#wish I could make a complaint to last 4000+ years

[irreplaceable-spark]

Missives of Appalling Idiocy and Envy Embarrassing to Behold

So many messages of the type alluded to by the title of this article crossed my desk in the last fortnight that I found myself in the rare position of having too much content to easily record and communicate with pen and paper—a writer’s dream, if that content did not also simultaneously indicate both the tolling of the proverbial bell, and the fact that I am one of those for whom the death knell sounds.

I have observed the colleges and universities of the Western world devour themselves in a myriad of fatal errors over the last two decades, and take little pleasure in seeing what I knew was inevitably coming manifest itself in an increasingly comprehensive manner. It is of course a self-destructive and unfortunate tendency of human reason, with all its limitations—as well as ego, with all its pretensions—to wish or otherwise agree to serve as Cassandra, and to derive a certain satisfaction in watching the ship whose demise was foretold breach its hull on rocks hidden from all other observers. The self-righteous pleasure of “I told you so,” is, however, of little comfort when the icy water wends its way around ankle, knee and thigh, threatening to swamp everything still retaining its incalculable and unlikely value, even if it simultaneously makes short shrift of the ignorance and willful blindness that is frequently part and parcel of the death of something once great.

It is also necessary to note that the catastrophic failures of process and aim which I am about to relate were by no means hidden from the public view by the persons and institutions in question. They were instead positively trumpeted to all by multiple attempts to harness the powers of social media and announced, more traditionally, in press releases designed to indicate the success of some great and laudable moral striving. It is nothing less than a dire day when the proud revelation of vices of deadly and multifarious seriousness serve to substitute for announcements of genuine and valuable achievement, but that is where we are at—make no mistake about it.

The first story emerges at Brock University, in combination with the scientific journal Angewandte Chemie—the former an educational institution of moderate reputability; the latter a prestigious place of scientific publication among chemists. It is no easy matter to find a permanent tenured faculty position at such a university, or to publish research findings or literature reviews/summaries in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. The process generally requires several years and multiple resubmissions and rounds of editing by a minimum of three colleagues per submission with expertise in the field as well as approval by the editor. Angewandte has a rejection rate of 80%—and it should be noted that that rejection rate only takes into account papers that the submitting researcher felt were of sufficient quality to be considered by a journal of high standards. Dr. Tomas Hudlicky of Brock submitted an essay memorializing and updating a piece written thirty years ago, which has been widely recognized as powerfully influencing the direction of the chemistry subfield in question (organic synthesis).

Now, the first thing that must be understood about Dr. Hudlicky is that he holds a prestigious Canada Research Chair, a position funded by part of a large federal initiative devoting approximately 300 million dollars per year in the attempt to attract to Canada (or to encourage to stay in Canada) researchers who are of particular promise, as evidenced most fundamentally by their research productivity. That promise or productivity, in turn, can be measured with reasonable accuracy with metrics such as number of peer-reviewed articles in relevant scientific journals (more than 400 in Hudlicky’s case), by noting how many times such articles are cited by other authors over the years subsequent to publication (Hudlicky: 13300) and, finally, by a metric known as the h-index, which provides a measure of how many publications have received a variable minimum number of citations (and which therefore combines in a single number some information about publications per se and some about citations). A researcher with an h-index of 10 has published 10 papers with 10 or more citations; a researcher with an h-index of 57 (Hudlicky’s score) has published 57 papers with 57 or more citations. Hudlicky’s research productivity is admirable and rare. The mere fact that he was hired as a Canada Research Chair meant that his department, as well as the federal governmental agency tasked with funding the attraction or retention of extreme talent, both determined in the relatively recent past that he was a fish well worth landing. Something about this needs to be clarified: the universities that hire those researchers competent enough to be competitive in a Canada Research Chair competition are not doing them a favor by offering them a position; rather, it is an honor for the university (and the students, both undergraduate and graduate, that attend the institution) to be chosen by the researcher in question. No serious academic disputes this, although some may quibble about the precise metrics used for identification of the serious talent. This is particularly true of an institution such as Brock, which is an university of reasonable but not exceptional quality, and which genuinely needs highly productive faculty members to help it ratchet itself up the very competitive academic ladder.

Hudlicky’s paper in Angewandte Chemie was peer-reviewed positively, judged as desirable by the relevant editorial staff, and published. This meant that it managed the difficult job of passing through the eye of a needle, and entering the kingdom of heaven, at least as far as research chemists might be concerned. But some of Dr. Hudlicky’s surmises with regard to the discipline of organic synthesis raised the ire of a Twitter mob (https://twitter.com/fxcoudert/status/1268920299833233416?s=20). This is not a difficult feat, in my opinion, as Twitter seems to exist primarily for the purpose of generating mobs—composed primarily of individuals who are hungry for the opportunity to taste blood and bask in the joys of reasonably risk-free reputation destruction, revenge and self-righteousness. Furthermore, as far as Twitter mobs go, those who complained about the Angewandte Chemie publication were not particularly numerous. No matter: once the complaints emerged, the editor of the journal in charge of Dr. Hudlicky’s work—one Dr. Neville Compton—removed the paper from the journal’s website, and offered an abject apology for daring to have published it in the first place. Furthermore, he reported the “suspension” of two of the journal’s editors (indicating precisely how much trust those individuals should have placed initially in his judgement) and cast aspersions on Hudlicky’s ethics, stating that his essay did not properly reflect fairness, trustworthiness and social awareness, while implying that the now-pilloried author and his peer reviewers and editors were discriminatory, unjust and inequitable in practice. It should be noted, by the way, that the position of editor for a scientific journal is general one filled by volunteers, who donate their time for the greater good of the scientific enterprise, rather than for any monetary gain. So Compton fired generous volunteers to ensure that his good name would not be irredeemably sullied by any association with the now-demonized professor Hudlicky and his ne’er-do-well compatriots (none of whom likely knew each other except in passing).

What was Hudlicky’s sin? His 12-page document (approximating 4000 words) dealt with issues he believed were affecting organic synthesis research and communication, and covered topics such as the range of research options available, integrity and trustworthiness of the relevant literature, transference of skills from mentor to trainee, impact of information technology, the corporatization of the university environment, the effect of new technology, the diversity of the available work force, and the competition for resources among researchers—all topics that people of putative good will and competence (such as the author and his reviewers and editors) could agree had a demonstrable effect on the quality of research currently conducted. However, Hudlicky voiced a smattering of opinions that were deemed unacceptable by a small number of people who both read his submission and were somewhat active on Twitter. Here are the sentences constituting his sins, which fall into two of the categories Hudlicky identified as relevant for analysis of research productivity. I have paraphrased them very slightly for length:

Under Diversity of Workforce: “In the last two decades many groups have been designated with “preferential status” (despite substantive increases in the recruitment of women and minorities). Preferential treatment of one group leads inexorably to disadvantages for another. Each candidate should have an equal opportunity to secure a position, regardless of personal identification/ categorization. Hiring practices that aim at equality of outcome is counter-productive if it results in discrimination against the most meritorious candidates. Such practice has also led to the emergence of mandatory “training workshops” on gender equity, inclusion, diversity, and discrimination.”

So those apparently objectional words constitute 90 of 4000—a small proportion of the total content of the essay, and the proffering of an opinion that insists “if”: not that diversity, inclusivity and equality provisions necessarily produce prejudicial hiring practices (although the research evidence suggests that they clearly do [1])) then they may have a detrimental effect on research productivity. It is also important to note that these opinions paraphrase very closely a decision reached and publicized by a German court in 2007, at least according to a supporter of Hudlicky who dared express an opinion supporting his colleague.

The Twitter mob trolls who objected to this opinion reacted as if what Dr. Hudlicky said was that efforts to “diversify” hiring and student selection were definitively harmful, while what he truly did was only raise the possibilities that such actions could become counterproductive if they resulted in the exclusion of qualified candidates. No one can object to this opinion, reasonably—unless they assume, as did Hudlicky’s critics, that all claims to objectivity in hiring and selection are inextricably bound up with the systemic prejudice hypothetically characterizing all hierarchies of specialization.

Under Transference of Skills: “The training and mentoring of new generations of professionals must be attended to by proper relationships of “masters and apprentices” without dilution of standards. Hudlicky described two conditions under which the successful transfer of skills can occur: first, if the skill is not transferred within three generations, it is lost forever, and second, there must be “an unconditional submission of the apprentice to his/her master.” This applies not only in the sciences but also in art, music, and martial arts…. Submission to one’s mentor is rarely attainable today. Many students are unwilling to submit to any level of hard work demanded by professors. The university does not support professors in this endeavor as it views students as financial assets and hence protects them from any undue hardships that may be demanded by the “masters.” This situation, coupled with the fact that professors have less and less time to mentor students in the laboratory, cannot provide for a productive transfer of skills, especially the maintenance of standards and integrity of research.”

This is an additional 170 words/4000, and paraphrases an opinion most famously put forward by Michael Polanyi, a Hungarian-English polymath of genius level, who made contributions to chemistry, philosophy and economics, and who delineated the importance of “tacit knowledge” (that is, knowledge that was acted out but not necessarily articulated) in the transmission of specialized technical ability across the generations. Hudlicky was therefore criticized and pilloried by individuals on Twitter who appeared to know nothing of M. Polanyi’s work on tacit knowledge (for whom such ignorance was perhaps justifiable) but also by the editor of Angewandte, for whom such ignorance (voluntary or otherwise) was most certainly not. Acquisition of this knowledge required precisely the unfreedom recommended by Hudlicky—followed, of course (with the acquisition of the aptly named Master’s degree) by autonomy in thought and action that was increased beyond what it would have been capable of achieving without the devoted apprenticeship in question. Such a process can only be undertaken by a pupil capable of regarding his or her teacher as a true mentor, and by a mentor bent on producing a pupil more capable than him or herself, after an intensive period of training. None of that, according to Hudlicky (and this is not obviously an unreasonable hypothesis in this day of age) is possible in the university as it is currently constituted, even in the departments that still teach hard sciences. Not only is it not possible, he implies, but it is no longer posited even as an acceptable possibility. In a properly functioning institute of training, however, it might be argued that disciplined and contractually-mediated temporary subjugation to higher authority is eminently desirable, despite the limited sacrifice of casual autonomy that might require, if the person or persons to whom the subjugation is made are true experts. It is the willingness to undertake this apprenticeship, as well as the capability of superseding it, that makes up the master in “Master’s degree”—a designation that I notice Brock still grants, despite potentially colonial overtones at least as damning as those that characterized Hudlicky’s writing (if we are going to go down that absurd route).

