The toxic agent E6-Vora is commonly used in chemical weapons. It works by breaking down organic tissue on contact, converting most of the affected matter into additional E6-Vora gas. Fortunately, the toxin is highly unstable and breaks down quickly in the presence of oxygen.

E6-Vora isn’t just used by assassins. It is also the pesticide of choice for the Snake Lake City sanitation department.

It’s alright now. In fact, it’s a gas.

This week’s strips are brought to you by Xia Moua, a very talented artist who has a bunch of samples up over at ComicSpace.

Yesterday I spoke about the Canadian election, which was boring and terrible. Today I’m going to talk about the US election, which is exciting and fun and a little bit incomprehensible. I’m not going to deal with Brand McCain or Brand Obama since, let’s be honest, everything interesting that could be said about either candidate has already been said by people who have much more success at generating hate mail than I do. No, I’d like to talk about the darling of 2008, Sarah Palin.

Some otherwise very intelligent people have been smitten by Palin. Given my post yesterday, many of you are probably expecting me to dislike her because she’s a conservative. This is untrue. Actually, I don’t believe that they even have conservative politicians down in the States, but that’s a rant for another day. No, my problem with Palin is that she’s a creationist.

Let’s be clear on this one point: When selecting a person for a job where she might be expected to bear some responsibility, or may need to possess the tiniest amount of critical thinking, creationism is not a personality quirk that can simply be handwaved away.  Creationism indicates a jarring disconnect from reality itself, not to mention a shocking lack of biblical scholarship (though again, that’s a rant for another time). It indicates a person who shouldn’t be allowed to handle sharp items unsupervised. It indicates a mindset which believes that things such as “evidence” and “logic” are purely optional. In simple terms, a creationist represents the worst possible combination between a postmodernist and a preschooler.

Being a creationist is roughly equivalent to being that crazy uncle who screams every time the phone rings, since he honestly believes that the voices which come through the receiver are being transmitted by demons. The only difference between the crazy uncle and the creationist is that the creationist doesn’t have a punchline.

ETA- Check out Adam’s strip today. Serendipity? Or just too much American election coverage in the international news?

So there’s an election coming up in the most important country in the world, and then after that they’re having one in the United States. I was all ready to do my patriotic duty and vote but have been informed by Elections Canada that I’m not eligible. It makes sense, really- I don’t live in Canada anymore, I don’t pay into the tax base, if I helped vote the Natural Law Party into power I wouldn’t have to live with the consequences.

I’ll be honest- I don’t like Stephen Harper. I don’t like his secrecy, his social conservatism, or the fact that he never misses an opportunity to rag on the Atlantic provinces. That said, I will point out that Canada often does quite well with a complete bastard at the helm. Trudeau was a magnificent bastard who defused the October Crisis. Mulroney was a rat-bastard who dragged Canada kicking and screaming into the 20th century. Chrétien was a dirty bastard who provided plenty of violence at home but at least kept us out of Iraq.

If Harper is elected, will he be a bastard or just an ass? I certainly hope it’s the former.

I like spiders. Along with pigeons they’re the only wildlife I get to see regularly in Daegu. We’ve got some pretty cool spiders on the roof of the school; Eunsuk calls them my pets, but honestly spiders are much closer to houseplants.

First there are the cute little jumping spiders. They run around all over the place, jumping like mad. Then there are the impressively large orb spiders. The type we have here are kind of a mottled yellow-green color with striped legs that look like they came straight out of a Tim Burton movie. Some of them can grow to monstrous sizes, as big across as my hand or more.

We also have a number of other interesting bugs. There are at least two different kinds of mantis- the regular green praying mantis and also a brown one that looks like a discarded cigarette. There are various grasshopper and cricket type things which apparently form the main diet for the bugs I actually like. Oh, and then there are the moths which are as big as birds- I hate them. I know it’s weird, I like spiders and mantises but get squicked out by moths and butterflies.

These days, this is the closest I ever get to communing with nature.

This week’s strips are brought to you by the fabulous Roman Wunderlich of the equally fabulous B-Movie Comic. Those of you familiar with GearHead will recognize his work from the  “Hang On” loading screen. Not merely a wonderful artist and a  great guy, he is also the king of the guest strip.

If you’ve ever wondered about classical migraine with aura, this page has a remarkably well done simulation. I can’t even look at it without getting nauseous. I have no idea why I’m attempting to hurt my dear, innocent readers on a Friday afternoon, but at least it’s not more Shatner.

Breaking news! The United States has launched an unprovoked attack against the country of Finland. Retaliation was swift and brutal. We can expect many casualties in this Shatner War, and the first will likely be good taste. Initial reports suggest that the weapons being used by both sides were provided by Canada, but that’s obviously just propaganda being spread by the Germans. Anyhow, to take your mind off all this brutality, how about a little musical interlude?

Courage is a funny thing. Everybody wants to think of themselves as brave, but no-one in their right mind wants to be put in a situation where their courage will be seriously tested. You can never tell how you’re going to react in a crisis until you’re actually in a crisis, and afterwards you still might not know how you’re going to react next time. Tama’s finally found her big lead, but how long will it be before she starts to regret it?

Speaking of courage, over at Ordinary Things Ozges has just demonstrated that she’s really brave. I’m talking about the kind of courage that can easily result in tragedy. Fortunately, her story has a happy ending, which is better than I can say for the last time I tried the same thing.

I will leave you today with a thematically appropriate music video. Enjoy.

This week’s strips are brought to you by the ultracool and supersexy Matt Sandbrook of Chip Shop Adventures. I’m a big fan of Matt’s illustration and am very happy that he’s part of this project.