re: an SF website without star wars or star trek ...

i was hoping for real speculative fiction, not the "cowboys and indians" in
space b-s. anybody out there like Cliff Simak? James Blish?
Ward Moore? C.M. Kornbluth? Kuttner and Moore? Ted Sturgeon?
L. Sprague de Camp?

Clifford Simak is my favorite author.
we had a correspondence shortly before he died, but it's been
published in a czech translation of one of his books. so i am in a
czech book :) i would suggest anyone read The Big Front Yard, Immigrant,
Drop Dead, Desertion (from the book City), Skirmish, Way Station, and lots
more.

and don't forget Kornbluth. his The Words of Guru
is absolutely fascinating and repulsive at the same time;
truly frightening in a weird way. he co-wrote The Space Merchants,
a great book. and many, many more before he died at age 38 --
much too young.

there are really too many to tell you about,
mostly from the '30s to the '60s. i've been a real fan for almost 40 years.
no militarism, no belligerence, no war-making (except in de Camp's Lest
Darkness Fall, an excellent short novel about a modern man trying to prevent
the dark ages from coming, back in 565 c.e.

really, it's more than star wars and star trek. although Galaxy Quest was
great :)

Yahoo censors this comment re: existence of gods

there are no gods. nontheism includes all of men's gods, not just the one the western hemisphere is most currently familiar with. no zeus, no shiva, no jim jones, no david koresh, no charles manson -- whoops, there IS a charles manson :) no thor, no wodin, no poseidon, no jupiter, no apollo (ohno, not again), no cupid, etc., etc., etc.

just because we're more familiar with the monotheistic judeochristianislamic culture, doesn't mean that gods stop there. ain't none of 'em a reality. mohammed makes jim jones look like a nice guy with a penchant for koolaid; jesus preached obligatory altruism; abraham was willing to kill his own son ... i could go on forever.

the mormon tradition is, to paraphrase Dr. Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith, just christianity with a few more stupid ideas.

again, people, repeat after me: THERE ARE NO GODS!

Yahoo censors this comment re: Prop. 8

i'm still trying to post my comment. there is absolutely nothing objectionable in it, unlike many of the posts i have read here. someone must be very religious to not allow my thoughts to be posted.

Ted Olson and David Boies did a bang-up job; their arguments were right on point. I read the entire ruling -- all 138 pages -- and it is tight tight tight. no wriggle room for Scalia or Thomas.

Here is what is relevant:

Bill of Rights -- First Amendment and Ninth Amendment (unenumerated rights).

Marriage is a civil ceremony, appropriated by but not the purview of religion.

The "religious views of the majority of Americans" have no relevance in this civil matter. The same arguments were used in favor of miscegenation, if you remember. And they were ruled unconstitutional, as is prop. 8.

And the majority of Americans is not as "religious" as you think. We nontheists/atheists/agnostics are coming on strong, and we will also soon be able to influence the political process, merely by keeping our personal views out of it.