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Posts Tagged ‘Empire1’

Bookworm’s Nook

by Kafir ( 150 Comments › )
Filed under Open thread at November 29th, 2010 - 4:30 pm

Blogmocracy in Action!
Guest post by: Empire1

I’m quite certain I’m not the only bookworm/bookaholic on The Blogmocracy, so I got curious about what the rest of you might be reading, or aren’t reading at the moment but enjoy.

My own primary reading interest is science fiction, but since so much of what I’ve found recently is either post-apocalyptic or what I call “hard” military, I’ve slid into fantasy as well over the last few years. Note that while I like science fiction with a military slant (Starship Troopers and Ender’s Game come immediately to mind), if it starts getting into details of strategy and tactics, my eyes glaze over and I lose interest about the second or third time the story bogs down that way. For instance, I just finished, and very much enjoyed, Anne McCaffrey and S. M. Stirling’s The City Who Fought, but had to skim over chunks of the David Weber and John Ringo “March” series.

I’m corrently re-reading Dune, and will probably go for Alan Dean Foster’s Reunion next (it’s a Pip & Flinx novel I haven’t read yet; found it at a library sale last Saturday). In no particular order, I’m also fond of Lackey’s “Valdemar” series, and am a complete addict of Pratchett’s “Discworld” books — especially anything having to do with Granny Weatherwax or the Nac Mac Feegle.

Anything by David Eddings. MZB’s “Darkover” books (though I know entirely too much about threshold sickness … )

Other than Judge Dee and Sherlock Holmes, I’m not very much into detective stories, though in my younger days I did love me some Ellery Queen! Horror, not too much either, despite a perverse fondness for Lovecraft, and some of Derleth’s work in that mythos.

As far as non-fiction goes, that’s pretty much anything that catches my interest! Anything by Thomas Sowell (I need to re-read A Conflict of Visions and The Vision of the Anointed Real Soon Now) is a given. English usage, history, and unusual words will snag me every time, as will popularized works on cosmology or astronomy, plus some physics (as long as it doesn’t start using equations — I did say popularized!). Books on whatever hobby or craft I’m working or or may get back into — at the moment it’s woodcarving, but I still have lots of stuff on spinning, weaving, crocheting, beadwork, embroidery, brewing (mead or strawberry wine, anyone?) and a couple I haven’t tried yet, for lack of room or cash.

Oh, yes, and I’ll grab any heraldry book I can get my mitts on!

So now it’s your turn. What do you like? What are you reading now, or plan to soon?

— Empire1

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Posted in Open thread | 150 Comments »

Mabus To Head Spill Recovery

by Kafir ( 93 Comments › )
Filed under Blogmocracy, Guest Post, History at June 20th, 2010 - 1:00 pm

Blogmocracy in action!
Guest post by: Empire1!

Obama’s Spill Recovery Chief Will Be Part-Time

The whole story is both good and interesting, but the first two paragraphs are what caught my attention and sent me to my copy of Nostradamus’ prophecies.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s point man charting a new future for the oil-poisoned Gulf Coast will do the job part-time. Some environmentalists said the job demands someone’s full attention.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, who oversees 900,000 Navy and Marine personnel, is inheriting an amorphous second job as the Obama administration’s leader of long-term environmental and economic planning. His task is no less than rebuilding a region still suffering after Hurricane Katrina and beset by decades of environmental problems.

Mabus is a well-known name to anyone familiar with Nostradamus, even though it appears only once, in Century 2, Quatrain 62:

Mabus will then soon die, there will come a terrible descruction of people and animals. Suddenly vengeance will be revealed, hundred, hands, thirst and hunger, when the comet passes.

There have been numerous attempts to identify the mysterious Mabus, ever since the Quatrains began coming out in 1555. About the only thing that wasn’t identified as Mabus (at least in anything I’ve read so far) is someone with that actual name! Anagrams, twistings of other names, any word game you can imagine, though, has been tried.

I will freely admit that I’m no better at interpreting Nostradamus in advance of the events than anyone else is, so take this with the proverbial shaker of salt. It’s hard, though, not to make a connection when you actually have someone with that name put in chrage of a large area’s recovery from a huge environmental devastation that could easily become even worse if, say, a hurricane hits.

As long as Mabus stays healthy and no comets show up, we should be okay prophetically, but if he dies and/or a comet is discovered, it looks like at least the Gulf area’s in a world of hurt. But cheer up, it isn’t the end of the world; Nostradamus himself, in the Preface to his Centuries (written to his son Cesar) that “The work comprises prophecies from today to the year 3797. ” And the end of the Mayan calendar on 21 December 2012 is the end of a cycle, not of the world or universe.

-Empire1

(cross posted at The Dragon’s Den)

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Posted in Blogmocracy, Guest Post, History | 93 Comments »

‘Tis the season

by Kafir ( 385 Comments › )
Filed under Blogmocracy, Guest Post at November 27th, 2009 - 8:00 pm

As much as it pains me to quote the johnson, I have no problem doing it when pointing out the straight up bigotry that he puts on display. Rodan found a doozy at that other place today:

71 Charles Fri, Nov 27, 2009 10:42:04am replyquote

* 3
* down
* up
* report

Ah, Christmas! The time of egg nog, presents, trees, and the religious right whining about an imaginary “war.”

‘Tis the season to be a victim.

Charles would know about imaginary wars, as well as how to play the victim. He’s been in a war against anything remotely religious for almost two years now (although it seems like there is one religion that suddenly fell off his radar). Links over there from here are redirected, but you can find the quote by the timestamp. It would be interesting to see how many updings he has by now.

In response, I am posting a guest thread by Empire1 that was written before this latest example of anti-Christian asshattery from Charles. It’s a nice example of non-bigotry about Christmas from a non-Christian.

Charles could learn a thing or two, if he had the capacity for true tolerance.

Blogmocracy in Action!
Guest post by: Empire1

One Pagan’s View of Christmas

Every year about this time, there’s discussion about religious Christmas displays, the use of “Merry Christmas” instead of the more generic greetings, and associated subjects. A lot of that discussion seems to center around the thought that all non-Christians object to overt Christianity, and want to “take Christ out of Christmas.”

Well, some do; there are always two-legged fruitcakes walking around. But as a Pagan who used to help noderate a large Pagan forum, and who is married to an atheist, I can assure you that not all of us are unsympathetic to the Christian viewpoint.

First off, most American Pagans started off as Christians, so we were raised with it as much as everyone else was. We may have thrown off the religious aspects as such, but I can assure you a lot of us still use “Merry Christmas”, love the traditional carols*, and have no objections whatever to creches and similar displays. We may send out more generic cards, not all of which say “Merry Christmas”, but that’s more to avoid hypocrisy than out of a serious objection to the Christian viewpoint. (Yes, there are exceptions, but I’m talking about the majority.)

For a lot of Pagans, particularly the Celtic or Northern European-oriented ones, the religious celebration takes place on the solstice, as the Yule vigil. But Christmas is still pretty well ingrained, so the secular celebration takes place then — you know, gifts, football, big meal … all the family things. Christmas trees are great, the decorations are beautiful (well, most of them; some people do go overboard!), the “Merry Christmas”es are welcome and happily returned.

My husband, in fact, gets irritated if he’s given one of those “Season’s Greetings” or “Happy Holidays” greeings in a store. He doesn’t show it, but later I get the grumblings of, “It’s Christmas, dammit! Why don’t they say so?”

So if you don’t know for sure that someone would object to something specifically Christian, try it — you might be pleasantly surprised. And if you’re in one of those work-every-day jobs, a Pagan co-worker just might be willing to trade Yule for Christmas off, especially if they don’t have a family (see above).

*For some reason I don’t understand, there’s a major aversion to “Little Drummer Boy” … but most of us still love the ones we learned in childhood.

-Empire1

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Posted in Blogmocracy, Guest Post | 385 Comments »