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Bradbury Memorial at LASFS

By Jerry Pournelle | Jul 7, 2012 - 5:55 pm | Updated: July 10, 2012 - 5:31 pm | View

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View 731 Saturday, July 07, 2012

We had the LASFS memorial meeting for Ray Bradbury this afternoon. A bit of a low key event, since the LASFS members who knew Ray back when he was an active member are pretty well gone. Ray was of an age when he was required to take a physical examination for the World War II draft. The story is that he went to the physical and they said what’s the lowest line you can read on that eye chart, and Ray, blinking behind his thick glasses, said “What eye chart?” I can well believe it: I know for a fact that Ray could not recognize me from five feet away unless I spoke. He always remembered friends’ voices, but he could not recognize faces beyond a yard or so.

Ray later told Robert Heinlein about his military physical exam, and Robert is said to have said “You didn’t try hard enough.” I have no idea whether this is true – Robert never told me that story – but it is a matter of public record that Bradbury did volunteer Red Cross work during the war. I was friends with both, and I never heard either speak of the other one way or another, the subject never having come up. I did see the two together when we were all three on some kind of panel involving Mars not long after the Viking Lander made it absolutely certain that the old view of Mars as a rather cold Earth with thin atmosphere were dead, and Ray’s Martian Chronicles went from far-out science fiction to wild fantasy, and Heinlein’s Red Planet went from juvenile SF to – well, I guess fantasy is as good a word as any. And most of the public’s interest in space travel and space colonies went away when it was proved that you couldn’t live on Mars or Venus, or anywhere else off Earth without a bubble to live in.

After that a lot of the Spacefaring Nation dream faded away, and it’s just now being revived again. At least I hope it is.

Dr. Pournelle, you wrote:

“Yes. Ray was too thoroughly entwined with the Hollywood establishment to be very open politically, and he talked politics very quietly and confidentially. He had a lot at stake.”

I recall at least one time Ray Bradbury was not quiet about a controversial political matter. He was guest on an LA talk radio show, back in the days talk shows had guests, often promoting a book or film, with interviews and listener questions. The controversy was the Jarvis-Gann initiative that, as Proposition 13, would limit/slash property taxes in California. Bradbury was guest on one of the top-rated LA talk radio shows, back in the days talk shows had guests (often promoting a book or film) with an interview and listener questions. He was one of those people who could just appear and keep a host and listening audience enthralled on all sorts of topics for an hour or two. Somehow (perhaps because he always spoke of his love for the libraries) Prop. 13 came up in the latter part of this particular hour. I don’t think I ever heard Ray more passionate and fiery — urgently speaking how it *must* be passed by the people. This was no matter of lofty ideas or dreams; our *liberty* was at stake! 1978 was my first state-wide election and I was already long-enthusiastic for Prop. 13. But it was wonderful to hear one of my literary heroes speak eloquently a voice that the usual toney West Side LA politics could not tolerate.

Pax et bonum, Steven+

The Rev. Steven P. Tibbetts, STS

Born in Hollywood, Playing in Peoria

Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, Peoria, Ill.

I read this at the Bradbury Memorial because it reminded me of Ray’s generosity toward newcomers. In the 70’s I was actively promoting Mote and Hammer, and sometimes found myself on some of those morning shows alongside Ray Bradbury. One would suppose that the usual outcome of that would be that Ray would get all the air time, but he would have none of that: if the host didn’t ask me to talk, then Ray would direct questions to me so that I couldn’t be ignored. I will always be grateful to him for that.

There is much discussion of the San Bernardino property adjustment scheme, and considerable speculation about what CERN actually found, all for another time. I am sure there will be coverage of the Bradbury memorial on the LASFS website.

Eminent Domain and the housing bubble. Mystery ghost cities. Bradbury memorial tomorrow

By Jerry Pournelle | Jul 6, 2012 - 12:24 pm | Updated: July 7, 2012 - 5:52 pm | View

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View 731 Friday, July 06, 2012

The morning LA Times has a story about San Bernardino County studying a proposal to use eminent domain procedures to acquire underwater county homes, then negotiate new financing for the householders so that they can continue to live in their houses. The Times didn’t seem to know what to think about it, but when the Rush Limbaugh show came on his substitute certainly did: it is theft, he said. Robbery. Thievery.

