Came here to find out what Fenspace was, noticed a lack of both Redwall stuff (at least in the wiki) and the most logical response to the situation from the Catholic Church (space dioceses and interstellar missionaries), and decided I might as well try my hand at writing it.

Wish me luck?

Please?

CBC Analysis: Texas photo op or not, Trump has walled himself in - with maybe only one way out of this shutdown

Quote:Like Litman, Trump biographer Michael D'Antonio doesn't see a lot of face-saving ways out of this bind.

If the president begins to hear from congressional Republicans whose constituents are hurting in states that Trump won in 2016, that will put pressure on him to bend, said D'Antonio, author of The Truth about Trump.

"Right now, he's looking for a way out. And it's probably going to be this idea of declaring an emergency."

Even if the courts strike that move down, he said, Trump will be able to claim a moral victory.

And if it results in a blight on his presidential record?

"Look at this presidency as if it's the presidency of a clever child," said D'Antonio. "A clever child is not going to be thinking about history's judgment, but whether he's going to get in trouble in this moment."

Trump, he said, will "have the courts to blame," and likely won't think much about legacy.

As for the government shutdown, it's approaching Day 22 on Saturday - a milestone that D'Antonio believes the president will use to sell the idea of himself as a "valiant warrior."

"This will be the way Trump says to his base: 'I did everything. Not only did I have the longest shutdown in history, I did all these other things,'" he said. "He wants everything to be the biggest, longest, tallest, greatest - and once I heard the record was 21 days, I immediately thought, 'He's going to go for 22.'"

Quote:"Building the wall was the single most-often repeated promise of the campaign, and he's staking the shutdown on it. He's making it very important to people who believe that they voted for it," said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, who studies presidential rhetoric at the University of Pennsylvania.

Trump's Texas visit did successfully displace news about the Trump-Russia investigation, as well as former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's agreement to testify before Congress next month, she said.

Quote:The survey found that 56 percent of respondents do not support the president's proposal to construct a wall along the southern border, compared to 44 percent who do.

Erecting a broad security barrier along the border is only slightly more popular, according to the poll. Only 46 percent of respondents support that proposal, while 54 percent oppose it.

A majority of U.S. voters surveyed, 58 percent, said Trump should withdraw his demand for the border funding, while 42 percent said the president "should not give in."

But three people in Ottawa aren't going home tonight.

3 dead in bus crash at Ottawa transit station, as of this posting. Nine more people are in critical condition, and 14 more were also injured. The bus driver has been arrested - and that's all we know at this time.

Photos. I never again want to see a line of ambulances waiting to take people to hospitals.


Posting here because this has not only made the national news but is now the most-read story on the CBC News website... which means there's a chance everybody else might have heard about it.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio thinks that Trump declaring a national emergency to build his wall is a bad idea -- not because it's ridiculous, or a waste of money, or because it's racist or immoral, or because it'll alienate the Hispanic voters whom the Republicans have been trying to court since Obama's re-election -- but because it might encourage a future Democratic president to do the same thing about climate change.

Gotta love a Republican who's got his priorities straight.  Then again, this the first time in decades that I've seen a Republican actually acknowledge that Democrats might eventually gain something from one of their gambits to gain a little more immediate power; usually when they suggest something like curbing filibusters or changing a process that requires a 2/3 vote to a simple majority, it seems like it never occurs to them that they'll ever fall out of power and the new advantage will then profit the Democrats.  It's so unusual to see a Republican in power actually admit it's possible that they aren't a thousand-year-reich which will outlast the very concept of democracy.

Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau does all those things that we expect the leader of a country to do - go out, meet people, let them ask him questions on the record without having the questions cleared ahead of time, and not indulge in bashing other countries' leaders.

A couple of articles about Trudeau's most recent (as of this posting) "town hall" meeting on Wednesday, in a part of the country that's very upset with him at the moment.

'National disgrace': Trudeau faces heated comments about pipelines, reconcilation in Kamloops town hall

Quote:Trudeau came face-to-face with demonstrators even before the packed event. Earlier on Wednesday he was met by more than 100 anti- and pro-pipeline demonstrators as he arrived at a Liberal party fundraising luncheon.

One of the most contested topics in Kamloops remains the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, with some adamantly supporting the pipeline because of the jobs it could create, and others opposing it for environmental reasons.

