Okay, so I just got word that somehow a virus (and/or spyware) was being propagated through my commenting system, BlogSpeak. I sincerely hope no one was adversely effected, and I disabled comments as soon as I got word, which wasn't until today. Details are sketchy, but from the sounds of it, if anyone picked up the cirus, they would know. Yesterday, I did get several comments that were causing a pop-up window to appear. I deleted those ASAP, but I don't know if those were related or not. I will pass along more info as it becomes available.

There's the old maxim that "there's nothing quite like the first time." Well, one of those special "first times" for me was the first time I read The Onion. What, you thought I was gonna tell you some awful sex story from my past? Ha ha, keep in mind who you're dealing with. Actually, this leads to some sex stories, but none of mine.

I can only remember two things: the McDonald's article where they talked about the good ol' days when the food chain was into "hardcore shit like the McLean Deluxe" and the Savage Love sex advice column.

That installment of Savage Love has become legendary, and I managed to track it down here. Anyone familiar with Savage Love knows what to expect, but for anyone unfamiliar, it's a no-holds-barred sex advice column that doesn't care if you're offended, and as such, doesn't pull its punches.

I think Krugman has been on vacation, but it looks like he's back now.

I couldn't find the Chobits volume 8 which has the box and Chi figure that's fucking exclusive to Borders and Waldenbooks a couple of days ago, but here it is. They don't have a street date on the page, but I could have sworn Tokyopop's page said Oct. 7th.

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Hey, wasn't someone just saying something about religion being dangerous and ruining lives?

Hey, it seems to have worked for a lot of famous artists.

According to Anime News Network, Square Enix is planning on making a Final Fantasy VII CG movie. A few details and links to some images can be found here, but I wanna see some pictures of Tifa, goddammit.

Well, despite what the Judge of Nottingham had to say about it, the do-not-call list is going into effect in two days... Sorta.

Woo hoo! Maybe it's time to start going after older women. Yeah, except for the fact that it would be weird bringing home someone close in age to my parents. On the other hand, my mother might have someone new to go shopping with. I'm going to stop now before this gets super creepy.

Jay has made good on his threats to start ranting again, and the 'net is a better place for it. His post today entitled "Sept. 11 begins to get clearer and clearer" has some things I agree with, and some things I disagree with. I was originally just going to respond in his guestbook, but I decided to be a prick and just turn his topic into a rant of my own. Nothing but quality here.

I think my credentials for being against the US pushing its beliefs and values on others is pretty well established. It's immoral, and if nothing else, impractical as it just creates more enemies for us and causes instability around the world.

That being said, however, just because something is "different," or tradition, or rule of law doesn't mean that it isn't still wrong. We live in a PC world that tells us to accept everything, but I don't think that means that we should just let people get away with harsh shit just because it's different without at least saying something about it. I know this is coming from my biased Western perspective, but having things like equality for women is just the right way to go, and I can't let people off the hook just because of religion.

Religion, of course, is what so much of this stems from. I was thinking about it today, and I realized that religion ruins more lives than... Anything. Not really a new fact, just one of those things that really strikes you when you actually articulate it.

I realize this is very dangerous territory to say that people should be willing to stand up for what they think is "moral", because that's what allows Christian fundamentalists to feel justified doing things like killing abortion doctors. There is no easy answer to the debate.

Still, though, can anyone who's had the opportunity to live in a free society (well, free for now, more or less) say that things like equality of the sexes isn't a good thing? Can any of us honestly say that these things aren't progress? Yes, of course, it's biased, because this is what we know and what we have lived with, but it's the best we can do in terms of objectivity.

I also agree that feminists often do take things too far, they can be hypocritical, and they can behave like fascists. All the while, lots of men are pigs. Those guys who are castrated for rape or molestation fucking deserve it, and I wouldn't mind seeing harsher, more barbaric punishments for those crimes here. Men get tons of shit - lots of it deserved, some of it undeserved. But you know what? Women and other minorities have faced tons more shit over the years, having faced awful discrimination which hasn't completely disappeared. People aren't up in arms over men being punished harshly because men have always had it so fucking good. While we're at it, relax white guys. The white male patriarchy isn't in danger of disappearing anytime soon. Let's cut the others some much deserved slack, but not so much that it becomes abused. It's time to start taking these changes in society like a man.

