What Would YOU LIke to Talk About, Vol. 1

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

I figure every so often I”ll just toss out a general “anything goes” topic. Anything you want to discuss, feel free to throw it out there. You may want to try for stuff that isn’t being covered elsewhere. Anything topical, anything that’s caught your interest and you want to bring up, go right ahead.

PAD

UPDATED: Okay, this isn’t actually going the way I thought it would. This wasn’t intended to be an “ask me questions” thing. I figured it to be more along the lines of, “Here’s something that’s bugging me at the moment or that I’d like to speak out about” space. If I’d intended it to be, “Ask me about things,” then I would have called it that. I didn’t want this space to be about me; I wanted it to be all about you guys.

312 comments on “What Would YOU LIke to Talk About, Vol. 1”

  1. I would like to talk about the distribution of wealth and how the few at the top who have all the money are becoming fewer and in control of more and more money and those of us with no money are multiplying and have less money.

    It sucks and I want money too!

    1. Even more frustrating is that apparently the Jews have all the money and all the power.
      .
      Being a Jew, I think I’m getting screwed somewhere.
      .
      PAD

      1. Well, my best friend is Jewish and I’m of Sicilian origin, so between us we should own the majority of just about everything. We want to know where our cut is.

    2. I said recently in my LiveJournal that I think that trickle down theory would have worked if people had allowed money to trickle down.
      .
      The problem is, I think, that people believed in trickle down theory and gave the rich more money in the form of lower percentages of income tax, and expected they would use that money to hire more people, buy more goods and services, etc. But, instead people spent the money overseas on outsourced jobs, or used it to start up a dot com business that went bankrupt and qualified for even more tax reductions, etc.
      .
      All the while, the inevitable increase in new taxes went to the middle class. This even makes sense if you think about it. There are more middle class people, so a smaller percentage increase would yield a greater bottom line to cover the increased costs of government programs.
      .
      But, after a few years of giving money to the rich and expecting the rich to trickle it to the poor (and that mostly not happening) and a like number of years of squeezing money out of the poor, you end up with an economic divide like America has right now.
      .
      You end up with people saying that fair taxes aren’t “fair” and that they are moving to Canada. You end up with businesses who threaten to move to Russia or India rather than just outsource some jobs there. And, you end up with a powerful portion of the population with the monitary power to convince the others that anything Obama does is wrong and that any attempt to equalize the burden on taxes is going to lead to lack of jobs. As if companies hired people because they had the money to do so, not because they needed the work done.
      .
      And, unfortunately, a lot of people are believing the hype.
      .
      Theno

      1. I think it boils down to one thing. People with money horde it and people without money spend it.
        .
        The system is built on the faulty premise that people with money will spend it. But they don’t, because they are miserly.

  2. Sorry if this has been addressed elsewhere…

    How would you rank the following franchise/universe “reboots”/re-envisionings (or pick favorite/least-favorite)?

    * Battlestar Galactica (old vs. new series)
    * DC Comics (Crisis… or take your pick)
    * Doctor Who (Classic -> New Who)
    * James Bond movies (pre-Casino Royale)
    * Marvel’s Ultimate universe
    * Spider-Man (One More Day)
    * Star Trek (newest Star Trek film)
    * Superman movies (Superman Returns)
    * [Any other interesting ones I forgot?]

    And as a general question, how do you feel about reboots (as either a fan or creator)?

    1. I’m not going to go into all of them because I don’t have particularly strong thoughts as to how most of them stack up against each other. I would probably say the three most successful are BSG, Doctor Who and Bond, based mostly upon the huge amount of fan hostility that was ultimately proven to be wrongheaded. And I know you said pre-Casino Royale, but I don’t see how you can take that out of the mix, considering how Daniel Craig was being dismissed as “James Blond” or even “James Bland” before the film actually came out.
      .
      Least favorite? “Superman Returns,” because it takes some serious kind of stupid to produce a Superman film that small kids would find too scary.
      .
      PAD

      1. (Reading the Updated)

        Sorry I misunderstood the intent of this thread, Peter. Thanks for the reply!

    2. I don’t think it’s possible to have a serious discussion on that. Other than he needs some touch up work on that.

  4. So I skimmed over ULTIMATUM and man, there is WAY too much gore in that thing. It’s stupid and unnecessary and out-of-place in a mainstream superhero comic. Isn’t that what something like MARVEL ZOMBIES is for?

    Yeah, I went on a longer rant about it over yonder: http://sweetdragon.livejournal.com/671242.html

    Stupid gore-pørņ.

    And while I’m tangentially bìŧçhìņg about horror, I hate that they’ve remade “Nightmare On Elm Street.”

    Also, all you dámņ kids need to get off my lawn.

  5. I’m sure you have discussed this before, but when will DC publish the rest of the first series Fallen Angel issues in TPB? For that matter, why have they not published them already? The back issues are really hard to find and I’m dying to know what happens…I’ve read all of the IDW series, but the DC series has been harder to come by.

    thanks!

    1. Actually, no, DC is never going to publish them. But take heart: IDW is. We’ve gotten all the rights back to “Fallen Angel” which means we’re free to reprint the DC material.
      .
      As a matter of fact, if anyone’s interested in licensing “Fallen Angel” stuff, give me a shout. We can do it now.
      .
      PAD

      1. Back when Fallen Angel was at DC, wasn’t DC editorial against any crossovers with DC characters? If so, does that make it much easier for IDW to publish them since they don’t have to worry about, for example, a Batman appearance?

      3. Well, I’m very glad that you guys have full rights and can publish everything now.

        I hope they aren’t published only in omnibus fashion, though. I already have the first 2 DC trade paperbacks.

  6. 1)Don’t you think people live too long now?

    2)The tragedy of Boy-soldiers and child-brides in third-world countries like Ruwanda

      1. I could be wrong, but I think the only people who think people live too long, are religious people who ironically believe in an immortal soul.

