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orichalcum: (angelpuppet)
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Well, there's a scifi author I'm now glad I haven't read...

posted by [personal profile] orichalcum at 03:51pm on 29/04/2008 under
Apparently, Larry Niven is part of a group of 24 science fiction writers who give regular advice to the Department of Homeland Security about potential dangers.

His offered solution to the health care crisis? Spread rumors among the Latino community "that emergency rooms are killing patients in order to harvest their organs for transplants."

Yeah, because what America really needs is more people _dead_ because they don't trust their doctors.

You just got placed in the "Orson Scott Card" Box of Shame, Mr. Niven.
location: Home
Mood:: 'curious' curious
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There are 11 comments on this entry. (Reply.)
 

(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] marginaleye.livejournal.com at 09:38pm on 30/04/2008
Spread rumors among the Latino community "that emergency rooms are killing patients in order to harvest their organs for transplants."

That's very ironic. In Niven's "future history," solving the immunological problems associated of organ transplantation leads to a highly dystopian period during which pretty much every crime (up to, and including, repeatedly failing to pay parking tickets) is punished with death, in order to keep the state-managed organ banks full (near-immortality being the bribe to support totalitarianism).

Niven is, in my opinion, very much a "gadget" or a "scientific mystery" author -- his social commentary is sophomoric, and I think he's influenced by the reactionary Pournelle.
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posted by [identity profile] meepodeekin.livejournal.com at 09:58pm on 30/04/2008
I think my favorite part was: “I know it may not be possible to use this solution, but it does work,” Niven replied.

I didn't realize Orson Scott Card had his very own Box of Shame. Or are other people already in there? (And yes, I'm with you on OSC. I just don't do well with boxes. :) )
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posted by [identity profile] lisa-bee.livejournal.com at 11:08pm on 30/04/2008
I think my favorite part is that he says "It does work" rather than "it would work." How does he know? Has he tested it, or something?


Honestly, sometimes I wonder whether being an elected official for more than a couple of years leads to brain-death.
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posted by [identity profile] hillarygayle.livejournal.com at 11:23pm on 30/04/2008
As someone who will soon be working in health care, hopefully in the emergency room, I think someone needs to harvest Mr. Niven's organs for donation. I'm glad I've never read him nor spent money on any of his books.
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posted by [identity profile] hillarygayle.livejournal.com at 11:23pm on 30/04/2008
Oh, and what's in OSCs box of shame?
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posted by [identity profile] digitalemur.livejournal.com at 02:51am on 01/05/2008
Oh, OSC's nasty remarks about them homosexuals are in the box, as are pretty much every female character he ever wrote except Valentine, and maybe Petra before she flaked out. Oh, and Jane. OSC was SO COOL back in the day, but I think then they threatened him with excommunication or something, or maybe he really did just decide to return to his LDS conservatism roots, because dude, he's all "women should sit home and wait for their menfolks and have babies" now. Waaaah, I want cool OSC back!
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posted by [identity profile] orewashinanai.livejournal.com at 12:57am on 01/05/2008
On a slightly related note, there are actually places in the world where this happens.

On a more related note, guh buh??? WTF???
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(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] orichalcum.livejournal.com at 01:24am on 01/05/2008
Yes, which doesn't make it a good idea!
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(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] digitalemur.livejournal.com at 02:52am on 01/05/2008
Can we tie him down and make him read "Parable of the Sower" and then beat him about the head and neck with it until he realizes that strategies like that end up screwing over the privileged too?

Or, failing that, can I just beat him about the head and neck with _something_? I have been itching to beat up an idiot, this week, and he sounds PERFECT.
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(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] meepodeekin.livejournal.com at 04:08am on 01/05/2008
C'mon down here. We have a plentiful idiot supply.
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(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] thistleingrey.livejournal.com at 04:27am on 01/05/2008
Yeah, Niven and Pournelle, and to a lesser extent Brin, have been living in that box for about 20 years now, IMO.
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