Grrl Power #302 – This is coming out of your vacation time
New comic day (Wednesday, for those of you unaware) is the one day they’re usually both there all day. It’s the only day they get enough traffic to justify it. Otherwise one of them opens, the overlap in the middle, and the other closes. I imagine when they started the shop they had one or two part timers, but eventually couldn’t justify the salary. That’s probably not a problem anymore though. At some point Sydney’s going to have to go over her new schedule with Joel and not surprise him with each new foible.
Sydney’s obviously really asking how many times has Spider-Man saved the world, because the answer to “How many times over would the world have been destroyed” is really just one. Once it’s destroyed the first time, you’re kinda done. I guess like most things though, “destroyed” exists on a spectrum, so you could destroy the Earth slightly more each time. First time, all life is destroyed, second time, lava replaces the oceans, continents sink in to them, third time, the Earth is blown into a new asteroid belt, fourth time the asteroids get sucked into a black hole. You’d have to coordinate though. If the black hole guy showed up first, the lava-continent guy’s going to get pissed. It’s okay though, the power to summon black holes is nothing compared to Spidey’s ability to hang bad guys upside down outside of the police station from a street light.
ComicMIX is doing their annual webcomic tournament again. I don’t want to pester you guys with it like in previous years so I’ll just mention it here once and probably a few times on twitter as the tourney goes on.
Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Amusingly this page is very good commentary of the current rash of police brutality and false arrest throughout the US and should ironically give people hope that the superhero police take their business serious. Spin Arianna, spin.
You are referring, I presume to the robber who tried to steal a policeman’s gun, and as a result got himself shot, after which Al Sharpton and the press magically conjured a complete lie, complete with a “Hands up don’t shoot” campaign? Is that the “Police Brutality” you’re referring to? In most places, it’s called “Self Defense.”
Officially yes, that is what happened.
Now look at what Amo said. A rash of any kind of action generally means more than one instance of said thing happening. I can tell you plenty about my local area ( we had nothing to do with the one place that seems to bother you ) where cops plainly ignore moderate white crime to harass a law abiding colored person. The difference is here we’ve got officers who’ve lost their jobs over it, people have won law suits, and yes, some of the cases have been deemed justified by the courts. Google around a bit, by telling you I live near a major city that’s fired officers for racist actions I’m not telling you anything about my location.
Stop saying “officially” like there’s some big conspiracy against black people you schmuck.
I live near Ferguson and when you put all the witness testimony together (and ignore what his friend says) Michael Brown assaulted an officer who was telling him to stop walking down the middle of the street. He fractured several bones in the officer’s head, tried to take his gun, accidentally discharging it in the process, and then whether he intended to surrender or not charged back at the officer when the officer got out of his car.
I’ve dug into the other cases too because they keep inflaming the idiots in this area. I’ve watched the video of Eric Garner from New York. The cops tried to get him to leave, then told him they were going to arrest him. They didn’t take him down hard until he resisted arrest, and there was no indication from looking at him that he had any health problems and couldn’t survive being pulled to the ground and handcuffed. From the video it doesn’t even look like the cop put him in a choke hold. I t looks like the cop jumped up and hung on one side of his neck to pull him off balance and bring him down because he was at least 18″ taller than every cop there.
There have been several other of these incidents since, the latest in Oklahoma, but you know the one thing I’ve noticed about all of them? These freaking idiots are breaking the law and resist arrest or outright attack the police! Now I recognize that there are serious differences in the way white people and black people view our society, but I don’t see police upholding the law as a bad thing and what I really don’t get is this: are there no other poster children for this problem? Are the only black people dying at the hands of police officers these violent criminals who refuse to obey the law and refuse to come along quietly when arrested? If so then f*ck them. We live in a society that only functions with the consent of everyone. The people who refuse to participate in this society, who refuse to abide by the laws everyone else recognizes, destroy that society. They eat away at the edges and make everyone around them miserable.
So maybe the problem isn’t that these people are being shot. Maybe the problem is that they won’t agree to be civilized like the rest of us.
Apologies for the long post. Again.
You need to ease off on the caffeine there a bit bud. Your impassioned response shows how much you care about the issue. Trouble is, that in overdoing it you are showing yourself in a less civilised light than You, who’s case was stated in much more moderate terms.
Having been born in apartheid era South Africa, as the son of a documentary film maker, I am very well aware of how much difference there can be between how something comes across on the screen and how it actually played out in real life. And that choosing the right angle, or cutting at the right point, can make a minor incident seem like a full-blown riot.
And I likewise have no sympathy for criminals, who endanger the police. The latter are entitled to defend themselves.
However, there are two separate issues here. You are treating them as one, and it severely undermines your argument. Whilst you are unable to differentiate the two, it shows that you are talking from the position of a privileged majority, who has not suffered from the problems of discrimination.
Personally the discrimination I have had to endure was simply from being morbidly obese. Every now and then I would have foul obscenities hurled at me, just because I was a fat guy. Endure that year in and year out, and it begins to wear you down. Fortunately I was able to loose all the weight. But a black guy cannot stop being black!
Note though, I only experienced one side of the equation. I would be abused by the dregs of society. At no point did that ever translate into being oppressed, by the authorities in general, or by the police in particular. Which, had it ever gotten too bad. Say by somebody locally to me continually being abusive, I would feel happy turning to the authorities and police to resolve the matter.
But what if they were a part of the problem? If some of them were amongst the abusers (be it casually or actively), and others turned a blind eye. Where they could abuse their positions of authority to subtly harass me? To stop and search me, when they ignore others. Or to pull my car over, for no other reason than they see a face they do not like the look of?
Yet that never happened. Why? Because there is no casual association of being fat equating to being a criminal.
Being a part of an oppressed minority has many problems. I have seen this in every country I have lived in. They get less employment opportunities. When they do get jobs they have a glass ceiling.* And if they do get into problems, they are less likely to be helped. All of which means you will have a high proportion of unemployed, plus a disproportionate number of malcontents and criminals, amongst their demographic.