        Personally, I would much rather have an indefinite life-span, but as an atheist, I doubt that’s the case.

      2. Because, though we’ve gotten somewhat better at extending lifespans, we haven’t done all that much against conditions which have the individual ‘alive’, but in a vegetative state, or close to. I live a few doors down from a ‘retirement home’ and will opften see people out front, put there by staff, I suppose, to ‘bask in sunshine’ but, as I look at them in their wheelchairs, there’s no ‘light’ in their eyes. Nobody home. But the body persists. They may be biologically ‘alive’, but is it ‘living’?

      3. Starwolf, one of my grandparents is in that state right now, so I understand what you’re talking about.
        .
        However, I don’t like the idea of the alternatives any better. The age at which my grandmother started going downhill is only a few years older than the age my parents are at now. They’re still doing well. If you told me that one of my parents needed significant treatment of some kind, there’s no way I’d say not to do it because five years from now they *might* start going downhill.
        .
        I’m a strong believer in a right to die after a certain medical point. But that should be the patient’s decision. As long as someone wants to live, then no, people aren’t living too long. I may say that I’d do something different if I was in their position, or that I’d make arrangements not to get in that position, but that’s their decision.

      4. Jason – I don’t much care for them, either. I’m *not* in favour of unilateral euthenasia. The problem is, by the time people in such a state might opt for it, they’re probably no longer mentally competent enough to choose. Not sure I’d want to trust relatives who may have their own agenda. People would need to leave very specific instructions in their ‘living wills’. It might also help if we spent more than a small fraction of Hollywood’s budget on medical research to overcome these conditions or at least have the facilities to treat them with the dignity many places can’t be bothered to provide (fortunately, the place nearby doesn’t lack in such.)

      1. 2) What would you suggest be done?
        .
        PAD
        That’s a very reasonable question.

        And I feel I’m part of the problem because all I do is talk about the injustice without doing anything about it. I know missionarys who go to places like Romania to help children who are basically thrown into the sewers and wish there were more people like that (the missionaries). Except I don’t want to be like that. I want to be successful in this country and enjoy life and never be haunted by what’s done to those less fortunate than I.
        SO, what to do? Contribute to agencys that do the noble work?
        Or join the agencys and actually try to help?

      1. Is it wrong that I think your response is deep? Oh and regarding your update just to be clear this was a general question for anyone on this site not just you ( your special but not that kind of special)

    2. I think there is less incentive for people to be smart.

      Time was if you wanted great quality of life you got an education and took an interest in more things.

      These days you can be dumb as a stump and still get cable, beer, pizza and Twitter…

      Cheers

      3. How can I get this beer and pizza? And do you think this dumbing down is because of the ease of accessible information, repetitive media or a lacking of education standards?

    3. I wouldn’t be surprised. As someone pointed out, time was you needed to be quick on your feet to survive, but also cunning and have some smarts. Now, stupidity is protected by society. Worse, I realize this isn’t a statistically significant sample but I know quite a few people who are all very bright and doing well for themselves, but are approaching middle age with no kids and no interest in having any. Meanwhile, I see people who are – to be charitable – less intellectually gifted and are cranking out offspring like clockwork. This may explain why one study concluded that, after rising for centuries/millennia, the average IQ is now dropping by a point a generation.

  9. I’m sitting at work right now after having to deal with techs that can only be described as lazy all night. If you’re being paid to do a job, then do the job, don’t waste more energy explaining why you don’t WANT to the job than it will take to just do it.

    Are there messages in movies anymore?

    1. Sure, there are messages in movies. Mostly they involve buying your tickets on line and going out to the lobby to get refreshments. And that’s just before the movie starts.
      .
      Once it starts, the usual message is that you should buy Coca-Cola.
      .
      PAD

      1. I find PAD’s comment to be unfair and obviously doesn’t take into account the hard working people who product place for Duncan Donuts and Pizza Hut.
        .
        🙂
        .
        Theno

      2. That’s what I’m on about, you never see anything for my personal ambrosia, Cherry Coke, and would it kill them to advertise some Goobers now and again?

    2. Wow, sounds like you work where I work. Do you also have people who constantly tell you why things can’t be done without ever suggesting what can be done? Or at least something halfway sueful?

    3. Yes, because all movies today are re-makes sometimes of re-makes those original movies had messages and I think they still come through loud and clear. “Why watch old and possible dead actors who had talent when you can watch the latest hollywood hottie being hot and saying stuff and .BOOM!”

  10. Other than your own work, what are your favorite comics from:

    1) Marvel

    2) DC

    3) Other companies

    1. 1) I like what’s happening in the X-Books, the Spidey books, and Captain America.
      .

      2) Fables is pretty good.
      .

      3) I like Terry Moore’s “Echo.”
      .
      PAD

  11. Recently saw a advertisement that said to the effect that if your antidepressant medication was not working, and most don’t it said, you should try this new pill. Wondering if those people who are artists and writers and sculptors and the such, if they can use their talent to cast our their “demons” instead of everything else (and that includes laying on a couch talking to a stranger and having things put around your head that shock in a bad way) that seems to be available. I know I read a passage once from Mrs. Lindbergh that said to the effect that her writing trekked her out of madness, but I cannot find it now, but that is essentially what started my wonderings.

  12. Two questions, since I love abusing the system… 🙂

    Mr. David, we all know that the comics business is having problems reaching and (probably) generating a market. How would you address it? Distribution? Content of comics? Different lines for younger audiences and mature audiences? “Reboots”? More, or less, cross-company stories?

    And is there any sign of the next “Darkness of the Light” book? I’ve not heard anything, and I quite liked the first one.

    Thank you for your consideration!

