3038 Ram To Spare.

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Mom had her first radiation treatment today but unfortunately she gained no obvious superpowers. I really feel like media led me astray in terms of the powers of radiation…

I think I’ll just leave you to your own devices. I have things I need to take care of and I don’t think anyone needs to read my thoughts on the 25th anniversary of 9/11, or anything else I’m thinking about today.

On Monday I’ll have another page ready. If you find value in my work please consider supporting it via the links above or on other areas of the website. Until next time, flavored with other flavors.

76 Comments

I work with many barely-adults who don’t remember 9/11, if they were alive at all; it makes me feel so old.

I was already 33 when 9/11 happened. I was already experiencing the, “I’ve never heard of that” from younger folks. My favorite was during a D20 Future game around 2007 or so. What was supposed to be a relatively non lethal barroom brawl turned into a bloodbath involving firearms because one players answer to every problem was to shoot it. At the time my brother and I were the oldest in the group and everyone else was college age. As the combat came to a close with everyone not the party shot full of holes, my brother looked at me and said deadpan,
“I knew the gun was loaded, but I didn’t think he’d kill.” and I replied,
“Everything exploded and the blood began to spill.”
And the youngest guy in the group said,
“Did you guys just make that up?”
And we had to explain Glenn Fry, Miami Vice and Smuggler’s Blues.

Oh yeah. I remember. I had class that morning. Was watching a bit of television before leaving, and that comes on. It was to the point that not every channel was covering it yet, and I remember thinking, what the hell kind of pilot flies into a building? Weirdest accident I ever saw. Then the second plane hits and it’s like, oh shit. That’s DELIBERATE.

Yeah, I was 38 at the time. I would say that if you were younger than 35 now it is just something that was in the background of your life. No judgement of whether that is good or bad, just a different perspective. I worked at a psychiatric residential unit and the dayroom TV was on most of the time unless an activity was being held. I walked through the room just as the commentator was talking about the first tower and saw the second tower get hit on live TV. That event along with the Waco fiasco and the Murrah building bombing made for a pretty anxious decade.

Weirdly, I barely remember the day of the event itself despite being in school when it happened. I mostly remember the immediate war mongering and using it as an excuse to attack Iraq.

9/11 was the catalyst for the 2001 war in Afghanistan. Rumors that Saddam Hussein acquired yellowcake uranium were the excuse for the 2003 war in Iraq.
I think the plan was to spread democracy amongst Iran’s neighbors and encourage the people to rise against their terror-sponsoring government.

I was 33 at the time. I brought some sparkling wine to work for my birthday (it was the week before). Everyone was shocked and I never opened the bottles.

Of course he would associate his sister with the “evil” house ..

Shouldn’t her flawless logic placer her in Ravenclaw?

Logic would place her in Ravenclaw, but the manipulation and just the general rest of her life would place her firmly in Slytherin.
Best wishes to your mother Jackie.

(Disclaimer: I haven’t read the books or seen the movies, and I got all of my HP knowledge from reading the excellent fan-fiction “HP and the Methods of Rationality”)

My sincere condolences about the situation with your mother, and I hope that the therapy is helpful, even if it doesn’t result in superpowers.

Reggie and Alex fuckin’ when?

A HP reference in ’26? Really?
Starting to make me worry that you still support TERF Supreme.

If that’s the tone you want to take with me you’re welcome to leave and believe whatever you want about me. I will not be bullied on my own website. I was harboring stray gays on my futon likely before you even existed and I’m sick of being treated like I just got here.

That wasn’t bullying it was concern. It makes me even sadder that you thought my being worried one of my favorite comic artists might support a person that wants to see people like me erased was a “tone”.
I’ve been reading your comic since the beginning. And I’m sad now to think that this is now the end.

You may well say it wasn’t meant to be bullying now, having bared your fangs at me. Even now you are dog whistling that you are a threat to me. Your verbiage was not that of concern and you knew it from the start, it was manipulation in readiness to attack. You will take this and stab me in the back no matter what my answer might have been. At no point in the run of this comic have I done anything to threaten your existence, but you chose to threaten mine. If this is the end for you you chose it, not I. If you have been here from the beginning you knew what the deal was going to be. I didn’t change the terms you did. And to top it all off you decided to kick me while I was already down. What outcome could you have possibly expected other than this?

Concern Troll
definition

A person who, under the guise of “concern” makes negative, condescending, or rude statements to another. Often used as a more socially acceptable version of fat/skinny shaming but has a wide range of possible usages.

