Bruce The Psychic Guy

7:46am: special / lol old

LOL OLD

Thank you, God, for giving me another year of life.

And thanks to all my sweet friends who sent birthday greetings! I love you all!

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3:39pm: the happening world / turned upside down
Bad news from overseas:

Christian Mob Burns Down 100 Muslim Homes in France
Riot Incited via Church Loudspeakers; Mob Throws Acid on Women and Children

This morning 100 Muslim houses and mosques were set on fire by local Christians in the city of Clichy-sous-Bois, outside of Paris. The riots were incited by broadcasts from local churches. This incident is similar to a February 1997 attack when thousands of Muslim houses and churches were burned and hundreds of Muslims were injured.

Muslim Relief partners received the news this morning and went immediately to the scene to help injured Muslims. So far 9 burned women and 4 children have been transferred to hospitals for further medical treatment. All of them have been injured by throwing acid on them. Local police have arrived on the scene but the situation is out of control as thousands of Christians have gathered for this purpose.

( more details... )

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11:13pm: tracking with closeups / you can't spell "police state" without...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MO!


Also: New sketch over at Psychic Guy Sketchbook.

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3:47pm: the happening world / salaam

Move along... nothing to see here...

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9:23am: Writer's Block: Last Meal


The Eucharist

2:15am: the bitpig rant / arms around the future, back up against the past

Just came from the Haikasoru website -- Haikasoru being Viz' new English-language Japanese-SF imprint -- and I can't wait for the first titles to come out. I love J-SF, and, while I've always found it to be a bit reedy in terms of narrative, I don't read SF for narrative -- I read it for characters and mise-en-scene. And tits, of course. Fortunately, the Japanese are masters of mise-en-scene, and have an equal fondness for tits, especially in futuristic settings. But I digress.

All that being said, however, my love for Japanese SF is primarily based upon the fundamental optimism it displays. Western SF is so very, very dark -- either deliberately, in the case of the tired noir pastiche of the cyperpunk cliche, or in the glib nihilism of the Singularity set. Indeed, Vernor Vinge's Singularity has itself become, in literary terms anyway, the very Singularity it predicts. By positing a "future" in which the state of things is taken beyond human comprehension by godlike AIs, the Singularity has proven to be a limit past which SF cannot see. What we do see are smirking tales of meaningless things being done by affectless characters who are (or might as well be) 8-bit sprites in some pointless virtual reality game. This is the future we want the kids to shell out their money for? Oh boy -- a few years from now we'll all be virtual reality ghosts fluttering around vainly in the innards of some supercomputer! Whoopee! Here's my debit card, Mr. SF writer -- sign me up for the ride!

Hence the decline of written SF as a living genre in Western literature. A future where humans are irrelevant, virtual, or extinct is no future at all, and the kids (who will, of course, live in the future) won't buy it. That's why the dumb, chick-lit, elfie-welfie, vampy-trampy books are crowding science fiction off the shelves: at least the past has people in it -- about half of whom have tits. Better to spend one's money on some dumb rehash of the feudal era, or on fantasies of getting your blood sucked out by a Victorian vampire, than on some autistic anti-adventure set in the cool digital Nirvana of the post-Singularity "future".

Japanese science fiction is different. Japanese SF is almost always set in a future where people -- flesh and blood people -- can live, not in some digital nightmare world à la mode Americiane. One thing that never fails to charm me is how the future in many Japanese SF works is just modern-day Japan, only with robots and hyperdrives stuck on. Give me space cadets who eat Cup Noodle while learning to pilot their giant robots -- that's a future that I want to visit!

Now, I'm not talking about American Flintstones-Jetsons-style satire here; that sort of man-in-the-grey-flannel-spacesuit stuff was fine back in the '60s, but we're all too old and bitter for that sort of thing now. What I'm talking about here is the very Japanese idea that a given society can allow technology to flower without throwing out the cultural soil from which it sprang. Examples are too many to list; the Gunbuster franchise is as good example as any. (I would love to see -- or better still make -- a live-action Gunbuster film...) Unlike the inhuman and nihilistic futures being depicted as inevitable in Western science fiction, Japanese SF assumes that no matter what gadgets we dream up, they are going to be shaped to fit human needs in a world that humans can understand. This retro-futuristic spirit is, I think, gives Japanese SF the freshness I enjoy.

