Yeah, it's an obvious and desperate grab for Hillary voters, and probably the smartest thing the Republicans will do this year. But, how appealing is an anti-abortion, pro-Bush, inexperienced and self described 'hockey mom' to any real Democrats? I'm betting Sarah Palin will come back to bite him on the ass. Just because she doesn't have a wang, doesn't make her any different than the other Republican wangs.

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From here.

From the WOTC website:

Dear Mr. Goldfarb,

I was disappointed to read the disparaging intent of your comments regarding Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fans, both in your response to New York Times editors, and on the John McCain campaign website.

Dungeons & Dragons is a global game with millions of consumers in the U.S. and abroad. The brand is owned by Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc.

For fans, the game is essentially about heroism and therefore it is not surprising to us that thousands of military personnel play and enjoy the game. Hasbro, in turn, supports the U.S. Armed Forces by sending multiple crates of game products, including Dungeons & Dragons, to our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Recently a soldier who saw your comments online said, “Wizards of the Coast (the makers of D&D) has sent care packages to the troops on many occasions, providing free gaming supplies in support of our men and women serving the country overseas to help them decompress after hours. McCain's people should really check their facts before they spout off. Does John McCain have no idea how many GIs play D&D?”

We would very much appreciate you not making any more condescending comments about D&D -- as it is a great game enjoyed by millions of people around the world. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Wayne Charness
Senior Vice President
Hasbro, Inc.

Previously.
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From here.

Jeff claims to be raised by trout, looking at his excellent fly illustrations, I almost believe him:








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From here.

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From here.

A baby born with two heads has died at home in Bangladesh.

The boy, named Kiron, was taken home by his family last night against doctors' advice, as they were too poor to keep him in hospital, reports said.

Kiron was born with two heads, causing crowds of 150,000 to surround a hospital as they try to get a glimpse of him yesterday.

Police were called in to control the throngs in Bangladesh amid fears of a stampede that could crush the boy and his 22-year-old mother.

The baby had at first seemed healthy but last night doctors were trying to confirm how many sets of vital organs he has and assess his chances of survival.

"We wanted to refer him to a hospital in Dhaka but the family was so poor that they could not afford to take him there, so they took him home where he died," paediatrician K.S. Alam told the AFP news agency.

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From here.

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From here.

Wired blog asks 'If John McCain were a D&D character, what kind would he be?'

In other news, finally a version of McCain that I can endorse:


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From here.

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From here.

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From here.

Yes, I am still alive. Took a little break from posting after erasing my hard drive while installing Boot Camp. Lesson learned. Macs do not like Windows. Not doing that again.

To celebrate my return to posting, here is a monkey pleasuring himself:



And here is a monkey sexually abusing a toad:



Enjoy!


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Like I need another reason not to vote for McCain:

It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman's memory of war from the comfort of mom's basement, but most Americans have the humility and gratitude to respect and learn from the memories of men who suffered on behalf of others.

First off, McCain was released from Vietnam in 1973, The first edition of Dungeons & Dragons was published in a small scale in 1974. The Vietnam war officially 'ended' in 1975, so I doubt a lot of the Dungeons & Dragons crowd were playing anything in their mother's basement during this time except maybe the the first Rush album. Secondly, does the McCain really need to alienate this demographic any further, considering those D&D types are now running most of the technology of the world, something McCain has proven he knows absolutely nothing about. Thirdly, fuck you Michael Gordfarb.

This is also why I will never use Cingular, relentless stereotyping of the 'Dungeons & Dragons' crowd. We all drive vans with wizards painted on the side (yes, I would love to, but who can afford to gas a van?), we all live in our parent's basement, and we are socially inept, and women scare the living shit out of us. How smart is it for a technology company to ridicule the people who make up it's base?

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From here.

Just try not to squirm:



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From here.

Barack Obama’s historic candidacy has sparked an unprecedented artistic outpouring. Now, in partnership with Shepard Fairey and his Obey Giant collective, we’re offering a new way for artists—anyone with a pen and paper qualifies—to share their talents and help elect Barack Obama at the same time.

It’s called Manifest Hope, and it’s a new Obama art contest for 2D and 3D art, from painting to photography to sculpture. The winners will be shown at the Manifest Hope Gallery online and in Denver during the Democratic convention alongside works from dozens of established and influential artists.

More information here.


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From here.

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From here.

Obama's birthday was celebrated today the only way Lansing knows how, by burning a cop car in his honor!

While waiting in line on Michigan Avenue in front of Lansing's Civic Center to see Obama give a speech on energy, a police car rolled to a stop across the road from us with steam rolling out of the hood. At first we laughed, then after the cops milled around the car a bit it suddenly was clear that the steam was actually smoke, and that it wasn't stopping but actually growing.

Then we laughed harder. At this point the cops decided it was time to get the important stuff out of the car, their lunch. Not kidding, the cops took what could only be a burrito wrap from the car, abandoning the ammo and gun. Unfortunately, I missed that shot. I started snapping shots immediately after:


Ah, yes. We can probably take care of this with a couple of extinguishers, right?