The town hall meeting also had lighter moments —Trudeau was grilled on his problem-plagued India trip in 2018 — to which he replied, "it was a trip that happened."

Quote:“Would it really be bad relationship advice to give you just to tell you, you know, from all of us, just push him off a cliff? We’re good.”

There was laughter and some scattered applause from the crowd.

“Like, really. I’ll buy ya a beer,” the man continued. He concluded: “But anyways, thank you for giving me the mic. I just wanted to get that off . . . you mentioned him . . .”

Trudeau, smiling a restrained smile, responded by gently advising Canadians not to joke about such things.

“I wasn’t expecting a threat of violence against our closest ally, but uh, I, I — you know, in politics people have all sorts of opinions,” Trudeau said. “And all sorts of perspectives about who is leading at any given moment. The relationship between Canada and the United States goes far deeper than who happens to be prime minister and who happens to be president.”

Woodstock returns for its 50th anniversary

Not one, not two, not three, but four famous singers were born on January 8:













It's also Gypsy Rose Lee, Soupy Sales, Bob Eubanks, and Graham Chapman's birthday.

"... 2019 is on course for an equally dreary sequel."

Op-Ed by Michael Enright: Liberals around the world are struggling to define themselves

Quote:If you peruse the commentariat looking for enlightenment in all this, you will find that, yes indeedy, traditional liberals and their values are in crisis. Worldwide. Which must elate conservatives, right?

But wait. Dig deeper into current online punditry and you'll come across headlines like this: "Why Conservatives are in crisis."

Apparently there is enough crisis to go around for everybody.

Here we go.  Plot planning thread for Season 3 stuff.  Not that I think it will get a lot of use right now, buu~uuuut...

Remember the thing with Ben making a deal with Hild to resurrect Alicia?

I think I got the perfect payment for services rendered...

Quote:"Lady Hild, I wish to parley."

Suddenly, the white-haired mistress of Hell itself appeared, wearing an expression that spoke volumes.

"Benjamin.  Not that I'm unhappy to speak with you, but at this moment?  I hope for your sake that this is worth my time."

"It is, My Lady.  I wish to negotiate the IOU for Alicia's resurrection."

Hild blinked as her expression immediately perked up.  "Oh?  Do tell~."

"Salem."

"Yes.  She is at large.  What about her?"

"You know that immortality thing she has going for her?  I can break that."

Hild blinked slowly at that.  "Are you so certain?"

"Why shouldn't it work?  My entire repertoire revolves around breaking magical shit and then fucking up the soft and chewy bits that were underneath it."

"Yes, that is indeed your repertoire, but are you forgetting that this working is on the same level as myself or the Almighty?  And if you are somehow that powerful, how do I know that you're not going to turn it against us?"

"Pull the other one, it has bells on it.  My Lady, you know that I have a great deal of respect for you.  It's why I've remained in your employ.  It's why that if I have to default on my wish, then I would rather serve you directly than anyone else in hell with the possible exception of Lord Phantomhive.  This wish of mine is the only thing I've ever done that deserves damnation, and even then it was for a very altruistic purpose.  Not for material gains or power.  Only so that someone that never deserved to die can have another shot at life.  So that Faith could actually have something from her past that makes her happy and heal her heart.

"That doesn't deserve damnation."

Hild sighed, but not out of exasperation.  Insead, it was the sigh of a person caught in a very difficult position and they knew they'd be catching flack either way.

"Alright, Benjamin.  If you can terminate her corporeal existence, then I will accept that as payment in full.  However, if you die before you can manage that, then I get your soul.

"And yes, before you say anything else, you will take your orders and answer only to me.  I'll never hear the end of it from my daughter if I don't treat you well.  Besides, if I can use you to get Urd to visit me more often, then you will definitely be of use to me... but you may rest assured, I am going to work you like a dog for the first thousand years or so."

I'm having trouble with YouTube at the moment, so I'll point folks at the CBC article about Kinnie Starr. Assuming you can play the episode, set aside an hour... then tell me which of Kinnie Starr's songs played in the episode could give Doug some powers. (At least two, I'm thinking... but I'm only halfway through the episode.)

Life after a brain injury: Kinnie Starr on trauma, loss and finding her way back through music