Oyaji and Chabudai Gaeshi

This post exists because I can’t put images in the Comments of people’s blogs.

JapanNewbie’s blog had an enlightening post about Japan’s four natural disasters – Earthquake, thunder, fire, and… Obstinate old geezers.

It seems that whenever the man of the house got annoyed over some reason or other, he’d perform the ancient and traditional ritual of ‘chabudai gaeshi’. However, this noble and manly art of showing one’s displeasure is unlawful nowadays.

Anyway! To Japan Newbie, I wanted to comment domo arigato for the image I borrowed above, and be pleased to view the following from One Piece. Researching the second one led to me discovering your interesting site!

                                           Manga Chapter 338

                                           Manga Chapter 452

Global Warming Editorial Cartoons Pt 3

Part 1 here

Part 2 here

alarmist
adjective DISAPPROVING
intentionally showing only the bad and dangerous things in a situation, and so worrying people:
Global warming fearmongers somehow cannot see how their claims that the 0.0383% carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will cause the Earth to heat up by 2.1 degrees in 100 years and DEFINITELY kill us all could possibly be considered alarmist.

This next one is from The New York Times of all places.

The Goracle from Moonbattery:

Complete with Prayer of Gore from goracle.org:

Prayer of Gore

Al is my Shepherd

He is only aware of what he wants
He makes me lie down on park benches outside his mansion

He leads me beside the polluted water of his strip mine
He restores my doubt in brain dead liberals

He leads me in the path of Kyoto for his legacy sake
His lies give children sleepless nights

Though i walk dark in my house
his 4 are lit like Vegas

Surely his lust for power will follow me all the days of my life
And I will see votes held to the light on thanksgiving forever

— letzfaceit, YouTube, April 8, 2007

As the cartoons above illustrate and as elaborated in Ann Coulter Junks Global Warming Too, global warming alarmism has all the vices of totalitarian religious extremism… With Al Gore as its highest messiah, prophet, priest and physical manifestation of deity Mother Gaia… Whom the Green-Nuts would fanatically sacrifice humanity to.

Global warming alarmism scares us all. (For me, its the paranoid alarmism that seeks to drown out any rational decision-making that is scary, not the threat of death by global warming.)

And as the above cartoon shows, it wasn’t Bush who was preying on people’s fears about Iraq. Video evidence here! And now the hypocrite-king Gore is using global warming as his scare-horse. Will he shift to blaming the next Republican President for scaring us about global warming in a decade’s time?

And did I mention the alarmism? ARGH SAVE US, THE SKY IS FALLING!

Oh, it seems I did! The Star Opinion: Give Us Solid Facts on Global Warming and MAYBE Humans Cause Global Warming That COULD Cause Climate Changes That MIGHT Be Bad, PERHAPS.

So here’s the thing… If environmentalists today are so fanatically opposed to anything that produces greenhouse gases, why are they still so opposed to nuclear power – which produces none of their feared, doom-the-world carbon dioxide?

Well, the green-sanity crowd has been campaigning to shut down nuclear power for decades. They fear the non-practical threat of potential radioactive contamination.

But if the end of the world is as nigh as the global warming greennuts claim, then wouldn’t the very low probability of a nuclear accident be outweighed by the ‘dire’, ‘immediate’ threat of global warming devastation?

And with the megatons of CO2 being spewed out by oil and coal burning power plants instead of clean nuclear energy, environmentalists are THEMSELVES the number 1 cause of global warming!

In Ann Coulter’s words, this two-faced steal our cake and eat it too attitude proves the green movement’s hatred of humanity.

Speaking of alternative energy (which I personally support)… The above cartoon ad features a selfish, self-righteous, rich wind-blower ironically opposing the installation of clean, green, no-greenhouse-gases wind turbines… BECAUSE IT DOESN’T LOOK NICE FROM HIS MANSION. Go to Classical Values to view the embedded animation.

The rich-club enviro-hypocrites really show their true colours in this case – they support any cause only when it is comfortable for them. More info on Ted Kennedy and taking the wind out of Cape Wind’s sails at John Stossel on the Global Warming Myth, links at bottom.

Unfortunately, just as with anything else, human greed and bureucratic corruption/ineptness will spoil every good intention.

It was Gore who likened global warming to a fever, quoted in Al Gore: Global Warming A Moral Issue. Plus, global warming frighteners tend to drastically over-react to at the slightest hint of climate change.

But wait a minute… Who stands to earn a huge amount through his carbon caps trading company if the entire world were forced to adhere to carbon emissions restrictions? Make a wild, cynical guess.

Most of the measures the global warming fearmongers propose to reduce CO2 emissions, and are akin to economic decapitation – such as the Kyoto Bankrupt-us-All, which will achieve amazingly little results for amazingly much money.

Ref: Germany energy costs higher by USD 9.2 billion, Kyoto to cost hundreds of billions of Euros, Italy, Japan and Spain face USD 33 billion in Kyoto fines, USD 150 billion a year worldwide for 0.001 degree temperature reduction.

Read all about the fallacy of Kyoto in Star Opinion: Guard Against Kyoto Protocol Hype, Stop Focusing on Global Warming, Start Focusing on Humanity and Ann Coulter Junks Global Warming Too.