That is the sum total of Hudlicky’s academic crimes. He has faced severe retaliation on no less than seven separate fronts for his hypothetically unforgivable thoughts—the two we have already discussed, and five more, including, third, the cancelation of an entire issue of the journal Synthesis (published by Thieme), which was to be dedicated to his 70th birthday and for which invitations had already been sent to more than forty prominent scientists; fourth, the elimination of any mention of his work in yet another journal, Highlights in Chemistry; fifth, a statement by the Norwegian Chemical Society (not as of yet made public) hypothetically critiquing his ongoing collaborations with three Norwegian researchers; and sixth, his transformation into whipping boy by his own faithless professional colleagues at the administrative level at Brock University. Dr. Greg Finn, Provost and VP Academic at that institution, saw nothing wrong with stabbing one of his university’s most esteemed scientists in the back at the first sign of trouble. The provost wrote a painfully cringing apologetic “open letter to the public,” claiming, of course, that Hudlicky’s opinions, if in the least controversial, were in no possible manner representative of Brock University as a whole, and essentially hanging that institution’s hypothetically valued top chemist out to dry. Finn states that Hudlicky’s article “…contains descriptions of the graduate supervisor-graduate student relationship that connote disrespect and subservience. These statements could be alarming to students and others who have the reasonable expectation of respectful and supportive mentorship…. [The statements in this paper] do not reflect the principles of inclusivity, diversity and equity included in the University’s mission, vision and values as approved by our Senate and Board of Trustees.” Only an individual accustomed to dining on very thin gruel or simply spoiled meat would find any nourishment in statements with such content and of that quality.

An admirable university, secure in its worth, would have determined very quickly that one Dr. Hudlicky was, conservatively, worth a hundred Dr. Finn’s, and acted accordingly. But research prowess is no longer as important as willingness to mouth the appalling commonplaces of political correctness in the hallowed corridors of academe. And what that essentially means is that resentful and underqualified pretenders to the role of useful intellectual can now exercise the upper hand in apparent scientific worthiness, so far as it has been reduced to a simple political power game. And the list of consequences for Dr. Hudlicky I have outlined so far does not by any means exhaust the description of his punishment. He is (was (?)) apparently a scientist of sufficient merit, as his Canada Research Chair should have clearly and decisively indicated, to have had an entire upcoming issue of another journal, Synthesis, devoted to a retrospective of his work, complete with invited commentary—and now the existence of that tribute has become highly doubtful.

Three other events worth of note that came to my attention over the last two weeks, when I have been communicating with academics concerned with this sequence of happenings, drive these points home. A highly cited professor of physics, who I cannot name, at a university I cannot name either (suffice it to say that the former has garnered 100+ publications and 7000+ citations in a highly technical field) had his standard Canadian Federal grant application rejected because (or so the reviewers claimed) he had not sufficiently detailed his plans to ensure diversity, inclusivity and equity (DIE) practices while conducting his scientific inquiry. It is now standard practice for university hiring boards to insist that their faculty job applicants submit a DIE plan with their curriculum vitae—a terribly dangerous occurrence of its own. I believe that the fundamental reason such plans are required, particularly of those who practice in the so-called “hard” STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) is so that those who could not hope to assess the quality of research endeavours in those specialties as a consequence of their own ability or prowess, can be made into judges by enforcing the adoption of standards of attitude and behavior that have nothing to do with the fields in question. I am no arithmetical genius, for example, myself. It is almost certain that a Master’s degree, to say nothing of a Ph.D. or professorship in mathematics, would have been beyond me, even in my younger years, when such talent is most likely to manifest itself. I would never dream of attempting to review a grant application in a specialized subfield of chemistry, engineering or physics—even of biology, which is nearer my bailiwick. But if it became possible to adopt the position of judge because of my colleagues’ attitude toward student selection and staffing, then—presto! Those who are applying for such funding are no longer painfully more intelligent than me. They are merely and reprehensibly in error in their basic political opinions. There is nothing but victory in that for me, in precise proportion to my degree of resentment for my unfortunate and rather incurable stupidity.

Consider, in addition, the current landing page for the Department of Physics at McGill University. It is difficult to provide a purely objective analysis of the significance of the different elements of this page, at least concerning their relative size or prominence (and, therefore, their implicit importance), because there is wide variation in resolution of the various screens that users may employ to access it. Suffice it to say, however, that at a resolution of 2048 by 1536, which is higher than average (and therefore allows more of the available visual content to be presented to the viewer simultaneously) the second-most visually evident active link is the “McGill Physics Community Statement Against Racism”—and, if this is not sufficient proof of the upstanding moral quality of that “community” there is also an active link to an “Equity Diversity and Inclusion” page in the center of the main menu bar of the page.

It does not seem merely picayune to note (1) that the proper role of such a page is to convey information pertaining to physics to those who might be applying to that department at McGill and not about the political or sociological attitudes of its faculty, administrators and students. It is also perhaps not out of place (2) to voice a certain skepticism with regard to the timing of this oh-so-very-properly-moral statement and note that if it required the unfortunate death of one George Floyd to motivate its appearance it is either inexcusably opportunistic or a classic case of closing the barn door once the cattle had already made their disappearance. To make it even clearer, if that is necessary: if the McGill physics community is so unrepentantly racist that it required someone’s death to draw its existence to the surface, a mere banner statement is by no means sufficient atonement. If it is not racist to that notable extreme, then mere humility might have led to the conclusion that now was not the appropriate time to trumpet the assumption of moral superiority necessary to formulate the anti-racist and pro-diversity claims that are being made, front and center, regardless of the fact that this page exists to provide information about physics and not sociology at the august institution of McGill University.

I would also like to point out, just for the sake of completeness, that the two rather egregious moral errors in page construction do not constitute the entire universe of deception characterizing the page. It is apparent that the McGill Physics Department has decided that live classes of the classic sort are unlikely to take place in the fall of 2020 and is now offering its students (who are certainly being regarded as far stupider than most of the physics majors I have met) the opportunity to “implement modern, evidence-based teaching techniques & technologies” and the “unprecedented chance for students to shape their own education, and how science is taught at McGill.” Clearly, what might appear to the uneducated observer as somewhat of a catastrophe for new undergraduate attendees at McGill (that is, the impossibility of attending live university classes) is actually—as those in the know clearly realize—a new and special opportunity for them to be educated in an even finer manner than those who were unfortunate enough to embark upon their education before the blessing of the COVID-19 virus. I mention this only to point out that virtually nothing presented as content on this departmental page, political or not, has escaped the spirit of deception that is arguably its central and most appalling feature, whether it is political (as in the case of objection 1 and 2) and designed to signal a particular brand of ideological morality, or a consequence of third-rate marketing tactics (objection 3), which are more simply characterized as lies.

And, in case you are not convinced by the stories I just told, which do lack somewhat for detail, because of the current necessity for confidentiality, consider this: a group of three professors at Concordia were awarded a New Frontiers in Research Grant (announced in late 2019) aimed at  “engaging Indigenous understanding and involving Indigenous communities in the co-creation of knowledge, the project aims to decolonize contemporary physics research and attract Indigenous students.” The head researcher, one Dr. Tanja Tajmel, “questioned the colonial assumptions made in the way Western science evaluates light and what it considers knowledge.” Dr. Louellyn White, associate professor in First Peoples Studies, added that “Indigenous ways of knowing have been suppressed and marginalized throughout academic history and we are finally gaining momentum in elevating Indigenous knowledges as equally valid to Western science… If we, as an institution, do not embody the Territorial Acknowledgement by recognizing and affirming the expertise of our Elders as Knowledge Keepers, the acknowledgement becomes nothing but empty platitudes.” Dr. Ingo Salzmann, the last of the three principal investigators to whom the funds were awarded, says, ““The culture of physics certainly changes with diverse people involved,” he argues. “Therefore, decolonizing science involves challenging the underlying hierarchies.”

The refusal of the research grant application specifically requesting funding for what must now apparently be regarded as “colonialized (or colonized (?) physics” and the success of the application that had the magical mention of “indigenous knowledge” should alert those who know of both and who are attending to the increasing politicization of the university that the STEM fields comprise the next frontier for the politically correct. Qualified and expert researchers in such fields are already in great danger of being pushed aside by politically correct activists who will happily and self-righteously displace them by merely refusing to admit to the existence of anything approximating an objective truth against which claims to competence might be assessed. The rest of us will pay in the longer run, when we no longer have the will or the capacity to make use of the rare talents that make people highly competent and productive as scientists, technological innovators, engineers or mathematicians.

We might also note that the politically-correct micro-tyrants beating the drum for diversity, inclusivity and equity are pursuing two goals which exist in logical contradiction to one another. Those who occupy a field like physics can only be racists if the fundamental claims to transcendental or ontological truth of that discipline are accepted: if physics describes the world, in a manner that is objectively true, then it is possible for whatever group that currently holds positions of power in that discipline to be prejudiced, perhaps by sex or race, and exclude qualified individuals who differ unacceptably along those dimensions to suffer unfair exclusion. But to make this case requires acceptance of the idea of the universality of the truth being pursued. Alternatively, there are multiple valuable forms of physics, shall we say, indicating that multicultural approaches are required—but the absence of those multiple forms are not so much racist as opportunistic or even merely isolated from the larger world (as each individual group can only be expected to pursue its values in an environment where there is no objective truth, but only group values). Which is it? The answer is quite simple: either, or both—depending on where the largest degree of guilt can be attributed. Convenient as this might be, it is not a good long-term solution to the problem: the internal contradictions inherent in such claims will results in within-group deterioration of solidarity in very short order. If classic physics is nothing but Eurocentric power-maneuvering, who cares if non-Caucasians are excluded? They are perfectly free to pursue their own power-centered physics. If there is an objective reality to that physics, then it is possible, at least in principle, to use objective tests of competence to rank-order candidates, and the problem of potential discrimination vanishes, at least to the degree that is possible.

I have suspected for years that the STEM fields posed the most dangerous threat possible to the unopposed dominance of politically correct sociological idiocy over the entirety of the university environment, basing their claim to validity on recognition of something approximating a universally accessible objective reality. That claim is too powerful to go unchallenged in today’s climate of moral self-flagellating among those, particularly common in the ranks of university administrators, who want all the advantages of the power high-ranking hierarchical positions provide, but none of the hypothetical moral baggage that are part and parcel of the prejudicial and patriarchal structure that gave rise to those positions. The proper solution? Continual apology for the sins of others who occupy equivalent or superior positions, conjoined with a willingness to damage the reputation of those miscreants, and to force them into an apologetic stance—or even to apologize for their own unearned privilege, as long as that does not result in any true sacrifice of power, income or authority. This is particular evident, in the stories I have related, in the case of the Brock University Provost.