Abandon all hope, the car is a goner:







This is when the ammo in the burning vehicle started going off and the volunteers decided to move the line further down to safety:


Gun fire didn't seem to bother this guy:








Welcome to Lansing Barack!

Ironically, when we got inside the Civic Center we noticed this on the information board:


I didn't notice if Hall A had cleared out or not, didn't seem to phase Barack though:



Upate: The Lansing State Urinal, as usual, reports inaccurately, the car was not 'parked' until the police men jumped out of it, and there were quite a few people around it, not to mention a line across the street when the ammunition started going off in the flaming car. But at least they managed to not miss the giant flaming police car in front of the rally, congratulations LSJ.

Update update: MSU's State News gets it wrong too, apparently the police are sticking to the story that the car was parked when it caught on fire. If anyone spent a minute interviewing anybody at the scene or looking for witnesses, they would know that the 2 officers in the car were driving when they pulled it to the side of the road, smoke streaming from the car, clutching desperately for their burrito lunches and abandoning the live ammo. Sounds like the police are just trying to cover up the officers incompetence in dealing with the embarrassing situation.

Found live video footage here, you can even hear the ammo going off.



The State News posted another multimedia video here of the police car burning, again you can hear the ammo going off and what I believe is a fireman yelling about live rounds.


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Somewhere around Brandon, nearly 18hours into the trip, a new passenger boarded the bus. He was aged about 40, wore sunglasses, stood approximately six feet tall and weighed 200 pounds. Witnesses say he stowed his luggage and sat at the front of the bus without speaking to anyone.

About half an hour later, the bus stopped for a smoke break. The man stepped off for a cigarette and reportedly chatted calmly with a female passenger.

Twenty minutes later, at roughly 8:30 p. m. central time, and as some of the passengers watched the movie Zorro, there was a noise that some described as a terrible "yowl." Others said it was a "blood-curdling scream."

Garnet Caton, who was sitting directly in front of the victim, told reporters he initially thought a fist fight had broken out.

"Arms were flailing and stuff like that, but then I saw the guy had a knife -- a big frickin' Rambo knife, a hunting knife and it was covered in blood," Mr. Caton told the CBC.

"Everybody else started screaming," an elderly woman said. "They had terror in their eyes."

Mr. Caton ran to the front of the bus and screamed at the driver to stop. The bus pulled to the side of the highway about 20 kilometres east of Portage la Prairie. Some passengers needed to be roused from sleep, but within seconds they were all on their feet and pushing toward the front.

One woman was knocked over as they fled the attacker, who stabbed his victim in the chest, neck, arms, legs and stomach.

Witnesses say the man stabbed his victim between 40 and 50 times before he was done.

"Some people were puking, some people were crying, other people were in shock…. Everybody was running, screaming, off the bus," Mr. Caton said.

Passengers stumbled from the bus into a prairie evening that offered little shelter. "There was nowhere to go," a passenger told reporters. The crowd eventually huddled outside at the tail of the bus. Mr. Caton, the bus driver and a truck driver who had seen the commotion returned to the bus to survey the scene, armed with a crowbar and hammer from the trucker's vehicle.

The trio saw the attacker on top of his victim, clearly working to remove the man's head and "gutting him like an animal," according to Mr. Caton.

Within moments, the attacker noticed the three men watching him and started to move toward the front of the bus. The three men fled, closing the door just as the man reached them. Mr. Caton held the door shut while the driver attempted to use a control panel to close it and the man slashed at them through a remaining crack. "We were telling him, 'Stay put, stay put, stay there, don't try to come out,' " Mr. Caton said.

But with one strong heave, the man pushed the door open, forcing Mr. Caton and the two others to flee behind the bus. They then worked their way around the far side, glancing underneath to see if they could spot the attacker's feet on the other side.

Determining the attacker was back on the bus, the men ran and pushed the door closed, then sat there to hold it shut.

The man made several attempts to open the door and then moved to the driver's seat, where he seemed to attempt to start the vehicle. Somehow, the driver managed to disable the vehicle.

While the attacker was now trapped on the bus and unable to flee, he was not done taunting his fellow passengers. He returned to the back of the bus, where his victim's body was located.

"He came very calmly toward us with the knife in one hand, the head in the other," Mr. Caton said. "The three of us were just standing there in shock and he just calmly looked at us with sunglasses on and dropped the head in front of us like it was no big deal."

In a separate interview with the Winnipeg Free Press, Mr. Caton said: "When we saw the head, we knew he was dead."

Police arrived at the bus about 10 minutes after the incident began, according to witnesses.

The attacker mocked police as they closed the highway in both directions and surrounded the bus. RCMP officers led the passengers onto school buses, where they waited for the standoff to end.

From their seats, they could see the attacker dangling his victim's head from his hand.

"He picked the head up, looked at the cops, dropped the head and walked back to the body," Cody Olmstead, who was seated three seats in front of the incident, told the Free Press.

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From here.