The worldbuilding is a times incredibly interesting and at times incredibly frustrating, and there are things that I may be wrong, but doesnt make sense at all. I may be dumb and not seeing something, but to this date I have no idea how that world can have Catholics unless you redefine the word to mean something else completly.
]]>The "personal interest" thing is that I was born in Caracas, Venezuela, so ...
1) For what it seems, all Latin America in Timeline 3 is Commonwealth, and previously New British Empire? Timeline 3 Spanish Empire didnt happen, or was eaten up by the Hannover - Bourbon conflict, with Spain and Portugal falling to the French and the American part conquered by the British? Is that right?
2) The very short time (so far as I've read) that we spend in Timeline 2 2020 Caracas, I was a bit confused till I remembered it was 2020. So, I assume Timeline 2 Venezuela either didnt got a terminal case of Chavista idiocy wrecking the country into desperate poverty, or it has recovered a lot in 2 years... something that I find both a bit difficult to believe and, well, happy to think it is intentional and at least we got some hope for the country even if it is in a fictional para-timeline
Any case, enjoying the book - this is just icing on the cake :)
]]>Which may be a very good reason for why we would need an EU now to keep the peace, if it works. Just saying that, France stuff notwistanding (and yes, that was worrysome), if you ask me what was the main reason for those 70 years of peace, the EU was going go be second place at best.
]]>Now, what was the real weight and role of the EU on the peace and what can be its role now, not sure. I was a very vocal Europhile as 99% of Spaniards were; look where it took us.
I fully bought all the ideas that the EU represented a better stage for European civilization, to get over our petty differences and start building something that represented the best of us. Now we have it as a group that decides it is better to leave brown people to drown as a warning for others not to come here, and negotiates with disgusting petty tyrant-wannabees like Erdogan to "solve" the issue of said "invasion" of desperate people.
So... I dont know. My knee-jerk reaction would be "Oh, the british making noises about leaving, what a surprise" but right now there are so many questions about what, really, should the EU be... of course leaving it would not work in any way to fix it, but ... can it be fixed?
]]>Oh Shit.
So 2016 is another "Vox Day gets to piss on everybody's cereal" year.
Fun.
]]>All in all, this is a victory for decency, but lets next year be a normal one in which no bunch of hateful morality-handicapped rejects try to screw the whole world.
I dont know if anybody has done, or if it is possible to do, an analysis of the impact of this bullshit in sales. Some people that deserved exposure were out of the competition; some people exposed themselves as assholes but I'm not sure it will matter in their sales, as they were not that popular to begin with and... well, they pander to who they pander.
]]>But a few days ago a popular TV journalism programme made an interview with an former member of ETA where he basically admitted that the whole terrorism thing was a huge mistake, a criminal enterprise where he did a lot of harm to other people motivated by a sort of peer pressure mentality in the gang... basically that he was an idiot that killed people he didnt knew just because somebody told him that was his duty as a patriot, and that he was sorry for all of it.
The reaction of many from the right was that the whole idea of having an interview where an "etarra" could talk was an insult to the victims that should not be allowed. Even if to ask for forgiveness. Even if in the end it doesnt matter if you forgive him or not (I dont feel particularly inclied to do so, myself), but think of the use this can be to make a lot of possible new recruits think about what being a member of a terrorist gang really is about.
No, the whole idea of somebody related to ETA talking is "offensive" and the only "democratic" way of handling this is to ensure everybody does not talk about ETA in any kind of terms but the ones that are approved by the right. Anything else is dangerously naive at best and collaboration with the terrorists at worst.
Funny enough... the ETA-friendly circles in the Basque country ALSO found the programme a travestry of all that a good journalist should do...
]]>All we know is that she is not ETA, everybody else is.
]]>In the middle of "Operación Araña III", the third crackdown against "terrorism apology and disrepect to the victims on the social networks", the Guardia Civil arrested a well know rapper. Looking forward to 2 years prison, for things like tweeting that Ortega Lara (famous for being kidnapped by ETA for 532 days) should be kidnapped now - as he is presenting himself as candidate by a far right party.
Now, to be clear, for me that is an idiotic comment and in bad taste.
AND SO WHAT?
I'm now safer because a stupid loudmouth have been arrested?
Is this relevant because it is on Twitter, when worse than that can be heard in any bar?
Why its always with stuff from the "left" to the "right", but never when a far right idiot calls to kill all reds?
Shouldnt the Guardia Civil have something better to do? I mean, as in actually persecuting terrorists?
Meanwhile in the electoral campaing, the ruling party candidate for Madrid, has basically set up, with the help of her media partisans, a whole narrative that voting for the left candidate is voting for ETA.
Is not that a disrespect for the victims?
]]>I for one have no reason to doubt he does. Oh, sure he thinks it is only against the real bad guys, but this is how skin-deep the values of democracy are for their supposed defenders.
]]>An argument that always makes me wonder what, exactly, is that people are saying. "It is YOUR FAULT you abandon our party, disgusted, disillusioned, and went for somebody else. If you actually did your job of ignoring all the multiple ways we betrayed you and disappointed you, we would have won!"
Well, no shit. But maybe the solution was something else, dont you think?
]]>Normally in "urban fantasy" we get a lot of stuff about how the mythical creatures have been displaced by humanity and forced to live in the shadows, in a decandent survival far below what they used to be.
Like you know, the kind of animals people think about when they think about how awful modern life is to the ecology.
But what about roaches. What about rats. That is the kind of animal that yep, may belong to the "shadows", but boy arent they enjoying a bonanza during the human-centric age. They are thriving like never before.
Vampires ... well, in the White Wolf RPGs they could be visualized as that kind of thing, but it was implied that population has to be low (of course that goes out of the window fast due to the whole everybody-of-relevance-is-a-vampire) due to their territorial nature and the need to hide from humanity.
]]>Christian Dominionist are not a harmless minority that feel powerless and is driven to extremes due to the persecution, and that needs our acceptance to have a place in public discourse
They are a minority whose whole ideology is to fuck with my life as a godless heathen till I learn to be silent - or to be dead. In their desired world, I would not even be a citizen. And I'm a white straight guy, dont get me started on what would they do to women, gays...
If they are being persecuted and ostracized for public discourse for their belief, is because their belief is that they want a fucking new Inquisition to rule for their benefit and the rest of us to burn on the bonfires.
I dont know you, but I'm not into the custom of being accepting of people that wish me harm, and ensuring I dont oppose them clearly on the public sphere to make it clear what they are about.
]]>"You are black, so you are a subhuman savage"
and
"You are a racist and a fascist"
Is not about calling people names and they being true or not, is about what is behind the name calling.
]]>