You just gotta love Ray Stevens!

I’m just joyful that I live in the free United States of America, where I can exercise my right to draw whatever cartoon I want. Won’t you join me today, and draw your best interpretation of the false prophet Mohammed/Muhammad!

Here’s my interpretation of “The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries”, by an unknown artist. I used a Wacom Graphire2 tablet in Corel Painter 11. My inspiration came from a 17th Century manuscript.

I actually enjoyed making this little piece of art. I had never really done any digital painting with Corel Painter, nor had I used my Wacom tablet for anything other than photo processing. I’m quite inspired now.

My interpretation breaks with the original artist’s vision. The original symbolizes Muhammad prohibiting intercalary months during the Farewell Pilgrimage. Mine has Muhammad looking skyward at the moon, offering his worship. I am neither confirming a truth nor professing my belief that the Allah worshiped by the followers of Islam was the pagan moon god of ancient Arabia. However, I use the interesting idea as the inspiration for my interpretation.

In the few minutes after I posted this art onto Facebook, I received the most insane threats and hateful words. It’s interesting that the alleged religion of peace would produce the kind of response I am witnessing. This post will publish just after midnight, and I’ll head to bed. When I wake, I wonder how many wonderfully nice things will have accumulated for me. Even as I’m writing this post, I’m interrupted numerous times, to delete comments on Facebook.

So, my pal Evan, serving in the United States Army, currently deployed to A-stan (Afghanistan), just requested some cool ideas for funny military patches. His example is the word “NINJA”, in the form of a Ranger Tab.

I googled around, and found several really funny ones. Some involve not-so-appropriate-words, so I’ve tried to skew them a bit. Please, please, please, share your own ideas in the comments below.

Let me give you a bit of background. The military switched their battle uniforms back in 2005. Read the Wikipedia article for more info. Not all branches made the switch at the same time, and even lately I’ve seen a handful of Air Force personnel wearing the old woodland camo BDU.

Anyway, the photo to the right is the Army’s current ACU (Army Combat Uniform).

The “Ranger Tab” is a small patch worn on the left shoulder by an Army soldier who has completed the US Army Ranger School. The soldier need not be assigned to a Ranger Unit in order to wear the tab. In fact, they’ll get to wear it for the remainder of their military career.

Ok, so on with the patches. All are funny, none are approved. Here’s a great place to buy several of the ones below. What can you come up with?

Clinging to my guns, NASCAR, and my Bible…What are you going to do about it, Barry?

Today I went to a local shooting range with a friend. We took two of his rifles; a nice old .243 bolt-action and his .30-06 bolt-action hunting rifle. He needed to sight-in the hunting rifle, as he had an unsuccessful deer hunting trip a few weeks back.

We had a great time, and I enjoyed the opportunity to not only help a friend, but to shoot one of his rifles. This trip only solidified my desire to get one of my own, soon. It’s so much fun, just going to the range for a few hours and shooting at targets. I can’t imagine the fun of actually getting out and hunting.

As we were walking up the range, to tape up our targets, I looked down and realized that I was wearing a NASCAR t-shirt. No one would think twice about seeing a NASCAR shirt, at a shooting range. Then I considered that I should have brought along a small pocket Bible. That way, I could have been the perfect opposite of Obama’s America.

It goes like this.

I pull up to my parking spot at the local supermarket, for a quick trip inside. As I get out of my car, I notice a sweet looking 1968 Ford Fairlane pull up in front of me. Real clean. Walking by the white beauty, I hear the teenaged daughter ask her 50ish dad, “Can I drive it home daddy, pleeeeease?”

“Sure honey.” I head inside.

I walk towards the beer aisle, looking for that new Budweiser, American Ale. I hadn’t tried it yet, and thought I’d give it a chance. Not bad, but that’s another story.

Searching for the bad-beer-maker’s-attempt-at-good-beer, I realize that the Fairlane Dad is standing near me. He too wants beer. Just then, a pair of high school aged boys appear on our aisle. They were not remarkable until they decide to grace us with their small vocabularies and ignorant view of appropriate alcohol intake. “Oh f##k, I’d love to get s##t-faced tonight!”

Without hesitation, Fairlane Dad has turned and barked, “Watch your mouth! That’s not appropriate.” Score one for Fairlane Dad. I think I’m going to like it here on California’s Central Coast. The boys scamper off.

I found my selection and wandered to the capitalist altar, the cash register. Who stepped behind me in line? Fairlane Dad. Just beer, too. As I’m paying, the potty-mouths arrive, and realize too late that they’re directly behind the Fairlane Dad. They have a tag-along. She says, “Brian, mom said I could get a soda.” I don’t think Brian was intending on purchasing her a soda.

“I’m not getting that for you, bitch!” Brian did not learn his lesson.

As if he has decided that Brian’s dad clearly forgot something, Fairlane Dad turns quite rapidly, “I cannot believe that you just spoke that way to your sister! Who do you think you are! If I was your father, I’d take you out and kick the crap out of you.” Everyone is looking, Fairlane Dad has yelled, and he doesn’t care. I like Fairlane Dad. Brian is red, only red. Oh yeah, and he’s quiet.

As things turn back to normal, I leaned back and said, “Is that your Fairlane I saw you climb out of?” Fairlane Dad, “Sure is, it’s a ’68.” I added, “It’s real nice.” He thanked me, and off I went, home to try my beer, thinking, “There should be just a few more Fairlane Dads. Makes things a bit better.”

Oh yeah, it wasn’t just beer for me. I’m an impulse shopper. I grabbed that low priced Hershey’s package of individually wrapped chocolate. It was a great price, get off my back.