Nobody reaches a position of authority without the ability to be a back-stabbing bastard when the chips are down. - Mike Resnick

The doctors told told me there would be some pain involved. Hah! When a surgeon suggest that you might feel a bit of mild discomfort, you can bet your bottom dollar you’re about to undergo the agony of the damned.

Is it true?"
"Probably. But just for the record, is what true?

It is the home of a very unusual race, as violent in their way as the people of Earth."
"I will assume that's a good thing to be," said Flint dryly.
"For the purpose of this proposition, it most definitely is," said Kargennian, ignoring Flint's undisguised animosity. "They have a culture that worships weaponry fully as much as yours does."
"I don't know that we actually worship it."
"Perhaps I used the wrong word," replied Kargennian. "But the fact remains that their history and cultures are as fully committed to firearms as your own. To this day, most of them carry hand weapons, as barbaric as the concept may seem.