But that makes it all the more important for the authorities to keep a very firm distinction between criminals and ethnicity. When they fail to do that, then they exacerbate the problem.
Focus too much on the merits of once case, or another, and you fail to see the forest for the trees. People who are used to being harassed, throughout their lives, will overreact in these circumstances. Innocent civilian as well as hardened criminal. We must take that into account. Both as the police, in dealing with it, on a day-to-day basis. And us, the general public, when assessing the situations.
It is our ** harassment of them that is the root cause of the problem. Their over-reactions are the symptom, not the disease.
* Even in England. One of my friends was a black guy. But he was English born. Superbly talented at his job. Won the confidence of everybody in the industry. Had connections all over the place. Worked his bollocks off, and made a lot of profit for the company. He had been in the job for many years. And continually did all the right things to show he was suitable for fast-track promotion.
I joined the company, at the same level as him, and (not being any where near as talented as him for the role), within a couple of months I was being asked by the managing director, if I would want a more senior role. Which was not something I was interested in doing, when he was far more qualified for it. Yet they ignored my advice, and turned to someone else. A white guy, as you might expect. No more capable than me. But his face fitted.
** Members of the privileged majority. If we are happy for the cops to protect us, then we must share the blame for their misconduct, when it occurs. Likewise for our failures to prevent other members of the privileged majority from abusing that status.
Well said Yorp. Have a Yorp snack! (tosses big meaty bone to Yorp)
As someone who lived through the 60s and 70s as a child I can say from my experience that racism basically got more subtle not less prevalent. This was made apparent when as a child I moved from a relatively liberal N.E. state to the Heart of the South. The culture shock was enormous. Granted there were fewer people “of color” where I came from but I was taught from an early age all people were created equal. (This I believe is the root of most racism and stereotypes but I digress) As a new kid you usually feel like an outsider but there were suddenly new rules and new ways of treating ‘them”. The strange thing is I felt less comfortable with my own “race” because of this. An incident I had in Jr. High illustrates this well. Two young black girls sat behind me in science class ( I was old enough to know why girls weren’t “icky”) and expressed interest in my hair. Being a hormonal young boy I allowed them to touch and feel my hair. After that class The white guys asked me how I could let those ni—rs touch me. I was honestly dumbfounded. Two young attractive girls wanted to put their hands on me and I should say no because of their skin???
I am far older now and although racism is not as obvious as it once was it is very much in evidence. I’ve had bosses complain because they had to hire “one of them” one even claimed there were no drug or discipline problems before the schools were forced to integrate. The real truth is there is racism on both sides. And a lot of people use it to push their own agenda.
Now before all of you from the south jump all over me I’m not saying there is no racism in the north just that it is more accepted in the south. You see this when groups of like-minded people get together. All the stereotypes, jokes and stories come out. Hell YouTube comments are now famous for the hate that spews forth from anonymous people from everywhere.
Personally and scientifically there is less difference between people than dogs. And before you start talking about breeds there are no “pure-breds” in people.
Yum yum! [Sorry all, I shortened this post as much as I could, but it is a complex issue, and needs various disclaimers.]
Racism is such a touchy area. Normally I would hesitate to discuss it. But super hero comics do deal with such issues. Albeit that it is often done by analogy, to slide the issues in, without controversy, and to avoid political arguments. But I am sure this community is robust enough to handle the issue, without too much risk of fall-out.
Personally, I suspect that there is a strong genetic component to bigotry.* That is not to imply that I am a proponent of nature vs nurture. I think genes, environment and experiences all contribute to our behaviours.
Not that I have any direct evidence to back up this supposition. Simply because racism is such a touchy area, that all issues, even vaguely related to it, are under-researched. However there are many findings coming out which show that a great number of behaviours, in animals as well as humans, have a genetic influence.
And, in this case, it is simple to see what the gene would influence. How much you tolerate individuals who are different to you. So the same set of genes would probably affect racism and religious intolerance. Along with a bunch of other things, too, I imagine.
I wish society would be more open to debate in these areas. Over political-correctness is severely harming our society in not allowing us to readily explore these issues. In Europe this is resulting in the rise of the far right and neo-Nazi parties, like the Golden Dawn, in Greece. And, of course, it is helping UKIP to prominence, in the UK.
There are a lot of people in society who are not comfortable with people of different ethnic groups (or nationalities or religions). Yet, because of over-political correctness we treat bigotry like a disease or a mental illness.
But if bigotry did turn out to have a strong genetic component, then we may need to reconsider how we look on it. Let us say it has the same degree of influence as the likelihood of being gay.
Would we be any more right to try and convert a bigot from following their natural inclinations, as we would a gay person? Should we ‘cure’ genetic bigotry, the same way we treat socially inspired bigotry?
As a society we do not mind if gays choose to congregate in gay communities. Should we object if bigots want to stay in bigoted communities? **
And when you analyse it along those lines, you get to see the distinction. The genes which would make an individual more likely to be gay would not, in any way, affect their likelihood of persecuting others. But those which encourage bigoted behaviour would.
So, as a society, we would need to differentiate between the bigoted desire to remain in the company of other individuals like themselves, versus their urge to enforce their own choices on others.
This would subtly alter the solutions we proposed for these issues. If we consider it unfair to force a homosexual individual to live a heterosexual lifestyle, should we also consider it unfair to force a bigot to attend an integrated school, or live in a multi-racial suburb?
Or, would we find that, handled the right way, integrated schools will actually allow us to bypass even genetic imperatives? By ensuring that the bigots identify those of different ethnic, social and religious groups as being familiar, normal and friends.
Thus stopping their genetic urges from turning against other members of their own community. Even if they still have issues with unfamiliar foreigners.
If the latter proved to be the more viable, it would be because we came to grips with human nature, and found a way to work with it. As opposed to setting principles and expecting everybody to blindly follow them, regardless of their own inclinations.
