Excellent Comics and Artists

Well, I could not in good conscience go without recomending some excellent "comic" book artists and their work to you. When most of you think of comics you think of either juvenile super-hero nonsense or something like Archie. There are comics and graphic novels, however, that are intelligent, witty and excellent. My first reomendation for the day is Zach Weiner. He's a brilliant artist who originates the sharp and witty single-panel comic "Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal". He is also working as the author, with other artists, on the excellent web-comics "Captain Excelsior" and "Grumps".

The last two are roughly narrative, the former being about a "jerk" superhero and his family (think Increadibles gone horribly wrong) and the latter is about about some senior citizens in a nursing home who have not yet stopped living it up, but have ceased to have anything resembling balance, not that anyone else has any in their world! Here's a link to get you started on Zach Weiner:

SMBC: http://www.smbc-comics.com/

Grumps: http://www.grumps.ca/

The second comic that I want to recomend is a really nice Australian one created by Trudy Cooper and a few of her cohorts. It's excellent because of the aesthetically pleasiing, mildly realistic and sexy art style as well as the slightly strange humour.

Here where to get started:

http://www.platinumgrit.com/index.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platinum_Grit#Creators

Do look these up! They deserve your attention!

Listen to Lissie!

Well, I've discovered a new voice out there that I love! I wonder how many of you have heard of Lissie? She's a relatively new independent musician. She is brilliant. She may live in California, but she is not the typical new female voice you find American music producing. I've been sick to the point of nausea at seeing new female "talents" who offered nothing more than the typical mixture of sacharine-pop and R&B-lite ulation. Lissie is different.

She's sounds deep, different and intelligent. She's intense yet mellow, and not overly sweet. She's a true artist, and though she is as unique as someone like Amy Winehouse, thugh she seems like a more reasonable and likeable person.

How can I describe her voice? Slightly velvety, slighty country-ish, a bit pop-like (but she does not scream or yell in cliched and unnecessary endings to stanzas or songs), and spiritual, yet simple and independent. Her spirituality is due to a vague and hard to quantify quality, not any heavy handed new-age pretensions. She has melody, but in a slightly strange sense of the word. And she manipulates her voice and accent in a way that is subtle and new to me. She feels independent and strong, with a subtly implied strength of character.

As I said, she's a true artist. You only need to listen to her songs "The Longest Road" (both the original and the Deadmau5 remix) as well as "All my Life" which is particularly beautiful and brilliant. Her simpler songs are sweet but not overly and tritely so. She also happens to write most of her own music and lyrics.

Besides this, in her written and video blogs she has a nice habit of addressing her audience as "friends" rather than "peeps" or "hey everyone!" or something more typical all the time. I found that somehow endearing. Here are some essential links to get you started:

http://www.indie911.com/index.php?cID=7603

http://www.youtube.com/user/lissiemusic

Check her out! She's brilliant!

China and Tibet: Recent Protests

Tibet has been part of China for most of the last few centuries. The leaders of Tibet formally accepted the relationship. Why is murder and pogroms of the Hans and the Muslim Hui Chinese acceptable to the West as "freedom fighting"? Are riot police not supposed to supress violent riots and pogroms??

And why are the Palestinian terroriststs evil for resisting an artificial state created by european Jewish settlers if the Tibetans are noble for killing Hui and Han Chinese?

The US assisted the breakaway of Texas from Mexico at the behest of the Anglo-Saxon minority there, later chaging it into an Anglo-Saxon territory through settlement. The West has accepted the continuous rape of the Kashmiris and stood by while the Bosnians were decimated, yet rather magically, China is evil for defending a territory that has been associated with the Chinese state for centuries?

China has spent billions on Tibet, with the world's highest railways, schools and modern facilities, and yet it is evil!

The West supported the artificial settlement and carving up of Palestine at the behest of european Jews who were not even semitic and, at best, who's ancestors had been in Palestine 2000 years ago, helped by a little known Jewish terrorist campaign duriong the British mandate.

It seems that only the terrorists you don't like are the "bad" (anti-Western) ones!

It is quite obvious to me that the US and its allies are merely using "human rights" as a pretext to back-stab and sabotage an upcomming political and economic competitor. After all, a more equitable distribution of resources in the world would lead to lower living standards in the West. There is only so much to go around! It would also lead to the loss of its political dominance. The coddled, lazy and luxurious "first world" would cease to exist.

Talk about hypocrisy. And these riots are so nicely timed, right before the olympics. I wonder if foreign elements were involved? I would not be surprised.

I am not saying that China's treatment of Tibet is valid or even that Tibetan independence is illegitimate, but why are the Tibets opressed by pro-Western or Western countries acceptable? Why is it that occupying another nation is only wrong when it's done by a country that is an economic and political competitor to the West?

My pint is that the Western governments' concern over Tibet is insincere and hypocritical. It has more to do with hamstringing a competitor, and little else. The brutal opression of Kashmir is alright, the popular seccession of the Confederacy was unacceptable to the U.S, yet China should yield to seperatism and is particularly evil for defending what it sees as its territorial integrity? Is that fair? Your territorial integrity is sacred, but not China's?

Kosovo could be made independent because it was useful for poking Russia in the eye, but Palestine, Kashmir and Corsica, not to mention Puert0-Rico are "good" occupations. That seems a little too convenient in my opinion.

So hands-off China you germanic nouveau-riche! Back to the moors and bogs with you! China is re-awakening, you recently evolved Norsemen and Saxons. You are not in the same league. Learn some respect!

P.S. I hope Western readers enjoyed that last bit of reverse jingoism. This is what you wold have to put up with if Ann Coulter was Chinese. Consider yourself lucky that the arrogant butts are on your side!

Red Demon (Revised Edition)

Well, I realized that my short story Red Demon was full of typos and the paragraphing really needed to be improved. The density of adjectives and the general flow also needed to be improved.

I uploaded an improved verision to Storiesville.com.

I hope that you enjoy this latest edit:

http://www.storiesville.com/content/view/2626/65/

As before, my advice is to print and read at a relaxed pace in two sessions. The reason is that the story is quiet descriptive and slow and sensory

Why Intelligent Design Is Not Science And Cannot Be Taught As Such

I know that I have not really commented before on this blog about the evolution vs. ID debate, but I have in other places and I thought I should really establish why, as far as I am concerned, Intelligent Design is not scientific and does not belong in the science classroom.

First of all, I'd like to draw your attention to Science magazine's article about paleontologist Stephen Godfrey (http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/319/5866/1034) who had been a creationist until the evidence in the ground, logic and intellectual honesty led him reconsider his beliefs and conclude with evolution.

I went through a somewhat similar change very many years ago. You may be surprised to know that Darwin believed in something very much like Intelligent Design before his travels changed him.

So here's a little hurrah for courage and intellectual honesty!

Now... to address Intelligent Design's place vis-a-vis science. It is established that ID is not science because:

1- It is not falsifiable (since ID refuses to qualify the creator or his methods or motives)

2- ID relies on supernatural causation

3- There is no direct or positive evidence for it. Most evidence "for" ID consists of:

a) finding gaps in evolution or the fossil record
b) trying to falsify evolution.

Gaps in a theory are not falsification. Gaps exist in physics too. It would be nonsensical to say that physics is false because of the gaps that exist so far in it.

Another issue is that according to the scientific method, falsification of evolution does not lead automatically to ID. It may lead to an alternate theory of evolution (such as Lamarkian or some other mechanism) or other different things. There is no strict duality between the current theory of evolution and ID.

Hence falsification of evolution is not evidence for ID. It should be noted though that most creationist attempts at falsifying evolution have been very well answered by the scientific community. This Nova documantary will give you a small idea of the debate: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/id/

Many of you may have looked at the debate from the lense of creationist or ID polemicists, so be honest and take a peek at the position of science in its own words.

But let me get to the point (finally!).

Science is NOT about getting to the absolute truth no matter where it leads you. There are rules. These include:

1- Falsifiability
2- Natural causation
3- There must exist positive evidence FOR the theory
4- All science is tentative and may be revised or elaborated in the light of new evidence

So, what would science look like if ID was correct and evolution was wrong? Well, basically evolutuon would get discredited and we would NOT HAVE a scientific theory of speciation.
But ID would still not be science. It would belong in philosophy class and church. ID can never be science even if it is correct.

Even if all variants of evolution were falsified and we had no alternative, at best, a science text could say something like: "We do not have an explanation for speciation but religions posit a creator. Now on to fungi..."

That said, in reality evolution is a very strong and robust theory and is considered by the vast majority of biologists and paleontologists to be a very good explanation of speciation.

Finally, science does NOT say there cannot be a God. Evolution does not require atheism, so before getting emotional, consider that.

Ofcourse, there are those that will object and say that evolution is merely speculation that fits tghe evidence, and that ID or some flavour of creationism fits the evidence equally well.

But I think if you calmly look at the logic and explanations of both sides and read the scientific explanations and answers to creationist criticisms from their sources. If you read the actual scientific material, and not through the lense of ID-ists presenting it to you, I think you will clearly see that Evolution is the correct interpretation of the data.

That's why Darwin, the head of the Human Genome Project (who is devoutly religious), Godfrey and many many others all came to the same conclusion even though all of these people had good emotional and religious reasons to WANT creationism to be true.

That's why the vast majority of scientists, including religious ones, favour evolution. The evidence is vast. Read science directly, not through creationist polemicists.