Immediate next from Red Planet Cartoons:

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Immediately following from The Ryskin Sketchbook:

And meanwhile, the mypoic and fanatical focus on fossil fuel use and CO2 emission levels has led to the rising popularity of biofuels as an alternative, ‘renewable’ energy source. Problem is, biofuel actually has negative energy production and uses even MORE fossil fuel to produce, and takes away food resources leading to leading to starvation and higher food prices!

And Al Gore is to blame for it!

Green-nuts are literally burning the world’s food in their cars. But of course, anything that is against global warming is considered beyond reproach by enviro-weenies.

See here for one way we can combat global warming!

Even Dilbert has strips mocking the hypocrisy and champions-of-the-environment-will-go-ecofriendly-last mentality that Al Gore exemplifies. See my post for more Dilbert global warming satire.

Seemingly contrary to predictions that global warming will be bringing the hottest temperatures ever, there seem to be spates of really cold weather!

See The Sun: An Inconvenient Cold for news on that.

See this news report for one such event in April 2007, or this July 2007 one. Read here for how global warming protestors can chant “It’s hot in here! There’s too much carbon in the atmosphere!” while being buried in snow… Because according to them, “Global warming can mean colder, it can mean drier, it can mean wetter, that’s what we’re dealing with.” And oh, frostbite is caused by global warming!

Of, wait… I stand corrected! It seems that the vastly effective efforts to combat global warming have solved the problem already, resulting in record low temperatures that smash citrus crops! Hurray! But seriously, almost all global warming ‘solutions’ will cause much more economic damage than this.

What was that I mentioned about the win-win-win-win definitions of the alarmists?

Given, human caused climate change (including global warming) can cause fluctuations in local weather, bringing about catastrophic temperature extremes. But it just seems so contrary to global warming. Maybe instead, it is this:

If you didn’t know, back in the 1970s the environmental and climate scientists were getting everyone all worked up about the impending doom of global cooling. Newsweek even published a (now infamous) article about the coming frosty end of the world! (NOTE: More media-propogated than science-supported, see http://tinyurl.com/mxlcr for details, kudos to ‘Tom Dubya’.)

Learn more at Global Cooling: The Impending Catastrophe of Our Times and a short reference in The Star Opinion: Give Us Solid Facts on Global Warming.

Just a bit of nonsense from HALOLZ lol!

And oh, wait… It seems that maybe the whole planet ISN’T WARMING UP AFTER ALL! See Hot news: NASA quietly fixes flawed temperature data; 1998 was NOT the warmest year in the millenium, UN Climate Panel Accused of Possible Research Fraud and dual letters The Sun: Fuzzy Facts on the Climate and NST: GLOBAL WARMING? The ‘science’ of a warming world which have links to faulty temperature measurements.

One complaint made by skeptics is that the global warming believers are always smearing the skeptics as having a hidden agenda, i.e. sponsored by oil companies to produce fraudulent research.

The skeptics counter-charge that the global warming believers receive magnitudes more funding and paycheques on the order of hundreds of millions of dollars from governments in the name of environmentalism. Rock the boat with data that disproves the IPCC’s dogma, and you’re out of a profitable job that requires nothing except your cooperation in imagining up new ‘proof’ of global warming.

Another complaint often raised by global warming skeptics is that the majority (who believe in the theory of anthropogenic global warming) immediately denounce the minority (who do not believe it) as ‘liars’, ‘sponsored by oil companies’ and ‘unscientific’. See this news report and this critique of a Newsweek article lambasting GW skeptics for actual cases of name-calling threats.

Btw, related to the above use of the term ‘global warming denier’ is an intentional ploy by the fearmongers to liken skeptics to Holocaust deniers.

With global warming mindless zombiesheepology, science is ended before it even begins due to pre-formed conclusions and religio-dogmatic green-sanity environmentalism.

See Iran Prez Ahmadinejad Sez: “There Are No Homosexuals in Iran” (And Why There Ain’t Any) for Ahmadinejad’s visit to Columbia University and denial of both the Holoaust and the existence of homosexuals in Iran. No global warming denial though, that would get him kicked out of Liberal-Land.

Worse, skeptics are labeled as evil, denying Nazis whose disbelief will kill everyone in the world. Just see this news report. If that is the case, then similar trials should be held for the global warming hysterians if it is proven that their warnings were unfounded, and cost us trillions is losses for nothing.

Ah, but are the fearmongers correct is assuming that ALL RESPECTABLE SCIENTISTS BELIEVE IN GLOBAL WARMING? See Many Peer Reviewed Scientific Studies Defy Global Warming ‘Consensus’ to help you decide if there are no reputable researchers questioning global warming’s hysterical claims.

Insulting the credentials, character and ethics of the opposition… A clear Ad hominem attack, yet one that is effective in swaying the undecided public to disregard all evidence contrary to global warming as ‘fake’ or ‘biased’.

Read more in my posts Why I Feel About Global Warming The Same Way I Feel About Evolution and Ann Coulter Junks Al Gore Too.

One could argue that I’m doing the same by making fun of Gore’s consumption habits like I do above… But I contend that whether or not I’m trying to undermine his facade of integrity, he is guzzling huge amounts of energy and spewing huge amounts of CO2 every day.

So does he really believe that global warming is a threat to humanity that can be averted? I point out that his actions seem to show a distinct lack of convincedness of his own warnings to the public.

