Month: December 2017

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Deal 1226: Sticks and stones

Court is not a place for the thin-skinned. While the insults and slights are less likely to be stated bluntly, loud, and clear, they are there beneath the surface as every courtier jockeys for position and favor. To an outsider, this makes court seem like a pointless waste of time and resources. To an insider it is their lifeblood.

He was atypical for a courtier. Whip-thin, tall, and nimble. They called him Stick, but not usually to his face. He was sharp in more ways than one, and was more willing than most to follow up on threats with a visit to a back alley.

Today, Stick was holding court of his own, facing down the leading lawyer over a few beers. Their respective circles of sycophants were keeping the combatants well supplied while the debate ranged freely.

Stick was adamant that free will was behind everything that could be seen happening. Even things that would normally be ascribed to fate. His sparring partner was far more receptive to a fatalistic view. He held that free will was merely an illusion used by men to assuage their egos when choices went badly. That the criminals that made his living for him were fated to break laws, and what little free will they possessed was only good for choosing which laws they would break.

The discussion lasted until closing, and then spilled over into the streets.

And call it fate. Call it free will. Or call it narrative necessity as you will. But Stick had had enough of the snide remarks by this point, and he and his retinue neatly cut the lawyer free of the crowd and herded him into the alley. Where they thrashed him to within an inch of his life.

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Deal 1224: War

It is happening again. None of us are really ready. But then, when is someone really ready for a war?

We’ve been taught the needed skills. And yet, here we are again.

And somehow, I predict we will be back here again.

This time, we have warning and weapons of a sort. Not the right weapons for what we will face, but at least we have something. Last time, we had neither warning nor weapons. Our defenses were down. We had no resources to train, no plans, no contingencies. Frankly, it is a miracle that we survived.

Our historians will admit to all of this if pressed. They don’t like to talk about it ordinarily because the subject verges on disrespect for our leaders. But the disrespect is both intended and important.

We were not prepared, directly due to the actions of our leadership.

This time we are prepared.

It will not happen again.

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Deal 1223: Not the anti-Elvis!

The say that to take a recording captures a part of the performer’s soul.

Superstitious twaddle, of course. Nothing could be further from the truth.

After all, were that to have even a grain of truth, then there would be more Elvis soul scattered hither and yon than in Elvis himself. Elvis would be everywhere.

Everywhere except for the anti-Elvis, of course.

No, this simply cannot be.

It would mean that every popular recording was a sort of gilded birdcage, and the artist the canary trapped within.

Trapped, to sing on demand. Perform like a monkey with an organ-grinder.

It is far more likely that performers are a sort of vampire feeding on the blood and souls of their fans. Perhaps starting with their ability to think and reason. After all, explaining Elvis is one thing. But you also have to explain Beiber, who might well be the anti-Elvis.

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Deal 1222: Hobo’s Vision

I am an adventurer. I ride the rails, evade the law, and live free and rough. As long as there is another train on the horizon, I will always have hope. Hope that around the next big bend there is a place where I can find another stone for my soup pot. Hope that the next town will have work that needs doing, means to pay, and the willingness to hire day labor without references. Hope that I find a place to rest my weary feet at the end of the day.

For as long as I have hope, I need fear nothing.