Charleston church shootings

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 12:13 pm

And 100% crazy.

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 12:48 pm

This just in: heritage-loving group to hold public rally in defense of SC's Confederate flag.

RunningMn9 · Post by **RunningMn9** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 12:54 pm

Holman wrote:This just in: heritage-loving group to hold public rally in defense of SC's Confederate flag.

Not about hate at all.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 12:58 pm

Although that bit of news did bring to my attention that the leader of that particular faction of the KKK refers to himself as "the Grand Titan". You can't make stuff like that up, man.

Edit: Jeebus, the hierarchy of the Klan reads like the rules sheet for a Dungeons and Dragon LARP group.

Higher levels

In both there were four levels or "departments" of organization, above the basic level:

Empire - constituting the whole area of the Klans activities. This was led by the Imperial Wizard and his staff of ten Genii, as well as an Imperial Exchequer (treasurer) and Imperial Scribe, whose duty was to keep lists of the subordinate officers. The Genii, Imperial Exchequer and Scribe were appointed by the Imperial Wizard.
Realms - while the role of Realms was laid out in the first prescript they were only identified as states in the second. Realms were ruled by a Grand Dragon assisted by eight Hydras, as well as a Grand Exchequer and Grand Scribe, whose duties were identical to the above officers on the imperial level. All officers were appointed by the Grand Dragon.
Dominions - identified in the second prescript as "coterminous with such counties as the Grand Dragons of the several Realms shall assign" and "not to exceed three in number for each Congressional district". The Dominion was headed by a Great Titan assisted by six Furies, a Great Exchequer and a Great Scribe, appointed by the Great Titan.
Provinces - the second prescript identified the Provinces as equivalent to a county. It was supervised by a Grand Giant, assisted by four Goblins, a Grand Exchequer and a Grand Scribe, appointed by the Grand Giant.

In the first prescript each officer is given the power to appoint Deputies to organize Realms, Dominions, Provinces and Dens until the latter can elect their own officers. The Grand Wizard was to be elected by a majority of Grand Dragons, and each lower level was elected by a majority of the next lower level of officers (Dragons elected by Titans, Titans by Giants etc.), as soon as three units had been formed at each level (three Dominions within a Realm for Grand Dragon, three Provinces within a Dominion for Grand Titan etc.). In the second prescript each officer appoints the lower officer with the approval of his superior.

No wonder every meeting opens with their lead mage yelling "LIGHTNING BOLT, LIGHTNING BOLT!"

edit 2: fixed embarrassing typo that in hindsight, actually seemed apropos.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 1:02 pm

hepcat wrote:Although that bit of news did bring to my attention that the leader of that particular faction of the KKK refers to himself as "the Grand Titan". You can't make stuff like that up, man.

It's always seemed so bizarre that you would found a terror organization and give yourself the title "Grand Wizard." And now Grand Titan - I guess that's an improvement, of sorts, in that a Titan seems more tough and manly than a wizard.

Though it looks like the wizard is still in charge.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 1:04 pm

At least they are not based in SC. At this point I will take what I can get.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 1:04 pm

El Guapo wrote:
hepcat wrote:Although that bit of news did bring to my attention that the leader of that particular faction of the KKK refers to himself as "the Grand Titan". You can't make stuff like that up, man.
It's always seemed so bizarre that you would found a terror organization and give yourself the title "Grand Wizard." And now Grand Titan - I guess that's an improvement, of sorts, in that a Titan seems more tough and manly than a wizard.

And he's assisted by six Furries!

msteelers · Post by **msteelers** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 1:12 pm

Blackhawk wrote:That means that I'm Scottish. One of the many lines of my ancestry were Scottish highland chieftains that left Scotland for northern England around 1000 years ago.

My grandmother told me once that we were related to the good guy turned bad guy turned good guy again from Braveheart (Robert the Bruce?).

Kneel before your king!

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 1:12 pm

hepcat wrote:I'm 1/375th Malaysian.

I do like the odd number in there. That's particularly difficult to come by. Nice work.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 1:15 pm

hepcat wrote:
No wonder every meeting opens with their lead mage yelling "LIGHTENING BOLT, LIGHTENING BOLT!"

Is this where they throw bleach around?

edit: I meant this in good humour, plus it's hard to tell with you, you might have done it on purpose for some unknowable reason!

RunningMn9 · Post by **RunningMn9** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 1:23 pm

msteelers wrote:My grandmother told me once that we were related to the good guy turned bad guy turned good guy again from Braveheart (Robert the Bruce?).

Kneel before your king!

I think everyone in Scotland is related to the Bruces. Our family lore connects to a younger sibling though, not the guy from the movie.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 1:26 pm

I love how family lore never seems to connect anyone to a janitor.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 1:27 pm

msteelers wrote:
Blackhawk wrote:That means that I'm Scottish. One of the many lines of my ancestry were Scottish highland chieftains that left Scotland for northern England around 1000 years ago.
My grandmother told me once that we were related to the good guy turned bad guy turned good guy again from Braveheart (Robert the Bruce?).

Kneel before your king!

According to my mom, I'm on the other side with King Edward and a lot of other English people you don't boast about but then I imagine after this many generations, who isn't?

https://thewildpeak.wordpress.com/2012/ ... -you-have/

In a very interesting and informative series of popular articles, based partly on Kenneth Wachter’s analysis, Brain Pears, a genealogist and physicist, argued that in general ‘the number of ancestors in any generation will be little different from that obtained by our simple doubling scheme’, (mitigated only slightly by a relatively modest level of cousin marriage) back to a point, around 1300 in his analysis, at which you are descended from almost everyone alive in the country at that time. He argued that further back from there the number of your ancestors would then have followed the (declining) total population (to be strict the total population per generation). Given the evidence for the limited degree of cousin marriage in Britain or England over the course of the last few hundred years, and even allowing for the fact that it no doubt was more prevalent further back in history, this would seem a reasonable conclusion.

Though, I must admit my mom's genealogy room is really cool. She collects old new clipping and photographs and birth certificates and really does a lot of personal due diligence, traveling the country and checking archives and such. She's made several albums now that show a really cool heritage chart from all both sides of family going back to the Civil war (where we predominantly fought for Georgia and Virginia) and beyond.

Which makes you wonder how things will be moving forward. My mom goes back and finds one picture of a relative important enough to be photographed in the last 1800s in a newspaper, whereas my nieces and nephews take dozens of pictures every day and even photograph their lunch for documentation.

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 1:28 pm

There have never been all that many Scots in the first place, so you don't have to go back too far before they're all related.

Reminds me of the factoid that Americans claiming Irish heritage significantly outnumber the current population of Ireland.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 1:37 pm

El Guapo wrote:I love how family lore never seems to connect anyone to a janitor.

That and people undergoing past life regression (when they were popular years ago) and discovering they were actually a pig farmer.

If all these genealogical stories handed down by families is to be believed, Europe was comprised almost entirely of nobility...and 4 peasants.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 1:40 pm

Holman wrote:Reminds me of the factoid that Americans claiming Irish heritage significantly outnumber the current population of Ireland.

There are now more US Spanish speakers than Spaniard Spanish speakers.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 1:40 pm

hepcat wrote:
El Guapo wrote:I love how family lore never seems to connect anyone to a janitor.
That and people undergoing past life regression (when they were popular years ago) and discovering they were actually a pig farmer.

If all these genealogical stories handed down by families is to be believed, Europe was comprised almost entirely of nobility...and 4 peasants.

My favorite on the regression stuff is that a friend of my brother's went off to college and did a past life regression with his new college buddies. Lo and behold, they discovered that this group of friends just happened to have been Robin Hood and the Merry Men in a past life! What are the odds?

Oh, and in the process they discovered that Robin Hood was actually a woman! Twist!

RunningMn9 · Post by **RunningMn9** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 1:40 pm

El Guapo wrote:I love how family lore never seems to connect anyone to a janitor.

Well, that's not really memorable, and I assume that it's understood that if you are only connected to ONE person of note, the rest are janitors (or equivalents).

But there probably won't be any "lore" about being related to Steve the Janitor, because he was an unremarkable human.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 1:41 pm

msteelers wrote:
Blackhawk wrote:That means that I'm Scottish. One of the many lines of my ancestry were Scottish highland chieftains that left Scotland for northern England around 1000 years ago.
My grandmother told me once that we were related to the good guy turned bad guy turned good guy again from Braveheart (Robert the Bruce?).

Kneel before your king!

Hah! After we left Scotland, that very line became English nobility. I've got a fair number of Dukes and Earls back there, including Sir Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, 6th Earl of Salisbury, known as Neville the Kingmaker, and the inspiration for Tywin Lannister. Kneel before you? We make kings our bitches!

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 1:44 pm

Speaking of which, my great, great, great, great grandfather was some guy.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 1:46 pm

RunningMn9 wrote:
El Guapo wrote:I love how family lore never seems to connect anyone to a janitor.
Well, that's not really memorable, and I assume that it's understood that if you are only connected to ONE person of note, the rest are janitors (or equivalents).

But there probably won't be any "lore" about being related to Steve the Janitor, because he was an unremarkable human.

Oh I know that no one's going to go on about their glorious ancestor Steve the Janitor (even janitor work was probably *way* harder back in the day), it just seems like there's an unrealistically high percentage of hits for Duke and King-level type ancestors.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 1:47 pm

hepcat wrote:Speaking of which, my great, great, great, great grandfather was some guy.

I heard he was 1/5.859375th Malaysian.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 1:48 pm

I know I've got some Swiss blood in me on my mother's side. But not enough to get in on some of that Swiss Casino money out west.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 1:50 pm

My great-grandfather on my mother's side left Germany (for America) in 1910. I have long applauded his fantastic timing.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 1:50 pm

hepcat wrote:
El Guapo wrote:I love how family lore never seems to connect anyone to a janitor.
That and people undergoing past life regression (when they were popular years ago) and discovering they were actually a pig farmer.

If all these genealogical stories handed down by families is to be believed, Europe was comprised almost entirely of nobility...and 4 peasants.

Mine's all documented, but it means absolutely nothing. An Earl may have six kids, and each of those kids had several. After a thousand years? Half of the country likely has that Earl as an ancestor. That number I quoted - .0000000000000088817% Scottish - is the actual figure. I have a million ancestors, and far more irrelevant farmers than kingmakers.

The reason you see so many connections to nobility and famous figures is that the genealogy is easier. Nobody wrote down the descendants of most peasants, so those branches just can't be researched.

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 1:51 pm

I am descended from the official Piss Boy of House Habsburg.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 1:52 pm

And you have the bucket to prove it.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 1:53 pm

Isgrimnur wrote:
Holman wrote:Reminds me of the factoid that Americans claiming Irish heritage significantly outnumber the current population of Ireland.
There are now more US Spanish speakers than Spaniard Spanish speakers.

Bah, Brazil has 10x more Portuguese speakers than Portugal.

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 1:58 pm

She considers herself to be part Cherokee, with 1/32 or 1/64 blood (math, hard!)? If those kinds of fractions are common for the standard used, then no wonder everyone is claiming it..

She didn't consider it, her school system did. She was eligible for financial aid because she could prove direct lineage. But yes, there are a bunch of different scholarships and grants and things that have different minimum blood levels that she would not have been eligible for.

I don't think she really ever even thinks about it unless it specifically comes up in conversation. She's adopted so she doesn't really deal with that side of her family much anymore.

I mean as much as people claim to be part Cherokee, there are actually a lot of people that actually ARE part Cherokee. Especially ones who live in and around Cherokee.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 1:59 pm

Then perhaps they should change the name of the language.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 2:00 pm

LawBeefaroni wrote:Bah, Brazil has 10x more Portuguese speakers than Portugal.

So close to the "Brazilian is not a number" joke but you just didn't quite lob it soft enough.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 2:00 pm

If those claiming to be Cherokee are to be believed, the Trail of Tears was approximately 2,680 miles wide and 1,582 miles long.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 2:02 pm

Also: Ancestors.

I have two parents. 1 generation.
4 grandparents. 2 generations.
8 great-grandparents. 3 generations.

Now, jump back that 1000 years.

1,099,511,627,776 people from 1000 years ago who have passed their genes on to me, which is roughly ten times the total number of people who have ever lived on earth (hello, inbreeding!) I figure at this point that there isn't a country in the western hemisphere I don't have an ancestor from (and there is probably blood from every continent in there, too.) There isn't a job, from king to janitor, that my ancestors didn't do. I am Scottish. And English. And German. And probably black, Cherokee, and everything else in between.

Realizing that makes race hatred a little absurd, I think.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 2:04 pm

Isgrimnur wrote:Then perhaps they should change the name of the language.

Like with American?

msteelers · Post by **msteelers** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 2:39 pm

We need to get this thread back on topic.

LordMortis wrote:both sides of family going back to the Civil war (where we predominantly fought for Georgia and Virginia) and beyond.

Vote for LordMortis, he's the rebel.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 2:51 pm

msteelers wrote:We need to get this thread back on topic.

LordMortis wrote:both sides of family going back to the Civil war (where we predominantly fought for Georgia and Virginia) and beyond.
Vote for LordMortis, he's the rebel.

And way too much of my living family line still believing that junk is true. I know it so do you, dear god.

Scuzz · Post by **Scuzz** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 2:51 pm

I had a grandmother who claimed we were (1) related to the Kennedy's somehow (I did want more info on that) and that (2) we were related to Richard the Lionhearted as the family name was Angevine, which was his or something.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 2:59 pm

Scuzz wrote:(2) we were related to Richard the Lionhearted as the family name was Angevine, which was his or something.

Angevin

The Angevins ("from Anjou") were an English royal house in the 12th and early 13th centuries;

Unless only kings were from there, that's a rather specious connection.

Scuzz · Post by **Scuzz** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 3:12 pm

Didn't say I bought in to it.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 3:44 pm

LordMortis wrote:
hepcat wrote:Speaking of which, my great, great, great, great grandfather was some guy.
I heard he was 1/5.859375th Malaysian.

I hear you've got a little Malaysian in you. Would you like one?