Religious conflict, in brief.

Via the Dilbert Blog:

I’ve described the clash of Islam and Christianity – everything from the Crusades to the war on terror – as “The people who think a guy walked on water versus the people who think a horse can fly.” I submit that anything you add to that description is unnecessary for understanding the global clash of civilizations.

Dennis the Menace & Fight Club

These are brilliant.






More at the link here http://sirspamdalot.livejournal.com/23445.html

Breaking down the Question.

Easily my favorite fictional character these days.

Via Roar of Comics: Question Time

While everybody has a different favorite part of 52, everybody seems to agree that The Question is awesome. Whether he's mentoring Montoya with koans, rifling through barely organized files in his rusted out old van, cracking a Gauntlet joke, or casually breaking the fourth wall, everything he's done so far has been HIGHLY amusing. And that's not even getting into the kung fu.

But who IS The Question? Or rather, which Question is that? Is he Steve Ditko's Objectivist crusader? Denny O'Neil's "Zen Master of Crime Fighting"? Bruce Timm's paranoid conspiracy theorist? Even Rick Veitch's urban shaman?

And thanks to the wonders of Hypertime, the answer is "All of them." The Question is "comics' only Zen Objectivist conspiracy theorist." From wildly different authors' visions of who The Question is, we get some basic truths about him from where his different philosophies overlap. There's a fundamental belief that perceived reality and objective reality are very different, that our flawed faculties cannot passively understand the world and that truth must be actively sought by asking the right questions.

In short, "Things are never as they seem."*

Winter Prep

I hate winter.

My spiffy new coat will go some ways to fending off the evil, evil cold.

Who killed God again?

A guy says, "I hate Jews," and I said, "Why?" He goes, "Because they killed my God." They believe that. If I believed that the Jews killed my God, I'd worship the Jews, 'cause damn...there's some badasses on that team, man.

- Bill Hicks

I am Willow.

However, this does not mean I'm a big girl, dammit.

THE 4-VARIABLE BUFFY PERSONALITY TEST

Willow Rosenberg

45% amorality, 63% passion, 72% spirituality, 27% selflessness

Likely you're stronger on the inside than most people would give you credit for: like Willow, you're a decent person with both passions and a spiritual side, sometimes struggling for control.

Willow is one of the most beloved characters in the Buffy universe.

Cruel, cruel reality.

Female coworker: I wish I was disabled.
Male coworker: What? Why?
Female coworker: Cause then, people would do things for you, like carry your stuff and get you things.
Male coworker: People do that for pretty people, why don't you wish to be pretty?

910 Louisiana
Houston, Texas

via Overheard in the Office, Nov 14, 2006

Catholics get confused, think it's 17th century again.

Catholic marchers turn on Glastonbury pagans

In scenes reminiscent of medieval witchhunts, Catholic pilgrims in Glastonbury have attacked pagans and threatened to “cleanse” them from the town.

Local pagans were pelted with salt and branded witches who “would burn in hell” during a procession organised by Youth 2000, a conservative Catholic lay group. The Magick Box, a pagan shop on the route of the march, was also singled out and attacked.

They will burn your body to save your soul, and don't you forget it.

Jesus is quite slippery.

The mind reels, it does indeed.

Via Metro.co.uk:

A man who climbed a 45-foot tall statue of Jesus to pray for a miracle cure saw his plan backfire slightly, when he fell off, breaking several bones.

Farmer Alipio Acosta climbed up the statue of Jesus in Ocaca, Columbia in front of a crowd of onlookers – and TV cameras – in an attempt to be cured of his epilepsy. Once at the top of the statue, he prayed for a few moments, then started to climb back down.

Unfortunately, he hadn't planned his descent route terribly well. To add to the problems, it had been raining, which made Jesus quite slippery.

Sunday in the City

Went into Fukuoka on Sunday for a koto and samisen concert that Sandy's friend Hisako was playing in...


Afterwards we did some shopping in the city and came across some Xmas decorations they had up [it's not even Thanksgiving yet!].



Though what exactly pink flamingos have to do with Xmas escapes even me.

My wife beats me.

Contrary to the picture, she usually doesn't leave any evidence.

But truthfully, this shiner is courtesy of that unstoppable punching machine, that terminator of the dojo, Tatsuya. Though remarkably, it's not the product of his endless barrage of sledgehammer-like fists, but from when we clashed heads wrestling. Though the bruises on my legs are from his kicks, and the pulled muscle in my upper back is from his wrenching my head about.

Bit of a scare a couple weeks ago, when Sandy got out of the shower and all of a sudden her eye looked like this [the "before" picture] -

Can cause a bit of a panic when it looks like one is bleeding from the eye. But despite the worry, it's actually a relatively innocuous condition, as diagnosed by the physician as a subconjunctival hemorrhage, via Wikipedia:

A subconjunctival hemorrhage is bleeding underneath the conjunctiva. The conjunctiva contains many small, fragile blood vessels that are easily ruptured or broken. When this happens, blood is leaked into the space between the conjunctiva and sclera.

Whereas a bruise typically appears black or blue underneath the skin, a subconjunctival hemorrhage initially appears bright red underneath the transparent conjunctiva. Later the hemorrhage may spread and become green or yellow, like a bruise. Usually this disappears within 2 weeks.

Although its appearance may be alarming, a subconjunctival hemorrhage is generally a painless and harmless condition

So after two weeks and eye drops and some other meds, all is well, as you can easily see in the "after" photo below.

Zombies. And Bi*&*^es.

From the Negative Burn anthology.