As you can see, not even the children are spared the guilt-piling, enviro-religion brainwashing and political indoctrination that starts as early as elementary school. Of course, if they learn from the examples of the adults, the children will grow up to just as wasteful anyway.

(Especially if the adults in question are massive enviro-hypocrites like Al Gore, who early on said global warming is a ‘moral’ issue’ and now refuses to take an a personal energy ethics pledge – which was exactly what he had been preaching so holier-than-thouly about! What a great example to follow!

See 400,000 Years of Climate Change Was Caused By….

Speaking of global warming believers, how certain is their climate science, really? (See this Wikipedia article for more on the Viking colonization of very-icy-today Greenland, which actually DID use to be covered in green during higher global temperatures in the past!)

As I say in my letter The Star Opinion: Give Us Solid Facts on Global Warming, the climate scientists mostly rely on computer simulation programmes to predict the rise in global temperatures for the next 100 years.

And how accurate are these predictions? Well, we won’t know for sure until the year 2100, but for now they can’t even forecast next week’s weather!

Do recall how in Johor, people went back to their homes because the ‘predictions’ were certain that the heavy rains had stopped. And did they really stop that soon? Well if you still remember…

Sploosh.

Add this to the fact that global temperatures and climate have been changing since the Earth began, regardless of whether humans were around to spew CO2 or not.

And speaking of spew, I saved the best for last. Take a look at it, enlarge it by clicking on it. Study it for a while, and see if you get it before reading my explanation.

Get it?

Still don’t get it?

REALLY can’t get it?

Well here you go then…

Those things which look like fans are wind turbines. They a ‘green’ source of renewable energy, they generate ‘clean electricity’ which does not release carbon dioxide emissions. Thus are a favoured pet of Gore’s.

…

…

…

AND THEY ARE RUN BY POWERFUL GUSTS OF WIND – INCLUDING INCREDIBLE BLASTS OF AMAZING HOT AIR!!!!

Thank you and good night, folks!

Part 1 here

Part 2 here

Global Warming Editorial Cartoons Pt 2

Part 1 here

Part 3 here

See this link for info on the UN climate change report.

See The Sun: An Inconvenient Cold.

See Bali 2007 U.N. Climate Change Conference – Roundup of Idiocy for what the UN Conference on Climate Change in Bali is really accomplishing.

The above is an inaccurate portrayal of the true cause for the 2007 California wildfires. However, it is an accurate portrayal of the fallacious picture global warming fearmongering propagandists are trying to paint.

California’s wildfires are blamed by some on global warming. Yes, the ‘official’ increase of barely 0.6 degrees is blamed for starting massive fires (actual increase in recorded temperature 0.1 degrees, added-on politicized science amount of 0.5 degrees; see The Sun: Fuzzy Facts on the Climate for more).

Meanwhile, slightly higher temperatures actually increases humidity and rainfall as proven by historic observation, exactly opposite of what the blame-everything-on-global-warming crowd of scarifiers claim.

As for the real causes of the wildfires… Don’t let global warming maniacs distract you from yet another real-root-of-a-problem with their hijacking of every issue!

Fanatical and short-sighted enviromentalism! See Michelle Malkin: Wildfires and environmental obstructionism and Michelle Malkin: LA Times: Forest thinning spared homes. Countermoonbattery Saves Lives and Property from California Wildfires has the above too.

As I rant in John Travolta on Beating the Global Heat, Ann Coulter Junks Global Warming Too and Al Gore: High Priest of Global Warming Hypocrisy, the rich actors who are most outspoken and visible about stopping global warming are also among the biggest consumers and pollutors of all.

Politicians and celebrities fly around in private jets and huge limos, burning more fuel than all my readers combined can in one lifetime… All the while flaunting how they are they the ‘champions’ of combating human caused climate change.

Including the above 2008 US presidential candidate, who like other hypocritical politicians and celebrities, put the blame squarely on the shoulders of ordinary citizens – never themselves.

By the way, Al Gore’s Oscar-winning documentary on global warming that got many people to believe in catastrophic climate change, An Inconvenient Truth? It’s been found guilty of 11 major inaccuracies by a British government court!!!!

Visit this link to see a cartoon animation detailing Al Gore’s greenhouse gas hypocrisy, pictured below.

Al Gore burns HUGE amounts of resources… His home uses 20 times the electricity as an average home, he uses $1080 of natural gas a month, he flies everywhere in jet planes. And then tells us ways not to destroy the Earth with our pollution, such as by using energy-saving fluorescent lights.

See NST Letters: Al Gore Lied About Drowning Polar Bears.

As I said in the newspapers at The Star Opinion: Give Us Solid Facts on Global Warming and in my post dedicated to Gore, Al Gore: High Priest of Global Warming Hypocrisy.

Above is another luxury that many global-warming tearjerking rich-kids will never give up! See Schism in Moonbattery’s Unholy Church for more on how PETA’s goals actually gel with global warming hysteria’s, but are virtually ignored.

Did you know that environmentalists have repeatedly and outspokenly stated their hope that human beings die for the sake of the planet? My response to such genocidal nonsense at Mother Gaia WANTS The Human Disease to Stick Around.

Plenty more where that came from at this post.