    I remain,
    Sincerely,
    Eric L. Sofer
    The Silver Age Fogey
    x<]:o){

    1. I would do away with numbering series as ongoing titles. There’s no point. All that happens with ongoing numbering is that you lose readers through attrition while you dissuade new readers because the higher the issue number, the less incentive there is to start because they worry about everything that went before that they missed. Treat the books like television seasons. I’d kick off each year with #1 and the year and run through issue #12, then start over again with the following volume.
      .
      I would also do away with putting the prices on the covers. You go into a supermarket; when was the last time you saw the price on a carton of eggs or a quart of milk put there by the manufacturer? Let retailers price the books at whatever they want and mark them as such, just as retailers do with just about every other product in the world.
      .
      I’ve turned in the next manuscript about a month ago for the sequel to “Darkness of the Light,” tentatively titled “Highness of the Low.”
      .
      PAD

      1. I like both ideas, except wouldn’t the retailers slap a big ugly sticker on the cover for the price? Of course, this might only be a concern to anal retentive collectors like myself who wouldn’t be buying their comics at the Piggly Wiggly anyway.

      2. Some might. Ideally, they would be using the bar code scanner/inventory system that has been readily available for going on two decades now. If they don’t already have one, now is as good a time as any to get one.
        .
        PAD

      3. The ongoing series thing didn’t bother me too much until Marvel went crazy with its numbering/re-numbering/rebooting blitz. Especially with Hulk 600 which I guess is valid but seems weird. With all of these issue 500 and 600’s coming out it feels like the FF are being left behind. I really like what they did on Ultimates that a 12/13 issues covered a story arc. I’d rather have some characters get periodic mini-series instead of a regular series that have the quality of the art and story telling drop until a good story can gestate.

      4. Speaking as someone who catalogs comics at an academic library, I say AMEN! to your numbering idea. Comics are the only type of serial publication that goes about its business numbering issues for years, then says, “Oh, hey, let’s shift gears…get ready for Hulk #600!” In terms of cataloging, it’s a major pain in the patoot. It would be much, much simpler if numbering was on a yearly basis.

      5. With all of these issue 500 and 600’s coming out it feels like the FF are being left behind.
        .
        That’s only because, iirc, Marvel went back for the renumbering on FF (as well as Amazing Spidey) for #500. They also did it for Avengers with #500 right at the end of Disassembled. Anything to make a buck, I suppose.

      6. That would actually reduce the number of comics I read.

        I only rarely purchase limited series. I wait for the collection and borrow it from the library. I purchase ongoing series because I like the ongoing story.

        There are rises and falls in quality but I think it also allows for some risk and experimentation in subplots and single issues that don’t fit into the structure of a limited series. Both gems and junk can come from the need to get an issue out because it’s time to get an issue neither of which would ever exist without the pressure of a deadline.

      8. Well, except all periodicals (which comics are) have the prices on the cover
        .
        Yes, I’m aware of that. And they don’t need to be there, is what I’m saying. Books don’t need them either, nor magazines.
        .
        PAD

      9. I’m not sure I understand why taking the price off the covers would help. Sure, a football in a sports store doesn’t have the price on it, but it does have a Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price, just like everything else that is mass produced. So retailers don’t price “every other product in the world” however they want, there’s actually a lot of standardization.
        .
        Most of the variance in prices comes from stores trying to outdo each other or from sales. Comics stores can already do that just by putting up a sign reading, “All comics 5% off” or “This week, 10% off on Marvel’s Ultimate line.” I’ve shopped in several stores that fudged the prices in one way or another. Comic prices don’t seem that much more steady from one store to another than video games, DVDs, or any other form of entertainment. It’s the same thing as in the grocery store where they don’t just post the sale price on my eggs, they post the regular price so you’ll know how much you’re saving. Stores generally *want* customers to know what the price is supposed to be at other stores.
        .
        And really, I’m just not sure why taking the price off the cover would help. They’re still going to know what the comic costs after buying one issue. How does this results in higher sales in the long run?

  13. Peter:

    What do you think of DC’s current plan of adding a back up feature to some of their titles to justify a price increase from $2.99 to $3.99 and what do foresee in the future for the comic book industry?

    Lee Houston, Junior

    1. I think it didn’t work in the past and it won’t work now. People don’t generally give a dámņ about back up features. My guess is that they’ll eventually drop the back up feature and cut the price to $3.50 or just keep it at $3.99 and figure that people are used to paying that much by that point.
      .
      PAD

      1. I think the backup stories are silly and a waste of space. The consumer buys the book for the main character in the book and not the backup feature, if they did I’d imagine that character would have their own mini-series or regular series.

      2. I like the backup feature, but wish there were different backup features. Once I’ve read it, I really don’t want to read it a few more times. Not for a few months at least.
        .
        I wish they’d use the backup feature to spotlight new writers and artists and minor characters in small stories rather than as ads for a new title or story arc.
        .
        Theno

      3. Theno, I think you’re confusing backup stories with previews of other books. Many DC comics in the last few weeks have had a preview of Doom Patrol. This doesn’t affect the price, nor does it affect the length of the main story. The backups are an added feature of around 10 pages that also do not affect the length of the main story, but do add $1 to the price of the comic.

      4. Since I started this, allow me to continue.
        I can see some books with a back up feature and others without.
        Hopefully DC will not only more carefully consider which titles should have back up features (like Action, Adventure, Detective, for example) and which titles should not.
        For example: the latest issue of Green Arrow had a second Oliver Queen/GA story. Instead that space should have gone to Connor Hawke as GA2 or Mia as Speedy.

    2. That “second Oliver Queen/GA” story in “Green Arrow/Black Canary” was there because the story up front focused primarily on Black Canary. Presumably, in an issue where the main story focuses on GA, the second feature will focus on BC.

