A while back (I wish I could find a link to the archive) KQED San Francisco had an interview with a couple of emergency room administrators from both a public and private hospital. When asked about all the illegal immigrants crowding emergency rooms they both said that wasn’t a problem. I was one of the few things they agreed upon during the course of the interview.

The big problem was citizens and legal residents without insurance. There were actually very few illegal immigrants showing up in hospitals. They were both very clear about this.

But of course, when a hospital shuts down its emergency room due to cost overruns, the knee jerk response is to blame “the brown hordes”; not the costs created by insurance companies, pharmaceutical firms, medical equipment manufacturers, or how insured patients demand unneeded tests from their doctors.

Surely you’re not saying Niven is evil because he chooses science over environmentalism, are you?

It shouldn’t be surprising that a writer of “Silver Age” SF sees the former (especially in aid of nuclear power and space flight) as mankind’s only hope of expanding beyond Earth, and sees the later as merely tidying up what will eventually become mankind’s coffin.

If you loathe the author, publisher, cover artist, or marketing category, buy it second-hand.

Pipenta (75): Emma Bull, The War for the Oaks. If you like that, try her other books as well.

John M. Ford’s How Much for Just the Planet? is unbeatable. In its own very different way, so is Barry Hughart’s Bridge of Birds.

If you’ll forgive me for recommending a book I bought and edited, I’m very fond of Bad Magic by Stephan Zielinski. People who like it tend to like it a lot. Mild caveat: he uses what I regard as laudably economical exposition. All the necessary information is there; he just doesn’t take a lot of time getting it out. Readers who are used to sprinting through loose, wordy modern fantasy are sometimes brought up short by that. On the other hand, you like Pratchett. If you can find a copy of the hardcover, check it out.

Copies can also be hard to find of Patricia Geary’s Living in Ether and Strange Toys, but you might like them.

I didn’t mean to limit it to books about dragons. I was just thinking of things that I enjoyed as a youngster and a teen that I couldn’t abide once I got past the last bit of puberty.

And I like fantasy, I just prefer Miéville and I adore T.P., I do I do. He’s brilliant.

I guess I haven’t read that enough books about dragons to justify jumping to a conclusion. Honestly, sometimes the tacky cover art you see as you walk by that section in the bookstore is pretty scary. Could be good stuff inside. Would go digging if there weren’t so many other interesting things to read.

I’ve been trying to think of genre writers with blatant politics who I do enjoy. I used to read Sheri Tepper. Guess I just happen to prefer her politics.

I still want to know what Mr. Ellison got up to on that stage.

And all you folks who seem to think that Card is queer and that somehow excuses him from homophobia, it doesn’t. Have no idea if he is or isn’t. Makes no never mind.

My son read Ender’s Game when he was twelve and found it both fun and creepy. He’s the one who pointed out the mother’s big riff on obligatory breeding. He didn’t think that philosophy would make for parents who were, to paraphrase, very healthy about their relationships with their children. I thought that was pretty damn astute for a kid his age.

Other than that, he enjoyed the book.

1. You’re in his class at Clarion.
2. You’re a woman on stage with him at an award-show.

That said, both he and Niven are excellent writers, with solidly good ideas. (good in an SFnal sense) I just regret that I can’t think of Niven as other than a jerk now. Not that being a jerk makes a bad, or good, writer. All it really does is make me want to avoid said jerk in 1-1 conversation.

-abs

Which is why it’s so distressing to hear of him advocating being cruel to people.

“Men Who Stare at Goats”

I say we kill him.

Think of it as evolution in action.

You’re mixing up her Hain with R.A. Lafferty’s lovely satirical short stories ‘Polity and Custom of the Camiroi’ and ‘Primary Education of the Camiroi’.

“It is impossible for you to succeed without us!” he shouted at the assembled officials, while banging his fist on the table and at one point jumping off his chair to wave a mobile phone in their faces.

I dunno. Niven being racist, that I can see. He’s got a history of it, but maybe that’s part of the gag, too.

The anti-immigration crowd keep going on and on about how much illegal immigrants are costing the US healthcare system, although I’ve never actually seen any firm numbers that support or refute that hypothesis.

Guess my opinion of Niven just went down.

If he keeps it up I’ll start to class him with Harlan Ellison.

-abs

(For the humor-impaired: The above is a satirical remark. It’s not hard to imagine Niven’s was too.)

> fwiw, ursula k. le guin proposed the death penalty for children that do poorly in school, as well as for people that fail to perform their civic duty in a responsible matter. and civic duty could mean anything on Hain… at any moment any citizen could be taped to run a school board, business, or even a government. yet somehow i still love ursula!

I’m pretty sure you’re thinking of R.A.Lafferty and his stories “Polity and Custom of the Camiroi” and “Primary Education of the Camiroi” – and of course, coming up with outrageous ideas is not a sign of being a bad person – it’s context and other clues which let us know how much they’re a sign of the writer’s own beliefs.

While I’ve thoroughly gone off Larry Niven since Jerry Pournelle ate his brain, I don’t think he deserves any criticism some people are making of his organ transplant stories – they’re legitimate SF extrapolation.

Over in his blog, he described the SIGMA meeting as a disaster.

“…the writers used their time to pontificate on a variety of tangentially related topics, including their past roles advising the government, predictions in their stories that have come to pass, the demise of the paperback book market, and low-cost launch into space.”

I can just imagine a meeting where all the Homeland Security squares are scratching their heads, blindsided by one non sequitor after another.

Video footage, anyone?

Also, any chance of “It is impossible for you to succeed without us!” turning into the next “All your base…”?

Think of it as evolution in action.