Al Gore is soooooo sure of his correctness, that he refuses all requests for a mature and fair debate about global warming… Probably because he is so ingeniously correct and any attempt to have a face-to-face discussion with him will result in the low-IQ brains of the scientsts imploding. Hah.

This can refer to the fact that Al Gore and similarly minded individuals blame global warming for everything (see the next cartoon).

Or perhaps it refers to the argument by anthopogenic global warming skeptics that CO2 and other greenhouse gases are not the main cause of global warming. Rather, it is due to solar fluctuations. But of course, that would remove the basis for rallying behind Gore.

As I said, the global warming alarmists seem to blame everything on global warming! This cartoon just pokes fun at that with something completely unrelated. See the snow cartoons below for more on that.

And I mean literally EVERYTHING IN EXISTENCE. Including this:

More lols at http://globallolzing.wordpress.com/.

On how likely it is that carbon dioxide – which comprises a mini-miniscule fraction of the atmosphere (just 0.0383%!) – is the real culprit behind global warming, read my post Carbon Dioxide and Global Warming – 5 Reasons Why I’m Not Alarmed.

Read about Don Imus, or this informative Time.com article. (For a quick editorial cartoon run-thru of what some people think of the Don Imus controversy, see the following: Time.com cartoon 1, Time.com cartoon 2 and IBD editorials April 18 and April 11).

Above three found at Jonjayray’s Photobucket.

See several other of these at The People’s Cube – Global Warming Satire.

And learn how mankind is definitely causing catastrophic continental drift that will surely doom all civilization!

If the masses aren’t convinced enough of the doomsday threat of global warming, then convince them with the heart-wrenching pathos of Flat Fatima, spokeswoman for the liberal media supreme!

And if that old Beirut lady isn’t enough to convince you of the evil that is global warming, celebrity terrorist Osama bin Laden wages jihad against global warming too!!!! (True real life fact! Page 5 of this transcript!)

“Your denial of global warming and the Kyoto accord are evidence of your crimes.” – Osama bin Laden, in a video released September 2007

Haha! If you’ll remember, back in the 2000 US Presidential Election, Gore lost the presidency to Bush by a narrow margin. To make up for it, these days Gore is rallying the gullible suckers of the wor… I mean, the concerned citizens of the world behind him as the champion of stopping global warming.

It’s his big comeback, as the cartoons in Part 3 portray… Perhaps in preparation for a future bid for the Presidency.

Part 1 here

Part 3 here

Global Warming Editorial Cartoons

CURRENT NUMBER OF CARTOONS: 216+ links to more

LAST UPDATE: 8 May 2008

*NEW CARTOONS ARE ADDED WHENEVER I COME ACROSS THEM. CHECK BACK HERE ONCE IN A WHILE.*

*NOTE ON SAVING IMAGES: If you save the images and they turn out as bmp format, you can change them to jpg or gif by changing the extension name in Windows, or open them using Microsoft Paint and save as jpg or gif.*

*Or just Save this entire web page. This will save all the cartoons into a single folder on your PC in one shot.*

Note: To make it easier to load the cartoons, I’ve split them into separate posts. This is Part 1.

Part 2 here

Part 3 here

————————————-

I love editorial and political cartoons, and I hate lies, hoaxes and fear-mongering. So you can probably guess that editorial cartoons mocking global warming and its hypocritical supporters are a particular favourite of mine!

I’ve chosen some of the better ones to share with you, along with a brief explanation of what irt alludes to… Both so you can get the joke more easily if you’re stuck, and to reveal how the anthropogenic (human caused) global warming bandwagon has a few flat tyres. Editorial cartoons manage to do this humorously and to the point!

These cartoons are taken from Time.com, Michael Ramirez of Investor’s Business Daily, The Ryskind Sketchbook, Cox and Forkum, Day by Day, Gary Varvel of the Indianapolis Star, Paul Nowak, Wayne Stayskal, Chuck Assay, Chip Bok, Henry Payne, Red Planet Cartoons, zombietime and The People’s Cube.

A whole bunch of pro- and anti-global warming cartoons can be found at Cartoonist Group, including lots of Gore-zilla and rich actors and their I-Can-Buy-Expensive-Carbon-Offsets emissions, but they’re save-protected and I don’t want to print-screen them out.

For the facts and my rants on global warming fears, foolishness and hypocrisy, see my Global Warming Fears category.

And now, the cartoons… Explanations follow relevant cartoons.

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Live Earth is the latest Gore-ian scam to round up support for stopping global warming… Complete with smarmy, holier-than-thou preachy guilt tripping, arrogantly self-assured, don’t think just obey, boy-do-we-love-ourselves localised media assault.

At the expense of global warming, as tonnes of emissions are spewed into the air by the concert and jet- setting celebrities. See here for more.

But no worries, Mother Earth! Because although tons of CO2 is spewed into the atmosphere, they won’t cause any harm once Live Earth organizers and participants purchase some carbon credit offsets! But of course, tons of trash left behind…

Speaking of carbon offsets…

Above by John Worr.

Above from www.celsias.com.

Reference for above at New York Times.

See also my post on carbon offsets, Follow the Clues: Is Al Gore’s Promotion of Global Warming Hysteria Merely A Scam to Make Him Money?.

Because for all his scamming, Al Gore has won the Nobel Peace Prize! Wonder why Charles Ponzi didn’t win a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts too?

See Al Gore 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Editorial Cartoons for a just the cartoons on his Nobel Peace Prize, and links to educate you on the true nature of this incredulous incredible win.

THIS is the person who truly deserves the Nobel Peace Prize: Irena Sendler.

Court ruling here if you missed it.

The People’s Cube has Al Gore’s acceptance speech!

Oh well, can’t win ’em all Gorey! Guess you aren’t the biggest threat to capitalism and American freedom just yet!

Based on this piece: Satire: Gore Sues Time for ‘Person of the Year’ Recount.

Part 2 here

Part 3 here

On Gun Controls: Five Scenarios

Before I begin proper, I give my condolences to the victims and families of the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre. If you haven’t heard about it yet, please read through the link.

I have said briefly before that I am in favour of gun control laws. But after reading Ann Coulter’s lastest posting and her reasoning in favor of citizens carrying concealed guns , I am prompted to reconsider.

This news report also makes one reconsider the purported relation between gun control and murder crime rates. As does this newspaper piece about various cases where armed citizens stopped gun spree-killers.

See also Gun Wielding Maniac Attack: Conservative vs Liberal Result, where a single gun-wielding volunteer security guard stopped what would have been a 1000-rounds-of-ammo massacre in a church.

Rather than argue the points for and against gun control in its different forms (such as strict gun ownership, restriciting guns to inside the owner’s home, banning the sale of guns or etc), I shall explore the effects of gun control through scenarios.

And if any of the below scenarios seem outlandish or unrealistic outside the USA… Well, just imagine it’s happening in Johor Bahru .

Let us begin…

———-

SCENARIO 1: Citizens allowed to own guns and carry them concealed in public

Just imagine, everyone walking around might be holding a gun! That aunty at the market, that mother pushing a pram… Sounds scary, doesn’t it? Imagine what might happen when a road accident leads to flaring tempers!

But violent criminals would also be deterred from targeting citizens, as they would run the risk of the citizen retaliating with lethal force. That is one argument for concealed carry laws – criminals are less likely to attack citizens if those citizens might be carrying effective defense.

GUN CONTROL = BAD

———-

SCENARIO 2: Totally gun-free zones

Some are saying that if gun control laws were stricter, then the recent Virginia Tech massacre wouldn’t have happened. But Ann Coulter and others argue that the banning of guns from campus is precisely what allowed the shooter to carry out so many killings.

After all, the first ones to disobey the gun-free rule would be the criminals. If the VT shooter were hell-bent on carrying out his rampage, he would have found a firearm somehow.

Even if tough gun control laws were in place, he would find some way to pruchase one illegally and smuggle one in.

And he would know that no one else on campus would be carrying a weapon capable of stopping him. But if someone had been armed and ready to respond, things might have ended much sooner. If there had been many who were armed and ready to respond, the shooter might even have been deterred.

Such a result is not unheard of; the Appalachian School of Law shooting is one example of armed students managing to subdue a shooter before he caused many deaths.

See also this Time article for one Texan woman’s account of how not having her gun on hand cost the lives of her parents. And you just HAVE to read this news report to appreciate the role guns have to play in home defense!

The gist of the argument: Gun-free zones are like shooting ranges for mass-murderers, who will be the only armed person in the area.

GUN CONTROL = BAD

———-

SCENARIO 3: A gun-carrying burglar breaks into a gun-owner’s house

Let’s say the sale of guns is rampant, and basically everybody owns one. A burglar armed with a gun plans to break into a citizen’s home. This citizens also owns a gun. The match-up seems pretty fair, doesn’t it?

But in reality, the burglar has distinct advantages over a potentially stronger victim (I should know from my own experience)

The burglar is prepared for a confrontation, having chosen the date and the time, while the citizen cannot be staying awake every night on the alert for break-ins. The burglar will strike in the dead of night, when the citizen is fast asleep.

When the confrontation happens, the citizen will be groggy and confused, while the burglar will be alert and psyched up for the crime. The burglar will have his weapon already in hand, while the citizen’s weapon may be in a drawer or otherwise not immediately accessible.

And if it came down to a shoot out, the burglar will likely be prepared to open fire, with perhaps some target practise beforehand.

With all the advantages of initiative, the burglar comes out on top in this very-likely scenario. The citizen loses the confrontation, his valuables, his gun, and maybe even his life.

If nobody had any guns, burglaries would still happen. If only responsible citizens has guns, they might have an advantage – if the burglar didn’t get a  knife to their throat while they sleep. But this scenario shows that if everyone carried guns, the midnight attacker would have a definite advantage.

GUN CONTROL = GOOD

———-

SCENARIO 4: Where have all the guns gone?

In most countries, such as Malaysia, very few people have a license to own a gun. Tight controls and very harsh penalties for being caught carrying a gun also mean that criminals to get ahold of guns less frequently.

This translates to a very low incidence of gun-related violence and death in Malaysia. Where there are no guns, there will be no gun crimes.

However, even when guns are generally banned and only security forces can legally wield them, we’ve seen plenty of high-profile robberies where gangs with automatic weapons gun down guards and shoppers at goldsmiths. And there was that case of an armed soldier running amok with his rifle some time back.

Still, for the most part, a dire lack of guns reduces the risk to ordinary citizens. An angry mob could take down a parang-wielding psycho, but not a gunman (without potentially several deaths).

GUN CONTROL = GOOD

———-

SCENARIO 5: Guns, guns everywhere!

Another scenario where guns are easily bought and many people have one. Apart from that, everything else is the same as Scenario 4.

Robbery at knife-point becomes robbery at gun-point. Police pursuing criminals becomes a shoot-out. If even basic security guards do not carry firearms, they’ll be basically useless – human meat shields to briefly draw away the criminal’s bullets.

This is basically what some major cities in America are like. Guns wouldn’t be a problem if only respectable, responsible and stable citizens could obtain and carry them. But the reality is that any kid on the street with a bone to pick can blow the guts out of a rival gang member.

When guns are free-flowing, life gets much more dangerous.

GUN CONTROL = GOOD

———-

MY VERDICT: Keep guns out if possible, restrict ownership if not

My conclusion is that society is generally much less lethal (though not necessarily safe from crime and injury) where there are very, very few guns in circulation. Strict laws on importing, selling and owning guns should be maintained in order to prevent ANYONE from getting their hands on firearms.

But where guns are already prevalent, or a way of life, then sale and ownership of guns must be tightly monitored and severely restricted.

ONLY certifiably responsible, accountable, tax-paying citizens should be even allowed to apply for a license.

Those seeking to own and purchase guns must prove they are stable and of sound mind, such as by submitting to a background review and psychological test. This is in contrast to current US gun laws, where it has to be proven that the customer are not of sound mind in order to refuse a sale.

All missing guns must be reported within 24 hours, or the owner will be held responsible if any crimes are committed with it. No lending out of guns must be permitted.

And special scrutiny must be placed on all gun-sellers. If any guns were found sold to uncertified persons, that gun supplier must share in the consequences.

Taken together, these measures would have prevented the VT shooter from obtaining a gun in the first place – either by purchasing a gun, or ‘borrowing’ (stealing) it from a legal owner who would be legally obliged to quickly report the theft. Basically, only very lawful, very responsible citizens will be armed, and unstable potential criminals will not.

And we would not have ended up with this:

Cho Seung-hui, the Virginia Tech shooter 

It is argued that laws requiring citizens to give up their weapons will only result in the law-abiding being disarmed. The criminals and anti-socials will resist complying with such laws, leaving the ordinary citizens at a disadvantage.

While I can suggest a massive sweep of the cities to round up as many guns as possible, this proposal is both unfeasible due to the scale, and ineffective due to the many ways one can hide a weapon. But at least it’s a start to reducing the numbe of guns in circulation, bit by bit.

It would be best, then, if this stage is never reached. Guns must not become widespread enough that undue effort must be taken to restore the status quo.

Saujana Christmas 2003

Ahh, the Saujana housemates… I dug up these old pix of our 2nd-year Christmas (which would be at the end of 2003 methinks). And what a great time it was too!

               

In the two pix above, you see us at Berjaya Hotel Penang’s buffet. We went there to enjoy their all-you-can-eat, includign Haagen Daaz ice cream. One of Kean’s favourite spots back then!

Then we went home, and I had a movie date for the night. I think it was with my CG, to go and see The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Which I had watched a few times before. (In total I ended up watching Return of the King 3 1/2 times in cinemas, and you shall see soon how the 1/2 gets in there.)

But my housemates wanted us to open our many Christmas presents all together at teh stroke of midnight, when 24 Dec 2003 became 25 Dec 2003! And you know how ‘persuasive’ they can be… My brown hair in the pix bears testimony to that.

So I took my CG members to the cinema in KOMTAR’s Prangin Mall, divided up our movie tickets and headed off back home to open presents!

It was a fun time, with lots of cool stuff to go around… Including the first appearance of Bobble Cat, the ceramic bouncy cat on a spring that still sits on my car dashboard, refusing to sit still and taunting my passenger seat riders!

And after all the opening and clearing up wrappings, I headed back to the heart of town to Prangin Mall again. At the cinema, I saw no one around to watch the counters or check for tickets. Huh, guess it’s late enough that no one cares!

Or perhaps, late enough into the movie that a sneak wouldn’t have much to see anyway… But at 3 hours long, I was still in time to catch the climactic Battle of Minas Tirith and the Rohirrim charging the enemy lines! And that’s where the 1/2 of Return of the King comes into my reckoning.

MISS YOU ALL, 8-13-2!

100 km a Night – A Challenge of Responsibility and God-incidences

As you may know, I tutor several kids who come from a well-off family. Their house is just 5 minutes away from my workplace, and I go to help them with homework and revision every Mondy, Tuesday and Wednesday.

So when they said they’d be shifting to Nusajaya while their old house is being renovated and asked if I could make it, I said I’d try. But now that I have tried, I’ve found that it’s about 50 km one way from my office to their new place!

Well, I expected that I could just cancel the tutoring arrangement at this major inconvenience… But no! Their mum is really concerned about their studies, and does not want to change tutors so close to the kids’ exams in June. Besides, hardly anyone currently stays at the area.

