In Between Planets, in 1951, Heinlein had his characters using personal cell-like telephones in a casual, everyday fashion, throughout the book. Just another feature of the near future, the kind of thing he did so well.
See all the nice young girls and boys behind him, just standing like statues, not groovin' at all, until it's time to applaud politely. Definitely a generation gap, right before our eyes!
If you want to do more than voice an opinion, go to www.cancer.ca, and look up the Owen Sound Police Fundraiser, and slip them a little something (use credit card). Under their list of personal targets, you'll see that this woman has already doubled the target she set. I helped, twenty-five bucks' worth. Put your money where your mouth is.
I notice that if the Earth was, in fact, a smaller diameter, then the speed of rotation would have been higher. Think of an ice-skater spinning, demonstrating conservation of rotational momentum. Thus, the driving force to cause the splits in Pangaea could have been centrifugal. No, I don't have any qualifications either.
So, okay, say you review the constitutional right, and change it to a constitutional ban...how are you going to get rid of the guns? They don't just disappear, you know. In fact, they're made to last a long time.
So, you have an amnesty, and collect with buy-back programs and such, and you get maybe five percent of the citizen's guns. The rest go underground, because now they're valuable. So, then you look at the records, ammo sales and so on, and collect another five percent of the ones owned by the people who don't read newspapers. Then you start your cops (need *lots* of cops) knocking on doors. "We're here to collect your guns, ma'am". This is good for another five percent. Then, to get more, and justify the rising crime rate, you get your cops (good Americans all) to start kicking in doors. Everyone with a camera will start broadcasting this across the world, and you will look like asses. So, better restrict cameras, and local newscasts, and the Internet, so as not to look too bad.
Difficult and expensive to do this everywhere at once, so you start small, in one city or county, whatever. And anyone who moves to another city will carry the story, so you'd better restrict travel, too. It all hangs together...
Eventually, you will have invented the USSA - United Soviet States of America. What's that sound coming from Moscow? Laughter?
Whole idea came from an old story by Robert Bloch on Night Gallery (or possibly Hitchcock) in the '70's, about an assassination attempt that went wrong, and the earwig was placed in the villian's ear. I seem to recall that it may have been William Shatner; had to be tied up to stop from ripping his face off. Of course the punch line was that it was a pregnant female. Instant legend.
Put your money where your mouth is.
could have been centrifugal.
No, I don't have any qualifications either.
So, you have an amnesty, and collect with buy-back programs and such, and you get maybe five percent of the citizen's guns. The rest go underground, because now they're valuable.
So, then you look at the records, ammo sales and so on, and collect another five percent of the ones owned by the people who don't read newspapers. Then you start your cops (need *lots* of cops) knocking on doors. "We're here to collect your guns, ma'am". This is good for another five percent.
Then, to get more, and justify the rising crime rate, you get your cops (good Americans all) to start kicking in doors. Everyone with a camera will start broadcasting this across the world, and you will look like asses. So, better restrict cameras, and local newscasts, and the Internet, so as not to look too bad.
Difficult and expensive to do this everywhere at once, so you start small, in one city or county, whatever. And anyone who moves to another city will carry the story, so you'd better restrict travel, too. It all hangs together...
Eventually, you will have invented the USSA - United Soviet States of America. What's that sound coming from Moscow? Laughter?
Instant legend.