http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4581871.stm

Britain, at it again. If you read Kallini Bros, you'll remember some of the Britons' previous hijinks, though at Kallini they mostly point-and-laugh on gun control issues.

Now, I worked selling knives a couple years ago, and I can tell you: those same kives they're tryng to ban are the ones we pushed. Much as they have "Top Chefs" saying that those knives are useless, they're the ones that impressed people enough that we'd get called back to sell more.

Update: I was right to think of Kallini for this one. They scooped me. By a couple days.
Also, Chris is a better writer than I am.

It's funny how the way that socialists view capitalism is remarkably similar to the way socialist societies always seem to turn out in the real world.

Now go, and till the fields that your brethren may partake in your noble labor, comrade!

Oh, and happy Memorial Day, folks.

Oh my God, this is the greatest website ever!

Well, today I went on a camping trip, which ended up being more of a hiking trip because we were in an area we had never been before and couldn't really find a decent place to set up a tent, plus we were expecting rain (it did rain, but not as bad or as long as we anticipated). Anyway, we were around central Ohio, east of Columbus. I swear I have never seen so many Bush/Cheney stickers in my life, which was really weird being from Cuyahoga county. I didn't even know anyone ever bothered to print that many Bush/Cheney stickers. The only Kerry/Edwards I saw all day was when we passed through Akron on our way home, and I haven't seen a Bush/Cheney sticker since. Anyway it struck me as interesting. Oh, and we stopped to eat at this family restaurant on the way there that had signs up by the main counter that read "Born Free... Taxed to Death" and "I fight poverty... I work". That was kinda neat.

Oh, and I drew up a new Angry Stick-Figure Man that I meant to post before I left but, uh... I didn't. Sorry about that. Anyway, sorry I couldn't think of any jokes, but I did put in a bunch of violence. That counts as a joke.

Okay, this exciting post was up over at GotFuturama.com

Over the last week, several sources from within the animation business have indicated to us that there is renewed talk at FOX about bringing fresh Futurama content directly to DVD. We corroborated this with other sources close to the show before publishing the information.

The talk is of course still in a preliminary stage. Options reported to us include one or more Futurama movies in case of a go-ahead.

Then this post brings up an even more exciting post by Billy West (voice of Fry) on his message board

Well, I spoke to David X. Cohen because we did promos for a new Futurama compilation and he said that they did have talks with the top guys at FOX and they were extremely impressed with the sales of the Futurama DVDs. The idea was to make a Futurama movie right to DVD and then a 2nd and a 3rd. That's what's being discussed. Fox is trying to figure out a budget for the whole project, and it sounded like David X. was very jazzed! I would love more than anything to do that show again. I thought it was best experience on every level... creatively, voice-wise, writing, animation and the laughs. The laughs. Writers and performers that respected each other. No derelict genius looking down the barrel of his own complacency wrecking everything in his wake. Wouldn't it be nice? A great day to be us. What's better than that?

Eeeeeeeep! I'm so excited!

Because there's a special place in my heart for female rockers, here's some free, legal MP3s (they're from their record label's website) by The Bangs, who are awesome.

Burnout
Into You
I Want More

To download them right-click on the link and 'save target as'.

I also linked to some free, legal Vandals MP3s a while back, if anyone is interested in them (and you should be).

Not that MA's post was about hypocrisy and gamesmanship, not actually against religion.
(At least, that's how I read it.)

I find the notion that religion can be separated from politics to be ludicrous. Saying that a religion (or even lack thereof) cannot or should not influence the political process, because that would somehow equate to a state religion is exactly the same as saying that if the press influences politics, it has become a state agency.
Religion has traditionally defined what is or is not moral. Every religion that I can think of provides a lens through which to view the world, and divide it into right, wrong, and insignificant. It is not the only such lens, and I do not claim that it is the best such lens, but I've never heard of absolute moral relativism producing good results.
Politics is morality writ large. Freedom of speech. Right to assemple. Freedom of religion. Right to Bear Arms. Absolute right to Property. Due Process of Law. The Rule of Law. Democracy. Charity. Exploration. Advancement. Abstinance. The list goes on and on (I know because I deleted the rest of it, because it was repetitive and boring). All of these are things that our government has at one time supported.
All of them are fundamentally value based. If you strip away their justifications and excuses, at the core, the only reason for these is that they are in some way "the right thing.
Is it a bad thing to have a codified system of morals? No. In fact, I find that well defined structures are less subject to abuse. Is there something wrong with our representatives having a strong system of values (leaving all discussion of what values aside)? No. In fact, lack of any discernable value set was my chief complaint with the Kerry/Edwards dynamic duo. The only element that I can see remaining to argue over is WHICH set of values a politician subscribes to. If the arguement is that religion is somehow fantasy, and, because its fundamental truth is subject to debate, the values it espouses are inherantly flawed, I would ask why socialism is a more acceptable disease.
If the arguement is that worn out writings from hundreds of years ago can have no modern relevence, I would inquire as to the current age of the first ten ammendments.
In short, I cannot see anything inherently superior in a secular value set. While there are many specifics where the one beats the other hands down, (I prefer Federalists to Thuggees) these are all based on the specific values that those "ists" hold.
And so, in the end, Religions are simply shorthands for values held by adherents to those faiths. Trying to remove those specific values is simultaniously ludicrous, misguided, arbitrary, impossible and just plain dumb.

