Where have I been?

You may (but probably have not!) noticed that I've not been around much lately.  I still think Talossa is a superb idea and a most splendid realm – and nothing I do can (or should) change that.  But I am also getting older – and, again, there is nothing I can do to change that.

Are these two facts in conflict?  Well, sort of.  No, I sit at my computer keyboard most of the time during the day, typing madly away – but Yes, I'm too busy, in the (probably) short time left to me, writing new or completing previous books.  This last year I have completed and published a novel, completed and published (privately) a set of stories suitable for children, completed (and published privately) half a book of Star Wars 'incidents' – and the "half" is intentional, as I want to introduce my eldest grandchild to the art of writing – he will have to add the final chapters, under my guidance – and I have also constructed a radio script from one of my previous books (again, for children). Now I'm working on a novelette (whose plot involves an eccentric old man – a sort of self portrait – trying to find out why there is still water in the moat round a ruined castle.  Watch this space.)

Should any of you want copies of any of these or my previous works, just get in touch with me – all proceeds go to charity (Save The Children Fund).  [FYI it's better to contact me through idkk@idkk.com which I look at far more often than my Talossan email].

Though I am at my computer, I have very little spare time to be visible and productive in Talossa.  To give one example, I speak French, and hence Cézembre (the island from which our glorious Province draws its name) is most definitely a geographical place I should visit – but, alas, I am too (physically) unfit to get there.  Sigh.  I would love to once more see, in person, our monarch (hi John!), and shake the hand of our scribal linguist (hi Manus!), and our New Zealand polymath (hi Daphne!)... or should that be polymathS?... and our highly talented musical Taloss-historian (greetings, GV!)... and all the others of you, not forgotten but too numerous to mention, in many different parts of the globe (Sweden, Scotland, the UK, the USA, India, Canada... etc.).  Hello Everybody!
If any of you Talossans are ever in the UK, please contact me and we can have a drink or meal together - I live immediately next door to a Pub which has been running since 1582.  If you don't know what a Pub is, then you will have a great time finding out!

Being on the one hand in Talossa, and on the other hand writing to and about Talossa are very different things.  I do read most of the postings, but my batches of reading are spread apart in time: I try to read everything, but postings may be two or more weeks out of date before I get the (personal) time to look at them.  Rather than make comments on "old news", I just read it without comment (usually).  So, although I'm here, I'm not usually visible.

And if I'm not visible for more than a year?  Well, I've probably moved "elsewhere": Noli Timere Messorem.

Take care, all of you.

Splendid! Should we also repeat all our postings in French as well?
Formidable! Est-ce-qu'on peut traduire tout en Francais?


...and should someone who speaks French correctly help us? <you know who you are> <grin>

I *think* I have voted in this Clark - but in case my vote has been lost, here it is repeated:

RZ11 - Austeneu
RZ12 - Contra
RZ13 - Per
RZ14 - Contra
RZ15 - Per
RZ16 - Per
RZ17 - Per
RZ18 - Per
voc  - Non

If there is any conflict, this posting (20 May 2023 18:55 BST) is the definitive version

Manus - you have our sympathy and our love. When someone close to you and dear passes on each of us feels sorrow - but we can treasure their memory, and what they meant to us. Be assured, Manus, that Laura's pain is over and that she has moved to where there is no sadness. May she rest in peace, and rise in glory.

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on February 10, 2023, 04:31:48 PM...
I read this a couple of times, but don't quite get it, I'm sorry.  Why would this force people to be better about checking for broken cross-references?  It's only human that we're going to sometimes miss some, and I'm not sure moving away from a clear legal code in a single law would be helpful.

The whole point is, I think, the reverse of what you have said. My suggestion means that no-one has to chase back to previous legislation unless the old law/clause (etc.) is mentioned in the new law. If a new law mentions an old one, then it is a simple act of editing the record of the old law - which can be done by someone other than the instigators of the new law. This process makes the legal code even clearer.

