There I go, offending people again…

So after my election day blog post, I received this comment. I started typing a response, but it got really big so I just made it a new post. I got this from Bob:

Mr. Correia,

I do get tired of this. I want you to know something. I’m a liberal, I’m a union guy, I’m a non-gun owner who believes in gun rights (but I love knives and edged weapons), and I’m a huge fan of your books. I have every one both in print and on Audible. Both the Monster Hunter books and the Grimnoir Chronicles books. I found Hard Magic on Audible, and sounded interesting. I drive a lot, so I love the audible stuff. I liked it so much I tried out MHI, even though it didn’t sound like my normal interest. I loved them.

I got Spellbound in hardback first, because it wasn’t available on Audible yet. But I got both Spellbound and MHV the day they came out on Audible, and bought them on Amazon right away too, to help you show high on the lists.

You are a very talented writer. The only other writer whose books I was so big a fan of was Robert A. Heinlein. I have all of his in print and audible, too. I sincerely love what you write! I’ll happily discuss it all with you, if you don’t believe it. I love the opening of MHI, where Owen discusses murdering his boss. About how he talks about having good dental at that job. In Hard Magic, where Faye calls the other traveler a “fat cow”. It’s hard to believe the same writer does the HMI and Grimnoir Chronicles books, although guns are the tie that binds. It was great when Owen got the girl of his dreams.

But I come here to keep up with what’s happening with you and your books, and I find that obviously you hate my guts. You hate both liberals and unions. I am a tool-and-die maker by trade, and I’ve made knives and swords for much of my life, although I don’t do so now. Most skilled craftsmen are union, and I think it’s a good thing.

But I don’t come here to argue politics with you. I don’t come here to change your mind. But I wonder – is my money not good enough for you?

Do you want me to stop buying and enjoying – and recommending your books (yes I have!). Why do you want to run off potential customers?

I’ve been a business owner. It’s never good for a business to insult their customer base. Sure, gun nuts and ultra-right wingers might be you best customer, but there’s a LOT of liberal gun nuts in unions.

And I don’t think that you are so damned well-known right now that you can write off customers. I remember some time back on the blog that you finally quit your day job.

I want you to be a famous and successful writer. I want you to be able to buy a big house someplace great and never have to worry about bills. But I’d also like to give you my hard-earned money without thinking you hate my guts because of who I voted for.

I could say more, but I won’t. TRUTHFULLY, if you and I sat down and I bought you a beer – and I would, I’m not a moocher, I’m a working man – I wouldn’t want to talk politics with you. I’d want to talk writing and characters and the worlds you create, and how you created them.

#

My response to Bob.

So, since I’m a conservative and an entertainer, I should just keep my mouth shut and not have an opinion because I might offend somebody? Uh… Hell no. Do conservatives write big letters to pretty much every single actor in Hollywood they disagree with, because I’ve seen a thousand times more hate and venom out of them about my side than anything you’ve ever read from me on this blog. So I call bullshit. Yes. This is America. I’m still allowed to say that.

Actually, I’ve still got my day job. Between it and the books I get to pay large sums of money in taxes. It is a great feeling to know that every book I write, the first act was written for the government. Between the two jobs I work about 60 hours a week, (down from 80 when I was in the gun business though!) but I’ll still take the time to type a response to you because you seem like a nice enough guy. And yes,  I also do have a great big house in the mountains that I built. I could afford to build it because I work my ass off, and I’ve lived my life without being in debt up to my eyeballs or making bad financial decisions.

Your money is great. Thank you for purchasing my books. I spend several hundred hours writing a book. If you got a paperback, you give me $8, of which I see less than a dollar in royalties and then I give a third of that to the government, (so yeah, your state government probably made more in sales tax on that paperback than I took home) and in exchange I entertained you for probably 5-12 hours. Repeat a couple hundred thousand times and now we’re talking some real money.

Like any other person who engages in commerce, I love taking money in exchange for the service I provide to you.  Luckily, I live in America, so I am free to voice my opinion, and you are free to not purchase my product (unless it is health insurance, because then it should be mandatory, obviously). The dopiest drug addled rock star or dimwitted starlet in Hollywood can voice their political opinions too. Good for them.

When I was an accountant or a gun monger, I was every bit as opinionated as I am now. I’ll be damned if I ever shut up because I might offend somebody. Screw that. I’m an American. Thank God.

I don’t give a shit what my plumber’s opinion is on healthcare, nor do I care about the opinion of the guy that puts the fries on my plate about NAFTA. I just care if they can fix the toilet or make a good burger. Save the boycott threats. They get old and I get one or two every time I dare post an opinion. (usually from people who haven’t ever read me, so you’re special there). Luckily, I’m an American, ergo, I don’t care. For every reader I’ve offended, I’ve gained two or three others who are happy that my books aren’t heavy handed message fic beating them over the head about dying polar bears or whatever the latest liberal cause de jour is.

So you say that you’re not a moocher, Bob? I don’t think I ever said that every single person that voted for Obama was a moocher… I actually think the democrats have built a winning combination of idealists who despite all evidence to the contrary think the government can actually make problems better, Marxist assholes, people who believe whatever the narrative is on TV, people who can’t think about anything more complex than a Facebook meme, dead and imaginary voters, and moochers.

To be fair though, the republican party is divided up between big government goons, democrats who think they are republicans, people who want the government to be our dad, people who think the government makes everything it touches turn to crap and who just want to be left alone, and libertarians who are smart enough to know that the most effective libertarian candidates in history have all been republicans.

You are probably a pretty well-meaning guy that doesn’t mind pulling the cart, but you voted for the moocher party. You voted for the party of bail outs, handouts, welfare, food stamps, government controlled healthcare, the Life of Julia, voting with your lady bits, racial quotas, Occupying Stuff, gun control, Obamaphones, and voter fraud, so I’m fresh out of pity if that hurts your feelings.

Got to digress for a minute… Yeah, about the voter fraud, really, Cleveland? You get 100% turn out in your inner city districts? I used to live in the inner city. I’m fairly certain you could hold a FREE all you can eat barbeque, with pony rides, a wet t-shirt contest featuring Playboy bunnies, and a Jay-Z/Led Zepplin/50 Cent/Kayne/Beyonce/Elvis/Sinatra/U2 concert, which handed out a free Obamaphone to every visitor, and you still wouldn’t get 100% turn out. That’s cool though, because Philly did even better, because after they threw out 70 of the court appointed observers, not only did their super record banana republic level turn out beat every possible expectation, they also voted 99% for Obama. But Colorado was not to be outdone, because they had ten democrat counties with over 100% turnout? That’s even better than Venezuela or Cuba! Bravo.

I’ll be honest. As an auditor I’m a little offended, because that is some ham fisted bullshit right there. Normally we have to at least do a little math and shuffle some papers to spot fraud, not just look at it and go “well, duh.” This is really irksome, when you look at the actual results of the election and realize that it would take only about half a million votes in total across three swing states to have changed the electoral college results…

Meanwhile, I voted for the party with some damn stupid elected officials in it, I’m talking absurd levels of stupid, but with a far higher ratio of people who can actually balance a check book. Are they perfect? Not even close. I’m not an idiot. But half our guys can at least do math while all of your guys are drawing stick figures in the check book, in crayon.

Yeah, and big L libertarians and Ron Pauloids, save it. Heard it. You comment in every thread. Yes, the republican party is just as bad, blah blah friggin’ blah, which is, once again, why the Libertarian party has accomplished jack and shit, ever, but  you can pat yourself on the back about your purity, while meanwhile the candidates that actually come closest to your beliefs have all been republicans from the Tea Party. Because at least they show up.

And while I’m thinking about it, thanks for all of the helpful advice from smug liberals on the internet, about how if the republican party would just change their position of (topic X) then they could like totally count on your vote next time… This is especially good advice consdiering that (topic X) is usually not something any republicans care about, but rather some media narrative talking point telling you guys about how god awful republicans are.  So yeah… Thanks for the advice, but no. Shut up.

So back to our letter from Bob. That’s just great that you like guns and you’re in the union. Because guess what, one day after the election, ONE FREAKING DAY, the Obama administration went back to the UN and said that they’re cool with bringing back up the the Global Resolution on Small Arms. Because hey, you support the 2nd Amendment right?  Which is why you can get behind the party that doesn’t give a crap about that right.

Oh, yeah, and same party that brought you Fast & Furious, an illegal gun smuggling operation with only one possible goal, to smear American gun owners to promote more gun control laws (sort of like the BATF memos said it was). This same operation was complicit in the death of two US federal agents and about 200 Mexicans, but that’s cool, because the guy you voted for used Executive Privilege to cover it up. You’re a gun guy. You said that’s okay. Right?

As for my opinion of the Unions, they were a great idea when you were in danger of being fed into deadly machinery, worked 16 hour days with child labor, got clubbed by Pinkertons, and couldn’t just quit your job. That was swell a hundred years ago, but times have changed, and now you belong to an entity that serves primarily as a method of involuntary dues collection to be funneled to the Democratic party. Since you don’t have to owe your soul to the company store, you can feel free to quit and go get another job if your current company sucks that bad.

My brother’s an electrician. He’s union. Has to be for what he does. He also hates that he gets zero say and they take his money to give to candidates that have diametrically opposed beliefs to his own. And I can also give you a couple hundred other union job fans of mine who you will hear the exact same thing from. I just took a book tour through the north east, and I think I heard the same variations of complaints at every dinner I went to.  I’ve got lots of union fans, and there are plenty of them who hate the fact that their dues go to support the moocher party. So save your sanctimony.

Tell me about how awesome unions are, while non-union power companies are being turned away from New York and New Jersey. Yes, because even though these people don’t have power or heat or fresh water and it is starting to snow WEEKS AFTER THE EVENT, but you’se guys didn’t pay the bosses so we don’t want your filthy non-unionized help. So, here we are in yet another place run entirely by democrats that can’t get its crap together in an emergency, gut don’t worry, the exit polls said that the voters thought Obama did an awesome job handling the storm, the way he flew up there, walked around for a day looking at flooded stuff, and then flew back out to go campaigning.

And you wonder why my last post talked about how I’d drastically overestimated the American people?

Naw, sorry, Bob. Fresh out of pity.

Also one day after the election, Yahoo News ran an article listing all of the exciting new ways Obama will raise taxes… Of course, they couldn’t bother to run that one week before. Oh, and remember that whole second debate bit about how we’re going to lower gas prices because of all this awesome sooper dooper drilling we’re going to do on federal lands? Yeah… About that the day after the election Ken Salazar killed that. Dead. Done. That will deprive my state of tens of thousands of jobs, but that’s cool, because those guys aren’t union. So screw them, right?

Here’ s the kicker, Bob. I don’t have strong political opinions because I’m a novelist. I have strong political opinions because I’m good at business. I’m good at MATH. You got offended when I talked about the moochers, but the productive simply can’t keep on paying for other people’s good times. It is going to end badly, because math doesn’t lie. We had our opportunity to apply the brakes (notice I didn’t say reverse it) but we weren’t grown up enough to do that. So now we’re screwed.

So if that means that my hatey-hate-hatey-hate mongery is simply too much for you to handle, and you can no longer read my books, well, shucks. I’ll just have to deal with it.

Geeky Hobbies: My Warmachine Army
Christmas Anthology from Baen

288 thoughts on “There I go, offending people again…”

  1. It’s the fact that you ended with hatey-hate-hatey-hate mongery is like the magic shell coating on the sundae of awesomeness.

  2. Like an earlier blog entry said, somebody needs to tell the Hard Lefties “you voted for poop, now shut up and eat your poop-cake.”

    1. Very true, to bad the rest of you. The rest of the world for that matter must also eat the poo pie’s. I saw so many happy facebook posts up here the day after the election it made me sick.

  3. I stand with Larry, well behind him to the left. i don’t want to get hit with brass, or worse lead. I’d like to see Gary Johnson gain some popularity. I live in Michigan we love our free shit here, Obamaphones Obamamoney we’ll take it! Shit i don’t care what your view is as an author i read Jim Butcher’s books. He reloads his glocks with fresh clips, after decocking the hammer and all other kinda nonsense. You kinda went off on this guy, he was just wrong, and friendly about it while wrong. Keep up the great books and let me know where i can get them for eight bucks!

    1. He doesn’t re-load with fresh “clips.”It’s a MAG…a MAG…MAG!!!!!
      Sorry, but when people call Magazines “clips,” I “decock the hammer.”

      1. Kim, I believe that was Jason’s point. Butcher writes entertaining stories in spite of being a firearms doofus. For an even more egregious example of such ignorance I point to the latest Jesse Stone novel, the series started by Robert Parker, now continued by permission of Parker’s estate. In a confrontation one of the bad guys is claimed to be armed with a .45mm automatic. Other than that glaring error it was a decent read.

    1. It’s because he’s standing there at that bully pit with the frigging tetsubo, that’s why.

      And I’m hearing stories out of NY from my family that are simply infuriating. As long as they can get what they need to get buy (and I’ll send them anything they ask for, the self-sufficient bastids),I wouldn’t mind if the rest of those morons got three straight blizzards.

  4. I may be libertarian, but I know to try for what is most likely to give me what I want. Idealism is great, but so is eating.

  5. Yeah, Larry. After all the shit the Gimmecrats threw at Republicans this election, asking us to play nice and not be so abrasive to them is pretty frickin’ rich.

    I’m sure Bob is a nice guy. He’s willfully ill-informed though and I blame him for the nightmare coming down the pike. I blame him for the lack of justice for the Benghazi 4 and for the lack of justice that will be done for the Fast and Furious dead. I blame him for the high taxes my family will pay and my husband’s small business will be hit with. I blame him for the poor medical care my parents will receive when their benefits are cut due to Obamacare regulations and they’re forced to rely on Medicare. I blame him for the inevitable spike in energy costs and the people who will lose their jobs, homes and lives as a result. I blame him for private industry going bankrupt and people losing their pensions so public employees can keep their outsized ones. I blame him for the dark future he and his fellow Democrat voters have assured for my children.

    Bob, as individuals you and the rest of the Obama thralls chose the most vapid campaign ever run in the history of this country over a campaign filled with facts and figures and sober reality. You own it. We’ll all suffer, but you’re to blame and I demand that you take responsibility when it all comes down. Know this: it’s your fault.

    Thanks for the space to vent, Larry. 🙂

    1. Come now. . . you KNOW the Dhimmicrats never accept blame for ANYTHING, much less things their policies caused. Case in point: all the layoffs since the election. It’s obvious that businesses want as little exposure to Obamacare penalties as possible. But look at the complaints: it’s RAAAAAAAAAAAAACIST!!!!! Sorry, Dems: the Race Card is played out.

      It amuses me that the Left simply can’t understand that you can’t just change one thing: change the business environment, and businesses ADAPT. . . .That’s not racist, and it’s not greed: it’s survival.

      And speaking of survival. . . .there’s one thing the Left seems to have forgotten. 99% of the food comes from “Red” areas. Once they push us over the edge. . . those of us in the Red can still get locally-grown food. Not too many farms in the cities, tho. . . too bad, so sad. . .

      1. To add statistics to your Red states produce food.

        California has 1/3 of the welfare cases in the entire nation, and going off of states that voted for President Obama in 2008 80ish% of the welfare cases are in Blue states.
        I posted the 1/3 stat on a political debate and besides calling me a liar the guy also accused me of multiple logical fallacies(he actually committed fallacies himself while accusing me of them). I showed him proof of my statistics and refuted his claims that I was being illogical. His response, completely ignore my proof and claim I don’t know how to debate the then rage quit the debate.
        Lefties don’t like statistics, and when confronted with someone they can dismiss with false claims of fallacies they get all hot and bothered. Hell you want to talk about not knowing how to debate, accusing me of being a liar without offering proof in and of itself would get you disqualified from any academic debate. I technically didn’t have to go out of my way to data crunch the numbers from 2 websites proving my claims.
        Logic and numbers scare those who can’t debate.

  6. Good reply, but I gotta say, that was an almost civil “complaint” the guy sent you in the first place. Usually Obummer-luvvers start with the expletives and then move into complete raving and frothing gibberish. He may be on the other side, but he did sound coherent. Might be fun to take him up on that beer offer!

  7. That…was surely the best thing I’ve ever read or seen, and I’ve been in pretty much fanboy mode after some things in Japanese anime hit my RADAR to set off said fanboy mode.

    But this.

    This takes the cake.

    As for Bob.

    Buyer’s remorse? Lashing out at Mr. Correia? It’s been barely a week man! Hell, my facebook wall is still inundated by victory memes. Give it a month at least!

  8. So im assuming this Bob guy wrote similar letters to the thousands of liberal entertainers and artists urging them not to alienate right wingers by their opinions?

  9. Is this the source you used when you said that 10 Colorado counties had abnormally large voter registration numbers?
    http://watchdoglabs.org/blog/2012/08/21/colorado-comparison-of-registered-voter-counts-to-census-voting-age-population
    ———
    Anyway, a total of 4105 people voted in San Miguel county, Colorado (CNN Election Center).
    According to the 2010 census, there are 5912 people over 18 in San Miguel (which is either too large or too small today).
    This means that 69%* of the county voted, and that is ~20% larger than the state average.
    At most, San Miguel contributed 1232** (illegal) votes one way or another, and President Obama still would have won that particular county.

    Now, just for the fun of it (not), I’m going to put together a spreadsheet for all of this and put it up under a CC license.

    *4105/5912
    **4105 * 30% — 30% if the population increased significantly. It should be around 815 if there really are 5912 people over 18.

      1. And since census made the decision not to discern between legal and illegal residents, how many of those folks on the census are illegal aliens? Too damn many questions.

  10. Larry, honestly, you give me hope. Since I’m awriter with few (and small) publications, I’ve been concerned with posting what I truly feel. It seems mosto f the writers I know, at my or higher levels, are opposed to Republicans…even the voters who didn’t vote Democrat. I’ve seen comments comparing the states who voted for Romney to the Least Educated states. And then, within a post or two, they preach how we should ALL work together to make things happen. It’s disgusting. I don’t know if old Bob deserved everything you said, but I believe it needed said, and thank you for doing it. Damned shame more people refuse to see the truth than ascribe to it.

    -R

    1. Orson Scott Card also writes a bunch of what I would call conservative stuff if he didn’t keep self-identifying as a Democrat–though one who seems to dislike all of the Democratic party.

      Of course, I have seen a LOT of people say they refuse to read any of his stuff because they think he “hates gay people”, which is simply not true.

  11. I can’t say I prefer either party. I tend to go for whoever I think is the least worst candidate that election cycle. I also doubt that one party or the other winning will bring any new ruin to the country. Everyone is so fervent in the opinion that the other guy is the devil himself, which is giving a politician far more credit than they deserve.

    I see Obama as being as close to gun-friendly as a democrat can be and still be elected. I have serious doubts that the UN global resolution on small arms will A.) pass and B.) in any manner that will have any effect on our second amendment rights. I remember when Obama was first elected, and many claimed that he’d be right along to scoop up my guns. Four years went by and not a single move in that direction. Those who claimed that he would, so very fervently, now stood as fools in my mind. Perhaps Obama may change now that he doesn’t have to worry about getting re-elected, but past behavior is usually a pretty good indication of future behavior.

    I, among millions of other Americans, have had a very bad time of it due to our archaic and Darwinian health system (if you don’t have a job with healthcare, **** you. If you have a pre-existing condition, **** you, etc). It’s in bad need of reform, and many of you in the comfortable middle class with either no health problems or good insurance couldn’t see that. You don’t see the human suffering that could be alleviated, all you see is dollar signs. We are all very wealthy, you and I, compared to the rest of the world. The Canadians and Brits all seem to manage to not be in the poor house with a modern healthcare system. But many of you would argue that you have no duty to the health of your fellow countrymen. If they can’t succeed, **** them, it’s the American way. Obama seems to offer the chance of fixing that horrific state of affairs. For all of the things I’m not fond of as far as his views go, I think that the evil done is far less than the good accomplished.

    Many of us with guns have more nuanced political views than you might think. We aren’t all loud and opinionated about it, and usually are shouted out by those on the hard left and hard right. You can write enjoyable novels and still be a blowhard, we all have our faults. I would buy a novel because I enjoy the work itself, rather than being influenced by whatever political views the author held. At the end of the day, we’re all Americans after all, even if our views as to the best thing for the country may differ.

    1. Mark,

      As someone who works inside the healthcare system, (I’m a cardiac nurse) I totally agree it needs reform. The answer is not, has never been, and never will be to let the government touch that reform, look at that reform, or even get within smelling distance of that reform. The answer is to get the government as far away from healthcare as possible. This can only be accomplished through a drastic restructuring of our payer system. Medicare, as we know it, is costing almost as much money in stupid regulations as it pays to the providers.