So… Sigh, my sense of obligation and responsibility keep me dedicated to this task. Even though it means that I’ll be travelling 100 km a night, after work, three nights a week, for no or little extra pay. However, I am definitely asking for reimbursement for my petrol (RM 20 per 100 km) or I’m out!

But several things happened that day to seem to show me that God is watching over this whole turn of events… And that I shouldn’t give up so easily like a softie.

Firstly, Mei Yee suddenly smsed me out of the blue about taking care of myself. Seems she had a dream about me and felt concerned.

Secondly, last night I got lost trying to find the new house for the first time, thus missing my appointment. And that’s also when I found out that there was no easy way out, if I were to be responsible then I’d have to keep on teaching. So I called Anne, and she decided to come over to my place to hear me out and comfort me (and bring me curry chicken she cooked). Thanks so much, wonderful love…

As Anne was flipping thru the latest copy of Asian Beacon, a local contemporary Christian magazine, she spotted something. Now this copy I had bought the Sunday before, just a day before this whole 100 km thing, on a whim. The cover of the magazine featured the word SUFFERING, about the main article inside.

And in the article was this excerpt from The Lord of the Rings:

Frodo: I can’t do this, Sam.

Sam: I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.

Frodo: What are we holding on to Sam?

Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo… and it’s worth fighting for.

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That helped me decide to stay the course… After all, it’s just another month of determination! It’s my responsibility.

And I was also thinking to myself earlier, what would they do in my favourite inspiring guy’s manga One Piece? Particularly, Zoro’s advice on being a man? It’s a man’s job… To carry out his duties with sacrifice!

And thirdly, also out of the blue, Mary Ann smsed me (and other people) late at night after I had gone to sleep that the Lord would provide in my time of need – for He is Jehovah Jireh! Had a chat with her on the phone too.

All together, these coincidences timed as they were convinced me that God is in charge of the whole situation, and He is watching over me as He carries out His purpose for all of this happening.

When enough coincidences happen so coincidentally timed and pointing to a certain purpose, then they can’t just have been coincidences. They were God-incidences.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” – Romans 8:28

UPDATE NIGHT OF 17th: Well, I found the place this time by following the mum’s car from a JB location. Turns out it’s just 80 km or less bak and forth, with some toll. I’ll be reimbursed RM 20 for each time I come by. Praise the LORD!

How to Stop Chili or Chilli Burning

MORE THAN 200 COMMENTS TESTIFYING TO THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THIS SIMPLE TREATMENT!

FOR INSTANT CHILLI BURNING RELIEF:

MOUTH – Drink milk or alcohol. The chilli chemical does not dissolve in water, but it dissolves in fats (e.g. milk cream) or alcohol.

SKIN – Rub with salt. You can use a bit of water to lubricate. Finish off with a rinse in milk and wash with soap and water. If that still doesn’t work (like in my case below), soak your hand in a strong alcoholic beverage for minutes (Jack Daniels seems a popular choice among commentors, especially to drink and sooth the mouth/throat!). The salt scrapes off the chilli stuck to your skin, the milk and soap and alcohol dissolve what little is left.

OTHER SUGGESTIONS FROM COMMENTORS, NOT PERSONALLY TESTED SO USE AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION:

Tip from a Thai restaurant – leave a cucumber slice on the affected area.

Tip from Poison Control – soak in Maalox, use Solarcaine or Xylocaine to relieve pain.

Tip from sandy kay, rub Vicks Vaporub (mentholated cream) on the skin.

Tip from Brenda and Sumati Nair, soak in lemon juice. If these work for you, do mention in the comments.

Tip from Kitty Cat, soak in homemade scrub/yogurt.

Tip from Jennifer K, olive oil seems to help after the salt rub.

Tip from Jimmy, a Thai remedy is to put toothpaste on the spot.

Tip from yam, smear mayonnaise on the affected spot.

Tip from sarah rub a cut onion on the skin.

Tip from Rebecca, spray degreaser on the skin.

Tip from Josh, swallowing sweetened condensed milk helps due to the high sugar and fat content.

Tip from Thankyou, rubbing Gaviscon on the affected skin helps. From my own experience, Gaviscon works well for normal gastric or indigestion too.

Tip from Jessie James, use sour cream.

Commenter JGIG also suggests sour cream – which is basically milk in semi-solid form.

Pass on the solution through email, Facebook, whatever – share the relief!

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Anne prepared her mom’s recipe for aglio olio – spaghetti with garlic and olive oil, plus bacon, black pepper and chillies mixed in, topped with freshly grated cheese! Mmmmm, delicious!

Unfortunately, when she was chopping chillies at her place, somehow some of it must have rubbed into her left hand. Strange, because she was wearing gloves to prevent just that from happening! Maybe there was a small hole in the gloves…

Anyway, her hand had a painful, burning sensation that wouldn’t stop. Imagine eating really hot, spicy tom yam… But it’s your hand’s skin that is burning! 

              

In order to stop the burning sensation, Anne had to clean off the chilli. She tried: Washing with soap, washing with shampoo, dunking into dish detergent, washing with aloe vera, washing with oil… Nothing seemed to work! And her right hand picked up some of the burning due to coming in contact with her left hand!

From my researching for my thesis, I knew that drinking water doesn’t help much to remove the burning of spicy food in your mouth because capsaicin (the active chemical that gives chillies their burning power) is not water soluble.