If a new law inadvertently affects an old law, without mentioning it - as will (inevitably) frequently happen - then it is up to the Corts (as now) to decide what the law actually was, at the time of a litigious event. Partial incompatibilities and partial conflicts between old and new laws which are spotted outside of discussion of a new law are, themselves, items to be passed through the same processes as relate to a new law. I absolutely agree that inadvertent back-incompatibilities cannot be arbitrarily be changed outside of our current due process.

My suggestion does not change the necessary examination of the whole law to determine what the law is, but can make that examination process shorter.

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on February 04, 2023, 02:50:38 PMI would be advising the Free Dems to support this, but I can't abide by this provision:

QuoteFURTHERMORE, the Scribe is directed to eliminate from el Lexhatx all "empty" provisions, as when a provision has been deleted but left empty, and to renumber the Titles in question in a sensible fashion.

As I've said before, but I can't find where, there are too many places where cross-references in El Lex have been rendered inoperative due to renumberings. "This section intentionally left black" works well in some cases.

Quote from: Üc R. Tärfâ on February 06, 2023, 06:29:51 PMA cross-referencing fix now to repair the law might be a good endeavour.

However in the future "renumbering provisions" in bills should be simply avoided to avoid (sic!) generating many of those broken references.

The simplest fix to the problem of "moving references" is to change ALL law names, and paragraph numbers, etc. to something unchangeable. So law XYZ would have paragraphs 1, 2, 17, 29, 33 because law ABC (which, in time, followed the adoption of law XYZ) has removed those paragraphs 3-16, 19-28 etc., or negated their contents. This would, at most, involve marking any altered/deleted paragraphs with reference to the *subsequent* law which removed/changed them. Thus ALL back references would be correct.....

BUT if there are two (or more) back references to a changed paragraph - and we must always assume that there will be - then each reference must either point to "paragraph 27.3 of law XYZ of date <date>" or point to "paragraph 27.3 of law XYZ as updated at the time of consultation". I grant that this makes back references a little longer to type - but they NEVER have to be subsequently altered - only an additional label attached to a modified / deleted paragraph stating that it is deleted or indicating where the "next" version of that law/paragraph may be found... which may mean following a longer chain (tedious - but not difficult).

AND THEN we would no longer have need to "put off till tomorrow" the cross-numbering references throughout the whole law, every time there is a change to the law.

...This is what other countries do. And Talossa, being Great, can learn from other nations, and adopt useful techniques from them.

(P.S. "We have never done that before" is NOT a good argument for "we can't do that now".)

Is the post of Poet Laureate open to anyone who *can* write poetry, or someone who *does* write poetry?
My (personal) opinion is that it should be "does" rather than just "can".
And whoever is appointed - learn well from your predecessor.

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on October 16, 2022, 03:24:22 PMChange OrgLaw X.3 to read:

QuoteChildren born after 1 January 1989/X, one (or both) of whose biological or adoptive parents is a Talossan citizen at the time of the birth ("Dandelions") shall automatically be granted Talossan citizenship when they register themselves with the Secretary of State on or after their 14th birthday.

... and delete El Lexhatx E.13.

I have two problems here:

1. A child (i.e. under the age of, of 14) cannot be assumed to have knowledge of or to have made either consent or refusal to Talossan citizenship - a minor cannot have such obligations thrust upon them without their explicit consent. Therefore they cannot (in justice) be penalised for not attending to an obligation of which they had no knowledge - and could not (under the restrictions relating to minors) have had. "Ignorance of the law is no defence" may only be used if the alleged offender could have had knowledge of that law. So we can NOT make a dandelion into a citizen without their explicit permission - and we cannot "punish" a dandelion for not making an application unless we are certain that the dandelion was explicitly informed of his/her aughts after their 14th birthday.

2. "Biological" parent makes those who are adopted or placed in a pro-Talossan but (biologically) unrelated environment of upbringing (adopted, in a step-family, fleeing persecution from another country, etc.) to be denied dandelion rights, as are his pro-Talossan guardians in loco parentis.

So, NO. Therefor:

1) A dandelion should be any child under the age of 14 for whom any legal guardian has requested that status, and

2) A dandelion cannot be removed from citizenship unless (a) that is requested by a legal guardian (for an existing dandelion), or (b) the dandelion upon reaching the age of 14 is explicitly informed of Talossan law, and has provided proof that this information was received, or ( c) the dandelion, upon reaching the age of 14 or more specifically, in their own right, requests to be NOT a Talossan citizen. Note that any grown-up-dandelion who attempts to vote in any referendum (etc.) shall be deemed to have had full knowledge of Talossan law starting from the date upon which that attempted vote is cast. It is up to some, yet to be discussed, subsequent Talossan law to determine whether or not such a vote counts.... (I would suggest, in the first instance, not - but that is a different discussion).

RZ20 - CONTRA
RZ21 - PER
RZ22 - PER
RZ23 - PER

In sadness we say "The Queen is dead"

and in humble anticipation we say "God Save the King"

There are few of us here in Talossa who can remember in their own lives a time when she was not queen. I am older than most of you, and I was privileged to see her coronation. That was a time of restart - a break with the dreadful recent past war, and a looking forward to better times.  None of us then thought that she would celebrate her Platinum Jubilee. But since her accession she has seen us through huge social and technological change in the world - computers, the iron curtain, men on the moon, the internet, gender equality, wider acceptance of all people, whatever their colour or faith or origin or orientation, greater international communication ("better jaw, jaw than war, war"), a diminishing of (but not, alas, the eradication of) the sense of "us and them" - we are moving towards inclusivity, and away from exclusivity: she has been there through all that, and more, and has been a steadying presence both in the UK and round the world.

We shall miss her, and we thank God for giving her to us as a gift, and for giving to her a long life, strong in faith and steadfast in duty.

May she Rest In Peace.

Quote from: Lüc on August 26, 2022, 03:17:21 AM
...
He already has one. Maybe the Senate should test what would happen with a double award. Does it become S.H.²? S.H.S.H.? S.S.H.H.? (...hopefully not the last one, unless you're JJ in the 80s)
...

"S.H and Bar" ?

It's as understandable as "Alice in Wonderland" - and as delightful. Can you explain Asterix or The Incredible Hulk or I, Robot or The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or pretty well any perceptive and surreal story in our long literary history? No, you can't.

And you can't explain Talossa either.

No matter - just tell people it is fun and eccentric and full of the most interesting and bizarre people from all round the world, and tell people that it is loved and hated by its citizens who argue amongst themselves all the time - but will defend it staunchly from outside attack, and that it has a core, central language that very few of its citizens speak.

Can you go to jail? Read some of the laws and see just how odd the country is - laugh... and join!

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on August 18, 2022, 03:59:08 PM
... I'm sorry, I really should have noticed this before. Did you know that "fora" is the Talossan world for "hole"? "Friul" is the closest equivalent to English "forum", which I assume you were going for.

I rather like the idea of "going down the rabbit hole" - Alice, I think, would have approved.  ;)

RZ9 - Aus
RZ10 - Aus
RZ11 - Con
RZ12 - Con
RZ13 - Per
RZ14 - Per

Quote from: Ián Tamorán S.H. on August 01, 2022, 09:58:42 AM
I have long thought that those who die whilst they are Talossan citizens should retain their citizenship, though (of course) lose any voting rights, or the requirement to respond to referenda.
....

There is, I think, no need to create two different kinds of citizens - just to recognise that "not responding when you could" is naughty, and "not responding when you are dead" is not naughty. We can achieve this simply by making the requirement to respond (vote, etc.) to include "...if still alive".  Independently of that we could (if we want) introduce a new post nominal suffix of (say) R.I.P. - but that's a different subject.

We are discussing "honorary" - surely we can include "honoured" (in the formal sense of that word)?
And if not, let's formulate a law fifthwith (that's even sooner than 'forthwith') that allows the dead to retain their citizenship. An honorary measure.