So what's the answer? I don't know. On one hand, I don't feel like we have any business dictating to other countries how to behave. Part of the problem is that even though I feel some people are right in their criticisms of others, they don't handle it in a very reasonable fashion. Anytime we go after someone else, it is with the condescending tone of "We're better because we're America." Some of the things that people like feminists are pushing for are the right things to do, but they go about it in the worst way possible. How can we work for what is right and for progress, while at the same time not being such fucking pricks about it? It's probably impossible, because we will most likely never have the credibility we need. However, we could probably start by at least acting more evolved if we're going to be telling people we're so evolved. Oh, then there's the fact that it's really hard to define what is truly "right" and "progressive" and to get everyone to agree on that.

On the other hand, I'm not ashamed to stand up and say that things like genital mutilation are just fucking wrong, and they are barbaric. Keep in mind that things flow both ways; these other countries consider us equally decadent and hell-bound for the things we do. Granted, they don't have the military might of the US to enforce what they want to enforce, but NOW doesn't exactly have its own air force to go and stop stonings and mutilations, either. In the end, we don't have right to tell others what to do, but that doesn't mean we can't form and express our opinions on the matter. Again, the door swings both ways.

Wouldn't it be neat if there was a supreme being to sort all this out for us? Well, there isn't. Or if there is, he is clearly not fucking helping. So we're on our own, and we're not doing a stellar job thus far.

I clearly have no answers on how to solve this conundrum, and I had better punt here before this really unravels.

You know things are bad between Bush and Chirac when Georgie sends that bitch Laura after the Frenchman.

While we're on the subject, fuck Laura Bush. And not in that happy fun way, either.

There are lots of maybes in there, Mr. Safire.

Yeah, there's still a chance that WMD may be found. Just because we haven't located them yet doesn't mean they aren't there, but just because we haven't located them yet doesn't mean they are. Keep in mind that even I am surprised as hell that we haven't found anything. Despite having been against the war, I thought Saddam had some shit - I just wasn't convinced that he would try to use his weapons, or if he tried, I didn't think he'd be very successful.

Is Saddam the bloodiest tyrant in the past generation? Safire could be right, but it seems like there have been a few other assholes running around in the last 20 years or so that could lay claim to the title.

Safire brings to light the fact that, yeah, the media does just report on all of the bad shit going on over there, and doesn't show any of the positive advances. However, regardless of what good we may be doing, that doesn't just make all the bad go away, and it doesn't wash away the $87 billion first installment for reconstruction (on top of what we've paid already in tems of life, money, and resources), with no clue as to how much more will be necessary in the future.

We should be "secretly hoping our coalition sticks around to make the country governable"? Well, that's up to us, since we are the "coalition."

Again, despite having been against going in, I agree that we can't just leave. Now that we're there, we have to stick it out. But is there some better way besides $87 billion? And do we really have the balls to see this through? Keep in mind Afghanistan, which we were supposed to be rebuilding not too long ago. Yeah, we're still there, but we're spending $1 billion a year on Afghanistan right now, and $1 billion a week in Iraq. From what I understand, Afghanistan is still quite a mess - Kabul is improved, but that seems to be about it. Of course, Afghanistan doesn't have the world's second largest oil reserves.

While we're on the subject, I'm sure there are some people out there screaming "It's not about oil! We're not there to take their oil!" Yeah, no shit we're not going to take it, but just about everything we do in the Middle East is in some way or other related to oil (hell, maybe everything we do is oil related). We couldn't just take full control of the oil fields and their profits, because that would look bad. But don't think we won't profit in one way or another by having a heavy influence over the flow of oil in Iraq.

If nothing else, can we quit trying to push this as a war of necessity, and that "the world is safer today"? There's really no way to prove that we're safer, especially with the spike in terrorism that we're seeing inside Iraq. How is that a victory in the war on terror? Keep in mind that Iraq being a hotbed of terrorism is probably just the beginning - just wait until we start seeing the repercussions outside of Iraq's borders.

No, this was a war of choice. A war of choice designed to meet the aims of PNAC, who long before September 11th decided that Saddam needed to be removed. Now that many of the signers of that letter to Bill Jeff are in power, they have done just that. Even if WMDs are unearthed, I don't think they're going to be anywhere near as numerous as we were told. Saddam did not have the capabilities Bush and his gang used to sell this war.

Like always, what's done is done. We need to move forward, while not forgetting about the people we've pledged to help. Furthermore, we need to take some real steps to enlist the help of our allies in reconstruction. With the animosity Bush has built up, though, I'm not convinced that's possible while Bush is still in office. We need to get our shit together, otherwise Iraq may degenerate into something even worse than what it was during the days of Saddam.

Taking action in Iraq was not necessary to ensure our security before the war, but it is now.

Here's an interesting site if you're feeling... saucy: Sex Confessional.com. As you may have guessed, it's a site where people to submit their sex confessions. All sorts of categories, so probably something for everyone. Also, and not like I need to tell you this, but this link is TBA (to be avoided) while at work, no kids, blah blah blah.

I'm still buying ADV Monthly, despite the fact that Megami kicks the ass out of it (and indeed, kicks the ass out of everything in print media ever). Despite the anime focus of the magazine, the September issue proved useful for just about anything but anime. Okay, except for the shitty fan art, which is still my favorite part.

This month introduced me to some cute Japanese pop stars. Why must you tempt me with your plaid skirts and knee-high socks?!

Next, and something everyone may enjoy, is a video series called Kung Faux. Old kung foo films cut down to 30-minute installments, with voice work re-done by hip-hop artists and skateboarders, with video game and comic shit thrown in for good measure. I haven't looked at any clips yet thanks to fucking dialup, but will check those out within a day or two at work.

So despite having loved the original and having had the disc for a decent while now, I finally decided to bust out Volume 1 of Gate Keepers 21 tonight. For anyone who cares, there aren't any spoilers in here, just some general observations.

Volume 1 contains the first three episodes, which I enjoyed. The animation is sharper and crisper, which looked good to me. The show is darker than the original, both in terms of the artwork and the mood of the show. Despite the differences in appearances, the show is definitely Gatekeepers thanks to the character designs of Keiji Goto (who, among other things, worked on the original and Nadesico). Oh, and there's a 5.1 Japanese sound track, which is fucking great and needs to be done all the time with other shows. Fuck that 5.1 dub shit, or, while we're on the subject, dubs period.

21 doesn't quite have the "fun" feel of the original, which isn't a bad thing per se; it's just different in that it's more serious. That's not to say that there isn't some good comedy in there, however, because there is. There are some definite tie-ins to the original series, as well as some inside stuff that you're just not going to get or fully enjoy without having seen at least some of the original.

I'm looking forward to getting the rest of the series, which I'll probably be doing this week when I go to pick up a couple of other discs, including the long fucking overdue last disc of Kare Kano (His and Her Circumstances for you non-pretentious types).

If nothing else, Gatekeepers 21 has shown me that it's time to get a new cell phone, because the one I have is crap.

I don't know, do you think Americans are really 'embarassed' by Dubya? I know I certainly am, and I definitely feel that others should be as well. However, I am far from convinced that I am in any way representative of mainstream thought (in fact, I really hope I'm not... nothing more boring than 'mainstream').

Also, am I the only one who hears Dr. Evil's voice in my head anytime someone uses a "laser" metaphor?

Ask, and ye shall receive. A couple of days ago I wondered out loud as to what the hell had happened to the guy running Marcellus Wallace's Bloody Gitch. Well, it looks like he has returned to the land of 'blogging. Welcome back, Jay.

The struggle to get the do-not-call list into effect continues.

The whole first amendment grounds thing doesn't make sense, because he couples it with the fact that charities and non-profits aren't impacted by the no-call list. So is he saying that if the first amendment rights of charities and non-profits were effected by the list, it would be OK? Restricting first amendment rights is just fine so long as it applies to everyone? Bringing in the first amendment is just a bullshit tactic since Judge Nottingham isn't using it in a logical fashion.

I'll agree that when you look at the fact that some organizations are exempt from the list, it is unfair to telemarketers. However, I think the people have spoken in that they want telemarketing calls stopped, and aren't all that concerned about the charities and non-profit side. It's much more unfair for 50 million people to have to put up with harassment that they've explicitly asked to have stopped. While we're on the subject of special treatment for charities and non-profit organizations, we already have a long history of this. Just look at the tax-exempt status that the church gets.

Congress is siding with the American people and not with special interests. This is a historic opportunity to see the system actually work for a change, and it's time to get this list into effect.

The latest on the energy bill currently in the works. Among a shitload of other things, it includes provisions to allow for oil drilling in the Alaskan Arctic.

Here's another decent Times columnist who's pro-war but not exactly pro-Bush.

Those damn kids must have been smoking pot.

Here's a fucked up story centered around a family that sounds like a real bastion of enlightenment.

Some quotes to nitpick:

"You have to look into people's hearts." Yeah, like your cold, black heart, using these people as "poster children" to push further your political aims?

"My mother-in-law has been trying to break our family up since the very beginning." And can you blame her?

"When we saw this land and decided it would be our home, I didn't know what the National Park Service was." Yeah, right.

Say what you want about the federal government, tree-hugging hippies, and people living off the land, but that is one fucked up family right there. Any old guy who has made a career out of 16-year-old brides and has 15 children living on a religious zealot compound in the wilderness scares the piss out of me.

Okay, so I think this brings the total number of times someone in mainstream media has mentioned PNAC to four.

Some weeks back, a commenter referred to the Times as a joke. Well, I wouldn't go that far. Yeah, the Times is most definitely mainstream media, and there's not really anyone in mainstream media who I would call stellar. Also, I'm not exactly a conniseur of news, as you may have noticed with frequent links to CNN (although my CNN links are more intended to get the word out on events, as opposed to showcasing great reporting). The thing I like about the NYT is that they have some decent OP-ED columnists who are not only willing to criticize the Administration, but they're doing it in the highly visible forum of the Times' editorial page.

Of course, the columnists I'm so fond of like Dowd and Krugman share many of the same opinions as I do, so I'm obviously biased. Of course, there's no reason why I should have to justify liking someone's writing based partly on the fact that I agree with them.

I found this posted over at On topic except when I'm not!, and decided to throw my two cents in.

‹cheapshots and quickies›

A Caucasian club? You've got to be kidding me. We already have a Caucasian club. It's called America.

"I'm trying to break racial barriers." By erecting barriers?

They're drafting a constitution for the club? Yeah, it'll be written up just as soon as Lisa finishes her book, entitled Mein Kampf Mit Gewichtverlust (My Struggle With Weight Loss).

‹/cheapshots and quickies›

Okay, here's what's wrong with this "Caucasian club" bullshit. Sad that I have to spell it our for you, Lisa, you dumb little bitch, as well as your even dumber mother (who should know better, since she's an adult) and probably equally dumb principal (again, a supposed adult).

You see, when blacks, or Latinos, or Asians form clubs, it's different from when whites form clubs. Why is it different? Because these are minority groups who have dealt with a lot of bullshit from whites, for starters. Minorities form groups so that they can more easily come together with people of a similar heritage. When a Black Student Union forms or a Latinos Unidos congregates, it's not sending out the message of "Whites not allowed," it's sending out the message of "Individuals of similar heritage unite." When whites get together and create special whites-only clubs, it sends out a blatant message of "No non-whites allowed." There isn't always symmetry in equality.

Furthermore, you don't need a special club for whites because there are already so many fucking white people out there already in this country. Oh, and as one of the interviewees pointed out, studying your "white heritage" isn't exactly going to yield a lot of proud moments. Well, I guess that's a matter of perspective. I'm sure some people feel pride in thinking about their ancestors spreading infectious diseases to Native Americans and taking their land and then killing Mexicans to take more land all while enslaving blacks to work on that land and working Asians to death to create railroads to connect those conquered lands. Just to name some examples from American history.

Finally, I've found that oftentimes when someone has to fly the flag of "I'm not a racist," they're usually a racist.

For fuck's sake, white people. Get over yourselves, and start realizing that your actions have implications and undertones that other people are going to pick up on.