Last week I reviewed a book by one of my favorite authors, Libertarian Science Fiction master Robert A. Heinlein. This week I’ll share one of my favorite quotes:

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, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

~Robert A. Heinlein

The Critic Who Counts enjoys both the Apple and the PC experience, but I’m a bit of a junkie for the iTunes software application and the iPhone. Every once in a while, I’ll bring you something fun to try with these applications. This week I’m a big fan of the ‘Backgrounds’ Application for the iPhone. An important feature of the Apple business model is an appreciation for the pretty things in life. And there is real value in beauty – a gorgeous picture on a high-resolution screen can cheer me up, even when I’m obsessively checking my phone for messages.

Pictures are organized by category, and there’s something there for everyone’s taste -high fashion to sports insignia and everything in between. Images are downloaded to your camera roll, so they can be manipulated as photos, and all images are sized to fit the iPhone. Here is a sampling of a few of my favorites. The button below will load your iTunes and take you directly to the App where you can download it for free. Have phun!

Robert A. Heinlein

Heinlein and his Wife

For those of you unaware of the history of science fiction as a genre, I present the master, Robert A. Heinlein. Certainly one of the greatest authors of our time, Heinlein was instrumental in popularizing early science fiction literature, along with his contemporaries (he kept good company – Asimov, E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith and Arthur C. Clarke to name a few). He was a patriot, a veteran and a boy scout. His most popular work, ‘Stranger in a Strange Land’ became a cult classic in the 60’s. Heinlein first impacted my life when I was 11. Although he wrote extensively for young adult audiences, much to my eventual ‘scarring for life’ I picked up one of his adult novels which had somehow (mistakenly I am sure) made its way into my elementary school library. That’s a review for another day, but needless to say I knew enough at 11 to recognize the inappropriateness of the content – and also to be irrevocably hooked.

‘The Moon is a Harsh Mistress’ tells the story of a Libertarian Revolution on a colony of Earth. Although it explores some of Heinlein’s stock-in-trade themes regarding marriage and monogamy, this is not a sexually risqué book. The book is told from the perspective of ‘Mannie’, a computer tech who discovers that the computer used to run the colony has woken up. Yes folks, one of science fictions earliest sentient computers. If only the humans in the Matrix trilogy had demonstrated as much humanity and good sense as Mannie… because it is his relationship with Mike that is the eventual lynchpin of the Revolution. The book is rife with political commentary as it carefully unfolds the steps necessary to carry out a successful revolution and the subsequent creation of new government. I mean seriously, this should be required reading for revolutionaries. It is basically an instruction manual with a plot.

The book is a tough read – hard science, harder politics, and an at-times distracting personal narrative style in a futuristic dialect. Of course, it’s not a terribly long book, so you won’t have to make too great a commitment! I haven’t read this book in years, but I was reminded of it during a political discussion with a friend. At the time, we were nearing a historic presidential election here in the United States.  I was bemoaning the lack of real choice in the American system. Ah, I miss the great white North where multiple political parties duke it out at an attempt for real representation.

One of the other main themes of the book is the idea of Libertarianism. It raises important questions for all of us, now that we have elected new leadership – what should our government do for us? What should we do for ourselves? Heinlein teaches us that TANSTAAFL!! (There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch). Tough lesson, eh folks? I am reminded, as I write this, of hurricane Ike’s devastation of the Texas coastal cities earlier this year. The government issued a mandatory evacuation notice with a ‘certain death’ classification, and of course the news media broadcast plenty of stories of folks staying behind to protect their property. Protect your property from a hurricane? Whatcha gonna do, stand on the roof (if it’s not under water yet) and flail your fists at the sky? In any case, the question arose in my mind – these fools who needed rescuing – who should foot the bill for that? Heinlein’s answer would be definitively that if they wanted to be rescued, they’d better be ready to pay. Using tax money to pay for stupidity is quite simply involuntary taxation.

So if Heinlein would make a poor farmer, standing on his roof in a storm, pay however many thousands of dollars to be rescued… what do you suppose he and his comrades would think of our current bailout situation? I don’t remember voting on the bailout. We are now told that the first round of bailout money has all but disappeared into the ether. No one seems accountable for our tax money effectively saving obscenely rich investment bankers who were doing a lot worse than trying to protect their home from the weather. While the storm raged down around us, these folks were throwing expensive parties and decorating their offices.

Here’s my favorite quote from the book, when the salty old professor (one of the three initiators of the revolution, and obviously the ‘voice’ of Heinlein in the book) is instructing the fledgling government how to write a constitution:

‘Accentuate the Negative! Let your document be studded with things the government is forever forbidden to do. No conscript armies…no interference however slight with freedom of press, or speech, or travel, or assembly, or of religion, or of instruction, or communication, or occupation…no involuntary taxation. Comrades, if you were to spend five years…thinking of more and more things that your government should promise never to do…I would not fear the outcome. What I fear most are affirmative actions of sober and well-intentioned men, granting to government powers to Do Something that appears to need Doing.’

I love that old man. I’m glad he’s not alive to see the state of his Beloved Nation today. Maybe a part of our political shake up will be the creation of some new political voices in our communities. Maybe one day we’ll have a Libertarian Party for whom to cast our vote. I think it’s safe to say that The Critic Who Counts would heartily endorse the reading of any of the works of Heinlein. Honestly, this isn’t the best place to start if you’re new to his work (I’ve also added a link below to ‘Stranger in a Strange Land’, which is a better choice). But if you’re already a fan of his work, check out this Libertarian Manifesto and get your minds to thinkin’.

The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress (Unabridged):

Stranger In A Strange Land (Unabridged):

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Winston Churchill - Helped Save the World From Hitler

I’ve been feeling all Presidential these days, so I thought I’d broaden the theme by including a quote by a prominent British politician. One day, during a dark time in my life, I opened a Snapple iced tea at my kitchen sink and found under the lid a great quote. It seemed apt, and timely, so the I washed the lid and put it on the windowsill.

If you are going through hell, keep going.

~ Sir Winston Churchill

Photo courtesy of the U.K. Daily Mail Online

The White House has released a series of ‘Intimate Pictures of Obama’s Big Day’. They can be found at the U.K. Daily News Online. I’ll also put the link in the blogroll (down there on the left…) The pictures are charming – they reinforce our image of the Obama family as regular Americans. I’m volunteering. I’m donating. I’m working really hard. I’ve got my fingers crossed. A girl is entitled to her dreams!