Comic for Friday, March 11th

Posted: 10:12 am, Friday, March 11th, 2005

Sorry I'm late, gang - the update schedule's been a mess lately, I know. The ATM at my ghetto fab bank ate my card last night so I had to crack some skulls this morning. Have my card back in my hot little hands now, though, so.

This week's strips were more or less inspired by my utter lack of motivation to draw this past weekend. How about that, inspiration through laziness? It was beautiful out Saturday and all I wanted to do was play video games and sit. It reminded me of May 2, 2003, which was a wonderfully gorgeous day that I called in sick and then spent most of my time playing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (which, observant readers - and now the rest of you, too, since I'm telling you - will note is the Grand Theft that the boys are playing, because I never received San Andreas because alicia7379 is a suck-ass suck). Tree was actually angry with me when he learned that was how I spent my day. Meh, whatever. (By the way, Ron is in the process of standing in the first panel - I see now that it looks, instead, like he owns the world's tallest couch. Mea culpa.)

For absolutely no reason, Sgt. Tim McCarthy for the Indiana State Police!

It is an indisputable fact of the universe that Legos kick ass, and are one of the best children's toys out there. Sure, they suck now because you can only build whatever Harry Potter scene or Star Wars droid the kit is meant to build, but back in the day, they were awesome. To prove this, here are two Lego superhero movies. Spider-man and Doc Ock (alternate ending version) is by the same guys who did the Lego movie for the Monty Python and the Holy Grail DVD a few years back. Batman: New Times is only kind of a Lego movie, since it's actually computer animated, but it's cool all the same (although I couldn't get the volume to work). Kind of funny that I found that, because as I was walking to work this morning, I wondered why they don't ever bother to adapt the Dark Knight Returns into a movie, if they insist on continuously making Batman films. (I thought this because Coliseum has a Sin City book in the front window, and that's coming out this summer, so Frank Miller is obviously OK with selling his work for film adaptations.) Not that this little Lego thing has anything to do with the Dark Knight Returns. I don't know why I brought that up.

Shoot, what was I going to talk about... Oh, right, duh. 2.0 and I went to the Brooklyn Museum of Art's opening for its new Basquiat exhibit on Wednesday night. I'd never been to a museum opening before, and it was pretty cool - great food, free wine. The show itself was expansive - most of the fourth and fifth floors were taken up by it, I think. I've only ever been to the BMA once before, for a Star Wars exhibit with Crownover and Di right before Episode II: Attack of the Crapfest came out, so 2.0 gave me a run-down of its history. They pulled a Notre Dame Stadium trick by leaving red brick exposed when they did some work on the facade a few years back, installing an 'invisible staircase' in the front of the building. Basquiat's timeline as an active artist was pretty short - most of the work in the show was from 1980 to '87 - but he was extremely prolific, so there's a lot to see, including a piece that he did with Andy Warhol. The touring show has a site (apparently for teens) meant to teach you some about Basquiat's life and works that is actually pretty cool, if you're interested. All in all, not a bad way to spend Wednesday night, especially since Lost is in reruns.

RAW found this, whatever it is.

Finally, some political stuff - Bush is trying to push a bunch of uber-conservative judges onto the Court of Appeals (no shock there), and Cheney is threatening to try and get rid of the filibustering process to allow them through. I don't know how much good MoveOn petitions do, but, well, it's better than doing nothing. Pro-corporate judges frighten me about as much as Bush's exit strategy taking us through Iran, and here are MoveOn's notes on three of these buggers (I took footnotes out):

William Myers III has never been a judge and spent most of his career as a lobbyist for the cattle and mining industry. He has written that all habitat conservation laws are unconstitutional because they interfere with potential profit. In 2001, Bush appointed him as the chief lawyer for the Department of the Interior. In that role he continued as a champion of corporate interests, setting his agenda in meetings with former employers he promised not to speak with, and even illegally giving away sacred Native American land to be strip mined.

Terrence Boyle was a legal aide to Jesse Helms. As a judge, his signature decisions have attempted to circumvent federal laws barring employment discrimination by race, gender, and disability. His rulings have been overturned a staggering 120 times by the conservative 4th District Court of Appeals, either due to gross errors in judgment or simple incompetence.

William Pryor Jr. served as Attorney General of Alabama, where he took money from Phillip Morris, fought against the anti-tobacco lawsuit until it was almost over, and cost the people of Alabama billions in settlement money for their healthcare system as a result. He called Roe v. Wade "the worst abomination of constitutional law in our history," and has consistently argued against the federal protections for the civil rights of minorities, lesbian and gay couples, women, and the disabled.

Yeah, they sound like the winners Asshat would hang with. The guy who's never been a judge is especially galling. Actually, I guess the legal aide to Jesse Helms is pretty bad, too. Can you imagine if a Democratic Senator ever pulled a Helms and basically threatened Bush's life if he came to his state? We'd never hear the end of it! Motherfucker should've been thrown in jail for that one. And for a lot of other things, too.

Speaking of judges, I just found out yesterday that Taft was a Supreme Court justice after he was president. I don't think I knew that was allowed.

Anyway. Have a good Selection Sunday, everyone! Can't wait to see the Irish players in one of the disappointment shots. Whoo.

bullfrog