The scheme is simple: the county seizes homes whose value is less than the mortgage. The county then pays the banks who own the mortgage the fair market value of the houses, and in essence holds the mortgage for all those living in the houses who are willing to pay for them at the reduced value and at the reduced payment rates. The county charges the current interest rates or perhaps a bit more to help finance the bureaucracy and the whole seizure-remortgage process (current proposals contemplate a minimum bureaucracy and private contracts for most of it). The banks who made the loans eat the loss, but they do get the current fair market value of the house. In the ideal case the householder has paid something as a down payment. One presumes that he ‘loses’ that in the sense that when this process begins the householder has zero equity, but since the refinance will be, presumably, a thirty year fixed interest mortgage, the householder begins to build equity from that moment on. He goes from negative equity to zero.

I am not at all sure this is theft. I’m not sure it’s a good idea, but it’s worth discussing, and the more I think on it the better it sounds. Yes, the bank loses the difference between the amount loaned and the current fair market price. The question is, hasn’t the bank already lost that? The county gets the benefit of a householder owner who will keep the house from falling into desuetude. The county economy gets the backload of underwater domestic real estate cleared and a normalization of the housing market. The householder gets the house at the cost of all of his now-non-existent equity.

Do the benefits outweigh the intrusions? This is a county effort. Not state, and certainly not Federal. It is a bit of strain on the eminent domain precedents, but it’s not that great an extension of the power and presumably it could be written to make precise what it’s precedent for. Among other things it concerns owner-occupants, not properties occupied by renters, or abandoned places bought for a flip. I do note that even those might be discussed: what you don’t want is a lot of vacant housing turned into flophouses and drug centers.

It makes sense on the moral side. For good or ill the government did persuade people to get in over their heads. There has been considerable time since the housing bubble burst. I do not see this as encouraging more people to play flip games and inflate a new bubble. And the banks are not being robbed of anything they actually have, assuming that the fair market price assessments are honestly done.

I think if I were a San Bernardino County Commissioner I might be persuaded to vote for this; I’d certainly listen to the pitch.

Anyway that’s what I was thinking about on my morning walk.

Here is a mystery that has me puzzled, presuming that the facts are as stated. I’ve seen nothing else about it. Anyone know what’s going on?

http://www.wnd.com/2012/07/bizarre-chinas-eerie-ghost-cities-arise/

Eric is here and we’re going to get some cleanup work done this afternoon.

The Ray Bradbury Memorial LASFS meeting is tomorrow, Saturday July 7 at 2 PM at the LASFS clubhouse. Ray joined LASFS in the early days and has been a member ever since. A number of people will tell Ray Bradbury stories.

A good fourth. A good hike. And go read Ortega; and the DNS attack

By Jerry Pournelle | Jul 6, 2012 - 12:11 am | Updated: July 6, 2012 - 12:16 pm | View

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View 731 Thursday, July 05, 2012

I hope you had a good Fourth. We stayed home, joined by my son Alex and his wife, and by Larry and Marilyn Niven. Then today Niven and I went up the hill.

For reflections on the Fourth see https://statelymcdanielmanor.wordpress.com/

In digging for something else I came across this:

Ortega y Gasset’s “Revolt”

and the Problem of Mass Rule

E. Robert Statham, Jr.

http://www.mmisi.org/ma/46_03/statham.pdf

It is not a substitute for reading Ortega’s Revolt of the Masses which is one of those books that every civilized person should read as part of his education, but it is a good exposition on Ortega’s thesis. It will seem quite alien to many. Ortega, after all, said in answer to the charge that he was in favor of aristocracy said that he was guilty of much more than that: he believed that societies were societies to the extent that they were aristocratic, and if they ceased to be aristocratic they ceased to be societies. The Revolt of the Masses is why he holds that view. This essay in Modern Age – a journal founded by my mentor Russell Kirk. One of his collaborators in the founding of Modern Age was Kenneth Cole who was my professor at the University of Washington. If you’re looking for some heavy reading, this essay is worth your time. And if you haven’t read Ortega, put him on your list. You should.

It’s late, and it was a strenuous trip up the hill. I went to the LASFS meeting after dinner, and it’s very much time for bed now. More another time. LASFS will have a memorial meeting in memory of member Ray Bradbury this Saturday at 2 PM. A number of people who knew Ray will be there. The Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society has a tradition: death will not release you, even if you die; which is why I say member rather than ‘former’ member. Ray would agree. I’ll tell a couple of my Bradbury stories. Others will tell even better ones.

Larry and Marilyn Niven, and alas my old shed needs painting worse than I thought. Sable is negotiating for anything Marilyn didn’t eat. Viking dogs don’t beg, they negotiate…

It got hot on the trail today. Sable sees a big handsome Husky Malamute coming up the hill.

