Possible Calendar Submission

Audrey B.

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This birthday card was made by request. Click here for more information. It will be one in a series of Holiday and Special events cards that will be made by Shapes and Visions in the near future. Feel free to contact me (shapesandvisions at yahoo dot com) for more information on requests.

And be sure to take our poll on whether blank cards are better or cards that come with signatures.

Patrick McGeehan, November 12, 2009

Susette Kelo’s house, a landmark of sorts, was moved from the Fort Trumbull neighborhood that was seized by New London. Ms. Kelo was the losing plaintiff in a 5-to-4 Supreme Court decision.

From the edge of the Thames River in New London, Conn., Michael Cristofaro surveyed the empty acres where his parents’ neighborhood had stood, before it became the crux of an epic battle over eminent domain.

City Councilman Robert M. Pero said, “I’m sure that there are people that are waiting out there to say, ‘I told you so.’”

“Look what they did,” Mr. Cristofaro said on Thursday. “They stole our home for economic development. It was all for Pfizer, and now they get up and walk away.”

That sentiment has been echoing around New London since Monday, when Pfizer, the giant drug company, announced it would leave the city just eight years after its arrival led to a debate about urban redevelopment that rumbled through the United States Supreme Court, and reset the boundaries for governments to seize private land for commercial use.

Read More Here

The grotesque dance of corporate legislators.

Bryan Zepp Jamieson, November 15, 2009

One of the early fallouts of “tort reform”, the ongoing drive by corporations to put themselves beyond the reach of the law, has been the widespread use of waivers mandating private arbitration in the event of any dispute. Corporations have then slipped this language into employment and service contracts, and would-be employees and customers often sign this waiver unwittingly, but in any event, if they don’t sign, they don’t get the employment or service they wanted.

How widespread is it? If you have health insurance, even if it’s through your employer, then you’ve probably signed this waiver. Nearly all health insurance companies have such a waiver, and it mandates that in the event of dispute (as, for instance, when the company decides you aren’t worth the trouble and arbitrarily decides not to pay your claim), you take it to private arbitration, the board of which is selected by the insurance company. In forty-nine states, you aren’t even allowed to discuss the results of the arbitration with anyone, and may not even reveal if you prevailed or not. California is the exception, since the state passed a sunshine law requiring the companies to publicly show the ratio of wins and losses of consumers who go through their arbitration process. The only real surprise is that the insurance companies only prevailed 95% of the time. Maybe the members of the panels would toss small bones to the most deserving, so they could go home and night and assure themselves that they weren’t total whores.

In the meantime, if you have health insurance, you’re pretty much reduced to hoping your company treats you honestly and fairly. You’ve signed away your First Amendment Right to Redress to an outfit that sees you as nothing more than a vehicle to maximizing profits. In other words (Representative Grayson’s), just hope you don’t get sick, and if you do, die quickly.

Kellogg-Brown Root, the former subsidiary of Halliburton and now spun off and known as KBR, Inc., had such a waiver as part of its terms of employ. Now, normally, that protects the company from civil suits, but not criminal complaints. You can’t sign away your right to redress under criminal law. But a lot of employees got sent over as part of the mercenary forces taking part in the occupation of Iraq.

First, because of Coalition Provisional Authority Order 17, employees of American firms over there were not subject to Iraqi legal authority unless they were acting outside the specifics of their job descriptions. The order reads, “Contractors shall not be subject to Iraqi laws or regulations in matters relating to the terms and conditions of their Contracts, including licensing and registering employees, businesses and corporations; provided, however, that Contractors shall comply with such applicable licensing and registration laws and regulations if engaging in business or transactions in Iraq other than Contracts.”

So all a Halliburton employee had to do if someone thought they were doing anything criminal was show it was just part of their job, and the local authorities couldn’t touch them.

Well, what did you expect from an occupying force? Justice?

CPA 17 was abolished after a bunch of Halliburton contractors slaughtered a dozen or so civilians at a busy down-town intersection, apparently for sport. The US was given a choice by furious Iraqis: annul that order and get the mercenaries the fuck out of there, or have the whole country blow up in their faces.

Now, there is a section of the US Code, Title 18, Part I, Chapter 1, § 7, called “Special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States defined”, which gives the federal government jurisdiction over crimes committed against American nationals where no other law applies. This was meant to protect Americans on the high seas, but could be applied to occupied Iraq. But the Bush administration’s Justice Department wasn’t about to enforce any laws against Dick Cheney’s former and future meal ticket.

So when Jamie Leigh Jones “found her body naked and severely bruised, with lacerations to her vagina and anus, blood running down her leg, her breast implants ruptured, and her pectoral muscles torn – which would later require reconstructive surgery” the only place she could turn to to complain about the drugging and subsequent gang rape she suffered from her coworkers, was Kellogg Brown Root itself. Armed with the rape kit she obtained from an army doctor, she approached the brass of KBR at Camp Hope in Iraq with the evidence of the assault upon her. They responded by locking her up in a storage shed with only a cot until she agreed to drop the complaint. In the meantime, the rape kit vanished.

Remember, it’s entirely possible that there are people in the employ of KBR Inc., who are not amoral human filth. It’s entirely possible.

That left her with no recourse at all. No criminal law could be applied, and she discovered, when she tried to sue, that the waiver she signed also included such on the job injuries as gang rape and sexual mutilation. Great stuff, that tort reform.

Fortunately, the 5th Circuit Court got the case anyway, and decided that justice superseded the right of corporations to evade justice. Her suit proceeded.

But freshman Senator Al Franken, when he heard about the case, realized that those waivers were a big part of the problem.

There may come a time when the vast majority of Republicans in Congress and far too many of the Democrats stop being monkeys on a stick, dancing for the corporations, but it isn’t today. Franken reached for what was in his grasp. He got an amendment through on a bill that allowed the government to refuse federal funds for companies that forced their employees or customers to sign such waivers.

Given the circumstances, a truly horrific rape followed by an even more horrific denial of justice, it’s hard to imagine that anyone would not support such an amendment. But 30 Senators, the following, voted against it: Alexander (R-TN) Barrasso (R-WY) Bond (R-MO) Brownback (R-KS) Bunning (R-KY) Burr (R-NC) Chambliss (R-GA) Coburn (R-OK) Cochran (R-MS) Corker (R-TN) Cornyn (R-TX) Crapo (R-ID) DeMint (R-SC) Ensign (R-NV) Enzi (R-WY) Graham (R-SC) Gregg (R-NH) Inhofe (R-OK) Isakson (R-GA) Johanns (R-NE) Kyl (R-AZ) McCain (R-AZ) McConnell (R-KY) Risch (R-ID) Roberts (R-KS) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Thune (R-SD) Vitter (R-LA) Wicker (R-MS)

Yup. All Republican. All men. The four Republican women in the Senate voted for it. A lot of people were furious at those 30 Senators.

A viral video of David “Diapers” Vitter, stalwart champion against sexual misbehavior, running away from a young woman and self-described rape victim who demanded he account for his vote against the amendment kept the vote in in the public eye, and a month later, Republican Senators were astounded by the fact that they were still getting political blowback over it. One of them, Thune, even whined that they only wanted to protect Halliburton/KBR from the vile liberal machinations of Franken. (The legislation does not mention Halliburton/KBR).

A Think Progress article marveling over the Republican tone deafness quoted one of their bloggers, BarbinMD as writing, “Seriously? They voted against an amendment that was prompted by the brutal gang-rape of a young woman by her co-workers while she was working for a company under contract for the United States government, after which she was locked in a shipping container without food or water, threatened if she left to seek medical treatment, and was then prevented from bringing criminal charges against her assailants. And they failed to anticipate the political consequences?”

Well, Thune, like his 29 fellow Senators, is just a monkey on a stick.

I wonder what he would think of similar legislation that went a little beyond requiring companies doing contractual work for the government to not have that waiver clause. This legislation, passed several days earlier, cuts off federal funding immediately for any organization that has been accused of any of the following:

1. Any organization that has been indicted for a violation under any Federal or State law governing the financing of a campaign for election for public office or any law governing the administration of an election for public office, including a law relating to voter registration.
2. Any organization that had its State corporate charter terminated due to its failure to comply with Federal or State lobbying disclosure requirements.
3. Any organization that has filed a fraudulent form with any Federal or State regulatory agency.
4. Any organization that (A) employs any applicable individual, in a permanent or temporary capacity; (B) has under contract or retains any applicable individual; or (C) has any applicable individual acting on the organization’s behalf or with the express or apparent authority of the organization.

Well, that would certainly eliminate Halliburton/KBR from any federal funding. Halliburton/KBR are under indictment for murder, rape, torture, endangering American troops, poisoning American troops, and selling arms to the insurgents.

In fact, it’s a tad broad. You could apply it to nearly every private contractor doing business with the government. Certainly every major military contractor would be disallowed under those provisions. Most of them haven’t just been accused of such items, but indicted and convicted. There are outfits that have been fined hundreds of millions of dollars for committing fraud against the government who are still doing business with the government, and getting billions of tax dollars, often so they can lie to and cheat the taxpayers even more.