      When DC first announced the backup-story/co-feature thing, my local comic shop owner said it was explained to him this way by a DC insider: “I can’t get 20 pages a month out of Kevin Maguire. I CAN get EIGHT pages a month out of him.” And that’s what we’re getting in the back of the new Doom Patrol book.

    1. Mostly I’m wondering why people on the Image board are making snide comments about me in relation to it when I haven’t said a dámņëd thing about it.
      .
      PAD

      1. Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Larson is one angry dude as are a lot of his fans.
        My take on the subject is Marvel bought the rights to Marvelman but not the Miracleman stuff, so folks hoping for more of the Eclipse material might be disappointed.

      2. That’s pretty much my read on it, too.
        .
        I’m not sure if I’d characterize Erik as angry. “Defensive,” actually, is the term I’d use.
        .
        PAD

    2. With reference to Pat’s reply (can’t seem to directly reply to it), Neil Gaiman said during a Worldcon item the other day that he thinks the odds of his Miracleman work being reprinted are around “97%” at this point.

  15. I picked up Darkness of the Light the other day and plan to start it this weekend. It will be one of my first fantasy reads. Usually I don’t like fantasy, but am going to try.

    Do you prefer to write sci-fi or fantasy more? Which allows for more creative freedom? I would guess fantasy, because with sci-fi you have to sort of fit into established rules and laws of the universe. For someone who has never experienced fantasy, how would you describe it to them?

  16. 1) Ginger or Mary Ann?
    2) Samantha Stevens or Jeannie?
    3) Anya or Willow?
    4) Buffy or Faith?
    5) Pepsi or Coke?
    6) Swiss or Mozzarella?

    1. 1) Mary Ann
      2) Samantha
      3) Anya.
      4) Faith.
      5) Coke, although mostly I drink water.
      6) Mozz, except if it’s a grilled cheese sandwich; then Swiss.
      .
      PAD

      3. Why Anya and Faith?

        Well, implicit in the questions is “Who do you find more attractive?”
        .
        Visually, I consider Emma Caulfield more alluring than Alyson Hannigan. Which is not a knock on Ms. Hannigan; just personal preference. I’m sure her husband, Wesley, would disagree. From a character point of view–going on the assumption that Anya is not possessed of vengeance demon powers–Anya can do me far less damage, as opposed to Willow who could flay me alive if she happens to be evil that day. Plus I’m not exactly Willow’s type.
        .
        As for Buffy vs. Faith, that’s a no-brainer on two levels. First, Faith is way more smokin’ hot than Buffy. Second, let’s look at how Buffy breaks up with her boyfriends: Her first got impaled and sent to hëll; the second got clubbed into unconsciousness by Cave Buffy (although admittedly he had it coming); the third survived, but only because Buffy emotionally bailed on him and drove him away; the fourth got incinerated and sent to hëll. Granted, the first and fourth returned, but I’m not counting on having that resilience.
        .
        The fifty-fifty odds of being sent to hëll is more than enough for me to roll the dice with Faith.
        .
        PAD

      4. Part of my problem is that I stopped watching Buffy after season 5, so I don’t associate Willow with anything evil. That’s simply a blindspot on my part.
        .
        I’d say that Buffy is much less dangerous than Faith, just as long as killing you isn’t necessary to save the world. Meanwhile, Faith is just crazy. I saw a little bit season 7 and I watched Angel, so I know she got better, but yeesh. She doesn’t have “addicted to magic” fantasy crazy. She has the very believable kind of crazy that guys tell themselves is all better now, then someday she drinks too much and says, “Why you gotta make me hit you?”
        .
        And you say Faith is way more smokin’ hot than Buffy? Geez, my brain just about melted during the first season of Buffy. I even watched a few episodes of “All My Children” before that. Not because I wanted to, I was just channel surfing during college break and I couldn’t flip to the next channel when ever Sarah Michelle Gellar was on the screen.
        .
        PAD, you remind me of a roommate I used to have. He used to have a “sex buddy” who he met at a Ren Fair. Not during the fighting, mind you, they met after the fight when she was working in the medical tent and he was bleeding with a bugged out eye. Apparently the open wounds made him more attractive. After her, when he met the girl that he eventually married, he almost didn’t go out with her because she wasn’t quite crazy enough.

      5. “Anya and Faith?
        .
        Why the preference for getting stabbed in your sleep?”
        .
        Does the phrase ‘what a way to go’ ring a bell?
        .
        As for some answers to what you asked…
        1) Mary Ann
        2) Jeannie
        3) Willow
        4) Faith
        5) Coke all the way
        6) Mozzarella.

    2. Is this open to anyone?

      If so…

      1. Mary Ann. Ginger is technically better looking, but if you are discussing the possiblity of a long term relationship…
      2. Jeaninie. In hindsight, less in-laws.
      3. Willow, character or actress wise.
      4. Buffy. At least you know what side she is on all the time.
      5. Coke, if I could still drink it. All I can have nowadays is the lite/decaff stuff like Diet Sprite.
      6. Either is okay, depending upon the meal. But Cheddar technically is healthier. Less sodium.

    3. 1) Mary Ann. So pretty. Ginger just feels slimey to me.
      .
      2) Very hard one, but I’d have to go with Jeannie. She’s just so happy all the time.
      .
      3) Willow
      .
      4) Buffy
      .
      5) Pepsi, if only because we’re both from North Carolina
      .
      6) Mozzarella

    5. 1) Ginger or Mary Ann?
      Hey you are on a deserted island you’ve got time for both!
      2) Samantha Stevens or Jeannie?
      Jeannie hands down. I might go so far as to argue that she’s the perfect woman. She dresses skimpy, only has eyes for you, will grant you any wish, only wants to obey you and make you you happy and will go into her bottle when you tell her to. But I’m married so I think my wife is perfect, for me anyways if only she could grant wishes.
      3) Anya or Willow? Willow, Alyson Hannigan is so pretty and she has a great sense of humor
      4) Buffy or Faith? Buffy. Faith always seemed like she might kill you after she was done with you.
      5) Pepsi or Coke? Dr. Pepper
      6) Swiss or Mozzarella? Swiss. My favorite sandwich is alpine swiss inside of two slices of virginia baked ham, grilled then put on honey wheat bread with mayonnaise.

