I'm 31 this year and I carried a pocket knife all through school and no one ever cared. When I was in the 6th grade one of the high school teachers took us down to the park and shot a few guns for us, he had an old muzzelloader and an M16. 7th grade I had to go to the central county school and in gym class they took us up on a hill and we shot 22's. The "guys" in the class laughed at me (I wasn't athletic at all) because I was looking at the gun like I hadn't seen one before, but it was just that I hadn't used a bolt action before because my 22 was a semi auto <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Now a days you can't even say the word knife in school without getting in trouble. I had fun the other day though, was able to get on as an employee to the company I was contracted to, so we were sitting in the security room waiting on the fingerprint nazi to print us and the HR lady was making fun of the fingerprint nazi lady who was barking orders at the people she was printing. We got to talking about security and I was telling about the prison I went into to fix a PC and I couldn't take my cell phone but could take a pocket knife. Was telling her about the security guard at the supreme court who wasn't going to let me take my leatherman until another guard said "thats a leatherman, its ok". So I pulled out my wave and flipped it into pliers and told about the lady who backed away when I pulled a knife blade out of it to open the box with her laser printer part "ohh, thats a knife" as she backed away, and I told her how I said "how else do you want me to open this box". So I was able to get the point across to one of the HR people that knives are not bad and she didn't determine my leatherman to be a "weapon" so that says to me I'm not breaking the "no weapons" policy.
In my grandfathers day if he didn't show up at school with his gun and knife he was sent back home to get them <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I still have his gun too, for some reason just before I moved away for college he gave it to me when I came down to visit, told me not to tell any of the other grandkids because he didn't have enough to go around (he had 7 kids himself and most of them had 2 or 3). I still have that old rifle rolled up in a blanket under our spare bed, he didn't have the hammer but did have the powder horn made from a real horn. If anyone knows some good gun restoration links or and people/places in central OH that could help me restore it, I'd like to shoot it a couple times then put it away for my grandkids.

Eugene:

Try Dixie gun works for restoration, and Numrich Arms Corp. for parts.

It is not that hard and you can do most of it yourself with a library book on gunsmithing and/or metalworking.

Bountyhunter

I'll second that, and muzzle loaders/flintlocks are even easier to work on than most newer lead-spitters, but with an old original, I'd find somebody whose done some tinkering already to give you a hand with it. It'd be a shame to ruin a piece of history.

Troy

Reading some posts about Heinlein books, made me want to re-read the ones I had : Podkaine, Friday, Have spacesuit, Space cadet ... most in french, from my youth, when I really liked to read SF books and watch SF movies

And I also decided I needed to read others you mentionned.
So, I ordered Tunnel in the sky, Farmer in the sky, the Rolling stones, Starman Jones, Double star, Red planet.
(and others are on my wish list for my next order, along with Coddy's book)

I received them yesterday. So I started Tunnel in the sky at about 20:00 and closed the book at 03:00, last night !
The fact I did the same stupid thing the previous night (reading something found on a web site up to 3:30AM ...) did not help. And today I was really walking right beside my shoes ..
And now I have opened Farmer in the sky .... and just hope I will be strong enough (or tired enough !!) to shut lights off before midnight. <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

My favorite Heinlein books:

The Door Into Summer
Stranger in a Strange Land
I Will Fear No Evil

But Orson Scott Card is by far my favorite science fiction writer. If you haven't read "Ender's Game", you haven't read good science fiction.

Goatrider:

Funny, but when I read "Stranger in a strange land", I was turned off from future Heinlein books.

If I want to read erotica, I can find better books.

Heinlein took a different path with that book which spent way to much time on bisexuality, group sex, and swapping sex partners than I expected in a science fiction book.

Bountyhunter

Alain,

I am very glad that I was able to recommend something you enjoyed. Thanks for saying so.

I know the feeling you describe. When I first read William Gibson's "Neuromancer" (shortly after it was published), I started reading late at night, read until morning, and not having finished, called in "sick" to work that day.

PL

P.S. My two cats are brothers named Castor and Pollux. That may make more sense later.

I have read "Ender's Cycle" books last year. Not too bad .... <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

What I did like, many years ago, were authors like Asimov, Herbert or Simack (I liked City a lot !).

Jeez, can't a body say ANYTHING in these fora without offending someone?

For the record, I've got nothing against naked women - that's the Internet's whole raison d'etre, IMO. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> I was just pointing out that there are very few elite commando units that send their scouts out in their undies to do a spot of recon.

I firmly believe that if fiction doesn't provoke you to think about something in a new way, then it isn't very good fiction. It's just that you seemed to be quoting from it like it was the US Army Field Manual, and it ain't.

I am familiar with the "ad hominem" fallacy, and if Heinlein had been presenting a reasoned argument with facts to back it up, yours would be a valid complaint. But he wasn't.

The fact is, even the most eager young recruit is going to think twice about opening fire on a numerically superior force when his job is to remain quiet and collect information. He/she wouldn't be sent out on such a patrol unless she/he had learned to obey orders. And if he/she was incapable of controlling her/his emotions to even that limited extent then I suspect her/his commander would be glad to get rid of him/her/it asap. So Heinlein's basic premise - if that's what it was - that a soldier with a gun is more likely to engage the enemy on a solo recce mission than an unarmed one seems to me to be flawed.

And yes, I was poking fun at you. Sorry, but I didn't know any way to respond to your post without doing so. But I certainly didn't mean to offend you.

Heinlein was a good writer, btw. Not my favourite, but a good, thought-provoking read (with lots of half-naked wimmen, to boot). <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I remember reading (I don't remember where) about Greek units in the early days of Viet Nam, that got buck naked for night ambushes/raids, the theory being that if they felt anything in clothes, they killed it (not to mention the psychological impact of having hairy, naked, Greeks invading). I don't know how true it was, but tactically, it makes sense, in an environment where touch takes over for sight (if your troops aren't hung up over the idea of fighting in the nude).