I think Jackie said that the comic setting is in the 2000’s when HP was in the height of it’s popularity and nobody knew Terf Queen was a Terf.

Which to explain it further for any others tempted to troll, makes the references perfectly understandable for the characters within the timeline it takes place within.

Someone who has been reading in good faith from the start would of course grasp this and not be triggered/expressing “concern” about it. They’d see it as the nothingburger it really is instead of making backhanded attempts at censure.

It’s so genuinely sad that there are people who behave like you do. All the more so that they truly believe they’re right to do so. Take some time to reflect on what a pointless existence you’re leading, if this is how you choose to abuse others. Pathetic.

Wow, truly bewildering that something that’s EVEN NOW still in the cultural mainstream- note the fucking massively expensive new versions they’re releasing, which are being advertised LITERALLY EVERYWHERE- could be referenced in something else. Idiot! Not to mention as Space said this is set back in the day. Get a hobby, you bore.

For this 11th, please be gentle with yourself, and with everyone else, if you can + would please.

I was living inside of a 2 hour distance from New York City, when the 9/11 attacks happened.
When we were watching on TV…very quickly made reruns of the buildings collapsing,…several relatives + friends called our household, to make sure that we were still OK.

Everyone was scared sh*tless.

The year after, when Sept. 11 rolled around, it was another white-knuckle ride, for that area.

All the local: Mayors, leaders, police-officers + soldiers- were prepared for [another] huge attack to happen…as a possible “anniversary”-style of an attack, on that day.
I had to drive my Dad to work that day…everyone felt like that day could have been a day where they could see an armed attack, up close.

After I dropped my Dad off at his building, I had to K-turn my car,…in a lot, across from the building’s guard shack. The guard- he gave one of the most scary…and scared looks, I have ever seen.
He was watching me as earnestly as humans can. Did he think I might have a bomb or a gun in my car? Did he think he was going to be attacked? Did he think he was going to die that day? It was a really, tense day.

Everyone was scared sh*tless.

Regardless, the 1st anniversary of 9/11 went by [without] an attack on that area.
[Thank frikkin’ goodness.]
Geezum. What an experience. Please pardon my ranting, today.

If you would: please be gentle with everyone, today. A lot of people get a lot of: unhappy, frightened, + sad emotions, around this time of the year.
Please be gentle with everyone that you meet, today.

Ehhhhh… um. Look, I’m not trying to be a dick here, so please don’t take this the wrong way, alright? But you might want to SERIOUSLY reconsider that last line. A Harry Potter reference in Current Year Argument is… it’s a bad look, man. It’s a seriously bad look. I have confidence in your ability to write a much better punchline that doesn’t reference a series written by a woman who is leveraging her obscene wealth to try and exterminate transgender people. Like, she’s made this crusade of hers her entire personality, to the point where she’s said she takes people who even reference HP as giving her tacit approval. You can do so much better than this.

The only way I can see taking this is as the threat that it is. You intend to make me censor myself on pain of having my livelihood taken away.

You might not read this but I’m willing to bet you won’t lose a single sub. It’s a shame this shit is happening litterally the day after you opened up to the fact that criticism is a super effective type on your chart but your work is some of the best in the SoL genre and is woefully underappreciated.

I see pretty much every comment and moderate the worst ones myself. That’s why I’ve mostly gotten over being badly hurt when people tell me I suck. I’ve been seeing it regularly for two decades.

That’s definitely a harsh thing to endure just to give us the privilege to comment under your work without things getting weird. It’s appreciated.

Look, I genuinely was trying to be nice by informing you of something you might not know about. Because it feels like not enough people know about Rowling’s turn to bigotry, holocaust denial, and direct funding of genocide. But this insane response of yours “Oh you don’t understand, I HAVE to reference the racist bigoted wizard books! This is censorship! Can’t you see I’m the REAL victim here?!?” just tells me you do know about it, and you don’t fucking care.

May everything you’ve ever done to trans people be paid back to you in full.

Trying to be nice. Sure, Jan. You are mentally ill and unwilling to listen to reason. There is no trans genocide. Just a bunch of people who need help crashing out because they can’t have their way. If y’all would quit acting like maniacs and demanding crazy things no one would even care if you want to cross dress. Ending this fit with a threat only proves he was right to call your first comment a threat.

You’re being a dick here. Glad I could help you out with that, simpleton. You police YOURSELF, don’t presume to do it to others. How dare you make threats under cover of anonymity, you dirty coward.