But so far, it’s only been applied to one contractor, a real tiny one that only got a measly $25 million a year from the Feds. And it wasn’t convicted of anything; in fact, it hasn’t even been indicted.

That outfit, of course, was the dread ACORN. They got their funding cut in what was supposed to be “one-armed blind man” legislation (H. R. 3571) that in fact, was written so broadly that it can be used to eliminate the entire military industrial complex. All because an ACORN volunteer got caught groping on a highly suspect video for an answer to an outlandish question about the tax status of child prostitution.

I think you’ll agree that’s right up there with drugging, gang-rape, false imprisonment and destroying evidence, wouldn’t you?

So where were the thirty Republicans who were incensed at legislation designed to make sure that companies getting tax dollars respect the legal rights of their customers and employees?

Oh, they all supported it, of course.

Monkeys on a stick.

Tie me Kangarupe down, sport!

Bryan Zepp Jamieson, November 11, 2009

It really hasn’t been a good fortnight for Rupert Murdoch (hereinafter
referred to as “Kangarupe”) and his minions (hereinafter referred to as
“minions”).

First, there was the matter of the 23rd District in New York. This was
the one where the far right was supposed to really flex its muscles, and
solidify the role of Faux News as the true opposition party to the Obama
administration. A Conservative Party candidate named Hoffman ran, with
heavy backing from Faux, Sarah Palin, Pawlenty Stupid, and various other
big-name far right wingers, including, eventually, everyone’s favorite
politician-for-hire, Newt Gingrich. They knocked off the Republican
candidate, a moderate, and did it so viciously that she wound up giving
her support to the Democrat. Two days later the Democrat won, and Faux,
which had been promoting the 23rd as THE race that would show, once and
for all, that the GOP would have to align with them in order to win
seats in 2010, suddenly discovered two fairly uneventful governor’s
races, neither of which featured any upsets, but in which the
Republicans won.

Faux and minions couldn’t even bring themselves to mention Hoffman by
name, something that got widespread notice – and derision – among the
punditocracy. It was widely noted that the 23rd hadn’t gone for a
Democrat since 1871 (yes, that was eighteen seventy one). Faux tried
showing that the 23rd had changed shape from one decennial apportion to
the next, and that PARTS of what is now the 23rd had been represented by
Republicans at one point or another. They probably should have shut up
whilst they were behind, as various historians were quick to note that
the central town and population hub of the District, Watertown, hadn’t
had a Democratic Congressman since 1871.

That same day, Faux got into a fight with Oscar the Grouch.
That would be the muppet that lives in a garbage can on “Sesame Street”.
Long time readers with severe OCD and no life whatsoever will
doubtlessly recall that I mentioned Oscar in an essay about 10 years
ago. “Sesame Street” was being shot for a Russian audience, and it turns
out that Russians are unamused by grouchiness, and consider it an
extremely negative character trait, but consider sadness to be
hilarious. So Oscar the Grouch became Oscar the Lugubrious. But the
American Oscar, grouchy as ever, had his own media empire, featuring
luminaries such as Dan Rather-Not, and Walter Cranky. They referred to
guess who as “The Pox News Channel”, not such a bad name, given Faux’s
obsession with H1N1. Breitbart, acting on Kangarupe’s behalf, moaned
publicly that Pox didn’t get a cute, affectionate name like Walter
Cranky, and saw evidence of a liberal media conspiracy on PBS as a result.
Getting into fights with muppets rarely works out well, even if you are
a world-wide media conglomerate. This didn’t work out well for Pox, er,
I mean Faux. Kangarupe suffers from overenthusiastic minions.

Liberals around the world were delighted when Kangarupe announced that
he was going to put all his on-line material on a “pay to view” basis.
So Kangarupe started a fight with Google, implying that he would sue
Google if they linked to his pay-only articles. He considered use of the
opening paragraph or even the headline to be a violation of his
copyright. Google, puzzled, noted that there was a simple line of code
any programmer could put into a page that would put the page off limits
to Google. Given that Murdoch owns dozens of websites with millions of
pages, you would think he might know that.

Later that day, another heroine of the right imploded. Carrie Prejean,
widely seen as a victim of liberals because she is bigoted against gays
and who got fired because she didn’t bother to carry out any of her
contractual obligations, became a Faux front-liner. Until that day, when
an extremely explicit sex tape of her emerged. Along with anatomical
details they like to pretend beauty pageant winners don’t possess.

The shootings at Fort Hood, horrific as they were, should have been a
bonanza for Faux. Not only would it give them a chance to Moslem-bash,
but they could also claim that it showed the utter incompetence of the
Obama administration.

