Constrained Bliss Point

There are a few webcomics I read daily. My current list is: xkcd, Questionable Content, A Softer World, Dinosaur Comics, Enjuhneer, Penny Arcade, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, and Cyanide and Happiness. I highly recommend all of these, and also a late addition called T-rex is Lonely Comics, because I am such a fan of Dinosaur Comics (and I do really like Garfield Minus Garfield but find it too depressing to read regularly).

Most days are pretty good. It is definitely a solid source of entertainment. Some days are better than others, of course. And today was great. Let me show you why:

First, xkcd referenced Ender’s Game, which kind of needed to happen at some point since the blagosphere is a thing now and it’s significantly different from the book series’ conception of the nets. Then ASW was beautifully morbid. It really says something about the frailty of existence, and deriving humor therefrom. As if on queue, DC was all “Today is a good day I think for somber realism!”. Mr. North also posited the existence of several coffee mugs which I would really, really like to buy (a “Maybe Mondays Aren’t The Problem; Maybe I’m The Problem” mug would be truly fabulous). And to top it off my friend Jenny’s webcomic had a link to one of her projects: a video tribute to xkcd. The video is fantastic, you should stop what you’re doing and check it out right now.

The second amendment never made sense to me. Not the reason behind it, I mean the grammar itself. It seems like a run-on sentence, or one with too many parts — though I guess removing some commas solves the problem.

I also found it curious that it was right after the first amendment. Most important, it seems, is freedom of speech, of religion, and of assembly. But guns are a close second. Maybe the framers were seriously worried about bears.

But guns were the way of protecting yourself back in the good old days. Nowadays I’m not so sure. But if you really want to protect yourself from the government, I say a smartphone is a much better investment. When everyone’s phone is a camera that can instantly post pictures to the intertubes, a government responsible to the people has to watch its back more often.

I know that it’s not quite the same thing. Maybe the point of the second amendment is physical security, so that we should also be protecting crowbars. But if you look at the beginning of the Bill of Rights as: 1) you can say what you want, worship how you want, and assemble how you want, and 2) you can defend yourself in those rights, it seems sensible that the second amendment should cover PCs, digital cameras, and assorted Twitter-accessible devices.

This post was shamelessly inspired by Mr. Munroe’s xkcd comic entitled “Legal Hacks”.