Concern Troll
definition

A person who, under the guise of “concern” makes negative, condescending, or rude statements to another. Often used as a more socially acceptable version of fat/skinny shaming but has a wide range of possible usages.

And yes, what you just pulled was very rude, even if you don’t realize it. Police yourself and realize that for the timeline this comic takes place within, the characters making a HP reference is neither out of place nor a tacit support of terfs.

Your failure to grasp this says infinitely more about you than it ever will about anyone else.

The stupid amount of “free” research and writing I was able to do on company time at some of my pervious jobs will always be appreciated, even if very few of those things ever saw the light of day.

Best of luck to your mom with her treatments and to all of you as her support.

Hi Jackie, I just wanted to say that I really admire the writing that you do, and the art that you do, in Between Failures.
Between Failures is one of the things that I look forward to each week. Sadly I can’t do something to financially support you at this time, but I do hope that you get the financial supports and other supports that you require, to keep this project going.

Thank you for creating Between Failures. Your project is liked by many people, and it is also appreciated by many people.
I hope that Between Failures will continue for many years, and as long as you want to continue making it. I hope that you will have a good day. Cheers.

Me, before reading the comments: Geez, that second panel perfectly captures the two ways Ed is reacting to the statement (at first insulted, then realizing Jess has a good point) with that transitional expression.
Me, after reading the comments: Huh. There are really people with nothing better to do than complain about a stray pop-culture reference they dislike.

And yeah, there is a reason I refer to those types as “WBC with a rainbow paintjob”. Because even a good cause can be infested with assholes and trolls; in fact it’s far easier to pull off such shittery under the auspices of those causes when it becomes verboten to gatekeep or criticize anyone professing allegiance to such.

And anyone that doesn’t realize this is naive or inattentive at best.

Jackie; don’t give in to the haters. I remember that this is set before the 2010s; indeed, between the failures of the world. I would like to do more to support you financially; and hopefully you are doing okay; even with your mother’s condition and treatment.

I am sure there’s other stuff from the time period to reference. One piece is pretty much Evergreen. Fifth Element would be Super Green.

I will admit that I don’t really remember what year a lot of things came out very well. Apparently Homestuck was 2009.

But canonically in this story, Harry Potter is a frequent font of jokes and memes .. “I’d let him Ron my Hermione if he plays his cards right”; “magical sex”, and so forth.

Hey, Jackie, I’m one of your regular readers and didn’t understand what “HP” stood for until I read further. I think in general you have to disconnect the creative content from the creator. Otherwise, we’d all be shunning Shakespeare because he abused his wife (or whatever – I don’t know if he actually did that – his plays are rightfully in the canon).

What’s MOST annoying about these people is they’re the same liberal arts college ‘free spirits’ who wax intellectual about the ‘death of the author’ over dinner like they invented the concept… funny how when the author is someone THEY PERSONALLY hate- for good reason or ill- there’s no such distinction to be made. Almost like they’re… worthless, lousy hypocrites. Oh, wait, it’s not ‘like’ that, it IS that. Basically you’re totally right and it’s nice to see someone with a sensible view.

There is a bit of difference in death of the author when the author is long dead, vs when the author is alive and actively being vile and supporting their works indirectly feeds into the author funding awful things.

That said, I barely registered the 50 points thing until coming to the comments section. Mostly I just think Harry Potter isn’t very good and never got into it, and I side eyed it when I learnt about the whole elf slave thing.

There’s also just better kid goes to a school and learns magic stories, especially now that Welcome To Demon School Iruma exists.

Worst Witch (1986-87?), the Legend of Rah and the Muggles, anything by T.H. White, Neil Gaiman’s Books of Magic series; Percy Jackson, oh and let’s not forget Hocus Pocus if you want to stick to magical/fantasy/witches/occult! I mean really, theres many out there but for the era, Harry Potter is probably the most mainstream. Oooh I don’t know if Ed canonically would know of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, but Jessie would know through Brooksie

You can’t recommend Gaiman anymore. He’s a sexpest.

What.

A snarky quip quote does not count as supporting Rowling or her views, and it is inane to the point of being bad faith to posit such.

For radiation to grant super powers there must be an accompanying green glow.

Most radiation has NO glow or a blue glow.

Doctors are aware of this and don’t use proper green glowing radiation because people getting super powers undermines their carefully cultured God complex.