  17. Our health care system is the most expensive and has some of the poorest overall results in the industrial world. Now, I understand why politicians who are in the pocket of the Insurers and Pharma want to stop any reform or move to a broader coverage of all the people. But why do so many of the common folk who are on the right want to fight this. They would be helped as much or more than anyone, and it is clear that EVERY other industrial nation does a better job of delivering health care than we do.
    Is this another instance, like Global Climate Change, where they are being naysayers in the face of the facts, just because liberals and progressives support it?

    1. But why do so many of the common folk who are on the right want to fight this.
      .
      They’ve been told that universal health care is socialism, and that Obama is a socialist, and that socialism is an evil plague upon the world. Thus, they should oppose this.
      .
      Never mind that everybody else is doing it better. Never mind that insurance companies are the real plague and that nobody wants to be denied care by their insurance company when its their turn. Never mind that we’re paying out the ášš for a ‘service’ that’s losing quality year by year.

      1. There’s a generational divide on the issue. More younger people support an overhaul than older people. Not coincidentally, younger people have massively less fear of the word ‘socialism’ since they didn’t grow up during the Cold War. They’re more willing to look around and notice that every modern country in the world is a mix of socialism and capitalism, including ours.
        .
        Mainly, the people who dislike universal health care are just getting caught up in supporting their party. One of the unfortunate effects of American politics is that people treat it like sports teams, where they support “their” team no matter what. One party picks one side, then the other party picks the other side just to oppose them, then a certain subset of people in those parties just reflexively react.

      2. I do have to agree with Craig J. Ries as to the BASIC reason(s) why, but there is another factor to consider.
        Does anyone outside of Congress know the specifics of what they are considering?
        I sure don’t.
        What those who need the insurance are most afraid of is that after all the talk, things will either be worse, or not much better than they are now.

      3. Lee, here is a link to the bill.
        .
        http://health.burgess.house.gov/UploadedFiles/AAHCA09_001_xml.pdf
        .
        There is a lot of contract-speak in there. And, most of it involves changes to improve Medicare/Medicaid. At its basic, the citizen will be offered a healthcare plan that they can pay for through their employer, just as the current system.
        .
        This payment will be a “not-tax” that cannot be diverted to, say, schools or roads or police but must be spent on healthcare. Furthermore, the coverage will roll over from year to year.
        .
        Doctors will be given the option to be in or out of the plan. If they are in, they have to agree to the set price for services. Just as the current system with insurance companies.
        .
        An employeer who offers this coverage must offer it to part time employees at a pro-rated rate. So, a part time employee who works 30 hours a week gets a 3/4 coverage as compared to a 40 hour full time employee.
        .
        Those are the major points. Feel free to read through it. FreeRepublic.com has posted some objections to it, but I found most of their “gems” (as they called them) to be deliberately misleading. YMMV.
        .
        Theno

    2. I work in pharmaceuticals and I can tell you that the company I work for would rather see the reform go through, and is supporting it rather than opposing it.
      .
      Millions of dollars per day are sitting uncollected on on pharmaceuticals and medical products sold to hospitals and pharmacies all across the country because the hospitals and pharmacies can’t afford to pay for them.
      .
      This is because insurance companies don’t pay out in a timely manner, or make up reasons not to cover a patient who then can’t suddenly pay $13/pill for their necessasry medication.
      .
      And, this is why people self-medicate to save money. It would be better for us (because we would get paid on time every time) and for the patient for the reform bill to go through.
      .
      But, as has been pointed out, the main reason it is being opposed is because of the media telling the uneducated (and by that I mean people who haven’t read the bill, haven’t researched the state of healthcare beyond their own medicine cabinet, and just listen to what CNN, Fox, or MSNBC tell them) how bad the bill is for the country.
      .
      Also, there is this nice little meme going around the internet pointing out 46 incorrect, misleading, or deliberate opposite “facts” about the health care bill specifically to scare people into opposing it.
      .
      Theno

      1. I would also argue that some of the arguments put forward for the bill have not been conducive to getting my support. I have too many friends and family in the medical field to swallow the president’s line about doctors forcing unnecessary surgery on kids just to make money, for example.
        .
        If the people who are crafting this really believe that the problem is that “The doctor may look at the reimbursement system and say to himself, ‘You know what? I make a lot more money if I take this kid’s tonsils out.’” then I have ZERO confidence in their ability to craft a better solution than the one we have now.
        .
        And, in answer to the question Ed initially posed, one recent new York times poll had 77% of the respondents saying they were “very or somewhat satisfied with the quality of their own care.” Given all the other things that are of greater concern to more people and given realistic doubts that any change instituted by the government will necessarily improve what 3 out of 4 people are already satisfied with, the falling support for the current plan seems not at all surprising.

