Thanks!

Azul, O my countrymen,

The first few words of the Pater Noster in Talossan are referenced in that old Wired article, which got me wondering whether there's a treasury of Christian prayers like the Lord's Prayer or the Apostle's Creed translated into Talossan? If there is, could someone point me to it?

☧

Quote from: Ián S.G. Txaglh on January 04, 2021, 05:20:50 AM
:o there is this one thing which puzzles me, how would we know any relevant data from PRC? e.g. recent WHO research tells, that at least in wuhan, official numbers (infected, deceased) are at least one order lower than they, high probably, were. i lived in bolshevik country, i lived in the time of chernobyl (i was 16), so i would not believe any PRC official in regard to anything regime-sensitive even he tells me he has nose in-between his eyes ;)

You make an excellent point. We must of course exercise caution when taking data from the horse's mouth. I certainly wouldn't want to give the impression that I admire the containment strategy of the PRC. But, as a one-party state, they are 'playing on easy mode', for lack of a more sensitive term. It must be somewhat easier to contain an outbreak when you can simply ban people from going where they please under threat of force. I wish that some of my Australian countrymen were less inclined to fawn over the PRC's draconian measures as though they were worthy of emulation.

Anyway, if there's one COVID record we can all be proud of, it's Talossa's!

Admittedly my own pride was a little touched by your declaration that Australians are 'dumbed down' conspiracy theorists. This pandemic has brought out a lot of hasty talk about national traits and shortcomings, i.e. Açafat's quickdraw invocation of fascism, which confuses but doesn't surprise me. There are plenty of benign social-democracies that are currently being hammered by COVID. Conversely, the People's Republic of China, a contemporary gulag archipelago, has contained its own outbreaks remarkably well. I don't see how ideology and epidemiological efficacy correlate at all.

But, to quickly draw things to a characteristically Andrinesconian (read: sappy) conclusion, see Ephesians 2:19: 'Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God.' I'm sorry I let my pride sweep me away. We should all try to be happy for each other's progress, and also hopeful for the amelioration of each other's pitfalls.

If an elective monarchy, or indeed a republic, be the will of the people, it must be valid. But a permanently empty throne seems to me—though inspired and interesting in a Game of Thrones kind of way—slightly absurd. The throne itself is just a piece of (digital) furniture. Without a person sitting it, it doesn't retain much symbolic meaning. It's comparable to having a permanently empty parliament. It sounds ghostly, like a memorial for an institution with no life left in it. If that's the case—as the more iconoclastic republicans among us would have us believe—then they should go the full distance and advocate for its full abolition. All these semantic compromises strike me as the staging grounds for a later move against the entire monarchy and its vestiges, such as the peerage. We're in the process of cobbling together some kind of new monarchical system in the wake of our Bastille. If and when the supporters of our monarchy attempt to flee to Varennes, as it were, there won't be any further need for compromise.

(Apologies in advance if this is a slippery slope fallacy. Indeed, sometimes history abides by very illogical and fallacious rules. Cf. Tolstoy, War and Peace, Epilogue. Also, for a biblical perspective on our current troubles, see 1 Samuel 8, especially verse 18: 'And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; but the LORD will not answer you in that day.' I would prefer a true monarchy, or no monarchy at all.)

Ahem... Czechia...

Manna from heaven? Tastes like chicken!

Quote from: Açafat del Val on October 14, 2020, 01:46:59 PM
The same thing applies to AD, by the way, who started this thread in the first place: put up or shut up.

I am going to beat that drum until my dying breath. If you want change, get involved or be quiet.

Careful what you wish for...

How do you say 'bruh' in Talossan?

And for every Bastille, there will be an 18 Brumaire...

I predict that 'High Hopes' will win this competition every year until the end of time.  :P

Quote from: Açafat del Val on September 23, 2020, 09:39:55 PM
If he can't handle an apt comparison to his own childishness, then he shouldn't play ball. Something about don't cook in the kitchen if you can't handle the heat.

This sentiment is entirely at odds with your and the Seneschal's arguments about decorum and decency. The gloves are either on or off. The government needs to decide which it prefers—try as they might, they can't have both.

You could at least do AD the courtesy of committing to your attacks instead of walking them back and explaining them away.

"A rejected nominee shouldn't look like this [picture of Kavanaugh]"
—Acafat, with the subtle implication that AD is not only upset about having his nomination pulled (any other picture of someone with a childish/upset expression would have sufficed—this image was chosen), but that he is, somehow, morally on the same level as Kavanaugh. He has some right to take offence to that.

"Well known that AD likes beer"
—Miestra, implying AD is comparable to Kavanaugh in some way.

The Free Dems want it both ways. They want to appeal to decorum and play the victim, all while playing ball with AD's "rough-house politics" and throwing around brash remarks, accusing people of having narcissistic personality disorders and the like. FDT is the party of glass jaws living in glass houses.

Could we perhaps explain away the evasiveness as a somewhat faux-pas but overall harmless attempt at humour? I'm admittedly biased against anarchism but in our context it seems pretty benign. Luckily Talossa is the one country in the world where you could have a bloodless anarchist revolution that was actually bloodless.