22 thoughts on “WOOT!! Go Mass!”

  1. Dammit, I just had to friggin look. Just finished the MHI book, enjoyed it very much, and just had to come and find out that the author is … well, OK, no way I can be polite about that, so I’ll just let it go with “doesn’t share my political opinions”.

    Ah well, loved the book, will definitely read anything new you write, but damn … I wish I’d just ignored this particular temptation…

    -me

    1. Ian,

      My apologies. But as somebody who has been a small businessman/military contractor/account/firearms instructor/machinegun dealer, and is a self described California-political refugee who chooses to live in Utah on purpose, where did you expect me to fall politically? 🙂

      If it is any consolation, when it comes to artistic expression most of my favorite actors, writers, and musicians are drastically different than me, but I can still really enjoy thier work just for the quality of their work.

      -Larry

  2. Wait… this isn’t MArooned. Just making sure, you sounded like Jay G there for a second.

    As an outside observer (outside of The East, at least), I thought the MA election was quite interesting. I wonder how important the healthcare thing will stay when so many senators jobs are being threatened…

  3. Wait… this isn’t MArooned. Just making sure, you sounded like Jay G there for a second.

    Yeah! No stealing my schtick there, Correia! Otherwise I’ll have to learn how to be an accountant, writer, and all-around manly man and steal yours! 🙂

  4. Uh, guys, this isn’t a stake… just a flamethrower and a buncha silver Buck & Ball. I have a feeling that Bad Check Barry and the vampires have plenty more tricks up their sleeves… but this is definitely a Turning Point.

    Thank you, Maqssachusetts! I take back almost everything nasty I’ve ever said about your state… get rid of the gun-control crap too and I’ll retract everything else except the climate stuff.

  5. Larry, I find it fascinating that people can read MHI and be surprised at your political leanings. I honeslty, sincerely don’t mean that as a dig against Ian. I’m just stating a fact.

    Granted, you don’t beat people over the head with politics or anything (I personally HATE that in fiction, even if I agree with the position being presented. Starship Troopers being a notable exception).

    But you do have civilians who carry machine guns for a living that work in a compound in Alabama and all hate the government. And they’re not the bad guys or the antagonists, they’re the main characters. I’m just sayin’.

    1. When I read about the gun-nut rednecks living out in the woods, distrusting the Man and living in a compound somewhere back East, I didn’t assume anything about Larry’s politics.

      The assumption I made was that Larry had spent some time hanging-out with my in-laws.

    2. You forgot that said civilians kill creatures without attempting to negotiate with them.

      Also, MHI and Starship Troopers are the only two fiction novels I’ve ever read twice, back to back. Politics in fiction can work, but it needs to have a lesson behind it– RAH always put a message of self-reliance and competence in his writing.

      Another author who is able to pull off the subtle political message is Buettner, with the Jason Wander series.

  6. Love the book Larry, I just don’t understand you Americans and your hatred of universal healthcare? Coming from New Zealand a country which has universal healthcare (even though our current government is trying to change that to some fricking private health insurance bullcrap. Bunch of frigging morons! I can’t wait till the next election!) I don’t see what the big deal is? Isn’t it a good thing that everybody can get help when they need it?

    1. You don’t think that a government gobbling up over a quarter of the private sector in the last year is a big deal, huh?

      It is one of those things that sound awesome on paper, but is riddled with flaws. (The current law being argued about in America is a joke of contridictions and BS, bribery and nonsense, that costs way more than it should, won’t accomplish what it is supposed to, and really doesn’t solve the problem that it is supposed to solve. It is a massive power grab to take choices away from the people and enshrine it with the government instead.

      Ideologically, governments are ineffecient and absolutely will not make as good a decision as with somebody else’s money as an individual would with their own money. I’m usually in favor of things that increase personal freedom, and against things that take those freedoms away.

      1. Not only that, why would anyone in their right mind WANT more government involvement in their lives.
        I’m sorry but I am a grown adult and can take care of myself. That includes taking responsibility for the actions and choices I make. I don’t need someone to protect me from the world.

      2. I have to admit I have the vaguest of ideas about how the American government works but having the government take over a quarter of the private health sector wouldn’t bother me in the slightest, mainly because I’ve been raised all my life with healthcare being free or subsidised and its only now that we have a right leaning government that the first signs of privatised health care is starting to raise its head.

        It’s not looking pretty.

        Ok anyway I understand the freedom of choice aspect and the idea that governments are inefficient and the worry that the government will attempt to use this enlarged government responsibility to take control of its citizens behaviours, as well as the fact that America is a huge country with a lot of internal differences but surely providing a more robust public health option for its citizens is something that should at least be attempted? I’m not trying to stir up anything, I’m legitimately curious as to why you see this as unworkable.

        How does the medical system in America work currently? The only glimpses I get of the American medical system is ER and some of those Most Shocking Surgery shows.

        And Nightcrawler thanks for the explanation!

      3. Panticles- it’s not a quarter of the private HEALTH sector, it’s the private sector in general. The US government took over General Motors, a bunch of huge investment banks, and a few other things. It already spent hundreds of billions of dollars giving some greedy businessmen a pass on their poor choices, promised that the healthcare proposal would not increase the national debt, then produced a bill that would cost over a Trillion (with a T) dollars.

    2. This is just my personal opinion. If people depend on the government for health care, they by extension depend on the government for their well being.

      Think about that. People become dependent on their government for their health. Not in emergencies or disasters, but their everyday health.

      That kind of power over the life of the individual will be abused. I don’t believe the government should hhave that power. I think making people dependent on the government for their lives is immoral. It’s a form of control. It’s no different than controlling their water or their food. They need it, you control it, you have the power.

      In any case, why stop at health care? People also NEED food and shelter to survive. Why not have the government control the distribution of these as well? Eventually you end up in a full command economy, and the 20th century proved how well that worked.

      Lesser forms of it don’t work any better. Especially not in huge non-homogenous nations of 300 million plus citizens (that all hate each other and seldom agree on anything), less than half of whom actually contribute to the federal tax coffers.

      Federalized health care in the US would be anything but fair and equitable. Moreover, it’s beyond the scope of our government under our much maligned, oft-ignored Constitution.

      1. Shacked, NC! That’s a 4.0… I’m gonna have to borrow your explanation to augment my own snark-laden arguments.

        Bad Check Barry has welshed on just about every other promise he’s made, why should I expect anything less here?

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