      2. I agree with Bill in many ways here (wow, back to a political issue on which we agree … this IS a new Golden Age!).
        .
        I’m totally behind what Obama wants to do here, and in many ways I feel as if his proposals don’t go nearly far ENOUGH — I’ve been a proponent of a single-payer system for years now. So far, however, there’s been an awful lot of timidity and not a lot of hard-nosed realistic reasons why the system is currently broken. I thought his riff a few weeks ago about describing a system that was in bad shape and saying “if that sounds appealing to you … that’s the status quo. That’s the default if we do nothing.” More of that would help.
        .
        I definitely agree with Bill that it’s a hard sell because a number of people think their own care is fine at present. I personally have had few health insurance problems so far, and I’m pleased about that — but that doesn’t mean things can’t be improved, and I certainly know people (my dad, for one) who have gone through very difficult insurance scenarios.
        .
        On a related but slightly different note, I’m very worried about the thuggish behavior going on at all the town halls at present. One, it’s not good for the body politic; and two, I see a lot of signs that this tactic is going to lead to some violence before it fizzles out.
        .
        My two cents, anyway.
        .
        TWL

      3. “…77% of the respondents saying they were “very or somewhat satisfied with the quality of their own care.”
        .
        The idea is not to change the care that the majority is getting, but to get coverage for the 15% who have no care at all, and to drive the costs down for the 85%.
        .
        Yes, the uninsured can go to an emergency room, but emergency care does not equal health care.

      4. But you have to convince the 77% that things will get better or at least not get worse and expecting people to trust congressional competency may be asking more than many are willing to give.
        .
        Since many think they are being lied to when politicians offer sunny predictions of more care for more people for less money, perhaps they need to show, in black and white, some very nice detailed explanations for how this will be achieved. Otherwise, people will assume they are being played for chumps and act accordingly.
        .
        Similarly, the minimum that should be expected is that all bills will be small enough that even a congressman can be expected to read them and no bill should be voted on until read, unless it involves an asteroid crashing into the earth next Tuesday or other similar strapped for time circumstance.
        .
        Tim, I agree that things are getting way too hot–looks like one protester already got clocked yesterday at a rally by some union guys (though the story is recent and, as such, subject to change). Perhaps then, the administration could have chosen his words a bit more carefully: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/25891.html White House to Democrats: ‘Punch back twice as hard’

      6. Well, yes but the administration spokesmen represent the President of the United States while Scott Oskay is a Guy on Twitter.sort of comparing apples and protozoa here. I could site left wing blogger “Zandar” who ups the ante to an actual deceleration of “war” but really, we should let Zandar and Oskay duke it out over by the teeter totter while the grownups have a discussion.
        .
        But both sides need to ratchet down the rhetoric. No more lock and loads or swastikas with lines through them from the protesters (the fact that the left has been doing the conservative=nazi things for the last few years doesn’t make it right, smart or effective for the other side to do it now) and maybe in return we can stop having Senator Blanche Lincoln call the prosterers “un-american” (she later apologized), or Brian Baird calling them brownshirts or Washington Post columnists declaring opponents of the health care bill “political terrorists”

      7. Given all the other things that are of greater concern to more people and given realistic doubts that any change instituted by the government will necessarily improve what 3 out of 4 people are already satisfied with, the falling support for the current plan seems not at all surprising.

        That’s a bit like calling it “unsurprising” that someone is more worried about an untied shoelace than he is about the bus he stepped in front of. I’d call it “distressingly shortsighted,” myself.

        Whenever I hear about the overwhelming majority of people who think we have high-quality medical care in this country, I find myself rolling my eyes. Unless the people polled have experienced medical care both in the U.S. and elsewhere, they have no basis for judging how much better or worse their care could be. Based on objective measures, such as cost versus outcomes, our health care sucks. We pay more and get less than those who live in developed nations with socialized medicine.

        I have good medical insurance and at the moment I have access to all of the health care I need at relatively affordable rates. Nevertheless, if I lose my job I could lose access to that health care. If I have a catastrophic health event, I could be forced into bankruptcy. If I lose my insurance for a period of time, I may not be able to get it back because of pre-existing conditions.

        Moreover, healthcare costs have been rising far faster than the rate of inflation for a long time. I don’t have the exact figures in front of me but I do know that an alarming percentage of our economy is consumed by medical costs.

        Opponents of socialized medicine have yet to put forth a cogent argument that explains how our private payer system is superior when objective facts show the opposite. Some people (including my good friend Bill Mulligan) like to trot out some variant of the tired old line that “government can’t do anything right,” yet even Bill Kristol was forced to admit on “The Daily Show” that the Walter Reed mess aside, the Veterans Administration does a dámņ good job of caring for veterans.

        I think the opposition to health care reform can be boiled down to one simple truth: like Wayne and Garth, “We fear change.” We’ve had structural imbalances in our economy for decades but we had to come to the precipice of another Great Depression before anyone was willing to consider a return to sanity. In much the same way, I fear we won’t see health care reform until the system breaks down completely. Which it will unless we change something.

    3. I don’t support this health care bill for a few reasons.
      1) It is to big of a bill and really isn’t being read through completely by everyone that supports it
      2) It is being pushed through to quickly. Our government is supposed to be slow on the legislative side that’s the way it was designed.
      3) This is the big one: I don’t trust this government to plan or implement this health care system. Notice please I did not say this administration. I meant the government over all.
      The only socialized health care system I know that works excellent is the german health care system. I’ve done some traveling and I have to say their health care is top notch. If some smart politician revised the bill so that it copied theirs as closely as it could I’d 99% behind it.
      I definitely think that our current system is not the best. My wife is a diabetic and can not get any insurance company to insure her. That is not right she needs insurance more than most.
      The main problem is that a socialized system would not work in this country at the present. The current structures of government would muddle the directions and processes until it would be a nightmare to go get a flue shot.
      Why don’t we copy a system that works?

      1. 1) It has to be a big bill because it is doing a lot of stuff. If it didn’t cover every loophole that the insurance companies could think of, then many of the things in it would just fade away as insurance companies found work around. Large amounts of detail should not be scary, sometimes big things need large documents to describe them. People say that 1200 pages is a lot, but I’ve worked on video games that had that much documentation and this is a little more important.
        .
        2) It’s really not going through too quickly. The longer a bill takes, the more likely it is to die for no good reason. If there’s a specific problem that’s being glossed over, that’s one thing, but I don’t think that several months of work is too quick as a general rule.
        .
        3) Doing it all in one step is impossible. As much trouble as this bill is having, a total overhaul would be impossible. It’s like saying that since a baby is having trouble learning to crawl, we should skip ahead to teaching him how to fly a fighter jet.
        .
        I’d rather skip ahead to a fully socialized insurance system too, but that’s not a possibility any time in the foreseeable future. Doing it one step at a time is possible and would be an improvement over the current system, even if it is not as much an improvement as you or I would like.

  18. What does everyone think about Gold Key Characters coming to Darkhorse? I’m personally a fan of Turok.

    1. I’m interested in seeing what Jim Shooter’s new take on the Gold Key characters will be, all of these years after Valiant. I’d like to see a Turok (for example) that hews closer to the original incarnation, without the s.f. elements that were later added.

      Now, a topic of my own: Should DC send Marvel a cease-and-desist order over Marvel’s plans to reprint/revive MARVELMAN–a blatant rip-off of DC’s SHAZAM/CAPTAIN MARVEL (formerly published by Fawcett)? My own feeling is that DC certainly has a vested interest in protecting its copyright (especially in light of Marvel’s acquisition of the trademark on the name “Captain Marvel.”

      1. I liked the valiant version of turok as well as the original version, which I’m happy to see that they are reprinting the Gold Key characters in archive books.

      2. If you don’t protect your copyright you lose it. How could DC suddenly fight against Marvelman now when (as far as I know) they had no objections before?

    2. The original Turok, Son of Stone was fun (not the remake), and I enjoyed Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom (though even as a kid I knew he was sort of silly). Most of all, I loved Magnus, Robot Fighter and the back-up story The Aliens (and was annoyed at how the l;atter ended with an unresolved cliffhanger.) The Valiant follow-on had its moments, though I lost interest as they screwed around with the characters to the point where they were almost unrecognizable.

  19. Since my favorite topic, sex and superheroes, would get a bit too raunchy here (though I did like in PAD’s new book he included his response to the last time I brought this up, something about how male charaters who can stretch or enlarge always seem to get married fastest), here’s another topic: What impact do you see the “Hollywoodization” of comic books and characters having on comic books? Is this more positive, as comic book movies are taken more seriously and characters are reaching a broader audience? Is it more negative, as comic books may be treated as little more than the first part of the eventual movie deal? Or is the effect somewhere in the middle of these?

  20. Would the world be a better place if you could just go up and talk to anyone?
    There’s an awful lot of loneliness in the “civilised” cultures where you can’t even open your mouth to a person
    you’re on a train with, or even work with, without it having to be work or train related.
    (And you can’t switch them, people in work just don’t like talking about trains).

    I keep hearing from the older generation (grandpa simpson types) that things were better before there were loads of channels on tv.
    Here in Ireland if you avoid what you call “cable” you will have……….THREE channels, but theres not many who do.
    So before people used to go to each others houses and talk, tell stories, share experiences and create new ones, and drink the odd time.

    Now we have people who don’t have time for that but have hours to spend in front of the computer and tv.
    (Or as The Onion called it: work and entertainment rectangles).

    Just wondering if you could talk to your neighbours for hours(and no not on the internet, in person), if you could talk to anyone at anytime with the expection that
    they would listen,

    Would things be better?
    Would you be happier?

    1. Depends. Are we talking about a world that’s exactly like ours, the only difference being that everyone likes talking to everyone else? Or is it also a world in which everyone is way more intelligent and interesting than they are in this world? Because the first one sounds like a nightmare. I could talk to my neighbors for hours, if I really wanted to. But I really don’t. None of them seem remotely interesting enough.

    2. Like Robert said, it would depend on the neighbors. If I could live next to the people I talk to online, then I’d go over and talk, share a beer, play board games (instead of WoW), etc.
      .
      But, I’ve met my neighbors and none of them are into anything that I’m into. The only point of reference we have to talk about is the neighborhood, and that leads to your work / train comment. Talking about unintestering things is unintestering.
      .
      I do wish that we could talk to random people, though. Why can’t we strike up a conversation while standing in queue, sitting at McDonald’s, etc. without people looking at us like we’re social freaks?
      .
      I remember when I was a kid, if all the tables in a place were taken, we would ask to share a table with someone else. At the deli at lunch yesterday there were just as many empty chairs as occupied ones, but the place was “full.” The people I was with didn’t want to eat there because sharing a table was “creepy.”
      .
      That we can’t just walk up to someone and introduce ourselves without coming across as creepy sometimes makes me sad.
      .
      Theno

      1. That reminds me, ever go to a cafe for lunch where there is only one table for 4-6 seats, and one person is using it. And your party of 4-6 have to move tables together cause this person wanted a huge tables to themselves, annoying.

        But it is interesting that people will willingly talk to strangers online because they were “digitally” next to them, but not to people in a physical proximity.

        Although, people aren’t smelly online, there is also that to consider.

    3. .
      The problem with talking to people is that so many of them are needy.
      .
      Where I used to live (for 7 years), I only spoke to one of my 2 neighbors. I have no need to bother them, especially since I have little in common with them. They were both retirees.
      .
      I went to a social function a few weeks ago where there were 10-12 people I knew and about 40 I didn’t. And most of the people there got drunk and/or smoked heavily. What a crappy night. I went to a different social function last Saturday, where I knew almost everyone, nobody got drunk, and all the smokers took it outside. A great night.
      .
      I rely on the silence of strangers.

      1. Well thats true, and the down side is you would have to put up with alot of boring stuff.

        But do you know where most ghost stories come from? People who heard a story and repeated it again and again, different versions like the echos of echos, when werewolves first came out their weakness was somewhere between a silver bullet and a full days work. All before the internet or the telephone, sure you had to put up with the “daily cabbage” newsletter in verbal form, but you also got multiple situations from multiple points of view.

