And again: The Crimea
Pen & Swords Conflict in the Crimea

Whenever one is interested in military history there is no way to get around Pen & Sword Books - and thus it happend to me several times that I found myself reading books from this publisher.

Not only did I find material on my special interests such as, the catalogue of P&S showed me so many interesting books that I think I will use in further studies and some titels are so interesting that I will ready them anyway.

[REC]3 »Genesis«
A review

First: »Don't say anything to your Aunt, but a dog at the clinic … It looked like it was dead and it woke up and Bam!«

Second: »There … Jumanji!«

Third: »Well, the mother is a bit of a MILF, isn't she?«

Fourth: «Sponge John; You mean Sponge Bob? No, well, you see, there was a copyright problem …«

My 2 Cents on:
Orson Scott Card and LGBT

"Ender’s Game is set more than a century in the future and has nothing to do with political issues that did not exist when the book was written in 1984. With the recent Supreme Court ruling, the gay marriage issue becomes moot. The Full Faith and Credit clause of the Constitution will, sooner or later, give legal force in every state to any marriage contract recognized by any other state. Now it will be interesting to see whether the victorious proponents of gay marriage will show tolerance toward those who disagreed with them when the issue was still in dispute." -- Orson Scott Card.

My 2 Cents on:
Robert A. Heinlein

I used to admire Robert A. Heinlein as the best writer in all of science fiction. I still admire him enormously, but after rereading several of his books this year, I became painfully aware of how he stacked the deck and depended on coincidence. Friday is a good example. It's a good read, but it's a flawed book that reveals some of Heinlein's worst habits.

But I also knew Robert as a human being, a colleague, a mentor, a friend, and a man who loved to laugh.

My 2 Cents on:
A Roddenberry Announcement

Back in 1986, Gene Roddenberry made a promise in front of 3000 Star Trek fans that it was time to include a gay crewmember on the Enterprise, I was there.

He repeated that promise early in 1987 to the staff of Star Trek: The Next Generation, even bawling out one person who made a joke about it. Roddenberry understood that "liberty and justice for all" actually means ALL. And he could do a great rant about the evils that have been done in the name of religion.