The problem, as it turned out, was they did exactly that and were
greeted with a stony silence from the vast majority of Americans. They
were just a bit too anxious to exploit the situation, and the false
claims that Hasan was in contact with al Qaida, and the ludicrous
attempts to show that Obama didn’t care because he was greeting the
crowd before he spoke of the shootings at an event didn’t go over with
the public.

In the meantime, Faux darlin’ Sarah Palin showed Kangarupe and minions
why McCain had so many blinding headaches during the campaign. It was
bad enough when it came to light that she wanted the Iowa Republicans to
pony up $100,000 if they wanted her to come and campaign (they decided
they could live without her), and then she announced that no recording
devices of any kind would be allowed at a speech she was giving. (You
can pretty much guess how that worked out, and if you can’t, have no
fear, because I shall tell you in a bit). That just added to her
now-monumental reputation as a politically tone-deaf flake. She had
already alienated many mainstream Republicans when she involved herself
in the 23rd and threw her support to the independent—the same one who
had the bad grace to lose the election of the century.

She gave the speech, and of COURSE someone sneaked a recording device
in. You aren’t really going to tell me you didn’t see that coming, are
you? The device caught her making a strange screed about the dollar
coins, which had “In God We Trust” on the rims. Palin saw the sinister
forces of liberalism behind this, an obvious effort to “secularize the
money.” Too bad Jesus isn’t at hand; I would love to see the expression
on his face when he learned that secularizing money just ain’t
Christian. The only trouble is that the decision to put the phrase on
the rim was made sometime in 2005, when Republicans controlled all three
branches of government. Darn those secular liberal Republicans! That was
so blatantly goofy, even Faux News had to admit they couldn’t blame
Obama for that.

Faux, caught off guard by the health care vote in Congress, immediately
started howling that Pelosi had broken her vow to post the bill 72 hours
before the final vote. It made for good howling until it emerged that
Pelosi had posted the working floor version of the bill – the one that
existed – 72 hours before the vote. Ooops.

That’s when it really started to go downhill for Kangarupe and his minions.
First there was the Republican anti-government rally fiasco. Bad enough
that featured speaker Michelle Bachman missed a vital quorum call,
costing her party a vote on some major legislation. There was the Faux
coverage, particularly that of minion Sean Hannity. They claimed 20 to
45 thousand showed (other estimates ran between 5 and 10 thousand) and
showed throngs of crowds after images of the Republicans on the
grandstand vowing to smash the evil American government. Jon Stewart and
his crew were watching, of course, and Faux handed them their own asses
on a silver platter. As Stewart gleefully noted, the demonstration took
place on a clear blue fall day, with the leaves on all the trees
changing color. But the images of the vast crowd listening were on a
partly cloudy day, and, mirabile dictu! The trees had all turned back to
green! Maybe right wingers emit large quantities of chlorophyll or
something.

Stewart then showed camera coverage of the rally, and camera coverage of
the big 9-12 rally two months ago. It was the same coverage. It didn’t
help that the voiceover from Faux was gushing about what an
extraordinary turnout it was for a cool fall Thursday, which, as Stewart
acidly noted, was actually a summer Saturday. Thanks to Faux, Stewart
hasn’t had to write a joke in years.

Kangarupe then went on a Sky network show to be interviewed by a minion,
and during the interview, affirmed that Obama was a racist for
saying…well, something or other. Kangarupe wasn’t sure what it was,
but it sure was racist. He knew this because Glen(n) Beck told him so.
Beck caught hell for that, and a Faux minion had to issue a formal
retraction and apology. And so Kangarupe blew that up. The next day,
they sent another minion out to explain that Kangarupe didn’t really
think that, and just said it because he said it, or something.
I wouldn’t want to be a Faux minion. Unless you happen to be a
sociopath, the job would give you ulcers.

Then Glen(n) Beck had his Army / McCarthy moment. McCarthy’s poisonous
reign of demagoguery ended when a lawyer named Welch turned to him and
said, “At long last sir, have you no shame?” Beck’s reign of demagoguery
ended yesterday.
He sued the owner and operator of a website, Isaac Eiland-Hall, the
satirist behind
glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com. Now, normally, if someone
puts up a website accusing you by name of raping and murdering a young
girl, regardless of the year, you would have grounds for a lawsuit.
Except the site never does actually claim he did such a thing. It just
notes that there was a rape at a specified address (in fact, the
location where the infamous “Duke LaCrosse Team” case occurred) and that
the name “Glen Beck” appeared in the documents. The site then says that
people are talking about this, and asks why Beck doesn’t come forward to
settle the matter once and for all.

