Tjack

Born Duvid Jacob Fortunov in New York’s lower East side in the early 1900’s his rough and tumble boyhood gave him both the fighting skills and the good heart needed to become a great adventurer. When he was only 20 he foiled the plans of some local mobsters and decided to leave the city for his own safety.
   Traveling to Los Angeles he changed his name to Dominic Fortune and soon became the bodyguard to a featured actress of one of the major studios. After taking his job literally and knocking out the head of the studio when he tried to assault the young lady, he once again decided that getting the hell out of Dodge was the better part of valor.  This time signing onto a tramp steamer setting off for the Far East.
   After years of adventures and wandering and feeling homesick Dominic decide to take a last minute job as security for some artifacts being sent from Marrakech to New York.  What he didn’t know was that most of the so-called security were being paid to help steal the most important item....The Spear of Destiny.
   Upon reaching N.Y. harbor the thieves made their move but didn’t reckon with the strong right hook and deadly aim of the brave defender. As a last ditch effort to keep the prize from their hands Dominic dove overboard with it swimming to the docks and melting into the night.  Not knowing who to trust or which way to turn.
   Now a three-way chase begins, a phalanx of heroes against a horde of Nazis and the Deadly Dacoits.
 
 DOMINIC FORTUNE    (Bronze Age Comic Books)
       Dominic Fortune created by Howard Chaykin   Marvel Comics 

Let’s not.

I’ve had this conversation in a couple of different places.   The main factor in all this is something we have no way of knowing.....How much fight does JMS have left in him?
    There are of course stories left to tell in the B5’verse.  The lost tales were kind of a bust. They seemed more like some of his old Twilight Zone scripts recycled for B5, but Crusade and Legend of the Rangers were very good.  Crusade especially had many potential seasons in it.  The Drak plague was only going to go one additional season before being cured and then the show was going to focus on the the darker forces still maneuvering about the galaxy.
    But the CW has never been very interested in shows with deep plot lines and mature casts. Whether it’s soap opera or flashy action-adventure their stars don’t tend to be older than their late 20’s.
   To keep Babylon 5 on course it’s going to take a show runner who can go toe to toe with the network on a weekly or even daily basis.  There have to be easier and probably more profitable things for JMS to do with his time.
   Seeing a hacked up version of this show would drive a stake thru my heart.  During a very bleak time in my life, looking forward to this show every week was all I had to keep me motivated. For the one hour of the show and for a few hours after I would be happy. I would rather have that memory than the same sick to my stomach anger I have towards Green Hornet. I’ll watch and wait, but I’m not hopeful.

Born Duvid Jacob Fortunov in New York’s lower East side in the early 1900’s his rough and tumble boyhood gave him both the fighting skills and the good heart needed to become a great adventurer. When he was only 20 he foiled the plans of some local mobsters and decided to leave the city for his own safety.
   Traveling to Los Angeles he changed his name to Dominic Fortune and soon became the bodyguard to a featured actress of one of the major studios. After taking his job literally and knocking out the head of the studio when he tried to assault the young lady, he once again decided that getting the hell out of Dodge was the better part of valor.  This time signing onto a tramp steamer setting off for the Far East.
   After years of adventures and wandering and feeling homesick Dominic decide to take a last minute job as security for some artifacts being sent from Marrakech to New York.  What he didn’t know was that most of the so-called security were being paid to help steal the most important item....The Spear of Destiny.
   Upon reaching N.Y. harbor the thieves made their move but didn’t reckon with the strong right hook and deadly aim of the brave defender. As a last ditch effort to keep the prize from their hands Dominic dove overboard with it swimming to the docks and melting into the night.  Not knowing who to trust or which way to turn.
   Now a three-way chase begins, a phalanx of heroes against a horde of Nazis and the Deadly Dacoits.
 
 DOMINIC FORTUNE    (Bronze Age Comic Books)
       Dominic Fortune created by Howard Chaykin   Marvel Comics 

All that about Seeker may be true, but he WAS very useful.  The trope goes that you can always tell a good Champions product by the fact that Seeker is on the cover.....usually unconscious.

Actually the military was the least used path and the MI was really looked down on as a "useless" vestige of an earlier era.  Federal Service could be anything.
The "navy" was a actually mostly consisting of cargo ships to supply the colonies. 
The only reason that the book features the military is because the central character was in the MI.  In the book it pointed out that "what" you did to gain you franchise of citizenship and the vote wasn't important.  What was important was you committed and completed service period of two years.
 
“Why, the purpose is,” he answered, hauling off and hitting me in the knee with a hammer (I kicked him, but not hard), “to find out what duties you are physically able to perform. But if you came in here in a wheel chair and blind in both eyes and were silly enough to insist on enrolling, they would find something silly enough to match. Counting the fuzz on a caterpillar by touch, maybe. The only way you can fail is by having the psychiatrists decide that you are not able to understand the oath.”
Heinlein, Robert A.. Starship Troopers (p. 33). Penguin Publishing Group.
 
IIRC the MI only had two brigades in total and the only military starships were the Fleet Transport Corvettes used to move the MI. The entire "military" was essentially seed stock in case there ever arose a need to defend humanity. 
 
The entire first part of the book was the MC going through MI training while literally everyone he knew, including his family, thought he was throwing his future away.  And the MI was constantly trying to get them to quit and go do something else.   The after the Bug War started was humanity getting is collective a$$ kicked and having to throw its very few combat troops into hit and run raids as they lost colony after colony.  Things didn't start turning around until the last few chapters as they started cranking out actual warships as well as getting trained troops to flesh out the MI. 
 
But the big thing is that Federal Service could be military, but 99% of it wasn't.  The concept was that in order to be a full citizen and uphold the responsibility of the vote, you demonstrated a minimum ability to be reliable and complete a beneficial function.  Be it cleaning bedpans at a hospital or driving a delivery truck. 
More of a Meritocracy than anything else.
 
None of that is in any way reflected in the movie.
Instead we get bugs and a cheap image of fascism. 
By cheap I mean is makes light humor about a seriously screwed up reality. 
Extremely sad....

The actual requirement to vote or hold office in the book was to have performed Federal service--usually military, but there were other forms of service available. Mind you, it's been at least a decade since I last read it, so my details may be a bit fuzzy.

While I agree that Starship Troopers is a horrible adaptation by a Director who’s apparently still dealing with his mom being constantly short changed while working as a wh0re for the Nazis when they invaded his country and therefor despises all military and was dopy enough to have a star that looks like the a Third Reich recruiting poster play a character from Rio de Janerio named Juan Rico. And costumes that look like he got them from the wardrobe dept. of Schindler’s List.
   When friends asked why I never went off on the film I told them that Virginia Heinlein was now a widow with limited funds and her and her husbands medical bills to pay.  So every time anybody said or did something stupid I just pictured a cash register ringing and a bunch of bills being stamped PAID.
   But I’m not bitter.

Um, I don't think I'd bring that up with him if I were you. It's still a pretty sensitive subject.

I’ll keep Thor and Captain America and dump both Kirk and Starlord.    Does that mean I can get rice back.

I’ll keep Thor and Captain America and dump both Kirk and Starlord.    Does that mean I can get rice back.

Classic stuff.
 
 
 
 

Thanks for the historical backup, but I was quoting from the I of Newton episode of the Twilight Zone that J.Michael Straczinski worked on.

I’ve had this conversation in a couple of different places.   The main factor in all this is something we have no way of knowing.....How much fight does JMS have left in him?
    There are of course stories left to tell in the B5’verse.  The lost tales were kind of a bust. They seemed more like some of his old Twilight Zone scripts recycled for B5, but Crusade and Legend of the Rangers were very good.  Crusade especially had many potential seasons in it.  The Drak plague was only going to go one additional season before being cured and then the show was going to focus on the the darker forces still maneuvering about the galaxy.
    But the CW has never been very interested in shows with deep plot lines and mature casts. Whether it’s soap opera or flashy action-adventure their stars don’t tend to be older than their late 20’s.
   To keep Babylon 5 on course it’s going to take a show runner who can go toe to toe with the network on a weekly or even daily basis.  There have to be easier and probably more profitable things for JMS to do with his time.
   Seeing a hacked up version of this show would drive a stake thru my heart.  During a very bleak time in my life, looking forward to this show every week was all I had to keep me motivated. For the one hour of the show and for a few hours after I would be happy. I would rather have that memory than the same sick to my stomach anger I have towards Green Hornet. I’ll watch and wait, but I’m not hopeful.