      An example: If you come into the hospital to my unit with chest pain, you are initially classed as an observation patient unless you meet specific criteria. Great, except that in order to get any reimbursement for every hour you spend there, I have to put something in the record. So even if you are asleep waiting for your stress test in the morning-which you have about a 95% chance of passing because you never should have been admitted in the first place. You probably had gas or pulled a muscle or need your gall bladder out as an outpatient. However, since the ER doc is afraid of getting sued if he makes a perfectly reasonable call based on actual medical judgement to let you go home and save Medicare and you a crapton of money, you got admitted with “chest pain”-I have to pretend that I’m bothering you and waking you up so I can put something in the record. If I don’t the hospital does not get paid for that hour you were there. Double bonus, observation patients don’t get to count this as an inpatient stay, despite having access to all of the amenities available at the hospital such as cardiac monitoring, so you get to pay a higher co-pay, and the reimbursement rate to the hospital for the hours we do get to count is much lower. To get around this, we have nurses making nurse salary-figure about $65 gross to the nurse (Larry can tell you better than I can what $65-$70 K gross actually costs the employer, but suffice to say it’s a lot more)-who go through every observation patient’s chart and look for a reason to change them to inpatient. We then pay a consulting service–no idea how much, but anybody ever met a cheap consultant-to tell us that yes, we should change them to inpatient. Now, assume you’ve met the criteria in our and our consultant’s eyes. That is subject to retroactive review by another company hired by Medicare, and if they disagree, your copay is changed, sometimes as much as 6 months to a year later, after you’ve paid the copay. Plus, the hospital has to refund the extra money we collected from Medicare plus fines.

      No the answer is not to mandate that we have **SHUDDER** British or Canadian style health care. By the way, you have heard about the Canadian MP who flew to Florida for her heart surgery rather than wait in the ridiculous lines she makes her constituents use? If we switch to that style, then I guarantee that a preexisting condition will be the least of your worries. If you do not meet specific criteria, determined by the Utilization Board (Sarah Palin’s Death Panels that she was ridiculed for) you will not get your needed procedure. That means that a relatively healthy 80 year old who’s only problem is a bad heart valve is not going to get that valve. The result is a choice between more expensive heart failure care, or hospice. Gee, wonder which the government will choose.

      The answer is for government to get almost completely out of the health insurance business, and let private enterprise compete to provide the best plan to fit your needs. I promise you, that if health insurance was truly competitive and you could buy a plan from any company in the nation, you would find one that covers whatever your preexisting condition is, and it would probably cost less than what you are paying now.

      1. Personally I love how if I repeat something that I heard about the unions turning away volunteers a day after the report, but I’m not 100% correct, then the liberals all shout at me for spreading false information. Meanwhile, two years after Obamacare came out they are still telling me about how it is awesome, and will save money, and it is good for business, and good for healthcare, and is a great improvement for everyone, despite all evidence to the contrary and the opinions of everyone who has actually had to either work with it or try to implement it…

        Go figure…

        I’ve got a bunch of doctors in my neighborhood. Similiar things as what Eric is saying. For me personally, having now been trained on how to comply with the piece of shit ACA, I can say in all honesty that it is a job killing nightmare. My company has had two years of massive insurance increases now. You can expect employers to either cut people to 28 hours, or to offer super high deductible plans so that they are “affordable” and don’t run afoul of being too expensive when compared to the employee’s household income. (a figure which there is no legal way for the employer to know, but don’t worry, the IRS agent told us that they totally won’t fine us for violating that as long as we make an undefinable “good faith effort”. And no, we couldn’t get that in writing)

        And before any delusional liberals on here give me your sob stories about your tough medical choices, the main reason I have maintained my day job and not just gone full time writer is so I can keep my group plan. I’ve not commented on my family’s health problems, but we’ve got a preexisting condition, and rather than being able to just buy insurance for my family like I used to when I was self employed before, the federal government has screwed me over, because now insurance companies can’t just exclude coverage of one condtion (and I’ve got money in the bank to cover that out of my own pocket!) we just get denied instead. So then I can either buy insurance for all but one member of my family, and dump that last one onto the Exchange, or put my whole family on the shitty exchange. So that way one of my family members can get shitty government controlled medicare style garbage while the rest of us get good coverage, or we can all get shitty medicare wait in line, slow ass, crappy coverage. Thanks federal government…

        So yeah, I guess I was only half right about the unions in this one specific incidence (we’ll just ignore all of their corruption, graft, criminal behavior, and general surly uncompetitivness in every other thing), but by golly I was half wrong! However, some of you doofi just said Obamacare is Teh Awesomes because you saw it on the news. So screw you.

      2. Have some friends who are nurses; the, call them ‘preliminaries’ of Obamacare are already causing real problems.

        Have a friend who used to accuse me of cherrypicking horror tales of cases in the Brit NHS; I’d point out I didn’t have to, just check Brit news sources every week and you’ll find something. He doesn’t want to talk about it anymore.

        Agree, if we could get a lot of the .gov crap OUT of our healthcare, we’d be better off.

    2. If you have a pre existing condition, I guess you better get a skill that will get you a job with healthcare, That’s what I did. The Brits ARE in the poor house (They cut a lot of programs the last 2 years and have had the US subsidizing their defense needs for the last 60. They also have wait times of MONTHS for MRIs and Cat Scans. And sometimes YEARS for Surgeries that are not of immediate need. They do LOTS more amputations than the US as their orthopedic surgeons all work to the cheapest standard rather than the least traumatic. Lets not forget the Trope of bad dentistry.

    3. “when Obama was first elected, and many claimed that he’d be right along to scoop up my guns. Four years went by and not a single move in that direction.” Mark, I’m just curious here- I’m not looking to start a flame war as I am genuinely interested in your response- what are your thoughts on the Fast & the Furious; in particular, what do you believe was the motivation behind it?

      1. Obama has made several moves against firearms. One of the biggest was to mandate that the US Military shred all their brass casings before turning it over to recyclers instead of allowing civilian reloading companies to reload it. The civilian reloaders would pay more for the unshredded ready reloadable brass, and it would cost more to shred it, but in order to hurt the ammo industry, he issued a regulation to cost the US government more money coming and going.

      2. Believe me, Luaqha I know a thing or two about what’s been going on. I’m just curious what Mark thinks was the purpose of the Fast and the Furious. I don’t see how ANYONE looking even superficially into it can say that it was to actually track guns into Mexico- when they themselves have admitted they really didn’t try to track them. Therefore there must be other motives. I would love to hear what Mark believes those motives to be because I’ve racked my brain trying to see any other than the obvious…

  12. Whooooo-eeee!!! You know, Mr. Correia, psychologists say you can’t keep strong emotions pent up all the time. You need to let them out from time to time. You should stop bottling up everything and tell people how you really feel.

    Me, I converted some of my soon-to-be useless greenbacks into gunmetal today and will do that again tomorrow. Next weekend, when the show comes to town, I’ll have a two-wheel handcart and will convert some more Monopoly money into a full load of lead and brass. All of these will hold value FAR better than debased currency. What’s that? Our currency isn’t debased?

    Obama stays, therefore Geithner and Bernanke stay. Bernanke already has the infinite “quantitive easing” (trans.: state-sanctioned counterfeiting) going full-tilt. They plainly state that they intend to pay back our creditors with vastly weakened dollars, so it is really only a question of when our creditor stop extending credit based upon the dollar. Europe is crashing, Greece is splattered, North Korea and Iran are feeling frisky, and we haven’t heard anything from Russia or China for a while now.

    Obama’s officially announced first international trip following re-election? He’s headed for Myanmar (Cambodia) and Thailand because… why not? He’s a second-termer now and can do exactly whatever the hell he pleases.

    Did the unions vote for that? Do the firefighters, law enforcement, steelworkers, food workers, postal workers, train dispatchers, longshoremen, bricklayers, mine workers, roofers, electricians, and farmers of America see a compelling reason the President should be spending time in Thailand? Maybe he should work on a balanced or even feasible budget first?

    Oh, wait. He went through four years without presenting anything other than massive deficit spending. He spent their money on everything under the sun and then some. Do they even know what $16 trillion looks like? Let’s put it into perspective. Last year’s one trillion dollar deficit would fund a year of private schooling at, say, $30k per, for 33,333,333 children. Better perspective? There are only about 25.4 million children in the US between age 12 and 17. So, if we really wanted to, we could have sent every middle- and high-schooled child in the ENTIRE NATION to an exclusive private school using just the budget overage last year. That doesn’t include massive spending already devoted to education, of course. The teacher’s union has seen to that.

    Why would Obama change anything – anything at all – now?

      1. Clarification accepted. The full quote from the article was “Mr. Obama would head to an annual international economic summit meeting in Cambodia and stop in Thailand and Myanmar” so he’s going to all three.

    1. We’re in a 4 way race to see who, financially speaking, has a fucking heart attack and drops dead. Us, Russia, China and Europe. I’d have said Europe would get there first. However…looking at some of the EO’s obumfuck has passed and other stuff[layoffs, full implementation of Obumfuck care] I’m not so sure we won’t beat the Europeans to the punch.

  13. Larry as always you give me hope! Great response well written, O Rah! I sincerely hope old Bob comes back to us and tells us why he is a Liberal. I cannot see a direct reason in this last concern written to you or his previous blog comments.

  14. I disagree with everything Larry said regarding politics.. but his books are awesome. Owen Pitt has brought countless hours of entertainment to me and I will buy every book Larry writes.

    So Larry, liberals love your books too …. and from this liberal, you have my respect. More importantly, you have my patronage as long as you write. So please keep writing.

    Gosh I love your books. Thank you SIr.

  15. And here in Canada, we (Social) Conservatives watched your election and went, “Oh, shiiiit”. And as an Israeli living here, I went, “we are sooo f**ked.”

    1. Damn right we are well and truly screwed and sadly if any shit goes down in Israel do not look for Obama to do a damn thing but say we are having a few bumps in the road.

      1. I’ll bet you a dollar Obama will still find any reason available to not go to Israel. A trip to Thailand is much more important, I suppose.

      2. A lot of us, both Canadians and Israelis, I try to keep track of opinions, are busy figuring out how we can do without you. It won”t be pretty or fun but… I live in Windsor across from Detroit, If you haven”t heard about it check out what’s happening there. It where you are all headed. Look guys, universal healthcare can work, we do OK with it. It”s not perfect and there is stuff we can’t do as well as the USA but after all there are 10X as many Americans then there are Canadians! Of course we don’t have the issues you do. I lived in the centre of downtown Toronto for years and it was a pretty quiet place to live. A few years ago I was living in Brooklyn, so I know whereof I speak.

        As for Israel, Netanyahu is going to win the election in January, with an even bigger majority. So if the USA keeps dicking around and fooling itself about Iran, what do you think will happen? Does anyone think that the State of Israel, the place with most of Jews, will wait? Will hesitate? Some of you worry that Obama might be a Muslim or whatever else? We don’t care about that. We look at every move or statement and ask “Is this good for the Jews?” Rather parochial on our part, but every single one of you is descended from or related to someone who made one of MY people suffer. I know YOU wouldn’t do anything but… Frankly we don’t really trust you. This wackco Leftist shit is scary. Way to similar to the Weimar Republic and the rise of the National SOCIALIST Party. All I need to do is read or watch any MSM to see where this is headed.

        Please, somebody do something before it’s too late.

      3. Syril: Now that the socialist jackholes are screwing with the medical industry in the US, Canada’s emergency medicine south exit is going to be closed.

        Good luck up there … you soon won’t be able to jump the queue in an emergency by driving south.

  16. Of course, were you a hard left Maoist calling for the 1% to be ground into cat food, well, then descriptions like “outspoken”, “controversial”, or “bold” would be used to describe you in a positive way.

    But, alas, you’re on the right. So shut it and eat your poop cake if you know what’s good for you!

  17. Am I the only one who is willing to buy tickets right now to an all you can eat barbecue (even a mediocre one) held at a Led Zepplin reunion concert that incorporates a wet T-shirt contest? I’d be totally willing to vote twice for a candidate who could make that happen.

    And I’m also getting a little tired of the repeated insistance that “if only the Republicans would do _____, or change _____, they’d be winners in our book.” Well, they also wouldn’t be Republicans at that point. That’s like saying, “Muslims would have a better time attracting more members to their church if they’d act less Muslimy. That way they could fill their mosques with people who don’t want to be Muslims.” In fact, if Republicans stopped acting like Republicans they’d be able to attract all kinds of people who don’t like Republicans at all. When it’s said like that it hardly sounds retarded at all, huh?

  18. i cant help but wonder, where this country would be if, when welfare was implemented, they made it to where you could not vote. Better off than we are I would imagine.

    Larry”s right though, the math doesn’t lie. and its not even complicated math. if you’ve got a pot of money, and 15 people paying into it and 200 taking out of it… its not going to last. That doesn’t even factor in all of the bullshit social programs and bloated bureaucracies that contribute exactly 0 to our economy.

    I had a “conversation” with the checker at the grocery story today. He was lamenting about how things used to be cheaper. I replied, “It’s called inflation. when the government prints more money without goods and services to back it, the value of the dollar goes down, meaning it takes more dollars to purchase the same thing.” He looked it me like i was speaking an alien language.

    That is the biggest part of the problem, too many Americans are willfully ignorant of how things such as the economy work. How many times have you turned on the tv or radio and seen/heard some gimmiecrat say “the government can just print more money” ???

    1. I mispoke at the top, it’s almost 1:30 at night… what i meant to say was, if they had made to so that when you were on welfare, you could not vote.

      1. That’s a really good idea. Can’t take away certain welfare payments because they are “entitlements” but can impose other consequences. Laws could be passed that say “While you are accepting hand-outs, you don’t get to vote. Your voting rights will be restored once you have been off of government aid for three months.”

        A review of the Constitution suggests that this could be accomplished at state levels but Congress might intervene, see Art. I, Sec. 4: “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations.”

        The most immediate problem is: the gimme-stuff voters won’t ever go for it. As we just saw, the gimmes have eclipsed the responsible adults. The time for passing such measures, as with passing measures to require evidence of birth records before being allowed to run, was before this became an issue in the first place.

    2. Ignorance is the absence of knowledge. We are all ignorant at multiple points in our lives but ignorance can be cured with the application of knowledge.
      Stupidity is the conscious or unconscious choice to remain ignorant. There is no cure for Stupidity.

      The scary part is Stupidity also begats Stupidity, its mere presence causes it to spread like a disease among the masses. The only way to prevent it is to cure Ignorance where ever it appears. In hopes of inoculating the populous. I know this is counter to my point of there is no cure for Stupidity, but that is on a general level. On an individual level it could be cured though the process is long and painful and more than many are willing to endure.

      Willfully ignorant= stupid. Just saying you can skip the two words and sum it up with the one. They are plain stupid.

      1. I choose my words carefully.
        I disagree with you Willfully Ignorant=/=Stupid. Some people are stupid. Some people are not ignorant, they have the knowledge, they just cannot put the information together and come to the proper conclusions.
        There is no excuse for ignorance in these times. not with sites such as google and wikipeia giving something approching the sum total of all human knowledge at their finger tips.The only explanation is will full ignorance. They have chosen not to acquire the knowledge of how things work.
        If they have the knowledge and don’t understand it, then they’re stupid.

    3. Matt…believe me…lack of understanding of basic math and economics, as well as what my goddamn groceries are costing me now…is one of my constant and MAJOR rant’s in various discussions across teh intarwebs.

  19. The “fan’s” letter and Larry’s response reminded me that recently, on another forum, someone posted a graphic showing “best” and “worst” educated States and which way they went in the recent election. The post annoyed me and I posted the following reply:

    To my liberal friends:

    Look, you and I disagree on political philosophy. Fine. We have different priorities on what we consider important. But this “conservatives are stupid/ignorant/uneducated” meme is getting old.

    My degree is in physics. I work in “cutting edge” technology (Atomic Force Microscopy, one of the enabling technologies to nanotechnology). I am also a bona-fide “rocket scientist” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacecub) and have presented at space development conferences and seen concepts that _I_ pioneered (commercial, manned, suborbital flight) go from paper to hardware reality.

    I am not stupid, or ignorant, or uneducated. I just happen to think that “liberty” trumps “security.” That the best social program for the poor is a job. That a strong, vibrant, _growing_ economy benefits everyone, rich and poor alike, that “government stimulus” is only able to put money _into_ the economy that it took out of it in the first place and therefore does not help on any except the shortest of terms and actively _harms_ the economy in the long term, and that the government should actually _follow_ the Constitution, that something that is important enough that it _must_ be done even if the Constitution doesn’t allow it, then amend. the. Constitution. to allow it.

    And if the schools, that lead to “better educated” folk, have been telling people otherwise, well, so much the worse for the schools.

    1. Big difference in a degree and an education, isn’t there?

      I got a degree from college, had to take care of education myself.

    2. Good Lord, I have had the same communications with my Leftish friends. “You call me evil, stupid and greedy, and then you wonder why I don’t have dinner with you?” Thanks for articulating it so well.

  20. October, 2012 numbers show 155.6 million people employed in America and our expected tax revenue for 2012 is $2.468 trillion which averages out to $15,865 for every working American.

    The Obama administration expects to add 12 million jobs by 2016, to bring the total to 168 million if you round it up. Projected tax revenues for 2016 are $3.680 trillion which averages out to $21,905 for every working American, or about $6,000 more per working American per year.

    Just let that sink in a for a little bit.

    It gets worse…

    The projected tax revenue for 2017 is $3.919 trillion. Assuming 3 million jobs added per year (figured at 12 million jobs over 4 years) that gives us 171 million taxpayers paying $3.919 trillion at $22,918 a pop. A 44.5% increase over 2012 levels.

    As far as I can tell, these don’t even factor in Obamacare.

    Now, Larry, I’m no math wizard and you can probably find fault with my figures and if you can, please do so, but what I’m seeing from the CBO’s and the Obama Administrations own projections is pure ugly.

    1. The other problem with that assumption is that the administration hasn’t managed to create anywhere near 3 million jobs in any single one of the past 4 years. So the odds of the same, or worse, policies creating 12 million jobs in the next 4 years are pretty slim.

    2. When talking the number of jobs being increased, please consider this little fact.

      Many, and I mean MANY, businesses, large and small are starting to cut the hours of their employees from ‘full time’ to ‘part time’ status. Does this 12 million jobs include all these part time positions just created? After all, the job DOES have to get done, and as a business owner, if I have to cut hours to avoid an Obamacare death sentence for my business, then I have to hire another part time person to ensure the job gets done.

      It is appalling to think that a 40 hour work week has now become a ‘benefit’ of employment.

      1. And then there’s the sneaky way that some companies get around the whole “full time” versus “part time” issue with employment, which I have unpleasantly experienced.

        I worked for a college between 2009 and the early summer of this year. I put in 42 hour weeks, because I had no relief to take lunch, and the other option was to have no job. I was still classified as “part time” because the schedule that my boss gave HR had only 38.5 hours since he was taking time out for lunches and breaks that night staff working alone did not actually get. Even worse, thought I didn’t know it until things were fixed, was that officially I was only supposed to get 20 hours, and that was the figure in their financial predictions. After he was fired, the interim replacement person informed HR of my actual work hours. It took another complete year for HR to change my official status, during this whole time they took double the full time rate from my checks for my health insurance. I was also accruing vacation and sick leave at a slower rate, and did not get paid holidays, unlike the rest of the staff. At that point it wasn’t so much the lack of benefits as it was that difference in benefits between what I was getting and what other staff at the same job title and experience level received.

        On top of that, I was told initially that after six months of working there my spouse would be able to attend classes for free. This would have been a great deal, and reason enough to stay at the job even though it was horrible. When he actually started attending, I was told that no, actually it was after six months of full time employment. Well okay then. Just barely six months after my official status change I asked again. This time I was told that no, it’s after a year of full time employment. A week later I was headhunted for a different position elsewhere at more than twice the pay and better benefits. Free tuition would have been enough to keep me at the college, but with their jerking me around I left downright gleefully.

        No jobs were created by my being “part time,” not even other part time jobs. The work most certainly did still get done, but it was through shady practices that kept my hours and my pay from being honestly reported. I don’t assume that this is the only workplace that pulls stunts like that to avoid giving their employees the benefits that have been earned, and are granted to others with the same job title. I also don’t assume that more won’t do things like this if those benefit requirements are increased by government mandate. I also have absolutely no doubt that they’re doing the same things to my replacement.