In other words, it was a parody of the sleazy style Beck uses on his
show, night after night, to call Obama a racist, or imply that a member
of his adminstration facilitated underage gay sex, or that another
member was a Maoist.

Beck’s lawyers doubtlessly told him he couldn’t hope to win such a suit,
since the site is very clearly satirical and starts out saying they
don’t believe Glenn Beck raped and murdered a young woman in 1990.
So he filed a complaint with the World Intellectual Property
Organization instead, the outfit that tries to safeguard intellectual
property world wide.

He got a humiliating defeat Friday, when WIPO ruled that the site was
obviously satirical in nature and thus had strong first amendment
protection.

Eiland-Hall, gracious in victory, promptly emailed the account name and
password of the site to Glenn Beck to dispose of, and included a letter,
portions of which appeared in Raw Story and are reprinted below. It was
a complete humiliation of Beck. He lived by the smear, and he’ll die by
the smear.

Kangarupe and minions also got hit by a huge lawsuit from one Sandra
Guzman who is charging discrimination against Murdoch’s media empire,
News Corporation, the New York Post and its editor-in-chief Col Allan
for the treatment she received at Kangarupe’s flagship American paper.
Accusing Kangarupe and his eldest son of “”hostile work environment
where female employees and employees of colour have been subjected to
pervasive and systematic discrimination and/or unlawful harassment based
on their gender”, Guzman charged that she had been subject to such
treatment after trying to avoid yet another embarrassment to the
Kangarupe empire when she argued against the Post publishing a cartoon
which showed Obama as a dead chimpanzee.

Finally, remember the shrill brays about how the supposed “war” between
Faux News and the administration had sent ratings through the roof?
Turned out the numbers were fabricated, as so much of Faux “news” is.
The two week ratings, before and after, showed less than two points
difference in viewership, well within the normal range for such period.
So no ratings boost.
But now it might go up, as gleeful liberals watch to see what sorts of
fuckups Kangarupe and Minions pull next!

Excerpts of Eiland-Hall’s letter, printed by Raw Story:

In a letter to Beck that concluded with the username and password to
access the domain, Eiland-Hall said:

It bears observing that by bringing the WIPO complaint, you took what
was merely one small critique meme, in a sea of internet memes, and
turned it into a super-meme. Then, in pressing forward (by not
withdrawing the complaint and instead filing additional briefs), you
turned the super-meme into an object lesson in First Amendment principles.

Shame on you Mr. Beck.

There I was, enjoying a quiet moment with my family, when my husband prods Miss Q, “Tell Mummy what we did on Warcraft yesterday.”  I hold my breath, waiting for a bloody fight scene to be recounted by our two-year-old.

Thus far, her Warcraft exposure has been, as previously stated, watching his toon jump, dance and blow kisses.  With Miss Q on his lap, they’ve taken his toon and his toon’s mount – usually the cat – exploring through the villages and along the countryside.

He’s always kept her far-far away from the real Warcraft, i.e. the fighting, monsters, trolls, whatever else lurks within the dungeons.  But as of yesterday, he’s one step closer to his dream of her playing alongside him.  (One day in the distant-distant future.)

For, yesterday, unbeknownst to me, he created a Warcraft character for her.  I tell you, in our house, prolonged silence is suspicious.

“She looks like me,” my animated child says proudly.

“And, tell Mummy what else you have.”

“A penguin.”

“For real?”  I try to glare and be excited at the same time.

My husband and daughter both hold the same dopey grins.  I can’t believe he suckered her into his gaming world.  But then again, this is the same child who showed her grandpa how to get to the pod-casts on Daddy’s iTouch over Thanksgiving weekend.  She’s two-and-a-half.

Naturally, she’s growing up in a different world, technology wise than her dear ol’ mum, whom herself remembers panic, during first year of college, when teachers expected you to own a computer.

We don’t want to deny her experiences.  Miss Q soaks in everything the world offers.  She loves running, but sits for hours being read to; she creates interesting artwork and the most disgusting mud-pies.  So why do I feel a ping when I hear that she has added a toon and pet penguin to her repertoire?

Maybe it’s a ping of jealousy: she and my husband now share a bond to a world that I don’t want to be privy to.  Maybe it’s a ping that she’s growing up too fast.  How could it be that only 2.5 years ago she was a babe in arms?  Or maybe it’s a ping of  bemusement: he finally did it.

“He follows me wherever I go.”  Miss Q says of her new virtual pet.

At least we won’t have to stockpile fish in the  deep-freeze.

