The Gun Counter

Re-reading The Last Centurion by John Ringo. Reminds me, once again, how lucky we are that HRC is not president.

First Shirt wrote:Re-reading The Last Centurion by John Ringo. Reminds me, once again, how lucky we are that HRC is not president.

Word. You speak for me. You know, the arrant dishonesty of our media and academic classes makes it unlikely most people will ever realize the bullet this Republic dodged...for now, anyway.

After I finish The Red and the Black (which got a lot better), I've got George MacDonald's At the Back of the North Wind and Clashes, by Marshall Michel III (the latter is about the air war over Vietnam) queued up.

I just picked up a book that's out of print, written by my old friend and former classmate, Scott Ereckson, titled: "The Unknown Mongol". I didn't even know about him writing a book about his biker experiences as a member of the Mongols until I learned of this book from an old friend. I had known Scott went to prison for the killing of the local Hell's Angels chapter president, and he'd also been involved in a few other incidents, but I had NO IDEA he'd written a book - so I HAD to go out and find it!! And if you search Amazon for it, you'll see that other than those copies still being offered at RETAIL price, they value of this book has simply skyrocketed - especially since it's out of print and details the life of Scott as a member of the outlaw motorcycle club Mongols (in direct competition with the Hell's Angels).

One of the Amazon.com pages shows the books being sold at hundreds of dollars ($723.35 & FREE Shipping + $0.00 estimated tax Used - Good), so I picked up 2 copies - one to keep, one to sell later when the price goes up. FYI - Scott is no dummy, he's quite smart, so I'm not surprised he self-published his own book, and so far, it's an entertaining read!!

I've just finished reading 5 books by JL Curtis on kindle, The Grey Man series. They cover the Obama Years and the start of the Trump Administration.
They are kind of a police procedural , military action, and political commentary. Some interesting bits have been the growth of rules, regulations, and getting the proper forms filled out and procedure over riding actual getting the job done.
Also the loss of experienced people in the military and law enforcement due to bull shit ROE and the rise of paper pushers and political types.
Also having to master the digital age over the years.
It has been reported more veterans are starting to get into politics but the book hints that more ex-military are getting into law enforcement. Thing could get interesting in the next few years.

toad wrote:Does anybody know where I can find a collection of short stories by Verner Vinge?

Looking for this one?

https://www.amazon.com/Collected-Storie ... 0312875843

'The Whirligig of Time' is one of my all-time favorites. Read it while listening to Depeche Mode's 'Stripped'.

Greg wrote:

toad wrote:Does anybody know where I can find a collection of short stories by Verner Vinge?

Looking for this one?

https://www.amazon.com/Collected-Storie ... 0312875843

'The Whirligig of Time' is one of my all-time favorites. Read it while listening to Depeche Mode's 'Stripped'.

Ayup, I'm pretty sure it has the story about privately owned nuclear weapons that I read back in the day of everything on dead trees.
I just recently saw a comment that Vinge had written the story so no I've got the bug up my butt to re-read it.
Thanks.

toad wrote:

Greg wrote:

toad wrote:Does anybody know where I can find a collection of short stories by Verner Vinge?

Looking for this one?

https://www.amazon.com/Collected-Storie ... 0312875843

'The Whirligig of Time' is one of my all-time favorites. Read it while listening to Depeche Mode's 'Stripped'.

Ayup, I'm pretty sure it has the story about privately owned nuclear weapons that I read back in the day of everything on dead trees.
I just recently saw a comment that Vinge had written the story so no I've got the bug up my butt to re-read it.
Thanks.

The one you're looking for is 'The Ungoverned', which is set in the same universe as 'The Peace War' and 'Marooned in Realtime'. (bobble verse, as it were)

It's available for free online on Baen's site as part of the sample chapters of a collection called 'Freedom!. I just read it.

Ringo's "Dancing with the Devil" or "When the Devil Dances" or "When the Devil went down to Georgia" or whatever. I've kind of slowed down, but I think I'm getting to the SheVa part, and I remember enjoying that part. Grandpa and Cally's sections are fun, too. Don't care for the Urb sections.

I thought I posted this already but apparently not. I stopped at the library used book sale last week, and there sitting neatly in a box were 1960s paperback editions of E. E. Doc Smith's Lensman series (6 volumes, Masters of the Vortex was not there) and all four Skylark books. They are yellowed and dry but still in better shape than my read-so-many-times originals. Some books are worth having duplicates.

I'm taking another stroll through Albert Jay Nock's Memoirs of a Superfluous Man. It's enjoyable every time.