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Comments
Glad to see the updates coming fast and hard. Templar is quickly becoming one of my most liked webcomics.
Posted by Jebus at May 4, 2007 04:33 PM
72.142.5.132
I found out that one of my current classmates got in trouble back in '99 for openly sympathizing with the Columbine shooters. She said she wanted to sympathize with the VA Tech shooter, but was afraid to because of what happened in '99. I don't have details, but I'm guessing it involved arrests, suspension, or worse. She had to have been in middle school, a freshman in high school at the latest.
I guess what I'm sayin' is, this ain't a new phenomenon. But it pisses me off all the same.
Posted by Julie at May 4, 2007 05:08 PM
150.135.178.150
I think the whole situation sucks for Matt Boyd, but I can completely understand everything that happened. The only drama is coming from him and the people who report it. Yeah, four detectives showed up at his house, but he wasn't charged with anything, nothing bad happened to him as a result of the investigation, and he hasn't even been asked to change the comic or anything. This is a minor incident being turned into a ratings grab for Three Panel Soul.
And if all you hear from a conversation is a guy saying you'd have to shoot a person in the face five times to kill him, you'd better believe you'd talk to somebody about it, and its up to the people who hand him his paycheck to decide what to do about it. It sucks and I wouldn't want it to happen to me, but I don't think anybody is in the wrong.
That said, Moze has barely even said anything on this page, and I'm still liking him more and more every time I see him.
Posted by Magnolia at May 4, 2007 05:52 PM
198.7.242.130
I was at an eight hour meeting with all of the other managers in my district this week. Amongst other things there was an hour long presentation of violence in the workplace. The presenter talked to us about spotting potential threats, such as people who own guns, like guns or talk about guns. The lecture was slanted more toward people who actually bring guns to work and show them off to their coworkers and talk about wanting to commit violence, but I can see how Matt Boyd's comments would have led to suspicion. I can't believe that he got canned on the spot like that, though. Now he's gust going to go postal at a kindergarten instead of keeping it at work.
Posted by michael j patrick at May 4, 2007 07:28 PM
141.150.246.160
Ha! Your time-per-comic-page is as bad as mine, Spike! I don't know who should feel worse- you for being as slow as me, or me for having no further excuse for my dismal update schedule!
Posted by jdalton at May 4, 2007 10:25 PM
216.232.231.252
It's silly, but I *love* that little not-quite-a-silhouette of Ray in the last panel. Even her *silhouette* just can't follow the rules.
Ben's little "I know how to deal with you now, you big doofus" smirk as he says "Ben, right" is really good. It's a joy to watch him find his footing in this strange place. I've been there.
Did Vin Diesel ever play hockey?
Posted by Sean Willard at May 4, 2007 10:51 PM
192.18.43.225
You spend 15 hours on Templar, per comic. It takes 15 hours of your time to make every bewildering, amazing, gorgeous, real page of this thing what it is. And we aren't paying you for this? NOBODY'S paying you for this?
Bah. C'mon, world. We can do better than that.
Oh yea, Matt Boyd. I don't get it. Did the bosses fire him because they thought he was a threat? Did they really evaluate the guy and decide that, based on what they knew about him and their projected risks that he would actually kill somebody, they had to let him go?
I doubt it. Perhaps they were trying to cover their asses and follow some sort of vague policy from even higher up. But I'm betting that they were scared point-men who didn't know how to function when there's lead in the air, and succumbed.
Or perhaps the people he was working with were really scared enough of him after he joked about shooting people that, for institutional functioning or group social health reasons, they actually had to let him go. Which doesn't make me feel any better.
Also. Perhaps I'm not getting something fundamental here; but what's with the way in which people respond to news like this? How is it that, upon news of a tragic yet honestly statically insignificant event like this one, people manage to get all freaked out?
Is this something fundamental, some sort of social group-identification thing? A 'defeat' to the 'clan' that puts folks on edge? Are these people who belong with Scip on Narrowband, with dryer-fresh blanket romanticizations of life here and now, or close and recently?
I mean, what? Not to be dismissive, but unless you're actually connected to it, how does it hurt you?
Posted by Jeff at May 6, 2007 08:49 AM
134.10.40.160
Wow Jeff...
Newsletter, etc...
Posted by Brian at May 6, 2007 12:10 PM
24.18.108.196
If all you hear from someone's conversation is something about how many times it takes to kill someone shooting them in the face then YOU SHOULD STOP EAVESDROPPING.
This is not understandable.
This is a private conversation where nobody who should have been listening felt threatened. If someone was talking loud enough for me to hear them and trying to make me uncomfortable without speaking directly to me then it is understandable that I contact higher ups, cops, whatever.