(Bearing this in mind, it's ironic that the Japanese birthrate is far below replacement level; every Japanese child that is never conceived and never born is a vote against the bright future displayed in Japanese SF. We here in the pessimistic USA are at least still having kids...)

Although it's an anime and not a work of prose, Space Battleship Yamato is to my mind the quintessential example of the future/past spirit of Japanese SF: the story an ancient battleship, shattered in a fratricidal war, rising literally from the ashes as a sleek starship to save the human race. It is perhaps instructive to consider that when one examines the kanji that make up the name of the leader of the Yamato's crew, grim young Sususmu Kodai, one realizes that they add up to something along the lines of "the progression of antiquity". In Japanese SF, everything new is old again.

So here's to Haikasoru ("high castle" -- get it?) -- hopefully, a fresh breeze of techno-optimism in the deadly, dreary marsh of prose SF.

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9:31am: special / kane

David Carradine
December 8, 1936 - June 3, 2009

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WEITER

1:04am: continuity / conumbdumb

Typical table scene from A-Kon 20. L-R: Doug Smith, self, Marty Alice, Mundee, Hans.
Massive Sketchbook update over at the Flickr site, featuring lotsa shôjo-style art, Heck, it's worth a look.

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1:25am: special / live from the party pipe

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11:30pm: special / memorial day 2009

In Memoriam


Franklin Patric Willeford

HN3 USN



NAVY CROSS

March 17, 1943 (Lawton OK) — December 14, 1968 (Quang Nam, Republic of Vietnam)

Vietnam Memorial
Panel 36W, Row 021




Citation The President of the United States takes pride in presenting the Navy Cross (Posthumously) to Franklin Patric Willeford (3537852), Hospitalman, U.S. Navy, for extraordinary heroism on 14 December 1968 while serving as a Platoon Corpsman in Company C, First Battalion, Fifth Marines, FIRST Marine Division (Reinforced), Fleet Marine Force, in Quang Nam Province, Republic of Vietnam.

As Hospitalman Willeford's platoon was participating in a company-sized sweep through an area, the lead element came under intensive automatic-weapons fire which wounded and trapped one Marine in very close proximity to one of the enemy bunkers. Seeing his comrade fall and subsequently receive another hit from a grenade, Hospitalman Willeford unhesitatingly left his position of relative security and moved forward to the side of the mortally-wounded Marine. Hidden from the enemy positions by the tall grass in the area, he found the Marine bleeding severely and in no condition to be moved. Hospitalman Willeford raised himself up and into the grazing zone of hostile fire in order to administer a heart massage and mouth- to-mouth resuscitation, continuing his desperate attempts to save the Marine until all hope of life had expired. Only then did he begin the slow return through the fire-swept zone to the trench line, bringing with him the body of his comrade.

As his platoon again started through the area, the enemy opened up with intensive small-arms and automatic-weapons fire, wounding and trapping the three lead Marines. When two Marines started to move out of the trench line to retrieve the casualties, one was mortally wounded and the other critically wounded. Disregarding the intense danger, Hospitalman Willeford again moved forward to aid his fellowman. Finding the first Marine mortally wounded, and realizing the impossibility of trying to move him back to a secure area, Hospitalman Willeford stayed with the Marine, rendering what aid and comfort he could, until the Marine succumbed to his injuries. After he had informed the remainder of the platoon that the Marine had died, he proceeded deeper into the fire zone toward the second Marine, and drew fire from an enemy bunker a short distance from the wounded man. With full knowledge that the enemy was now concentrating their fire upon him, Hospitalman Willeford forged his way through the tall grass to the wounded Marines' side and began administering aid.

