| | I have to stop writing about politics. It's just too depressing.
The Republicans are incompetent. The Democrats are cowardly. The war in Iraq is a complete disaster. Legoland isn't even safe anymore.
OK, so that last one didn't have anything to do with politics. Maybe I just need to stop watching the news. Anyway, there's new art in the Project Menagerie section. Also, I've been updating the reading section but not posting about it here. If you haven't checked it out in awhile there's oodles of new stuff. |
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| And lo, great suffering was brought upon the earth and very little was written that day. There's new art in the Project Menagerie section you should check out, though. |
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| So Kryptonite really exists. Except it's white and not green. And it's totally harmless. So wait a minute, how's that Kryptonite? Apparently, it shares the same chemical composition as the stuff from one of the movies. In other words, like most childhood fantasies, it's completely boring when you run into it as an adult.
New art for the Mojo Smith & Grandma Crow project. Rodolfo Buscaglia is the artist and is doing a great job visualizing some difficult concepts. |
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| So a friend and I were talking about the shootings. During this conversation he made a claim that I've heard many times over the past few, which is that other developed countries have the same level of violence as the United States.
There is some truth to this. However, if you look at the violent crimes that result in someone ending up dead the United States is the clear winner. Mind you we aren't number 1, but you'll note the countries ahead of us, by and large, suffer from some sort of civil strife or extreme poverty. Yes, Colombia is the top winner, but they also have one of the longest running civil wars in the western hemisphere. If you look at murders with firearms then our position shoots way up, joining the illustrious ranks of such countries as Zimbabwe.
The reaction of the right to any mention of gun control as a response to the shootings has been, "How dare you use this tragedy to push your leftist political agenda?" To me this says that the Republican Party, which I (perhaps naively) believed was run by numbers and rationality, is running on little more than gut reaction and emotion. Any comment on curbing the types of firearms to which citizens have access is treated as if the speaker were suggesting that all firearms be banned. However, the Virginian Tech shooting would have had a much lower body count if Cho had only been using a revolver. As for home defense, if you need more than six bullets for that you have bigger problems than a handgun is going to solve.
Clearly this is not going to change any time soon. My advice? Go get yourself a gun.
Speaking of firearms and horrible violence, there's new art in the Project Menagerie section. Check it out. |
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| Like I said. Crazy.
I write this for Mr. Cho Seung-Hui solely because I believe no one else will:
May God have mercy on your soul.
In your next life, write a song about it instead.
In even more disturbing news, I was wrong about Cho purchasing the guns illegally. It seems he purchased them legally even though a judge had deem Cho mentally unstable a full two years before the shootings. Apparently, Virginia is for gun lovers.
In other news, today is 420, the national holiday to celebrate with da ganja. I'm fairly certain that smoking cannabis won't result in any school shootings, so let's hope everyone has a chance to sit down and relax. God knows we could use it. |
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| When something like the Virginia Tech shooting happens, I have a hard time getting my head around it. I still remember where I was when the Columbine Shooting happened and I wasn't even living in Colorado yet.
Naturally, it took Jack Thompson about five seconds to try and connect the shooting to video games, despite the fact that no one knows the shooter's motive. Fortunately, even the most rabid anti-video game groups are beginning to realize that Jack is quite insane. He's also missing the big picture.
I will bet duckets and dollars that Mr. Cho Seung-hui, much like the Columbine Shooters, was mentally ill. Hard to determine after his suicide, but possible. The absolute brutality of the shootings certainly suggests as much. Which brings us to the questions, how do folks like Mr. Seung-hui get a hold of firearms?
In this case, and in the case of Columbine, the answer is they do it illegally. At least one of the weapons that Cho used had the serial numbers filed off. Virginia has a serious problem with its illegal gun trade, so much so that it has bled over into New York. Mayor Bloomberg has actually sued Virginia because of the number of illegal guns coming over the border from Virginia into his state. Needless to say, the state of Virginia has a very large problem that it has yet to even admit to, more or less handle.
My money says it won't, either. Rather than dealing with the serious problem of illegal firearms, talking heads and agenda pushers will talk about violence in our culture, on TV, in video games. They'll point at things that don't cause the problem and call foul, all the while guns will be all too accessible to those who shouldn't have them to begin with. | Later that same day...
New character sketches have been posted for Project Menagerie. If you've got an opinion on how the art fits the story, I'd love to hear it. |
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| | In an almost forgotten case of a U.S. citizen's rights being infringed upon (if by infringed you mean beaten until they swallow their own tongue) Jose Padilla is finally going to trial five years after his arrest. In another example of the administration's incompetence, he is not being charged with the original dirty bomb allegations that were used to justify holding a U.S. citizen so long without trial. Now, I'm not for letting terrorists run around on our golden shores, but it seems like you could prosecute a man in a shorter period of time than five years. Unless, of course, you are so convinced that your course of action is the right one that you are willing to throw away the ideals on which you stand.
OK, next post will have something amusing as well as trite, I swear. In the mean time, check out the new art for Project Menagerie.
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| This is old, but interesting news. Since the Democratic Congress has begun to look into some things, members of the White House staff have started using their personal email accounts in order to avoid being subpoenaed. The problem with that is they are sending possibly sensitive information around without the security and encryption of the White House servers. So the administration that says it is vital for national security to violate the rights of U.S. citizens is willing to compromise that security for its own political gain.
There's a punch line around here somewhere. While I'm looking for it, check out the new art in the Project Menagerie section.
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| In China, they have a set of laws very similar to the States' eminent domain that allows the seizure of private land for public use. Of course, it being China, the communist version of this is a little more authoritarian. People who protest are most often chased away by thugs or police, most often without compensation. However, protests over this have grown recently, with one couple who owned a restaurant refusing to vacate. This is (pardon the pun) the picture of defiance: | | I doubt that the restaurant is still serving, but you still have to give credit to the stubbornness of the owners and the developers. Anyway, there are updates to the writing and art in the Mojo Smith & Grandma Crow category. |
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| So the weather around here continues to be erratic and fun (in a weird way). In the past few days we have gotten snow as well as temperatures in the 70s. Sometimes in the same day. Cheryl and I were out for a walk on what promised to be a lovely day. Until the sky started spitting ice at us. Here's a picture of some plant life she spotted on the way back down the mountain. | |
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| My good friend and co-conspirator on the Kansas project is a gent by the name of Bryan Cole. Like many others, Bryan left college to jump on the IT bandwagon when all of that money was flying around in the 90s. Now, however, he's going back to school full time to pursue a degree in Aerospace Engineering. I have no doubt that his imagination and intelligence will accomplish great things in this field. Unfortunately, it does mean that Chapter 23 will be the last entry into the Kansas for quite some time.
Now, I can hear all of you DeVry graduates asking, "Why would Bryan leave an exciting and lucrative career in IT for aerospace engineering?" Here's one good reason:
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| So good news; Iran has promised to release its captive British soldiers this Easter. If there is anything funny about this event, it is how it exemplifies British behavior. When the marines were originally captured, the British reaction could best be described as, "So sorry, there seems to have been a mistake. You've got our boys."
When the Iranians paraded the crew in front of television cameras, the British got a bit miffed. They responded by releasing nautical chart information that showed the marines were not in Iran's waters. I'm sure that more than one British diplomat used the phrase, "Poor show that," when discussing this phase of negotiations amongst themselves.
However, despite the British social penchant for apologizing at the drop of a hat, they seem to have put enough pressure on Iran to get the marines and sailors released without making any formal statement of apology or regret. Also, they didn't make threats, or act like children or use unwarranted military force. OK, so those last three aren't really British traits, but common actions of one of their big allies. I'm not saying which one. Anyway, to the people who were involved in getting this settled in a timely and peaceful manner, I say: Good show.
As usual, after commenting on such important and world-shaking matters, I'm off to do something completely trivial. New reviews will be going up throughout the rest of the day. |
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| Off to the airport. New art in the Mirror Man section.
Later that same day...
One thing I'll say about airports, is they give you a lot of time to read.
If you ever find yourself in an airport and on your way to Boulder, Colorado, you should be pleased. It's a beautiful town in a beautiful state. I wouldn't recommend living in Boulder, though. The town government spends money like a drunken rock star on some of the most half-baked ideas that you'll find in the state. Worse than that, though, is that none of these schemes ever seems to get finished.
The Dushanbe Teahouse is probably the best example of this. In 1989 the mayors of Boulder and Dushanbe entered into a sister city agreement, a cultural and educational exchange program. As part of this, Dushanbe presented the city of Boulder with the tea house, which has been operating since 1998. What did Dushanbe receive for this gift?
Well…nothing. There are plans to present the city of a Dushanbe with a cybercafé that will provide free access to the Internet. For the folks who visit the café that don't have the scratch for their own computer, they can use the café's hardware. It will also have food and beverages that represent Boulder and the U.S. It will employ alternative and sustainable energy systems so the wise people of Boulder can show the humble inhabitants of Dushanbe the way of true conservation. Sounds great, doesn't it?
Nearly a decade after Boulder received the teahouse from Dushanbe, though, construction on the cybercafé hasn't even begun. A lofty goal with no progress. That's Boulder. |
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