He was fired not for what he actually said, but for what people listening in on him picked up. Magnolia, should we read the news for the phrases and topics we must not say, because if someone hears them regardless of context, there will be retribution from our employers and our government?
Posted by Sarah at May 7, 2007 04:13 AM
66.41.66.213
Hell no. It's not like this woman was pressed against the door holding a glass up on her ear trying to hear his private conversation. When you're in a close working environment, you overhear stuff. And hey, maybe she caught the part about how maybe one gun wouldn't be enough to a kill a person and thought, "holy shit, I better pay attention to this."
But look, I don't think Boyd should've been fired for that. BUt I can definitely understand why a person might've gotten freaked out and mentioned it to a coworker. Not like, "Oh my god fire this guy now," but more like, "Oh, it was probably nothing, I don't know, I just feel sort of shaken up." And then I can see why that might've led to Boyd's getting fired.
And once again, I think it sucks and I don't think it's fair. But what I'm trying to say is, I don't think this is a case of "Oh my god everybody's so uptight, what is society coming to, what's happening to our personal freedoms, etc. etc." It's an unfortunate misunderstanding, not an attack on freedom of speech, is what I'm trying to say.
Posted by Magnolia at May 7, 2007 06:27 AM
198.7.242.130
Only my browser doesn't show any layout at your page?
Posted by Spacer at May 7, 2007 09:14 AM
195.177.250.222
I can't see how someone getting fired because someone else didn't like what they were saying at their government job isn't an issue of freedom of speech.
The government agents that showed up at Matt's door didn't get him in any trouble, but think of the wasted resources to get FOUR detectives to personally visit a man that wrote a comic about putting his foot in his mouth that didn't threaten anybody. Consider the wasted resources there, and the skewed priorities. I'm trying not to be too dramatic but there are Arabs in Guantanamo who wrote political satire which was (implausibly) misread as a threat, tying them loosely to some terrorist organization.
Ordinary people and Law enforcement seem to have a mindset that breeds this kind of misunderstanding.
If I felt uncomfortable I could always talk to my coworker about it instead of going over his head. I do not know the people who helped get Matt fired, but when I've made people uncomfortable and they've gone over my head instead of not listening in to my conversations or just talking to me about it, I call those people douchebags, generally.
Posted by Sarah at May 7, 2007 12:35 PM
66.41.66.213
If you're uncomfortable with someone because you're afraid they might have violent tendencies, then you probably wouldn't confront that person head on.
Yes, Boyd has every right to talk about what he wants to talk about during worktime. And on that note, that woman had every right to speak up about something that made her scared for her personal safety. And his employers had every right to fire him for what was, in their eyes, a very legitimate reason.
He wasn't fired for expressing a controversial opinion or for what he valued. He was fired because he made a coworker uncomfortable by describing how he could kill a person using a gun he owned.
There is a huge difference between sending detectives to check up on a something that could possibly be threatening, and what happens in Guantanamo Bay.
Maybe four detectives is excessive. But I don't think it's a waste to to check up on something minor that might be something major. That's what detectives do, they get more information. And when they found out that Boyd was obviously no threat to anyone, they dropped the investigation. No one's even asking him to stop talking about the incident or take down the comic that got him in trouble. I honestly don't see any harm done, or any freedoms being violated. If the detectives advised Boyd not to talk about that kind of thing anymore, that would be a freedom of speech issue. Getting fired for talking about that stuff is the result of a decision made by a private employer and, while it is pretty shitty, it's certainly constitutional.
There are people who actually are victims of unjust discrimination in the name of stopping terrorism. Matt Boyd is not one of them. In his interviews, he seems to be trying to present himself as one. I call that being a douchebag, generally.
Posted by Magnolia at May 7, 2007 02:24 PM
198.7.242.130
Ladies and gentlemen, the fear response! Whether it's guns, workplace safety lawsuits, they'll-be-after-us-next rights concerns, religion, politics, or monster-movies, nothing motivates like Fear. Evolution hardcoded it into us, and now there's nothing that fills us with endorphins and adrenalin like fear.
Except, well, you know, sex.
Posted by Fishy at May 7, 2007 04:42 PM
128.135.98.72
And if you're scared of sex... man what a thrill.
Posted by Cylver at May 7, 2007 08:44 PM
75.33.123.139
I'm almost completely sure that's how macro-vore got started.
Well, that and INTERNET.
Posted by Fishy at May 8, 2007 01:42 AM
128.135.98.72
ADSL it is my life :)
Posted by Deren at May 8, 2007 07:49 AM
80.73.3.114
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