* Don’t take this as being a bad word. Despite the fact that it is usually used to deride someone for anti-social behaviour. A couple of people, who are dear to me, have bigoted behaviour. They are otherwise nice folks. And I take everybody as they are.
If I can get them to see things in a less blinkered way, fine. If I can’t, I don’t try to brow-beat them into liberal thinking. Push them too hard that way, and they will just close up, and feel uncomfortable speaking their minds, in my presence. Which I would not want.
** And, if we did allow this, how would we solve the issue of members of a rich, privileged elite from hogging all the resources? Because apartheid did not work out that well.
For the sake of argument, let’s concede the point for a moment that racism really is as widespread, ingrained, and institutionalized as some people are saying.
I still fail to see how that justifies the actions of an individual assaulting anyone, let alone a police officer.
the matter is that by stereotyping and limiting by those stereotypes people are placed to need help (by being refused jobs and training or social resources) yet expected to live like people who aren’t so disadvantaged (setting a standard not possible by normal available opportunity) and then when said people try to find alternate ways to meet the standard (either illegal or not commonly practiced but not forbidden) are blocked by groups that don’t want said people to be equals either using greater resources to undercut legal but unseen opportunities or making such processes illegal and pushing for the enforcement of that law (while seeking to find loopholes to exploit that the disadvantaged can not use for lack of resources) thus attempting to generating an image of said people being unworthy of greater opportunity and worthy of said stereotyping and prosecution.
I don’t either.
But, when I see the protests and riots that the incidents provoke, I know that there is a lot more to it than the incidents themselves. Ergo I do not care about those cases (personally). Either they are genuine instances of police brutality, with justifiable resistance. Or they are unwarranted attacks on the police.
Or, more likely, they lie in the grey area in between. Where we may never know the truth. Each case will be investigated on it’s own merits. Provided the judiciary is fair, a just verdict will be found.
If the system is unjust, and the populace have no faith in the verdicts, then that becomes a serious issue, in it’s own right.
But what I do know is that for every one case which is brought to the public eye, due to a camera catching the incident, there will be 30 similar ones, which do not. And for every one of those there will be 30 more, which are more minor versions of the same kind of thing, but without such serious consequences.
And the protests go to show that this is not an unreasonable rule of thumb.
Mind you that will be incidents of all the flavours. The police are being put in an untenable position, partly due to the misconduct of some of their number, in a few forces. And racial minorities are being put in an equally untenable position, due to their life-long harassment.
However, they are not helping their own cause if they over-react. But, frankly, were I to face such unending harassment, I could see myself acting in the same way. That said, if I endangered a cop, in the process, I should face the consequences.
Until all segments of society can live without fear of persecution, this will continue.
I guess you missed that a review of George “the nation destroyer” Soros’ taxes showed he donated $33 million toward the Gentle Mike protests. Why do you think there is a genetic component to bigotry but not IQ, when Asians/whites evolved under similar conditions where they had to build/plan/store in order to survive winter with no food growing? Coincidentally Asians/whites are more alike when it comes to crime/math/science/ short distance runs than any other races. Now wave your hands and say equalism means evolution stopped at the neck
An unarmed black gets killed every 28 hours but the best martyr they can find is a 6’4″ thug who committed armed robbery 9 months before and was caught on video beating up an Asian liquor store clerk in Ferguson 10 min before a cop shot him. The black shot by a cop in WI would be alive if he had not been given probation for his felony. The guy killed for selling untaxed cigs in NYC was arrested over 30 times so he should have known how to be safely arrested, but while he was a sex offender a black female Sargent was in charge of the crew that killed him.
In Harrisburg PA after 2 felons where shot dead by cops both when the bars/strip clubs closed at 2am, there was rabble protesting that they where shot on their way to church despite that the only church open at 2am on a Sunday has women on streetcorners collecting. The city had a gay democrat white mayor for 20 years that balanced the budget, replaced by Mayor “Gimme Dat” Thompson whose campaign pledge was to go after cops that shoot blacks. That next summer cops avoided areas where they tend to shoot blacks and the NAACP asked the governor to declare martial law because of 16 black on black murders in one month with cops avoiding the Allison Hill area. Harrisburg went bankrupt as well thanks to giving an affirmative action contract for its incinerator to an incompetent.
At no point have I said that any of those individuals were innocent. In fact, if you read through my comments, you will see that I imply the contrary.
My issues are
1) Do not mix up criminals with innocent people.
The latter have turned out to support individuals, who they assumed were being victimised in the same way that they have been themselves. Whether those cases have merit, or not, clearly there is a significant social problem. Especially for so many people to continue to rally behind such otherwise weak figureheads.
2) Do not forget that harassment is still endemic in our society.
Arguing over the details of the cases, when they are not in dispute, is simply a smoke and mirrors trick, which I will not pander to.
3) People, who get harassed, will resent it, and that can result in them resisting arrest.
That is illegal, but it is both understandable and a consequence of their harassment. Both of which should be taken into consideration. It is not a get out of jail free card. But it is what is known as mitigating circumstances.
Subtext, spelt out in plain: Do not imply that an entire race is criminal
I am not accusing anyone here. But just be aware that if you continue arguing about criminal aspects, whilst completely ignoring the social aspects, that is how you are coming across.
I am afraid that you have completely missed the plot in your first paragraph. I reply to it separately because it has nothing to do with the other issues, beyond the fact that bigotry comes into play when discussing racial discrimination (ie a behaviour).
In particular race does not come into this at all!
Bigotry exists in all races. You can have a bigoted African American just as easily as a bigoted French Caucasian.
My comment was simply to say that currently we view that bigotry occurs because of social conditions or simply through personal decisions. Whereas I think that it may well be that there is a genetic component at play too.
Some gene, or combination of genes, can be controlling the degree of tolerance that ALL humans have. If the genes are expressed then the individuals may be highly intolerant to those they do not identify with (ie they will exhibit bigoted behaviour).*
Whereas if they are not expressed, then the individuals will be highly tolerant. Or some combination in between. Most behaviour seems to fall upon a scale.
