving online.  There's likely more of it, but, with the proliferation of amateur sites, it will become increasingly difficult to find an audience, and there will be less development by the practitioners.  You will see less and less great stories, and even if they exist, you'll see less of them as they are swallowed in the mire of puerile shit.

See, part of what professional publishing brings to the table (as many of us in the field try to remind people), is that development and filter.  Few people can finish a story.  Fewer a good one.  Fewer still can convince someone to part with a mere nickel per word up front for their story.  If no one is willing to pay a nickel per word, in the hopes that advertising will recoup those few dozen dollars, is the story really any good?  Probably not.

In exchange, the publisher brings a podium.  You can have the best message in the world.  Shout it in the middle of the Tibetan Plateau and you waste it.  Whisper it in the right location in Times Square, say, and you'll have half the world as your audience.  Then the message can do some good.

Now, the short form is not dead.  However, it's not what it used to be.  The magazines are dying, the web won't really offer much in the way of money.  These days, the primary reason a writer produces short stuff is for promotional purposes.  If you like the short content (and blogging counts), you may spend money on the heavier content.

So the answer comes in three forms:

Yes.  Kiss the mags goodbye, they're done.

No, but you're really going to have to dig to find it.

No, but it's never going to be what it was in the past.

I do still write quite a few shorts, but largely as promotion to keep my name out there.  I mean, I enjoy it, and I try to deliver the best story possible, but they're all in existing universes and the publicity benefits me more than the few bucks.

Read more

Random Rant From The Archives of My Gmail

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/10/us-wisconsin-idUSTRE72909420110310?pageNumber=2

justiceserved wrote:

Republicans rolling back 100 years of workers’ rights one at a time. Soon right to work laws will eliminate minimum wage, 40 hour workweek & overtime will be gone, and of course they want to eliminate the EPA & OSHA. Now if we cut laws that govern business, cut back on SS & Medicare we can continue our slide into third world status which Corporate Republicanism favors! Thank God we’ll still have our guns for the next revolution.

~~~~~text break~~~~~

Is that a threat of violence from a Dem?  Funny how that happens whenever they don't like how the legislative process works.

 ~~~text break~~~

 And a followup:

http://www.reuters.com/article/comments/idUSTRE72D73O20110314#post

justiceserved wrote:

Nuclear is by far the stupidest way to get energy, waste that is dangerous, hard to store, potential terrorist bomb, and all on an earth that will keep changing, destroying one plant at a time or worse yet-old obsolete plants will continue to meltdown!

 ~~~text break~~~~

 And a reply: 

justiceserved:  Coal puts out more radiation than nuclear per power produced, due to uranium and thorium particles.  The number of people killed in coal accidents exceeds that killed in nuclear accidents, not even accounting for acid rain, stripmining damage to the ecosystem, and CO2. 

Wasn't it you ranting about labor debates returning us to the 1800s?  Yet here you are endorsing 1800s technology, and the labor and filth that goes with it.

And nuclear waste is easy to get rid of.  It's been done for 60 years. The best way is to recycle it as fuel for two to three generations of power, and minimize what's left--it has less energy than the starting fuel, by definition.

Why don't you try putting away the lefticle papers and reading something above a 4th grade level?

Solar only works in sunny environments.  Wind is horrifically inefficient and damages weather patterns.  So either you accept nuclear power, or you get a pedal generator to power your intarweb.

I swear you people disgust me.  It's "big oil," "big pharma," "big finance," and now "big nuclear."  Why don't you all cut up your credit cards, throw away your prescriptions, shut off your computers and go live in the trees?  The rest of us have a future to attend to.

Read more

Econ 101 for Socialist Idiots

Parable: 100 guys with shovels came over to my yard and dug a swimming pool. This demonstrates the value of labor.

Except it was my neighbor who wanted the pool, and those shovels were built by a capitalist corporation.

This undirected labor was valueless.  In fact, it was worse than valueless.  I now have to fix a hole, and someone is out the cost of shovels.

The capitalist who purchases the shovels, provides the blueprints, lines, marks, supervisors, and arranges the contract for the pool in the first place has more investment in the project than all the labor combined. Their investment is a few hours time. His investment is more time, more resources, more money, and development.

Therefore, yes, in fact, he is entitled to the majority of the proceeds.

The laborers can demonstrate the value of labor by going to the desert, digging holes with their hands, and waiting for prospective buyers to want to come along and line them with concrete to make pools out of them. Good luck with that.

Alternately, they must develop a source of contracts, materials and capital investment, thus becoming capitalists.

TL;DR: Marx was a @#$ing moron.

Read more

They Just Can't Let It Lie

Walter Weinig
Oh, please. The levees along the Mississippi were started in the 1930s to control flood devastation - decades before your "eco nuts" were even born. Nobody has ever accused the Army Corps of Engineers of overwhelming ecological sensitivity when it comes to flood control. The issues with bayou destruction are collateral damage that only became evident in the 80s and later. Had nothing to do with the oil spill.

The issues with the BP well could just as easily have occurred at 500 ft water as they did at 8000 - the problems weren't related to how deep the water was. However, they would have been easier to control in only 500 ft of water. Face it - BP wouldn't have been drilling there if the resource wasn't economical to develop at that location. That's capitalism in action.

NPR, PBS, USPS might not be viable as private enterprises. But I reject the notion that the only things worthwhile are those that make a profit. There's a lot more to their programming (NPR, PBS) than news and political commentary. And I don't think the American public really wants to pay FedEx or UPS rates every time they send a letter, pay a bill, or send a birthday card to Grandma.


