Istefan Perþonest
Cunstaval to Fiôvâ; Regent of the University of Talossa
Posts: 1,024
Talossan Since: 2-21-1998
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Post by Istefan Perþonest on Feb 12, 2012 10:57:59 GMT -6
Hey, I have a 1997 hardcopy of "Mein Päts", as we Republicans sometimes call it. Did I know you in pre-Penguinea days? Pre-Penguinea, I'm pretty sure the answer is no. But I did spend a bit of time on the Penguinea messageboard while that country was being set up, naïvely thinking that "peace" was possible. (Four things I remember from that messageboard? Talking with Evan Gallagher about the American Revolution, Evan Gallagher noticing the crime of "petit treason" in English common law, my explaining the vagaries of Michigan law and the interaction of its statutes with the common law when it came to a trial of Dr. Kevorkian, and my effort at amateur psychoanalysis of Ben Madison.)
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Istefan Perþonest
Cunstaval to Fiôvâ; Regent of the University of Talossa
Posts: 1,024
Talossan Since: 2-21-1998
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Post by Istefan Perþonest on Feb 8, 2012 21:31:08 GMT -6
That is the traditional title for a returning citizen to explain things under, after all, even if it's not a legal obligation anymore and wouldn't apply to me even if it were still. So it would seem an appropriate title for this post. So, why? Well, a question was once asked by the founder of Talossa: Is it possible for something like Talossa to exist at all, without it becoming an oppressive Nazi environment of hate, paranoia, mistrust, violent threats, phony identities, political vendettas, email viruses, scofflaws, dirty tricks, trademark infringement, and the destruction of friendships?1 When I sent my communication to the then-SoS declaring that I would be refusing to vote in future elections for reasons of conscience, those words hadn't been written, but, asked it, my answer would have been no. When, a few weeks ago I came across my old ©1997 hardcopy of Ár Päts, and followed the resulting impulse to discover the surviving kingdom and the upcoming Reunision, my answer was yes. 12005 edition of Ár Päts. A quite educational document.
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Istefan Perþonest
Cunstaval to Fiôvâ; Regent of the University of Talossa
Posts: 1,024
Talossan Since: 2-21-1998
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¡Azul!
Feb 4, 2012 0:51:55 GMT -6
Post by Istefan Perþonest on Feb 4, 2012 0:51:55 GMT -6
Figured, as I am arguably simultaneously Benito's newest and oldest citizen, that it would probably be a good idea for me to post a hello here.
So:
¡Azul!
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Istefan Perþonest
Cunstaval to Fiôvâ; Regent of the University of Talossa
Posts: 1,024
Talossan Since: 2-21-1998
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Post by Istefan Perþonest on Feb 4, 2012 0:32:24 GMT -6
If I may comment . . . WHEREAS currently under the Organic Law, the first person to submit the Party Registration and the fee may name him/herself as leader, The Organic Law does not actually say that. Rather, the OrgLaw says parties operate under their own rules ("Political parties may operate under rules of their own design"), parties register themselves ("A party may register at any time"), and parties must have a leader ("the party must have at least one member designated as its "Leader."). WHEREAS a Party Leader assigns his/her parties Cosa and provincial seats This also appears to be incorrect. Article VIII, section 3 does not mention the party leader in any way. Instead, distribution of seats is instead by each party "as it sees fit". If the party internal rules grant this distribution role to some mechanism other than the decision of the party leader, it is done according to those rules. So, as a hypothetical example, let us take the Plutocratic Party of Talossa. The Plutocrats have a fairly simple set of internal rules. To be a member, you have to give ℓ1 to the party during an election cycle. To be an officer of the party authorized to act on its behalf, you have to give ℓ10 to the party in an election cycle. To be the leader of the party, you have to give the most money of anyone in the election cycle. And after an election, any seats the Plutocrats win in the Cosa are distributed among donors in proportion to the amount of money given to the party during the election cycle. Now, Bob Broke has given ℓ0 to the party, Paul Poor has given ℓ1, Mike Middleclass gave ℓ10, and Rob Rich gave ℓ19. Bob Broke, being a revolutionary sort and having just scraped together ℓ13¤20, wants to crush the Plutocrats. He goes to the SoS and attempts to register the Plutocrats with himself as leader. The SoS blinks at this, and says, "By the Organic Law, a party must register itself. By the party rules, which the Organic Law gives each party to make for itself, you're not even a member. You can't register the party." Paul Poor, having seen Bob's attempt, reacts before the SoS responds and tries to register the Plutocrats himself. The SoS tilts his head, and says to Paul, "I get you want to protect your party, but your own party rules say you aren't allowed to act on the party's behalf. You can't register the party." So now, Mike Middleclass finally comes over, and registers the party, declaring himself the leader in the process. The SoS frowns, and says, "Look, Mike, you can act on behalf of your party to register it, sure, but you aren't the party leader. I'm going to have to talk with Rob about your 50-word statement." Then, in the election, the Plutocrats win 30 seats. Rob Rich, upset at Mike's attempt to promote himself, says, "As Party Leader, I am allocating our 30 seats 27 to me and 3 to Paul." Mike comes forward and points out that the party rules actually require the seat distribution be 19 Rob, 10 Mike, 1 Paul. Since the party, not the leader, controls the distribution under the Organic Law, Mike sues and wins his case in the courts. So. All a party needs to have in order to avoid being hijacked under the current Organic Law is to adopt its own rules about how the party works. Further, those rules can, in fact, deny the party leader much of the traditional power of party leaders in Talossan politics. Given this, does Talossa really need any amendment of the current Organic Law?
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Istefan Perþonest
Cunstaval to Fiôvâ; Regent of the University of Talossa
Posts: 1,024
Talossan Since: 2-21-1998
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Post by Istefan Perþonest on Feb 2, 2012 15:27:19 GMT -6
Having made a minor hobby of developing variant keyboard layouts for Windows and posting them to the Web (at keyboards.jargon-file.org ), I have dashed off a variant US layout that supports Talossan orthography. It is not, properly speaking, a Talossan layout; it's a US English layout that, through the AltGR key, supports Talossan characters and combining diacritical marks. It's the last actual keyboard on the page linked above; a direct link to the zipped installation files is keyboards.jargon-file.org/usengtal.zip. EDIT: Note well, the version of the keyboard previously uploaded was missing, of all things, the vital ̈ diacrictic. This has been fixed in the current version.
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Istefan Perþonest
Cunstaval to Fiôvâ; Regent of the University of Talossa
Posts: 1,024
Talossan Since: 2-21-1998
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Post by Istefan Perþonest on Feb 2, 2012 11:48:55 GMT -6
In Secretary Woolley's defense, I moved about one and a half thousand miles between my last communication with his predecessors and his entrance into office, which meant that nobody connected with Talossa had a valid address, phone number, or email address for me. I guess he could have, at his own expense, hired a private investigator or similar—but I think that would have both been above and beyond the call of duty and, well, a little creepy, too.
So, when Secretary Woolley next faces the King (in the shaving mirror?), he should look him in the eye, rather than hang his head.
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Istefan Perþonest
Cunstaval to Fiôvâ; Regent of the University of Talossa
Posts: 1,024
Talossan Since: 2-21-1998
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Post by Istefan Perþonest on Feb 2, 2012 11:26:56 GMT -6
It's good to be back!
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