Tag: open

A short story courtesy of Clarkhat:

1357 U.E. (i.e. 3328 C.E., i.e. 3328 AD), Oort Cloud Commensal

After a long shift at the atelier I returned home and turned on the polyseme to catch up on the emerge re the refugee crisis.

#general

“…then we as members of the Commensal have a duty, a moral duty, to help. We’ve all experienced the wholesales of the refugee family crawling from their burned lander near the shores of the Achelous Sea, the father cradling his dead son as he steps out onto Ganymede. The time to debate is over, and the time to act -“

“Madame Secretary!”

“-the time to act is now. We must -“

The emergent raised his voice. “Madame Secretary! I must object. Before we talk about importing potentially a hundred million refugees, we have to have a serious conversation about whether they can possibly integrate into our culture.”

The secretary didn’t bother to keep the annoyance from her face. [ translator’s note: all references to physical gestures are, at best, illustrative, and – at worst – ficitive ] “You’re going to say ‘a flood of refugees’, aren’t you? I, for one find that phrasing offensive. May I remind you that exact sort of language was used just three hundred years ago when the Martian Diaspora brought so many people to us here in the OCC. Are you going to tell the many proud citizens who trace their ancestry to the M.D. that you don’t like their kind?”

The emergent shook his virtual head. “It’s inane to compare the citizens of the Martian Diaspora to the current refugee crisis. On the Barnes scale the people of the M.D. were almost all type 1 and type 2 ideologues: Nationalists, Trade Unionists, Libertarians, Atheists, Catholics. Non-totalizers, all. The Hitlerite diaspora that threatens to swamp us now -“

“Sir, I find that offensive. This is not a Hitlerite issue. This is an inner system issue. These people aren’t coming here to attack us, they’re coming here because they’re fleeing war.”

“Madame secretary I agree, they’re fleeing war – a war that the Hitlerites themselves have caused”.

The Secretary took a long breath. “I utterly reject that sort of bigotry. To call this a Hitlerite issue is to blame the victims. The problem is not Hitlerism – it’s a small evil group of people who are twisting the words – the beautiful words of an ancient faith – to their own destructive ends.”

Read the rest of the story at Popehat.

Machine gun fire has been heard in central Paris, close to where the Charlie Hebdo shootings occurred in January. The shooting on Rue Bichat, is thought to have led to several deaths and injuries, although authorities are yet to have confirmed this. Police and other emergency services are at the scene.

Many people killed in restaurant by a man with Kalashnikov near Place de la République, according to reports…. 

It seems there may be three possible attack sites: a restaurant, a bar
and outside the Stade de France. Details are very much confirmed at this
stage. 

Not that anyone will be surprised, but it is confirmed to have been Muslims again.

Louis, inside the Bataclan, told France Info radio the men opened fire and shouted “Allah Akbar”. 

The latest reported death toll is 160+.  

FRANCE24 reports 100+ hostages are being held at the
Bataclan. 

Now reports of more shots fired at Les Halles, the huge underground shopping mall near the Giardin Nelson Mandela. 

La guerre est parmi nous. Nous résisterons, nous nous battrons ensemble.

— François Fillon (@FrancoisFillon)
November 13, 2015

That sounds very brave and all, but if war is upon you, then why aren’t you fighting the enemy?

According to BFMTV, one of the gunmen shouted: “It’s for Syria” at Bataclan and “Allahu Akbar”. 

“A gunman killed WDBJ reporter Alison Parker and photographer Adam Ward during a live interview about a local business in Franklin
County, Virginia, on Wednesday morning.”

Based on Alison Parker’s age and appearance, it doesn’t look like a romance-related killing, does it.

This is an open thread. Feel free to post updates in the comments.

So I was traveling through France on the train today and saw that the forty-something woman pushing the food-and-drinks trolley was tall, slender, and looked vaguely Italian. I didn’t think anything of it, but her appearance prompted the man sitting across the aisle to start asking her where she was from in French.

