Re: ... for all?
05-31-2007, 01:50 AM (This post was last modified: 09-18-2017, 05:06 PM by robkelk. Edit Reason: formatting fix )
05-31-2007, 01:50 AM (This post was last modified: 09-18-2017, 05:06 PM by robkelk. Edit Reason: formatting fix )
May 16, 2013
09:14 GMT
Stellvia
"Noah? Are you all right?"
"No, I'm not all right, Yorkio. That b... Haruhi just fired me. After everything I've done for her and her group!"
"She fired you? Why?"
"Because she's a prima donna who can't stand dissent," Noah snarled. "I'll bet somebody who I talked to in the last few months about OGJ said something to her, and she took it personally."
"Or she may have read the discussion on fen.current-events.disc. I think your name came up on that group yesterday."
"You know I don't have time to read the discussion groups any more. Why didn't you say something?"
Yoriko blushed. "We were busy..."
"...running errands for Haruhi," finished Noah. "Well, now I've got time to read the group. This leak isn't so bad, but I'd better let the people there know that they might be telling important secrets to the wrong people. Oh, Yoriko..."
"Yes?"
"Double-check the exact wording of the arrangement we have with those ... with the SOS-dan. I want to know whether I'm remembering it correctly."
May 18, 2013
11:47 GMT
Stellvia
Noah looked at the discussion thread on the screen, and wondered how far out of his control his doubts had gotten. He hadn't intended anything like this when he started talking to people ten weeks ago.
'Time to make a couple of things clear,' he thought as he started typing a reply, 'or at least as clear as anything as muddy as politics ever gets...'
From: Noah Scott (big-cheese@stellvia.lib)
To: nttp://fen.current-events.disc
Subject: Re: Politics, Government, Drugs, Really Wild Things.
Date Posted: May 18th, 2013
Now that I have time to read the groups again, I see that I can't
escape from the war even here. Not that I expected to.
**** To digress from my digression, I've been hearing rumblings and
**** rumors against the personage of Haruhi, specifically against her
**** tyrannical management style and lack of 'personal touch'.
Oh, I could tell you stories... but I won't, because I'm still pissed
off about how she broke off our working arrangement - I'm not
objective about the SOS-dan right now.
(Yes, she told me to leave and never come back. On my own station, no
less. She really doesn't like it when someone disagrees with her. For
proof, note her own post, titled "Insolent Peons".
And if I'd known she called people whose lives she holds in her hands
"peons", I would have quit before I was fired.)
Besides, I don't want to burn any more bridges that I have to,
especially not when we need to hang together.
**** The Boskonians are bad people, period, and must be stopped.
No arguement there. Now tell me how. Keep in mind that every time we
break up a group by force, another one pops up to take its place.
And remember also that "Boskonian" isn't the same as "Zwilnick". When
I voted for Great Justice a year ago, we were worried about piracy and
slaving in the Belt. Remember what happened to the Hidden Asteroid
patrols in early 2012? Remember how sick we all felt when we saw the
photos? Remember the righteous anger we felt toward the scum that
could do that to those poor teenagers? Remember what we swore to do to
the bastards? That was the Operation Great Justice that I signed up
for, by all that's holy!
(Excuse me a moment... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Okay, I'm back.)
But that group's dead and gone now, and their victims can go on with
what's left of their lives, or rest in peace. The Ninjas are stronger
than ever, and nobody messes with them any more. (Yes, I know the
Boskonians are targeting the Wizards now...) Nowadays - or, at least,
as of three weeks ago - we spend most of our time on simple-if-messy
police work; vital work, to be sure, but not something for an ad hoc
group like Great Justice to be carrying out.
**** Name three major strategic or tactical decisions that have come
**** down from Haruhi that have worked out badly, or caused unnecessary
**** loss of life?
****
**** Yeah.
The fact that we're even talking about "strategic or tactical
decisions", let alone so casually, shows something about us. And it's
something I'm not sure I like.
I remember when I first came into space, five years ago. People
laughed at me for including a single defensive turret in my station,
because they thought I'd never have a need to shoot at anybody except
maybe the 'danes. I remember Kandor-con, when Kohran made a mistake
and everybody found out about kaboomite, and as a result my group
became social pariahs for two years. "How dare they commit the sin of
carrying out weapon research?" was one of the milder comments on the
groups and mailing lists at the time.
