Years ago, I enjoyed Wagner's Ring Cycle on TV because I was able to follow the plot thanks to sub-titles. (I would not have been carried along by the music alone.) Adzel, a Wodenite who resembles a dragon, sings Fafner when he is a student on Earth.
In The Earth Book Of Stormgate, Chinese New Year is celebrated in San Francisco Integrate and Christmas on the planet Ivanhoe. We celebrate both in Lancaster.
We recognize Sikh men by their turbans and their karas. Ensign Flandry takes orders from Commander Singh when no superior officers survive in a space battle.
Kossara Vymezal encounters an extremely unpleasant human subject of the Merseian Roidhunate named Muhammad Snell (Eriau name: Kluwych). We are more fortunate in our Muslim neighbours who share food at Eid.
Kossara, later canonized, lies in state in St. Clement's Cathedral in Zorkagrad on Dennitza. In Lancaster, we have a Priory Church, a Cathedral of St. Peter and a Polish language Catholic Church among others.
The Terran Emperor celebrates his Birthday by following daylight around the globe. The King of England visited Lancaster where he is Duke.
Our multi-cultural society prefigures their multi-species society.
Humanity will survive the Long Night but might not survive the Chaos.
Sayonara.
29 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I take a cold view of Islam as Islam. Fanatical Muslims massacred Christians in Nigeria on Palm Sunday. And the danger of death faced by Christians in all Muslim controlled nations (except, possibly, Malaysia) ranges from High to Very High.
It's good not all Muslims are like those Nigerian killers, but the brutality baked into Islam by Mohammed is ineradicable. A UK which became the United Emirate of Great Britain would not be good.
"Multiculturalism" is not necessarily an unmixed blessing.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Multiculturalism means that there will never be an Emirate and most Muslims here accept that. There are Christian Nationalists who would expel every Muslim.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Still overlooking my major point: wherever Islam dominates life becomes precarious and dangerous for all non-Muslims. "Multiculturalism" is used as a tool by some crypto-jihadists for importing the barbaric beliefs of Islam. I don't care if the Muslims you know of in the UK don't think like that, too many other Muslims don't agree with them.
And some Muslims should be expelled: such as those preaching jihadism, Sharia law supremacism, and those who long for a United Sultanate of Great Britain. Nations have a right to defend themselves from people who want to undermine and destroy them.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I am not overlooking a point! In our countries right now, it is Muslims who are scapegoated. Multiculturalism is not a tool. I do care about the Muslims I know. Some people should be expelled. How many long for a United Sultanate and what can they do about it? How many want to undermine and destroy us? Right now a Muslim country is being destroyed.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I find it very hard to care about that "scapegoating" when I recall how fanatical Muslims massacred tens of thousands of Christians in Nigeria alone in the last ten or 15 years. Or when other fanatical Muslims shoot up bars in Texas, or hunt down and nearly kill people like Salman Rushdie.
Wrong, crypto-jihadists trained by the Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoots use "multiculturalism" to help undermine the West. Two steps forward, one step back if resistance is met!
What matters is that some jihadists do want a Sultanate of Great Britain and are willing to think long term to achieve the goal of destroying the UK. They should be expelled.
Nor do I care about the Ayatollahs in Iran, they are getting what they deserve after 47 years of waging war on the US by all available means.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Wrong. (Can we stop saying that?) We multiculturalists do not undermine our society. We enhance it.
Anyone who wants to destroy, not just change, society should be expelled. There will only be a Sultanate if the vast majority convert to Islam and, in that case, they will want it!
The people of Iran are not getting what they deserve. Try to think about the people out there, not their rulers. Trump proposes to destroy civilian power plants and bridges. "Back to the Stone Age!" War crime! This from the President of the United States.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And I reject the kind of "multiculturalism" of the kind used for undermining and destroying.
At least you agree crypto-jihadists should be expelled.
It would be a horrible tragedy if the UK came to be dominated by Islam.
Incorrect, power plants and bridges are legitimate targets of war. The object in war is to force your enemy to do what you demand of him. The US/UK did far worse to Germany and Japan than what Pres. Trump threatens the Ayatollahs.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
There is no kind of "multiculturalism" used for undermining and destroying. That is your prejudice. It is the opposite.
At least I agree?! Terrorists and Nazis should be expelled. I do not welcome the implication that I might have wanted jihadists to stay.
The UK will not become dominated by Islam.
Incorrect. (Can we stop saying that?) Power plants and bridges are civilian targets. War crime. Have you any idea what is happening to the people of Iran oppressed both by Ayatollahs and by Trump? And the Ayatollahs are in power because the people overthrew the US-backed Shah and, unfortunately, the Ayatollahs filled the vacuum.
Trump is waging a war of aggression. If the US/UK did worse, that does not legitimize his current barbarism: "Back to the Stone Age!" You defend such a man when he is on what you see as your side. It is not the side of humanity. I consistently oppose Trump, Netanyahu and Putin.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Disagree, not all kinds of "multiculturalism" are good.
Because it's my belief too many are reluctant to accept Islam is dangerous.
I hope so, you hope so--and some Muslims dream of exactly that--a theocratic Sharia law sultanate.
And I stand by what I said about war.
Iran started this war--on 10/7/23.
Ad astra! Sean
Disagree. (Can we stop saying that.) Every kind of multiculturalism is good.
Many people are not "reluctant." They disagree with you. Every religion can take dangerous forms.
Some people dream about all sorts of things.
You disagree with the Pope about war.
EVERY power plant and EVERY bridge in Iran is a legitimate military target if the Iranian government does not back down to that threat? That will be an attack on an entire population. I think that you need to seriously reconsider what you are so easily saying.