I got this on another conference. Then a Pentagon contact told me his IT guy told him to check his computer

In case you haven’t heard, come Monday, the FBI is going to take down a DNS server safety net that could leave thousands (or more) U.S. internet users without internet access. This is not a hoax, it’s a real thing.
If you have not gotten your computers checked for the malware, please go to this link ASAP (http://www.dcwg.org) and do so. Otherwise, you risk being offline until you can get your computer fixed.

That got me asking my security experts about it, and Rick Hellewell has this to say:

True….somewhat overhyped, but true. See msnbc story here http://www.technolog.msnbc.msn.com/technology/technolog/malware-may-knock-thousands-internet-monday-864024

Facebook and Google users may have already gotten warnings. But that link is a good place to check; it’s run by the FBI.

..Rick…

Eric Pobirs expands:

From the descriptions I’ve read it’s very unlikely for an actively used machine to be infected and the user unaware. The malware was usually accompanied by other items that did obnoxious stuff like ad popups. I strongly suspect the estimated 350,000 infected systems are rarely used directly and things like monitoring systems checked by remote access or machines that have been left running and completely forgotten.

http://www.dns-ok.us/

This site, link provided by the DCWG.ORG site, appears to be a simple and painless test.

I wonder though, if instead of shutting everything down on the substitute DNS servers, if they should spend a day or so redirecting anything that talks to them from a web browser to a page saying YOU ARE INFECTED in big text and linking to the DCWG site. Perhaps they have and I just missed the mention.

Eric

Sir James Lovelock; the Roberts decision and the coming election; education, aristocracy, and The Revolt of the Masses; and more.

By Jerry Pournelle | Jul 3, 2012 - 11:56 pm | Updated: July 3, 2012 - 11:56 pm | Mail

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Mail 731 Tuesday, July 03, 2012

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.

I will open with this in a spirit of fairness:

Canadian Crude

Dear Jerry:

Reading your header , " Gaia guru derides Warmist believers; <https://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/?p=8162> my eyes rolled skyward before beginning to search the page for the National Inquirer masthead.

It turned out instead to be the Toronto Sun, which has a lot in common with its London namesake If you want to know what James Lovelock thinks , there are better ways to find out than letting one newspaper edit what he had to say to another, especially when the subject is oil , and the second hand journalism is cut to fit the taste of Canada’s tar patch.

Here’s a link to the full transcript of what Sir James actually said, as opposed to Charles Brumbelow’s take on the wishful thinking of Watts Up with That.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2012/jun/15/james-lovelock-fracking-greens-climate

It appeared under the no less interesting title,

James Lovelock on shale gas and the problem with the Greens

Russell Seitz

Well, my headline did go further than Sir James’ text, but I will plead that my exaggeration is mild compared to those of the True Believers.

Roberts

Hi Jerry,

Your analysis is the best I’ve seen to explain why Roberts did what he did, and I agree that this election is critically important.

I just wish we were running Reagan and not Romney. We sorely need a statesman with grand vision (not just the guy who’s turn it is) right now.

Cheers,

Doug

You are hardly alone in wishing that we had Mr. Reagan instead of Romney. But wishing will not make it so. We must play the hand we have been dealt. Mr. Romney won the primary. I was not thrilled with his attacks on my friend Newt Gingrich, but I never had a hope that Newt would win in the first place. Romney has been through every mill there is. He remains the most solidly states rights candidate other than the governor of Texas, and that is one big plus. He is more Mormon than Establishment, and self-reliance is strong among Mormons. So is states rights.

Health care gloom

Dear Dr. Pournelle,

A bit more serious than the last email, but I wish to direct your attention to the following two articles.

http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2012/07/03/romney-puts-that-sleeping-giant-back-to-sleep/?cxntfid=blogs_jay_bookman_blog

http://www.redstate.com/erick/2012/07/03/the-truth-it-hurts/

I share their concern. Romney’s criticism of Obamacare has been muted. I have a nasty suspicion that "repeal and replace" simply means "make a symbolic vote, make some cosmetic changes, then continue with Obamacare with a shiny new ‘Romneycare’ label". Sort of like what they do on cars when they turn a Chevrolet into a Cadillac by changing the hood ornament.

Or do we truly expect the author of Romneycare to be anxious to undo something that closely resembles his signature achievement?

My concern is that there is insufficient fire in the belly of Republicans in power to repeal Obamacare even if they do get all three branches in November. ‘Compassionate Conservatism’ or something similar is more likely.

Do you have any suggestions? The only one I can think of is ‘light a fire under the Republicans running for office’.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

The key is what kind of majority Romney gets. If it is clear that the Republicans owe their win to the tea party, then non-establishment Republicans will have far more influence than if the Republicans think they are winning on their charm and merits. Since most of them are terrified, a shift in the leadership can be important. We’ve been through all this before. The Reagan/Ford primary election that resulted in Carter is in some senses the predecessor of the 2010 election.

As to Romneycare, I have never heard him suggest that what was correct and constitutional for a state is either constitutional or desirable as a federal program; and I have often heard him say that Romneycare was never intended as a federal program. Why impute to him a desire to implement something that he has repeatedly said was a state matter and has never proposed for national implementation?

The conservative cause is not going magically to take control of the government no matter what happens; but I would rather negotiate with the Republican establishment than with the Democrat establishment.

I do not pretend that the situation is not desperate. Mr. Roberts has made it so, whether deliberately or for some other reason. (I will not accept that he has lost his senses.) This election will be a referendum on entitlements. I think the Republicans will win, because Obama care is not popular; but for the conservatives to win we need to turn out every sympathizer we have. We must be seen to have finally decided to act. Those who want self government must make some effort at governing themselves.

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.

‘This means that Chief Justice Roberts is right. There is no short cut to reforming the welfare state and ending its reign of injustice and oppression. It must be accomplished through the expression of the American popular will.’

<http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/07/roberts_hands_a_poisoned_chalice_to_the_president.html>

Roland Dobbins

Madison made it very clear. You cannot have a special institution designed to protect the rights and liberties of the people. Qui custodiet and all that. Kemal Ataturk thought to entrust the liberties of the Turkish people to his comrades in arms, and made the Army the guardian of Turkey as a secular state. They did that remarkably well for four generations, but it is unlikely that this will continue. Timocracy is viable but it generally will not last.

The liberties of the American people are entrusted to the whole of the people. Courts can delay, courts can warn, or, as with the Warren Court, they can be something to fear. But liberty must be won continually; it is not something you can win once and go back to sleep. As we are finding more and more.

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free. And eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Those clichés were once more than clichés and slogans; they were learned in the cradle and nurtured in grade school. We have forgotten them, and for some they are corny old clichés. They are not. They are the axioms of liberty.

Hello, Jerry –

So, according to Justice Roberts, ObamaCare is a tax. OK, I’l buy that. What,exactly, is being taxed?

My understanding of direct/indirect taxation is that a direct tax is one levied on property, while an indirect is one levied on the transfer of property (or wealth). In the case of health insurance, it seems unlikely that this would be an indirect tax, since the point of insurance is that you pay your premium even if you received no benefits.

If ObamaCare is then a direct tax, why is it not subject to the apportionment requirement, and so invalid in its present form?

Regards,

Jim Martin

What Mr. Roberts is trying to tell you is that such matters are important only if you believe in the Constitution; and the Court can only prevent the political branches of government from doing as they will for so long. He says he can no longer protect us from the consequences of our political actions. For things like the apportionment requirement to be important you must first decide that such legalisms are more important than compassion and entitlement.

Subj: Ray Bradbury: "Reagan was our greatest president"

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/kevinglass/2012/06/06/recentlypassed_ray_bradbury_reagan_was_our_greatest_president

I recall rereading the book publication of Bradbury’s essay "Apollo, the Sun Goes Out," arguing for the continuation of the space program instead of canceling it to pay for welfare programs; it has been a subtle influence on my life and thought ever since. So I can’t say I’m surprised. It appears to have originally been published in the LA Times, 17 May 1972. (The reprint was published in Perry Rhodan 18, Ace Books, 1972). But while I think I’ve seen it on the web in the past, it doesn’t turn up on a web search now, so there are probably no legitimate copies out there.

Some of his thoughts which went into that essay are captured here:

http://www.astronautix.com/articles/iftndies.htm

Yes. Ray was too thoroughly entwined with the Hollywood establishment to be very open politically, and he talked politics very quietly and confidentially. He had a lot at stake. But he was also very much pro space exploration.

Political campaign lost, knowledge won…

http://lewrockwell.com/kwiatkowski/kwiatkowski286.html

"Having completed a political campaign, and lost, I’ve gained a new awareness of the nature and vulnerabilities of incumbent politicians in the current era of American national socialism. More importantly, I’ve glimpsed the unlimited possibilities and glorious impact of individual decisions to challenge the illusion of central authority and to live free, by no man’s leave and as we wish."