      2. I worked at a McDonalds when VA made it a law that all full-time employees must be offered benefits. I was working about 44 hours a week and when the law went into force they cut a day from my schedule to make it so I didnt get bennies (note, they did it to everyone, pretty much every fast food chain in VA did it to all their line employees). If closing took a little longer than the ‘estimate’ (which was about half the time) and it was the last day of the pay period, there were times when the manager would come to me while iwas in the middle of doing something and tell me to go clock out and sit in the break room…. (no, at least they never tried to tell me to work off the clock, that would have ended poorly)

      3. @Mandy the sneakiest way I know companies to avoid Obamacare and pay roll tax is to label everyone as “private contractor”.
        I make 9 dollars an hour. Working in 4 hour blocks, I work anywhere from 5-8 of those blocks a week. So about $3600 a year if I work 8 shifts a week 50 weeks a year. Way under poverty right? Well last year I had to pay a couple hundred to the Federal government in taxes because as a private contractor I’m in a higher tax bracket. I even took the highest deduction possible at the time and still squat!

        I get that I need this job because I’m recovering from several surgeries and it’s work from home. I’m grateful to have this job in fact. I’m also very grateful my family is helping me through this rough time.

        What I’m pissed about is every damn ass hole who makes more than me and pays 0 in taxes because they are welfare queens, or game the system. I’m all for paying my share of the tax burden. I’m livid that there are people in this country that not only don’t pay taxes but get money from the government. How the hell am I taxed on $3600 but there are assholes out there on food stamps buying cigarets!

        I’m willing to bet if Obamacare didn’t exist fewer companies would have to use the “private contractor” loop hole which screws the worker in the end.

        So to everyone who voted Obama, kiss my shiny metal ass! Yes I have one it’s a long story.

      4. I screwed up my math. I make more than 3600 a year. I still have to pay a huge chunk to the IRS because being a “private contractor” messes with my income bracket. I’m also making even less now having only worked 6 shifts in the last 3 weeks.
        But yeah I messed up the math it happens.

      5. I know the trick isn’t new, but it’s gone way way up since the introduction of Obama care. I came in when they were only hiring people as “private contractors” after I started working they fired an entire regional office and hired them all back as “private contractors”. More and more companies are having to use this loophole and it’s because of increased costs on the employer.

  21. So well put Larry, and far better than I could. Honestly to use your books for entertainment and then tell you to keep quiet if your opinions challenge his, or make him feel uncomfortable is not only censorship but is a form of slavery. It lowers you to nothing more than a source of amusement and your thoughts be damned.
    It’s sad, but that present all over the Left, not only in the form of censorship. Another author I like who is sadly uber Liberal spent weeks leading up to the election posting news article and opinion after article and opinion basically saying all Conservatives are racist, sexist, gun toting hicks. As soon as the election was over though one of her first posts was along the lines of “this has been a rough election cycle and now we all need to put what was said behind us and come together and work for a better future”. Fuck that! You just spent weeks calling me a racist, homophobes sexist because I wouldn’t vote for President Obama… I bet if Romney had won she would have been posting demanding recounts and telling the Right to not be sore winners.
    I’m not going to tell her to stop posting because she is an idiot I just don’t pay attention much anymore. On occasion I’ll respond to correct her when she is being utterly stupid but for the most part I don’t bother her mind has gone to rot and she clearly does not have critical thinking skills anymore.

    As for Libertarians on your page, I’m a Libertarian, but you’re right Republicans are closer to my values than Democrats ever will be. I only voted for Gary because California was alwasye going to go to President Obama. I did so in hopes that a Libertarian gaining traction would help bolster the cause of Liberty and give them another leg to stand on to help get the word out. If I were in a swing state I would have voted Romeny hands down.

  22. I think I’m in love. 🙂 Thanks for that, I might need to use it at work. I work for the Department of the Army as a civilian, fairly high level. I am a Republican with lashings of libertarian, mainly in the abortion area. Disagree with it, think you are killing your baby, but as long as you pay for it without my tax money, go for it.

    One of our military people didn’t know I voted for Romney. When they found out – AFTER the election, mind you – I get a diatribe about the fact that I WORK for Obama, he pays my SALARY, he is my COMMANDER IN CHIEF, how could I possibly have voted for a man who wants to deny women the right to control their bodies, close Planned Parenthood so we can’t have mammogram (apparently she didn’t realize that PP refers those out until I told her) and is RACIST!!!! Work is so not fun right now.

    I told my husband to leave my Romney Ryan sticker on my back windshield to show that I have a job and an IQ. F___ ’em if they can’t take a joke. 🙂 And for the first time in this white chick’s life, I fired a .20 gauge and .12 gauge with buckshot and birdshot at our local range. Already got my eye on the one I want for the zombie apocalypse. Keep it up, Larry, glad I found you! (Oh, and my VERY liberal brother-in-law loves your MHI that I gave him for his birthday. Don’t think he’s such a dweeb that he’d come to your blog and try to change your politics, though. He’s a bit more elegant than that.)

    1. My question on the whole abortion issue

      How is the death penalty anything but retroactive abortion.
      (I support both. But then I am a misanthrope) How can you support one and not the other?

      1. Uh… Innocent defenseless baby vs. murdering psycho killer who has proven incapable of living in society without rape-killing folks for meth money… Let me see…

        Man, I hope that is some sort of rhetorical question or something, because if it isn’t, something is broken inside your brain.

      2. A life is a life
        either there is a distiction between being a person or not or there isnt a distiction

        If a baby is a person then the mad dog loon who hacked up 4 people and ate thier kidneys with a side of asparagus and a glass of Sauvingon Blanc is also a person.

        innocence or guild doesnt enter in to it

        I chose to admit that I am hypocritical and prefer the baby (but not by much I’ve been puked on to many times by other peoples kids.)

      3. Sorry, I see no such distinction. A child didn’t ask to be created, and is innocent and free of sin at the time of birth, and defenseless in the womb with no ability to take action to protect itself or make its wishes known. I believe life begins at conception. As a former prosecutor who tried murderers and worked on three different death penalty cases before joining the Army JAG Corps, I could have pulled the switch on the guys myself. After having been conceived and born in innocence, they spent their lives making horrible choices that hurt and killed other people and showed no signs of remorse or cessation. They deprived themselves – by their actions and decisions – of the right to be considered human and turned themselves into monsters. The judge and jury were just the last part of their slow, nasty, degrading decline. I don’t think I’m a hypocrite – it’s the difference between protecting a kitten and a fully grown killer whale trying to eat you. Yeah, the reptilian brained shark loses.

  23. I work in an engineering office in Massachusetts. Except one guy that lives in Cambridge, we have all been miserable since the election. Seems like a common trend: smart people who are good at math don’t vote Democrat.

  24. Well, I guess I should be impressed you decided to use me for a rant. I’m a star! I won’t go into some big internet war over this. It’s your site and you’re in charge here.

    I was not trying to “shut you up”. I just wondered why you kept insulting potential customers. I think business owners who use their restaurant sign for their political views are dumb, too. They alienate people who might otherwise want to give them money. And I’m not crazy about actors who voices their political opinions, either.

    A few things on politics – the thing about crews being turned away is false. It has been debunked. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57544237/ala-utilities-our-crews-not-turned-away-from-n.j/

    I get tired of your side making things up. Yeah, you’ll have a thousand right-wing sites that say different, but just like the “un-skewed polls”, they don’t deal in the reality. If you were so damned good at math, you’d have known your side was going to lose. I’m not bad at it either, it’s important in my job. But when you build tools, there’s not much use for fantasy math. Ours has to work in the real world.

    I know you get very little off of what you write. I hope you get more off of the Audible stuff, and I hope that Bronson Pinchot and Oliver Wyman get a good cut, too, they were beyond fantastic. But the truth is, writers get screwed over all the time. Man, sounds like you guys need a union!

    It’s easy to get nasty when talking politics. I did a couple of digs, but that’s it, I’m done with it.

    But man, believe me, I WAS NOT MAKING A BOYCOTT THREAT! I really do love your stuff. I support artists I love, and that includes writers and musicians (who also get screwed). I may give up coming to your blog, but you don’t make money on it anyway. I’ll continue lapping up everything you write. I know that people play all kind of games on the internet, and you probably think I’m doing the same. But I’m not. I’ll also continue recommending you to my friends, and won’t say anything about your politics. The normal thing would be for me to renounce you completely after this, and say that I’m going to the blogs to forever try to destroy you, right? That is the last thing I would do. I’m a true fan.

    But then, you’d sic MHI’s troll Marvin on me, eh? Just thought of that, and laughed out loud! God, that was so funny in the book! Pure genius! Holly was so pissed. Marvin: “I kid! I kid!”

    An easy way to get people interested in your stuff is to play them the first chapter of MHI to them, where Owen talks about killing his boss. It’s great! MHI was fun, but you’ve certainly grown as a writer since then, your stuff is getting more complex, while not losing the fun aspect.

    The one book that I wasn’t completely crazy about was MHA. I liked it, but not as much as the others. The backstory on Earl made it worthwhile, though. I’ve listened to the others three times each, at least.

    I doubt I’ll write here again, I’m not a flame war kinda guy. And if I do, it’ll just be a comment on the books themselves. But since I have your attention, I want to ask you – how many books in the series do you plan? Especially the Grimnoir Chronicles! And how often can we expect new ones?

    And do you have plans for any new series?

    That’s the kind of news I come to the blog to see.

    Maybe I’ll come back in four years, when the world is pretty much as it is, and all the sky is falling stuff didn’t happen, and comment upon that.

    But Mr. Correia, I wish you and yours well. Keep writing, I’ll keep buying. Take care.

    1. Lovely comment. If the people who voted for Obama in my office were anything like you, it would be an easy work day. Question – do you think men who voted for Obama are less emotional and invested than women? It’s normally the ladies who spray spittle on me when they really get going about Republicans denying their daughters the right to abort. Yowza, they are some ANGRY mothers. In both senses of the word. 🙂 Thanks for coming back and leaving a rational response to our ranting, hope to continue to see you here. We share a love of Larry Correia’s work, that’s a good start, right?

    2. Mr. W., you sound like a very reasonable person and rightly want to focus on the fun and good times provided by the books. I would just suggest: the reason people here are upset is because we can all distinguish between fantasy worlds and the real world. Other people focus on the real world as well, including the enemies of the United States. They are not peaceful, fun-loving types. If they see a weakness, they will exploit it. If they think they can use financial blackmail to force the USA to its’ knees, they will do it. The path chosen by President Obama is directly compromising our collective financial and personal security.

      We should all check in four years hence to see what happened. I suspect we won’t have to wait all that long, however.

    3. Do you also write long letters to folk like Bob Maher when he calls conservatives “stupid”–in so many words. Or people like the Hollywood gliterati? Or various writers of a left-wing political stripe who have been known to be quite vocal about the subject?

      Or is it just non-leftists who receive your missives suggesting they shut up?

    4. Bob, I’m not convinced all the reports of union crews being turned away were false. But even if they were, the deliberate slow-down by union crews clearing roads after last winter’s blizzard in NYC was NOT made up. People died and continue to die due to union politics. The most current example may or may not be true (if you think CBS actually investigated this issue beyond their effort to “debunk” it then you’re simply naive) but other examples abound.

      1. Non union, out of area workers were required to ‘join’ the local IBEW.

        The ones not joining, were not assigned to repair work. After ‘joining’ they got to work double shifts [National Grid / LIPA field workers are still mostly single shift].

        There is zero return to the out of area worker for paying the union dues to their non local union.

    5. Before I get the the bulk of your post. Did you actually read the article. The workers were not allowed to work until they signed an agreement. Since they were non union they didn’t know if they could sign it. So they were made to wait so long their services were no longer needed. So while they were technically not turned away they weren’t allowed to work until the issue was resolved. It simply wasn’t resolved fast enough. The proper thing to do would to have let them work while the legal matters are hashed out and if it so happens that they aren’t allowed to work at least they will have done 1 or 2 days worth of work helping people in need.

      As for your ‘this wasn’t a boycott post’. Yes it was, there was no other reason for your post. You didn’t argue against Larry’s ideas and talking points you argued against him expressing them. The goal of your post was to cause Larry to censor himself for your comfort. The stick you used was the loss of potential readers and your potential recommendations. If Larry had censored himself you would have won.

      Instead Larry showed you the door and said you could leave. So now you’re pouting saying you never intended a boycott or to censor him. What other purpose could your post have had. Surly not to engage in meaningful debate, you offered no counter to his ideas. Only ways in which you were hurt and offended.

      Your apparent lack of wanting to debate is further exemplified by your turning tail and running when confronted with the fact that Larry won’t censor himself. Even more so this shows that your original intent was to censor him. You have said you don’t want to debate Larry or others on this blog. If that is the case, then why post the original message if not to get him to censor himself. Your actions betray your veiled agenda. Though it appears to be veiled only to you, perhaps you are so steeped in the the Left wing mentality that you don’t even know when you engage in censorship and essentially blackmail. This happens all the time on the Left. You try to censor those you agree with and then feign ignorance when called on it. If you succeed though you dance a jig.

      As for not willing to debate in what you call a “flame war”, which this isn’t as everyone on this blog have been respectful, this just goes to show another weakness of the Left. You are hiding from view points that challenge your existing ideas. You do not seek to engage in debate as you are afraid your ideas will be challenged and proven wrong. Again this further serves to show your original post had no other intention other than to try and censor Larry. If you didn’t want to debate then your post could accomplish nothing other than censorship.

      That which does not grow dies, and eventually rots. The only way for us to grow is through challenging our ideas. It appears you don’t want your ideas challenged and would is the ad misericordiam fallacy to try and censor those who would challenge you.

    6. Bob

      As I asked in Larry’s previous blog posts name the things that make you a Liberal. Also, in retort to your comment that we do not understand Liberals and they are just about hard work etc. 43% of the Obama Voters in exit polls said they were concerned about losing Food Stamps, housing support, EBT cards, Aid to dependent children Medicaid,etc. Seems like a large minority of Obama voters are trying like hell to stay in the wagon while we chumps paying taxes drag them along while they have more children in their Liberal Households. See this is what torques me up is the multi-generational growth of government hand out dependency. It is the path to hell of unintended consequences. Maybe you were taught to work and strive etc. But it seems that the other 100 families are saying “Hey just lay back we are getting another check from the government next month”. Damn glad that Bob W. is pulling the wagon.

      Are you from the mid west as well and please characterize a Liberal household. Man I am just super curious about all this. Also, if you make swords you should really look into firearms. would not want you bringing a big knife to a gun fight.

    7. Bob:

      I was going to write a reply to Larry, stating that he shouldn’t have dumped on you as he did. Such exchanges don’t lead to mutual understanding. But then I read you reply.

      You say that the ‘utility workers turned away’ story was debunked. Well, I read the article you linked to. Here’s the money grafs:

      “Communications with Seaside Heights was poor due to lack of cell phone service in the area,” the statement said. “Upon arriving at a staging area in Virginia, crews were held in place pending clarification of documents received from IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) that implied a requirement of our employees to agree to union affiliation while working in the New York and New Jersey areas. It was and remains our understanding that agreeing to those requirements was a condition of being allowed to work in those areas.

      “As we waited for clarification, we became aware that Seaside Heights had received the assistance they needed from other sources, To be clear, at no time were our crews “turned away” from the utility in Seaside Heights.

      “In connection with state and regional public power associations, Decatur Utilities attempted to contact other areas that needed assistance. However, based on the uncertainty of union requirements that we could not agree to and the uncertainty of whether a resolution could be reached, we ultimately made the decision to return them to Decatur after being stalled in the Virginia area most of the day on Thursday.”

      That sure as Hell sounds to me like being turned away. They couldn’t work DOING EMERGENCY REPAIRS

      1. {stupid WordPress posted my comment before I was done}

        As I was saying, they couldn’t work DOING EMERGENCY REPAIRS unless the company agreed to something that the company the thought was might be a requirement for a union shop (which is illegal in Alabama). That is what your own source says happened. Just what about the story is ‘debunked’? If any side is making stuff up, it appears to be yours.

        You say that if Republicans were good at math, they’d have known they were going to lose. As it happens, the current vote totals indicate that Romney’s Get Out the Vote operation failed completely, and that if Karl Rove had been running it (he ran Bush’s effort in 2004), Romney would now be President-Elect. Maybe the GOP never had a chance of knocking off Obama, but that isn’t obvious.

        Btw, while we’re on the subject of math, have you looked at federal spending in this country, especially “entitlement” spending in this country? Total spending rises faster than GDP, while “entitlement” spending rises faster than total spending. Given that liberals CLAIM to care so much about those who receive said spending ol oou t elu htYhow you all intend tiksol edn to preserve it? Because according to http://www.ssa.gov/oact/trsum/index.html, “A SUMMARY OF THE 2012 ANNUAL REPORTS” by the Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees:

        “Lawmakers should not delay addressing the long-run financial challenges facing Social Security and Medicare. …

        “Social Security and Medicare are the two largest federal programs, accounting for 36 percent of federal expenditures in fiscal year 2011. Both programs will experience cost growth substantially in excess of GDP growth in the coming decades due to aging of the population and, in 2024, EXHAUSTED and the combined “Social Security” trust funds will be EXHAUSTED in 2033. The “Old Age and Survivors” fund will go broke sooner than it would have because the Disability Insurance trust fund will be EXHAUSTED 2016 (yeah, that’s right, IN TWO YEARS), after which the Old Age and Survivors fund will be raided to pay for the epidemic of people with intractable back pain we’ve had these last four years. If you guys truly care so much, you might think about doing something about this that doesn’t make assumptions about the fabulous amounts of money Obamacare is going to save. Instead, only the callous, uncaring Republican Party has attempted to do something here. The GOP’s reward has been constant vituperation and lies from the “reality-based community.” I wonder what your guys will do in 2016, when the seniors finally get the message that the money they paid in towards their retirement is being spent on people who could work, but won’t.

        The minimum message I can discern from your letter is this: ‘Liberals, those kind, caring, compassionate, tolerant folks who celebrate diversity, are likely to refuse to read books by anyone who disagrees with them and says so publicly.’ Yeah, I’m putting words in your mouth, but if that isn’t what you meant, than I don’t see what you did mean.

        So, assuming I understood you correctly, I can’t help but think of ‘Gee, nice shop you got here, be a shame if anything happened to it and you hadn’t bought our insurance.’ I believe you when you say you weren’t threatening to boycott Larry because of his political opinions, but you’re definitely threatening him with a boycott by other liberals. And as Larry notes, rather angrily, he has the right of free speech, a pre-existing human right the U.S. govt. is supposed to protect. That brings up a question: if Republicans, Libertarians, Tea Partiers and ‘the right’ generally were to tell left-wing authors, movie makers, and television producers that they should shut up on pain of boycott, would you be telling the liberals to quiet down? Frankly I don’t think so. Every time such has happened, we’ve heard shouts of “McCarthyism,” and been lectured about evil, unAmerican attempts to strangle freedom of expression (see e.g. The Dixie Chicks).

        You know, Bob, no one forces you to read Larry’s posts on politics. When I go to the site of an author, tv/movie maker, or performer whose politics I disagree with, I just ignore that stuff. But the message I get from you is that anyone who doesn’t think as you do should shut up, or they’ll suffer at the hands of your political brethren. And then you’re surprised that those who you’ve indirectly threatened hate you. I do believe you haven’t thought this situation through.

        But then, the Republicans who ignore politics when they purchase entertainment have also failed to think things through.

    8.         Oh,btw Bob, when Larry was in the Sin Twitties recently on his book-signing-tour/African-food-eating-expedition, he told me he HAD recently signed a contract for a fourth series with Baen.  IIRC, it will be high fantasy.

    9. Bob:

      The report that non-union power crews that volunteered to help restore power to Sandy ravaged Long Island, and New Jersey were turned back by union opposition has not been debunked.

      New Jersey governor Christie said on Friday, “I’ve been on the phone with PSE&G [Public Service Electric and Gas Company], JCP&L [Jersey Central Power & Light] and the union, and they’ve all absolutely promised me they would never turn away a single worker whether they were union or nonunion, and I wouldn’t allow it,”

      A New Jersey power company spokesman “denied Friday that it is turning away nonunion volunteer crews who want to travel great distances to help reconnect power supplies severed by Hurricane Sandy. But an Alabama utility is clarifying that it was the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers [IBEW] — not the company — that turned them away.”

      Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/11/02/new-jersey-town-to-ala-volunteer-utility-crew-dont-help-with-sandy-unless-youre-unionized/#ixzz2C3oh2eYB

      “An IBEW spokesman in New York told TheDC (a conservative web site) on Friday that ”the IBEW did not send the documents” the Florida crew’s managers described, “nor did any of our locals.”

      But he didn’t reply when asked if he had communicated with all 273 locals in the union districts where Sandy’s impact was felt. Those include 20 IBEW locals in New Jersey, 48 in New York, 10 in Connecticut and 52 in Pennsylvania.

      TheDC reported on another case — this one involving an electric co-operative in Georgia whose workers were turned away from New York because they weren’t union members. Glenn Cunningham, a business continuity coordinator with Diverse Power in LaGrange, Georgia, said during a phone interview that his company’s crews had already helped restore power lines in Maryland when they decided to drive further north to New York. (RELATED: Ga. power crew turned away from Sandy-stricken NY for refusing to join union)
      “When they got up there,” he said, “it was, ‘out come the union papers.’ And our guys were like, ‘Hey, we’re not joining nothing. We came up to help, but if you don’t want it, that’s fine.’ So they turned around and drove all the way back here to Georgia.”

      So Bob, the story on the ground here in Georgia is the New York and New Jersey power companies and state wide Union organizations may have not turned down help from the non-unionized Southern power workers but the local unions damn sure did.

      otpu

  25. It’s funny how Bob likes both Larry and Robert A. Heinlein, since RAH was a libertarian. I hope Bob reads this quote from Heinlein, since this is where America is heading. Heinlein got it correct so many years ago.

    “‘Bread and Circuses’ is the cancer of democracy, the fatal disease for which there is no cure. Democracy often works beautifully at first. But once a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be he producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader—the barbarians enter Rome.” – Robert Heinlein

    1. I liked RAH’s stories. Doesn’t mean I agreed with his politics. You might also remember these two quotes:

      Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How’s that again? I missed something.

      Autocracy is based on the assumption that one man is wiser than a million men. Let’s play that over again, too. Who decides?

      Also, if you read the short story Coventry, or the book The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, Heinlein said bad things about governmentless societies. He saw them as ultimately a failure, too.

      But one should NOT put stock in science fiction, and try to build a society based upon what are essentially fantasy novels. Too many people try to base their lives on Ayn Rand and L. Ron Hubbard. Heinlein himself had to wall himself off of people who wanted to “share water”.

      Same way with Mr. Correia. He just spins a great yarn.

      1. Democracy: because none of us is as dumb as all of us!
        However, America was not set up as a democracy but as a federated republic. Over the centuries it has been bastardized more and more towards pure democracy but at the moment we’re still a republic. The idea is to elect the wisest one of the million, which only depends on the million to be wise enough to know who is wiser.

      2. The IQ of a mob is the IQ of its dumbest member divided by the number of mobsters. _ Pterry.

        In otherwords humans En mass are about as smart as a herd of cattle.

        Bob W. “Coventry” is the ultimate support of Libertarianism. They not only allowed people to live as they wish BUT! they went and set out a sizable chunk of land for them to do so. AND when the main character escaped and had learned his lesson he was welcomed back into society with open arms.

        Your mom did exactly that when you were being a little snot as a child I am sure (god knows I sat in the corner more than once, its how I learned to count I think)

    2. Robert Heinlein was one of the original Reagan supporters, Bob.

      He and Ronald Reagan were litterally in cahoots, and tried desperately in the 1960’s to boot the Trotskyites out of the California Democratic Party.

      They failed.

      Heinlein’s political how-to book “Take back your government” was written as a guide to taking over local precincts and by extension, a party.

      Heinlein gave up on politics as a bad job. Reagan gave up on the Democratic Party, joined the Republican Party, and got himself elected governor, and President.

      He was also served as a union head for a while … the Screen Actor’s Guild.

      Be like Reagan, Bob. Join us.

      Help us kick the corporate welfare idiots, RNC apparatchiks, and Billy Sunday super-zealots out of the Republican leadership. Stop supporting Maoist lunatics simply because your union leadership supports them.

  26. People who “vote candidate, not party” need to remember the example of Bart Stupak, pro-life Democrat from Michigan who voted for Nancy Pelosi to be House Speaker, thus ensuring every further vote of his would be negated.

    As for Bob’s complaint about “people making stuff up about the other party” — people in glass houses, Bob. There were proven instances of non-union crews turned away; refuting one report does not refute every report. Perhaps you employ math in your day job (I have heard that accountants, like Larry, use math; pity Obama can’t get past the 7th grade level stuff) but I see scant evidence you use logic.

    1. Yes, the “debunking” comes from CBS. I highly doubt they delved further into the subject than just finding something to refute the story. This is the msm, who will take the tiniest fraction of wiggle room (as in the Swift Boat Vets honest take-down of John Kerry) and say the entire issue is “debunked”. Those who believe them without doing their own research are hopelessly naive.

    2. No, there wasn’t proven accounts. There were right-wing accusations. yeah, you guys don’t like CBS and say they are mainstream and therefore not reliable. But Fox News and then entire right-wing media told you this election was in the bag, and the mainstream polls were lying, and you were cruising to a landslide win.

      How did that work out for you?

      Just because Fox News said it didn’t mean it was true. Same thing with the mainstream media. But to discount one or the other is stupid. It’s always best to look at primary sources, and to make up your mind from there.

    3. According to NBC Philidelphia.com and WFAA.Com, two news sources from the region, crews were turned away because of confusion on the parts of both parties. Local power company union officials showed papers to the Huntsville Utilities crews that seemed to indicate that the crews would have to join the local union or otherwise be union affiliated in order to work in that area. By the time the IBEW confirmed that that was NOT the case, other union crews from outside the area had arrived and the Huntsville people went to locations still in need of assistance. Other sources say that a few local, union, power companies had workers who protested the arrival of non-union workers, but that there was no large-scale attempt to prevent non IBEW or other electrical-related union workers from helping. So there is truth on both sides, and yes, once again, rumor flies while truth walks.

      To see real, confirmed union labor actions, go to www dot phillybully dot com. Matters there got so out of hand that the Philadelphia trades unions council finally had to step in and order union members to moderate their protests.

  27. On the topic of “I just wondered why you kept insulting potential customers” perhaps Bob would suggest Larry follow the example of tax chest Bruce Springsteen (Google “bruce springsteen nj property tax”) and just keep a low profile? Oh, wait …

  28. From a Tea Party website today, sounds similar to the Heinlein quote above:

    “By any objective measure, Mr. Obama’s first term has been a colossal failure. His signature legislative achievements — the economic stimulus and Obamacare — are unpopular. Unemployment has remained chronically high. Economic growth is sputtering. The recovery is anemic. Inflation is rising. He has presided over multiple, consecutive trillion-dollar-plus budget deficits. He has amassed more than $5 trillion in debt. The national debt is more than $16 trillion — a staggering amount that threatens our economic security. We are sliding toward Greece and impending bankruptcy. Yet the electorate rewarded him with another term.

    “Why? The answer is simple and ominous: because more than half the population — 50 percent plus one — is dependent upon government benefits. For the past four years, the Obama administration has created a Franco-German welfare state whose sole purpose is to forge a majority political coalition wedded to the Democratic Party. The stimulus; the health care overhaul; the redirecting of financial resources to the inner cities; the explosion in the number of Americans on food stamps and welfare; the massive spending increases in public education, infrastructure and agriculture; the green-energy boondoggles; the bailouts of the auto industry; the contraceptive mandate; the federal funding of abortion; support for homosexual “marriage”; and pushing amnesty for illegal aliens — all of these measures directly bought off key liberal constituencies, such as unions, public-sector workers, environmentalists, blacks, Hispanics, feminists and the homosexual community.

    “In short, America has been fractured into two nations: the tax producers and the tax consumers, the givers and the takers, those who generate wealth and those who exploit it. Mr. Obama has peeled off the larger chunk. The productive classes are being harnessed into subsidizing the nonproductive elements. Statism and sex trump entrepreneurship and self-reliance.”

    http://www.teapartynation.com/profiles/blog/show?id=3355873%3ABlogPost%3A2315065&xgs=1&xg_source=msg_share_post

  29. I thought it was an informative exchange of ideas. And it also goes to show, ‘never argue finances and numbers with an accountant’. Also, I think these responses, along with many others I hear, demonstrate that the US has is diametrically opposed view of politics. Likely relating to the fact we have only two parties with any real influence. Most of these discussions have had good points and concessions to personal party flaws and actions. But there is a real lack of dialogue about actually cooperating and compromising. The polarized atmosphere only clouds the issues and solutions. The answer should not be “I’m right and you’re wrong” as it too often is. But, “We both need to change for a solution”. Until this happens, no matter who is the president and who is the majority in legislature, we will continue with our downward spiral.

    1. When one person insists they intend to drive the car off the cliff and the passenger very much wants to drive anywhere other than over the cliff, there’s not a lot of room for compromise.

      In current politics, the Democrats won’t even admit that there is a cliff, much less that they’re driving straight for it. How does one reason with that mindset?

    2. Republicans have compromised over and over. Both of George W. Bush’s terms were filled with efforts to compromise with Democrats and he was demonized and insulted. The Democrats took and never gave an inch. It’s always been Democrats who refuse to compromise and Republicans who “reach across the aisle”. The one time Clinton got dragged into a compromise, he enacted Welfare Reform and then was credited with a great success … that, incidentally, Obama has since gutted.

      Nothing the Republicans say will be reported honestly. Paul Ryan put out a fantastic economic plan but most people don’t know it besides the labels put on it by the Democrats and the media. This is what we’re up against. No compromise ever comes out of that atmosphere unless it’s Republicans who acquiesce.

      1. I think that you have a noble idea. Reaching across the aisle and working together is a beautiful goal. Anyone of common decency would want to reach compromises and build a future together.

        But it’s a bit condescending of you to suggest that “the other side” do this when people quote instance after instance of “the other side” reaching across to your side willing to make compromises and work together and being rebuffed or their efforts undermined, minimized, or destroyed. What is it they say about the definition of insanity? Something about doing things multiple times and expecting a different result?

        If the Left made honest efforts to reach compromise and showed they were “the better person” (so to speak), that would be fantastic. And by “honest efforts” I mean not offering something designed to be refused. But from what I’ve seen in politics, the Left can’t lose face by doing that, can they? If they “work with the bad guy” then they lose all sorts of street cred, don’t they? So all they offer is insultingly poor deals that they know will be refused so they can talk big about “trying to work together” and how the Right refused because they are [insert string of negative descriptors – you know which I mean].

        So go ahead. Sigh and shake your head and tut to yourself how “the other side” is full of close-minded individuals. Because that’s what you already knew to be true, isn’t it? It’s not like you had any hopes that it would be different. That would be strange! And require that you were open-minded yourself.

        You gain no cool points standing there at an impasse and attempting to shame other people for refusing to back down. Especially when you have no intentions of removing the impasse from your side either.

  30. Bruce Springsteen is a true-blue Democrat of the USSA, just like the rest; always ready to help people by spending other people money. He should not have to spend his own because he is part of the elite, hypocritical ruling class, like Democrat politicians and union members who suck the life out of anyone not also a parasite.

  31. Wouldn’t it be great if ballots had a series of numbers next to each candidate’s name, rating them from 0 (“Not Suitable for Composting”) to 9 (“He’s leading a rescue mission into Hell? Hold on, I need to grab my spare clip and toothbrush.”)

    Now, this will complicate elections considerably. After all, with this, there’s no real reason to have primaries. We could’ve had all five or six viable Republican candidates and five or six Democratic candidates on the ballet, plus Libertarians, Greens and whatever.

    Of course, this also means we have to trust a nation of voters to select a value from 0 to 9, too. No doubt this is discriminatory against someone somewhere and is all an evil Republican plot.

    It also means candidates will have to spend at least some of their time presenting a message, rather than spending the majority of their advertising money on Ominous Music and “Candidate Blue Wants To Send Union Thugs To…” and “Candidate Red Hates People Like You!” Negative campaigning will still exist – but it will become a bit more diffuse.

    It also complicates things because each candidate will be given two numbers – the total number of votes cast, and the total number of points they garnered.

    This proposal is called “range voting” It’s based on the idea that treating voting like a shooting range, where precision matters, results in better outcomes for the country.

    If you think this is a good idea – I have a challenge for you. This challenge won’t be cheap – it will cost you about $13-$15 per year.

    1) Go to this web site

    http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/State_election_agencies

    2) Write down the address of your local secretary of state. You can also find county election offices.

    3) Write a letter that says “I am a concerned voter, and I am in favor of range voting.” Since you guys are all reading Larry’s blog, I assume you know how to write a letter in your own words, rather than using a copy-and-paste form from Demand Progress or Demand Handouts.

    4) Save that letter on your hard drive.

    5) Print out a copy of that letter – this will cost you about a nickel a laser printer, so don’t do it if you’re on government assistance and can’t afford it.

    6) Put that letter in an envelope, address it and put it in the mail – don’t forget the stamp. Because we’re conservatives and libertarians, we have to pay our own way. That’ll cost about 50 cents.

    So, where does the other 12 to 14 bucks come in?

    You’re going to repeat this – with a slightly differently worded letter, every two weeks. If you can waste the time to do so, writing it by hand in pen actually makes an impression.

    What elections should you ask for range voting on? And why now and not in 2016? You should ask for range voting on small local elections; it needs to have a track record for not being a cluster-fuck with extra goats. It also needs to be tried on elections that don’t have gobs of donor money, and gobs of union and political party money washing through them – because the donors don’t like this proposal – it makes it more expensive to campaign with cheap negative advertising.

    Also, if you’re going to be in the city with your local Secretary of State, or your county election facility has an office, offer to swing by and talk to him about it in person. Have him tell you to your face that it won’t work if he can. Buy him coffee, be polite, don’t be belligerent.

  32. I’ve gone from a bad week to a really crappy two days. Saturday morning, modern gun season for deer began here in Kentucky. A few minutes after the season officially opened, the freaking wind started blowing and hasn’t stopped. Today we even have small craft advisories on the lakes.

    I’ve been riding a tree stand swaying in a big oak that’s been doing a fair Whomping Willow impersonation for two days now. A few times I was wishing I had a seat belt. Haven’t seen a single damn deer in all this wind, but, oh, I’ve been listening to what sounds like a freaking shootout a couple properties over, which is even more demoralizing.

    So, after coming in to reheat some coffee and sulk, I figured I’d see what was shaking in the blogs. After reading your fine, fine rant today, I’m in a much better mood.

  33. On a tight budget and was going to wait Screw it. I’ll sell some blood and pick up some cans. I’m going to buy the hardback and a copy of Monster Hunter International for my little brother.

  34. Well as a relatively liberal guy myself. I guess I take the opposite approach to Bob’s. I could care less about Larry’s politics. I read the books because I like them. Just like I read Books by Orson Scott Card, John Ringo, Eric Flint, and Steven Brust. Books of theirs that get to preachy or just cover subjects I’m not interested in I don’t read. Same goes for movies and television. I do mainly come to this site to find out what is happening with the books and I apply the same principle. Threads I don’t care about, I don’t read, threads I care about I read. If people stop reading Larry’s books because they don’t like his personal politics its their loss and their issue. Just like if people don’t watch the Avenger’s because They don’t like Joss Whedon’s politics (or Sam Jackson’s) its their loss and their issue

  35. Oh and Bob to add to what Larry said. I watched a grocery union sit and say we want to strike because they want their workers to pay $100 a month for medical for their WHOLE family. My other half that works a non union job to add just ME to his medical would pay $500 a month and his boss is generous. Oh and whining when they get paid $20+ an hour for a cashier job that any other business pays at best $10 an hour I have ZERO pity for. Damn straight I would have crossed that picket line to work. I NEED a job and am more than happy to make that kind of money. And talk about moocher party. The governor here in California wanted to raise taxes to go to schools. Problem one is that money was also available to the general fund. Second problem they said that if it failed they would CUT spending to the schools that is nothing short of political blackmail.

  36. Larry, very well put!!! And I will have to look into your books. I have never heard of you, but that is not surprising with the long hours I work and lack of time to read. Audio books would be great though as I spend about an hour each way traveling to work and back

    Keep up the grert posts Larry and I look forward to hearing you books.

  37. I’ve got to say, you have a new reader. I love Sci-Fi, can’t wait to download my first book, as soon as I figure out how to do it on my Kindle…

    1. You have to buy the e-books from the Baen Books site. They’ll give you all the instructions on getting on your device when you buy. If I can manage it, anyone can. 🙂

    2. How to read Larry’s books on Kindle:

      Go to http://www.baenebooks.com/ and set up an account. Then go to http://www.baenebooks.com/s-176-larry-correia.aspx and pick the books you wish to purchase. Then download them, using the instruction at http://www.baenebooks.com/t-ereaderinstructions.aspx#kindle. Then read. Cheaper than the paperback, no DRM, no limit on the number of formats you can download them in, or the number of times you can download them.

  38. my uncle worked union machines for 25 years company moved down south from MA went to work non union 15 years retired got 350 DOLLARS A MOUNTH UNION 2000 NON YHEY TAKE YOU BLOOD

  39. Larry,

    I’ve never heard of you or your works before today. Thanks to a friend’s post, I have now. I’ll gladly take up Bob’s share regarding your profit margin. I like the way you think, and better yet, the way you responded to his sniveling drivel. I am proud that I once helped to break a union strike, facing down their thugs and taking their pay. I now proudly serve our country in the military, and have done so for near 30 years now. I look forward to reading your novels and being entertained by your hard work.

    Semper Fi

  40. Sir,

    In regards to your propensity to offend, I have only one thing to say …

    If proper gun control is the use of both hands, use all 10 fingers to offend. After all, you want to deliver the message.

  41. Blogs are tough to have conversations on. I’ve already blew it and replied to some folks, so in for a dime, in for a dollar.

    You all have a very good point, and I’ve been thinking about it today. I was wrong in writing to Mr. Correia and telling him to shut up. I didn’t mean it that way, but that’s how it came out.

    Now, it seems to me that Springsteen is doing things positively, not trashing those who disagree. Maher is a political comedian, and that’s what he’s selling.

    But I’ve never written lefties, no. I’ve also never written righties. This was a first. And you’re right, folks. I shouldn’t try to shut up Mr. Correia. My apologies, sir.

    But I do tire of your side’s insults. Look, folks, you are calling every person that voted Obama all kinds of insults and names, saying how terrible they are. “Oh, and you should all vote Republican ’14!”

    Now, how insane is that? You don’t want us to vote for your side? You want to permanently write us off forever?

    Because the side of pissed-off white people is shrinking.

    And me? I’m Libertarian when it comes to social issues. BIG TIME. I don’t think the government should tell you what to do in your own home, and to your own body, as long as you don’t affect anyone else.

    And to me, the biggest moocher is Mitt Romney. He made his billions by borrowing money to buy companies, then they sucked the wealth from them, leaving a worthless hulk, then they used the government, via the bankruptcy courts, to get out from under the money they owed.

    Plus, when HE wanted money from the taxpayer, such as in the Olympics, he had no problem.

    No, Obama isn’t perfect, but he’s no Kenyan Socialist Communist. He’s a moderate Democrat.

    But I’m still one of those who believes in voting, and let the chips fall where they may. I do not hold any of you in contempt. I think we are all Americans, and we all have a place here. I don’t want to wipe YOU out. I think we have to respect each other, and if we do, we can come to a better world. I have a bunch of right-wing friends, one of them an ex-sub man. We sat down and found lots of places where we could come together.

    So, in closing, Mr. Correia, keep doing what you’re doing. My apologies. I’ll ignore what I don’t like. I didn’t mean to try to shut you up, I just wanted you to see another side. I do hope you answer my questions from my previous post about future plans!

    1. *Sigh* Bob, you say “I don’t want to wipe YOU out” but if you look at what Mr. Obama proposes (and you supported with your vote) it is nothing less than the establishment of a permanent welfare state with punitive taxes on anyone who tries to climb the ladder. That is, in fact, a direct assault upon the classic American dream of working hard and getting ahead.

      All I can say is: you changed your position after thinking about other similar public figures. Keep on thinking.

      1. I was brought up in a liberal union household. I was taught that hard work was the most important thing. I was taught that you work your way up, and you don’t take welfare or handouts, but that they need to be there for those who need them. I was also taught to be proud to pay taxes. You have to have them for a society.

        I climbed the ladder with no problem. I don’t think you have a realistic view of what liberals are really about.

        I’m one of those guys who thinks we need to take care of people in need. I just don’t think we need to give all that tax money to the rich folks like the Waltons. To me, they can build their own damned stores. I’m tired of having to pay them to do so.

      2. Bob, no one is saying we don’t need to take care of those in need. I just don’t think the government’s job includes charity. If you want a social safety net, run it through charities instead of the IRS.
        I also do not object to paying taxes. They are necessary for the government to run. The problem lies in the how much the government wants, and who they want to pay it.

      3. Bob W.:

                You say:

        I was brought up in a liberal union household. I was taught that hard work was the most important thing. I was taught that you work your way up, and you don’t take welfare or handouts, but that they need to be there for those who need them. …

        I don’t think you have a realistic view of what liberals are really about.