Now people come to Stellvia for shore leave - yes, shore leave -
because it's the best-defended station between Earth and the Island.
(Not counting the closed ones like the TSAB's Benjamin Franklin or the
Warsies' New Yavin, of course.)
What the hell's happened to us in the last year, people? Are you all
turning into me, while I'm turning into you?
(Oh, and I'm still not telling anyone what kaboomite is. You can't
afford to make it anyway.)
(And I'm not going to deny access to Stellvia to anyone involved in
Great Justice, either, despite what the rumor mill says. I may be
upset about being pushed off the general staff, but I'm not stupid; we
still have friends in the front lines.)
** In short: We're being played. And I am *beyond* pissed about it.
I have to agree with Comrade Fnord, here. I also have to wonder
who's playing us.
That comment I made earlier, about not wanting to burn any more
bridges that I have to? Screw it. I've already said I'm not objective
here, but who besides the SOS-dan has the ability to play all of us?
And did anyone know anything about the SOS-dan before the SOS-con?
It would explain why Ms. Suzumiya doesn't tolerate dissent.
If I'm reading the evidence wrong, then I'll apologize - after she
bloody well explains herself on this forum.
** We need to split our efforts, create an *actual* Patrol that can
** handle the minor zwilniks and the small-time operators found on any
** frontier so the big guns like Katz, Geek, Corcoran and I can openly
** pursue the Boskonians without having to try and play "take a bite
** out of crime." Instead of bringing down hellfire on every dumb
** bastard that crosses our sights, we need to be able to measured
** response to situations; what we've got going on in OGJ right now
** ain't that.
Like I said, this is not something for an ad hoc group like
Great Justice to be carrying out.
If we want to formalize the Patrol, and start training its members and
paying for it to be run as a real police force - or a real navy, if
that's what people want instead - I can't see any way to avoid also
having real government to oversee it. Assuming we don't want Fenspace
to become a police state or a military dictatorship, that is. No more
"conventions once a year"; oversight is a 24x7 deal.
We'll also have to collect taxes to pay for it - I can provide seed
money, but even my bank account can't keep the Patrol running forever.
That's another reason to have a more active government.
** I no longer trust Comrade Suzumiya's judgement when it comes to
** tactical decisions, and will continue not to trust her judgement as
** long as she remains safely hidden away on Stellvia surrounded by
** her sycophants.
Actually, when she fired me, she broke our lease agreement. The
SOS-dan will be leaving Stellvia as soon as they're ready to move in
somewhere else ...
* So, as this morning's duly elected representative of the Grover's
* Corners, speaking the majority will of the folks that live here, I
* am formally announcing that we are offering the use of our cubic as
* a full-out base for Operation Great Justice.
... which Grover's Corners has just made available.
They'd best leave by the end of next week, as we're going to be
depressuring the compartment they're in soon after that. Standard
decontamination procedure, you know.
Now, for something completely different:
*** This is something truly frightening. The so-called Boskonians have
*** managed to reverse engineer a biomod. Something we who work with
*** handwavium regularly have thought to be impossible. Further details
*** may be acquired through secure channels in three days, when my paper
*** on the subject is "published" via Great Justice's think tank net.
If we're lucky, they've only figured out how to reliably make one
biomod. If we're not lucky, they've figured out how to reliably make
any biomod they want. Either way, we have to learn what they know - it
might be the key to reversing biomods, and I'm sure we all know
someone with an unwanted biomod.
If the SOS-dan aren't willing to bankroll whatever activities it takes
to get that information into the common database, then I'll pay for
the data out of my own pocket... but I might decide to keep it for
myself. "Everybody knows" what I'm like, after all.
(How would some of the Ninjas like to make use of their "l33t ninja
skillz," and get the person with the reputation of hating them the
most into their debt?)
Either way, I really hope that the data comes out to "they were lucky,
and they can't really do this". But I'm not holding my breath.
--
Noah Scott, of station Stellvia
"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty
when the government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are
naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded
rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment
by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding."
- Justice Louis Brandeis, Olmstead v. U.S., 277 U.S. 438 (1928)
'Well,' he thought as he pressed Send, 'that pretty much destroys any hope I had of getting back into the policy discussions...'
