Bill Egnor

Chapter Twenty One
Five dawns after obtaining the level of Doci amongst the Celesti, Tyrone had still managed to hold from the Shadow the secret of achieving that status. In his mind Tyrone was rating this a rather important victory, but he had no illusions that the Shadow would simply let it lie out of good will, as if good will and the Shadow were comfortable mates in the same thought, let alone in the world!

Still there was also a slight amount of respect from his dark friend now that it had become clear Tyrone had won his long pursuit of Krenchi. Though to be sure there was always some new comment when she joined the men at the end of the day. It was not in the Shadow to let any situation go untested by the sharpness of his spelon tongue.

These were the thoughts that orbited Tyrone’s need to find the Shadow this mid-day. There were things the two men needed to talk about, things both had thought long settled on the night they were so ingloriously cast into the valley of the Celesti by a flood.

Tyrone knew the City just well enough to find his way to the district where the Vernita sept had many of their forges and workshops. Unlike the Shadow, Tyrone was not at all embarrassed to throw himself on the good nature of the local craftsmen. Soon enough he found himself standing in the open wall of a workshop watching the Shadow being instructed in the method of thinning and sharpening an axe head. After a moment or two Saltori Trasbello look up from watching one of his master crafters instruct the Shadow and noticed Tyrone. Leaving the men to their work the big smith walked over to Tyrone.

Sometimes it worthwhile to examine the language we use and what it really means. English, as it is spoken in the United States, is wonderfully malleable and thus common words can be open to interpretation. However there are some words that should be clear in their meaning, bigotry being one.

My parents were Liberals with a capital L. They both came from places and times when the N word could be used and nothing would be thought of it. This was anathema to them, and they were not going to pass this kind of thing down to their children. The rule in our house was that you could hate someone, but you could only do it if you knew them personally and they had done you wrong. There would be no painting with a broad brush, no assumptions put on one person because of the actions of another person like them.

Bigotry is doing exactly that, assuming that there is a monolithic set of actions or attribute to a large group of people. It does not matter if the set is wrapped around sexuality or religion or ethnicity, if you assume that all of group X does action Y because one or some of them does action Y then you are bigoted in your opinion.

I know that expecting consistency from conservatives is like expecting your Springer Spaniel to jump up and sing a chorus of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “I am the very model of a modern Major General” but somehow I continue to yearn to see some of it. This is why today’s announcement of a proposed $60 billion (60,000 million) arms sale to Saudi Arabia is another chance for disappointment.

One of the most common memes in the recent spasm of Islamophobia here in the United States has been that all Muslims are constrained by their religion to spread Islam by any means necessary. It is this kind of intellectual laziness that allows bigots to pick on the small minority of Muslims in the United States. It is the classic broad brush which paints all Muslims with the same calumny as those demented assholes of the Islamic faith who practice terrorism.

Happy Sunday Bread Heads!

This week was a bit of a tough one, I had to run to Michigan for my Grandmothers funeral. That does not mean that there was not time to make some fabulous bread; just that it had to be rather quick and easy.

This makes it the perfect week to make a quick bread! Given that it is October and all things pumpkin are in vogue the choice of Pumpkin Walnut Quick Bread all but made itself.

Now, let’s bake!

Chapter Twenty

Trasbello walked with all of his clan this night. He had no doubts as to the will of the Chositha. Under his leadership they had been the voice for the traditions that he and all the Celesti had been raised with. When the question had been put to those that had not attended the previous nights meeting, there had been only a handful that made the argument for the breaking of silence. Of those five had been assigned by Trasbello himself to make sure that all points of view were known before the vote.

As he could have predicted, the Chositha were overwhelmingly against this risky change in policy. But even with this victory in his hands, his stomach was tight, and his brows were furrowed. He was enough of a realist to know that what the Chositha choose was not always the way that the Celesti as a whole would choose.

He had seen how well Getovan and Brother Carlinus had played to those who had little status among their clans. It was entirely possible that the leaders of the other clans would be forced to bow to the choice of their followers. No clan could be lead without the consent of those that followed. It was one of the core truths of the Celesti way of life, and Trasbello was not one to forget. Had he not become the youngest Saltori by that very reasoning? All day long he had sent his Methodenon’s and Delmorael’s to speak to their counter-parts in the other clans, trying to counter the influence of the Sczenchi. He did none of this politicking himself, it would not have been proper for him to use his position to try to sway the views of those not in his clan.

Not that it stopped Getovan, he thought darkly. He’d had many reports of the Saltori’s words and deeds that day. It did not really surprise him. Anyone that would not only willingly break the silence, but propose it before the Council, was not a true leader of the Celesti.