The George Floyd incident has emboldened those who are shamelessly using crooked faux-moral means to stake a moral claim in the so-called patriarchal structure that makes up the academic world. They are certainly able and willing to use the unfortunate death of an individual who had enough of the attributes of a systemically oppressed person to serve as poster boy for the self-serving political claims that are now being made on his behalf. This tendency, unchecked, poses a direct danger to the integrity of precisely those STEM fields that have so far remained essentially immune to the embarrassments and blandishments of the politically correct movement. But, make no mistake about it, scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians: your famous immunity to political concerns will not protect you against what is coming fast over the next five or so years: wake up, pay attention, or perish, along with your legacy. Whatever you might offer the broader culture in terms of general value will be swept aside with little caution by those who regard the very axioms of your field as intolerable truly because of the difficulty in comprehending them and considered publicly as unacceptably exclusionary, unitary and unconcerned with sociological “realities.”

Jordan Peterson, June 16, 2020, https://www.jordanbpeterson.com/political-correctness/the-missive/

[liskantope]

Back during my early days on Tumblr, around the time I started here actually, I started reading Questionable Content comics from the beginning, 10 per day, to catch up to the current ones (at the time the comics numbered just over 3000). The day I finished the first 1000 I blogged about it, and then after the 2000th and 3000th I reblogged to update my review. The final reblog, from December 15th, 2015, is here.

The 4000th QC comic came out on Friday, and I’ve decided that in keeping with tradition it’s time to write a review of the past 1000 (although I’m doing it in a fresh post and not reblogging because apparently back in 2015 I hadn’t discovered readmore links yet and the post would look annoyingly long). So let’s get right to it... under the readmore link which I now know is a thing.

This past thousand comics, more than the previous runs of 1000, happens to converge upon a few prominent themes and one very prominent new character: Bubbles. As Bubbles is introduced soon after comic #3000 and is then heavily developed through the next thousand comics, with many of the story arcs (including the longest one ever seen in QC) centering on her, I might call the period of this past thousand comics The Year of Bubbles or something like that if in fact it were only a year instead of almost four (The 200-Week-Period of Bubbles doesn’t roll off the keyboard quite as nicely).

More generally, this webcomic has taken the AI theme to a whole new level in the past thousand comics with Bubbles’ introduction and development only the most major component of this -- whereas the presence of AI was a very minor and almost awkward side-issue in the early days of QC, the comic has now gone full-on robot-themed. I’d estimate that something in the ballpark of one third of the content in the #3000′s was focused on robots’ interactions and relationships with each other -- I think for the first time one could say it passed the AI-rights analog of the Bechdel test. Some 1000 comics ago I remember being mildly impatient at how robot-themed the content was getting, perhaps out of a vague feeling that the human characters were the ones I identified with the most (perhaps in the QC universe, and possibly the real world before the end of my lifetime, this would be considered a semi-subconscious form of bigotry which I can’t call “human-ism” but would deserve some term). I particularly remember not being enthralled with Bubbles when she was first introduced and was slightly irritated that she was immediately taking center stage.

But Bubbles, as well as the story arcs involving AIs in general, grew on me a lot, not just as an allegory of real-life social justice issues but as stories which provoke ideas and questions that I find interesting in their own right. In the case of the comics involving Bubbles, I think they mainly show just how masterful the cartoonist Jeph Jacques’ writing and approach to character development has become. Every bit of dialog taking place between Bubbles and other characters (particularly Faye of course) is gold, often without a single word that could be changed. The sequence of scenes during the #3700′s through which Faye and Bubbles finally get together is the epitome of this and in my opinion the very best writing we’ve seen in QC.

The actual outcome of Faye and Bubbles winding up in a relationship with each other, along with all the constant hints and speculation and build-up leading up to it, now that I have much more mixed feelings about. It precisely puts its finger on one of the main ever-present aspects of the ethos of QC which I’ve complained about before more than once and wound up calling “sex-causality”. Part of me wishes I hadn’t spent as many words ranting about this issue and I’m still uncertain on exactly how I categorize it, as purely a personal distaste or something more objective that does happen in certain subcultures and is bad when pushed on members who are uncomfortable with it, or what. But I do think the slow development of Faye/Bubbles over the course of most of the past thousand comics deserves a brief discussion as an example. There are two prongs to this thing: the fact that Faye and Bubbles getting together was the outcome, and the intermittent banter of all of the other characters about that outcome through hundreds of comics in approaching it.

With regard to their getting together in a both romantic and sexual relationship, it would go against my principles to oppose something like this. That said, it’s a departure from what we knew about Faye (which, to QC’s credit, is openly acknowledged), I would imagine that in a universe with human-like still-made-of-metal AI such a thing would still be somewhat more unusual than it’s given credit for being in the comic. Then again, it’s almost impossible not to underestimate the variety and frequency of still-under-discussed sexualities that are out there (e.g. romantic love and sexual attraction towards metal objects is definitely a thing), and certainly it makes the story more interesting, which after all is part of the writer’s job. No, what I think bothers me here is what feels like an under-representation or under-recognition of profoundly intimate friendships that don’t at any point contain an element of one party wanting to sleep with the other -- does there have to be a sexual element to every relationship that’s deep? It was mainly for this reason, I guess, that once I saw a meaningful (platonic) relationship blossoming between Faye and Bubbles, and noticed how well it was written and how much good it was doing each of them, that I feel it was a really beautiful thing as it was and began actively rooting against the ship that most of the other characters were rooting for.

As for the speculation between the other characters, well, if you’ve been following QC and my posts on this issue like the one I linked to above (those of you who have even made it up to this point in this post!), then you might guess rightly that my main reaction was profound annoyance. I don’t like getting on my high horse about other mostly-inoffensive adults acting kind of immature because I’m trying to stay open to it possibly being a personal-taste thing and maybe mostly on my end, but, well, I thought a lot of the banter irritating in a way that perceived immaturity irritates me. These two comics epitomize what I find annoying, and the “You just... seem to care about her a lot, that’s all” line at the start of this one points to precisely my complaint about the existence of deep platonic friendships not being recognized. Anyway, by the time we got past the dinner conversation in the comics I just linked to, I was throwing up my hands and fully onboard with the Faye/Bubbles ship just to finally be done with all the excited speculative giggling. And as I said, when it finally did happen, the writing (including of the reactions of other characters) was fantastic.

To (finally) change the topic away from Bubbles, some of my emotional reaction to QC has shifted subtly while the last thousand comics were coming out. The period of publication from #3001 to #4000 happens to have spanned a segment of my life (which will hopefully be ending soon) in which I’ve felt quite lonely and isolated. And watching all the interactions going on in the QC world makes me feel... not nostalgic exactly because I was never really part of a social circle quite like Marten’s... but rather bittersweet because of how much I’d like to be in so many ways. QC presents a fictional environment that in the confines of my brain I often call a “social utopia” or, perhaps slightly less ridiculously, something like a “social circle / subcultural utopia”. It’s poor terminology because the QC universe on the whole isn’t a utopia in any sense of the word -- in fact there are plenty of social ills that form the backdrop of many storylines -- and even when confined to looking at how the particular social circle operates “utopia” doesn’t seem like an appropriate term. But the variety of people in the social group, the places, they meet, and the way they interact with each other all seems to click together and operate in what I would consider -- and I believe the artist Jeph Jacques would consider -- to be pretty close to idyllic. I like especially how much diversity there is among the characters, both in their backgrounds and interests as well as their quirks, and how completely at ease and accepting they are of each other in spite of or almost because of them. There’s this vibe of “We’re all a little weird but we share the same values about how to be decent human beings, so let’s all revel in our weirdness together and be there for each other through thick and thin!” (Of course there are some bad characters lying on the periphery and kinda-sorta-dicks like Sven who are mostly excluded from the group, but that’s not the core of the world.) With few exceptions, conflicts are resolved in a very systematic way and almost immediately (with only a couple of exceptions that did eventually end happily).

And as a matter of fact, even during times when I was fairly socially happy, I was never part of any group that was so exemplary in this particular way. But reading QC, which is hopefully at least somewhat drawn from the cartoonist’s own experiences, sort of gives me hope or at least a very concrete means of imagining such a crowd. And even if I did feel the need to gripe from time to time about what I call the “sex-casual” norms that permeate the group interactions, honestly in the grand scheme of things that’s just something I could live with or even enjoy if comes through in a non-pushy, non-conformist way, in order to be part of such a welcoming and healthy family.

[wasalwaysagreatpickle]

Friday 22 May 1829

7 20/60

11 55/60

Lay musing last night a little and more this morning what to do – 

Weighing all things will send for M. Séné, and see if he will take 4000/. a year (he paying all taxes and letting us have the furniture that we have) for his apartment rue neuve Saint Augustin – sat in my little quondam bedroom till my own room was done – wrote a note to ‘The Right Reverand Bishop Luscombe’ (by the way he lives 23 Place Vendome) to say with my compliments I was sorry I did not distinctly remember whether it was today or tomorrow he was so good as promised to administer the sacrament to my aunt – then wrote a note to ‘Miss Hobart’ merely to say that as it was Friday I should send George though not expecting a letter ‘I will call myself, and leave my card for Lady Stuart De Rothesay tomorrow – as it will be late, you will, of course, be out – let me find a note to say that you really will go to Mortefontaine; for a pair of horses must be sent forwards on Sunday to meet us 1/2 way on Monday – I shall count upon finding you ready precisely at 8 – Pray let Norbury go – very truly yours AL- Friday morning’ – 

Note back from bishop Luscombe with his compliments to say it was tomorrow he would come at 1 1/2 ‘perhaps a little later’ – Note from Miss Hobart to say there was no letter for me but she had sent me hers from Sibella from which it appeared she had ‘been alarmingly ill but by her speaking of joining you here I am in hopes she felt better when she wrote’ 

Miss Maclean’s letter half a sheet in an envelope directed ‘Miss Hobart the Lord Stuart de Rothesay’ – she seems to be at Mr Longs but desires her letters to be directed still to her lodging Duke Street 