09:14 GMT
Stellvia
"Noah? Are you all right?"
"No, I'm not all right, Yorkio. That b... Haruhi just fired me. After everything I've done for her and her group!"
"She fired you? Why?"
"Because she's a prima donna who can't stand dissent," Noah snarled. "I'll bet somebody who I talked to in the last few months about OGJ said something to her, and she took it personally."
"Or she may have read the discussion on fen.current-events.disc. I think your name came up on that group yesterday."
"You know I don't have time to read the discussion groups any more. Why didn't you say something?"
Yoriko blushed. "We were busy..."
"...running errands for Haruhi," finished Noah. "Well, now I've got time to read the group. This leak isn't so bad, but I'd better let the people there know that they might be telling important secrets to the wrong people. Oh, Yoriko..."
"Yes?"
"Double-check the exact wording of the arrangement we have with those ... with the SOS-dan. I want to know whether I'm remembering it correctly."
May 18, 2013
11:47 GMT
Stellvia
Noah looked at the discussion thread on the screen, and wondered how far out of his control his doubts had gotten. He hadn't intended anything like this when he started talking to people ten weeks ago.
'Time to make a couple of things clear,' he thought as he started typing a reply, 'or at least as clear as anything as muddy as politics ever gets...'
From: Noah Scott (big-cheese@stellvia.lib)
To: nttp://fen.current-events.disc
Subject: Re: Politics, Government, Drugs, Really Wild Things.
Date Posted: May 18th, 2013
Now that I have time to read the groups again, I see that I can't
escape from the war even here. Not that I expected to.
**** To digress from my digression, I've been hearing rumblings and
**** rumors against the personage of Haruhi, specifically against her
**** tyrannical management style and lack of 'personal touch'.
Oh, I could tell you stories... but I won't, because I'm still pissed
off about how she broke off our working arrangement - I'm not
objective about the SOS-dan right now.
(Yes, she told me to leave and never come back. On my own station, no
less. She really doesn't like it when someone disagrees with her. For
proof, note her own post, titled "Insolent Peons".
And if I'd known she called people whose lives she holds in her hands
"peons", I would have quit before I was fired.)
Besides, I don't want to burn any more bridges that I have to,
especially not when we need to hang together.
**** The Boskonians are bad people, period, and must be stopped.
No arguement there. Now tell me how. Keep in mind that every time we
break up a group by force, another one pops up to take its place.
And remember also that "Boskonian" isn't the same as "Zwilnick". When
I voted for Great Justice a year ago, we were worried about piracy and
slaving in the Belt. Remember what happened to the Hidden Asteroid
patrols in early 2012? Remember how sick we all felt when we saw the
photos? Remember the righteous anger we felt toward the scum that
could do that to those poor teenagers? Remember what we swore to do to
the bastards? That was the Operation Great Justice that I signed up
for, by all that's holy!
(Excuse me a moment... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Okay, I'm back.)
But that group's dead and gone now, and their victims can go on with
what's left of their lives, or rest in peace. The Ninjas are stronger
than ever, and nobody messes with them any more. (Yes, I know the
Boskonians are targeting the Wizards now...) Nowadays - or, at least,
as of three weeks ago - we spend most of our time on simple-if-messy
police work; vital work, to be sure, but not something for an ad hoc
group like Great Justice to be carrying out.
**** Name three major strategic or tactical decisions that have come
**** down from Haruhi that have worked out badly, or caused unnecessary
**** loss of life?
****
**** Yeah.
The fact that we're even talking about "strategic or tactical
decisions", let alone so casually, shows something about us. And it's
something I'm not sure I like.
I remember when I first came into space, five years ago. People
laughed at me for including a single defensive turret in my station,
because they thought I'd never have a need to shoot at anybody except
maybe the 'danes. I remember Kandor-con, when Kohran made a mistake
and everybody found out about kaboomite, and as a result my group
became social pariahs for two years. "How dare they commit the sin of
carrying out weapon research?" was one of the milder comments on the
groups and mailing lists at the time.
Now people come to Stellvia for shore leave - yes, shore leave -
because it's the best-defended station between Earth and the Island.