I don’t have a problem with a Harry Potter reference. It is period correct. It just slapped me that the franchise is old enough that it would have been relevant when this story takes place. Then I recall the my child that I read these stories with when he was a child is now in his mid thirties.

Prayers for your mom. I had radiation therapy ten years ago for my Hodgkins lymphoma. Only thing I got from it was a localized tan over my left clavicle that faded fairly quickly, tho it was noticeable enough on the side of my neck. I’m not usually prone to claustrophobia, but having to wear that immobilizer mask during the treatments started getting to me.

I was astonished that there were 60 comments, so I came to see what was up.

I think both you and the trans person who protested the Slytherin reference are overreacting. I can understand their point of view because they personally are under attack, and I doubt if you really realize how toxic JKR has really become – she’s rich enough that she was able to pour money into an anti-trans law in Great Britain that had minimal support when it was introduced and nobody thought had a chance that actually became a law almost entirely because of her millions of dollar spent pushing it, and she has stated publicly that not only does she plan to keep using her money that way, but the fact that HP is popular proves everyone agrees with her. She counts every expression of interest in HP property as an endorsement of her views. In the unlikely event she should happen upon this comic, SHE would see it as proof you agree with her.

Yeah, why should you care what she thinks? I understand your position, too, but I don’t think the person who protested the Potter reference was threatening you in any way. YOU were the one who suggested they stop reading. How is “Starting to make me worry that you still support TERF Supreme” bullying? It’s an expression of concern that you might not realize how hurtful your actions might seem to a trans person. Which frankly I think is true. You were certainly not deliberately being hurtful towards trans people, and I understand you being shocked and offended someone might think you were that narrow minded. And yet … you made that reference, which hurt her more deeply than you might realize, and instead of apologizing or even brushing her off with a “you’re too sensitive because you’re too close to the issue – I’m writing for a broad audience and I can’t constantly censor myself to make sure I don’t offend anybody” you attack her.

Imagine if the creator of your favorite franchise, whatever it is, revealed themselves to be a KKK member. Not only a member, but became a leader and devoted huge amounts of time and money to the cause of white supremacy. Say they did that for a decade and you still were making references to whatever intellectual property they are responsible for. Would you understand a black person being upset about that? That’s what JK Rowling is for trans people.

I personally think it was a harmless joke, and I shudder to think that we may be going into a society where “50 points for Slytherin” could get you banned from some spaces, but I honestly do understand the people whose impulse is to want that, and I don’t think slamming down hard of them for being overly judgmental is the best response. Guiding them gently toward more open thinking, and pointing out that it’s not like you’re directly giving her any money here might be a better course of action.

As for those who say this is all taking place before 2010 so it doesn’t matter: I don’t think so. I may be wrong, but it seems to be that Jakie is doing more-or-less the same think David Willis is doing over in “Dumbing of Age” – time is passing much, much more slowly for the characters than it is for us, yet somehow they are still remaining in the current time. Even though the strip started twenty years ago, I don’t think we are meant to think of it as happening in the past.

JKR was perfectly reasonable until they started making death threats and stalking her. She raised valid concerns and was met with unhinged mental illness and abuse. Fools like you act like she set out to victimize trans people when all she wanted was to protect women and children. Sensible trans people already know that and know not to worry about it. I bet you barely even know how all of this started and just took the word of the first person you saw on twitter. Muppet. She’s not gonna come into the comments and abuse anybody, but if anyone does it will be a trans mob.

1) A snarky quip quote does not count as supporting Rowling or her views, and it is inane to the point of being bad faith to posit such.

2) Hot button topics are a favorite venue for concern trolls and other bad faith people to use as a social cudgel, and one generally *has* to resort with hostility to get them to fuck off.

3) No one was harmed one bit by the reference, and it is inane to the point of being bad faith to posit such.

4) You didn’t start off with a land acknowledgement, Bad Progressive, to the Shadow Zone with thee!

5) None of the above should need explaining, but the “WBC with a rainbow paintjob” crowd has amply demonstrated over the last two decades that they will never listen to anything explained to them in good faith, so the logical end result is just telling them to pike off the moment they try pulling their usual tired shit just as fast as one would tell the OG version of the WBC to pike off. Neither crowd adds value to any discourse. They can go be butthurt in their echo chamber of choice.

I hadn’t read this strip in a while, rediscovered it, bookmarked it, and came to see the current strip before I catch up on reading the back catalogue.

Read the comments, see what the author has to say. Delete the bookmark and back away slowly.

When people show you who they are, believe them. Thanks for being up front.

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