Her continual weakness and continual violent cough so reduced her she ‘could do nothing but lie on the sofa – daily thinking I really thought I was going’ – Mr Long in dismay – ‘he poked about to see if there was anything in the rooms, that could disagree with me, went to my bed, the window was wide open, stretched himself out – and came running back saying he had discovered it – and that one night longer I should not stop here – 3 servants necessaries just under my window, this being a corner house, he sent instantly for chorarate (should be chlorate) of lime and purified my room and as Mr and Mrs Crosbie come today to spend a fortnight with him he insists on my going for a few days at least till I find other lodgings I have been in a fever ever since I came here, no sleep at night, not being able to breathe, my mouth and throat parched, I thought from inward fever, but the commotion Mr Long kicked up last night made me breathe better – but he insists it will kill me to remain longer, and I think so myself’ will go for a few days to the Skinners at Richmond – trusts she may venture to Hampshire for a week – must shew herself again to her doctor ‘and then sail from the Thames to Boulogne, or what ever way I may fix on joining dear Miss Lister – but perhaps she will join me in England’ (this letter dated 19th May) ‘she does not seem to have fixed her plans, I almost wish she may come you are very naughty to scold at my poor doctor how could he or any human being prevent my having those sad complaints, or when reduced by them talking a most terrible cold which affected me from top to toe – It was the state of high inflammation I was in, in winter that made him object to my going there till it was extracted – and you say Lady S de Rothesay must leave it for the heat etc. etc. she means Paris, and mentions the Burys and others who could not bear the heat –

Poor soul! how difficult to know what to do -  but this letter is a satisfaction to me – there is an assigned and probable cause for her being so much worse of late, and this is consolation – Backwards and forwards walk with Drake about horses to Mortefontaine on Monday – if horses go one day to meet us the next, Drake must get a permit from the poste royale, and pay what would be expected of post horses – this will not do – Drake to come and speak to me – Had just written all the above of today (had breakfast about 10 or soon after, in 1/2 hour) at 12 50/60 – 

Miss Maclean concludes with ‘you must send my letter to that best of friends Miss L as I have not a comment to write by this days post’ at two and three quarters had written my letter to Miss Maclean - 

Wrote a full 1/2 sheet and 1 page of envelope to Miss Maclean. Had just had a note from Vere with her letter from Miss Maclean which was a great comfort to me – an assigned and probable cause for her being so much worse of late and I was satisfied ‘Mr Long was right not to let you remain in a place so fatal to all hope of your recovery – I now begin to breathe again and to persuade myself that, with good management, you may still be spared to us – get out of London – as Vere well observed, you cannot be worse off here, than there – If Lady Stuart de Rothesay leaves Paris during the heat of summer, who does not leave London during the same? you would be quite as well here, or better, even in August, than in London – But have we not resources here, as well as [your] all other great towns? Can we not go into the country? and, if I am rather tethered for the moment, yet I think I could continue for you – But as to the heat of Paris, much depends on management’…. how does my aunt bear it so well? Miss Maclean would be better here than she expects – try Hampshire, and then, as I said in my last, Guernsey – 

Hope we shall have got settled about another apartment in a few days – Perhaps it may suit her better to come per steam from London to Boulogne – can rest there as long as she likes ‘Oh! that you could have come with Lady Stuart whose rate of travelling I really almost think, from your letter this morning, you would be able to bear! Perhaps you would have no cough at all, as soon as you are this side of the water’ But to write and tell me what she thinks and wishes and I will do my utmost – Cannot think the Burys or anyone else can be better judges than Vere and myself – the English all ‘flock to the rue de Rivoli, the most baking street in Paris – I do remember how, even if more coolly lodged, they come to see sights, and go about all day as if there was neither sun to shine, nor earth to absorb his rays’ – she may go and sit in the Tuileries gardens – always delightful under the shade there – How do people go to Interlacken? ‘I should say, the heat of the Swiss valleys in summer is far more insupprtable than that of Paris – Vevay is a nice place – I wish you were with your friend there, till time to come here – But think, and write - … I was at the soirée last night, at the Embassy, and was really amused, and spent an hour there pleasantly enough – Vere was exceedingly kind and attentive; and you yourself would have been quite satisfied with her looks, and with all about her – she really seems to enjoy herself, and to have every reason to do so – I admire Lady Stuart de Rothesay very much – she does the honours of that magnificent hotel admirably – Just as I was coming away the Hagermans (arrived in Paris probably on Tuesday) were arriving – I should have known Madame de Hagerman] from her likeness to Mrs Foster – I saw Vere on Wednesday and expect to take her to Mortefontaine (Joseph Buonaparte’s place) on Monday – she is a very nice girl; and you have never praised her half enough – Never did 1/2 blood sisters resemble each other so little in externals – I could not help saying to myself; the Hobart and Coll were infinitely the better arrangement of the 2 – the travelling scheme is still on the tapis, but not for me to set off before next winter and to be absent for 2 or 3 years – I hope to see you well first – I have always had a presentment that Paris would do you good – But this is to try – Do what you think best – I have no wish but for the welfare and happiness, and, right or wrong as to the means of promoting them, I am, at all rates, my dearest Sibella, always and invariably affectionately and faithfully yours AL- Paris Friday 22 May 1829 – 

I had almost written the whole of the above of today at 3 10/60 when the proprietaire of No. the apartment No. 357 rue Saint Honoré came for my answer – would gladly let me the premier because a deputé wished for the 2nde and would take the little apartment à côté, but would not let it him if I would take the 2nde – would let me have it for 4500 – said with much expression of regret how sorry I was, but could not give that price – would I make an offer – declined because I knew it could not be accepted – the premier too noisy – I expected a friend, and should want the additional little room – M. – sat about 10 minutes and went away – thus there is an end of No. 357 rue Saint Honoré for me – Too expensive – it would have been madness – thus I have been saved the trouble of writing – 

Then wrote the following to Miss Hobart ‘Dear Miss Hobart. Here is Sibella’s letter back again with my best thanks – It does indeed seem that she has been alarmingly ill, and is yet far from recovered – I have written to say I wish she could have come with Lady Stuart, for both you and I think, she could not be worse off here than in London – I fear there is no chance of any change in Lady Stuart’s plans that can affect Sibella – I shall see you at 8 a.m. on Monday – truly yours AL- 

Sent off this note under cover to ‘Miss Hobart with my letter to ‘Miss Maclean of Coll 17 Duke Street Portland place’ and with her letter to Miss Hobart back again at 5 1/4 – should have sent 1 1/2 hour before but McDonald and [Cameron] gone out – 

Then found my cousin come 

Settled my accounts – Note from Madame Galvani at 4 40/60 by Pauline ‘qui doit exercer son talent chez vous trois heures par jour au echange d’une somme de 15 francs par mois Nannette repond de va probité…. McDonald went out with [Cameron] to help her to choose a gown, and they are not yet returned at 5 25/60 – so this poor Pauline fille or femme de peine (drudge) that Madame Galvani has sent has been waiting these 3/4 hour, and now that George is gone had the kitchen to herself – bonne exercise de sa probité – 

Dinner at 6 10/60 – came to my room at 8 – nap on my sofa – then wrote rough draft of index of 6, 7, and 8 May – coffee at 9 – Drake will change 75 francs for 2 pair of horses to Mortfontaine and back on Monday 1 pair to be sent forward on Sunday – came to my room at 10 – stood an hour or at least 50 minutes, reading the livre de postes, and calculating whether it would be better to have posthorses or not – no – 10 postes and 2 extra postes = 12 at 10/. (for we must have 4 horses and 2 postilions) = 120 francs – very fine day – very warm – Fahrenheit at 70˚ all the day, out of my window – Fahrenheit 60˚ now at 11 10/60 p.m. -

[charityramble-blog]

With students like this who wouldn’t want to be a teacher?!

Thanks for the feedback on the first blog it was very kind! Whilst I know you would prefer more selfies, the students here are pretty awesome so this time I’d like to share a little more about them.

Sri Lanka places huge value on education. As we walk down the street parents thrust their children towards us to practise their English and greet us. When their child holds a short conversation with us in English you can see the pride welling up in their parent. Now that our relationships have been secured the students at the school are more confident to chat and practise their English with us. Last week as I sat working at the reception desk numerous students would stop and converse, taking every opportunity to hone their skills and build their confidence.

Me with some of my teenager mates. They worked as a team to converse with me in English, each one desperate to try!

George Washington Carver said “education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom.” In the tea country so many children and young people are potentially trapped by their culture, caste or circumstances. Sri Lanka’s Tamil plantation workers are among the islands most disadvantaged and isolated groups. Schools are often understaffed, and children have few role models outside of the plantation industry to gain knowledge of other possible occupations (Culture Smart, Kuperard).  Many are living in depravity without a chance to move up or out because of perceived social exclusion (SL Daily News 27/10/17.) Education and in particular a strong English education has the ability to lift a young person out of this situation and offer them more choices in life.

This year Tea Leaf Vision will celebrate the graduation of their 1000th student. Whilst each student is beautifully different, there is a common “TLV” identity that pervades. This identity has been created by three key values: confidence, professionalism and service. If you spend one day at the school all these values shine through, but I believe the brightest is that of service. TLV wants “every person on the tea estates to realise that they are valuable members of society, who can help transform their communities into places of happiness and hope.” To build this self-confidence TLV challenges each student to complete an individual service project in their communities. 

One afternoon we sat and listened to student after student recount their acts of service. From buying hens for single parent families to repairing a toilet, students looked intently at the needs of their community and then worked hard to provide solutions. As you can imagine their stories were incredibly moving and just when we thought we had contained our emotions Janarthani came in. She proceeded to tell us about how she is working with a disabled boy in her community. The boy is isolated because of his disability and in particular his difficulty in communicating. Janarthani has worked with him to build his confidence, teach him and of course play games and have fun! Through her work the boy is much more confident, loves to draw and is beginning to build other friendships.... Shah! (Wow!)

This activity clearly empowers these young people to see themselves as change agents who in different ways can improve the lives of others.Well over 100 students completed the project this year and TLV stats estimate that they invested nearly 4000 hours and reached over 15000 beneficiaries. Furthermore many students are still volunteering in their projects, and seemed surprised at the very idea that they would stop!

Service also lives here daily, where students are encouraged to feel  ownership over and responsibility for their school. Before leaving the school all students work together to ensure that it is clean and tidy. Sweeping, mopping and emptying bins are all completed with military precision. There are no complaints as everyone pitches in. Amazingly when I asked my students who enjoyed cleaning, well over 80% had their hands up – how many of us would say that?!