You know, I really have no problem with church figures using their authority for highly partisan political purposes. Actually, I find it distasteful as hell and insulting, but I think that is between the church leaders and their parishioners, or between the church leaders and God. It's not my problem should they choose to do so, but I really don't want to hear about the collaboration of Christian conservatives and the Republican Party when Democrats continue to use churches as political rallies. Hell, the Dems ran a candidate with a religious title (the Reverand, Al Sharpton) in their last presidential primaries! This notion of some rampant religious agenda driving the right is total crap! I remember (I think it was) Lee from Right-Thinking making a big deal about a pastor using his authority in the church to push a partisan pro-Bush agenda, and don't get me wrong, I'm glad that people like Lee point out this kind of bullshit when it goes on on the right, but this kind of thing is standard fare for the left. If Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton uses their pulpit for political puposes we usually don't think a thing of it, it's par for the course. When Stephanie Tubbs Jones takes the stand to preach politics in a black church it's a little bit more shocking, but it doesn't inspire anyone to outrage. This is not an especially tasteful thing to do, whether the left or the right does it, but there's really nothing more to it than that. If you don't like it, tough, this is America. I think it's disgusting, but sometimes that's what free political speech and freedom of religion involves. It just amazes me that we have so many blatant examples of this occuring on the left, and they get a pass on it every time. Actually, come to think of it, it doesn't amaze me at all. It just pisses me off.

Here's a spoiler: it doesn't suck. It's not precisely a great movie, but it's not something you need to be embarrassed about seeing.
From here on though, there may be actual, though mild, spoilers.
So george Lucas tried really hard to make the sith into Republicans, and, in all fairness, he did a fairly good job of it. If Bush hadn't been a big government guy for the past 3ish years, it would have been ludicris, but as it is, it almost worked for most of the movie. There's a part where Palpatine is hammering on safety and security that sounds like it could be from a republican campaign speech.
Later, Anakin and Obi-wan have this exchange before they fight.
A: "Don't lecture me, Obi-wan. I see through the lies of the Jedi. I do not fear the dark side as you do. I have brought peace, freedom, justice and security to my new empire."
O: "Your new empire?"
A: "Don't make me kill you."
O: "Anakin, my alegiance is to the republic, to democracy."
A: "If you're not with me, then you're my enemy."
O: "Only a sith deals in absolutes. I will do what I must."
A: "You will try."
Just looking at it though, which side sounds like which? "I see through the lies of the Jedi?" "I will do what I must?" Just isolating these little bits out leaves me with a very different expression than I was supposed to get as to who parallels who.
Anyway, good(ish) movie, bad preaching. That's my two bits.

Found through Kole's links:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/col/rchesnoff/

It's a nice summary of where palestine and Israel stand at the moment. I haven't bothered to fact check it, and it IS from the NY Times, but it seems reasonable.
Am I way off base, or does Israel come out of every non-biased or factual report smelling like a rose? Am I even a little off base? Just a smidgen maybe?
What's actually confusing to me is Jews. Specifically, Zionist Jews. Even More Specifically, Zionist Jews who are rabidly Democrat. How can you so strongly support a party that is raping something you cherish, for political gains which are dubious at best?
It's not that they're uniquely confused in this way, just about everyone makes bad choices at some point in their lives. They just leap to mind in a discussion involving Israel.

*edited to correct link

So I was going to post a picture of where I blog.
Then I realized that that computer died when I moved out of the dorm where I have done all previous blogging. Currently, it is somewhere between here and Texas, (yay, warranty!), so I can't take a picture of it. No problem, I have a picture of it somewhere; the environment is lost, but at least I can show off my sexy shuttle at all, right? No. Tripod, whose sole job in life (as far as I'm concerned) is to host small files for display to the world at large, has apparantly eaten, no, devoured that picture. No problem I can upload it from my laptop (which actually has "a battery life of one half of ten minutes") right? No, it isn't there. I was never inspired to move it.
Now, I could take the relevent hard drive and go plug it in somewhere, and get the file that way; or I could take a new picture, but:
a) The way things have gone so far, I'd crash the theoretical other computer/discover my camera to be broken.
b) Too lazy.
So no picture for you.
I'm living in Cleveland over the summer, so I can work in the FES center. I had thought that this would involve work on campus, but no. It's going to mostly have to be at Metrohealth, which is far far away. Furtunately, I have a coworker with a car. I get to assemble a rig to do isometric joint moment measurement. Of implanted upper-limb paralysis patients. The grad student involved wants to demonstrate independant muscle control. In related news, how eerie would that be? Picture: you're paralysed from the shoulder down, and you're arm's just sort of waving around, doing it's own thing. It's awsome though, next to us, using the same lab space, they're getting paralyzed people standing again, even moving around with walkers. In a couple years, I'll be cool like that too. (cool like fixing people, not cool like paralyzed)
In other, tangentially relevent news, taxes!
I paid mine this year (not for the first time). I paid the feds nothing (or rather, it was all refunded), Ohio a pittance, and the City of Cleveland araound $85. IU don't even know what the city does with it. Money doesn't seem to go to schools, and certainly doesn't go to road maintenence. There are some functions which only the government should be responsible for, but it's not like Cleveland is delivering mail, or maintaining a large standing army. Stupid Cleveland. Fedarally though, I made more and paid less. I cant really support deficit spending, but it's hard to be mad at the guy who lowered my taxes.
A brief backstory before my next taxing story. Independence Air is a newish airline hubbed out of Dulles. They have this deal for college students where for $250 you get free* flights anywhere they fly west of the mississippi on saturdays, tuesdays and wednsedays. This is a good deal. (told you the backstory was brief) The asterisk next to free denotes that you are responsible for paying taxes on your flight. Taxes are just over $20 EACH WAY. That's absurd. For a nominally free round trip flight, I hand Uncle Sam $40. That is simply ridiculous.
I agree we need Airport security. At Cleveland, it could be two guys. Their names could be Fred and Steve. Maybe Earl could be the third guy, who works part time, on high volume days. They could patrol the terminals and make sure no one gets drunk and rowdy.
Under my new FSe (Earls name is lowercase, because he only works part time) security plan, pilots would be armed, and every third ablebodied airplane passenger would also be offered a bowie knife on loan. I think this would be a sufficient deterrent to prevent befuddled middle easterners from hijacking learjets (not me) and flying them into the CSU Tower.
Perhaps those particular hijackers would not really need to be deterred. However the thing I heard right after 9-11 (is that like an underachieving 7-11?) was that once the hijackers were on board, they knew no one else would have weapons. And honestly? There are beter weapons already on board any comercial aircraft than the deadly, yet suprisingly wieldy common household nail scissors. You lift security, and I GUARANTEE you (100% satisfaction or 120% of your money back) that no flight out of Texas will ever be hijacked ever. And that's two evers with two different emphases, so you know it's true.
So I guess I did end up with some political relevence. To sum up:
No pic for you! Hehe eeelectricity! Man, I hate taxes. Airport 'security' is a joke.
Additionally, I miss my girlfriend. Because I am sappy. She is only a half hour away or so, but neither of us drives. Or rather, neither has a correct combination of lisence and car. Some people maintain that the transistor is the greatest invention of the 20th century. They are correct. But cars were invented in the 19th century anyway, so they're not even really in the running.
Anyway, in may laziness, I never found a way to get comments mailed to me. I'm not saying don't leave them, because I like it when people say nice things about me , and disagreeing just FUELS MY FIRE, BABY! Not really, but it's a fun phrase and I so rarely get to use it. However, my point was, if you have an especial bee in your bonnet, I can be reached at this same exact screenname through yahoo, AIM, even case's email system. This is not likely to change. I don't really think I said anything too controversial, so fyi, I guess.
Anyway. It is late, and that's when I start rambling instead of making sense.
Vaya con dios, mi amigos!

Maddox has a hilarious rant up about Diaz's new show, Trippin'.

The theme song states "YOU GOT THE POWER TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE... YOU GOT THE POWER TO MAKE A CHANGE." Wow, thank you MTV, for making me feel empowered and independent, like only a multinational media conglomerate can.

