Dysfunctional Economy | The Arts Mechanical

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?(Who Guards the Guardians?)

That is a very good question. Especially now. Knowing where the line lies between liberty and tyranny is vital to keeping the former and preventing the latter. One thing that has become clear is that line has been crossed by the security institutions of the Federal government. The institutions set up to protect us from foreign actions have been turned on our liberties and are being used to censor our freedom of speech in the name of suppressing misinformation.

This Could Save Your Life

Posted on July 7 by jccarlton

Recently I ran into a picture on Pinterest. The picture was from a book called 100 Deadly Skills, by Clint Emerson. https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/100-Deadly-Skills/Clint-Emerson/100-Deadly-Skills/9781476796055

Getting It Wrong.

Posted on June 16 by jccarlton

One problem that many of us who want to make arguments about guns have with those on the other side of the argument is that they don’t know what they are talking about. It is very difficult to make arguments if the other side doesn’t have a clue. By and large, that includes the media, who have an obligation to at least get the facts straight. All too frequently, they do not. Here, from the Week Magazine, is a case in point.

https://theweek.com/gun-violence/1014276/mass-shooters-favorite-gun

Let of delve into pile of distortions and falsehoods, shall we. I will add my comments in italics after the paragraphs

Roe v Wade in Context

Posted on May 16 by jccarlton

The draft opinion for the overturning of Roe vs Wade has hit then new and much screaming has ensued from certain parties who are rather upset that unlimited baby killing may become illlegal again. I thought that I would take a look at the thing and see if I can find some gems in the mud.

Why American Comics Have Gone Down The Drain, While Manga Can’t Print Enough

Posted on April 17, 2021 by jccarlton

Recently, I ran into this video:
GLOBAL MANGA SHORTAGE While DC Comics Charges 6 BUCKS for a Batman Comic?! – YouTube

The video does not look too deeply into why this is happening and I wanted to present my thoughts on why this happened. There are a lot of issues here that I think that are not understood and making easy and quick assertions doesn’t give a true picture of what is going on.

What is going on is rather obvious. Comics in the US are in a death spiral. A quick google of the subject will provide anyone with endless articles and videos on the subject in the last year. Also, while the pandemic may have accelerated the process, somewhat, the death spiral was well along before the pandemic and the consequences came along. Even the largest selling comics books sell about 200,000 or so a month.

Contrast that with some Manga sales where even modest selling manga sell more than the top ten comic books combined and the top selling manga sells tens of millions of tankobon copies, a month, in Japan. As opposed to the American comics industry someone in Japan is doing something right. I want to use what I have learned to explore just what I think is going right in Japan and wrong in the US. I don’t pretend to have any insider’s special knowledge and this post will just be what I have observed about the two industries.

Rush Limbaugh, RIP

Posted on February 17, 2021 by jccarlton

The news is spreading that Rush Limbaugh has died this morning. He had stage four lung cancer and this was not unexpected. He will be greatly missed.

The Byzantine in Byzantium.

Posted on October 16, 2020 by jccarlton

Frequently when I would read about the Eastern Roman Empire and it’s great wealth and power I would also read about the epidemic corruption of the Byzentine Empire. The corruption of the Imperial eunuchs as they managed the massive bureaucracy of the empire was legend. As was the pettiness and stupid greed.

A look at peaceful protests

Posted on September 8, 2020 by jccarlton

I’ve been running into a lot of material on the actions of the protestors in Portland and other cities and I want to compile what I have found.

The big issue is that these protests are neither peaceful or uncoordinated. However it happens, these protests are a coordinated and the people leading them are trained in violent insurgency tactics. That is evident from the blog posts and videos that I have seen. In this post, I’m going to attempt to keep things to the facts as I can find them. I’m not guaranteeing that all the things that I link to come from “approved media sources” or will be free of opinion. On the other hand, most of the posts are backed up by video and the tactics and patterns become visible once you read the posts.

To Mask Or Not To Mask

Posted on July 1, 2020 by jccarlton

There has been somewhat of a controversy arising over the wearing of mask by the general public to avoid the spread of Covid 19. This piece from Sarah Hoyts’ blog discusses some of the issues.

To Mask or Not To Mask… By I.M. Doctoo

The Kaepernik Effect

Posted on June 28, 2020 by jccarlton

Nike bet big on Colin Kaepernik and Black Lives Matter. They made their stance a major part of their marketing strategy. Like many in the corporate world, They forgot one simple thing, got woke, and are going broke. That simple thing? It’s the product that’s important, not a political message that may insult the customer.