XPost: rec.arts.sf.written   
   From: psperson@old.netcom.invalid   
      
   On Thu, 4 Apr 2024 00:51:47 -0000 (UTC), "Keith F. Lynch"   
    wrote:   
      
   >Jeff Urs  wrote:   
   >> Gary McGath  wrote:   
   >>> Confiscating the major weapons is the real problem.  Picking up   
   >>> nuclear weapons and carrying them off would cause all kinds of   
   >>> international and logistical issues, and someone might decide to   
   >>> launch them rather than give them up.  They're probably already   
   >>> poorly maintained and unreliable, but that could just mean that   
   >>> instead of blowing up their intended target, they'll blow up   
   >>> somebody else.   
   >   
   >> In all the history of the Thing, only Bilbo -- I mean, Ukraine --   
   >> has voluntarily given it up, and that took all our help...   
   >   
   >And I'll bet they regret giving them up.  What a great lesson for   
   >other nuclear powers who are being urged to give them up.   
   >   
   >Also, if I was Bilbo I would have kept the One Ring.  But then I've   
   >always been a packrat.  And a ring takes up much less space than a   
   >bunch of nuclear weapons and their launchers.   
      
   Bilbo, left to himself, would have kept the One Ring. Or died trying.   
      
   It took Gandalf partially unmasking himself and cowing Bilbo to get   
   Bilbo to give it up.   
   --    
   "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,   
   Who evil spoke of everyone but God,   
   Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)