XPost: rec.arts.sf.written   
   From: nospam@example.net   
      
   On Thu, 4 Apr 2024, Paul S Person wrote:   
      
   > 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.   
   >   
      
   Sounds like a great "alternative history" book! Bilbo the Slayer! ;)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)