                Well Bob, I’m an amateur historian.  I’m also the son of a welfare mother who got off welfare by getting a job with the welfare bureaucracy (WE NOW PAUSE FOR VARIOUS SMART REMARKS ABOUT GETTING OFF WELFARE BY STAYING ON WELFARE . . . THANK YOU; MOVING ON).  I have to tell you that you don’t know what liberals are really really about.

                Back in 1968, when we had just gotten off welfare, a nice young white, middle-class summer school teacher told my class about a shocking encounter she’d had the day before.  At a basketball court, she’d met a nineteen-year old girl with three out-of-wedlock children, and a thirteen-year-old with one illegitimate child.  She had just encountered welfare as a voluntarily chosen way of life, and was gobsmacked.

                At the time, the nineteen-year-old was eligible for Aid to Families with Dependent Children till the day her youngest child moved out of the house, eligibility being of course extended if she had more children, and the thirteen-year-old would become eligible for that deal the day she became sixteen, as long as she swore “under penalty of perjury” that she didn’t know where the bairn’s father was, and that she received no money from him.  (For a look at how that worked in practice, see George Gilder’s Visible Man, which among other things recounts a sixteen-year-old taking that oath, then going out to lunch with a couple of friends and telling them about how much she loves her child’s father, who lives with them; the acquaintances are welfare workers she ran into at the office the day she applied for welfare, and committed perjury.  It doesn’t occur to the welfare workers to report her to the cops.)

                Do you know the history of AFDC?  It was created during the Depression, and Congress was told that only widows with children would be eligible.  After it was law, administrative fiat extended coverage to those never married.  Through the fifties, some efforts were made to get the fathers of out-of-wedlock children to provide support for their kids, and to curtail welfare payments when support was received from the father, or money was earned by the mother, with the aim of getting people off welfare.  In the 1960s the bureaucrats stopped doing that.  It was invasive and intolerant to try to curtail fornication outside marriage, or curb bastardry.  Caring liberals shut that down.

                The results of such payments “for those who need them” (your words) was a great likelihood that the mothers would remain in poverty their whole lives (which reduced their life expectancy), that the children would have a much higher likelihood of being murdered or ending in prison, and that the next generation would get the same shitty deal.  Throughout the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties this continued, with the living conditions of the poor getting ever worse (boy, what I could tell you about the housing project we lived in when on welfare, if this wasn’t going to be too long already).  Finally, the evil, uncaring Republicans got control of both houses of Congress, and partially changed this, over the objection of liberals who predicted disaster.  The change is now likely to be undercut by Obama’s administration, which is unilaterally attempting to change the law by executive fiat (arguably illegally, but who cares about law anymore?).  If the welfare rolls start expanding again, and the murder rate among the poor starts rising again, how many liberals do you think will say ‘Gee, maybe we shouldn’t have fucked with welfare’?  Mickey Kaus will say it, and then he’ll tell you to vote for Democrats who will continue that welfare policy.  And he’s the only liberal I can think of who will be that honest about the situation.

                You say of Obamacare:

        It doesn’t make determinations. It’s pretty simple – it just says that you have to have health insurance. Hell, Obamacare was devised by the Heritage Foundation! The private sector is still in charge!

                Sorry, that’s not true.  It does say that certain classes of people have to purchase insurance or pay a tax, but it also says many people with insurance will be legally required to pay much more for than their insurance than it should cost them, in order to subsidize the ‘insurance’ of others.  If the Heritage Foundation came out with a plan to do that, please give me a cite to the plan, and the part about the mandatory subsidies.  I’d really like to read it.

                But regardless of what the Heritage Foundation did or didn’t think up, a plan that tells the insurance industry ‘You must sell insurance to some people at a loss, and overcharge others to compensate for that loss’ can NOT be described with the words “the private sector is still in charge” — not honestly, at any rate, by anyone who knows what he’s speaking of.

                I leave aside, as unimportant, the people who are going to dropped from full to part time employment to avoid the higher premiums, or whose workplace will just stop offering insurance as an employee benefit.  And it would be churlish to bring up the Republican attempt to allow individuals to buy health insurance with pre-tax dollars, thus giving people more control over their insurance.  Could’t have that.  But I really must ask if you have read the “Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act” from beginning to end.  If so, perhaps you can tell me why a law that supposedly does nothing but require people to buy health insurance runs 906 pages in PDF format?  (The brave may find it here.)  On the other hand, if you haven’t read it from beginning to end, then I have to rate your sentence that says “It’s pretty simple – it just says” as a deliberate lie, since you don’t actually know what’s in it.

                Finally, you write:

                    I’m against forcing a woman to have an abortion. But I’m also against refusing her an abortion. That’s a decision that the government should stay out of – it’s between her and her doctor.

                    Let’s try a few slightly different versions of that:

                I’m against forcing a woman to own slaves.  But I’m also against refusing her slaves.  That’s a decision that the government should stay out of — it’s between her and her slave dealer.

                I’m against forcing a woman to pimp her five-year old.  But I’m also against refusing to allow her to pimp her five-year-old.  That’s a decision that the government should stay out of — it’s between her and her customer.

                I’m against forcing a woman to shoot her kids through the head.  But I’m also against refusing her the right to shoot her kids through the head.  That’s a decision that the government should stay out of — it’s between her and her gun dealer.

                    The entirety of the abortion argument comes down to this: the “pro-life” group sees the unborn as a human being, with a right to life, and wants the govt. to protect said unborn.   The “pro-choice” groups sees the unborn as having no rights, and thus says its fate may be left to the mother.

                    I can see how reasonable people might disagree on whether and when an unborn becomes a human being, and acquires a right to life.   I can’t see how a reasonable human being can regard the unborn as a human being, and abortion as the moral equivalent of infanticide, and still say ‘Yeah, go ahead and let the mother murder her child at will.’   Still, I know there are people who say just that.   But I absolutely can’t see how any honest liberal can be blasé about abortion.   Liberalism’s proudest boast is that it cares about the poor, the weak, the powerless.   I can see honest liberals being in favor of policies that I regard as horrendously harmful to the poor, weak, and powerless, precisely because they disagree with me about the effects said policies will have.   But no one can pretend that abortion is anything but killing an unborn something that might or might not already be a human being, and that will certainly become a human being if it lives long enough.   Yet modern liberalism says that a full-term neonate that is in the process of being born, and that can be delivered alive without any physical harm to the mother, can be slaughtered at the mother’s whim.   Nay, further, modern liberalism insists that if the child somehow survives the attempt to kill it and is born alive, it may be finished off by the doctor at the mother’s request.

                    Joe McCarthy was famously asked if, at long last, he had lost all decency.   Liberals defend outright infanticide as a mother’s sacred right, and congratulate themselves on their humanity.   At long last, liberals, have you lost all honesty?  Have you lost all sanity?

    2. Bob W.,

      I’d love to ask you a question, as it’s one I’ve had for a while but no one to ask it of.

      How do you reconcile your statement that the government shouldn’t tell you what to do with your own body with Obama’s health care bill that makes a good many determinations about what we do with our bodies?

      I want to be clear that this isn’t a dig or an attack in any way, I’m genuinely curious.

      1. It doesn’t make determinations. It’s pretty simple – it just says that you have to have health insurance. Hell, ObamaCare was devised by the Heritage Foundation! The private sector is still in charge! You don’t have to have any procedure.

        I’m against forcing a woman to have an abortion. But I’m also against refusing her an abortion. That’s a decision that the government should stay out of – it’s between her and her doctor.

        I’m also for contraception. Why is it your side is all against government, except where it comes to sex?

        1. I don’t know anybody on my side who was against contraception. Their arguments against abortion are an argument about when does a fetus have the rights granted to a citizen, which is a legitimate question. Your assumption that the Republicans want to do away with contraception proves the author’s point. You’re ill informed.

      2. Bob W.,

        Thank you for taking a couple of seconds to help me understand. I really do appreciate it.

        I see telling me I have to have health insurance as a determination regarding my health. I would be surprised if I were alone in that point of view.

        And I can’t speak for all people on “my side,” but for me it’s not about the government telling someone they can or can’t do something. It’s about taking a portion of my money and using it for something I believe is wrong. I absolutely agree that medical decisions are between a doctor and patient exclusively. The government doesn’t need to be part of that. The government likewise, in my opinion, does not need to be subsidizing elective procedures.

        Additionally, I’m not against all government, but I do not see it as a solution to problems.

      3. I really, really wish we could drop the discussion of abortion here. There’s just no percentage in it. Neither side is willing to negotiate away any part of their stances on it. One side considers abortion an intensely personal and intimate matter, and woe betide any who want to butt in and make it for them; the other side considers it equivalent to infanticide, and that is not a ‘right’ anyone should have.

        Giving ground on the pro-choice side comes across to them as saying it’s okay to let other people decide for women what should happen to their bodies. Giving ground on the pro-life side comes across to them as saying murder is okay, so long as the victim is helpless or inconvenient enough.

        Bringing it up as an example of “Why don’t conservatives agree with my stance here? I’m basically saying GTFO of my personal decisions, I thought you guys liked that!” suggests an incomplete understanding of the pro-life position. I’m reasonably sure there are equivalent holes in my own view on the matter, but that’s the point: there are plenty of better examples we could use to debate the health care law, and this particular one takes a tremendous amount of maturity to discuss objectively. There are easier ways to go about this than jumping straight to the one issue almost guaranteed to set people off.

        For example, health care determinations. True, many decisions are ultimately up to you and your doctor, and insurance generally covers most routine procedures. However, Kathleen Sebelius wanted to set limits on what health insurance companies could charge in premiums, and what doctors could charge for a given procedure. Similarly, her Department of Health and Human Service wanted to set “guidelines” (that all insurance providers must follow if they want to participate in the exchanges) on what procedures they would be allowed to cover, subject to cost-benefit and outcome-effectiveness evaluations. Those moves seem a lot like the federal government trying to demand something without looking like they’re demanding it. By setting a price for something that may exceed its cost, the DHHS essentially chokes off demand and support for procedures that don’t meet its standards. I have yet to see any evidence that development of those standards takes into account any input regarding doctor-patient relationships.

        True, there’s no DHHS apparatchik personally deciding your fate as you try to pursue some treatment or other… But I can’t say it is just you and your doctor making that decision in confidentiality, either.

    3. Bob, I’m just a random guy who reads this blog, but I want to say – I disagree with pretty much every position that you held in that original letter, and I agree with most of what Larry said — but I think you did an excellent job of being polite and reasonable, and that Larry got a little carried away in his rant in a way you didn’t necessarily deserve.

      Thanks for trying to be part of a dialogue instead of just trolling like most of the liberals who bother to argue here.

    4. Bob w.
      I am sorry you are right Obama is not a Kenyan Communist; his damned father was a Mau Mau Kenyan Communist. Obama’s Mother and grandparents were Communist. His Grandfather was fired from Boeing for sabotaging bombers on the manufacturing line. His Grandfather asked Frank Marshall Davis to be Obama’s mentor from 10 years old on. Davis was a card carrying communist and editor and publisher of the Chicago Star a Communist PartY newspaper. By Obama’s own admission he liked to hang out with out with Communist/Marxist professors and Muslim Students at Occidental College. At Columbia he studied under Andrew Cloward and Francis Piven, avowed Socialists who coined the Cloward-Piven Strategy for over loading the American Welfare System so that a true Socialist State could be founded. (sound familiar with 47 million Food Stamp recipients). Then he turns up in Chicago as buddies with Bill Ayers and Bernadette Dorn who help launch his political Career. Bob you have drunk so much Left Wing Kool aid you eyes must be the color of Fruit Punch. If Obama is a moderate Democrat then I am the King of Siam. GET THIS STRAIGHT HE IS A COMMUNIST, ANTI_COLONIALIST, MUSLIM SYMPATHIZER, LEFT WING RADICAL WHO WANTS TO DESTROY AMERICA. AS SOON AS HE WON THE ELECTION HE ENDORSED THE UN SMALL ARMS TREATY TO BEGIN THE DISARMAMENT OF PRIVATE CITIZENS. HE HATES THIS COUNTRY AND BOB HE HATES YOU TOO YOU JUST NOT HAVE FELT THE CHAINS TIGHTENING AROUND YOUR NECK !

      http://www.ijreview.com/2012/11/21875-obama-endorses-un-arms-trade-treaty-massive-gun-control-effort-underway/

  42. Larry, I have absolutely no idea who you are. Evidently you write in a genre that I ADORE and write similar stuff to mine but with far more success. Well, after reading this rant, I’m going out and buying your books. So, as you pointed out to Bob, for the loss of his $8, you’re picking up mine.

    And for the record: I decided the other day that from this day forward, I’m checking out the political leanings of companies with whom I do business, and if there is an option, I will choose either those who do not engage in politics or those who support conservative causes.

    Cobalt-Blue
    (Atlantis Unleashed and Cadre 5 Universes)

  43. Larry, I respect your opinion, of course, but this paragraph from your initial response made me a bit sick:

    “You voted for the party of bail outs, handouts, welfare, food stamps, government controlled healthcare, the Life of Julia, voting with your lady bits, racial quotas, Occupying Stuff, gun control, Obamaphones, and voter fraud, so I’m fresh out of pity if that hurts your feelings.”

    * Those “bail outs” saved the American auto industry and thousands of jobs.
    * As someone who has dealt with stretches of unemployment, knowing that there is support out there should things get even worse gives me some sense of relief. FYI, I have applied for 115 jobs in the past couple months alone!
    * Same thing for President Obama’s healthcare reform. Having been unemployed and working in a freelance capacity for various companies that do not provide health insurance, I have gone long stretches unable to afford things like COBRA, etc. I’m lucky at the moment, thanks to my wife’s company, but there are tens of millions of fellow Americans unable to afford healthcare, and don’t go tossing the Emergency Room nonsense around because that isn’t free and it only deals with “emergencies”
    * Voting with my “lady bits”… Sorry, but that’s possibly one of the most insulting things you could have posted here. A woman’s right to make decisions about her own body is something I will defend to my dying day.
    * Racial quotas? Give me some facts about this. Just tossing out Limbaugh or Hannity code words tells me nothing.
    * “Occupying Stuff” – More power to them! We have the freedom in this country to dissent and to protest and I wish MORE people would get out and make some noise about issues that affect them!
    * Gun Control – What extreme gun control are you talking about here? I realize you’re a gun dealer and you have privileged information, etc., but what’s the story? I’ve heard about no worrisome gun control programs so far… In fact, it was under Bush that this country saw a federally ordered confiscation of weapons after Katrina. Where was the outrage then???
    * “Obamaphones” is another FOX News talking point… The cell phone program was started by Bush. http://www.factcheck.org/2009/10/the-obama-phone/
    * Voter fraud??? There are only a handful of legitimate issues of voter fraud on the books over the past few decades! And there are examples in regards to both parties! Hardly something I would link to Obama (or to Romney). Idiots come in all shapes and sizes…

    I’m sorry, but you may have legitimate issues with some of President Obama’s policies (as do I (he’s far too conservative for my tastes)), but just tossing out easily debunked comments (snopes is a great place to start for some of your points) doesn’t help your cause.

    Good luck with your success and keep writing entertaining books!

    ~Scott

    1. No time to respond to everything, but real quick:

      1. Those bail outs cost a fortune of tax payer dollars. We can’t afford to do that. What makes your job more sacred than anybody else’s job? The government can’t afford to bail out every company in trouble. Oh, and they’re still in trouble, still hurting, and the American auto company that didn’t get bailed out is doing better than the two that did.
      2. If you’ve applied for 115 jobs and not got one yet, you may want to examine your skill sets and resume.
      3. You don’t know anyting about the ACA other than what you’ve been told about it on the news, do you? No. It is crap. But what do I know? I’ve only had to go through training on it, and how to make it work for a couple of hundred people. It doesn’t do what it is advertised to do, and it is big, and stupid, and expenisve, and destined to crash.
      4. Lady bits didn’t come from me, it came from the Obama Campaign.
      5. Racial quotas… Hannity? Rush? Uh… I’ve run businesses… I have to do EEOC reporting to the DOL. I live in the real world and have to make businesses run. Talk radio doesn’t have anything to do with it.
      6. If you think OWS is a good thing, you know about as much about history as you do about health care. Thanks for playing.
      7. Democrats are the party of gun control, and this is arguable how? Okay. Name every single gun law. Which party passed it… Friggin’ derp.
      8. I don’t like when Bush gave out free crap either (oh, wait, that’s what you guys call “reaching across the aisle”), but you can shove Fact Check. I’ve already proved them wrong on a few topics I’m a highly paid subject matter expert on. :p And once again, not my words. Didn’t you watch the video? “GOTAA GET YOUR OBAMAPHONE! AIN’T GONA BE NO ROMNEYPHONE!” If that offends you, too bad. I get stuck with Todd Akin, you get stuck with the moochers like her.
      9. Voter fraud, because read what I wrote originally. Because inner city Cleveland and Philly are turning out votes better than Hugo Chavez. And I’ll put my hunch as a professional auditor against Snopes, thanks.

      1. 115 job applications is that per week?
        If that per week you arrn’t trying very hard or are being really damn picky.
        I used to send out 30-50 a DAY when i was seriously looking.

      2. I would just like to register my complaint over the fact that the vast majority of Americans have no fucking clue what it’s like to live entirely off of W9 income.

        So you lived on working in a “freelance capacity” with no health insurance provided by someone else. Boo fucking hoo. I’ve paid for my own insurance, as I’m self-employed, between 1994 and 2010. I had a damn good individual plan that covered my family well. In 2010 we got a notice from our carrier that because of pending changes as a result of Obamacare we would have an increase in our premiums. The increase was going to be almost 100%. I had been paying, in rough numbers, $450/mo and it was going to go up to $875 for the same coverage. I pay only slightly more for my mortgage. Now we have my wife’s plan from her work that’s almost half as good as what we used to have and still costs more. What a miracleworker Obama is! Fuck the Nobel, let’s get him a sainthood.

        When in the fuck did it become evil to be successful? Apparently working hard is only okay if you never see any real financial reward. Working hard and not getting ahead isn’t honorable, it’s stupid.

        I swear, if this country did away with tax withholdings for employees it would be great. Then everyone could figure out how much money they really pay to the government because they’d have to actually pay it out of their pocket rather than having it disappear before they’ve held it in their hand. People would have to plan ahead and – gasp! – save actual legal tender to pay to the government.

    2. Unemployment would be nice but it isn’t offered to me. (I have to pay into it but its not offered to Contractors) If I lose my job NOW I have to pay my savings to the IRS in the form of a FINE because I lost my job.
      (how does that grab you) that year. I will then have to pay another fine the next year if i do get a job because I wont get benifits a full year after hiring. (eligibility requirements)

      So Lose a job NOW and I get to pay a fine for the next two years.

      Sounds pretty good to me.

      EOE is a form of racial quotas. I carry 4 folks on my staff right now that I cant fire because of racial bias. But I can be fired at any time.

      Gun control – International small arms trade Treaty. The wording would basically supersede national law

      Voter Fraud. How did some counties in Colorado have more than 100 percent votor turn out? How did Philly and Cleavland manage 99 and 100 percent turn outs when Philly got its BUTT KICKED by a Hurricane 3 days before? (Power outages and all) And Cleavland had Tropical Storm Winds and light flooding the days following on the North side by Lake Erie.) I managed to VOTE with No ID No proof of identification whatsoever but three people in line with me were told they had to do provisional ballots because they had reportedly already voted.

    3. Troll. The fact you repeat talking points like a freshman KosKid gives you away.

      In addition to the rebuttals already offered by Larry et al, — as a woman, I found Obama’s creepy entreaty to my “lady parts” the most insulting thing in his campaign (well, after “you didn’t build that,” because I did; and “vote for revenge” — and now he wants to be my president? GFL). The entire “#waronwomen” BS was a classic “keep ’em in the kitchen” tactic, employed by Democrats ever since the Glorias descended on us like a curse. I will probably be an old woman (and I’m 52 now) before the leftish women in my circle understand how they’ve been played.

      Meanwhile, those who think with our ladysmarts find Larry’s articulation of our thoughts (and yes, feelings!) after this election positively cleansing.

  44. Larry, I tend to agree with you. Having said that:

    1) Don’t you think it’s time to acknowledge that there’s a sizeable pool of voters who can’t stomach the Republicans’ social agenda, while being fiscally sane? I personally know quite a few. I don’t want to keep having to wash my hands after I vote. If the Republicans were smart, the Todd Akin debacle would be a wakeup call.

    2) The only time in living memory the Republicans displayed fiscal sense was the short time Newt Gingritch was speaker of the house. Afterwards, they promptly threw him to the dogs. And then ran insane deficits in the two GWB terms, while giving us such gems as No Child Left Behind and the DHS.