Major Nidal Malik Hasan’s rampage

Bryan Zepp Jamieson, November 8, 2009

It’s been about 48 hours since a inoffensive looking, balding, middle-aged army psychiatrist allegedly opened fire and shot 43 people in a major military base in Texas. The latest word is that the man accused of the shootings is off a ventilator at a nearby hospital, but paralyzed by the wounds he received from police. It’s not clear if he can communicate or not.

Like nearly everyone, I want to know why he did it. The only people who wish he had simply been killed outright are the ones who want to use the shootings as an excuse to go to war against all Moslems. But in this case, there is very little about the events that make any sense on the face of it – not that shooting 43 people and killing 13 of them makes much sense to begin with – and motive is only one of the big questions that need to be answered.

There doesn’t seem to be much doubt that he did it. The Independent reported that one of the police officers who shot him approached him and found him lying on his back, gun still in hand, and kicked it away. There is still doubt as to whether he acted alone or had an accomplice, but there doesn’t seem to be any evidence of any weapon other than the 5.7 handgun – a small caliber anti-personnel weapon with an extremely high muzzle velocity – being used.

That weapon is an anomaly in and of itself. It’s a high-end Belgian weapon, and costs well over $1,000. It’s designed very explicitly to kill people, and its manufacturer, FN Herstal, boasts of the extreme hydrostatic shock the high-velocity bullets will cause. It has a load of 20 bullets, and since Hasan fired at least 100 times, that means he reloaded at least five times. It was equipped with a high-end laser sight, which meant this army psychiatrist, who had no gun-range experience, spent over $2,000 just on this one weapon.

It’s not a military weapon, and the US army doesn’t even have an equivalent. But it’s very nearly the perfect gun for someone who wants to wade into a crowd of unarmed people and massacre a lot of them. I expect it to become a big item for Christmas at the gun shops this year.

How is it, though, that this man, a Walter Mitty sort with no special training in killing people, was able to open fire in a major military base, pausing only five times to reload, and kill all those people? Even if all the soldiers were disarmed on the base, were none of them trained in taking out an armed adversary in hand-to-hand?

Much has been made of how Hasan was about to be shipped off to Afghanistan (yesterday, in fact) and how he was deeply conflicted over the prospect of killing fellow Moslems. Except that doesn’t make any sense.

The man was a doctor, and a major. He wasn’t going to be riding patrols along the Kybar highway of death, or even doing street patrols in Kabul. He was going to be in a military hospital in Afghanistan, doing pretty much the same as what he was doing state-side; trying to ease the psychological and emotional injuries of war that are the biggest invisible damage the troops suffer over there.

Nobody was going to make him shoot and kill people, and in any event, you don’t usually protest being made to shoot and kill people by running out and shooting and killing people.

That his religion played a role in this seems beyond doubt, but it’s not what the hate-mongers on the far right think. They’ve been busily painting him as an extremist in the mold of al Qaida or the Taliban, and that’s sheer nonsense. He was American born, of parents who left Palestine long before Israel reduced it to a charnel house. There’s no shortage of people who have come forward and expressed shock because he loved America and was proud to be in the military. If his parents passed their grievances on to him, it manifested in a odd way, because he didn’t become an observant Moslem until after his mother’s death, in 2001. The pattern just doesn’t fit someone who is seething with rage against America.

What role did his religion play? It’s unlikely he thought he might have to shoot his fellow believers, since even in the Army, psychiatrists don’t usually get into firefights. Nor would he have felt any unusual affinity for the people of Afghanistan, since his family came from over a thousand miles away and a vast culture apart (Palestine is closer in customs to London than to Afghanistan).

He was apparently subject to slurs and taunting from other military people who felt that no Moslem should be in the military. While it wouldn’t turn him against America, it would have left him feeling largely alienated and isolated. Unfortunately, the army has a lot of mindless bigots in it, and as a consequence, gays, women, and people who aren’t Christian fundies all suffer to various degrees. These bigots really are the Achilles heel of the American military.

The first place to look is at how his role as a psychiatrist played into this. He specialized in treating returning soldiers with PTSD, and day in and day out shared the nightmares of those damaged heroes.

It’s a truism that psychiatrists need shrinks of their own more than most people, and the main reason is that the constant wading in the blackness of injured and diseased minds gets to them, and makes them a little crazy.

I would look at his profession as first cause, and reaction to his religion, rather than the religion itself, as the second cause.

Put a man under severe emotional stress. Then isolate and alienate him, and then ratchet up the stress.

What happens? Keep in mind, Hasan IS an American, born and bred. He’s been told, even if he didn’t believe, that guns can solve all your problems. He’s been told this a million times.

What happens next?

In all this, there was a bright spot, a moment where one of the bereaved reached up and touched the ideals of his faith. This, according to the AP, whose tone was not approving:

“‘Lord, all those around us search for motive, search for meaning, search for something, someone to blame. That is so frustrating,’ Col. Frank Jackson told a group of about 120 people gathered at the post’s chapel. ‘Today, we pause to hear from you. So Lord, as we pray together, we focus on things we know.’

“Jackson asked worshipers to pray for the 13 dead and 29 wounded that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is accused of shooting, but also asked them to pray for Hasan and his family ‘as they find themselves in a position that no person ever desires to be.’

“‘And Lord, teach us to love and pray for those who rise up against us and pray for those who do us harm. We pray for Maj. Hasan. Asking that you do the work that only you can do in his life,” Jackson said.”

At the other end of the spectrum is Joe Lieberman, who was quick to run onto Faux News and exploit the tragedy for his vendetta against Moslems. From the same AP article: “Sen. Joe Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said he plans to begin a congressional investigation to determine whether the shootings constitute a terrorist attack. Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, said on Fox News Sunday that he wants to find out whether the Army missed warning signs that Hasan was becoming extreme.”

In the middle are the rest of us, who are glad Hasan is alive so he can answer the question we all have: Why? I don’t trust the American media to give us the answer. They’ve already come in and made a propaganda circus out of Kim Munley, one of the two cops who apparently shot Hasan. She supposedly, despite being shot and wounded herself, brought him down.

Except she took two rounds, one to each leg, from a weapon designed to maximize hydrostatic shock. I have a friend who took a rifle shot in the leg during basic training in the fifties, and he still has medical problems from it today. She would have been out of commission. She may well be a hero, but she isn’t the Amazon bravely returning fire after being shot that the press is painting. She may be getting the PFC Jessica Lynch treatment.

So if the media is bullshitting us already in their vapid desire to give us bite sized drama kibble in place of news so they get good ratings, don’t expect much in the way of insight or keen analysis if Hasan tells his tale.

But the truth will eventually out, and hopefully, we’ll learn why he murdered and injured all those poor people.

An outstanding satirical mod for Warcraft called NameScore, which scores characters based upon their name.

a) Because GearScore was not arbitrary enough. This will really set the cat amongst the pigeons.
b) Because I’ve been banging on about bad player names for years, but not seen this.

Pure excellence.

Malign of Nagrand – LFM NAXX 25, MUST BE GEARED, 5k+ GEARSCORE, 75+ NAMESCORE, 5K+ DPS, PST ACHIEVEMENTS.

Although the hype and glorious content of Patch 3.3 is still to arrive, I’ve started pondering Cataclysm.

What will the leveling process will be like, and what will we need to be successful on release?

Well geared toons will be killing machines

For starters I’ll assume that like me, most folks here have a Death Knight as your main toon, or a toon that you play a lot. This means that even if you’re only in middle range gear you’ll massively over-gear the monsters in the level 80-81 areas in the new game. The starting areas (if history repeats once again) will have mobs around 79-81 and as a well geared DK you’ll find them quick work. This is because those monsters will be tuned for players who are questing though 79 to 81 without the time spent at level 80 getting epic gear, and all the advantages that offers. And unlike last time the Death Knights will be first on the ground next to all the other classes to play thorugh the content.

What I also expect though is the creatures in the “new” zones to be far tougher than the creatures in Northrend. This is for two reasons. Firstly Blizzard wants us to feel like we are stepping up to a changed world. I expect that the mobs will hit harder, have more resistance, and possibly even have smarter AI hanndling them. I hope that we need to engage our brains and kill tactically, rather than just zerg through the content like we could in Hellfire Pen.

Secondly there will only be 5 new levels for characters to advance. That means that each level will be longer, and the jumps in difficulty will be broader across those levels. I’d expect a level 82 mob to be a tough challenge for a well geared 80; and to basically to be borderline impossible for a 78-79. Just like fighting a level 7 when you were level 4, you ‘ll need luck and skill to pul it off. Again ponder the challenge of being a level 79 wearing green ilevel 174-200 gear, vs being a epic geared Champion of Wrath wearing ilevel 260+. It will be a totally difference experience. Some players will not be replacin gear till late in the new leveling process, which is kind of to be expected.

A possible flaw in this theory is if Blizzard include a radical ”re-adjustment” when the change the stat balance and itemisation on the gear. It could be that all the gear levels get hashed to far more granular numbers, and that an old ilevel 213 epic is similar in power to a Rare 200, and a better 219. We really don’t know what will happen when all the peripheral stats are squeezed  from the items in place of base stats. This could see the difference between the 200s and the 232 items being far less.

Overall I expect anyone in gear of ilevel 213-219 or better to be fine and have no real issues. Like having a set of nice entry level epics when Wrath was released, it made for nice gear to have until your quest rewards let you sell it to a vendor.

So what can you do now?

Prepare now, and plan ahead

Grab plenty of pots, have bandages, and all the other useful leveling items ready. I aim for zero downtime when leveling, and that can mean HP regen food, entry level potions, and even simple bandages can accelerate the time between kills.

It is far too early to be putting together a leveling team, but think about who plays regularly at you time. Come early 2010 when the expac is released (total guess) you’ll want a set of guildies and mates to streamline the leveling. Nothing makes leveling more fun that chatting about how awesome it is on Vent while you all experience it together.

Start building your warchest now

Stockpile the items you think folks will want. Ore, herbs, cloth, everything will be valuable again when all the alts hit the servers. I think most players will roll a Goblin and Worgen at some stage just to see the areas, and that means more that a few will be hitting the AH to grab mats for profession grinding. Remember all the Draeni and Blood Elf toons, and what that did to the price of Tin and Mithril ore? Well expect that to happen again.

Bonus XP will Dissappear

I’d guess that when Cataclysm is patched into our game all the +10% experience gear will have a 1-79 limitation placed on them, as I can’t see Blizzard delberately putting in only 5 levels and then letting us accelerate our way through. I can however see the logic of allowing the existing leveling process before 80 to be sped up. All the new classes that roll a Goblin or Worgen should get full advantage. On that note, perhaps the current items will be a token that is used to purchase the upgrades ones at level 85 a few months after release?

But you’re a scrub, alt DK huh?

If however your Death Knight is not your major character, and is played casually then you’ll have different needs when the expansion hits. Expect the mobs to crush and hurt you if you get even slightly out of your depth.

Quick aside: please keep your DK as your Alt, there are a heck of a lot of DKs already and rolling against 5 others in every bloody 25m raid is a pain.

What will change from last expansion?

Last expansion the Death Knights were slightly behind the curve of leveling. We hit the game at 58 and had some repeat work to do before we saw Northrend at 68. This time we can teleport back to the old world straight away with everyone else, and see what Deathwing has done first hand. I could not help but see some content with an old 70 when Wrath was released, as it was just too darn exciting, and this time the Death Knights will be on the front line straight away.

That said however the Death Knight starting exerience was pure unholy cream. The “starting” gear was very nice, and this made leveling easy. If you are leveling thorugh from a low level toon please expect to die.

Some predictions?

Roleplaying will get a minor revival

As an aside I look forward to the huge RP opportunities for my Death Knight – as seeing a world torn apart by flame and destruction is nothing new for a Death Knight, but will be new for the host of old world races. The opportunities abound to listen to them cry, bitch, and moan about what an awful creature Deathwing is. Frankly, it will be nice to see some suffering…

I still contemplate if the Death Knights will be used by as many folks in the next expansion, or if the new class race options will see a revival of options.

Gear might get totally insane

It is possible that through the use of creative drop rates, phasing, and level requirements that monsters and encounters for level 80+ characters might be very hard, and therefore offer upgrades in the order of ilevel 270+. This is because it is possible that the gear reset will be so radical, that granting a green quest reward with stats akin to a lower epic are ok. It gives the less to mid geared toons a slight upgrade, and also would vendor for a small fortune for those who don’t need the item. I would not be surprised to see the vendor price being easily 12-15g.

This will being a raft of bitching from some players, but nothing that we have not turned off trade chat to avoid before.

Still plugging away at the fourth RAD RAZ cartoon, “Uncle Horace.” This cartoon requires significantly more backgrounds. You’ve already seen 3, and here are 2 more. As the story stands right now, there are at least 4 more to draw! Stay tuned for this cartoon, and then stick around after that, as I’m considering doing a Thanksgiving special!

-Jack

Existe un sistema ya mas que conocido para vender tus diseño de poleras a tiendas online en la cual participas por popularidad de tu diseño, una especie de concurso.

Bueno, encontré una pagina muy similar pero que trabaja con juguetes (PatchTogether). Me pareció demasiado cool la idea así que me inscribí de inmediato y tire un nuevo render de unos antiguos modelos que me parecían ideales para presentar como una opción de juguete. La verdad es que no le ha ido muy bien, jaja, pero bueno, todo el feedback  me servirá para los próximos que realice.

Saludos!

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