Nobody has mentioned Plato's The Republic, and its concept of a Philosopher King as the ideal type of ruler for a city-state.  I don't think that Socrates and Plato are taught much in public schools now, but this was the source of choosing a wise, just and truthful leader based on his talents and abilities, as determined by the wisest citizens of the state. 

There isn't any overt Christianity in the Perelandra stories, but C.S. Lewis' basic morality comes through, and the planetary spirits seem angelic in nature.
Jim Butcher is quoting C.S. Lewis through the voice of the Archangel Uriel when he says to Harry, "You are a soul; you have a body."

Jim answered one of mine.  He was online for about three hours, and only had time to get to about half of the questions. I don't know if there will be another Q&A session in the future.

Any word as to whether Jim and Shannon will be making it to Dragon*Con again this year?

I like Iago's Pyramid chart of argumentation and logical fallacies in the Announcements board.
Can I steal it? 

Asheville, NC is a nice place to visit, lots of writers, artists, and bookstores around, and some great restaurants.

Yup.  I'm thrilled to be able to release the video to the fans in Februaryish!  It'll be a treat.

I'll be looking forward to it, I've already put in my pre-order for Ghost Story through the Amazon link on the forum here. 

Indeed.  Some of them said they just got lucky and were writing urban fiction when no one wanted to read it, then suddenly it got popular and people started buying up their manuscripts.

One of the most useful tidbits for prospective authors was the fact the all publishers SAY they want something fresh and different, but none of them want to actually BUY anything in a genre that hasn't already been proven to sell well, and which can be easily categorized by bookstores. "Urban fantasy with a supernatural element", which most of these writers have been successful with, was a category that took a long time to get established.

Laurel K. Hamilton's embarrasing moments story, about men coming to book signings wanting her to autograph their penises, topped the rest of the embarrasing moments anecdotes, I think.