    Isn’t it about time for the Republican party to do some thinking?

    1. “1) Don’t you think it’s time to acknowledge that there’s a sizeable pool of voters who can’t stomach the Republicans’ social agenda, while being fiscally sane?”

      No. Assumes facts not in evidence, your honor.

    2. 1) absolutely, because i’m one of them. it’s part of the reason i wouldn’t vote for romney. (the other part being that i think he’s a self-aggrandizing political chickenshit that would fall all over himself to ‘compromise’ with – read: make concessions to – the left) i’m goddamned tired of seeing the religious right’s retardation (eg: we can’t let FAGS get married!!11 the world would grind to a halt! our (totally benevolent) god would smite us with plagues and volcanoes and shit!!) kill our chances to elect someone that will stop the big government deficit spending hemorrhage.

      2) yup. and as for bush… man. never in my life would i have thought i’d feel nostalgic for the days when the guy that brought us no child left behind and the patriot act was in charge =(

      that being said, i reckon we’ve missed our chance to turn it around. even if the repubs smartened the fuck up and ran a real candidate next cycle, i think the leftists will have already established their perfect welfare bloc. that combined with the fact that only a small minority are really hollering about the >100% voter turnout in CO and other such voter fraud cases leads me to believe there’ll be no getting them out of power peacefully anymore.

    1. Or WordPress is set so that I have to approve comments the first time a new email address shows up to combat spammers, and this is the first time I’ve gotten online today.

      Jackass.

      1. And in case you think you’re all brave, and you called me out and shamed the big mean conservative into displaying your post, and I’m like totally lying, look around, becaue you’ll notice that 34 other comments just magically appeared as well, about 30 of which are on my side.

        Seriously, jackass.

  45. Good Job, Larry.
    Having been a “union” member a couple of times in my life, I would like to say, “I have been screwed by the “union” just as often, if not worse than by the company”.

  46. Wow. The guy spends at LEAST half of that message telling you how much he loves all your books and supports you, and this is how you respond? Were you having a bad day or something? This isn’t about politics; you sharing your opinions has never bothered me, but he was nothing but polite with you.

    “I spend several hundred hours writing a book. If you got a paperback, you give me $8, of which I see less than a dollar in royalties and then I give a third of that to the government, (so yeah, your state government probably made more in sales tax on that paperback than I took home) and in exchange I entertained you for probably 5-12 hours.”

    Good to know. Good to know that you couldn’t care less about my money. Guess I shouldn’t have bothered donating to the RPG Kickstarter, either, since it was funded just fine without me. I love your books, and I’ll continue to read them…but since I can see that one or two customers mean nothing to you, I guess I’ll make sure to buy your books used from now on.

    Not that you care, but I’ll sincerely be sad to stop visiting this site.

    1. It’s not that one or two customers mean nothing to him … it’s that the few liberal customers he has seem to think they are entitled to order him to not publicly voice opinions that are different from theirs.

      What kind of sorry assed fascist are you, that feels that because he bought a book and sent a paypal donation, that he has any right to tell a man to shut the fuck up on his own blog?

      1. Wow, I must say people make less and less sense. Hey I’m just a young republican guy though.

        Let me start off by saying I love Mr. Correia’s works. I love living in a country where we can freely express ourselves, oops, forgot about Bob’s message.

        As for Mr. Correia caring about his customers I guess I don’t see where he doesn’t. He doesn’t care about our money so lets not buy his books? Where does that make sense. I don’t want to read a book of someone that cares about the money, I want to read someone that works for hundreds of hours on a book that provides me, and countless others, with years of enjoyment. I thank Mr. Correia for that. That shows me he cares for his customers. Sharing the true depth and passion of the characters and worlds he creates.

        As for the whole political discussion, I already stated I was republican so that says it all.

      2. You completely missed the point, whobriant:

        Buying som eone’s book does not give you the right to demand they shut the fuck up and stop offending you.

      3. Well Kristopher, in re-reading my response…. I never said that buying an ebook gives anyone that kind of right. I was commenting on other areas of the post.

        I do apologize if there was any confusion.

    2. Your taking what was said to one person and expanding it to the whole. Your expansion is a fallacy known as the composition fallacy. Though it appears you are running it in reverse which is a new one on me, normally someone makes a statement about the whole and says because a member is part of the whole they automatically have the same characteristics. The one being the guy who would censor Larry’s statements under the guise that having consumed his product gives him a right to dictate whether Larry can express his opinions or not. The whole being all of his fans.

      Clearly the post was made towards Bob and those who would force Larry to censor himself for their comfort. It was not directed at all of his fans. It wasn’t even directed at his fans who disagree with him. Only the ones who would try to control and limit his free speech simply because his livelihood is tied into their actions.

      So yes Larry is right in saying that he can care less about someones money if they then use that money as a sword of damocles to censor his speech. So unless you intend to make demands of his free speech by the sword of your dollar he was not addressing his comments to you.

    3. As I said in response to Bob W. above, your message comes across as ‘Shut up about your political opinions, or lose money.’ Any time anyone on ‘the Right’ suggests doing that, we hear screams of “McCarthyism” and ‘unAmerican suppression of the right of free expression’. Apparently, only ‘the Left’ is allowed free expression any more.

  47. I completely understand the dead, and the moochers and the idealists voting Democrat. I can’t fathom why somebody like Bob, who almost certainly has worked hard his whole life, voting for them.

    1. Wow, I must say people make less and less sense. Hey I’m just a young republican guy though.

      Let me start off by saying I love Mr. Correia’s works. I love living in a country where we can freely express ourselves, oops, forgot about Bob’s message.

      As for Mr. Correia caring about his customers I guess I don’t see where he doesn’t. He doesn’t care about our money so lets not buy his books? Where does that make sense. I don’t want to read a book of someone that cares about the money, I want to read someone that works for hundreds of hours on a book that provides me, and countless others, with years of enjoyment. I thank Mr. Correia for that. That shows me he cares for his customers. Sharing the true depth and passion of the characters and worlds he creates.

      As for the whole political discussion, I already stated I was republican so that says it all.

  48. Totally random and only tangential because you mentioned your profit margins.
    Please tell me you make more from e-books bought through Baen online than paper backs bought through amazon. I read e-books over traditional books whenever I can. Even though my Kindle Dx is lighter I can prop it up in ways that make it so I don’t have to hold it. Being able to read and not hold the book in one set position for hours at a time is a lifesaver when you have a metal plate in one wrist and arthritis in the other from a less destructive break.

    Anyway just hoping that the e-books I buy puts more money in your pocket than traditional books.

    Oh, and I’ve decided to buy MHI(in paperback) for that White Elephant book thing I’m going to in December with all Lefties who love big government. I’m hoping when they read the first chapter and realize it’s a pro gun anti government controlling everything book they throw it back at my head so I can get you to autograph that copy.

    1.         This subject has come up before, on Baen’s Bar, and iirc, the royalties, from highest to lowest, are eARC, hardcover, regular e-book, paperback.  I’m fairly sure about the last three, but I could be wrong about the e-ARCs.

      1. That puts e-books above paperback. If so I’m glad it puts extra money in Larry’s pocket.
        IMO(as an avid reader and e-book author) e-books should deliver more royalties to the author, and less to the publisher. The publishers don’t have to pay for raw materials, the printing process, shipping, storage and a host of other expenses. So an e-book of the same or similar price should have that extra savings go to the author. They are the ones who work their butts off to produce quality material.

        1.         As I understand it, the price a publisher gets for a book is typically about half what it is sold for retail, and the author’s royalties come out of that, as well as all the publisher’s costs.  The people who distribute the dead tree editions, and sell them to the customer get the other half.

                  Baen apparently budgets its books so that all or almost all costs for acquiring and preparing a book for publication, plus printing, is born by the printed books.  The e-books can be sold for $6.00, with a generous royalty to the author, because the only work involved is turning the manuscript into various electronic (RTF, Kindle, Nook, etc.).

                  If e-books become the dominant mode of publishing, then the costs borne by the publisher in acquiring, editing, and promoting books will have to be borne by the e-book, but the elimination of printing costs and distributor/retailer costs means that anything over about forty percent of the hardcover price is just greed.

      2. Thank you for that saintonge, I’ll admit I’m still learning about the whole publishing industry. I knew it wasn’t a simple business, but after I got my first book edited and ready I found out just how big a bit I’d taken out of something I don’t know anything about.
        I see how you’re saying that printed books offset the costs of the e-books in terms of initial editing, cover art, promotion etc… That’s one of the reasons I think e-books should send more money to the authors because the book was already edited and promoted.

  49. I posted your original “Congratulations” post on Facebook, as you said everything that I’ve wanted to say and just didn’t have the eloquence for. It started a shitstorm with my liberal “friends” . I might have to post this as a rebuttal, because it’s once again exactly what I’d say but don’t have the eloquence for.
    You’re my Cyrano De Bergerac LOL . Well done.

  50. Gotta admit I had never heard of you and found you via: A Sarah Hoyt link of recent vintage. But I am certainly a fan now and will be purchasing shortly.
    Regarding your above succinct response, I am in awe, to put it mildly.
    A large Hoo-rahh to you, sir……..

    1. I have to agree with CPKM. I had such a blast reading through the Monster Hunter series and am finally onto book 4. I’ve listened to the first three at least six times and enjoy it as much as the first time. Enjoy!!

  51. This just made my Monday morning. The realization that obumble voters really are blind and deaf (or else just plain stupid is confirmed once again.
    Can’t wait for all of them to check their parents into to an obama hospital and find out the hospital gets a “bonus” based on how many older patients it terminates(read the story about Britain’s NHS.).

  52. Hold up… 1 second there Mr Corriea.

    I have one disagreement

    You do have a fairly heavy handed message
    Guns and knifes and explosives are pretty damn cool and the 2nd amendment is a good idea.

    Fortunately I agree with the message.

    1. California is on a death march to oblivion. I just do not want to have money transferred to them from the Feds , which is a Red State to Blue State Cash infusion. We are going to see Southern California turn into a Super “Escape from LA” movie in the next 4 years. My only hope is that the Left Wing Supporting movie stars have to move. But where the heck could they go! My prediction for the country sort goes like this:

      Four more years of Obama means: Higher Taxes on all Fossil Fuel, Much Higher Gasoline prices approaching Euro fuel costs to consumers, Average middle class consumer cannot afford motor transportation, Automobile Sales Stall GM approaches bankruptcy again, Many many more EPA regulations collapsing businesses and putting a stranglehold on the Oil business. Targeted tax and EPA punishment for Exxon Mobile – Chevron – BP – Valero, Additional punishment for Texas in general by the Feds and that vindictive SOB Obama, More EPA regulations on Drilling, A roll back of frac’ing and a corresponding increase in Natural Gas prices, Carbon Taxes on Power Generation Companies and Oil Companies, No oil sands pipeline into America because the Stupid Californians say its dirty oil, Canadian Export of oil sands to China because the US will stupidly not take it, Iran gets nuclear weapons and Obama kneels at the Ayatollah’s feet and let’s them sell their oil to Europe and China, The US does not achieve oil independence, the Drilling industry activity moves to Brazil, the South China Sea, ASEAN, and Western Australia, Texas based oil exploration and drilling companies are punished and weighed down with further EPA regulations, Houston and Texas unemployment soars, Vastly Increased government backing of Solar and Wind power projects and companies with the same results as Solyndra, China dominates the Solar panel market and America’s balance of trade continues to suffer and suffer, and suffer, Blue States raid the Red States for tax floats for failing municipal Union Pensions, Teacher Union give aways, and unfunded Federal Pensions, Obama issues many, many executive orders aimed at strangling the 2nd Amendment and taxing gun ownership, Ammunition prices soar with increased federal taxation and regulations, The UN Armament agreement is passed by the Senate and gun confiscation starts, Blue State populations continue to shrink as ti becomes more difficult to make ends meet, Detroit and Chicago city violence increases as gang violence spreads to the suburbs, Law enforcement effectiveness decreases in all urban areas despite increased police forces, Despite 100,000 more teachers financed by taxes on energy companies and fuel student performance continues to drop, Illegal Immigration soars as more and more illegals (sorry non documented) people cross into the Southern Border States, Drug gangs and violence flourish in the US border states, As usual the Federal Governments does nothing, Individual citizens and neighborhoods makes attempts to arm and barricade their areas from roving gangs, Houston, LA, San Diego, San Antonio, Chicago, Detroit, etc become off limits for Caucasians, Fire and Police in major Urban areas cannot contain violence and arson, So Larry’s books all come true except the monsters are Left Wing Zombies moaning for more taxes and eating the brains out of women and union members. A fun time will be enjoyed by all in the Obama years. Oh and I forgot Obama’s tax guys are trying to figure out how to their hooks into IRA’s even before they are distributed including Roths as well. Taxing existing wealth is next damn thing of course. This is almost as good as the guys at Auschwitz popping the gold teeth out of the mouths of dead camp victims. And oh yes never never forget the Nazi’s were Socialist. The term fascist was invented by Roosevelt to put distance from the Left Democrats and Adolf. At base they are the same fellows i.e. if you can’t tax it just take it.

      1. While the term may have been adopted by FDR in his radio addresses to help tell all them foreign fellers apart, the term Fascist was invented by Mussolini for his left wing revolutionary efforts in Italy in the 1920s as part of his pitch to restore the glories of the Roman Empire. The word refers to a symbol of Roman civil authority, the fasces, which was a bundle of sticks tied around an axe.

        Other than that, everything else you wrote sounds pretty much correct, especially the Snake Plissken part.

        1. Thank you FlyingMike I will definitely stand corrected and will incorporate this valuable piece of information into my knowledge base. In any case the Fascist term is a left wing Socialist moniker. Socialism takes many different forms of evil.

      2. The part of me that likes peace hopes you’re wrong. The parts of me that like getting into fights, and is willing to work hard kind of welcomes the chaos.
        I have a strong work ethic and know if the defecation hits the oscillating blades I will be able to do something to find profitable work. Hell I miss the feeling of working all day and coming home bone weary to a good meal, I only stopped day laboring because it wasn’t practical while going to college.
        I won’t lie there is the possibility that the mobs could chew me to the bone, but if I make it out of their area of influence there is a chance.

        1. Oh I hope I am wrong as well. But as the boy scouts say “Be Prepared” ; reiterating my advice before Gold, Guns, Lot of Ammo, Whiskey, Medicine, Food, Generator, reliable Water Source, reliable Neighbors.

      3. I do have a minor start. Instead of the mounted light system I was looking at I cashed in my Easter gift card for ammo. You know you have a good Ma when she gets you a gift card to your local shooting range for Easter.
        Hope you’re able to stock up and stay safe as well.

  53. If you receive more than a certain percentage of your income via state or federal handout, you don’t get to vote. That cuts out the vast majority of people under the Social Security Act umbrella mooching (including welfare, unemployment, elderly, etc.), and makes pandering to the moochers of all types less valuable. I would also add that a basic civics quiz should be required. That would cut down on the people talking about “This is a democracy! Put it to a vote! It’s not Congress’ business!” or “It’s Obama’s/Bush’s fault that my business model is a failing one! They should do something to keep me from having to use the resources available to help myself!” or “The President keeps raising/lowering taxes!”

    That is the root cause in my book. People are uneducated about what basic, basic powers the local, state, and federal government has at each level, and aren’t inclined to look further into it because they don’t have to. They are perfectly willing to go all in on any nonsense that sounds even semi-reasonable (whether possible or not, usually not) or feeds their existing notions.

    Our current political climate has the people that know what’s possible and what isn’t filling the uninformed with nonsense designed to promote themselves above all. I understand that you need a strategy that will win, but there are honorable tactics and the shitheel tactics of a punk.

    To get back on topic, Larry, I love your books. Still need to buy Legion, but I’ve got so many books in the queue that I might as well wait until a few more Baen authors have some more books I want to get. I don’t think you are offensive, your goals just need to be clarified for the people that care what you think beyond an afternoon’s entertainment. People that think you have some sort of obligation to be even-handed and magnanimous to opposing thinkers on your blog (HE DOESN’T!) might be offended, but they don’t get it. Keep on doing you, and hurry up with those books. 2 more by Christmas? I would love a comedy series, BTW. The Prometheus Captain’s Log was funnier than shit!

  54. It’s that first line that really gets to me. Larry is not a servant or a bot or something/someone who exists just to amuse others and then go back into his box. I appreciate the fact that he interacts with his fans as he does. I wouldn’t WANT him to be any other way.

  55. “Yeah, and big L libertarians and Ron Pauloids, save it. Heard it. You comment in every thread. Yes, the republican party is just as bad, blah blah friggin’ blah, which is, once again, why the Libertarian party has accomplished jack and shit, ever, but you can pat yourself on the back about your purity, while meanwhile the candidates that actually come closest to your beliefs have all been republicans from the Tea Party. Because at least they show up.”

    The “I am pure and true to principle” irritate me more than Leftists, the accomplish jackshit and always torpedo the republican party efforts …

    Let them drive with purity in their gas tank and eat Ron Paul pictures for diner.

    1. ironically, the ‘vote for the lesser evil’ people like yourself annoy me more than the leftists too. you castigate us as being idealists that torpedo the efforts of the republican party even as at least thirty years of history show the republican party growing farther and farther away form small government principles, embracing the power of the federal government to impose their religious beliefs on people by regulating what people do in their own homes, and simultaneously making concession after concession to an increasingly socialist left on economic matters.

      let you drive with rainbows and corn syrup in your gas tank because your candidates wouldn’t hold to their principles and refuse to compromise with the leftists when they crippled our energy industry and then appointed an ‘energy czar’ to oversee it, and eat nothing for dinner because they took away your ‘anti-government’ mitt romney pictures right after they regulated our agricultural industry into bankruptcy.

      1. and what have you ‘realists’ actually achieved? the socialist shithole we’re currently swimming in, that is.

        but let’s say you’re right, and no one without an (R) or a (D) after his name stands a chance at getting elected. then why the fuck does the republican party keep running weak ass RINOs like romney and mccain? how ’bout you man the fuck up and run a real small-government candidate under the republican name? how come they don’t abandon the religious wackos like akin and mourdock who want to legislate from the bible and back someone that simply wants to excise the massive government tumor sucking the country dry?

        answer: because the republican party is no longer the party of small government. it’s the party of whatever the christian version of sharia law is. the party of socially conservative, fiscally liberal big government, as opposed to the democrats’ socially liberal, fiscally marxist big government.

        you say the problem is people like me: ‘starry eyed idealists’ who ‘waste’ our votes on ‘protest’ candidates that have no chance of winning. i say the problem is people like you: people who have accepted that only (R) or (D) will ever win and that any vote for anyone else is a waste. there are MILLIONS of people like you, on both sides, who all say to each other ‘oh well, may as well not even try to fix the problem, if i don’t vote for romney (or obama) i may as well not even vote’, each reinforcing the others’ beliefs. like one big self-fulfilling prophecy. or a herd of particularly retarded sheep.

        get this through your thick little sheepy head: you CAN NOT compromise with someone who wants to destroy your entire way of life.
        the leftists want to turn us into greece at best, the USSR at worst, and they will NOT turn from that course. the republicans refuse to stand up to them. we need to find someone else who will, before it’s too late.

        if it isn’t already.

      2. Libertarians actually holding office, i.e. in a position to change things: Zero, because they lack the maturity to convince others to vote for them.
        It’s like Luxembourg telling us how to handle race relations or the Cold War: you can’t really affect the outcome, nobody wants you as allies, but you CAN whine about how the people actually doing things aren’t doing them your way.
        .

      3. DaveP wrote: “Libertarians actually holding office, i.e. in a position to change things: Zero, because they lack the maturity to convince others to vote for them.”

        The reason Libertarians don’t win office is not lack of maturity. It’s the fact that the country’s electorate opposes Libertarian policies.

  56. I was never really into scifi but you and the Hoyts have shown me I should give it another look. If it’s what my people are writing it must surely be work I’d enjoy.

  57. Let’s also remember there really IS a “war on women.”

    Girls are not seriously taught math in public school. It’s for a reason. If they could really understand the concept of 16 trillion, they would not be so mindlessly voting for Democrats all the time.

    1. A very good point. It seems women are rushing to the cliff to jump over with the rest of the lemmings. I wonder what would have happened if Republicans could have restrained the evangelicals to cool it on abortion. Would women have voted republican. I think the answer is no republicans just do not pass the cool test. So we are back to high school again where cool trumps all sense and logic. That is a troubling concept because Charlatans like Obama and his coterie of rock musicians and movie stars like Springsteen, JZ, Hanks, Longoria, etc can be the pied pipers to the children we allow to vote. Next thing you know Snooky will be Secretary of State. Hmmm now that i think of it she would have done a better job than Hillary. At least she would have had a better understanding of street fighting in Benghazi

  58. Hey there! I dunno who you are, I’ve never read your books, and I have no idea what you posted that made “Bob” write that letter. Allz I knowz iz, I loved your response. So, thanks for that!