For example it is known that we have genes which affect our risk aversion. At one end of the scale, for those who do not express these genes, you have the adrenalin junkies. The folks who like jumping out of planes or off skyscrapers.
At the other end you have the stay at home types, who will double check that their seat belt is secured, before starting their car.
Note though that IQ is completely independent of this. You can have a smart adrenalin junkie or a dumb one. Likewise you can have a smart bigot or a dumb one. Adolph Hitler was an example of a smart bigot, for example.
The rest of your paragraph though does have very valid points, and show that you are suitably enlightened, as to the similarities that various races have.
Needless to say, y’all are still inferior to dogs, due to your inadequate sense of smell! But we are still your best friends, regardless.
*wags tail*
* Of course the genes could work the opposite way around, but that would just mean rephrasing the sentences accordingly. Turning off rather than on, as may be the case.
I think this has now passed beyond the point where the subject is worthy of being discussed here. Up until this stage it had merit, in that our protagonists will be working in an environment where they have to deal with these issues.
They will need to be careful of race relations. Both in the typical sense, and as regards normal humans versus super humans. Plus they will face just as much increased risk as the real life cops do, when facing the consequences of any PR disaster, such as with Ferguson.
But to get dragged into white supremacist arguments, such as you are attempting, will not have any useful feedback, to either the story or the characters.
So despite the fact that your arguments do not deserve to stand unchallenged, I do not consider them worthy of being debated here. They would only sully the community.
Note that there is one interesting aspect to this decision though. If my assumption is correct, then it would appear that I have the tolerant genes expressed, whereas you are on the opposite end of the scale.
So there would be very little to be gained by debating the issue. As we are each choosing to follow our nature, rather than being swayed by the merits of the argument. Or lack thereof.
I’m really not sure how IQ got dragged into this unless you’re trying to use it as a predictor of criminality, but that yellow dog has been used before and never leads anywhere good. It seems like all conversations about race seem to devolve into argument and never really achieve anything.
Personally I think the thing that does the most damage to “black” people in the US is the term “black”. It is a handle for a large and largely diverse group of people whose skin tones range from teak to as light a peach as anyone else. it’s a term used by politicians to divide people and keep them squabbling while the politicians steal the lion’s share. We need to stop thinking in terms of one race or another. There are very minor biological differences but frankly human “races” don’t even have as much genetic variety as different subspecies of dogs. It’s time to stop arguing about who’s whiter or darker and deal with real problems. They talk about black poverty, but the problem isn’t “black” poverty, it’s poverty.
Is it possible, just possible, the reason your friend wasn’t promoted was because he was too valuable an employee to be moved from his position?
As for those two, separate, incidences that started two separate riots: in both cases, the individual involved was doing something against the law and were asked to stop doing it, they continued doing what they were doing for whatever reason and then resisted arrest
Circumstances duly noted. But, as I said, those are symptoms, not the disease.
The situations clearly spark a lot of sympathy from people nationwide suffering persecution. The fact that they have chosen poor incidents to rally behind, does not diminish the amount of injustice they have had to endure themselves.
Nice thought. But, sadly not. The senior position would have significantly expanded his capability to generate money for the company. And somebody would have had to be brought in, to replace whoever was promoted, regardless. He was good, but not irreplaceable.
Mind you I hated the whole culture there. It was very subtly hidden, but underneath the politeness it was intensely sexist, elitist (if you had money or your family had money you fitted in, if you did not, they blanked you socially) and racist.
The best laugh though was a few months after that. We had an office do. Where the MD behaved in the usual casually sexist way. Which, in the normal run of things he would have gotten away with. Except his victim happened to be the daughter of one of our most prestigious clients. Who also happened, unbeknownst to the MD, be at that party!
Managing director, or not, he was fired, on the spot. As you can see, that company did not consider anybody to be irreplaceable!
Yorp goes to jail for making posts that are too long.
*Uses a long post, to pole vault out of jail.*
When Chris Dornor was fired from the LAPD for bad conduct people like you still wanted an investigation to see if the Mexican supervisor that fired him was because of racism, because the killing spree that included a judges family members was not enough evidence of poor decision making. Because of EEOC non-Asian minorities get hired for token positions that have no expectations, they do nothing but look at porn all day, download a virus that shuts down almost every computer in the hospital and still not get fired.
I very much doubt there are people like me, anywhere on Earth.
*scratches behind ear, with hind-paw, and yawns, before curling up, for a nap*
Yes we are all special little individuals who are shaped by nurture and nature. I seriously doubt there is anyone like me either. I have been called many things over the years but normal ain’t one of them.
I know for a fact that there are people like both Gamesman and Yorp.
I’m pretty sure they both tried to carjack me last Tuesday.
:-P
I am keeping my claws crossed that you were making a purely comical line. As opposed to it being inspired by an actual event?
That’s… not the case. There’s a number of conflicting testimonies.
Here:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/newly-released-witness-testimony-tell-us-michael-brown-shooting/
A bunch of witneses said different things.
The primary issue was DA’s approach to purposely killing prosecution at a grand jury. Grand Juries aren’t, in fact, trials.They are a decision on whether or not to have a trial. And cops, quite frequently, commit questionable shootings that never go to trial because the prosecution can and will kill it at the grand jury (there’s only a prosecution at a grand jury)
Now, the racism comes in from these stats:
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/03/02/us/justice-department-report-to-fault-police-in-ferguson.html?_r=1&referrer=
The DoJ did an analysis of the Ferguson police department and found it to be racist.
Here’s some some stats from the report:
67% of African Americans in Ferguson account for 93% of arrests made from 2012-2014.
Disproportionate number of arrests, tickets, and use of force stemmed from “unlawful bias,” rather than black people committing more crime.
A single missed, late or partial payment could mean jail time with no opportunity to explain, even if it’s because person is sick or the court is closed that day.
