Random Thoughts

Here's a nice overview of the Olympics from the point of view of some smaller nations... like Latveria, Khandaq, and Zandia.

Rich Johnson has a rumor about Identity Crisis that is so completely idiotic it might even be true. I'm sure you can find the rumor elsewhere, but I'll go ahead and put spoilers around it anyway, just in case: (spoilers)"The rumours doing the rounds is that Kyle Rayner is to be identified as the killer in "Identity Crisis." Apparently there's a flaw in his ring that has turned him crazy."(end spoilers)

Stuart Immonen has finished his 50 Reasons To Stop Sketching At Conventions. I've recognized myself in at least one of them, which made me cringe. (Maybe this one, too, although I don't think I've ever been upset with the final result of an Aquaman sketch, despite the artist feeling less than pleased with it.) I respect the artists and I don't want them to be stressed by me, so I feel guilty reading this even though most of them don't apply to me.

Speaking of sketches, my thanks to Pia Guerra and Rick Hoberg, who both responded very quickly to my request for permission to post their sketches on my blog. Oliver Coipel will be this Saturday's sketch, then Pia on September 18th, then Rick's sketch on September 25th. I will not be posting a sketch on September 11th.

More excellent linkblogging by Near Mint Heroes. Go, look. Read. Click.

Read a banned book. The list of the ten most challenged books of 2003 is out, and at the top of the list is a series I've never heard of. In fact, I've only heard of half the books on the list, and I've only read two (counting the series as a single book, as they do on the list).

Politics warning! Skip this last bit if you don't want to read poorly written rants about politics.

The latest Electoral College Predictor shows neither candidate winning a majority. Interesting stuff, as usual. There are several other electoral vote predictors around now, but this seems to be the best organized as well as the most methodical one. There's also now a couple of animated movies of the changes in the map over time. I like this one the best, but this one isn't too bad either.

New York City sounds worse than the infamous "Battle of Seattle" at the moment, with police arresting people for no good reason, like Bikes Against Bush techie Joshua Kinberg, who was arrested and spent the night in jail. In addition, the police have stolen his bike, which was souped up to draw perfectly legal chalk messages on the sidewalks as he rode. Although the arrest has utterly no merit whatsoever, the police will be holding onto his bike until after the convention that he was preparing to protest. Way to go, NY's finest! Stop protests by illegally arresting protesters and stealing their property! This is Bush's America: Freedom of speech is only for the people who agree with Bush.

Speaking of freedom of speech, Garrett points us to a particularly galling example of government censorship. The Department of Justice thinks this quote is a danger to national security: "The danger to political dissent is acute where the Government attempts to act under so vague a concept as the power to protect 'domestic security.' Given the difficulty of defining the domestic security interest, the danger of abuse in acting to protect that interest becomes apparent." That's from a Supreme Court decision, by the way.

By the way, depending on who you talk to, the New York protesters numbers "over 100,000" to nearly half a million. Either way, that's a lot of people protesting Bush.

If you still believe the Swift Boat Liars, here's a website that demolishes all their false claims. Sadly, some people will believe those lies anyway because the media isn't doing their job, and is simply passing on the lies like they were some sort of valid opinion, not facts that can be checked. They can hate Kerry all they want, but lying about his service in Vietnam is beyond the pale.

Ok, Politics rants over now. It's safe to read again.

And, since I can't end on such a political note, here's another picture from Nancy's Garden: