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Happy 100th Birthday Robert A. Heinlein
Man is the one animal that can't be tamed. He goes along for years, peaceful as a cow, when it suits him. Then when it suits him not to be, he makes a leopard look like a tabby cat. Which goes double for the female of the species.Money is a powerful aphrodisiac. But flowers work almost as well. Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea. Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors... and miss. Being right too soon is socially unacceptable. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do. Never underestimate the power of human stupidity. Never worry about theory as long as the machinery does what it's supposed to do. Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. They didn't want it good, they wanted it Wednesday. Taxes are not levied for the benefit of the taxed. There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him. A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. One might define adulthood as the age at which a person learns he must die and accepts his sentence undismayed. Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something. An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life. The meek shall inherit the earth, a 6 foot plot above them. Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. TANSTAAFL - There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch Peace is a condition in which no civilian pays any attention to military casualties which do not achieve page-one, lead-story- -unless that civilian is a close relative of one of the casualties. But, if there ever was a time in history when "peace" meant that there was no fighting going on, I have been unable to find out about it. You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once. Posted by: OldSpook 2007-07-08 |
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