    Heck, it was so well-written, maybe I SHOULD buy one of your books…

  59. I also just found you via Sarah Hoyt (also a gifted writer, like you), via Instapundit. Glenn’s Army of Davids.

    Thank you for laying it out. I write for a living as well, but haven’t been able to put it quite as mellifluously as you have. You are awesome and I will buy a book of yours even though not a fan of the genre.

  60. My two cent’s worth on welfare: I work in a large midwestern regional grocery chain as a cashier. The amount of working, two parent families with EBT cards is STAGGERING.

    And the infuriating part is that when they come through, their carts have junk food, beer, energy drinks, etc. And they have smart phones, either Droids or iPhones.

    And they drive fairly new (less than ten years old) cars. It’s almost a sure bet that at home they have digital cable and internet, and a large flatscreen, and all other sorts of electronic crap.

    And these peckerheads are the ones who voted for Obama. And their union, too.

    The only thing worse than them are the welfare queens coming through with phones that cost more than I take home on payday.

    So no, f*** welfare. And f*** Obama. And I’d say f*** you to Bob W, but that’s too good for likes of you, you stupid, self deluding, idiotic, moron of a useful idiot.

    Sorry for the language Larry, but I’m no mood to be civil. The right has tired has tried being civil, it’s gotten us jack squat.

  61. howdy, i have a question maybe you folks can help. I’m hearing lots about voter fraud. if this is true and I’m hearing lots of folks say it is and that there is evidence to say it is true. does that not make the current government illegal? And if that is true and no other part of the government does anything about it. Does that not make the hole of government illegal and that the citizenry, then should then be in open rebellion ageist an illegal government?

    1. problem is, there’s only a few people that believe the evidence at all, glaringly obvious though it might be. of those few, there’s only a few that would be willing to countenance open rebellion until it got to the point of the gov’t openly nationalizing businesses and appointing ‘special police’ forces.

      as for the citizenry as a whole? well, almost half of them are directly dependent on gov’t to survive (the famous 47% that the obama campaign turned into a facebook meme). they’re not going to rebel unless someone takes the trough away.

      no, open rebellion has somewhere between 0 and -1% chance of success. that’s why our best bet is a peaceful secession, but even that is highly unlikely to succeed. the current system is built on the concept of a small productive class supporting a vast majority of leeches. if they let the productive ones leave, upon whom would the parasites feast?

    2. Why do you think there is such a heavy push against the 2nd Amendment? Our right to have and bear arms gives us, the citizenry, the tools we need to fight a tyrannical government. To reset our leadership, to

    3. I think the government has slowly been making it impossible to openly rebel since the reconstruction era. Fewer and fewer people even know which end a gun to look down. Let alone have common sense enough to survive in the chaos that a rebellion would cause. I honestly think this was done on purpose, slowly demilitarizing the citizenry as a whole.
      On top of that we have the largest military in the world, any rebellion would be quashed in days if not hours. The military structure has changed as well. Pre-Civil War soldiers were more loyal to their commander be it Major, Lt. Col, Col, or Gen.. Now soldiers are given tours of duty moving them from one command to another preventing a strong bond and sense of loyalty. Soldiers hardly ever serve in their home States anymore. Plus the majority of the soldiers don’t even have weapons on them throughout the course of their duties. Making an open military revolt next to impossible.
      The entire system has been retooled to prevent secession by any means other than peacefully which I doubt will be granted. The only thing to do is prepare yourself for the collapse. Keep your ear to the ground as to where intelligent like minded people will gather post collapse to begin rebuilding and have multiple plans on how to get there. Or go full mountain man for a few years and then return when all the culling and fighting has finished.

    4. Ralph, IANAL, but I don’t know that proving someone committed election fraud invalidates the election under U.S. law.

      As for being in open rebellion, the question is moot. If you become convinced that Politician X stole an election, are you going to put a bullet through him? No, you aren’t.

      The fact is, open corruption and crime is part of our unwritten but real constitutional tradition. If you can’t be bothered to stop them before they steal it, then in a real sense you’ve given your consent to it.

      Here in MN, I believe there was a good deal of vote fraud. At my polling place, it seemed like most of the voters were doing “election day registration.” And surprise, surprise, two controversial ballot measures went down to defeat, including one requiring voters to show picture ID. But the people of this state, including me, can’t be bothered to prevent vote fraud. So we’ll take what we can deserve.

    5. Indeed it does and are you aware of the petitions from 20 states for secession. Texas alone has over 58,000 signers. Although this is largely symbolic now perhaps we can capitalize on the ground swell to organize a true secession for Texas from this failing republic hijacked by communists. Mr. Sjonnar comments are very correct that even with the a majority in the house of Representatives supported by Red States, the cabal of the Religious Left made up of the Judiciary, the Executive Branch and Senate have their way with us. Indeed they are raping the Red States as we speak. It is high time we considered disassociation with the Northeast, the Mid-west, and California. They do not represent the zeitgeist of the Red State people. So like the founders we are faced with the same intolerable conditions that compel us to say as they did;

      “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

      Does this not now sum up our situation with the Blue States. Do not all reasonable people feel we have been ignored for many years and are now being raped through Taxation and Vile regulations that bridle business and the human condition. Our traditions and values are scorned and made fun of ; and, our children and young people do not learn values that will serve them in adulthood.

  62. thank you for your replies. though, i do see no one really answered my question directly. however, considering the replies about open armed rebellion. i must then surmise that if a government is in power illegally then it was the moral duty of the citizen to then be in open rebellion to said government.

    and yes, military speaking it is a bit harder these days, considering war is even more specialized then it ever has been before. It be like the Scots convent. Pitch folks to muskets and cannon. I suppose that’s why government are even more openly contempt of their populous these days.

    I read some where about withholding something from a tyrannical government. “If the stated needed arms, then withhold those arms from the state.” and for a country that party became a country over, over taxation. We have little to no ability to withhold said taxes to the state. Which is what the state so desperately needs.

    Thank you for your replies and input I’ve heard several points I haven’t really ever thought about before.

  63. Larry
    Your response to Bob W is classic and should be shared to a lot of conservative authors, singers, companies who are threatened with financial blackmail if they don’t shut up because their liberal costumers don’t like the person’s political/economic or religious viewpoint .

    Bob W
    You as a costumer does not give you a right to silence, intimidate, blackmail or coerce any author/entertainer/singer/owner just because you do not agree with their political/religious/economic viewpoint especially on that person’s own blog. True, he might lose your business, but that is your decision and truth be told, many people would still buy Larry’s work because they find it enjoyable and it will offset the lost of your company which means your threat of a boycott will not work on him.

    Sjonnar
    I hate to break this to you, but modern conservative religious wackos while noisy can’t get their agenda done even when they have majority support on the Hill, the White House and the Senate whereas the leftist religious wackos can get most of their agenda done even when they are the minority because they have the full support of the media and an active Left activist judiciary even though the end result is catastrophic for the country and it’s citizens in the long run.Consider that now, they got the Senate, the White House, the media, the entertainment world,academia and possibly the Supreme Court to help them carry out their agenda and you are worried with the Religious Right Wackos when the other side is ready unleashed their full religious insanity on the country and the American people? Consider the Wade v. Roe ruling, the USSC removed the right of individual states and it’s voters to decide if non-medical abortion can be made legal or illegal in their states via judicial fiat and nobody in Congress, Senate or even the White House can’t reverse the darn thing without being called a woman hater. If the Judiciary can legislate from the bench, how soon do you think that they with enough leftist Supremes on the bench repeal the 2nd, the 3rd, the 4th ( which is regularly being violated already by both sides) and the 10th as well as Amendment 20 and 22 to fulfill the Leftist Wackos greatest desire of political dominance . Silly me, a lot of conservatives are more worried about the Religious Right when in truth, they should be all worried about the religious Left who are more effective in getting their religious laws done in regards to the environment, obesity, guns, speech, race, immigration and religion without a single complaint from conservatives who hate the Religious right.

    1. I did not try to blackmail anyone. Quit trying to blow this up beyond what it was, just trying to have a dialogue with Mr. Correia. I sincerely do not want to harm Mr. Correia in any way.

      Businesses usually don’t try to alienate their customers; sure, Chick-fil-a may have had a big day once where people who love their gay hatred came out and bought their stuff, but they’ve been backing off, which likely means their stance hurts, not helps, the bottom line. I think that Papa Johns will probably regret their latest press. Applebees sure is running away from the franchisee that wants to fire people so he can feel good about losing the election.

      I certainly look at such actions and shake my head.

      1. Bob W.

        Alec Baldwin: http://popwatch.ew.com/2012/05/23/alec-baldwin-republican-twitter-rant/

        Charlie Sheen is, among other things a “Truther” and public about it.

        Bill Maher: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/22/bill-maher-undecided-swing-state-voters_n_1905886.html

        Rosie O’Donnell: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2010/02/16/janeane-garofalo-and-rosie-odonnell-attack-limbaugh-beck-hannity-hume

        Well, I could go on and on.

        Did you write to any of these suggesting that maybe they should tone down their own rhetoric since, you know, close to half the country supports causes and politicians that they regularly vilify?

        Or is it just conservatives/libertarians that receive the generosity of your “advice”?

      2. Oh, Chick-Fil-A isn’t “backing off” of anything. A relatively innocent statement was made by an officer of the company. It was blown _way_ out of proportion by the activist community. (Oh, they also were reported to have donated money to “anti-gay” organizations but it turns out the “anti-gay” activity was suggesting that if one of the Disney theme parks was going to have “gay pride” parade at which NAMBLA–look it up–was going to have a presence, then perhaps the parents bringing their kids to Disney should know about it.) Two cities then attempted to use the power of law to restrict the company from doing business based on that officer’s personal religious views. Freedom of religion, Freedom of speech. Freedom of _conscience_. That’s what the “counter-boycott” was about.

        Papa Johns? Costs are expected to go up because of Obamacare. (Don’t think that will be the result? I remind you that our host is an accountant and has pretty thoroughly destroyed the “it will save money’ claim.) As a result they have to cut costs and lay people off. So what do folk do? Boycott Papa Johns, reducing revenue, meaning they’ll have to lay off _more_ people or go out of business which means _everyone_ will be out of work. Yeah, that’s a great plan. @_@.

        And so on.

      3. You know, Bob, your ignorant bigotry is one of the reasons the country is coming apart.

        The head of Chick-Fil-A says he believes in the Biblical concept of marriage, and the only meaning you can get from that is ‘I hate homosexuals.’ Obviously, anyone who has a different opinion than yours is wrong, because there couldn’t possibly be a good reason to oppose “gay marriage.”

        People like you display this smug attitude of ‘I’m infallible, and anyone who disagrees with me is both stupid and evil,’ and then they wonder why those they sneer at don’t like them. You insult people for daring to be have different ideas, and keep saying that dissenting from liberal opinion will bring punishment in the form of lost income, than deny that you’re trying to blackmail anyone. I suspect you must be trying to convince yourself, ’cause everyone else sees through this nonsense.

    2. and i hate to break it to you, but they absolutely can. or could, in the past at least. prohibition was one such example. and it’s not just the religious right that i’m worried about; your comments about the religious left and their theocracies of environmentalism and multiculturalism surely ring true. i would never support them either. i doubt any of us would.

      but the akins and murdocks of the world are loud and obnoxious, like the women’s christian temperance union and prohibition party before them. and when they and their views are not repudiated by the more libertarian-leaning members of the republican party, it scares us. because it reminds us of the religious left.

      now you may be a religious man. lots of folks are. larry too. and most of you would rather live and let live. but some of you don’t. some of you want to ‘bring this country back to god’s law’ or whatever nonsense. some of you want to RULE people. and i don’t want to be ruled by your bible any more than i want to be ruled by the left’s [insert treatise on multiculturalism here]. just because i hate the religious left does not mean i should support the religious right.

      the enemy of my enemy is not my friend. he is my enemy’s enemy and nothing more.

      1. Yup, it took a Constitutional Amendment to repeal an earlier Constitutional Amendment that essentially ended Prohibition . Do you really think the Left would let the voters of the 51 States of the United States have an informed decision to change the Constitution or even give them a change to vote for or against it just for the off chance that the Left would lose ? They are in it for the win and they don’t give a damn shit of what both of us think, of what of all America think, they won and they get to change the rules. Any attempt to change the law will label any conservative politician, group and companies as murderers, women haters, racists and anti-poor. Can you tell me, any Democratic laws that were repealed lately ? Title IX? How about CRA? How about Affirmative action laws? The joke among Conservatives is that GOP laws have an expiration date while Democrat laws are forever.

        Really, if Akins and Murdochs of the world are loud and obnoxious, explain to me, Jesse Jackson and Charles Rangel , both known for their racism and known shakedowns of American companies, of Michael Mann and Al Gore of the Global Warming canard. Hell, they are loud and obnoxious and they are not being repudiated by the more saner part of the Democratic party if there was ever one. And oh yeah, they gotten rich and politically powerful whereas Akins and Murdoch are done politically and financially.

        Sorry, haven’t been active in church since I left the P.I. in 95, only went rarely for weddings, funerals and while on vacation with Christian friends. Here is the thing, the Religious Right wouldn’t be so bloody noisy and obnoxious about it if the Left didn’t target their faith openly as well as converting their children to the Left’s own ideology. Can you really blame them if they decide to raise a ruckus about it ?

        Oh please, don’t insult our intelligence, some of your type wants to abolish religion when they get a chance to rule, some of the left wants Sharia to be instituted while others wants to have the white majority politically emasculated. There’s always some power hungry bastard in every group who wants to institute his agenda and we got one in the White House right now for another 4 years. Here is a hint, 99% of the Religious Right don’t give a shit what you do or don’t believe and they tune out and turn their backs on the 1% who have delusions of grandeur like the Westboro Baptist sect or cult. But once you go after their faith and their children, all bets are off. Unfortunately, the Left is not only interested with our money, they are also interested in our children.

        In my case, the rule of thumb is that if you are insecure in what you believe in, then there is no point in any of your argument . All the rest is vanilla.

      2. you keep making arguments that i am not now and never have refuted, but have no bearing whatsoever on the one i’m making. let me again reassure you: i view the religious left as far more dangerous and evil than the religious right. WHICH DOES NOT MEAN THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT IS NOT DANGEROUS OR EVIL.

        jesse jackson is the founding father of the black KKK. charles rangel is as slimy and disgusting as anything i’ve ever found on the bottom of my boot. mann and gore are deliberately trying to convince not just a whole country, but a whole world of a fake crisis in order to make a bald grab at power. shitbags one and all.

        the left would never, Ever, EVAR permit its pet laws to be overridden while they retain power. their ultimate goal is the abolition of all freedom for anyone not of their special ‘enlightened’ few. you’ll never hear me say a single word in their defense. ever.

        and no libertarian wants to abolish religion. hell, some of us, if not most of us, are religious folk. and you can believe in whatever Invisible Wizard Who Lives In The Sky you want to. all we want to do is keep people from telling us how to live our lives based on what the voices in their heads tell them.

        you keep giving me examples of how bad the left is. i’ve never argued different. water is wet, roger that. got it. that doesn’t make your side the good guys. you want to beat the left? get your god the fuck out of politics and get back to small-government values.

        standard disclaimer: it may be too late. welfare state, etc, etc.

  64. I have never read one of your books, but I will thanks to that eloquent rant that could have spilled directly from my own brain.

      1. Why would someone’s political affiliation make them throw the book away? The books are quite enjoyable to read and don’t seem to hammer on one political ideology to the point of making it only appealing to members of one particular political party. You people are strange.

      2. Mark, These are extreme liberals who love the government and hate guns as well. To be fair MHI is pro gun, and paints the government through the view of the FBI as incompetent jack booted thugs.

        I’m not saying I would throw the book, but I am guessing they will based on my interactions of late with liberals. They seem to be getting more and more upset and prone to outbursts these days. It wasn’t even my first guess as to their reaction someone else pointed out that the book might be thrown at me. Since then the idea seemed appealing to me.

  65. To the libertarian-ish guys posting here: you complain about the religious voters who won’t look past their views on abortion and run into the embrace of Libertarians? What about the Libertarians who won’t get past the drugs-at-all-times-for-everybody-with-no-rules mindset? Would you rather be ruled by Team Donkey if they let you have drugs with no rules, or give up drugs and receive more freedom? If it comes down to either/or, do you want drugs or all the other freedoms?

    1. Give up a freedom to have more freedom… Really? You do know that many Libertarians don’t actually care about consuming drugs themselves. It’s a liberty issue not a get wasted issue.

      Do you even know or understand the drug issues? Did you know Doctors are willing to hand out Rxs for morphine to orthopedic patients and that morphine strips the minerals away from the bone causing more pain and a longer healing time. They would rather hand out morphine Rxs than medical marijuana because they can still get in trouble even in states where medical marijuana is legal. How is that not insane, Doctors are handing out Rxs that hurt their patients because they are afraid of getting in trouble for handing out an Rx that can help the patient.

      You can’t argue “to get more freedom you must give up a freedom”. That goes against the core of what Libertarians fight for.

      All that aside, Libertarians have more in common with Republicans than Democrats. Libertarians and Republicans can benefit each other, but instead you would rather fight Libertarians on a Liberty issue because you don’t have a clue about the issue itself? So instead of working on things you have in common you would rather point out the differences and fight over them. Well isn’t that what Democrats due? Point out differences between two groups of people and hope that they can get them to fight over their differences instead of coming together on things they agree on?…

      Honestly cut your nose to spite your face why don’t you.

      (Hey look at that, wordpress switched from my screen name to my real name.)

      1. Very impressed by the dialogue on here. I’ve never heard of Larry’s work before, but I was linked here through a friend, and have spent the last 2 hours consumed by the comments. To that end…

        Spencer, marry me!

      2. I very much like the dialogue on this blog myself. Even the majority of dissenting opinions are well written, aren’t full of logical fallacies, and show an honest attempt at civil discourse. I’ve even seen a few people admit they were in error. I value civil discourse so much, but it’s hard to find these days. To me civil discourse includes being open to being proven wrong.
        It’s sad that so many places on the interweb aren’t civil anymore. I’ve even had people butcher definitions of terms or philosophical stances to fit their argument. When I prove their butchery is wrong, or prove my argument with solid fact they often resort to insults.
        *rant over*
        I’m glad I was able to contribute to Larry’s blog and your enjoyment.

        1. Indeed your comment is the very essence of free speech and dialogue in a liberty oriented Republic especially the notion that people should have the courage to air their beliefs in a forth right and explained manner to grow and synthesize their ideals and ideas.by interaction with others. All to often the discourse goes from civil to nasty bypassing the notion of spirited exchange.

    2. Dave O.,

      Would you rather be ruled by Team Donkey if they let you have drugs with no rules, or give up drugs and receive more freedom?

      It’s not the drugs, Dave-O; I could care less about the drugs. It’s all the civil liberties you people are willing to toss on the bonfire in order to stamp out the drugs.

      It’s y’all’s tone-deafness on this that is infuriating. If you think drugs are enough of a scourge on this country that the occasional Kathryn Johnson is a reasonable price to pay to stamp them out, then I just don’t know what common ground we have after all.

      1. I agree Tam(weird that that’s the name of a friend of mine),

        That’s the thing. Regulating something that is a victimless crime only forces the underground to grow. When the underground grows that’s when crimes with victims start to occur. I don’t see how people can’t understand that.

        I’m not talking about doing away with all laws and the criminal code as many Liberty opponents accuse Libertarians of. I’m talking about getting rid of laws that make people criminals for victimless crimes.

        Not to mention personal accountability, if someone is dumb enough to kill themselves on drugs that’s their business. If they harm others then it becomes a legal matter for which we have civil courts, and criminal if it reaches that threshold.

        On top of that you have examples like yours of Kathryn Johnson. The collateral damage from the “war on drugs” is quite high. The War on Drugs wastes both money and lives, both are things that are to be valued.

      2. I might agree on one condition; for all the drug addicts not one penny of public money should be spent on them. No free needles or drugs, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing. If they totally took care of their own needs with no crime against others to pay for it (including driving while under the influence), I could maybe go along with it.

        But I also spent a bit of time in the Netherlands and what I saw there doesn’t fit with the Libertarian Utopia I sense from your point of view. Amsterdam, from what I could see (and this was almost 20 years ago), appeared to be imploding with the cost of all the derelicts it attracted. If we have to pay for all that (and it looked to be more expensive with the numbers of them) I think the cost in dollars and ruined lives could be as much or more.