Go read the whole thing.

Here's the spot where I do my blogging. Of course, this is from my set of photos that got inverted by CVS, which I mentioned before, so try to imagine everything on the opposite side that it is in that picture.

Anybody else have a picture of their blog spot?

UPDATE: Harley and Sipidation have pictures up of their "blog spots" up, so go check them out. Interestingly, it looks like Harley and I wear the same type of boots, plus the chair at his computer desk looks just like the chair I used to have at my computer desk until my brother sat on it in his boxer shorts . I don't use that chair no more.

UPDATE #2: Chris Kallini has a picture up of his desk. Reading Alchemy for Dummies and listening to Strong Bad Sings... does life get any better than that?

I was gonna try to do a comic in MS Paint with a bunch of screen grabs, but it is just insanely tedious to use that program. I think it might actually be easier for me to draw the comic I had in mind, but it won't be a stick figure drawing so it's not something I can just whip up.

Sorry, I'm going to have to whip up another serious, somewhat intelligent post sometime soon, but my mind has seriously been elsewhere the last couple of weeks. I will try to keep up the blogging pace a little bit better, but feel free to post any comments under any posts, because I do check to see if I got new comments regularly, and you commenters are what makes blogging worth it. Also, if you look at the right hand column of the blog, there are links where you can contact Fectin or I by e-mail, so feel free to write us with any suggestions, interesting topics we should be blogging on, or whatever the hell you want. Any readers with your own blog that isn't already on the blogroll, e-mail me or post a comment if you want it on there. Anytime I hear from you guys I'm happy. If there's anything you think we could try to do better let us know. I mean it. Or e-mail me if you want my AIM screen name or something.

by The Vandals

<this post about Cameron Diaz made me think of this song>

There she stood, she was a vision
A picture of perfection, so I made the big decision
I'm going to talk to her
I have to show to her
It could be magic
And then I got the nerve up
So I went over there, she was a goddess
I had to show her that I could be her Adonis
At first sight I knew she was my destiny
The first time the feeling has come over me
Intimidation, feared rejection
I need to make a love connection
Then the unexpected had occurred, and then it happened
And she spoke, and it all just went to hell
Her personality quickly broke the spell
So disillusioned that I came to the conclusion
She was garbage wrapped in loveliness,
Leaving me so unimpressed
If she don't shut up
I'm gonna throw up
All over her shoes
How could it be? That such a goddess
Would ever talk to me, and make me nauseous
All the things she said just echoed in my head
I thought she was a vision, but it all was just misread
Every word was terrible,
And made it more unbearable,
And made me have to effing leave the room
And it's all because she spoke
Tortured by her words
Such a pretty shithead that I wished I never heard
Perfect on the outside, but fucked up on the in
How can god be so cruel? It's got to be a sin
I had to plug my ears, until she disappears, so I can cry - Waahh!
And it's all because she spoke, it all just went to hell
Her personality quickly broke the spell
So disillusioned that I came to the conclusion
She was garbage wrapped in loveliness, leaving me so unimpressed
I was destined to learn my lesson, and I learned it well
Never think she's perfect till you talk to her first
Never fall in love till you go through her purse
Never think she's perfect till you talk to her first
And I should know

I sure-ass can!

For anyone new:
stick comic #1
stick comic #2
stick comic #3

I just loaded up AfD, and the stat bar at the bottom just hit 10,000. Nice work, folks.

If I can think up anything genuinely funny I will post another cartoon later tonight, but I'm trying to ration my favorite funny ideas that I already have planned for future cartoons, so I don't shoot my wad all during the next few weeks or so and run out.

Post anything you want on whatever topic you want in the comments to this post. Or any of the other posts. I don't know, what do I care? I already died from explosion poisoning anyway.

Okay, so I wake up at about 4am, and now I can't go back to sleep. So, anyway, what's going through my head right now is this bullshit meme that's been floating around leftist (and some secular rightists, you all know who I mean) circles that there is some sort of all out war going on against gays right now. Okay, Bush has done a lot of big talk on this gay marriage amendment business, but can somebody point to anything that he's actually gotten passed that has in anyway hurt gay rights? Bush can't even get an up or down vote on his judicial nominees in the Senate, does anybody really think he ever expected to get the support to pass a Constitutional amendment during his first term, before the Republican success in '04? If so, do you have any idea how difficult it is to pass any Constitutional amendment? This issue was nothing more than sleazy pandering on the part of Republicans to shore up support among the religious right. Maybe it was distasteful, but if anything we are closer to having gay marriage legalized now than at any point in this nation's past. We already have states like Massachusetts and Vermont who are legally recognizing gay unions, and granted both are predominantly Democrat states, but can anybody point out any instance in the 50+ years that Democrats dominated the federal government where gay unions have seen similar success? Hell, even Canada didn't legalize gay marriage until after G-Dub became president. There have been more successes in the pursuit of gay marriage in a single decade of Republican dominance than in half a century of near omnipotency of Democrats. The only drawback for gay marriage I can think of is the gay marriage initiatives on the ballots of several states during the '04 elections, which was passed by every state that voted on it, of which every single swing state that voted for it went to Kerry, with the exception of my home state of Ohio, for which the gay marriage initiative passed by a more substantial margin than Bush's victory over Kerry here. Of course, you can't blame any of these votes on federal level Republicans, like the Bush administration. These were all taken directly to the people to decide, and while I didn't agree with them the majority of the people voted for them. If you are a self-proclaimed "Democrat", that popular decision should be held as sacrosanct by you (yeah, I know, "*snort*giggle*snort*"). And of course, while Bush has been all talk no substance on gay marriage, it was Bill Clinton (the last guy who should be challenging gays on the "sanctity of marriage") who signed the Defense of Marriage Act (and let's not forget Clinton's pathetic condescension towards gay Republican Art Finklestein, who Clinton referred to as a "self-loathing gay," apparently for not towing the Dem party line).

By contrast, I think that gays have in fact advanced a great deal during this administration. I think there is a desire by many people who find Bush personally distasteful to see in him everything that they hate about the far-right, but it's all projection and no substance. Now, that isn't to say that there isn't plenty of room to criticize Bush on (for example I do think there's room to criticize aspects of the PATRIOT ACT, the grounds for any war need to be held to scrutiny, and as Lee puts it, Bush "spends like a drunken Kennedy", among other faults), but this notion that Bush is some far-right, militant evangelist is just laughably ridiculous. For example, I'm too lazy to dig up the post, but it was pointed out by Right Side of the Rainbow (my favorite gay blog, and easily one of the best blogs out there, period) that if Bush gets his Social Security reforms passed it is a huge win for gay couples. Obviously, with no gay marriage gays have traditionally been shafted (no pun intended) on things like spousal inheritance, but under Social Security reforms as Bush presents them you own your Social Security investment, and the gummymint doesn't get to keep it when you die like they do now, which means if you want that money to be passed on to your life partner, your partner does in fact get the money.

In the past I have blogged on an instance where I got into an argument with a leftist because I posted an article on a message board that described some of the atrocities committed against gays by Palestine. Here's a sample of some of the bullshit this leftist conjured up:

Unfortunately, this stinks of another one of your cheap shots at Palestine and its people. Congratulations: like other strongly Muslim countries, Palestine treats gays and other minorities like crap or worse. This is no news flash. The muslim world really needs to make it into the 21st century. But to be honest, I think Bush and his cronies would like to see all gays burned at the stake as much as they would. We're becoming a conservative theocracy more and more each day, so we're in the same boat.

If you haven't read that post before I do recommend following that link and reading the entirety of this feller's comments, as well as the original article I link to in that post, so you can get a decent understanding of the extent of the horrendous mistreatment of gays by Palestinians that is so casually dismissed by this guy so that he can go on a big anti-Christian tirade. And while we're on the topic it should be noted that President Bush has dealt some serious blows to anti-gay fundamentalists overseas. Agree or disagree with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Bush has removed two radical fundamentalist regimes (I know some people might argue that Saddam was more secular, but I don't know too many secularists who commission a copy of their holy book to be written in their own blood, but of course George Bush is the religious fundamentalist, don't ya know?) who have been ruling their countries more or less unchallenged for decades. Don't tell me this isn't a plus for Middle Eastern gays, even in other Middle Eastern countries, where people are becoming increasingly more defiant of fundamentalist rule. Also on this topic, Israel is arguably the most gay-friendly country on the planet, and I don't believe we've had any administration in this country's history that was as big a supporter of Israel as the current Bush administration.

If this is what an "evangelical takeover" looks like, this is the most butt-fuckingest, carpet-munchingest evangelical takeover I've ever seen. That's my big gay story and I'm sticking to it.

I've always been pretty skeptical of the recent widespread diagnoses of ADD, and while I don't have any kids of my own obviously, I think this is worth reading for anyone with kids who are or soon will be in school. I have a young cousin who, a few years back, had a teacher that kept insisting she be treated for ADD. Well, my aunt took her to a doctor, and the doctor said she didn't need ADD treatment. The teacher, even after the doctor had contradicted her, still continued to insist on this. Obviously this a completely worthless teacher, who doesn't want to have to put up with having to actually do her goddamn job! So, obviously I think most of this ADD business in bullshit, and pretty much everything I read on the subject seems to reenforce my suspicions.

MA and Fectin


Here's a picture of Fectin (who is on the right, but only because my pictures all came back from CVS inverted and crap) and I last Friday. I think I might even be standing on my toes in that picture, to minimize the Mario/Luigi contrast in our builds. So, without further ado, here is my illustrated account of how I remember the AfD get together went down. I think that's more or less accurate.

The thrilling conclusion of Angry Stick-Figure Man vs. Osama Bin Laden is now available.

"New ass", my ass!

You AfD readers know how it's done.

UPDATE: Hello to all of you coming here from Right-Thinking! Here is the post where I originally posted the stick-figure comic, if you're interested. Thanks for stopping by (I'm sure I'm going to catch hell from now on if I ever do a poor job spell-checking).

...as it turns out, Fectin is actually a blue cat with glasses! Yeah, I didn't see it coming either. Oh, and that tiny little Mexo-man, that's me. This is right before we went off to catch Hitchhiker's Guide.

Okay, I'm just full of shit. I did get my picture taken with Fectin, but I still have to get it developed. The sombrero boy is me when I was like 5 or something, and the cat is some puppet I had when I was little. Anyway, I felt bad for not posting anything for a while, so enjoy. Tomorrow is my last final, plus I've had sort of a one track mind today, on a topic I won't go into because I come off as a raving lunatic. More stick-figures coming soon, because I love you all.

Okay, Fectin and I finally met in person today, and try as he might, the malicious god could do nothing to stop it! But it wasn't for lack of trying. My car kept stalling out at stops after I picked Fectin up, so we ended up walking to the movie theatre (we saw Hitchhiker's Guide). Bet you didn't expect us to do that, you crazy god!

Anyway, the cat is laying on top of my left arm right now, so it's kind of hard to type or see the keys. Later, y'all!

Here is an amazing picture of a U.S. soldier nursing an Iraqi girl who was fatally wounded from a car bomb blast. Is it just me, or does it seem like the AOL article goes out of it's way to not mention that that this atrocity was the handiwork of Mikey's "minutemen" (I had to google the story to find out that the "dual blast" was an insurgent car bombing)? Anyway, this blog post is apparently an account of events by the photographer that took that picture, and he gives a lot more information than the AOL article:

The soldiers here have been angry and sad for two days. They are angry because the terrorists could just as easily have waited a block or two and attacked the patrol away from the kids. Instead, the suicide bomber drove his car and hit the Stryker when about twenty children were jumping up and down and waving at the soldiers.

These soldiers were pissed, not because they were attacked, but because the attack wasn't held off until they were away from the children! These are really amazing men, beyond what words can even describe. Anyone with a shred of intellectual honesty knows which side the monsters are on in this fight.

The latest episode of Angry Stick-figure Man is now available, this time featuring 'teacher commentary' (boy, my teacher sure has some sloppy cursive). Anyway, for some reason it was really hard for me to convince my scanner that this wasn't a purely black and white picture, and I actually had to trick it into noticing that the red ink was, in fact, red. So, don't expect 'teacher commentary' to be anything more than a one time gimmick.

In germen, fechten is the infinitive "to fence." If one were not so good at spelling, one might spell it fectin while signing up for an AIM screen name. Since then, it's never ever taken anywhere as a username, and there are very few pronounceable words with that particular claim to fame.
So that's the name I use everywhere.

I just noticed that, as of the 23rd of last month, I've been doing this crazy blog thing for a year now. Here's my first post, Humble Beginnings:

So... I guess I'll take this moment to Christen my new blog. I don't really have much to say of any importance. Here's what you can probably expect from me: irreverent humor, conservative/libertarian political rants, and lots of pointless, incoherent babbling. This is pretty much a vanity project for me and I really don't care if no one is reading anything I write. But hey, if you want to read my blog out of pity, go right ahead. If you happen to be a personal friend of mine, and you're reading this out of loyalty to me or as a result of my constant begging, I apologize in advance.