Finally every Wednesday afternoon 120 students and 30 interns leave the school for the Community English Programme. This programme provides school children with free 1 ½ hour English classes for years 3 and 6 straight after the school day has finished. Schools differ across the province with some schools only having  1 class, whilst others have 5 or 6 classes each with around 20 -30 children in. Lessons centre on basic vocabulary (greetings, colours and family) with a focus on children developing their speaking confidence.

In January the students begin their training at TLV and by March they are unleashed upon the schools. Behaviour is a real challenge as the TLV students are not their regular teachers, classrooms are often shared between 2 to 3 classes and the TLV students have had a very short amount of training. Furthermore physical punishment is still common in many Government schools yet TLV students do not use this method. Once the children realise this their behaviour can also deteriorate.

Despite all of these challenges the TLV students do an incredible job providing children with a fun, high quality weekly English lesson. Yet of these 150 students roughly 10 -15% have any interest in becoming a teacher. What strikes me about this whole experience is the dedication of the students to a task that for many could seem irrelevant. Surely their dedication to the programme week after week sets them up for any workplace task.

Wednesday is my favourite day at TLV. It is the day when I am inspired by the students’ dedication and confidence, it is the day when I am most thankful for the teacher training and support that I have received and it is the day that I feel that I am at my most helpful. Students and I have discussed a range of behaviour techniques and methods of making some content more active. I have also dug deep into the well of games that my U.K. colleagues and I have plied, and who doesn’t love a game!

Alongside this growth in self-confidence TLV is also committed to facilitating the development of high-standard English language skills and professionalism in their students. One way they support this is through an annual speech conference which provides students with an opportunity to speak English at a high level. Last month we had the privilege of working with staff and students to bring the event together, and what an event it was! All students developed speeches about issues within their communities, these included illegal gem mining, alcoholism and suicide.  Students explained the causes and effects of the issue and then developed potential solutions; particularly those that young people could be part of. Groups were then auditioned to create a final set of 7 who would deliver on stage in front of 200 students and prestigious guests.Students worked incredibly hard to develop their speeches, giving numerous evenings and weekends to perfect their performances.

In order to provide the students with a valuable and prestigious experience every effort is made to make the event as formal as possible. A beautiful wedding hall was chosen with a huge stage and balcony seating area. Staff and students worked tirelessly to create banners, table decorations and invitations. But by far Beth’s highlight from the whole experience was my whole school assembly on how to use cutlery – made even more entertaining by the lack of a knife!

Alongside the group speeches two students were auditioned to perform individually. One of the speeches was aimed at raising students’ awareness of the risks and prevention of HIV. The other was a summons for students to be the change in the plantation community.  The delivery of both speeches was incredible, largely due to the boldness of the students in front of such a large and diverse audience.

The educational opportunities advanced through the conference were huge. Several of the students in my class have become far more active in class and willing to speak up within activities. Furthermore the students have all thought deeply about issues within their communities and been challenged to see themselves as change-agents.

All of these experiences are developing brave and highly focused individuals filled with confidence. This doesn’t happen by magic, rather it is a culture lived and breathed by the staff who are all former students. From the very beginning  this culture is instilled within the students and by this point the majority of the students live and breathe it! 

So apart from spending time with the students what else do we do? Well Maskeliya is a small town a good hour by bus from the next major town of Hatton and around 4 hours to the nearest major city of Kandy. The roads connect all of the tea plantations but surface quality differs and so the area has quite a rural feel. Whilst we quite enjoy the bus journeys we aren’t desperate to fill our weekends with them! So we tend to spend our free time enjoying the beauty, simplicity and friendliness of the area. We go walking for 2 -3 hours and have never done the same walk or got “completely” lost.

Alongside this we are trying to live Covey’s 7th habit - “sharpen the saw”; essentially challenge yourself to learn, improve and develop. Some of the challenges we have set ourselves include (see brackets for progress):

Ø  Daily Yoga session thanks to the excellent Alice Chutter (We have had yoga mats delivered from China and completed several full weeks of practice.)

Ø  Be able to hold a basic conversation in Tamil. I am having lessons from a local Justice of the Peace in a spice shop! (So far I can say hello and goodbye, enquire how someone is, order some vegetables, wish someone  a happy birthday and ... apologise – how English!)

Ø  Name some common Sri Lankan birds (When I remember to wear my glasses I can spot the Ceylon magpie, a woodpecker and crows. If we see a different bird we spend most of the next 10 minutes arguing about which “small yellow bird” it is in our bird book!)

Ø  Take time to enjoy nature (Almost every day we take a stroll or a lengthy hike around this beautiful countryside. The odd rainshower/ downpour doesn’t dissuade us - even if the leeches do!

Thanks again for reading! Do let me know if there is something you’d like to hear more about. And remember: Ning alaga irakinga – you look beautiful!

[ask-de-writer]

The Knights of Justice (Part 3 of 3) : An MLP Fan Fiction

Return to the Master Story Index

Return to MLP Fan Fiction

THE KNIGHTS OF JUSTICE

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

Cover Art by The Whisper Sisters, now Wind the Mama Cat

© 2014 by Glen Ten-Eyck

6842 words

Writing begun 08/27/14

All rights reserved.  This document may not be copied or distributed on or to any medium or placed in any mass storage system except by the express written consent of the author.

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Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may reblog the story.  They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions.  I will allow those who do commission art works to charge for their images.

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Prologue: This tale takes place about 4000 years in the past of the modern MLP canon. During this time, Celestia and Luna are still fillies, though close to grown physically. The events here recorded are part of the foundation of the modern kingdom of Equestria.  Specifically, this tale begins what are now known as THE DAYS OF FORTRESS CANTERLOT and the founding of the Knights of Justice.

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For more background information on the canon of this tale, please read:

De Writer and the Orb of the Ages

Hearthwarming Eve / Starvation’s Night

From Darkness to Dawn

Fortress Canterlot!

De Writer’s Tale (a narrative poem)

The Coming of Tam O’Canter and Heather Bloom O’Red Hoof to Ponyville

De Writer canon (part 1)

De Writer canon (part 2)

PART 1 is HERE     PART 2 is HERE

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“She was a pony of my estates. I met her through accident and loved her.  I was preparing to make her my baroness.  Count Eleten found it out.  As she was still a peasant, he demanded her of me and I had to yield her up.  Two months later, I was curtly informed that she had died of a choking death.

“I required her body for interment in my Barony.  The Count refused me!  I led a secret expedition to bring Cindermane home.  We did that.  She did die of a choking death.  The noose was still on her neck!

“The Count Eleten murdered her! I determined to bring him low for the crime!  He is the aim of my Workings!  Those others are all ones that he is either related to or close friends!”

The old blue unicorn noticed that the king was hanging onto civility by a hair's breadth.  At a gesture from the Queen, three guards ponies had quietly bracketed Count Eleten.  Luna noted it too.

She pursued, “And me?  The Queen Megan?  What part were we to play?”

Baron Cutshort did hang his head then.  “I meant you no actual ill.  I only sought to have highly placed allies who would also work to bring down Count Eleten.

“Once my revenge was complete, I meant to destroy all the means of my Working and never have aught to do with necromancy again.”

The Count Eleten yelled, “Lies! This is all lies to darken the noble name of Eleten!”  Several others, who all had their names on those envelopes of necromancy, were nodding agreement.

Luna turned her head to one of her entourage.  “Good Justice Truth Keeper, has the Baron Cutshort spoken truly?  Has he lied, evaded or withheld anything?”

The brown unicorn with the flank mark of a pair of scales balanced over a sword's edge, gave Baron Cutshort a penetrating gaze.  He also stared at Count Eleten.  “The Baron has withheld two things and two only.  Where he found the body of his beloved Cindermane and what he hoped to accomplish by necromancy with her.

“The Count Eleten is lying completely.  He knows the truth of the accusation.”

Looking almost forlorn, Luna turned back to the Baron.  “Baron Cutshort, if I release you, will you give us honest parole to stay and hear the judgment of your King Camarg and make no effort to escape from that judgment?”

Addressing the envelope that Luna held, the Baron said softly but clearly, “Forgive me, Cindermane. Now you will never again walk beneath the sun.”

Speaking to Luna, he affirmed, “I have failed both my love and my revenge.  All that I can do now to recover my honor is to do as you have asked.  I do give you my parole.  I will hear my King's judgment against me nor try to evade it in any whit.”

Luna stepped over and wrapped a comforting wing about the Baron.  “I take your parole, Lord Cutshort.  Where was it that you found your Cindermane?”

“About a half mile to the south of Eleten's wall is a copse of trees and brush.  There he casts the corpses of those who have seriously displeased him.  We were interrupted in recovering her.”

He pointed to the skull of the unicorn foal among the necromantic things.  “The Count and a few henchmen came down to the wood while we were there.  That foal was an illegitimate offspring of his by a peasant mare.  She hid it from him. 

“He broke all four of her legs and made her watch as he struck the head from her foal.  Then he clubbed her to death with a stroke to the back of her head.  

“I took the head as a powerful talisman against the Count when we recovered Cindermane's body.  I did hope to return her to life as the last Working of my necromancy.”

Luna continued to hold him with her wing as she looked to Justice.  Justice nodded confirmation.

Luna told Baron Cutshort, “You are free of all of my magics.  Now I must tell you a sad truth.  All of necromancy is based on nightmares and lies.  Those spells that do work would work regardless of the setting and be more effective free of the hate and limits of the necromantic ritual.  The dead cannot be returned.  Your Cindermane is gone past the reach of any.

“This is a thing that I am certain of.  My mother/creator was the Titan of Life Creation.  Life can be created.  It can be passed on from one to another.  It cannot be recalled when it is gone.  

“Now that all of the truth of this is known, I must give you in judgment to King Camarg.”

The king sat his throne and glared at Count Eleten, bracketed by the Queen's Guard.  He leaned over and spoke softly to a page.  The page left on his errand.

The King then turned to Baron Cutshort and asked, “Why did you not bring the matter of Cindermane to me?  You surely know that my dear Megan, Queen of Camarg, was but the second daughter of an esquire before I married her and raised her to Queen of the Land?”

Baron Cutshort answered, “By the workings of Fealty, My King, I am required to bring my complaints to the Count who holds my Barony for his judgment.  Once the Count has ruled of my complaint, I may appeal it to you.  

“My Count is Eleten.  He has not refused my complaint, which would free me to come to you.  He has simply not ruled on the complaint, which, he claims to be still pending.  Thus, I was blocked by the workings of Fealty and Law.”

