Can't think of a reason why someone would barge into your house that isn't a criminal? How about someone that's really drunk that's a neighbor of yours mistakes your house for his and comes in. How about someone that is mentally deranged or incoherent and doesn't know where they are or what they are doing comes in. Or how about someone is being chased by someone that is trying to assault them and they run to the nearest house possible and force their way in. Okay, there are three possibilities right off the top of my head. I'm sure people can think of plenty of other weird things that may cause someone to come into a home that isn't theirs but isn't intending harm. Say someone has just had a car accident and has a head injury. They wander to your door and break in. You shoot them to death. Then you find out they were no threat to anyone but themselves. Then their family sues you and takes everything you have because you were so stupid and trigger happy.
I'm not *really* sure you are helping your case here.
I think the mentally deranged folks are probably better off in their *own* houses. Or, maybe I could visit them there, instead.
Shortly after we moved here that sort of thing did happen, there was an elderly man who showed up on our porch, I guess he though it was his house. Of course we called the police and they escorted him away, in an appropriate fashion.
But I did not invite him in to put my family at risk, no matter how small. I'm sure he would not have harmed anyone - 99%.
But with a newborn in the house, that one percent seemed large enough.
If there had been a fuss, I would have done what Gunner always advocates - just go out the back door and get away. Nothing in the house is worth a life, obviously. The rule is, retreat if you can.
C>an't think of a reason why someone would barge into your house that isn't a criminal? How about someone that's really drunk that's a neighbor of yours mistakes your house for his and comes in.
dumb neighbor. Darwin.
deranged or incoherent and doesn't know where they are or what they are
doing comes in.
His family or you should have done a better job of keeping him locked up and out of my house. This is EXACTLY the reason.
trying to assault them and they run to the nearest house possible and force their way in.
Hmmm. Option A is I shoot the person breaking in. Not likely, but possible. Option B is I shoot the person coming after the first person. Option C is the chaser comes in, kills the person he was chasing, and then kills me and my family.
Oh. wait. I have option A and B on my list. How long is your list?
wander to your door and break in. You shoot them to death. Then you find out they were no threat to anyone but themselves. Then their family sues you and takes everything you have because you were so stupid and trigger happy.
In your scenario, the person was mentally incompetent, deranged, and generally out of control. Second,, we won't "find out they were no threat." They are dead. Third, "jury of your peers."
Tell you what. Why don't you conduct a scientific poll. Break into a few houses, and report back on how friendly and nice folks are out there.
In boston the deal was some stoned guy who always wound up desperate for a munchie fix. And would stop by the Dunkin Donuts. And imediately be arrested by a half dozen cops.
That is a most excellent quote from Niven's "Oath of Fealty". That was the second book I had read by him before I devoured every book he wrote. What a fantastic author! Niven, Asimov, Heinlein, the Top Three Sci-Fi authors of all time! I'm devouring all of Andre Norton's tomes now.
Note to Gunner: if you haven't already read them, get her CatFantastic series. 3 books of short stories by her and others, all very good.
But don't forget that Jerry Pournelle was involved in OoF (as well as the Mote books, which are set in the same universe, just much futher in the future)
Don't ignore Pournelle's "solo" stuff - "High Justice" and "King David's Spaceship" to name the two I'm most quickly able to think of (also set in the CoDominion universe) - just because he doesn't have Larry along for the ride, either. I think the two of them make up a killer team - Larry for the "hardcore Sci-Fi" jelly that's needed to cut through the peanut-butter thick politics and "future history" that Jerry piles on, and Jerry to keep Larry's propensity for being sort of "scatterbrained" from derailing the tale of the moment. Larry by himself tends to work better in "short story" format, I think, which frustrates the bejeebers out of me. Jerry "stabilizes" him, so that instead of just "brushing past" some fascinating concept with a five word mention, then seemingly forgetting about it completely, the neat concept actually gets explored.
Footfall was another one where they worked brilliantly together, and for exactly the reasons mentioned: Larry had some *NEAT* aliens, with just-as-neat tech. Jerry had an excellent pot of "political glue" to stick them together into something more than the usual "Alien Invaders From Arcturus" crap that gets passed off as "good Sci-Fi" so depressingly often. But I still want to know exactly what became of Hairy Red... The mega-strong hint that he died is there, but... And
*WHAT HAPPENED AFTER?!?!?* Did the aliens manage to figure out the trick of "false surrender", or did they become, effectively, slaves to humanity? Or perhaps the homeworld sent another expedition and Earth got its arse kicked? Or did Earth pick up the tech from the cube, and send an expedition to the homeworld and kick arse? Or something else? Like Mote in God's Eye, which finally got one (and it wouldn't hurt my feelings too much to see another one) Footfall simply cries for a sequel, IMO.
And then there's the line from Gripping Hand: "They've bombed themselves back to the reinvention of the brick" - *LOVE* the mental picture that pops up :)
Witch World got old and tired for me after about the 3rd or 4th one (and last I knew, there were something like a dozen WW boooks total) but she's put out other good stuff. Dunno what it is, but certain books have a "fog" over them for me - The story seems to be packed in cotton or something, so that I can't get into it far enough to "see clearly" - The WW books I managed to slog through (and gawd, was it a slog) fit that class.
Niven and Pournell are among my favorite authors..along with Weber and Johnny Ringo.
If you are into E-books..email my your snail mail addy and Ill send you a CD ...about 500 megs of qualty Scifi, and all the L'Amours, Aspins Myth books, Flinx series, and a bunch of odd stuff on electronics, Linux and so forth. I have a couple drives in my Stack O Drives dedicated to eboks. I fill a 700 meg CD with stuff to keep you amused for a while. Plus a bunch of gun manuals if you want..all sorts of stuff plus supressors and whatnot.
Im trying to find all the Posleen related books at the moment, I think Ive got the last Honor Harrington recently too all on ebooks.
Got most in PDFs, Lit RTF etc etc. If I had something besides dialup..Id have more.
Gunner
"A prudent man foresees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them; the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences."
On Wed, 01 Feb 2006 19:44:30 -0800, with neither quill nor qualm, Don Bruder quickly quoth:
Yes, I enjoy Jerry's work, too. I've read KDS but HJ wasnt in the library system here.
All of his co-authors have been fantastic.
AGREED! (Is "by tomorrow" too soon, Mr. Niven?)
Ayup. And that's what the Luddite environmentalists want to do to our world. (I just finished reading Ronald Bailey's "EcoScam".)
I read the first one and found it a tough read, as I did Black Trillium, so I'll leave those series 'til the end, maybe picking up another in each series to give it a try. "Gryphon's Eyrie" is done with A.C. Crispin and will be the next WW I'll try.
Yeah some are like reading through quicksand. Pass! The Carolus Rex series was like wading through a medieval dungeon filled with dime romance novels. Not my cup of tea.
On Thu, 02 Feb 2006 04:08:37 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, Gunner quickly quoth:
Thanks, but no thanks. I'd take you up on that but I don't do well with ebooks. My eyes get tired too quickly and I can't curl up with a damned laptop like I can with a lightweight paperback.
I think the latest thing Larry has done was another Ringworld book a year or two ago - I'm wanting to say the title was/is "Children of the Ringworld", and I seem to recall seeing someplace that quoted him as saying something that boiled down to "The Ringworld series is finished - It's huge, it's got potential from here to there, but I'm flat bored with it, so this is most likley the last installment."
The one review-ish thing I read about it said that his boredom was pretty obvious.
I read a lot on the computer..I use MobiPocket etc, adjust the font and type styles to my liking, and kick back in the chair and read.
The difficult thing is when Im on the throne in the "library"...which is where paper books shine..and a piece of that paper on the roll makes a great book mark.
Gunner
"A prudent man foresees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them; the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences."
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