I think I really had myself pegged when I posted that description. I mean, that's me in a nutshell there. Looking back through my archives, I'm kinda disappointed that I sometimes sound like a bit of a parrot of other bloggers, but for quite some time I really didn't know what I was doing. I guess I was trying to get my blog up and running by immitating other blogs I have read, and it just didn't work for me. It's really been recently that I've really tried to find my own voice, and I seem to be having some success doing that. I always worried that my humor would not always come across too will, since a lot of my sense of humor revolves around inside jokes between me and the Holy Tard, or me and the li'l brudder, but I gave it a shot and I have been getting great responses from readers. I guess it just goes to show the importance of doing your own thing. I know I can be pretty self-indulgent at times, posting about stuff I like that most people reading probably aren't too familiar with, but please feel free to leave requests in the comments for anything you guys think I should be posting about, or doing on this blog. Having people comment makes blogging so much more enjoyable for me, so if there's anything I can do for you guys to return the favor, and make my blog more enjoyable to you let me know. Also, let me know if there's any of my random slogans up there that you think are dumb. I've been thinking about removing 2 or 3 of them that I'm not sure I like.

TUA (Is she really ugly? Is she really American?Is she really "the?") points out that Penn and Teller are smarmy and condescending. This is actually a clever ruse on their part. As they point out (though only once) calling something fraudulent is actionable, calling the same thing bullshit is not. Thus, by being smarmy and condescending and potty mouthed, they are safe(er) from lawsuits.
I think it's a very clever trick.

Incidentally, you can create organic molecules from non organics. Look at nylon for example, it's very nearly an amino acid. With very slight tweaking, it IS an amino acid. As for actual living tissue, that's harder. I expect it will be possible eventually, but is still a ways out.

Also incidentally, it is quite possible to be both theist and evolutionist. I strongly believe that Darwin's theory is an accurate description. I'm also quite convinced by the expansion of that theory to the macrocosm. But I've seen at least as much dogmaticness in this area of science as in any organized religion. (I've heard of more from religion, but haven't SEEN more.)

fectin, away!
to sleep!
zzzzzzzzz

Everyone's favorite commenter from Right-Thinking, The Ugly American, left the following comment under this post by Fectin on this blog, and I thought it was too good to be ignored in the comments section. Just so everyone reading this understands, this is in the context of a conversation about Penn & Teller's show, Bullshit!

The one they did last night on Family Values though was a little heavy on the "we're so much smarter than you because we're not bible-thumping traditionalists". I felt like I needed a shower after watching that episode.

That swinging married couple just gave me the creeps. I don't give a fuck how "happy and well-adjusted" they were. Screwing someone else in front of your wife in a hot tub is just sick and wrong in my moral book. Why did they even bother getting married? Why not just cohabitate and fuck anyone you please?

I think we all know why...money. No matter how they manage to spin it, they obviously want the same stability as traditionalists.

I'm becoming more and more irritated when people try to insinuate that the traditional American family is virtually non-existent. In a word, bullshit.

Without even the so-called "small number" of traditional father & mother families, this country would be more fucked-up than it already is. What people like Penn Jillette (and...ahem...others) don't seem to understand is that...like the moonbats of the liberal-left...we NEED these conservative Christians to keep this country on the straight and narrow. Checks 'n balances my friends. Hippies on one end and bible-thumpers on the other.

No Penn..traditional families aren't perfect. But neither are queers, swinging couples nor single parents...we're all equally fucked-up m'kay?

Notice how they didn't bother to trot out a "normal, healthy and well-adjusted" traditional family on that episode?

Yeah...

I love Penn & Teller's series but sometimes their smarmy, we-know-better-than-you attitude just irritates the shit out me.

As a lesbian, I'm grateful that I was raised by a traditional father and a mother family. Given the choice, I personally would chose NOT to be raised by two dykes or two fags or a single parent.

I also prefer not to come home at Christmas and observe my father making out with the neighbor's wife on our couch.

I'm just funny that way.

Now Penn & Teller, and a hell of a lot of other secularists, are very intelligent people, but I for one am getting sick as hell of this condescending attitude towards the unwased masses. A while back I got in an argument with someone on a predominantly left-wing message board, because one "liberal" commenter kept denouncing the majority of the population as mindless sheep, and I felt the need to take him to task on this. Now, I'll admit this person could be very intelligent on certain matters (in fact, he was the only leftist on the board who seemed to come up with genuine links supporting his position, and he and I hijacked many threads arguing with each other), but sometimes he could be just so asinine that calling him out on his bullshit and cutting him down to his knees was child's play. I could say the same for myself, I think I come of pretty well in many things I argue, but I definitely have more than my share of moments of pure retardation. It would be really nice if people, no matter how intelligent they think they are, stop putting on these airs about themselves, just so they feel justified in trashing others. As the great Thomas Sowell (who is an amazing intellect himself) once said, "People who are very aware that they have more knowledge than the average person are often very unaware that they do not have one-tenth of the knowledge of all of the average persons put together. In this situation, for the intelligentsia to impose their notions on ordinary people is essentially to impose ignorance on knowledge." Amen, Brotha Sowell! And amen, TUA! And you ain't the only "funny" one around here.

