Autocrats & Oxymorons

Now, most people don't know who Jim Aparo is. Unless you're a comic book nerd like me. Jim was an illustrator for DC Comics, most notably known for several Batman and Deadman issues of the 70s and 80s. He's one of those artists who does a capable job on everything he illustrates, but has never been, to my knowledge, a "fan favorite." However, now that he's gone, I feel sad that another well-known artist of my youth has gone to The Great Beyond.

Aparo has drawn issues of The Brave & The Bold, Batman, Aquaman, Green Lantern and many "mystery" comics such as House of Mystery; he was the artist on a Spectre series in the late 1970s. I'll have to dig out my collection to find more.

He joins other great comic book artists of the past: Bob Kane, Curt Swan, Gil Kane, Will Eisner, Don Newton, John Buscema, and, of course, Jack Kirby. I know I've forgotten a bunch.

Thanx for everything, Jim.

And now we come to the “controversy” over evolution versus “intelligent design” (in this case, an oxymoron if ever I heard one). “Controversy” is in quotes because no matter how much the religious right/neo-conservatives want their religious viewpoint on science to be taken seriously in public debate, there just is no way their ravings can be called “science.”

One of the chief objections to evolution as an explanation for the multitude of animals occupying various ecological niches is the quaint assertion that it is a “theory.” They’re using the dictionary definition of “a conjecture, an assumption based on limited information or knowledge, speculation.” However, that is not the definition of scientific theory: “A set of statements or principles devised to explain a group of facts or phenomena, especially one that has been repeatedly tested or is widely accepted and can be used to make predictions about natural phenomena.” There is also challenge of the fossil record, a chief source of evidence for evolution. There’s a geological period of time where very few or no fossils have been found, as if life was wiped out cataclysmically. To creationists, this connotes divine intervention. Also, they have asserted that the fossil record does not show a link between species. If they’re looking for complete skeletons of every stage of evolution for every species on Earth, good luck! Conditions have to be just right for fossils to form at all! And that’s not even taking into account the various upheavals, floodings, ice ages, comet collisions and other natural phenomena that would cause destruction of bones and fossils.

The complexity of biological parts is also cited as a refutation. The human eye is usually given as an example of intelligent design; how could a complex mechanism such as an eye “happen by chance?” These nitwits forget that these are incremental changes over millennia. There is evidence all over the animal kingdom, from cave-dwelling animals to ocean vent creatures, of sensing organs that are simple, “pre-eye” mechanisms.

And the proof that creationism is true? Why, The Bible, of course. Where there’s no physical evidence for intelligent design, the gap is filled with “conjecture”, assumptions, and faulty logic. They start with the Truth from the Bible, then work backward and hobble together reasonable-sounding “scientific evidence.” Like the bullshit that sedimentary layers were created in “hours or days,” not millions of years. “Findings show...” I can find someone working in the sciences that has proof we’re really living on the Moon, but I wouldn’t call him a scientist! From Adam as the first man, to Noah’s Flood and beyond, these can all be “proven” by ramblings that sound logical to the regular Joe in the street, if Joe happens to be ignorant of detailed scientific discoveries. And most people want easy answers, which is what these “magical” creations provide for people.

It all comes down to what someone said to me back in 1969. A women of 23 years asserted, and I quote, “I didn’t come from no monkeys!” That’s the beginning and end of it, isn’t it? No one wants to identify with feces-throwing, masturbating primates. Even though, every day, something happens on this planet to prove we’re nothing but.

It obliges me to renounce my allegiance to the Darwinian theory of the Ascent of Man from the Lower Animals; since it now seems plain to me that that theory ought to be vacated in favor of a new and truer one…the Descent of Man from the Higher Animals." -- Mark Twain

Here's a little sunshine to ward off the poisonous gray clouds! This is an idea for a t-shirt, conceived by my son, Eric and drawn in Adobe Illustrator by moi. It's titled "Buzzcut". Hilarious!

I just found out about the idiotic ramblings of Pat Robertson vis-a-vis Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. Isn't it about time we do something about this moron? Unfortunately, this is still America, and foot-in-mouth conditions like this are protected by a little something called Freedom of Speech. But it won't be long until the Constitution is considered anti-American. Don't like how those pesky cherished freedoms of eight generations of Americans get in the way of total power? Just get your Congressional lackeys and Supreme Court appointees to change the laws! Nobody can stop us! It's for their own good! We know better; we're rich!

Bastards.

What a hell of a heaven it will be when they get all these hypocrites assembled there!-- Mark Twain