Miyazaki: Leprosy inspired Princess Monoke story

This was long rumored to the case, but the famous director has confirmed it:

According to All Nippon News Network (via Kotaku), Miyazaki revealed that leprosy (Hansen's Disease), and the way in which those who have it are treated, served as the inspiration for his film.

UNESCO targest Iranian Holocaust Denial competition

Image courtesy Times of Israel

Despite the insurmountable amount of evidence out there, like photos, documents, the actual gas chambers, the bodies and survivors ... there's still a fair share of people who believe the Holocaust never happened.

Feeding into this nutty sentiment is the government of Iran, which is once again holding a Holocaust Cartoon Competition this summer.

Organizers say the contest is supposed to highlight a perceived double standard surrounding the publication of caricatures of the prophet Mohammed, the central figure of Islam, but Israeli officials say it is an example of Iranian anti-Semitism. Iran has held similar contests twice before.

 Actually, it's not a double standard. Mocking a religion and mocking people who have suffered and died are two very different things.

Apparently, UNESCO agrees and is expected to challenge Iran's president when he addresses the agency today.

Oregon standoff leaders arrested

Photo courtesy of opb.org

While not exactly at an end, leaders of the militant takeover of a building at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon have been arrested.

In a statement, the FBI and Oregon State Police said agents had made eight arrests, including [Ammon]Bundy, 40, and his brother Ryan Bundy, 43, during a traffic stop Tuesday afternoon. Authorities said two others were arrested separately in Burns, while FBI agents in Arizona arrested another.

There was also one fatality, which is reported to be LaVoy Finicum, who became a prominent spokesman for the group. While claims are being made by the militants that Finicum was cooperative, there has not been any official statement from authorities. But, it is natural to be skeptical of the militants' claim as Finicum seemed to be a true believer, even making the following statement:

“I have no intention of spending any of my days in a concrete box,” he said on Jan. 6, just days into the standoff that would stretch on for weeks. “There are things more important than your life and freedom is one of them.”

A group of people still occupy the refuge as of this posting. Authorities are expected to have some sort of resolution in that situation soon.

Ted Cruz's apology isolates almost everyone

As most people who care know, the 5,234rd Republican Debate of this primary season was held last week. As most people know, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said something pretty stupid. I won't rehash it, but if you need a reminder, here's a quick summary:

Cruz lashed out at the city while firing back at billionaire front-runner—and New Yorker—Donald Trump, who had attacked Cruz previously over the Canadian-born Senator’s eligibility to run for President. In a dig at Trump, Cruz, who is currently polling in second place, said, “there are many, many wonderful, wonderful working men and women in the state of New York, but everyone understands that the values in New York City are socially liberal or pro-abortion or pro- gay-marriage, [and] focus around money and the media.”

Now that's not really a big thing, self-labeled conservatives are always attacking New York as one of the centers of everything that's wrong with the US. It's to be expected. All the comment really seemed to achieve is making Donald Trump sound like the adult in the room instead of the seventh-grader that we've gotten used to in the last few months.

A day or so later, Cruz offered what was supposed to be an "apology."

 You're right, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio," have asked me to apologize," Cruz said. "I apologize to the millions of New Yorkers who've been let down by liberal politicians."

Cruz continued with a litany of "apologies" to jab at Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio.

He apologized to those "denied jobs because Gov. Cuomo won't allow fracking."

He apologized to the New Yorkers who are "pro-life and pro-marriage and pro-second amendment who were told by Gov. Cuomo they have no place in New York."

He apologized to the "African American children who Mayor de Blasio tried to throw out of their charter schools that were providing a pipeline to American Dream."

He also apologized to New York law enforcement and first responders who de Blasio doesn't stand with and instead "stands with looters and criminals."

Now, at its face, the apology just sounds like the usual pandering non-apology. But under the surface, there's something pretty disturbing about Sen. Cruz.

From what one gathers from his apology, it's obvious that he doesn't see the presidency as an office that represents Americans as a whole. Instead, he seems to see it as an extension of his Senate seat, one where he represents a finite number of people against the rest of the United States.

Cruz's apology exposed a rather narrow view. He only cares about the New Yorkers who fit into his narrow view of what a "conservative" is. He doesn't seem to care about the real people who don't conform to these narrow views, that often hold both conservative, liberal and in between positions. It sounds more like those nationalist or theocratic governments where everybody except the chosen few is stripped of voice and power.

It's kind of scary that so many Americans are either too lazy to look deeper behind this sort of rhetoric or embrace it wholeheartedly. With Trump and Cruz both embracing the nationalist talk, the Republicans are likely to see themselves lead by candidates who want to destroy the government and isolate the US from the rest of the world.

Of course, I'm not endorsing the Democrats here. But it seems like we're going to be stuck with the lesser of two evils again.

Hillary, the most likely Democratic candidate, isn't someone anybody seems real passionate about. But is that really necessary when you're turning out to vote against candidates who want to disassemble the government and take us back to 1776, a time when blacks were slaves, women were powerless and education was for the lucky?

Doesn't sound that great to me.

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Changes underway at ASMB

Well, after more than a decade, Adult Swim Message Boards are going through changes. What those changes are, I don't know. At least I think they're going through changes, that's what the rumors have been. What those changes are, I don't know. I've heard they may be changing from Lithium boards, which would be too bad because I liked their ease of use.

 Over its life, ASMB has been a place that's grown and declined. While the cartoon discussions were always the main draw, there had built up a contingent of loyal users who settle in the NOISE section of the boards.

The NOISE area included Babbling (general noncartoon related discussion), Incoherent Babbling (nonsense which members used posts to gain ranks fast) and Rants (for people who like to bitch). While the Noise section saw its fair share of users come and go, it seemed to have a core that kept it alive.

 The most common topics in Babbling and Rants were politics. Around election time, it was almost impossible to get away from it. Like the world outside of the boards, it began to reflect the more partisan divide which had been growing. In 2004, around the time of the Kerry vs. Bush race, the partisanship was there, but there was diversity as far as say pro-gun Democrats and pro-choice Republicans.

 By the time 2012 came around, the voices had become more partisan. Many members left because their lives outside of the boards needed more and more time. Others just felt like the boards were no longer for them. Most who stayed, just gave up on talking politics altogether, leaving it to the partisans who were more than happy to just repeat talking points from elsewhere.

 Users included Tsar4 (one of the older and more conservative users), olmoldy (another older user who loved to remind people of his military experience), Slyfoxx1 (a far-leftist), Jallenk (an artistic gay guy), WestPark (a smart guy who chose to troll), Fuggles (a woman who used it like a blog), BuddyRoe (a guy who posted wherever Fuggles did), MasterDebater (a Randian capitalist), Jingai (a conservative talking points bot), cobrasks (a Wyoming ammosexual), PeanutCat (a woman who posted countless articles from Crooks and Liars without adding thoughts of her own), Crapshot (a hillbilly liberal), JadedPoet (gay dude), etc. Just lots of memorable personalities.

 Now, in 2016, another election has come around and this time even less people are taking part in the discussions. It's really too bad that even cartoon message boards fell victim to the hyperpartisanship that dominates discussion.

Many of the memorable people have left and with them left many others. Sure, Facebook had a hand in destroying Internet forums, but inevitably, they're destroyed from within. Anyway, I will check out the new ASMB when it comes up. Whether I stay or not is left to be seen.
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