First, The Important Stuff.

I hope you all had a grand New Years celebration. I know I did. There was good food aplenty, fabulous babes and the bubbly flowed like water... if "flowing" can be defined  as two or three small, modestly expensive bottles.

Anyhoo, what's a new year without a few changes?

If you look closely at the top of the page you'll notice that the navigation has been expanded. It now includes all the extra linky gobbledegook that once languished just under the cartoon, like RSS and email. In addition, the new nav also includes a Store button and a Donate button. One leads to the new Commercial Excess page (which currently features ten Raging Pencils t-shirts) and the other leads directly to your heart... via your wallet, hopefully. (ahem)

The changes were made to tidy up the joint and I think it does a decent job. Let me know what you think of the new nav and the new store. Thanks!
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As you probably know I'm very critical of contemporary religion but I have to admit that it gave us one concept that has served popular culture admirably and that is the invention of Hell. Among other things it has led to the ludicrous idea, often seen in action movies, of the hero choosing to die and going to that fiery place just so that he could once again confront his enemy on the field of conflict. Here's what I mean...

Scene: Our hero, Sloan, is wrapped in chains and is dangling over a tank full of sharks. The bad guy, Klaw, taunts the good guy thusly:

Klaw: "One last chance, Sloan! Either give me the launch codes or you're fish food!"

Sloan: "I'll see you in Cleveland raising a family or four on minimum wage with no insurance benefits first, Klaw!"

See? Without Hades it's just not the same.

So thanks for Hell, religion. It's been very entertaining. The rest of it you go can stick up your butt.

=Lefty=