But capsaicin is fat or alcohol soluble, so drinking milk or alcoholic beverages can dissolve the burning taste in your mouth much faster than water can.

So over at my place, we borrowed some of Yu Pei’s cold milk and put it into a bowl. The milk fats should help remove the capsaicin from Anne’s hand. Anne put her hand into the cold milk, and it seemed to work! Even though it was Hi-Lo, with low fat, it seemed to relieve the burning greatly.

               

But after Anne removed her hand from the milk, the burning could be felt again… Less strong, but still uncomfortable! Guess the coldness of the milk was a strong contibutor, as well as the soothing milk. But the capsaicin was still on her hand.

Well anyway, we continued on to dinner. The aglio olio was great, but really spicy! Must have been the small, hot chillies and the Sarawak black pepper!

Anne had to keep the bowl of milk at hand to dunk her hand into while she ate. Oh, poor girl! But just then, I had a revelation: Ask my mum what to do!

A short call later, my mum replied with her years of cooking experience that the way to stop the burning was to: RUB THE HAND WITH SALT! Wah! Wouldn’t that be painful? My mum said it would be ok, ‘cos it’s just on the outside on the skin.

         

To quote Anne: “Would rather be painful for hours than rub salt!”

But we tried it after some hesitation. And wouldn’t you know: Mother knows best! The abrasive salt (dry at first, then a bit wet) rubbed off the capsaicin traces from the sruface of the skin! And it didn’t burn like when salt gets into a wound, since the chillies didn’t actually enter past the skin.

There was still a little bit of burning, but after a bath it was all better. To quote Yu Pei: “Who said rather be painful for hours ah?”

And that is how you remove the burning sensation of chilli or chili from your hand: Rub it off with salt!

Thanks, ma.

(Note: I put both chilli and chili in the title because Google spells it with one L – easier for people to find while their hands are on fire)

ADDENDUM 27 Sept 2008: When it came to my own turn to have burning chilli hands, the salt did NOT work even when rubbed with salt repeatedly, soaked in salt, smeared with salt… It finally went off after I soaked my hand in strong alcoholic beverage for around half an hour – chilled for extra relief. I used cheap brandy, that I normally use only for flambe (cos it’s cheap, 40% alcohol and doesn’t taste great).

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Even Estonians have found the advice useful!

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TOP RANKED HIT ON GOOGLE SEARCH FOR ‘STOP CHILLI BURNING’!

Back to the Future Stem Cells

From The Ryskind Sketchbook.

 In case you didn’t catch the references…

Michael J. Fox is a famous actor who today suffers from Parkinson’s Disease. As a result of the debilitating disorder, he is an outspoken advocate for embryonic stem cell research which might be able to alleviate the conditions of Parkinson’s sufferers.

Unfortunately, the ‘harvesting’ of stem cells requires the destruction of a living, viable human embyro.

But perhaps those terms are too vague, so let me rephrase it: In order to get stem cells for research and resultant treatments, YOU HAVE TO KILL AN UNBORN HUMAN BABY.

There, that sounds clearer. And the political/editorial cartoon reference?

Michael J. Fox was the star of the Back to the Future films where he played Marty McFly. In the first film, Marty got sent into the past and accidentally influenced his parents to never fall in love and marry… Thus causing himself to never exist. Doc Brown the genius has to help him reunite them before the dance where they originally fell in love.

And finally… The moral indictment?

Harvesting embryonic stem cells for research is all well and fine when you’re on the benefiting end, sure. But imagine if YOU were the embryo being killed. Your entire lifetime thrown away so that your stem cells can be used on someone who has already enjoyed living through most of their life.

Imagine if YOU had been harvested, Michael J. Fox and all you stem cell supporters. Not such a hot prospect now, is it? For one thing, you wouldn’t be around to advocate stem cell research!

See also related at Liberal Definition of A ‘Person’, You Reach Your Right Hand In, And Pull The Baby’s Brains Out, Are Your Babies Inside Your Parents? and Hey, Do You Think We Should We Kill Babies?.

Usopp Returns! The Nakama Reunited

Directly related to and the resolution of the fight between Luffy and Usopp (recommended reading). If you remember, the argument and clash resulted in Usopp leaving the crew, as he and Luffy parted in angry/sorrowful tears.

A lot transpired since then, where Usopp showed where his loyalties really lie by risking his life to help rescue his former nakama (friends/crewmates/hing-tai). The Straw Hat pirates are eager to welcome him back…

But can what transpired be so easily erased? Read from right to left, as it’s from Japanese. Sourced from
http://groups.msn.com/OnePieceMangav-3/chapter438mq.msnw?Page=1.

 

Oh no… What Zoro says has a point, disheartening though it may be… How can the crew go on trusting in a captain if he isn’t strong willed and firm? And how can they accept back a former nakama who does not repent of his mistake?

So the Straw Hats set sail on their new ship as the Marines are hot on their tail… But just as they are leaving, who else but Usopp comes running after them!

                                  

 

 

 

What will Usopp do??? What about the pride… Of a MAN…

 

 

Yeah Usopp!!!!!!! It takes a REAL MAN to admit his wrong and beg for forgiveness, with tears of comradely sorrow that flow from his heart! 

WELCOME BACK USOPP! WE MISSED YOU!!!