To the surprise of the whole Court, King Camarg nodded sagely.  “This does reveal a flaw in my Law and the Oaths that bind together this kingdom.  That shall be amended with care.

“I find it to be of extenuation in the matter of your Necromancy.  That, sadly, I cannot ignore.  It is outlawed entirely.  We have laws for a reason.  We have a King for a reason as well.

“Normally, I would have to have your head struck from your body for it.  The law has already hurt you more deeply than death.  I would not make that wound worse.  I shall have to think on this for some time to come.”

Luna approached the throne of Camarg and knelt as a supplicant.  The King and Queen looked down at the kneeling Luna and the Queen said gently, “What is it that you wish of us, Princess Luna, Co Ruler of The Equestrian Lands of Fortress Canterlot?”

Luna looked up to them and replied, “I would have of you the person of Rufous, Baron Cutshort. His life, placed in my hooves, shall be as long as the fortunes of living allow.  In my lands, we shall give him such honor as he is worth, nor shall he or his ever be set against you in war or battle.”

It was Queen Megan who pronounced, “Granted.  Rufous, Baron Cutshort shall not be stripped of title or lands but allowed a proper abdication to join your service.  What he did and admits of is such that only a great reason could allow this.

“He did all of Love, even the seeking of his revenge had that root.”  She paused and gave the King, on his Throne beside hers, an affectionate gaze.  “I do know the strength and the power of that Love which is the very root of a good life.”

Luna stood and said, “I do thank you most deeply, Your Majesties.  You have given to me a treasure of great value.”

Camarg, from his Throne, replied, “We are most mindful of that fact.  Were there any way to keep him that allowed us to keep our law as well, you should not have got him from us.

“Do use him well, for both his honor and the good of your land.”

“Sire, I do have exactly such a place for him in mind.”

The gracious Queen Megan asked, “May I be so bold as to ask what use you have planned for him?”

Seriously, Luna replied, “While speaking with him of his beloved Cindermane, I touched his dreaming heart.  Truly he sought no more than justice for the wrong that she suffered and hoped that he could do her the justice of returning her to land of the living.

“He is driven by a love of honor and justice.  That is the use that I will, with only a little training, make of him.

“He will be given good lands, adequate to his support.  His work will be a roving or, some would say, errant commission to the finding of injustice and repairing it, be it high or low.

“He shall be a Knight of Justice.”

King Camarg thought that over carefully for a few moments.  “Will you have a cadre of these Knights of Justice, Princess?”

“Your Majesty, they will need to be carefully chosen, but yes, I will.”

He nodded.  “Princess Luna, We are honored that you are neighbor to us.  We shall be pleased to work with you to settle properly the boundaries of our lands.”

The page that had been sent out earlier returned.  He bore a scroll.  The king, looking down it, grew visibly enraged.

“Bring forth the person of Count Eleten to stand judged for his crimes!”

The Count attempted to rear away from his guards, gathering magic powerfully to his horn.

Luna's midnight magic literally slapped him from his hooves and capped his horn with a sheath of darkest blue power.  As she stalked over to him, she was visibly changing to a creature out of Nightmare.

In a voice that sounded of both ponies screaming in horror and the roars of beasts ripping them asunder, she demanded, “Traitor!  It is before the Throne that you MUST go!”

She reached out a deadly claw and sank the talons into his shoulder.  With no seeming effort, she dragged him to the carpet at the foot of the Dais.  His shoulder was frost rimed and deeply cut.

“His Majesty, King Camarg II, has required you here.  You have attempted to defy your Liege in Open Court.  Hear now the judgment set against you.”

Turning to both King and Queen, Luna said, in the gentle voice that they had been hearing earlier, “I apologize for showing the truth of my title, The True Embodiment of Nightmare, Your Majesties.  For the crime that he was preparing, time and measured force were of the essence.

“Count Eleten is now before you and shall hear your judgment.”

The King glared down coldly, his wings lifted stiffly in anger.  “Count Eleten!  You dared to lift your magic against your sworn King!  That is Treason.  

“You have slaughtered at least twenty two whose corpses or skeletons could be easily found by a swift search carried out by my Guard, who have just returned from that errand.  That is a Breach of Fealty and Law.

“You have unjustly Gleaned extra taxes from your peasant ponies and neither claimed them in law nor paid the Royal Levy upon them.  That is a Breach of Fealty and Law.

“You have conspired to keep from Me, not only these things but your contempt for those lower in station than you.  Those whose labor provides you with all that you possess.  That is a Breach of the Kingdom Itself.

“Normally, I would have you executed by beheading for these crimes.  I am minded to try another route in your case.

“Princess Luna, in your judgment, can Baron Cutshort, now to be a Knight of Justice to your Court be trusted to render honest and honorable judgment of this Count who has so wronged him?”

The Nightmare Luna smiled almost serenely as she replied, “Indeed, I do believe so.”

The King and the Queen both smiled but not the sort of smile that one before them would wish to see.  It was a cold and heartless smile.

They asked together, “Baron Cutshort, Knight of Justice to Princess Luna, what say you of this pony before us?”

Baron Cutshort gazed thoughtfully down at his past tormentor and said, “I have several parts to what I would do.

“For the first, Treason against Your Majesties, here, in open Court, he shall be divested of all lands monies and titles whatsoever.  Eleten shall be Vacant until it pleases Your Majesties to install another.

“For the second, attempting to use his magic against his sworn Lords, the persons of Your Majesties, in some form his magic be taken from him.  Either his horn be removed or the magic of it be withered such that he cannot use it again.

“For the third, Morton, no longer noble at all, shall be placed upon the lands of Eleten, among those that he wronged, with a hovel of one room a cot and table. With it shall go five acres of land to be cultivated by his own hoof.

“As he thought the Gleaning good, he shall pay his tax with the proper Royal Levy at twice that of any other peasant of Eleten.  Nor shall he be allowed to remove from that land for any reason without permission given by Your Majesty in writing.

“That is what I would do, were it my place to bring justice to what he has done.”

King Camarg looked to Luna, who had gradually resumed her normal appearance.  “Princess, your choice for a Knight of Justice was truly excellent.  His judgment against Morton, no longer Count of Eleten shall stand.”

To his Guards he said, ”Cap the horn of this pony and take him to a common cell until his horn's powers be withered.  After which, the balance of the judgment against him shall be done.”

--THE END--

Return to the Master Story Index

Return to MLP Fan Fiction

[zanytimetravelenthusiast-blog]

AdaComply Review Discount And Huge Bonus

AdaComply Review - Are you searching for more knowleadge about AdaComply? Please check out my straightforward review about it before selecting to examine the weak points and also staminas of it. If you buy AdaComply with my link, you will certainly get unique and attractive bonus offer plans. I constantly update my perks everyday.

Introducing AdaComply

How to Make a Web Site ADA Compliant? (Part 1)

If you are reading this blog post you have most likely obtained some questions or possibly also some solicitation about making your web site AdaComply Compliant However, we have started to speak with numerous small company proprietors who have actually gotten what LOOKS like a complaint or a potential lawsuit. What you require to understand is these problems COULD BE originating from "legitimate" or licensed lawyers-- while still not being legitimate problems.

Within the last fiscal year hundreds of ADA complaints have been E-FILED (online) definition that some litigation-hungry lawyer's are merely filing claims against any type of and every internet site they locate that isn't ADA Certified with actually little-to-no intent of in fact ever going to court. (Translation, they are seeking a negotiation.) Issue is if you "clear up" you still have to do what it takes to make your web site certified.

This page is EVERYTHING you would like to know or DON'T would like to know regarding this problem as we know it at this time. While it may be wordy, there is some good intel here.

IF YOU DON'T WANT TO CHECK OUT THIS NOVELLA As Well As SIMPLY WISH TO CONSULT WITH SOMEBODY WITH SOME ANSWERS ... GET IN TOUCH WITH United States TODAY!

Let's Look at the Complexity of "What it Takes" to make your web site AdaComply Compliant.

Most likely to this website: http://wave.webaim.org and also get in YOUR website into it. The resulting screen will show you all of things that need to be attended to ON THAT PARTICULAR ONE web page to make it correctly ADA Compliant. If your site resembles THE MAJORITY OF, it would certainly take about 30-40 mins or more to obtain that a person web page up to standards.

CURRENTLY go web page by page and do the exact same for EVERY web page on your site. By the way, make sure to include every BLOG SITE, every gallery picture ... everything. To provide you an example, LOTS sites are hundreds and also even THOUSANDS of pages that have actually been built up over time to help them rate well. To highlight this more plainly, I just examined a REALLY little B&B customer of ours and also their website is 296 web pages of web content. If EVERY page takes even 45 mins to bring it as much as ADA requirements, we would certainly need to invest 13,320 mins or 222 hours to "repair it". Also at $60 a hr, you're considering over $13,000 to make those modifications as well as edits for a tiny site.

Just like everything else on the internet, you can already locate intended plugins or companies that are asserting that for $200 they can make your website ADA certified. Don't drop victim to that. It does not work this way.

If you have a small, 4-5 page site, after that your cost may be less than $200-$ 300 to repair points, however, if you have a well-ranked site that has been constructed over time with great deals of pages, lots of items, and so on. there is no substitute for what needs to been done. Basically, a reputable company will certainly have to go page by web page to fix points.

WHAT ARE MY OPTIONS?

CHOICE ONE:

You COULD simply have us develop a brand-new web site that is 10-15 pages that is 100% AdaComply compliant. Prices? Possibly $4000-$ 5000. The issue with that it suppose your current site is placed for countless search terms based upon countless archived web pages like POST, SEO pages, items, and so on. If you lose all those pages, you shed all the positions. Rankings = web traffic = customers.

ALTERNATIVE TWO:

You COULD just not do anything and also wait and see if the Us senate ultimately addresses points.

OPTION THREE

You COULD just overlook any type of problem you receive and also they MAY just vanish (you might have to ignore two or three efforts. (This might not be the wisest appearing guidance, yet we understand individuals that have actually done just that.).

AdaComply Evaluation & Review

Vendor: Ifiok Nkem

Product: AdaComply

Release Date: 2019-Nov-30

Release Time: 11:00 EST

Front-End Rate: $37

JV Page: https://www.socialleadfreak.com/adacomply-review/

Niche: Software application

What Is AdaComply?

It's a 'very first to market' SaaS platform that assists site owners boost their site ease of access in mins and be ADA Conformity.

AdaComply Is 'First To Market' Software Makes Your Site & Client's Internet sites ADA Certified In Minutes. Avoid Lawsuit, Ranking Greater On Search Engines & Take Advantage Of A $650B/Year Untapped Market ...

Is Your Internet Site ADA Certified? The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) needs businesses to make accommodations for people with impairments. Internet material need to come to the blind, deaf, and those who have to browse by voice, display readers or various other assistive modern technologies.

Benefit of having an ADA compliant/Accessible Internet site:

Avoid claims (Over 10k websites have actually been sued this year alone for not being ADA certified ... and also this number will skyrocket in 2020.

Rank higher on internet search engine. (Google enjoys easily accessible internet sites)

And also used the $650 billion annually untapped disablity market.

AdaComply That Fixes A $400 BILLION TROUBLE

A historic high court judgement in 2015 created a rise in web sites owners being demanded non-complaince with ADA.

1,500+ lawful situations connected to non-accessibility conformity in New York City alone in 2018

Greater than 10,000 websites taken legal action against in 2019 for their web site not being ADA compliant

This number is expected to strike 100k by following year - 2020

Unlike GDPR, The ADA law calls for no notice before a claim is filed versus a company for non-compliance.

The law provides no time at all for a business to act prior to a suit is filed, and it supplies no real protection to a firm after a claim has been submitted.

A lot of business/website owners took legal action against pay between $20 - $200k as out of court negotiation. A recent negotiation was $6m.

Businesses have spent an average of $3k - $50k to obtain their site dealt with. (HUGE POSSIBILITY - You can bill above $k per customer). $1k per website x 400 million web sites online = $400 billion

Final thought

"It's A Good deal. Should I Spend Today?"

Not just are you getting access to AdaComply for the best price ever before offered, but likewise You're spending completely without danger. AdaComply consists of a 30-day Refund Assurance Plan. When you pick AdaComply, your fulfillment is guaranteed. If you are not totally pleased with it for any kind of reason within the very first 30 days, you're entitled to a complete reimbursement-- no doubt asked. You've obtained nothing to shed! What Are You Awaiting? Try It today as well as get The Complying with Benefit Now!

Ps: If you have any kind of concerns you wish to ask me regarding AdaComply or you simply want to offer your sensations and also thoughts concerning it. Please do not hesitate to relay your remarks, pointers or corrections., I will certainly address you wholeheartedly as well as attentively. Many thanks!

[azanycollectormilkshakeworl-blog]

Best Place to get a Car Insurance Comparison Free Online?

"Best Place to get a Car Insurance Comparison Free Online?

What sites are best for car insurance comparison? I am trying to find a site that has the widest range of quotes and policies so I can pick insurance cover that is right for me, the plan I have that's due to expire soon is terrible and I feel really ripped off. It's just proving really hard to find something affordable and with good quality cover. Has anyone tried a car insurance comparison site that offers quotes from more than just the usual four or five insurance providers?

BEST ANSWER:  Try this site where you can compare quotes: : http://financeandcreditsolutions.xyz/index.html?src=tumblr 

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Tricare/ER Insurance Question?

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How i can find a cheap car insurance?

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Are we covered with liability insurance?

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Is motorcycle insurance expensive?

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Car Insurance... How much is it really?!?

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Engine size/Car insurance?

I'm planning what car I want to buy after I do my test next year. I've seen some nice used Land Rovers, but I'm told the insurance will probably be sky high because of their engine. Is this true? It'll be a 5 door and the engine will probably be 1796. Can anyone explain this to me? The difference in engine size and what that will mean? Thanks""

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Best Place to get a Car Insurance Comparison Free Online?

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My mother receives Social Security checks and insurance (She had cancer, and can't work due to other conditions brought on by the chemotherapy) and because of this, I had medicaid. I turned 18 last month and I'm wondering if I automatically get cut off from her insurance, or if I stay on the plan because I'll be a student in the fall. I know the system for this changed recently, so I have no idea if I still have insurance or not.""

""Auto Financing Insurance, does it exist?

Is there such a thing as auto financing insurance. i know when you apply for a credit card they ask you if you want insurance in case you lose your job or accident or whatever and they would make the payments for you. But do any companies out there exist that do this kind of thing for auto financing. Im going to be buying a car within a week and wanted to know Thanks

Car bump and getting insurance.?

I had a bump around a year and a half ago and there was very minimal damage and no injuries, the woman gave a different name to me than to the insurance and I think maybe she wasn't insured? If the case was closed and went nowhere but the insurance company knew would this be recorded on their system.""

Abt cancelation of car insurance?

i have taken car insurance from admiral .its abt 10 months installments.each month 70 pounds direct debit,its a third party insurance.unfortuntaely after paying 1 month(70) insurance.my car got big accident.i had given my car to scrap. when i called to my admiral insurance company to cancel my insurace.they are not doing it.pls can u tell me any other way to cancel my insurance..can i cancel my direct debit of insurance from bank?is der any problemss if i do direct debit""

How can i get a car by using a cheap car insurance ?

I am in need.

Which state has the most affordable health insurance?

Which state has the most affordable health insurance?

Best Place to get a Car Insurance Comparison Free Online?

What sites are best for car insurance comparison? I am trying to find a site that has the widest range of quotes and policies so I can pick insurance cover that is right for me, the plan I have that's due to expire soon is terrible and I feel really ripped off. It's just proving really hard to find something affordable and with good quality cover. Has anyone tried a car insurance comparison site that offers quotes from more than just the usual four or five insurance providers?

Maternity related services considered inpatient for insurance?

Most individual plans (87%) do not offer maternity coverage. I was fortunate enough to still be covered under an old employer by paying COBRA, and a majority of my expenses were covered. I had twins and had to have a C-Section. So now that I know I'm most likely to have a C-Section again, and who knows, another set of twins! (complete surprise) and am still of child bearing age. I am now under an individual plan, that does not offer maternity coverage. I was reading under the 'Inpatient' services and it listed this: Unlimited coverage is provided for medically necessary physician and surgeon services, semi-private rooms, operating rooms and related facilities, intensive and coronary care units, laboratory, x-rays, radiology services and procedures, medications and biologicals, anesthesia, special duty nursing as prescribed, short-term rehabilitation services, nursing care, meals and special diets So anyone who has experience or knowledge, would something like a C-Section be covered under inpatient? What does maternity coverage only cover normally. That $60*** bill scares me! Also, I keep reading about a new health care bill effective 2014 where individual plans must include maternity as an essential benefit. Anyone have any more details about that? State specific etc?""

Insurance question?

When setting up your insurance online does the company know how many years NCB you have? if not could you lie?

""My monthly car insurance payment was due 1 day before i had an accident. i have been paying on time,?""

been paying on time, but hadnt made this one. I'm I covered?""

How much is Delta Airlines health insurance premium?

For an Economics family project, I have to be a flight attendant, make a monthly budget and help take care of my family. Probably the only thing missing from my project is health insurance. If I get it through my job , how much does the premium cost or is it covered?""

Who are the best and worst car insurance companies?

I'm looking for a new car insurance company and would like to hear other peoples experiences to help me choose. Thanks!

What is car insurance?

Just car insurance definition not more other else. It's for my own mind calculation.

What health insurance can I get?

When I turned 19, I no longer qualified for my healthy families program. So I currently don't have any kind of health insurance. I have some very suspicious moles that I wanted to get checked but was shock at the cost. I believe my family is considered low income. What kinds of health insurance plans are out there that are affordable and will cover my dermatologist visits?""

Health Insurance and Pre-existing Conditions?

What kinds of pre-existing conditions can give you a problem when getting your own health insurance?

Where can i buy rebuild-able cars from insurance companies?

I live in the state of Indiana, is there a place where i can buy rebuild-able cars from insurance companies, or from a action place where they are not so expensive?""

Are insurance rates different for a lifted Toyota Tacoma rather than a normal one?

I know i'm getting a used Toyota Tacoma, under 100K mileage, and I really want a lifted one, but I need to know if insurance rates are different?""

Does anyone know of any good prescription insurance?

We are a low income family who apparently make too much to qualify for any state assistance. I have expensive medicine needed for panic disorder every month and can't afford it. Does anyone know of any prescription plans that are affordable and worth it?

Which auto insurance company to choose?

Geico's quote was WAY lower than anybody else's. Several hundred dollars lower, in fact. When I asked an Allstate agent about the difference, he said it was mainly due to Allstate offering more types of insurance, investments, better customer service, and that Geico's quote was low just to get you in the door and that it would go up once I appeared interested. After a 10 minute monologue of him explaining this, he quickly printed my quote and rushed me out of his office. Does anyone have experience with Geico? All I need is auto and maybe renter's insurance. I don't need them to manage my retirement! Are they as underhanded about raising quotes as I was told?""

How do I challenge my auto insurance company's appraisal of damages to other car in an at-fault(my) acci ?

I read-ended another car at an intersection. Both of us were stopped at a light. When the light turned green, the other car started moving and immediately slammed on brakes. In the meanwhile, I had taken my foot off brake and hit the car (at < 5mph). The other party has filed claim for $1350 for damages and also for unknown amount of bodily injury. There is not even a mark of any collision on my car (as the speed was low). My insurance company has agreed to their claim related to damages and is waiting for the exact amount for the bodily injury claim. This has been quite unfair to me and will definitely bump up my premium like crazy. Is there any way I can challenge my insurance company's appraisal of the damages ? Are there any other alternatives ? What kind of evidence would I need to furnish for the same ? We had called a Cop to report the accident. I wanted him to note that the impact was at < 5mph. However, he refused to do that saying that this would be left to insurance""

Can I throw away my old insurance card?

I got new insurance. do I need to keep the old card for any records?

Looking for insurance to cover me?

lost my license and to get them back you have to have car that is insured,dont have car so the DMV said that i could insure myself.""

Argument with car insurance company any advice?

recently suffered total loss due to fire of my car and claimed on my insurance policy they came and valued the car after the accident and then took 300 quid off for policy excess however it clearly states in their policy that they cover permanently fitted radio/audio equipment to max of 500 euro , fair enough so i submitted my claim to cover the radio which was destroyed with the car as a result of fire , cost of cd/radio was 149.00 in argos but company now say that their definition of permanently fitted radio is one that has been fitted in the factory when car was made but my car is secondhand and had a sony cd/radio fitted when i bought the car . Now they say this is not covered as is not classed as permanently fitted , to me a permanently fitted radio is one that you cannot take out of the car unless you are replacing it , some cd/mp3 players are easily removed for security and can be taken from the car each evening but this is not the case with mine Anyone else out there been taken for a ride by their insurance company , was thinking of legal action as they should have specified factory fitted radio in their advertising instead of permanently fitted Had arguement with them for 30 mins but they kept saying that the radio/audio had to be factory fitted from new""

Where can I get the cheapest auto insurance?