It worried Trasbello that he would think so, but had he not heard similar thoughts from others under him? Still, it gave him no pleasure to think what it might mean for the Celesti that one of their leaders thought more of power than preservation of his people. That thought lead to the possibility of an open rift in the leadership, and while he did not know that this must happen, if it did the Saltori of the Chositha knew it meant bad trouble and hard times for the Celesti if it came about.

Last night my Grandmother, my last Grandparent died. Herself, as we called the matriarch of our sprawling Irish family, was born in 1919, on May 18th. Mary Gladys Costello Hunt was what you might call old time tough. She had 14 children though the youngest never lived to see the outside of the hospital. She raised her kids and grandkids with a slightly distant expectation that you would take care of yourself, and with standards that were tough, but loving.

For her 70th birthday all of the kids and grandkids (who were old enough to do so) wrote stories about her. We put together the Book of Gladys and gave it to her along with a huge party. I’d like to share the story I wrote, as it was and is the best one I have of her.

Rite of Passage

When people talk to each other they sooner or later get around to discussing family. What is your dad’s job? How many brothers and sisters do you have? That kind of chit chat. Me, I have the trump card in these conversations, and I usually save it until the end, that trump card is my Grandmother.

I listen to the remarkable and mostly unremarkable things that they say and then I am ready. My Grandmother had thirteen children; I remark off hand, she has around 67 grandchildren. This leaves most people stunned, and that is the reaction I like, but really it doesn’t go very far toward telling them about Gladys. If they think about it at all they assume she was some kind of baby factory and leave it at that. However to me those two facts speak of an amazing toughness and compassion.

It is odd for an Atheist to be defending religious freedom. I have a very negative opinion of all religion, but I have a strong, well, faith, for lack of a better word in the idea that everyone should be allowed to practice or not as they choose. Neither I nor anyone else should be the arbiter of what others find comfort or direction or confidence in. We can argue about the basis of it, we can argue about the outcomes but in this nation, we all have the right to have our religious freedoms.

As the outbreak of Islamophobia has grown so has the hysteria from the Right on this issue. In Murfreesboro TN, where the construction site of an Islamic center was the victim of suspected arson, the Wingers have really lost their minds. Last week they were in court arguing for a judge to issue an injunction saying the zoning commission was wrong to allow the building of the Center. Their primary argument? That Islam is not a religion, but a political movement. From the Tennessean:

Mosque opponents say that Islam is not a real religion. Instead, they argued in a Rutherford County courthouse last week that the world’s second largest faith, with its 1.6 billion followers, is actually a political movement.

Opponents say local Muslims want to replace the Constitution with an Islamic legal code called Shariah law. Joe Brandon Jr., a Smyrna attorney representing a group of mosque opponents, argued that the proposed mosque is not a house of worship. He said the Rutherford County Planning Commission erred on May 24 when it approved the mosque.
Brandon wants Chancellor Robert Corlew of the 16th Judicial District to issue an injunction stopping the mosque.

“Shariah law is pure sedition,” said Brandon in his opening statement Monday.

Happy Sunday Bread Heads!

Okay, this week’s recipes (yeah there are two) fall into the category of “only make a couple of times a year”. They also are the kind of knowledge that once you have it you will never be the same again. I am talking about being able to make great doughnuts at home.

Now, these recipes are the way doughnuts are supposed to be. You don’t need pastry cream filling; you don’t need sprinkles or coconut, or even nuts on top of a well made doughnut. At most you need a little glaze or powdered sugar, but really if you have done it right you could skip those as well. Crispy on the outside, tender on the inside and just slightly sweet, homemade doughnuts will make wonder why you every paid the exorbitant prices for Krispy Cremes.

Happy Saturday and welcome to the 19th installment of Dark Soul. For those who have just joined this series this is a draft of a novel I have been writing (for way too long if the truth be told!). I am posting it here in serialized form in the hopes of getting some feed back.

If you are indeed just joining this series you can find the previous chapters at the links below. I am treating this as a learning experience so any comments good, bad or indifferent are completely welcome.

Yesterday was a bad day for all the States Attorney General and Wing-Nuts who think that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. Lawyers from the conservative Thomas More Law Center (set up by billionaire Catholic wacko Tom Monahan) got slapped around pretty good by District Court Judge George C. Steeh. He completely demolished the spurious arguments in his 20 page decision.

The Thomas Moore Law Center (TMLC) took a shot at the claim most likely to succeed against the ACA, namely that the Commerce Clause of the Constitution which allows Congress to regulate interstate commerce did not extend down to mandating that individuals purchase a product.

Basically this argument is that citizens can’t be required to participate in a market. They have to have the right to not participate if they choose to do so for economic reasons. Like nearly all conservative arguments this sounds moderately reasonable as long as you stay inside the frame that it is presented in. When you are just looking at the individual there may be a hardship in being required to purchase insurance. It is not going to be cheap and the subsidies are not going to cover everyone.