(Not counting the closed ones like the TSAB's Benjamin Franklin or the
Warsies' New Yavin, of course.)
What the hell's happened to us in the last year, people? Are you all
turning into me, while I'm turning into you?
(Oh, and I'm still not telling anyone what kaboomite is. You can't
afford to make it anyway.)
(And I'm not going to deny access to Stellvia to anyone involved in
Great Justice, either, despite what the rumor mill says. I may be
upset about being pushed off the general staff, but I'm not stupid; we
still have friends in the front lines.)
** In short: We're being played. And I am *beyond* pissed about it.
I have to agree with Comrade Fnord, here. I also have to wonder
who's playing us.
That comment I made earlier, about not wanting to burn any more
bridges that I have to? Screw it. I've already said I'm not objective
here, but who besides the SOS-dan has the ability to play all of us?
And did anyone know anything about the SOS-dan before the SOS-con?
It would explain why Ms. Suzumiya doesn't tolerate dissent.
If I'm reading the evidence wrong, then I'll apologize - after she
bloody well explains herself on this forum.
** We need to split our efforts, create an *actual* Patrol that can
** handle the minor zwilniks and the small-time operators found on any
** frontier so the big guns like Katz, Geek, Corcoran and I can openly
** pursue the Boskonians without having to try and play "take a bite
** out of crime." Instead of bringing down hellfire on every dumb
** bastard that crosses our sights, we need to be able to measured
** response to situations; what we've got going on in OGJ right now
** ain't that.
Like I said, this is not something for an ad hoc group like
Great Justice to be carrying out.
If we want to formalize the Patrol, and start training its members and
paying for it to be run as a real police force - or a real navy, if
that's what people want instead - I can't see any way to avoid also
having real government to oversee it. Assuming we don't want Fenspace
to become a police state or a military dictatorship, that is. No more
"conventions once a year"; oversight is a 24x7 deal.
We'll also have to collect taxes to pay for it - I can provide seed
money, but even my bank account can't keep the Patrol running forever.
That's another reason to have a more active government.
** I no longer trust Comrade Suzumiya's judgement when it comes to
** tactical decisions, and will continue not to trust her judgement as
** long as she remains safely hidden away on Stellvia surrounded by
** her sycophants.
Actually, when she fired me, she broke our lease agreement. The
SOS-dan will be leaving Stellvia as soon as they're ready to move in
somewhere else ...
* So, as this morning's duly elected representative of the Grover's
* Corners, speaking the majority will of the folks that live here, I
* am formally announcing that we are offering the use of our cubic as
* a full-out base for Operation Great Justice.
... which Grover's Corners has just made available.
They'd best leave by the end of next week, as we're going to be
depressuring the compartment they're in soon after that. Standard
decontamination procedure, you know.
Now, for something completely different:
*** This is something truly frightening. The so-called Boskonians have
*** managed to reverse engineer a biomod. Something we who work with
*** handwavium regularly have thought to be impossible. Further details
*** may be acquired through secure channels in three days, when my paper
*** on the subject is "published" via Great Justice's think tank net.
If we're lucky, they've only figured out how to reliably make one
biomod. If we're not lucky, they've figured out how to reliably make
any biomod they want. Either way, we have to learn what they know - it
might be the key to reversing biomods, and I'm sure we all know
someone with an unwanted biomod.
If the SOS-dan aren't willing to bankroll whatever activities it takes
to get that information into the common database, then I'll pay for
the data out of my own pocket... but I might decide to keep it for
myself. "Everybody knows" what I'm like, after all.
(How would some of the Ninjas like to make use of their "l33t ninja
skillz," and get the person with the reputation of hating them the
most into their debt?)
Either way, I really hope that the data comes out to "they were lucky,
and they can't really do this". But I'm not holding my breath.
--
Noah Scott, of station Stellvia
"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty
when the government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are
naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded
rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment
by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding."
- Justice Louis Brandeis, Olmstead v. U.S., 277 U.S. 438 (1928)
'Well,' he thought as he pressed Send, 'that pretty much destroys any hope I had of getting back into the policy discussions...'
--
Rob Kelk
Sticks and stones can break your bones,
But words can break your heart.
- unknown
Rob Kelk
Sticks and stones can break your bones,
But words can break your heart.
- unknown