Charles Brumbelow

I’ve won campaigns and I have lost campaigns. I was a county chairman in the Goldwater presidential election (and we did carry the state for George Murphy but not for Goldwater) and I was manager of Barry Goldwater Junior’s first and successful campaign for Congress.

Freedom is not free, and there is always a campaign.

Apple and the Strategy of Technology

Dear Jerry,

After reading the article you linked about McNamara and the Strategy of Technology, I was struck by a thought. For fifteen years Apple has conducted the commercial equivalent of a Strategy of Technology. They understand that technology is a stream, and they seek to swim with it. They perfect their logistics and operations, but only in the service of their strategy, and that strategy is based on a similar understanding of technology to SoT.

The three of you wrote: "To make the enemy counter each move you make, and dance to your tune, is the aim of a Technological War strategy."

I think that’s a fair summary of life at Google, Microsoft, RIM, Nokia, Samsung, Asus etc. recently. I wait to see what happens next. (And at least in commercial competition, the fallout is only metaphorical.)

Steve Setzer

An insightful observation. Thank you.

Subj: Charles Murray: The BA is a Work of the Devil

http://www.aei-ideas.org/2012/06/more-reasons-why-i-think-the-ba-is-the-work-of-the-devil/

>>As long as the piece of paper called a BA remains the emblem of educational success, it will lead to colleges and community colleges that collude with students to provide that piece of paper without regard to anything that is learned. …<<

Rod Montgomery==monty@starfief.com

As usual, Murray is very much worth reading. I am working on several essays on what to do about the education crisis, but that involves understanding what education is. Most people can never be ‘educated’ in the true sense of the word; yet civilization depends on their being a core of educated and influential men and women.

Any discussion of education must also include Ortega y Gasset, Revolt of the Masses, and its implications.

“we distinguished the excellent man from the common man by saying that the former is the one who makes great demands on himself, and the latter the one who makes no demands on himself, but contents himself with what he is, and is delighted with himself. Contrary to what is usually thought, it is the man of excellence, and not the common man who lives in essential servitude. Life has no savour for him unless he makes it consist in service to something transcendental. Hence he does not look upon the necessity of serving as an oppression. When, by chance, such necessity is lacking, he grows restless and invents some new standard, more difficult, more exigent, with which to coerce himself. This is life lived as a discipline — the noble life. Nobility is defined by the demands it makes on us — by obligations, not by rights. Noblesse oblige. ‘To live as one likes is plebeian; the noble man aspires to order and law’ (Goethe) (quoted in http://pypaik.wordpress.com/2010/09/23/ortega-y-gassets-defense-of-elitism/)

And from years ago:

Hamilton, the bastard son of a Scots peddler, would have been content to have an hereditary Senate, and primogeniture, and in general the trappings and makings of aristocracy in the United States of the Framers. And Ortega y Gasset said that a civilization is a civilization only so long as it is aristocratic. Most people find the rather mobile aristocracy of the later British Empire, especially after the reforms of Macaulay, to have been one of its more admirable points: it wasn’t that they were all virtuous, in the old sense of the Four Cardinal Virtues, but that they aspired to be, and admired that kind of virtue — and admitted that there were virtues, which our present day equalitarian society does not, lest we discover that they are not as wide spread as we like, and we have to pass judgment on someone.

Prudence, Temperance, Courage, and Justice: if the British aristocracy that perished in the Boer war and then in The Great War did not all exhibit those virtues, they all admired them and found them desirable. Even Flashman finds himself being virtuous despite himself…

If we cannot be a republic, then the aristocratic empire of the Widow of Windsor may be what we must aspire to. What other models do we have? (Sparta, perhaps: an idealized Sparta was the founding myth of my Empire of Man in the series you mention; for those interested, The Prince is relevant.)

But recall that my CoDominium series was intended as a warning…

http://www.jerrypournelle.com/archives2/archives2mail/mail227.html#Sunday

Subject: SCOTUS Ruling Means Bigger, More Intrusive IRS

http://www.foxbusiness.com/government/2012/06/29/scotus-ruling-means-bigger-more-intrusive-irs/?intcmp=fbfeatures

It certainly will if Obama wins the November election. If the Republicans win, that will not be so.

Thought you might enjoy this.

http://www.duffelblog.com/2012/07/starcraft-game-added-to-officer-training-curriculum-offers-realistic-leadership-simulation/

DM

David March

Indeed. Thanks.