Debate between Sunstein (the consitution-shy liberal I quoted a couple posts ago) and the author of "Restoring the Lost Constitution : The Presumption of Liberty" (which someone on the blogroll recommended recently, though I can't find that recommendation to link to)

Going on all this week, only the first two installments are up so far.

http://legalaffairs.org/webexclusive/debateclub_cie0505.msp

My favorite zinger:

"Most fundamentally, Cass, what is your theory of constitutional interpretation against which originalism is being compared? Does it amount to anything more than telling Supreme Court justices to reach the right or just outcome? Does your method yield any important results that you think are unjust or wrong? Or does your method just happen to result invariably in happy endings? Inquiring minds want to know."

Incidentally, as I recall, you pretty much have to either inhale asbestos or bathe in it to get cancer. This means situations where you're around disolved, molten or powdered asbestos are bad. neither of these situations occurs with asbestos as a building material.
Especially ironic is when renovating a building, all asbestos material must be removed. This means that you have to take asbestos floor tiles (safe and inert; about the best storage you can get) and rip them out (creates dust, see above for the reason that's bad. hint:actually causes cancer) and ship them someplace else. Often, at someplace else, it's much harder to keep those tiles from molding, soaking, etc. this leads to asbestos solutions.
Long story short, Asbestos: eh. Stupid Regulations: grr.

I highly recommend Penn and Teller's Bullshit!
They go through and criticize stupid beliefs. It's awsome.
Be aware that while they're staunch libertarians (good) and so take on Enviromentalism, second hand smoke, PETA, etc, they're also staunch athiests, so they take on creationism and psychics.
(And to be honest and fair, I think creationism is bunk as well, I just also hate to see evolution treated as infallible holy writ)

I know, I know, old news. But I never saw it anywhere else, so here's the tagline:

BAGHDAD - The UN electoral advisor who has spent years supervising votes in the trouble spots of the world has hailed Iraq's election as a success that had exceeded expectations.

And here's the rest:
http://www.suntimes.co.za/zones/
sundaytimesNEW/basket7st/
basket7st1107177323.aspx
(The tagline really says it all though)

Here is what it is:
"Constitution in Exile, a name given to a body of constitutional doctrine which includes a muscular nondelegation doctrine, well defined limits on the scope of federal power, adequate protections of property rights, latitude for the recognition of religious practices in public life, and respect for the autonomy of states and local communities to govern themselves. "
(excerpted from http://www.law.duke.edu/publiclaw/conference/exileconference/)

And here is a liberal who worries that Bush judicial appointments might bring it back:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0409.sunstein.html
"But if several appointments are made under an extended Bush presidency, the new court would likely do much more. It might strike down most campaign-finance reform. It would probably be inclined to invalidate parts of the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act as beyond Congress' authority. It might well elevate commercial speech to the same status as political speech--thus forbidding controls on commercials by tobacco companies, among others. It would probably limit congressional efforts to protect disabled people, women, and the elderly from various forms of discrimination. More radically, it might interpret the Second Amendment so as to reduce the power of Congress and the states to enact gun-control legislation. "

OH NOES! They might interpret the constitution AS WRITTEN!

I have two papers due Wednesday, one of them I already have a draft for which I only need to flesh out to another paragraph or so, the other has yet to be written. I was going to post an Angry Stick-figure Man cartoon, or two, but my attempts were interrupted by what I shall only refer to as "anonymous butt-fuckers". But don't worry, I'll post those cartoons up eventually, and once I get those papers out of the way, who knows, I might actually post something with good drawing in it. Until then, enjoy this picture that I think my brother sent me or something. Gee, I kinda feel like that little girl in the picture right now.

I don't want to be one of the guys off the deepend who doesn't believe anything the media says.
But at the same time, the idea that there is no bias is laughable.
This is worth reading.

http://patterico.com/2005/04/30/2934/ilos-angeles-timesi-editors-edit-reuters-story-to-remove-critical-facts-supporting-us-position/