Once there were some people who longed for a better lifestyle. Things were not so good for them, back home; so, they left. They didn’t exactly  have permission to enter the country they were headed to, but they really wanted to be there, so they just went. These people looked, dressed, acted and smelled different from the people who lived in their new homeland. Some of these locals welcomed them, while others were decidedly hostile. The foreigners showed up a few at a time at first, then more and more, until eventually they started to outnumber the locals.

The newcomers brought strange food and weird customs; and despite claiming they were trying to get away from their native country, they resisted giving up their ties to it. One thing that ended up causing a lot of trouble was that most of them refused to learn the language in the new country. Many problems could have been prevented if they had  tried a little harder in this area.

Some of the foreigners were gracious and courteous to their hosts. Others were jerks, taking advantage of every gift or benefit offered, then demanding more. Plenty of them sort of pretended that there were no problems, while they took advantage of the resources and goodwill of the locals. They weren’t all bad people; but they had lives to lead, and they needed what the locals had. The locals shared. Or they complained. Or they resisted. Or they sat back and watched until it was too late.

In the end, the tensions were never really resolved. Instead, the two groups separated themselves, mostly living in communities isolated from each other, clustering together with people more similar to themselves. However, some of the locals began to act more like the foreigners, who now outnumbered them. In fact, the foreigners weren’t really foreigners anymore. In fact, they mostly ran things now. Life was never the same for the people who used to be the locals.

The End.

(photo: Chris Seufert)

zo-ombie. zo-ombie. zo-ombie ee ee ee…

a) We re-applied for the pittance that was once our DHS grant, today. I knew a guy back in Montana (at the School for the Deaf and Blind) named Paul. He said he used to play singer-songwriter gigs in Seattle (this was when I was 13; I had never seen Seattle). He told me a story about entertaining himself as a child in the 1950s under some bridge or other in the city. He and his friends would toss pennies and nickels to the bums, and watch them fight for the coins. Well, I can imagine the struggle with one’s pride, then deciding that, yes, I still wanted the coin, after all, enough to fight for it. I mean circa-1955 homeless people no disrespect in comparing my plight to theirs.

b) I just read an irreverent, funny, occasionally offensive essay about gender. The thesis seems to be that if women ran the world, it would look remarkably like it currently does. Not that I agreed 100% with everything, but I had some favorite moments:

I’m not trying to say men are any better, because they’re not. They commit most of the murder and mayhem on this planet but frankly, I think that’s just because they have more time on their hands.

A little more thoughtfully (and thought-provokingly):

The exact same testosterone-fueled drive that makes men fight wars also makes them build bridges and tall buildings and computers.

And the slam-dunk to get me all righteously indignant:

I’d really like to know just what in the hell makes Sally Field think women love their children more than men do.

and finally, the piece of resistors:

Even if the best mother EVER was Queen of the Planet, someone somewhere would still need to have their ass kicked, and she’d have to send somebody’s child to do it.

Like the title says, the first part of the short story called “Emperors” is posted on my writing page. It’s about a 5- or 10-minute soft sci-fi read. The next two parts will be posted as they are deemed ready for public evisceration

{This is part of an effort to get a broader array of comments and criticism¹. Whether you know me or not, feel free to chime in, now and in the future. Eventually, maybe I’ll get a story sold to one of the sci-fi magazines still in operation². To friends and family: comments and reading are welcome, though not required. There will be no quiz.}

1. not to overlook the incredibly helpful contributions of the couple of you who are giving/have given criticisms already [↩]
2. One rejection down, about 50 to go? Or so the pros would suggest [↩]

This is interesting. It comes from what appears to be an openly right-leaning site. The Governor of Massachussetts apparently said,

“Among many other things, 9/11 was a failure of human understanding […] It was a mean and nasty and bitter attack on the United States. But it was also a failure of human beings to understand each other, to learn to love each other.”

Personally, I think I see where the Gov is coming from, and from (what I hope is) his perspective, I agree. However, the folks at proteinwisdom.com saw the comment in a different light. From the blog response:

“Well, okay. But in fairness to those 3000 people who died in the WTC attacks, they were never given the choice between ‘send al Qaeda some flowers and a box of chocolate covered cherries’ and ‘death by immolation or grudging 100 story swan dive.’”

And from the comments,

“Ooooh, oooh, I can play too. Here goes:
The . . . Holocaust . . . was a failure of human understanding.
What do I win. (I hope some pie?)”

GODWIN’S LAW!

A couple of nights ago, my friend Brad and I had a discussion. It got me thinking, as I often do, about mi patria (the United States), its role in the world, and its future on the international stage. This morning, while trying to find a citation for homicide rates as (lousy) indicators of overall crime rates, I ran into a 2005 article titled “The next 50 years: Unfolding trends,” in what appears to be a good peer-reviewed academic journal.

The article has a section titled “America’s Retreat.” He predicts the end of U.S. international dominance by about 2050, with clear signs starting a few decades ago, and becoming more apparent very soon. He cites a lot of economic indicators, such as national debt, increasingly weak currency, and huge (and increasing) trade imbalances. He has graphs (pretty ones) and apparently rigorous data analysis. Some nifty excerpts from the article, after the jump. Continue reading →

The Virgina Tech shooter did something horrible. That’s his fault. But he existed in an environment in which he knew with a certainty that he would become famous for it. That’s the news media’s fault. That’s our fault. All of us.

The news media’s predictable vulture-like picking at the corpses of the victims is sickening. The most revolting thing about this, however, is the fact that the media are giving the killer everything he ever wanted. And, of course, this is because they’re giving us what we want. So, in the end, we are the problem. Continue reading →