~~~~


There are numerous magazine articles from the 1960s, where the Corps warned that the levees could not withstand a direct hit from a significant hurricane.  They proposed a control dam on Lake Pontchartrain, that would have stopped the exact problem NOLA encountered.  It was, in fact, the early ecosimps who protested it would be bad for the aquaculture of the lake, and demanded more levees instead.  These articles are archived online in several places, if you wish to avail yourself of the resource.  PopSci had one, that I recall as did several others.

As an aside, in the 1980s it was Greenpeace who came up with the brilliant idea of painting baby harp seals with pink paint to "protect" them from hunting.  The paint solvents destroyed the oil in their fur so more of them froze, and made them very visible to the polar bear--the reason the seals are white in the first place.

The way to do good things for the environment is to listen to the econuts and do exactly the opposite.

No, that spill could not have happened at 500 feet, because that type of rig, drill and connection is not used at 500 feet.  500 foot wells are a very mature technology, and well-managed.  And by your own argument, if they'd had the type of problem that those wells do have, shutting them down is much easier, which once again make the problem much less significant.

Feel free to stop using that oil, however.

FedEx is prohibited by law from competing with USPS on domestic mail, and is even required to send local express packages to the hub for sorting, and then must return them--leaving them at the local station is deemed "unfair" by the USG.  They still manage to deliver overnight at competitive rates with USPS, and do so faster (9PM deadline vs noon-2).  Which begs the question--what could they do if it WAS a free market, where they were allowed to compete for profit and out of pocket, with a taxpayer subsidized system with the law stacked in its favor?

BP deserves blame for that disaster, but so does the agency of your vaunted government that signed off on the rig, and the ecosimps who wouldn't allow a more profitable, safe, economic and practical rig closer to shore, and then had the audacity to whine about the result, while making much use of that oil.

I could bring up the hypocrisy of simultaneously demanding cheap oil, but less use, with more regs but less expense, etc.

You also make the mistake of assuming that because I'm attacking the hypocritical logical failure of MoreOn's ad (it is.  Just because people are copying it does not mean it wasn't designed in the ad department of a multimillion dollar operation with a profit motive and an ax to grind), that I blindly support their opposition.

I just want their position, arguments, and counterproposals to be logical and reasonable, rather than ranting stupidity.

Read more