#26: No matter how attractive certain members of the rebellion are, there is probably someone just as attractive who is not desperate to kill me. Therefore, I will think twice before ordering a prisoner sent to my bedchamber ( Read more... )

I won't require high-ranking female members of my organization to wear a stainless-steel bustier. Morale is better with a more casual dress-code. Similarly, outfits made entirely from black leather will be reserved for formal occasions.Okay, you may have thought I was joking about the long list of Evil Overlord violations, but really, I wasn't. We ( Read more... )

You may recall that Aristotle when discussing the dramatic and narrative arts and the Suspension of Disbelief said that it's better to go with a Probable Impossible in fiction, than with an Improbable Possible (and then of course complicated it by pointing out that all that in part depends on the skill of the artist, the medium they're working in, ( Read more... )

...as seen through beam-filled eyes--

"Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions."
--G.K. Chesterton
(most lately spotted on a sticker on an SUV in a local gated community
sharing bumper space with boastings of lunacy, gun ownership, and cat-killing...)To understand how "tolerance" is a Bad Word to conservatives (in the US at least) ( Read more... )

"...but at least we're not icky puritans!"

DADT isn't just stupid, counterproductive policy, it's against their religion:

We passed the Feegash just a little way from the stables. He had his hand on the arm of one of the richest importers in Beyltaak, and the two of them were staring into each other's eyes like lovers about to fall into bed, ( Read more... )

This was really what made me deep-down certain, early on, that this was going to be a bit of right-wing wishfulfillment, and nothing more:

...his mission would not let him get back to the Republic, to women who were equally succulent but not enemies to his nation and his cause ( Read more... )

--Well, there was no end-of-book whammy like say finding out that the so!hott! alien prince who says he loves you more than life itself and considers you a living goddess has actually cursed you to undeath and eventual madness as an immortal warlord - purely out of the highest moral principles, in order to save his people and planet from utter ( Read more... )