That argumentum ad baculum gets 'em every time

It will live on through the underground like the Jack Chick tract that got hit with a dose of Cthulhu. You can never destroy what the internet creates [muahahhaha and all that stuff].

So... um...

Ok, so does an "Argumentum ad baculum" mean an argument from the penis? Or is the bone named after "The Stick" in Latin? Because if so, then the phrase "Stick it to him" takes on sinister new meanings.

It also means the last argumentum ad baculum I was exposed to was the comparative physiology teacher who threatened cheaters with death by walrus oosik.

Which makes this comic impossible to read with a straight face. Or at work. "Mooom! Amy's being a dick!"

Ah frinktank, we hardly knew ye.

And here I was hoping to remain just obscure enough to pass under that nutbar's radar. And here, I find a link from Pharyngula. Oh well. :) At least my readership will probably get a spike.

"Argumentum ad Baculum" means "appeal to the cudgel" or "stick." It's also known as "appeal to force."

Every now and then I find a pile of Chick mini-comics at the library (and I hasten them to the recycling bin). Wouldn't it be fine to find one of these at the library instead?

"Which makes this comic impossible to read with a straight face."

Isn't that the idea?

Chick's lawyer likes write threatening letters, but parody is protected under the 1st amendment, so Chick's fundy hordes might threaten you with lega action, but they have no ability to carry out any threat of litigation. Witness an instance of protected parody of fundy morons here.

http://www.waynebesen.com/2006/03/ex-gays-drop-threat-of-parody-lawsuit…

Yeah, I figured as much, thanks also going to the Fair Use Act of 1976 or something like that. But force of money sometimes seems to ignore little things like Constitutional freedoms.

Oh, I've also given full permission for copying and distribution, just in case.

9:42 AM your time.

Can't display this page.

Feel free to send the image(s). My email can handle it easily. (Well, to about 5 megs each....)

TIA

I think Ivan Stang nailed Jack Chick best when he described his stuff as exhibiting 'a prehuman level of hate'. I always feel unclean after looking at it.

Ha, ha! Awesome! May I leave some copies on the bus and at bus stops?...

(BTW, I saw the 'hood Jehovah Witness who tried to push a Watch! mag on me at my bus stop getting hammered at the local drinking hole down the street just yesterday, wonder what his story is... I'll give him one.)

Leave copies wherever you like. I'd like a wide distribution.

I asked my undergrad biology TA why so few mammal species have bacula. When he said he didn't know, I enlightened him: Nature abhors a baculum!

I asked my undergrad biology TA why so few mammal species have bacula. When he said he didn't know, I enlightened him: Nature abhors a baculum!

Thank you! Thank you! I'm here all week!

I think Ivan Stang nailed Jack Chick best when he described his stuff as exhibiting 'a prehuman level of hate'.

You're being a bit harsh on the prehumans, aren't you?

I think maybe we should try overwhelming Jack: Let's all try making parodies of his stuff. Would be fitting for a particular upcoming holiday.

I'll drink to that.

I can't draw, but I was already planning to write a fairly serious satire of his "Gunslinger" tract.

I suspect I know which Cthulhu-tainted Chick tract Joseph O'Donnell was referring to: Who Will be Eaten First?. If he was thinking of WWBEF?, the original version of which was indeed taken off the net by its creator after a threatening letter from a Chick lawyer, it is very definitely appropriate to mention that it hath risen from the dead like the Great Old One rising from sunken R'lyeh.

Since Chick's complaint was that WWBEF? plagiarised Chick's art, the obvious solution was to re-draw the thing so that no jot or tittle of Chick's original art remained. And, well, that's what I did. And with the original creator's permission, I posted my re-drawn version as part of my netzine, TSAT. Those who are interested can check it out for themselves:

http://tsat.transform.to/i.34/cmc.34.mr.html -- main site
http://tsat.xepher.net/i.34/cmc.34.mr.html -- mirror site

Funny, I always thought that "argumentum ad baculum" translated as "argument from a dick". Shows what I know.

Well, considering that we're talking about my parodies of Jack Chick, I think that other translation is quite appropriate.

So it has nothing to do with Scott Bacula?

Tisk tisk. The preposition "ad" means "towards", as in "advancement". Besides, "baculum" is clearly not in the ablative case, which agrees with prepositions that indicate going away from.

Honestly, I think that some people don't know Latin anymore.

And it just so happens that I have a copy of the original "Who will be eaten first" ferreted away on my hard drive...