While treating the fallen Marine, Hospitalman Willeford was also struck and mortally wounded.

His courageous actions were an inspiration to all who observed him and were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

Authority: Navy Department Board of Decorations and Medals


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5:19pm: the happening world / this is how they'll get me

The New York Times, 21 May 2009:

President Obama told human rights advocates at the White House on Wednesday that he was mulling the need for a “preventive detention” system that would establish a legal basis for the United States to incarcerate terrorism suspects who are deemed a threat to national security but cannot be tried, two participants in the private session said. [ ... ] Human rights advocates are growing deeply uneasy with Mr. Obama’s stance on these issues...

[ ... ]

[O]utsiders who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the session was intended to be off the record, said they left the meeting dismayed.

They said Mr. Obama told them he was thinking about “the long game” — how to establish a legal system that would endure for future presidents. He raised the issue of preventive detention himself"...

“He was almost ruminating over the need for statutory change to the laws so that we can deal with individuals who we can’t charge and detain,” one participant said. “We’ve known this is on the horizon for many years, but we were able to hold it off with George Bush. The idea that we might find ourselves fighting with the Obama administration over these powers is really stunning.”

Is this the "change" or the "hope"?

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7:38pm: the happening world / onigiri, nigi ni-gi

Lots of new photos added to das Flickrpage. A couple of new sketches at the Sketchbook, too.

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While we were out and about today, someone stole the Sword of Destiny from our front yard. For six years it has stood guard over Chez Lewis; today. someone came in my yard, pulled it from the flower bed, and made off with it. The skull-shaped pommel fell off in the north side of our yard as they ran away, so I know they were headed northward on our street as they made their getaway.

I always told myself that the day the sword was stolen would mark the day our neighborhood started to go downhill. That day has come. The neighborhood looks the same as ever.

Maybe this was just a fluke, It is, after all, only a cheap, stainless steel flea-market sword -- an ironic yard ornament, and little more.

But all I know is that some son of a bitch came in my yard, and took something that belonged to me. If they did it once, they'll do it again -- and maybe they won't stop at a cheap, flea market sword next time.

My eyes are open. If I see my sword anywhere in the neighborhood, in someone else's hand or in their flower bed, that someone's going to get an ass-whipping. And if I see anyone come in my yard without permission or a warrant -- well, let's just say they'll find out the hard way how strongly I feel about the sanctity of private property.

Fucking parasites.

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12:09am: continuity / dragging it back

Sorry it took so long to post. We got back from ACen safe and sound, but I was beat when I left, and by the time I got back I was just spent. Then of course it was back to work, and with deadlines looming and the necessary little chores of life to handle I had to work late... and even so didn't finish on time. I turned everything in safe and sound today, of course, and the net effect on production will be nil, but my supervisor got bitched out on my behalf today and the shit will roll downhill tomorrow in the form of a meeting about "scheduling and prioritization". And I'm operating on two hours' sleep in the last 48 now, and I need to draw but can't, and BAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

In other words, I'm being a whiny cunt, Please forgive me, all. I'll be better after a few hours' kip.

Speaking of whining, Toddler W. Toddler has suddenly become deathly afraid of water. He used to love bath time, and often let me wash his hair without even noticing, but now he freaks out after a minute or two of getting in the tub, and I mean major freakout -- screaming, crying, saying "I scared, I scared" and clinging to me in sheer terror.

WTF? Anybody else's kids go through this?

And to top it off ichigo_babe lost her job today, out of the blue. Double WTF?

On the brighter side, we had a kickass time at ACen this year. I made some great new friends and had the time to hang out with the old ones for a change. We even got to see the new Star Trek movie, which I liked. Con season 2009 continues, with A-Kon on the horizon. Go Team Lewis.

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11:44am: continuity / here we go 'round again

Convention season 2009 begins today. Next stop, Anime Central. Here we go again, gang!

See y'all in Chicago!

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11:05am: continuity / another hazy, lazy, saturday

Busy Saturday here at Chez Bitpig. Mommy, Maamaw and Baby are off to Uncle Basil's for haircuts, then we all meet at the parish at 1:45 p.m. for our friends' wedding and reception. Then it's errands, followed by another friend's baby shower this evening, and hopefully a nap at some point in between.

Ah, the comforting tedium of quotidian, middle-class life...

***

Is it wrong to think (platonically) that Takumi Mitani of Okaasan to Issho is insanely cute? Those winsome Japanese...

***

Speaking of Japan, I applied for a job there this week. It's really not the right job for me, and the pay certainly isn't what you'd like, but the benefits package is really good, and I need to go live in Japan for a while to complete my education. However, the odds of me getting the job are extremely low, so I'm not going to let it occupy my thoughts. May God's will be done.

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I hate weather like we're having now: overcast, humid, dreary. I wish it would either get hot or cold, rainy or sunny.


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11:33pm: the happening world / kuma

Admit it... we all knew that this day would come...

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10:22pm: the happening world / he's a righteous man

Fort Worth ISD has just announced a full shutdown. That's 80,000 students spead over 180 campuses. The school district says it will reopen 8 May.

Cleburne ISD, just south of Fort Worth, closed down yesterday.

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New PSA

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From the CDC site pandemicflu.gov:

Social Disruption May Be Widespread

• Plan for the possibility that usual services may be disrupted. These could include services provided by hospitals and other health care facilities, banks, stores, restaurants, government offices, and post offices.
• Prepare backup plans in case public gatherings, such as volunteer meetings and worship services, are canceled.
• Consider how to care for people with special needs in case the services they rely on are not available.

Being Able to Work May Be Difficult or Impossible

• Find out if you can work from home.
• Ask your employer about how business will continue during a pandemic.
• Plan for the possible reduction or loss of income if you are unable to work or your place of employment is closed.
• Check with your employer or union about leave policies.

Schools May Be Closed for an Extended Period of Time

• Help schools plan for pandemic influenza. Talk to the school nurse or the health center. Talk to your teachers, administrators, and parent-teacher organizations.
• Plan home learning activities and exercises. Have materials, such as books, on hand. Also plan recreational activities that your children can do at home.
• Consider childcare needs.

Transportation Services May Be Disrupted

• Think about how you can rely less on public transportation during a pandemic. For example, store food and other essential supplies so you can make fewer trips to the store.
• Prepare backup plans for taking care of loved ones who are far away.
• Consider other ways to get to work, or, if you can, work at home.

People Will Need Advice and Help at Work and Home

• Think about what information the people in your workplace will need if you are a manager. This may include information about insurance, leave policies, working from home, possible loss of income, and when not to come to work if sick. (A Business Pandemic Influenza Planning Checklist is available at www.pandemicflu.gov/plan/business/businesschecklist.html.)
• Meet with your colleagues and make lists of things that you will need to know and what actions can be taken.
• Find volunteers who want to help people in need, such as elderly neighbors, single parents of small children, or people without the resources to get the medical help they will need.
• Identify other information resources in your community, such as mental health hotlines, public health hotlines, or electronic bulletin boards.
• Find support systems—people who are thinking about the same issues you are thinking about. Share ideas.

Be Prepared

Stock a supply of water and food. During a pandemic you may not be able to get to a store. Even if you can get to a store, it may be out of supplies. Public waterworks services may also be interrupted. Stocking supplies can be useful in other types of emergencies, such as power outages and disasters. Store foods that:

• are nonperishable (will keep for a long time) and don't require refrigeration
• are easy to prepare in case you are unable to cook
• require little or no water, so you can conserve water for drinking

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12:29am: the happening world / baby can you dig your man?

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3:22am: the happening world / shimmy shimmy

Medium-sized Sketchbook update now up. Contains the characters from my next comic strip (if all goes well), Atoras That Shrugs The Shoulder. You can also see the sketches at my Flickr site.

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Speaking of art: Magibon fan art!

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Note to all: No need to panic, but this flu that's going around is no joke. Remember to wash your hands frequently and avoid putting your fingers in your orifices -- it's not only a good way to avoid getting sick, it's just good manners!

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11:21pm: the happening world / bill mauldin is laughing in heaven

“I’ve been laid off,” reads the headline on the blog of cartoonist Ted Rall, president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. Rall, an editorial cartoonist for Universal Press Syndicate, has served as editor of acquisitions and development at United Media for the past two years.

[ ... ]

“So if you're a creator who was hoping to pitch me something, I'm sorry -- I can't help you anymore,” he adds. “If you need a cartoonist, a writer, or an editor, or anything else, please drop me a line. I need work, and fast.” [Full Text]

Instant karma, Teddy! Being an unemployed ex-cartoonist is a bitch even in a good economy. In a recession? Well, I guess you could always join the Army.

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WEITER

9:46pm: the happening world / whaddaya mean, you're not pure evil?

And as we bring this day's broadcast to a close, let's all close our eyes, lean back in our chairs, and listen as Sir Jimmy Savile and Jonathan King present our national anthem:



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From today's Lori's Latest:( Read more... )

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A surprising (to some) story from today's AP feed via the Huffington Post:( tl;dr )

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10:36pm: the happening world / you're just like a dream

A very happy 21st birthday to Sammy Harte -- possibly the sweetest human being ever to live.









I can't believe it's me posting this instead of mundeemo, but

HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY
ROBERT SMITH


( GRINDING HALT )

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Friendly robot space traveler Cassini just mailed in the latest snaps from Saturn. PREPARE TO HAVE YOUR MIND M-FING BLOWN

***

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12:14am: the happening world / a visually-impaired arboreal rodent

Some good news, for a change:

President Barack Obama, along with Vice President Biden and Secretary LaHood, announced a new U.S. push today to transform travel in America, creating high-speed rail lines from city to city, reducing dependence on cars and planes and spurring economic development. The President released a strategic plan outlining his vision for high speed rail in America. The plan identifies $8 billion provided in the ARRA and $1 billion a year for five years requested in the federal budget as a down payment to jump-start a potential world-class passenger rail system and sets the direction of transportation policy for the future. The strategic plan will be followed by detailed guidance for state and local applicants. By late summer, the Federal Railroad Administration will begin awarding the first round of grants

( MOAR )
EVEN MOAR

The funding and construction of transportation infrastructure is a legitimate function of government. Examples include the National Road, the Erie Canal, the Transcontinental Railroad, the various Federal Highways, and the entire commercial aviation industry, which has never made a profit independently and which would not exist had it not been for the U.S. Post Office.

I applaud President Obama for this proposal.

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10:39pm: the happening world / smile when you say that, janet

Assessment: Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment, IA-0257-09, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 7 April 2009:

Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration. [Full Text (PDF 1.9MB SFW)]

I guess I am a right wing extremist.

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Racism is alive and well in Bloomington, Ill....

A 19-year-old Bloomington man was charged Monday after police said up to a dozen teenagers blocked the street near Oak and Mulberry early Saturday afternoon and harassed a woman in her car.

Brett Lane, 19, of the 900 block of West Olive Street, was charged with aggravated battery, court documents said.

The woman, 24, was driving near Mulberry and Oak streets a few minutes after noon while on her way to visit her brother, 34, who lives in the 500 block of North Mason Street, police said. When the brother came up and asked the group to let his sister’s car through, he was jumped by four or five teens, police said.

While the man was beaten, others in the mob threw rocks, bricks and debris at the sister and two of the brother’s roommates, police said.

The woman’s brother had an open head wound on his forehead, police spokesman Duane Moss said. There were no reports of ambulances at the scene, but victims may have gotten medical help later, Moss said.

Some screamed racially derogatory names, Moss said. One person yelled, “This is our neighborhood... [full text]

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9:22pm: the happening world / ten go le go

OMG ShamWOW

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