On the Recent Elections in Pakistan

The Seeds We Sow

Well...except for karachi (which is owned by MQM gangsters, they were gonna rig that regardless of anything) it seems that the election has been fair.The results bear that out. (and Stratfor has confirmed it)

Mushy may be gone in 6 months. The MQM will be the ally of WHOEVER is in power; no one can get rid of them, and they have already said they are willing to enter a coalition with PML-N and PPP. And...well...it's back to the 90s. Time for Mr. 10% Zardari or Mr. Mongoloid Sharif to rule. But this is rule of law. This is democracy (of the illiterate, and the feudally cooerced serfs)!

One thing will NOT change, inspite of the opposition's promises to the contrary; Pakistan will remain in the war on terror on America's side. People will begin to realize that was inevitable... Mushy or no Mushy.

Time for the corrupt crazy politicians to come back and show us what we've been missing! Time for rowdy student wings of parties and long-marches ad-nauseam and zero economic management.

Time for macroeconomic collapse!

Ofcourse, those who were making grandiose speeches and making snarky rhetorical comments about "independence", those who disliked the only disciplined instituition in the nation, those who were in favour of a third rate corrupt nepotistic CJ, those who wanted to release high ranking terrorists in the middle of a war on the basis of "rule of law", which is a lesser priority than national survival may I add, will now see that the war on terror will continue, but with shitty people like Zardari and Nawaz on top.

By the way... anyone knows that Pakistan is and always was independent. That's why we don't allow American troops on our soil. It was Zardari who wanted the UN to run an internal investigation like we were Somalia or something, not Musharraf. But those who want illiterate and feudally distorted "democracy" can now have it.

Enjoy the fruits of the seeds you sow...enjoy, my countrymen. Especially those speechifying in America while I sit here reaping the consequences of your pretensions. But at least some good things are happening in the world:

Happy birthday my brothers in Kosovo!

Crystal Ball, Crystal Ball...

Well, now that the new (old) Pakistan is forming, here are my prognostications. You will find that I will be vindicated quite completely in time, within one year, unless mentioned otherwise. If Musharraf is removed prematurely and the Army is weakened the following will happen:

- Laws banning corrupt or uneducated candidates will be repealed as being the result of dictatorship. As a result Zardari and Sharif brothers will enter NA via by-elections.

- The war on terror continues, people who wanted negotiations with Al qaeda and Taliban will realize the terror continues and truces are temporary, and that there was never a choice, and get skull-fucked.

- Local government system will be abruptly or gradually eroded and re-centralized to provincial level. If it happens gradually, this process will take up to 2 years.

- PML-N will continue its dysfinctional relationships with smaller provinces when it is in power, dismissing provincial govs when it wants, when/if it is in power, leading to provincial disharmony.

- No one will admit that Brig. Cheema was right about Benazir's wounds, even though he has been vindicated by scotland yard. Read the report, it's on the net. Some people have voted against musharraf because of belief in the conspiracy theory that Musharraf or the security establishment had BB killed. These people will remain in lala land and not dare to blame the cancers within the Muslims, Al Qaeda and Taliban.

- Musharraf will not leave pakistan, even if he faces retribution.

- If a Democrat comes to power in the US, aid will be greatly reduced and eventually sanctions will return. When this happens good macro-economic management will become critical, but Zardari and Mongoloid Sharif cannot deliver this and the economy will deteriorate back to 90s level within the next 5 years. If there are no sanctions then the economy will merely coast, with inflation cycling according to conditions. They will then realize no one has a magic bullet for inflation. Idiots.

- Suicide bombings by AQ and the Talibs will continue.

- The people that treated Mongo(Nawaz) and the CJ as heroes will hate those very people as corrupt in a few years. But they won't realize the irony.

- Programs for renewing Balushistan will fall by the way-side and sepratism will rise again.

- Dysfunctional, chaotic, confrontational politics will continue with your heroic democratic politicians.

- The poor illiterate serfs, who are mostly told who to vote for and are the majority in your "democracy", will stay that way.

- Whoever is in power will also ally himself with MQM as necessary, and all the racist fuck-wits who accused musharraf of being an MQM stooge will not realize the irony of it.

- The same people will also forget who initially freed the electronic media.Crackdowns and disgreements now and then with the electronic media will continue, with some channels getting shut-down temporarily for crossing who-ever is in power.

- The electronic media will continue to be sensationalistic and bias/agenda driven.

- The dolts and conspiracy theorists will never give credit to Musharraf for holding a fair election. Not that they deserved one. (Stratfor confirmed)

Kosova is Free!

Happy Independence Kosovo!

Now how about Kashmir? And how about Chechnya and Dagestan? And Palestine?
One can hope!