Will these creepy pictures of Sebastian Gorka magically get him fired?

@Alan Robertshaw,

The Devil does have all the best tunes; but that’s because musicians are always signing contracts at crossroads without getting them checked out first.

Perhaps these guy can help:

http://www.covernk.com/Covers/L/W/Wolff%20Byrd%20Counselors%20of%20the%20Macabre/wolffbyrdcounselorsofthemacabre15.jpg

http://comicbookrealm.com/cover-scan/c6850bb4f3b91e79e55caf9bf504d4d1/xl/exhibit-a-press-wolff-byrd-counselors-of-the-macabre-fright-court-soft-cover-1.jpg

@Alan Robertshaw,

That is a really fun series, though I haven’t read their most recent adventures. Nor do I know if their creator, Batton Lash, is a good guy or an ass (hopefully not).

The strip got its start in (I think) the 1980’s (ETA: 1979), and was originally published in (I think) The National Law Review. Later those strips were republished in The Comics Buyers Guide in the 1990’s (where I first found them). Later Lash did them as a self-published comic under the Exhibit A press (Mavis the Secretary also got her own series under that imprint).

At some point the W&B series was renamed Supernatural Law, and is evidently now a web comic, evidently here:

http://supernaturallaw.com

There seems to be plenty of books reprinting their adventures, so those shouldn’t be too hard to find.

Enjoy. 😀

@ redsilkphoenix

Speaking of fantastic legal secretaries, I’ve just returned to my room to find this:

http://i.imgur.com/aAkn8Q7.jpg

As someone who does a fair bit of Health & Safety law I approve.

@Redsilkphoenix, Alan:
Heh. Yeah, Wolff & Byrd is fun.

I still remember the mini-comic done for one Amazing Heroes ‘Swimsuit Issue’.

First panel: Monster crawling up on beach near fleeing people, accompanied by overwrought narration about ‘The horror from the deep. What does it want?’

Second panel: Wolff and Byrd walking down the beach towards the scene. Narration going on about ‘Who are these lawyers that approach so fearlessly? Why do they feel unworried about attack? Could it be…’ (Narration gets cut off by scream)

Third panel: Alanna Wolff glaring at some of the other beachgoers, while Jeff Byrd asides to the monster, “Sorry about that, but my partner always said she’d scream the next time someone cracked that old chestnut about ‘professional courtesy’.” Followed by the monster responding, “Oh, don’t worry, I know exactly what you mean.”

Given how much of the (admittedly often dark) humour was built on the fact that the supernatural creatures were in many cases quite ‘human’ and while not necessarily the good guys, still people in need of some proper help… I’d be surprised if Batton Lash were too much of an ass. You need to be able to empathize to do humour like that.

(There was one story where a judge who had a reputation as a stickler for the letter of the law died in his chambers while rewriting his will to try to make it airtight and immune to any challenges. His ghost was running a lot of the paralegals ragged bringing up various case files as he kept trying to do this even after he died. Eventually he was laid to rest after Wolff and Byrd brought in case law indicating that posthumous changes to a will were invalid, even if the changes had previously been requested by the person involved. By his own rules, he had nothing more to do, and so he left.)

Sympathy, Kupo, I’m really arachnophobic so that would have freaked me out too. Could shifting sleeping position for a while, or otherwise doing something differently, to remove the association, help you feel better?

@dreemr
Just, argh and *whimper* at that description of Mercer’s thinking. I never understand how these libertarian dudes manage to maintain their views. Even if you accept their messed-up premises just for the sake of argument, it still doesn’t hold up. Even by his own ‘logic’, he says a cat has value because they give people pleasure, so, emotional value counts. So can he not even, at absolute bare minimum (which would still not result in actual human decency), see people on welfare as having value for the same reason, to their families, friends, and so on? Some of whom might even be net contributing taxpayers!

But, of course, they’re really unwilling to acknowledge any genuine connections between people, aren’t they. >_<

Wealthy rentiers especially, certainly, yeah. It can be a fair bit of maintenance work (and emotional labour, too, making sure tenants are Ok) if you have to do more stuff yourself. My working class grandad used to rent out rooms in their house, which is most of the reason I currently have anywhere to live, since my parents used the inheritance to buy my little flat to adapt for my disability and rent to me. Which I feel extremely fortunate for, of course, the social mobility my family did have and the safety net it provided when the state should’ve but didn’t. I imagine that kind of arrangement would be incomprehensible to Randites because who cares about family?

I think part of the reason Libertarians get away with it is they do a bit of a bait-and-switch between people who at least are doing more work and what’s involved in that, and wealthy capitalists who started out that way to begin with, and just rely on capital to make more.

I’m reading the Atlus Shrugged summary/crit that was linked and arghed some more at this chapter, reminds me about Google guy’s screed:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightatheism/2013/05/atlas-shrugged-unfortunate-implications/

Barriers to work and the relation to welfare is another blindspot of theirs. Or rather, another example of their callousness. I’ve tried going over the disability rights ideas with them, but nope, us disabled people can never ever win. They’re not interested in us getting off benefits, really. If we can’t work, either:
1. Our families should support us. Too bad if we don’t have one, or they can’t, or won’t. Our families paying tax doesn’t count, us paying tax (council, VAT) doesn’t count. Only super-objective Libertarian dude’s tax (aka us stealing his monies) counts.
2. Charity should support us. But charity is a Very Bad Thing. It also doesn’t matter if it’s inadequate.
3. (Preferred option) Well, we SHOULD work and are just lazy scroungers. You tried and no one would employ you (because discrimination)? Well, it’s your fault for being disabled (I’ve seen them go so far as to suggest employing disabled people would put customers off), and you can’t expect employers to make accommodations. You should accept being paid less because you’re disabled and automatically worth less. It doesn’t matter if you can’t actually live on less. It doesn’t matter if you’re perfectly competent at the job, for instance because the only actual barrier is you can’t physically get around in the work environment. If you suggest a different way of doing things, this will not count as the grand ideal of Libertarian innovation (even if it would make it easier for other employees, too, and might increase efficiency -disabled people have a lot of practice at working out alternative ways to do stuff!-), but as unreasonable crip accommodation. This goes extra if your suggested change might render Libertarian dude of less obvious ‘value’ (hmm, maybe ‘economic value’ is a shitty way to measure people?).
4. (extra-preferred option) Just die and decrease the surplus population.

And of course, that’s not even including the impact of lack of access to healthcare on being on benefits. >_<

David. For the love of all that is holy and unholy. Keep putting up pictures. With great power comes great responsibility.

I would vote for either Conway or DeVos next. I mean, you wouldn’t want people to think you’re a misandrist, right? ?