        My kid is a cop, and he tends more on your side for marijuana use, not meth and some other drugs. My preference is capital punishment for the big, hard drug dealers. And none of this paying for 20 years of incarceration before it is done; three strikes and you are toasted within the year.

      3. I might agree on one condition; for all the drug addicts not one penny of public money should be spent on them. No free needles or drugs, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing.

        I don’t want that stuff for anybody, so sure, we’ll include drug users in the broader class of “anybody”.

  66. Hey Larry I just wanted you to know that I’m a democrat and I could frickin care less about your politics that is not why I read your work. I read them because they are rippin good yarns and they kick major ass. Simple as that. Your politics is just that, yours. When I come to your website I scroll to what I want to read and read it, what I don’t I ignore. Politics has its place……it’s up to each of us wether or not to engage in it. The fella you replied to just seems a little emotional. I’m not…….as long as you keep writing books I’m tickled shitless. Cheers.

  67. Larry, I adore your books – read ’em with luscious joy as soon as they come out – and 100% agree with everything you said in this post. YOU ROCKED IT!!!! By all rights, I should be liberal: I live in California. I am a teacher. I’ve had to belong to a teacher’s union (by force, but still!). I have a Ph.D. But…I’m a staunch conservative because, like you, I can do MATH. Crazy, crazy, crazy people out there are thinking with their emotions-minus-their-brains. Most liberals think that we conservatives are hard-hearted baby-killers. Nothing could be further from the truth! I have spent my life in service to others – and still…I CAN DO MATH. Well, at least enough math to realize that living in a fantasy world of “free money” is never going to do anything but bring everyone down and make us all a riot-filled, violent, terrible place to live. So Larry – keep doing what you’re doing. And make multiple millions of dollars. You’ve earned it with your humor and your talent and your work ethic!!! Oh – and we’re moving to Texas.

  68. *nervously edges into the room*
    Um, hi, RusVal here, professional Independent and slightly frustrated voter. Want to say I’m a big fan of Mr. Correia’s work, hope to get Legion soon. Also occasional frequenter of this blog, so I’ve been exposed to his views a few times. Just thought I should post some thoughts, from the viewpoint of someone not as informed as he would like, but trying his hardest to make the right decision anyway.

    *Harumph-hum* Okay.
    Mr. Correia, you have made many an argument that is both valid and thought provoking. And slightly heated. And backed by guns. However, I would like to point out that of all the people that the Republicans could have elected to go against Obama, Mitt Romney should not have been that choice.
    Over the course of his campaign, Mitt would contradict his own stance on issues, sometimes in the same week, unedited on live TV, and particularly during his debates against Obama. The third debate is very telling, since he, after slamming Obama on issues on national security in previous showings, proceeded to agree with everything the president was doing on the subject.
    On the subject of the economy, whilst Obama would explain his plan (whether people actually agreed with it is their business, I’m not passing judgement), Mitt would constantly dodge the question, usually with vague things like “by closing loopholes [that I won’t tell you about until I’m in office]”. How will his plan be better? “By being better” was all that I heard from him.
    And while it might seem minor for most people, the “horses and bayonets” event really was important for me, since having a commander in chief decide on his military composition based on a 1914 report seems like poor planning. Military strategy is more than just meeting quota, it’s having the right tools for the job at hand.
    Finally, it should say something about a candidate when the state he was governor of (and had headquartered his election day party in) voted against him, as well as all the states surrounding it, and the states next to those states. Including ones that normally vote Republican.
    So, in closing, whilst I can understand your most likely well informed position against Obama, I, a man who voted for McCain four years ago, could not in good conscience hand the reigns of my country to a spoiled out-of-touch twit like Mitt Romney.

    I’m sorry.

    Now, if you will excuse me, I’m going to disappear off the face of the Earth as my post gets swamped by flames.

    *Yoink*

    1. Well, you are right on the not being well informed thing. 🙂

      No offense, Rus, and you seem like a pretty reasonable guy, but a good chunk of what you just said could have been condensed down as “Democrats in the news media and Facebook memes told me a narrative about the republicans, and I like totally believed it! What are you gonna do about that!?”

      Okay. Not gonna spend a lot of time on this, because this post is several days old so hardly anybody will be reading this reply.
      1. On the economic details. That was crap. There were plenty of economic details about what the republicans wanted to do. You’ll note the 600 economists for Romney link I posted here many times. I had no problem understanding what they were getting at as a professional finance guy. The info was there, but everytime they’d say anything, it would be “This isn’t detailed enough!” (coming from the party that hasn’t passed a budget in 4 years) and then as soon as somebody like me would start talking numbers and codes “But this is booooooooring, what’s on the other channel?” So spare me that.

      2. As for the military… Dude… Seriously? Obama sounded like an idiot on that line. “We got ships we can land planes on now! I even had one within range of Benghazi but didn’t bother to use it!” But don’t take my word for it. If you want to see the opinions of people who actually know/do military stuff for a living, please note that Romney won the military vote and the retired military vote by like 40+ points. 500 retired generals and admirals backed Romney. Colin Powell backed Obama. Guess which got more media coverage?

      3. As for running Romney, yep. In the primary you vote for who you want, and in the general you vote for who you got. This is the 2nd time in a row the republicans piced a moderate. I wasn’t in favor of that either time.

      4. As for Mass voting Democrat… Friggin’ dur… At this point in time the democrats could run Elmo the Muppet and Mass would vote for him, just like Utah would vote for Satan as long as he was running against a democrat.

      1. Larry, I think more people than you realize are still following this, trying to come to grips with what we as a country have just done to ourselves. All those layoffs we’re already seeing? That’s just the opening act. As you well know, mine is a pretty small company in the grand scheme of things and we’ve recently found out that our health coverage is going up 53% in the first year of the new regime alone. Profit margins run lean at the best of times and something like this can and will shut out a whole bunch of the small business owners pretty quickly. And of course there’s Pelosi and Feinstein’s plan working against us as well… To all of you who decided that it was better to have Obama in office for another four years than to have a mushy republican, just watch what those unemployment numbers do and what effect it has on our economy and remember that YOU thought this was the better of the two choices. It won’t be Bush’s fault, it won’t be the GOP’s fault- it will be all YOUR doing. Math is a harsh mistress….

      2. Lepuskhan:

        All of us Republicans have to take the blame for this one.

        We did not nominate a closer. So the Democrats got to go home and fuck the prom queen.

        We need another Reagan.

        Not another McCain, not a Romney, and dear god, not another Bush.

      3. Ha HA! Shows what you know. I don’t use Facebook (by choice), and watch next to no TV (Not by choice)! 😛
        So yes, my knowledge is, to put it bluntly, lacking. So I do the best with what I’ve got, and what I’ve got is a rabid Republican who could did nothing but point out Romney’s flaws in my ear during the debates (and then point out how surprised she was that Obama didn’t give her more things to complain about), a separate hard-working man who was forced to go union when his bosses sold out, screwing him out of his retirement benefits before lumping bullshit after bullshit on him in an attempt to force him to quit (just because you can quit doesn’t mean it’s preferable), and a full f%#*ing day of hearing nothing but “Obama will kill our children” “RAPE AND INCEST, RAPE AND INCEST!!” from Mitt’s “not-followers”.

        So I am sorry, but I have taken a long hard look at the Incompetent and the Twit, and found the Twit wanting.

      4. The Republicans fielded one of their weakest candidates. I imagine the thinking was “Well, everyone hates Obama, so even this guy could win.” Say what you will about Obama, he’s certainly far from my ideal candidate, but he’ll bring as much ruin to the country as any president ever did. Which, honestly, isn’t a lot. You might argue that Linconl’s federalism or FDR’s policies were about the height of it, but Obama isn’t close to either of those. Yet people act like it’s the end of the world. How good can their judgment be if four years from now, he’s out of office and the nation is pretty much the same as when he first started?

        1. Well just wait and see Bubba, at least Lincoln and FDR were not cold blooded Communist and Muslim Sympathizers. This guy, Obama is the Manchurian Candidate wrapped in Liberal Progressive red wrapping paper and as it turns out a damned liar on top of all of it considering the Benghazi example. The concern I have is what else is he lying about as he goes to see Putin. Is he handing over the missile codes, as well as dismantling the top Brass one at a time. Obama is traitor and time will show not only is he ruining us economically but he is destroying our military and National Security apparatus. A true rat of the first water; not to mention screwing up a whole generation of people absolutely depending on the government to feed them think for them and change their diapers. God I hate young people today.

    2. So you didn’t know enough of the issues so you let someone watching the debates with you sway your thinking? As for “Obama will kill our children” You do know it was the Obama camp saying Romney killed a woman with cancer right?
      Honestly I’m not even going to bother dissecting the rest. Either your a troll, or so willfully uninformed you aren’t even worth correcting at this point.

      1. “So you didn’t know enough of the issues so you let someone watching the debates with you sway your thinking?”
        The woman in question was the landlady, and the one who owns the TV, so that might have something to do with it.

        “As for “Obama will kill our children” You do know it was the Obama camp saying Romney killed a woman with cancer right?”
        Nope, I remember it very distinctly. The day before election, not a single one of those commercials was for Obama.

        As you can also probably tell, I’m not very good at defending my political position, so I’m just going to say: Just because Mitt Romney’s not Obama, don’t let it blind you that it is still Mitt Romney, and there are still occurrences where unions are still necessary, and just leave it at that.

  69. I sure keep coming back here and reading more… I keep getting nausious when I read the regular news and have to keep coming back to remember that not ALL americans are idiots. I posted on a msn news article that I keep seeing democrats as dancing around their celebratory bonfire shouting “We won-Suck it!” and rebublicans standing back shaking their head because the music being rocked out to is played on Nero’s fiddle. At least here I know most people will GET it. (and I wont be labled a racist,obstructionist,un-american,stupidhead hatey hate monger!)

  70. This sure is a small world. My oldest is an aspiring author and I went with him to a fantasy writers conference here a few years back and Larry, my kid and I had lunch together at a restaurant near the convention center in downtown Salt Lake City. I didn’t put two and two together on this until my kid reminded me of the lunch. My other kid is a cop and a bit of a gun nut who drags me along to IDPA, 3-gun, and (soon) IPSC shoots and seems to know of you in all this. I am a rather devout conservative (more on the Tea Party side of things), and for the last few years have been very active in the Salt Lake County GOP (a lowly precinct chair). I doubt you would know me from Adam, but in my conversations with my kids it sounds like we have crossed paths a few times.

  71. Spent some time thinking, and I’ve realized something: that was a fsking weak attempt on my part in trying to legitimize my voting for someone, especially considering all the evidence stacked against Obama. Do I think Obama deserves to be in the White House? No. But I got caught up enough in the fervor to think it for a time.
    So why did I vote for him?
    Want the truth? Since the author is someone I hold in high enough regard to even try posting this, I think we deserve to hear at least that.

    There is precisely two reasons I voted against Mitt Romney.

    1.)I had lost faith in the Republican nomination the moment they laughed Nute off the stage for suggesting that we have a moon colony. The fact that our nation’s expectations have gotten so low that we can’t even see the benefit of having one sickens me.

    2.)My Dad’s in a union, and Ryan is a known union-buster. If Romney got in, it was very likely lead to Dad losing his job. No matter how I feel about the guy, he is an honest hard-working peace-loving soul, who had a legitimate reason for joining, and he doesn’t deserve shit like that.

    That’s it. It’s simple, it’s petty, and probably shortsighted. But really, I think I’m beyond caring at this point.

    1. 2)… If Romney got in, it was very likely lead to Dad losing his job….

      So, the Communist-in-Chief is in for another 4 (or more, seeing how things are going the way they are). The democrat/union mentality will accelerate as will the decline of the US economy and will force whatever company or government union he works in to eventually collapse, but now there won’t be any other jobs for your dad to go to…

      It is at this point I would normally insert a disparaging, snide comment regarding this way of thinking, but I won’t.

      The reason I won’t is I don’t want to dirty up any more Larry’s wonderful blog. I would rather celebrate a creative soul’s efforts to provide a wonderful product (his writings) and his way of thinking (in this blog). It is a perfect combination; he offers us something that we can accept or reject on our personal decision. If we accept, Larry gets money for his family and we get something to enjoy. Again, it’s our decision.

      The democrat/union way of thinking is we don’t have to make any decisions. In fact, we are not allowed to. Many years ago I was forced to be in a union to keep my job. I ended up leaving a few months after the union took over. I couldn’t handle the stupidity and corruption the union brought in. The company I worked for was bankrupted by the union a few months after that and from my experience there the pro-union workers got everything they deserved, unemployment. I feel bad for the owner who had spent all those years and money building the business in the first place. At least back then there were other jobs to go to. The way the country is going we won’t have that choice when they bankrupt the country. Just look at Greece, Spain, etc right now if you think it can’t happen.

    2. Hmmm. I just looked at 1) a little closer…

      So, you are for investing in our nation’s high tech space endeavors? And, therefore you vote for the goon who completely shuts down our manned space program and thinks NASA’s primary purpose is to reach out to Muslims so they can feel better about their scientific accomplishments (which there aren’t any over the last thousand years unless you include using airplanes to test the construction of high rise buildings).

      You are a paragon to the effectiveness of the Democrats and unions control of our educational system.

    3. Somehow I find it hard to get from “A union-buster gets into the most powerless, meaningless job in Washington” to “My union-member Dad will inevitably lose his job.

      But thanks for your honesty. Sincere thanks, no snark or sarcasm.

  72. I’m not a religious nut-case who lives in a cave and holds up a sign that says, “The End Of The World Is Coming”, but I believe what the Bible says and guess what, folks: I know how it ends. The Bible says, “In the Last Days many men will be deceived, truth will become lies, lies will become truth, and the righteous will be imprisoned.” If that, my friends, doesn’t describe what’s going on in the world today, along with the “madness” the Bible says will take over, well, I just don’t know what does.
    The Bible is filled with prophecy, much of which has been fulfilled, and all if which WILL be fulfilled. For those of you who want to truly have the hair stand up on the back if your neck (and who doesn’t want that, eh?), get a book and read about it.
    The Middle East is on the verge of exploding. When that happens, and this is me simply moving through the logical steps as I see them, our lives are going to change and change quickly. Fuel prices are going to skyrocket….or fuel will become scarce…or both. Look what happened in NY and NJ from a storm; when the Middle East goes boom, and itvWILL go boom, Sandy will be a gnat on an elephant’s ass in comparison.
    So forget Benghazi, forget Fast and Furious, forget it all: madness from deceived men. Get your emergency food and water, guns and ammo, and find a place away from the rampaging throngs. Maybe you’ll survive…maybe. “It’ll all work itself out—it always does.” If that’s your answer to what’s about to come down, my reply is, “I don’t think it will this time.”
    May God have mercy on us all.

  73. I just thought I’d share that my FB fan page(for my book) got banned from “I love it when I wake up in the morning and Barack Obama is President.” after commenting on this picture http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/552254_501774093190346_1812324094_n.jpg .

    I said:
    I find it interesting that this map resembles the distribution of welfare cases in the country. With 1/3 of the cases being in California and as of the 2008 election results 82% of the welfare cases are “Blue states”. And they accused the Right of trying to buy the election, isn’t the Left buying it with tax money via welfare?
    Before you call me a liar I have sources.

    I proceeded to provide links to the NY Times, and IMBs data reduction site(I didn’t even know they had one till I researched this topic).

    I just find it interesting that the Left who claims to be for freedom of expression are often the ones who silence it the fastest. I’ve only banned 1 person from my FB fan page, and that was after offering them many warnings(and post deletion) to stop cursing. The responded calling me worse than Hitler and a fascist. So I finally banned them as they were obviously not going to stop, that was after almost 2 days of their yelling though.

    I enjoy civil discourse, as I feel we can not grow individually if we don’t let our views be challenged. If we don’t grow mentally, our brains eventually rot. So why is it the Left who are supposed to be for freedom of expression and free speech are so quick to limit dissenting opinions?

    (if y’all want the links I can provide them they require data crunching to which I also have in an excel sheet(I can make those available if someone really wants them and tells me how to publicly share). I went off the 2008 states that went Blue because previously that’s what the person who called me a liar said he would except as Blue states).

  74. I never heard of your books until today. Your rant sold me. I am at one with you on every point you made in your response to the knife maker.

    I will buy your books whether I read them or not.

  75. I’d like to stick my nose in and clarify just one thing. Before I do, let me produce my bona fides.

    I took my machinist’s apprenticeship beginning in 1980. For four years I was a union member. In those four years the bulk of what I was taught involved how to avoid work and responsibility. I LEARNED machining on my own, on equipment that would have been old when my father was born.

    Since then I have worked in a variety of industries as a machinist or machine repairman and most recently as a machine designer, programmer, and retrofitter of high custom CNC equipment. My company is the largest American representative of the largest most sophisticated machine tool manufacturers in the world. Everything we do is on the cutting edge of technology, and often the tech doesn’t even exist until we create it.

    So when Bob opined:

    “Most skilled craftsmen are union, and I think it’s a good thing.”

    All I can think of is “That is the merest bullshit”. I never met a “union craftsman” who wasn’t far more interested in his breaks, his benefits, his vacation, or his retirement than the quality of the work he did, and when he was held to any kind of a standard for quality he bitched and whined and tried to evade the work and the responsibility until the very last moment and then grudgingly, finally, exasperatingly did his job. For which he was being paid handsomely in wages and benefits.

    I have worked for the last twenty years in automotive plants. Heavy equipment. Light equipment. Automotive, aviation, you name it, I’ve been there. And to a single man the finest machinists and craftsmen I have known, and i have known literally thousands, were non-union, and in fact despised the union and all it stood for; because the union enforces equality where none exists. It is immoral and ignorant redistributionist evil to pay one machinist the same rate as the next when one is an inspired genius and the next a babbling moron, and the union is there to protect the babbling moron at the expense of the genius. I have seen this situation replay itself over and over and over again from the inside and from the outside, and it is always the same. The interests of the working man are of no value to the union, and never will be; the unions only interest is itself.

    Bob, I live in Northwest Indiana. I am a fat old man seriously out of shape, but anytime you like I will stand in front of you and say all of this to your face, because the truth trumps bullshit every time. I’ll even let you take a swing at me, if you so desire.

    But you’d better make the first one count.

    Mr Correia: I am about to purchase as much of your work as I can afford. I anxiously await the opportunity to read something written by a man who can rant so well. I’ll even gladly buy Bob’s books from him so that his worker’s paradise home can no longer be sullied by the presence of books written by a free man.

    1. Dude, Bob never threatened violence, you have though. He was polite and courteous, you weren’t. He covered several points, you covered one and used foul language. I am not in a Union never have been but know people who are and its my experience that you get all types both union and non union. Far as I am concerned Bob’s statement carries a lot more than yours.

      1. “Dude, Bob never threatened violence, you have though”

        Do please copy paste where I did anything of the sort. Or apologize for being an ass.

        Bob’s statement is the whining of a brat and nothing more. Yours is just ignorance.

      2. I say lay off Og; he just said he would say his opinion to his face, not be the one to start a fight. With some of the union thugs I know, someone voicing their opinion would be enough to set them off to violence. I don’t see too often the other way where the non-union types (like Og) would start it.

        A perfect example is Tea Party vs OWS. I was at several of the earliest Tea Party rallies. I saw nothing but complete respect for everyone. No litter, no drugs, no rapes, no racist rants (as the media tries to lie about).

        I also visited the OWS mobs in Salt Lake City at Pioneer Park. What a complete refuse pile, the people as well as the garbage. They even had tables covered with communist and anarchist literature. I talked with several cops there and was told there was so much drugs and crime if it wasn’t for the orders of the left-wingers in city government and the left-wing police chief, there would have been a lot of arrests. And that pissed the cops off.

  76. “I say lay off Og; he just said he would say his opinion to his face, not be the one to start a fight”

    Thanks, Gnuphie, for actually reading what I wrote. And yes, it’s about respect, isn’t it? And self respect has to come first.

  77. Here’ s the kicker, Bob. I don’t have strong political opinions because I’m a novelist. I have strong political opinions because I’m good at business. I’m good at MATH.

    Uh-huh.

    “(my prediction, Romney wins with 279 electoral votes, and Republicans get to 51 in the Senate) ” – LC, 5 Nov 2012.

    1. Larry already admitted his prediction was wrong. It seems you are more into gotcha politics and pointing out his mistake though. BTW how is his prediction in anyway related to his Math skills? It’s not, it’s a political prediction that happens to use numbers to quantify it. But again like I said you are more into a gotcha frame of mind. It’s all about scoring pathetic victories over a bad prediction than meaningful dialogue…

  78. Because you were being an intolerant, close-minded jackass to those who have a different opinion than yours. Oh, and a sore loser. He was being rational.

Leave a Reply to Bob W. Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *