http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/02/26/Dems.radio/index.html

Montana’s Democratic governor thinks it “makes no sense” that the United States can import “cattle, hogs and logs” from Canada — but not cheaper prescription drugs.

Speaking in the weekly Democratic radio address Saturday from Helena, Montana, Gov. Brian Schweitzer said “local pharmacists should be allowed to reimport safe, affordable prescription drugs from Canada, where American-made, U.S. taxpayer-subsidized medicine is sold for as little as half the U.S. retail price.”

Maybe Canadian drugs are cheaper because their purchase is subsidized by Canadian taxpayers. If that truly is the case, then why do we American’s feel entitled to cheaper drugs on the backs of hardworking Canadians? If drugs are cheaper in Canada because our government refuses to do anything about it stateside, shouldn’t we pressure the government to do something here instead of letting us steal what Canadians are trying to provide their people?

- It’s snowing. Which is nice. Except it’s not enough to get classes cancelled and thereby work closed. Which is a good thing. Cause I don’t get paid if I don’t work.

- Anyone remember ZORK for the C64? I feel like I should but I don’t. Ah well. Wanna get ZORK I-III for free? Go here.

- I have a beard. It’s three weeks old and itchy as hell. I’m tempted to keep it until my birthday (just another week) and then get rid of it, just to see how I look with a month beard. Jenn says I look all bohemian. Which means hippy. Which means I’m really thinking about shaving sooner rather than later.

- Daily Grind’s Iron Man Challenge begins today. I was tempted to try and get involved at the last minute but then I realized that I can’t draw and would miss the first deadline. So much for that.

- Radio training didn’t happen yesterday because the guy who was to train me was sick. Maybe next weekend.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1032354,00.html

George Bush knew Vladimir Putin would be defensive when Bush brought up the pace of democratic reform in Russia in their private meeting at the end of Bush’s four-day, three-city tour of Europe. But when Bush talked about the Kremlin’s crackdown on the media and explained that democracies require a free press, the Russian leader gave a rebuttal that left the President nonplussed. If the press was so free in the U.S., Putin asked, then why had those reporters at CBS lost their jobs? Bush was openmouthed. “Putin thought we’d fired Dan Rather,” says a senior Administration official. “It was like something out of 1984.”

*ahem*

While certainly not the same thing (Putin’s cracking down on democracy and freedom in general to keep his job, Bush’s supporters are the ones who attacked this bad journalism), it’s an interesting thing to have tossed about. And if Putin is asking this, what is the rest of the world thinking?

http://www.bentcomics.com/stripfight/

In the spirit of Song Fight, there’s one week to write a comic strip based on a particular topic/line/thought. Then folks vote. Pretty sweet.

http://crowncommission.com/dailygrind/

This looks like it might be pretty good. A bunch of online comic folks toss $20 into the pot and they get crackin’ at keeping up with a Monday through Friday release schedule. If they break it, they go into the losers pile. Last man standing takes the pot.

Now the only one of these I’ve read is Yirmumah which is where I got this link. I’ll probably check the others out and see if they’re any good. But, yeah, daily comics from a bunch of folks with money on the line. Quantity before quality for many?

First off, WVCW is up and running so go check it out.

Second, I begin training there Sunday. Woo doggie!

Let me start by saying that I just walked past some chick on the phone who was sneering so hard her upper lip was touching her left nostril. All this while speaking into her cell phone about how not fair it was because our school never cancels classes for anything.

Guess she wanted to stay home with that bad case of stapling her lip to her nose.

Anyways, I got my Chinese History Paper back today and let me tell you. I think my teacher smokes some of that opium the British forced on them there Chinese people a hundred and fifty years back.

I got a B+ on my paper.

Yep, the same paper that I did two days before it was due.

Oh, and guess what? Seems it was one of the best grades in the class.

Now, my first thought was that maybe he took it easy on me, and I asked him as much.

Nope, it was really well written.

I said thanks and left in a stupor, but not before he said “No, thank YOU.”

So my next thought was that maybe my professor was on some sort of drugs. Imedeately giving him the benifit of the doubt I figured I would re-read my paper. Perhaps I simply was under the impression it sucked because I was last reading it at nine in the morning after a nearly 30 hour marathon typing session.

I re-read my paper.

Nope, still crap.

So my professor must be on drugs. Or he had a really good paper tucked into mine and I just happened to get the grade.

I guess I shouldn’t question it too much. But this is certainly not a way for me to learn my lesson about waiting to the last minute to do papers.

PS - Jenn is pissed. I’m smug.

http://www.wizarduniverse.com/magazines/wizard/WZ20050208-lms.cfm

You’ve begged! You’ve pleaded! And now it’s come true: Last Man Standing is back - with a catch. We want YOU to write it. But hurry…the deadline is fast approaching!

That’s right, introducing the first ever Wizard ‘Last Man Standing’ contest. You give us the players, you set up the scene and in 250 words or less, you tell us what happens. The best entry will be featured on Wizard Universe along with 2 runners-up at a later date. Here’s your chance to let it all hang out and show off your skills.

Six cookies to anyone that submits a Bush43 fight with any character.

Fifty bucks if it’s published.

This I swear!

Get a preview of Chris Munn’s upcoming LUV & H8 in the Artifice Forums exclusive section!

http://www.artificecomics.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=80

Hot damn, is it good.

PS - To view the entry you must register for the AC Forums. It’s free and takes very little time. C’mon, get some LUV.

Interviewing Artifice: Colonizing America, Part 1 of 4
“Chris Munn: Feelin’ the LUV”
By Ian Astheimer
http://www.artificecomics.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=78

Chris Munn sings metal. He digs werewolves and skeletons whose heads are on fire. He smokes like it’s going out of style. He’s…probably not the first guy you’d expect to write for a site that boasts a character that wears a George Walker Bush mask and kicks people in the nuts. So, what’s he doing at Artifice Comics? Read on!

After spending the last two days dealing with the flu (Oh, how I hate you, flu) I took my first exams today in Chinese History and U.S. Constutional Law. While I didn’t fail, I certainly didn’t to well and I’ll be shocked to be a B on either of them, but equally shocked to get below a C. So I guess I’m trying to say I think I got C’s. Yep.

Stupid flu…

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/02/22/iraq.main/index.html

Now this is a good sign:

The United Iraqi Alliance, Iraq’s main Shiite political coalition, has named Ibrahim al-Jaafari as its nominee to be the country’s next prime minister, an Iraqi political official said.

…

Al-Jaafari told CNN last week that he would accept the prime minister position if he was offered it.
Asked whether he would support an Iraq based on an Islamic republic model, al-Jaafari noted that Iraq’s government would reflect its distinct personality: “We have to adapt our system according to the character and nature of our society.”

He said “security, services and the economy” are the main arenas that need attention. Al-Jaafari has opposed the early withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.

In an interview with The Associated Press, conducted before the election results were certified, al-Jaafari said that Islam should be the Iraq’s official religion but said its constitution should “be based on respecting all Iraqi beliefs and freedoms.”

The 58-year-old doctor maintains popularity in Iraq and is viewed as a moderate. He told CNN last week that he wants to bring the alienated Sunni Arabs into the country’s political fold.

And if this all holds up I think it perfectly counters the concerns that last month’s elections created a second Iran. This is democracy at work, folks.

Is it just me or is CNN giving this article the link “Report: Secret tapes hint Bush tried marijuana” for less than innocent reasons?

Private conversations with George Bush secretly taped by an old friend before he was elected president foreshadow some of his political strategies and appear to reveal that he acknowledged trying marijuana, The New York Times has reported.

The conversations were recorded by Doug Wead, a former aide to George W. Bush’s father, beginning in 1998, when Bush was weighing a presidential bid, until just before the Republican National Convention in 2000, the Times reported Saturday.

…

On one tape, Bush explains that he told one prominent evangelical that he would not “kick gays, because I’m a sinner. How can I differentiate sin?”

…

Bush also criticizes then-Vice President Al Gore for admitting marijuana use and explains why he would not do the same.

“I wouldn’t answer the marijuana questions,” he said, according to the Times. “You know why? Because I don’t want some little kid doing what I tried.”

Now, while that link name isn’t entirely wrong, it’s very misleading. Anyone looking at that will immedeately think “GASP! The President admits to using POT!” when a cursory read of the article shows a man who not only alludes to his pot usage but does so in a very respectful way. It makes sense to just avoid the topic completely instead of playing the hypocrite and telling kids not to do something you did.

“Don’t do drugs, because one day you might be President.”

So if the President can do drugs…

I don’t know, I generally don’t buy into the “liberal media” thing, but I certainly buy into media sensationalism.

From CNN:

Journalist-author Hunter S. Thompson has died of what investigators suspect was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Details soon.

Ouch.

UPDATE: Chicago Sun-Times has an article already

Figured I’d give everyone a taste of Anthology 2: Villains “Recruitment”, the second part in the Villains arc I’m doing over at Artifice. It’s a four-five part story of how some of the lame Bush43 villains start to take their work a bit more seriously. For those that forget (or don’t know), Simon Cooper is Staticy:

Simon Cooper opened his door half expecting to come face to face another one of Pacific City’s heroes. And while he should have, he certainly didn’t expect to open his door to nothing.

“Hello?” he shouted into his own home, waiting for a response.

Nothing.

Simon sighed and closed the door behind him, tossing his keys on his coffee table as he went by and ignoring the answering machine on his way to the kitchen. He didn’t trust the machine. Not since yesterday. And the visit.

Simon cursed his community service, time in a soup kitchen.

Beef stew.

It permeated the air of the place and leeched into his clothes. He reeked of it.

The taste of the air lingered in his mouth.

He went into a cabinet and grabbed a glass, filling it with water and gargling.

He’d spent the last three years as a vegetarian and now had to deal with this.

Every other night.

He spat the water out and gargled again, dumping the rest of the water out as he spat and making his way towards his living room.

He stopped at the sight of the two men sitting on his couch.

“Sorry to startle you, Mister Cooper,” said the tall, thin man on the left, his hat in his hands as he started to stand. The man’s companion remained sitting, though if it was for simple comfort or the fact that rising would have been an effort was up for debate.

“What do you want, Sad?” asked Simon as he crossed his arms.

His last run in with these gentlemen was not entirely in vain, granting him more long term use of his powers. But their failure to support him did nothing to endear them to him.

The man on the couch, fat and round and insanely happy, giggled at Simon’s words though they were in no way amusing.

“We are here to assist you in your endeavor,” said Sad.