Kaor, Paul!
Yes, legitimate targets of war. The Geneva Conventions only prohibit signatories from directly attacking civilians.
Noted, without assenting, your other comments.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
ALL power stations legitimate military targets? A genocidal war crime which the military should have refused to commit.
Paul.
Paul: note that Curtis LeMay's firestorm attacks on Tokyo killed 100,000 civilians in a single night in early 1945. And it was perfectly legitimate -- he was going after Japanese war industry, much of which was dispersed in residential districts in small workshops.
We won that war, btw. If we hadn't fought to win, the world would be ruled by Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.
If the present ceasefire had not been agreed, would Trump have been justified in targeting every bridge and power station? In order to "destroy a civilization"? Surely not.
Kaor, Paul!
Yes, justified. You are overlooking the military uses the Ayatollahs make of their power plants and bridges. That makes them legitimate targets of war.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
You are overlooking the genocidal crime against a population of destroying ALL its power plants and ALL its bridges.
I really cannot understand how this argument even continues. (But it does.)
Paul.
We blasted Germany and Japan flat in WW2 -- and if we'd had precision striking capacity, we'd have blasted every power-plant, road and railway bridge and tunnel, every water-treatment plant and so forth.
War means fighting, and fighting means killing. You inflict more pain than the other side can bear, and then they surrender.
And we have to stop fighting this kind of war. Israel and the US attacked Iran.
Kaor, Paul!
There is no genocide, what is going on is a war--and that necessarily means doing what it takes to break an enemy's will.
Disagree, the Ayatollahs have been waging war against Israel and the US since 1979. Using proxies, catspaws, terrorists, etc. What's been happening since June of last year was the theocracy getting the smashing it deserves.
Your views are hopeless, futile, unrealistic.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
It is not a war between two national armies. Hamas resists a systematic and still continuing attempt to kill, destroy and drive out Palestinians. Read several news reports that I have emailed.
Disagree. Not just the Ayatollahs but many other people have opposed US foreign policy because it involves backing coups, propping up dictators and arming and funding the Zionist state, its watchdog state in the oil-rich Middle East. The US is the innocent victim in all this?!
Your views are hopeless, futile and unrealistic.
What is the point of these exchanges?
Paul.
Paul: the Iranian regime has been attacking us since it took power. I'd have blasted the place flat and desolate long ago, to show that this is a bad idea.
But the present Iranian regime exists because of the US backing the Shah before. The US has its responsibility for what has been happening.
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: Denied, what you said about Hamas, a gang of murderous thugs and fanatics.
Denied, what you said about Iran. The Ayatollahs had a choice in 1979: come to terms with the US or not. They chose to attack the US by all means possible, given disparities of strength. The theocracy is finally getting the smashing it so richly deserves.
Mr. Stirling: I absolutely agree, what you said.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Denied. (Can we stop expressing ourselves like this?) Please read information that I have sent about what the IDF is doing in Gaza.
Denied. Come to terms with the US? The US needs to stop meddling in the Middle East. Why had they brought to power the Shah who ruled with SAVAK and torture prisons? Read information that I have forwarded about him.
Paul.
Paul: the previous government was inclined to align with the USSR, which was a perfectly legitimate reason to overthrow it if we could.
You know, the "Cold War"?
And compared to the ayatollahs, the Shah was a pussycat. Yeah, he killed and tortured individuals. He didn't have his men beat up or rape women for not wearing hijabs, or any of that nonsense. Miniskirts were common in the early 70's in Iran; right next to hijabs. People could decide for themselves.
He never gunned down 40,000 protesters in the streets either... which the present regime did a few months ago.
You're OK with that?
"Yeah, he killed and tortured individuals"?
Of course I'm not OK with gunning down 40,000 protestors. I would have wanted to be one of those protestors. Attacking the country militarily solidifies support for the regime.
Organizing a coup to overthrow an elected government was legitimate because of the Cold War? Supporting elections was what the Western side of that War was supposed to be about.
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: I am never going to agree with you about Gaza. After the atrocities of 10/7 Israel has every right to bulldoze and destroy anything that can be used against her. What is going on there is a war, to destroy Hamas, a perfectly legitimate objective.
Nor do I care about Mossadegh, if you persist in going back to the 1950s. It was the designs of the Soviets to turn Iran into first a client state, then an outright satellite a la eastern Europe. It was right of the US to prevent that by helping to oust Mossadegh.
Your comment about the US not "meddling" in the Mid East is sheerly impossible unrealism. Any responsible US gov't is not going to allow hostile powers to extend their own hegemonies over more and more of the world, with the avowed goal of destroying America.
I am extremely skeptical the Iran war is unifying support for the current regime in Tehran. Esp. not after the January massacres. The hints I get is that the regime now gets only cowed obedience from most Iranians, and that many of the latter hope the US destroys a regime now apparently dominated by its Praetorians and secret police, the IRGC.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I am never going to agree with you about Gaza. You get everything out of proportion if you insist on emphasizing ONE atrocity by ONE side in a long-drawn out conflict in which the Israelis have been the aggressors and persecutors from the beginning. Israelis are not bulldozing anything that can be used against them. They are bulldozing houses and homes period and are also continually aggressive in the West Bank. Read the reports I have sent.
It was wrong of the US to overthrow an elected government. I have emailed you a report of an American threat to British democracy. You have a great capacity for "not caring."
Any responsible "hostile powers" are going to resist US hegemony. America needs to be not destroyed but transformed.
There is every possible response in Iran, of course! Many see that the bombardment of their cities and slaughter of their populations does not liberate them. I would not want to see London blasted if we had a fascist government. I would welcome some genuine assistance to our resistance.
Paul.
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