My Dad said there are two things to keep in mind when listening to politicians:
 
1. No matter what they're telling you, they're not telling you the whole story 
2. No matter what they're talking about, they're talking about money. 

Because corn always passes.

What the hell.  I’m gonna take the ruminate/reflect concept and make it real.    
   The underlying theme of my story is the question “Does superior ability HAVE to mean superior ambition?”
All of the main players in my list have some kind of genetic or intellectual advantage.  Even Cody Jarrett has a strange vitality that sustains him and keeps him from succumbing to injury.  But the heroes of the story each turned away from a path of conquest or personal gain in order to help their fellow man.
   In Star Trek the idea of any type of augmented humanity is feared because of the belief that it will always lead to the tyranny of the superior against their weaker brethren. But if people as diverse as Clark Savage, Mandrake, Margo Lane and Kal-El who was raised with the Kent’s human values could turn away from that darker path, then perhaps there is hope for their world.
 
     I’ve said that if I can’t create a narrative for these lists then it’s no fun for me......And that I overthink things sometimes.

Corn is subsidized because Iowa is a Presidential Primary state.  And because the voting blocks and lobbying groups the Midwest states represent make sure that’s the way the Govt. spending goes.
   Robert Heinlein said “Anytime you ask “why is something like that” the answer is always...money.”

Corn is subsidized because Iowa is a Presidential Primary state.  And because the voting blocks and lobbying groups the Midwest states represent make sure that’s the way the Govt. spending goes.
   Robert Heinlein said “Anytime you ask “why is something like that” the answer is always...money.”

All I can say is "Yep, nailed it".
 
Green Hornet and Starship Troopers......

I’ve had this conversation in a couple of different places.   The main factor in all this is something we have no way of knowing.....How much fight does JMS have left in him?
    There are of course stories left to tell in the B5’verse.  The lost tales were kind of a bust. They seemed more like some of his old Twilight Zone scripts recycled for B5, but Crusade and Legend of the Rangers were very good.  Crusade especially had many potential seasons in it.  The Drak plague was only going to go one additional season before being cured and then the show was going to focus on the the darker forces still maneuvering about the galaxy.
    But the CW has never been very interested in shows with deep plot lines and mature casts. Whether it’s soap opera or flashy action-adventure their stars don’t tend to be older than their late 20’s.
   To keep Babylon 5 on course it’s going to take a show runner who can go toe to toe with the network on a weekly or even daily basis.  There have to be easier and probably more profitable things for JMS to do with his time.
   Seeing a hacked up version of this show would drive a stake thru my heart.  During a very bleak time in my life, looking forward to this show every week was all I had to keep me motivated. For the one hour of the show and for a few hours after I would be happy. I would rather have that memory than the same sick to my stomach anger I have towards Green Hornet. I’ll watch and wait, but I’m not hopeful.

I simplified the quote because I didn’t feel like typing the whole thing out.  I forgot to take the pain in the a$$ factor around here into account.

I simplified the quote because I didn’t feel like typing the whole thing out.  I forgot to take the pain in the a$$ factor around here into account.

Because the vampires haven't ponied up enough money over the years to keep it down all 24 hours, except in the polar regions.

Corn is subsidized because Iowa is a Presidential Primary state.  And because the voting blocks and lobbying groups the Midwest states represent make sure that’s the way the Govt. spending goes.
   Robert Heinlein said “Anytime you ask “why is something like that” the answer is always...money.”