Arrest warrants are “almost exclusively” used as threats to push for payments.
If time is served, no credit for jail time is received and the length of time isn’t even recorded by the courts.
It’s a mix of racism and what is,frankly, a completely broken system of incentives. The cops in Ferguson, and municipalities throughout the entire county, are extremely incentivized to use their badges as an excuse to extract fines from the populace. The racism part is that the people the cops go after are disproportionally black. Poor black people are essentially taxed by the police, and they are too poor and often too uneducated to fight against it. And since black people are the biggest earners for these fines, if you are black, you are way more likely to be targeted to see if you have any warrants a cop can use to get money from you. It’s a system built entirely by how dysfunctional the county is.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/09/03/how-st-louis-county-missouri-profits-from-poverty/
Interesting stuff there. I had tried to find a BBC article listing some of the key points from the Ferguson PD report, but got bored having to sift through all the results on the subject. I find a concise article to be more useful than a full report. Folks would be more likely to read through something brief. But, that said, we have had mention of people doing in-depth research, so you did well to point us at definitive sources. Thanks for that.
Hopefully those who might disagree with any of the race issues or conclusions will appreciate that the other side of the argument has already been aired in detail, and accept that EBA is just redressing the balance in challenging the other comments made before.
Ie, please can we let this stand, unchallenged, as the final post on the race topic. We have done well in treading in such controversial waters, without allowing things to degenerate into flame wars or the like. So let us quit, whilst we are ahead.
Oops. My apologies. I see you did choose a brief summary. I had missed the “NY Times” part of the link name, so it looked a lot heavier reading, than it actually was.
Despite what I said in my previous post, I can pick out a safer item, which interested me, from your post. Namely the fines. Whilst various European countries have on-the-spot fines, for a number of offences, the UK has few. Most fines being levied by courts, rather than police. I am unfamiliar with the range that the US have. I seem to recall jaywalking is one?
The area where we do have exceptions are in traffic laws. Although, even then most of the fines are parking tickets, which do not get paid on the spot. And can be challenged, via a process laid out on the ticket itself. Which minimises the kinds of abuses you listed.
I shall steer clear of the race side, other than acknowledging that I agree with your assessment of how, unchecked, such fines can disproportionately target the poor (and note the demographics accordingly), in the circumstances you describe.
The biggest issue of such fines, in the UK, being used for tax raising issues, was for parking offences and speeding. Even private individuals and companies were raising revenue by clamping and towing. Excessive fines, that generate personal profit, have now been, very rightly, banned though. Although it is taking a while to enforce that properly.
But the public authority parking and automatic fines, via speed cameras, are generating massive taxes, selectively for some counties. Whereas others have policies to strictly limit the cameras to trouble spots.
It is always best to ensure that any revenues generated are not passed to local sources, to avoid inequitable policies resulting. And especially not to any source which directly funds those who are levying the fines. Because then you will get undue pressure put on them to increase revenues. In fact police (etc) should not be incentivised, in any way, to levy more fines.
As soon as you get any who are told they must make X many fines (/arrests) per day, or if they get a bonus for meeting or exceeding quotas, then you always get injustices rapidly coming hand in hand.
I will be interested to see if Sydney gets any powers to make on-the-spot fines. Judging by her comments above, I have similar fears to the ones Maxima has expressed, in the past!
the fines serve a dual purpose in the US (for a certain type of politics)
1- they provide money tot he local government, to the point where for places like ferguson, they are the majority type of income for the local government.
2- they prevent people from voting; criminal convictions= no vote.
that’s how a town with 90% blacks ends up with a white, republican government.
that’s also why the officer stopped the young man in the first place; to fine him, again. For the crime of ‘walking down the street while black’ (they call it loitering, but that’s what it is.)
and while I was not a witness, or there, but if the young man did attack the officer, that’s probably why. He had had enough.
Shhh! Bad duck! No sneaking race back in. Even if you did make a suitably droll political commentary in the process. Too much poking and you will force a response.
It must be infuriating for others to stay silent on the issue, since I requested that. So I am grateful that they have done so, to date. But we should not abuse the situation and continue that topic one-sided. For the good of both the comic and our community here.
*Sweat Drop* I had only meant to start a discussion about using current world events in the comic as a reference to make Sydney seem more responsible and less spastic(mostly), but I really should have expected ‘that’ topic to spiral out of context quickly.
If I might add my two cents?
On the Michael Brown case I personally have no opinion one way or another and don’t appreciate being used as a strawman or point of origin to springboard paragraphs of righteous indignation that the man may have been innocent.
If I had to point out any police brutality in the Ferguson situation it would be the reaction to/interactions with the protesters and media. Telling a reporter you are going to kill them at gun point just because they were standing too close to where you decided to walk is entirely uncalled for.
With the Garner case as law enforcement myself I am sickened by the negligence involved in that use of force. As evidenced in the recording he was not told he was under arrest, but was instead immediately placed into a hold that violated their departmental use of force policy explicitly because it could lead to death.
In the wake of this I thought it would be interesting for Arianna to spindoctor it as something like a “refreshing change of pace” that even the most publically erratic member of the new Super Police was serious about doing it right.
That’s all. Laterz.
to be fair, they are legally limited to about 30 percent of their income based off of fines. But that’s still 30 percent of their income.
The courts are in on it too. lot of violations go to court, and they are the ones the levy the fines. The cops charge for some misdemeanor or other, the courts levy the fine.
Taking a look at the racial issue, ironically, even a majority black municipality government and law enforcement acts pretty similar to the majority white ferguson department. Ultimately, its the dollars that drive the actions, and black people are seen as bigger earners.
San Francisco is only 8% black in pubic schools but 71% of PS students arrested are black that’s even more disparate than Ferguson. Ferguson was 90+% white in 1970 it was still 70% white when 2 section 8 housing complexes got dumped on it 10 years ago. When people fled crime so did the tax base. Garner was arrested 30+ times and was a sex offender, but a black female sergeant lead the group that killed him over untaxed cigs. White flight is ethnic cleansing when it happens to others.
When people like you hear illegal aliens say “I will have to drive careful and obey traffic laws to avoid being profiled” you never think they should be obeying traffic laws anyway. Its a felony in one state that blacks don’t commit the majority of crime to lie about the size fish you catch.
Yeah, it’s not just ethnic minorities that get attacked by police. In Seattle some years ago, deaf woodcarver John T. Williams was walking across a street with a closed carving knife in one hand when a Seattle PD “officer” (quotes deliberate) shot him after shouting “Hey, put the knife down!” several times in rapid succession without identifying himself as a cop or letting the poor fellow have a chance to react, even if he hadn’t been severely hearing impaired. It made the news media, and the reaction was that the shooting was NOT justified (the cop lied under oath, claiming that Williams had been waving the knife around in a “threatening manner” when the dashboard camera footage showed otherwise), and the cop was given a slap on the wrist at first, then dismissed from the force only after a MASSIVE uproar. I’ve also seen footage of cops dumping guys in wheelchairs out of their chairs, claiming that the guys in question were faking being disabled, and I’ve even been harassed for carrying a sword cane in public (I walk with a normal cane, no concealed weapons inside it, because of an old leg injury). [For the record, I’m a disabled 40-something white guy, obviously not part of any “violent” ethnic minority.] So yeah, cops hassle pretty much anyone they can get away with hassling in a number of places in the US.
Finally made it to page two :)
The “normal” comic doesn’t get folks riled up as much (which is a good thing) and we haven’t yet reached the more information heavy training that will spawn the obsessive nitpicking back and forth. (that part I like. Well, most of the time. )
No, have been plenty of pages that have had multi-hundred responses, but it took over 300 before it got to page two this time
my god, that shirt, I must have one
“what would deadpool do” is so my go to mantra
https://www.redbubble.com/people/basalteclipse/works/9252514-wwdpd-what-would-deadpool-do?p=t-shirt
I meant this as a response.
WWDP? THIS is what he would do:
https://vid.me/uF5l
Dang that induced wobble is unpleasant. I much prefer the plain versions of the trailer, readily available on YouTube. Or am I just missing the point, and that is what he would do?
Yep. Had no idea it would wobble after uploading it. Never used vidme before and had it saved from 2012. Sorry about that. I didn’t know the youtube link is still up. They started making the Deadpool movie with Ryan Reynolds this month for release in 2016. https://www.firstshowing.net/2015/ryan-reynolds-signals-the-official-start-of-production-on-deadpool/
Whoops. I guess it IS the video. I just never noticed it. Uploading it looks different than on my computer in Windows Media player, but it still wobbles there. I downloaded it originally from the company website when they released it officially. Ah well, live and learn.
No probs. It is a cool video. I love the bit where he draws the picture. It very much reminded me of Sydney’s drawing style! :-D
https://www.redbubble.com/people/basalteclipse/works/9252514-wwdpd-what-would-deadpool-do?p=t-shirt
Tried going through page by page looking for this question, but eventually gave up around #60, Let me know if it’s been asked before.
All of Harem’s bodies feel the same stuff, this has been covered, but what if all of them are stimulated in the same way, like if someone pins all of her down and tickles all 10 feet with a feather duster, will it be about as ticklish as a single feather duster on a single pair of feet, or 5 times more so? If so, what kind of impact would that have on her?
When you catch them by surprise they all react as if it was happening to them directly. Here and the next two pages. If they are prepared for such things like in a fight they can resist reacting mostly. Fighting Mach The Knife.
Which was not what you asked. My suspicion is that it would be like tickling one person with one feather. Each Harem would be reacting to her own tickling and the feedback from the others would get lost in the immediate stimulus.
Very possibly. Harem has got to have some way of selectively ignoring sensory input, if she sets her mind to it. Otherwise each of her could not differentiate which room they were in. And would be swerving to avoid people who were not in the same room. And not being able to tell which one of them had a wall in front of her.
But, that said, tickling is a special case. Even one feather can flip a girl out. And, although Harem could co-ordinate five feathers as if they were one, any other five people would have great difficulty synchronising their actions enough to emulate that. So my gut feeling is that it would feel like five feathers.
Plus she looks ticklish. So I think the result would be like thrusting a feather duster inside a pillowcase, that is full of kittens. Highly unpredictable!
Maybe she can choose to perceive all the stimuli as additive if she chooses.
Basically, if all 5 of her are being tickled at the same time, is there a much higher chance of her passing out than if only 1 of her was being tickled?
The way I’ve interpreted it, it’s nearest analog would bee like you’re whole body reacting to your foot being tickled. The reaction to the stimulus to one body causes the others to convulse, because it’s one mind in charge of all the bodies. Just as one have to be mindful of both legs and arms (and anyone who’s seen a baby can attest there is a bit of a learning curve to it), so she had to have learned to be mindful of all her bodies.
Personally I find the concept of harem, what she can do, and how she functions to be the Mose interesting in this story.
I agree on it feeling like five feathers. That means more than one of her getting laid at once could turn into a seriously multiorgasmic experience with each one who goes off stimulating the other four giving rise to a chain reaction that keeps revving upward until she passes out.
That raises the question: if she is in the middle of an orgy, and one of her ‘merges’ back into herself, what happens to the guy that was ‘inside’ her at that moment? Hopefully, for his sake, he is just left pumping air and not just been giving the ‘John Wayne Bobbitt special’
I predict that this question will not be answered in-comic.
She cannot transport a person. And the power seems to be an ‘all or nothing’ proposition. So he ends up with an earth-shattering case of blue-balls and a severely lacerated morale (“she lost interest in mid-stroke, dude that’s losing it.”) but no real damage.
Well… there goes any chances of Sydney getting “Employee of the Month” award.
She’s a part owner she could decale herself “Employee of the Month” anytime she wanted but it would be meaningless.
If Sydney offered a personal tour, sign me up!
I’ll be right there, beside you, in the queue!
Came here to do my daily vote, and I noticed Top Web Comics is down… ? Redirecting to Time Warner Cable? Anyone else?
Decent of you to do that. You can keep up with the Top Web Comics situation by following them on Twitter or Facebook. Their post on the latter reads as follows:“
~ Top Web Comics
There is somewhere else you can vote though, if you have not done so yet. Namely the seeding round of the Comic Mix tournament. It would be nice to see Grrl Power do as well this year, as it did last.
Thanks, on it!
Huh, so I was not imagining things.
*clicks on poll*
Just in case there are folks who are looking through the comments, in the hope of light-hearted fun, do not forget the EASTER EGG HUNT!
I must be fair and say that there is an outside possibility that someone might have spotted something similar, in an earlier comic, and I simply never saw them bringing it up. But I did check through all comments relating to that comic, and the Easter Egg there had not been mentioned yet.
But, for anyone who was frustrated at not spotting it yet, here are a couple of pointers. The key panels of interest are 1, 7 and 9 (the final panel). And here is a cryptic clue:
If someone gets an eureka moment, and feels an urge to share it, feel free.
You can always hide it in spoiler text, if you want to. Just copy and paste the following into your comment, and overwrite the text in the middle.
[Spoiler] Text_to_be_hidden_goes_here [/Spoiler]
Just be sure not to put any paragraph breaks in. As each paragraph needs to be enclosed in that manner. Even if it is just two separate single-sentence lines.
But, if nobody does, by tomorrow, I will let folks out of their misery, and spill the beans myself.
It does have some interesting implications for the comic!
You are not going to do an empty observation, are you?
It has meaning! There is artistry, in visualising it transitioning from one state to another. The visual effect supervisor, of Grrl Power the Movie, will be having goose bumps at being able to animate that!
Sure it has. I would love that movie.
I thought she was charging her bracelet cuz it died on the flight over.
Also there is nothing on her shelves anymore….
I agree with you. Or possibly she might have already done so, but put it on her right arm.
Well spotted, I had missed that myself. Business has been going as well as we hoped! .
Both those apply to this comic mind. If you followed the link to the Easter Egg hunt I mentioned above though, you will see that there is something we missed all the way back in comic 244, last August.
But, you can still have a hunt for it there, if you wish. I have been careful to hide the answer, at the end of the comments, in spoiler text, on that page. Or you can skip straight to the thread which has:
THE BIG REVEAL
Apologies to anyone suffering a downer from the heavier threads!
DaveB should you ever see a plug in which allows this, it would be awesome to have an option for us to flag any comment as “Heavy” (or “Adult” for that matter *). With folks having the option to collapse, and hide those. Be it by preferences or some kind of toggle.
Not that I imagine such is likely, but if something like that does exist, it would allow us to emulate regular forums, which can more easily segregate such topics. But without loosing the powerful feature the current arrangement has, of being able to look down from a particular comic, and easily see what topics it provoked.
I know that is how I first got interested in the comments. Feeling that I was missing some kind of pop-culture reference, and wanting to find out what it was. Then getting interested in the other stuff that was being discussed too.
It would just be nice if we could have it default to only showing “light” and “non-adult” threads. Until folks find their way around enough, to learn how to unlock them. Should they even want to, that is.
Those are much more appropriate to the tone of the comic. But it is a testament to the power of your writing, that it provokes so much deeper thinking too!
* I certainly would feel happier if I could mark one of my double entendre comments as ‘adult’ to eliminate the chance it might embarrass someone. As an example. And it would likewise prevent anyone from feeling that we had too much of a ‘lads’ culture here. Which we do. But that is going to happen in a comic with pretty girl protagonists in it, so we may as well cater for that.
But it would be nice for us to have things as family-friendly as we can. Especially as that would make the community more appealing to the feminists who will also be attracted to this comic.
Ok, I admit it, as a feminist, who also appreciates a lads-culture, I am being greedy and wanting the best of both worlds!
P.S. You could also have a Wall-of-Text version too. Which I could well see being called the ‘Yorp’ toggle.
Not replying directly here in purpose because it strays from the original comment so much: Yes there is a genetic component to bigotry –we all have it. In fact it has been proven to be common to chimpanzees as well as they are the only animals in nature documented to sneak into other chimp group’s home turf and try to kill (and then often eat) as many of the other group’s members as they can to improve their ability to hold their own turf. Ants come close, but only move to occupy permanently. Chimps raid. You can clothe it in righteous anger but rioting is raiding the other group’s territory, destroying any feelings of safety. Don’t bother me with skin color, the examples lose validity over time. That’s why it is called HISTORY– it was “his” story (with the “he” being the winner).
Yes I am considered white (am half Hispanic ), with a very Hispanic looking sister, a black looking brother (same mom, previous marriage dad for them, never met him so no idea if he was either) This means I learned early not to see “color” even in the haters. Don’t be a hater.
You believe in a genetic component to bigoty but not IQ. Asians and whites evolved under similar conditions where they had to build/plan/store in order to survive winters with no food growing, those without the capacity for abstract thought would die off. In Africa before whitey brought quinine, sickle cell was the only protection from malaria that existed. A single mom could feed all the kids she had that survived with low hanging fruit. Evolution favored outbreeding diseases & not being slow when hyenas came around. This explains why only 15% of US blacks have an IQ of 100 or more with the average being 85. Whites have an average IQ of 100 and Asians 106. It just so happens that ability at short distance runs can get you a job paying millions while thanks to affirmative action an Asian engineer wit a PHD lost a promotion to an illiterate black guy. You can go to any Asian area including a Chinese restaurant and ask about how affirmative action hurts them & they will tell you about that case and others.
Totally unrelated to the current Comic ( see now with a proper Forum i could open a new thread , hint hint)
Just shamelessly plugging another Comic
Use of Sex to power yourself is Tantric
Use of Violence is Vehemic
What is use of amusement ? ( https://willsaveworldforgold.com/?p=1548 )
We have never objected to comics being plugged here, so no problems. And you did just open a new thread. ;-)
There is actually a forum…
*points paw in direction of the button, at the top of the page*
I have head rumours that some explorers even went there once. But this is the place to be, if you are hip.
*points paw in direction of the button, at the top of the page*
I may need glasses like Sidney *ponders whether this is cool or sad*
Comedic?
+1
Sounds good , thanks
I wonder if Jiggawatt’s ability to convert herself into electricity, also allows her to run the net? If so, I think I can spot something amusing that she could have gotten up to. Perhaps it was not an insider job, but just Jiggawatt ‘liberating’ the bitcoins from the drug dealers?
Considering the low current & voltage used in computers, wouldn’t Jiggawatt be more likely to fry the circuits & pop circuit breakers open before she could get “online?”
Psht. No soul!
But true.
*kicks a rock*
*limps off*
Besides, the net is mostly light (optical fibre) rather than electricity these days. She wouldn’t get any further than her local telephone exchange 8-)
[but I like those ideas. Don’t stop on account of us engineers…]
Oh, and Bitcoin: I’m probably not alone in looking longingly at the recent staggering rise in the value of bitcoins and thinking “if only…”. But then incidents of theft like that remind me not to put much faith in “free money”.
I have a Texan friend who has been investing heavily in the virtual currencies. He is braver than I. Not that I have such an option, but I prefer investments in tangibles, like land and the associated bricks and mortar. And tinned goods.*
I am just hopeful that his risk pays off, in the long run. It may well do.
* Zombie apocalypse proof investment strategies rock!
DaveB the links to TopWebComics like the ones in the vote buttons keep working erratically if they point to “topwebcomics(dot)com…”. It seems they work fine if you use “www(dot)topwebcomics(dot)com…” instead.
Cool, thanks for the heads up. If anyone wants to update their bookmarks, here are the links, for easy copying:
http://www.topwebcomics.com
https://www.topwebcomics.com/vote/11940/default.aspx
The latter being the direct link to vote specifically for Grrl Power. We have slipped behind somewhat in the voting but we can try to keep 3rd place, or even catch up, if we all vote.
feel like mentioning you have a lead on the other comics for March Madness Dave … so far.
Yep. Voting closes in a few hours though. So anybody who wants to cast their vote, had better do so quickly. But once the nominations are set, then the number of votes only counts as to the seeding. Everything else will re-set to zero, once round one starts.
It is interesting to see how you can burrow into the response data, on the ongoing polling. I found the geographical spread to be the interesting one. Nothing too surprising. But nice to see, nonetheless. I won’t try to link it, I suspect that it probably would not work cleanly.
Oh, and nope, the brackets and seeding have not gone up yet. But if you have not cast your nomination vote yet, the polls do https://www.comicmix.com/2015/03/19/announcing-the-mix-march-madness-2015-seeding-round/.
If you want to check out the poll info/ geographical data just click on the “comments” option in the bottom right corner of the poll, and keep hitting “next” for each page of it.
Sorry, that was meant to be:
… the polls do appear to still be open.
Legally speaking: Now that Sydney has joined the Military (or any branch of the DoD), she NO LONGER has complete Freedom of Speech. It is in our contracts when we join. Her actions here are borderline illegal. Borderline because she is not talking to the press, but still making (witty) statements that could be taken out of context. Also, she is not in Uniform at the moment so that helps too, but she is closely associated with ARCON.
An example, Back before “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” was repealed (a poorly written reg. that prevented Homosexuals from serving). Two soldiers chained themselves to the White House in protest of the rule, in Uniform. They were kicked out of the service for protesting in uniform (Not for being gay).
When DADT was repealed, the lawmakers said “anyone kicked out for being gay could rejoin the military and/or have their Discharge upgraded to “Honorable”. These two tried, but could not. Because they were kicked out for protesting while in military uniform (not for being gay, they might have appealed, but I had stopped following the case).
You see, the logic is that people see the uniform and think “They are a representative of *blank*”. Even if they are right, the military/police have to appear neutral. I am NOT saying it always makes since or is right, it is the way the law is.
Example: 2 people are talking. One in normal cloths says “All *insert race* are *insert stereotype*!!”. That is just their opinion, a highly racist opinion, but they are legally free to say that.
Another person in a police or military uniform says “All *insert race* are *insert stereotype*!!”. Now we are talking a new much more scary possibility, that all police/military feel that way.
Of course, it is just one a**h***s opinion and not representing the whole. But it can poison the well of public opinion (and we are still trying to clean it up after the last “incident”).
And that is my daily “Gil over-thinking the joke extravaganza”, tune in next time to understand the meaning of the word “And”.
What you say is very valid. However Sydney does have a few mitigating factors. Other than those you mentioned yourself, such as not being in uniform. One being that she is being stalked by the press, and followed every moment of her day, so far. Which she did object to and attempted to evade. So she clearly could not be accused of seeking them out (as opposed to the White House protesters).
Secondly she is only a recruit, and a totally untrained one at that. Whilst she will have had a warning not to talk to the press, she clearly has not been trained in press-relations. There was not time. A typical member of the military will not need such, of course. But those who are expected to face the press do get that training. So her lack of it, yet, very much does count in her favour. At the moment.
Thirdly, despite both the above aggravating factors, she is working very hard to try and avoid saying things which would reflect badly against Archon. Clearly we know that anything can be distorted by a hostile media. But equally it would be unreasonable to expect her to live her life without speaking, whilst in a public place. And wholly impractical, given the fact that she has to work, in a public place.
So, fourthly she has a big advantage, over typical members of the military, given that (as logical deduction tells us) Sydney’s contract specifically allows her to be where she is and working as she is doing.
Page descriptions like the one you wrote on this really demonstrate how you write Sydney’s rambling the same as yours, lol. The bit about if black hole guy showed up first had me cackling