It's July, say what's on our mind. Other than Politics/US Government or Lack Thereof!

[OldLincoln]

Reading a book talking about another country in another time but the text sounded true to this country right now.

"The Republic"—had inspired [the entire world]. It had been a bright, burning beacon, a wealthy, vastly productive renaissance which had rivaled Old Earth herself as the cultural and intellectual touchstone of humanity. Yet that glorious promise had died. Not at the hands of foreign conquerors or barbarians from the marches, but in its sleep, victim of the best of motives. It had sacrificed itself upon the altar of equality. Not the equality of opportunity, but of outcomes. It had looked upon its own wealth and the inevitable inequities of any human society and decided to rectify them, and somehow the lunatics had taken over the asylum.

They'd transformed the Republic into the People's Republic—a vast, crazed machine that promised everyone more and better of everything, regardless of their own contributions to the system. And, in the process, they'd built a bureaucratic Titan locked into a headlong voyage to self-destruction and capable of swallowing reformers like gnats.

David Weber. "Flag in Exile".
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Happy Independence Day!

[TheTman]

Barth how did the conversion go? Haven't heard much from you so I expect it was a can of worms as most of those are. What type of servers are you using, what language are the apps written in? I'm a dinosaur old COBOL programmer, but did learn enough Visual Basic to be dangerous. My last couple of gigs were doing the Y2k conversion for Boeing, and the same thing at our local big newspaper, but they kept me on after because the users were very happy with the reports I could generate in an afternoon for them, writing small COBOl programs. My reports were for the circulation department, and we butted heads a few times when I they wanted to manipulate the figures to make them look better, and I refused on ethical grounds. My supervisors stood behind me on those issues. Hard to believe what those snakes in circulation wanted to take credit for. They wanted me to add things like Auto Renewal numbers into their new client figures so they would look like they were getting more new customers than they were, and little things like that I refused to do. LOL, the craziest night of my life was when I lost several million dollars in the computer one night for a life insurance company. When the figures didn't balance they had me come in in the middle of the night to see what happened. Funny how getting a decimal point out of place can really screw up some figures.

[wyntrout]

Hey! OldLincon, that's from my favorite series... David Weber's Honor Harrington Series. I have all of his books and most of those are available in e-book form free at Baen.com. That's a good place to buy e-books... usually $6 for new ones. They don't like DRM.

Wynn

[yqtszhj]

Reading a book talking about another country in another time but the text sounded true to this country right now.

"The Republic"—had inspired [the entire world]. It had been a bright, burning beacon, a wealthy, vastly productive renaissance which had rivaled Old Earth herself as the cultural and intellectual touchstone of humanity. Yet that glorious promise had died. Not at the hands of foreign conquerors or barbarians from the marches, but in its sleep, victim of the best of motives. It had sacrificed itself upon the altar of equality. Not the equality of opportunity, but of outcomes. It had looked upon its own wealth and the inevitable inequities of any human society and decided to rectify them, and somehow the lunatics had taken over the asylum.

They'd transformed the Republic into the People's Republic—a vast, crazed machine that promised everyone more and better of everything, regardless of their own contributions to the system. And, in the process, they'd built a bureaucratic Titan locked into a headlong voyage to self-destruction and capable of swallowing reformers like gnats.

David Weber. "Flag in Exile".
------------------------------------------

Happy Independence Day!

Hey, that sounds like the USSR but it couldn't be. They are still around doing fine. Oh, wait a minute...... they died 20 years ago

[yqtszhj]

Doomsday (or Zombie if you're into that kind of thing) firearm guide

I have been thinking about what I have in the event of dire need and wonder what others are collecting. I need to reach a finishing point and then just buy toys after that. I'm thinking I may need to add others to the collection as I ponder.

Here's the collection so far:
a couple of .45 cal's suitable for myself
a few .9mm's for the wife and daughter (.45 is to much for them at times)
several good .22's for hunting small critters (and enough practice to use them at 60 yards for 1 inch groups w/ a scope)
A couple of .223/5.56 for heavier work (practiced to get 1 1/2 inch groups at 100 yards) along with some medium size game ammo.

No shotgun's yet
I've thought about a .308 upper for an AR but ask myself is that a real necessity if I can be really proficient w/ .223?

What's on everyone else's priority list?

[muggsy]

Hey, that sounds like the USSR but it couldn't be. They are still around doing fine. Oh, wait a minute...... they died 20 years ago

Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Every great power has fallen from within. You never know the true value of freedom until you lose it. Freedom once lost is seldom regained. I want to wish all of the true patriots on this MB a glorious Independence day. May the American flag of freedom forever fly above our great nation.

[OldLincoln]

Hey! OldLincon, that's from my favorite series... David Weber's Honor Harrington Series. I have all of his books and most of those are available in e-book form free at Baen.com. That's a good place to buy e-books... usually $6 for new ones. They don't like DRM.

Wynn

I agree. I was surprised that I would like scyfi after reading the war/spy action stuff, but much more of it is free and that matches my book allowance. I was also surprised that I took to the strong woman lead characters but I did.

I read most of the David Drake's Lt. Leary series before I discovered Honor Harrington. Lt. Leary was becoming another Jack Reacher (Lee Child) thing where the character stops developing and it's just another cookie cutter adventure. I'm reading Honor in order and her character is continuing to develop although I'm only on the 5th of 11 books. I've been curious about how the character developed before the series starts and he's just released the first of a teen series that goes back to her childhood. I read the sample pages on Baen.

[jocko]

we haven'thad a drop of rain here in my area of Indiana in over 30 days. corn is toast, all fireworks have been cancelled in oost Indiana towns. We are in real bad shape hgere and the crops are gonna take a servere beating this fall. beans might make it, if we get some rain but most of the farmersaround here say it is way to late for the corn and we are supposed to be above 100 the rest of this week into next week. It is 8 pm here and right now it is 103, down for 106 earlier today. I wonder if the birth rate will increase for the month of June in Indiana and Illinois. Just sayin.

[OldLincoln]

Nah.... to hot for that!

[OldLincoln]

Shiny Post!!

For those who have Kindle readers, a historical fiction, treasure hunt book is available free for a few days only. I enjoyed it very much and the price is free.

The Treasure of La Malinche

[MW surveyor]

I'm always up for free books. Just hope it does not go away before I can read it!

OOPS, I've got a NOOK so no luck here :7:

[wyntrout]

Baen.com has all formats... some free.

Wynn

[Wisewolfhowling]

This has probably been discuss at one time or another but I didn't see it. I live in southeren Indiana "born and raised" been thinking of mixing my life up a little and moving to a new state. What opinions are out there on which state would be a preferred state to live in and a reason why?

[DeaconKC]

Southern Indiana? Move to Kentucky, they need the DNA!

[Wisewolfhowling]

LOL "but Kentucky might not like that"