Im a 16 year old male who lives in new orleans. I have a 3.8 GPA, and my car has a 5-star crash rating (2010 Toyota Camry Hybrid). Where can i get affordable insurance?""

""My friend has been driving for twenty years so many as taxi driver, he cant get cheap insurance?""

why can't he get cheap insurance for being an experienced driver. same as for example myself driving for 19 years no convictions or claims,only down fall being a named driver on spouses insurance. i know to get the no claims bonus i have to get insurance in my name. but wow what a fair wack, for being a careful and honest driver all these years.any info would be appreciated.i think it unfair that we should pay the same as a new and young driver with no experience. many thanx for any help""

How much would it cost to insure a 1995-2000 Ford Mustang?

Something with around 80k-100k miles. Everything stock no mods or tuning. Not convertible. Im 18 so i know itll be a decent amount. Im going to have my dad co sign on the car to help lower the insurance. Itll be used for maybe 3 times a week and ill put maybe 5k a year on it. Im on gieco currently and they wont give me an accurate qoute and i know you wont really be able to but if you give me the same number itll be the set amount ill asume. Thanks

Question with car insurance?

Okay so we have two cars. One 1992 buick and a 2006 civic coupe. I usually drive the coup and my name was on the insurance for it, but recently my parents swapped insurance to save money but it involved switching my name to the buick and their name onto the civic. They tell me i can't drive the civic anymore b/c if i get into an accident then it won't be covered since it's under their name and not mine. Is this really true? I thought that as long as the car is insured it's covered?""

If my auto insurance cancel how much grace period is there after the due date?

If my auto insurance cancel how much grace period is there after the due date?

California Speeding ticket and no proof of insurance?

It was dark and raining. I just came off the bay bridge in SF and am positive I was driving below 40 on the bridge and between 40-60 when I got off the bridge. The cop was on 80E past fremont exit. He said I was at 67 in a 50 zone and also did not give me enough time to look for my proof of insurance. He said lets make this easy and quick and cited me for speeding and the no proof of insurance as non-correctable. It this accurate? I don't think his radar reading is accurate. How can I challenge this?

About how much is car insurance in British Columbia?

About how much is car insurance in British Columbia, particularly Vancouver or nearby? Perhaps if you could share how much it costs you or someone in your family with a good driving record. Perhaps give a hint of what car you have, liability limits, etc. In the U.S., you can get online quotes. For Canada, I've never seen anything like it.""

I need cheap car insurance in New York City?

I need cheap (FULL) coverage for a financed vehicle in the NEw York Area...I've tried the popular sites...any leads?

Dropped from car insurance?

I got dropped from my insurance because i could not afford it.. I have money now to pay for the insurance so what do i do now. Can i go to another company or can i try to be reinstated with my previous company. If i try to be reinstate how would i go about doing that. ps car insurance

Best Place to get a Car Insurance Comparison Free Online?

What sites are best for car insurance comparison? I am trying to find a site that has the widest range of quotes and policies so I can pick insurance cover that is right for me, the plan I have that's due to expire soon is terrible and I feel really ripped off. It's just proving really hard to find something affordable and with good quality cover. Has anyone tried a car insurance comparison site that offers quotes from more than just the usual four or five insurance providers?

Which is cheapest car insurance in new york?

i want to buy a car but i know the insurance of the car is very expensive. I will like to know if there is a car insurance that i can afford.

Pregnant And Can't Get On State Health Insurance!! What Should I Do!?

I'm so pissed off!! I have tons of medical bills stacking up and I am on no health insurance! Because I live with my parents and am under age 21 (I'm 20 and will be til May), and I already have one son. Thankfully he's covered. But I have all these bills that are stacking up and won't be able to be paid off because by the time I get on anything it'll be past the 3 month time limit for back pay!! I live in MN and the problem with getting my parents income is my mom and dad both have new jobs, but my dad was laid off his old job so how the hell am I supposed to get his stop work form filled out by a company that no longer exists!?! I can't get on anything unless I have their income!! Even tho' I'm 4 months pregnant!! This is so f***'d up!!""

Finding information about monthly payments?

I am currently looking to move out of my parents house and get an apartment with a friend of mine that is 45 mins away from my hometown. I am a sophmore in college and I would like to have the experience of living on my own for a couple years near my parents before I move thousands of miles away after college for my career plans. Now I am looking into my costs and spendings on living on my own. But the problem is I really don't want to talk to my parents about this until I get it all planned out. But I need to find out how much my car insurance, health insurance, life insurance, car payments (if there is still any), cellphone bill...and other expenses that I need to find out on a monthly basis to get an idea of what it will cost for me to live on my own because my parents pay majority of everything for me and I just been working and saving money for this opportunity to live on my own with a roommate or two or three (maybe). How can I find out this information when the expenses are not in my name but in my parents name? And without my parents finding out that I am looking at all this? Thank you!""

""Someone else got a speeding ticket in my car, does my insurance rates go up?""

My fianc was driving my car when we were coming home from dinner, he was doing about 17 over I believe and got a ticket, however he's a permit driver.. The car is mine and is insured and registered in my name, I gave my license and registration to the cop when he took my fianc permit, the ticket only had his info on it, my plate number and the date my registration expires. No other information of mine is on there. He didn't ask to see my insurance card. So question is, are my rates going to go up because my fianc was driving and caught speeding?""

Do i need to add extra car insurance?

Hello. My father has a BMW and i am 16. When i am 17 i want to share the BMW with my father. My father has insurance on the car already. Its a full cover insurance. When i am 17 do i need to add extra insurance to the car or do i just leave it as it is? Do i need to add my name along with my dads name to the owner of the car?

How can i get cheap car insurance?

is there anyway i could reduce my insurance costs

How can I get 'cheap' car insurance?!?

I'm going to be 17 in May so I've been trying out some qoutes because I really want to drive ASAP. I can't get a qoute for under 3000!!!! I got a qoute for Rover 25 1.4L iL, third party fire and theft, main driver, and with my mum on it aswell, for 3260. It's ridiculous! Where shall I go to try and get a good cheap? It's so unfair! I just want to be able to drive hahaha!""

Insurance on a Hummer H1?

how much would that cost?

Insurance Rate for a ZX6R !?

anyone know how much insurance would roughly be for a 17 year old 2007 ZX6R Motorcycle Course Completed In Ontario Thanks!!!

""So i have a full coverage on my car insurance, and now this situation, need advice?

The insurance estimator guy told me that i can only take my car to a specific place to be repaired OTHERWISE he is going to tell me that the car being ruined was my fault (it ...show more

What is the best teen driver insurance in California?

Taking driving test tomorrow and need insurance coverage for just me, 18 years old.""

Best health insurance for young single people?

I'm looking for informaiton about health insurance for a single, young man...he is 27. Are there any affordable policies out there that may provide minimal coverage (annual well visit, a couple sick visits, one prescription, some emergency?)""

Insurance on a 2005 premium mustang v6?

hello, my daughter is 17 years old and i am thinking about getting her a 2005 premium mustang v6. she is on the honor roll, hasn't had any problems or accidents as far as driving goes, and really doesn't drive much. we live in a rural area. how much would insurance cost? our insurance company offers some plan where if you're getting good grades, you get a discount. how much would it all be? i have her driving a 2012 volkswagen jetta now and it's very pricey.""

How much will my insurance go uop?

i was in an accident not to long ago. My car was totaled and my insuranced paid it off ($13,000) it wasnt my fault but im 20 and ive been driving for 3 years but recently got my license last year. i was already paying 250 a month, how much more will i have to pay?? my car was an 05 altima. now its a case of he ran a red light, versus she ran a red light""

Question about speeding ticket/insurance?

I had a speeding ticket for going 55 in a 45 mph, would that make my insurance rates go up?""

The cheapest insurance band car my 17 year old son can buy?

My son is going to have driving lessons soon and I'd like to know the type of car to buy which will be the cheapest on insurance for him. Also will it be better for me to buy it and him be the named driver or the other way aound? Thanks

How much is teen auto insurance?

i normally have bs and as and rarely cs for school. About how much would auto insurance be?

What is the cheapest auto insurance company?

looking for a very affordable auto insurance quote/payment per month. Anyone knows? please and thank you.

""Financed car damaged,no insurance.what to do?!?

long story short... my car cost 7000 to fix and i dont have any insurance. i want to have the finance company to get the car.what happens once they get it? will i have to pay off the loan or just pay for the damages done?

How much does car insurance cost for a 17 year old?

I can get my license anytime now. North Carolina doesn't offer good student discount. I'm asian, will be driving my dad's 2000 Ford Windstar with 70,000 miles. My dad says that adding me on to his allstate account would cost 1100 every six months. That sounds a little exaggerated. Is there anywhere else where I can find cheaper insurance?""

What's the best car insurance?

Got a good quote from 21st century insurance. I'm thinking of switching from my Geico. I'd save a little bit but if anyone thinks Geico is a much better company then I'd probably stay. Any advice out there? Should I keep looking? I live in Florida. Thanks!

How can I find affordable health insurance for small business owners?

How can I find affordable health insurance for small business owners?

Current or prospective vehicle insurance?

i was preapproved for financing a used vehicle; they want me to bring in proof of insurance when i close loan. does this mean my current insurance on the vehicle i wont be using anymore or for the new one that i dont own yet

How can life insurance be profitable for insurance companies?

How can personal life insurance actually make a profit for an insurer, when it is universal that any insured person will eventually die? Is it because insurance companies stop offering life insurance cover as soon as the person reaches a certain age, so the vast majority of deaths are not insurable?""

Looking for affordable health insurance for the sefl employed?

i cannot find any affordable insurance and i need assistance

Best Place to get a Car Insurance Comparison Free Online?

What sites are best for car insurance comparison? I am trying to find a site that has the widest range of quotes and policies so I can pick insurance cover that is right for me, the plan I have that's due to expire soon is terrible and I feel really ripped off. It's just proving really hard to find something affordable and with good quality cover. Has anyone tried a car insurance comparison site that offers quotes from more than just the usual four or five insurance providers?

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/does-anyone-know-any-cheap-car-insurance-so-i-can-put-sigrun-sharpe"