She must have noticed something in his accent that I didn’t, because she answered in Italian. I didn’t recognize the name of the town, but he obviously did. It turned out that he and the two women sitting near me were originally from the next town over in Piemonte. They discussed a few landmarks and families and so on while I sat there quietly minding my own business and editing John Wright’s latest masterpiece on my tablet. They got a little exuberant at one point, prompting the woman nearest me to lean over and apologize in French, explaining that they were all essentially neighbors. From Italia.

“Si, lo so, anch’io parlo italiano,” I said, which sparked considerable hilarity. The next thing I knew, I was getting quizzed about my last trip to Piemonte, the man bought a bottle of wine from the trolley lady, and was distributing plastic cups to everyone, including me. It’s rather amusing. Even when you take the Italians out of Italy, the party travels with them.

Were there any walruses under your pillow?

Um, no. Why do you ask?

How do you distract a walrus?

Presumably with a fish, I suppose.

On a totally unrelated subject, I encourage you to submit nominations for 2013’s top ten posts on VP. It’s not really my call, so please suggest up to three posts in the comments here. I’m curious to know what the readers here find most interesting, as I suspect that the number of comments per post are not necessarily the best metric for determining that.

Treats will be given. Tails will be wagged. A gift day. A holiday… and a new bed in front of the radiator!
– Christmas from the perspective of a viszla

A Very Merry Christmas to you all. I encourage you to embrace the joy and to permit yourself see it again through the eyes of your childhood.

UPDATE: Spacebunny won Christmas this year. She gave me a PAL Intellivision with 12 games, the third volume in the Cambridge Ancient History series, and as the coup de grâce, a newly published book by Umberto Eco that I hadn’t even heard about, The Book of Legendary Lands, as well as the latest collection of his essays.

Dogs are the best:

A blind man who nearly died after falling onto subway train tracks
will get to keep the loyal dog who tried to save him — thanks to New
Yorkers who whipped out their checkbooks to help the duo stay together. Cecil Williams, 61 — whose 11-year-old pooch, Orlando, leaped onto
the tracks after his master fainted on Tuesday — said the lovable lab
will retire as a seeing-eye dog and become a pet with the help of
donation money.

Williams fell on to the tracks after he grew faint and lost footing
on the platform of the 125th Street station at 9:30 am on Wednesday.
Orlando jumped onto the tracks after him and began licking his face. A quick-thinking subway conductor then hit brakes of the train, which passed over both of them. Transit officials pulled Orlando out from under the train and
Williams was rushed to St. Luke’s Hospital while wearing a neck brace.

I tend to doubt my viszla would have had the courage to leap on the tracks in a similar situation. His usual method of confronting other dogs that represented a potential threat was to run behind me, peek out around one leg and growl. But if curling up in a blanket in front of a roaring fire would have saved me, he’d have been all over it.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found alive under a boat in a backyard in Watertown by police using thermal imaging. Police are trying to figure out how to get him to surrender.

First the black powder bombs in Boston and now a massive explosion at a fertilizer plant in Texas:

Up to 15 people are feared dead including five volunteer firefighters after a giant explosion at a fertiliser plant wreaked devastation in the town of West, Texas, leaving hundreds with horrific injuries. The blast destroyed scores of buildings, including a nursing home and an apartment complex and blanketed the area in a cloud of toxic fumes.

The missing volunteer firefighters and a policeman were attending a blaze at the plant at about 7:50pm local time last night it suddenly exploded into a fireball – it thought to be caused by anhydrous ammonia igniting in the heat of the fire.

Sergeant W. Patrick Swanton from Waco’s police department said at least 160 people have been treated for injuries at local hospitals, but he warned that he expects the total number of deaths and injuries to rise when daylight arrives and emergency teams are able to conduct a proper search. The explosion at West Fertilizer Co. shook the ground with the strength of a small earthquake in the community of 2,800 people located about 20 miles north of Waco.

Well, I’m sure it’s all nothing a few million more immigrants won’t fix….