        And the local scandal was so think you could write your name in it, but you wouldn’t want to.

        Sure most people are boring, but the suicide rate would be way down if people were obliged to actually listen to you.

    4. One major pitfall in the idea of “just going up and talking to anyone” is that you could end up trapped in a conversation with someone who’s taking a position you find repellent. Hëll, it happens to me fairly frequently, generally with people who assume one of the following:
      a) I’m at a car show, therefore I must be a gun-lovin’, Bible-thumpin’, Obama-hatin’, close-the-borders Republican conservative.
      b) I’m white, therefore I automatically agree with whatever racist comment they just made (“Well, you know what THEY’RE like.”).

      In actuality, I do have a tendency to chat up people I work with, or am on a train with, or in a long line with or whatever. However, I’m also guilty of not talking to my neighbors enough–to such an extent that I only know three of my neighbors’ last names and can’t recall a couple of their wives’ first names. And that’s after living there for twelve years. Even though I take forever to learn people’s names, that’s just ridiculous.

      1. I find that it depends a lot on the situation. I’d be a little leery of starting up a conversation with random person in a diner, as someone mentioned here — not so much because I think it’s creepy as because I don’t feel I’m especially good in those situations. When my daughter’s playing at “My Gym” and there are other kids doing the same, though, I’ve no difficulty striking up a conversation with some other parent there.
        .
        In terms of neighbors, I’ve chatted a bit with our most immediate neighbors, again because there are kids of an age within a year or so of hers. Beyond that, not really.

    5. I find I don’t want to talk to most people and I don’t want them to talk to me. It’s because over the years I’ve grown to distrust people in general. I think most people have started to feel this way when you think about it. They fear negative comments, aggression, violence or lawsuits.
      I think about my dad though, who was a character, he would start talking to anyone just making funny comments not afraid to share his thoughts. He always told me the secret to talking to people was to open up your mouth and speak. So there you have it follow my dad’s advice. I’ve never met a man with more common sense then him.

  21. What is bugging me in the sci fi world is the reduced publishing schedule of Star Trek books. When they do publish what the put out are 3 book cross series things. For thirty years the bread and butter of Trek novels were the single book = single episode formula. about 15 years ago they started with the multi book series (usually with the final chapter in hard back at 3x the price) and Trek’s presence in my local bookstore started to shrink.

    Where Trek used to be an entire case, it is relegated to one shelf above the Star Wars novels that are spreading like mold…

    I mean realy it was three years between stand alone voyager novels, and 18 months between the last two Titan books…

    And here is a whacky idea, how about some boks in the alternate time line of the new movie?

    1. John, I believe I read that there won’t be any novels based on the new movie’s universe for quite some time. I’d guess that they want to establish that universe before they let others play.

      1. Alan, Pocket Books announced plans at Shore Leave last month for I think 3 novels set around the new film.
        .
        As for Trek’s publishing schedule, they’ve done some different things, certainly. They were publishing 2 MMPBs a month for several years, then cut back in favor of quality over quantity. During the 2/month time, they started doing those duologies, and the editors admitted that they sold better than single novels.
        .
        The only examples I can recall of “last chapter in hardcover” was the weird-ášš decision to make the Gateways short stories into a hardcover, and I was rather vocal about how terrible an idea that was. And then iirc the first of PAD’s New Frontier novels that made it into hardcover was the final book of a trilogy.

    2. I know what you mean John.
      They FINALLY came out with a new Deep Space 9 book, but you have to be up on continuity from the past few volumes (and thankfully I am) to fully get what’s going on.

      1. Oh man, that reminds me that I’m behind a couple of books on DS9. I’m kinda of torn when it comes to how there doing those books. On the one hand, I love the universe they’ve set up (having Ro Laren as a main character thrills me). But if a book comes out where the main plot holds little interest to me I find that I can’t skip it without being very lost when I try to pick up the next book.

  22. I’m sort of curious how some of the die-hard comic fans feel about the price increase on books: do you guys cut back on the number of titles you buy, give up something else to pay for them or just bite the bullet and buy them anyway. As somebody who used to save his allowance when comics were just 12 cents, I find it increasingly difficult to justify the purchase when I can buy an actual novel for the price of two comics or a DVD for the price of three. Mind you, there are a few books I would buy regardless of the price, but I’m less interested in trying something new (the last new book I bought was The Unwritten and that was heavily discounted) and any marginal titles are quickly dropped.

    I’ve also been quite spoiled in recent months by my local Barnes & Noble, which has a huge used book department that includes a large graphic novel section. It’s quite nice to pick up a book that I may have missed the first time, especially since I’m now buying it in its entirety and at 50% of the original price.

    And on a completely unrelated note, but since I’m having a crappy morning, has anybody noticed that TV Guide now seems to be publishing each issue as a so-called ‘double issue?’ for four bucks when in fact each issue is scarcely bigger than a single issue used to be. I suppose I’m going to sound a bit like Frank Costanza here, but I really miss the old digest-sized edition that was often picked with stuff. I understand that most publishers have fallen on hard times (hey, you’re talking to a journalist who is still owed thousands of dollars by Starlog when they folded their print version in favor of an uninspired website) but the newer, bigger version of TV Guide is rubbish.

    Hey, you wanted this to be about us, right?

    1. I may not be typical, but if it’s a book I enjoy, the price isn’t much of a factor. If it’s THE NEW THING ON THE BLOCK then I might pass especially if it’s clear the book is lip sync-ing.

      I miss Starlog. I still have somewhere the issue where they talk Revenge of the Jedi.

      1. Honestly, I looked at my large list of books, because I’ll dámņ near read anything, and really decided which books I must absolutely have because I love the characters and/or I loved the writing. So I in the end nearly cut my list in half. And I find myself droppig more books as soon as there is a shift in the creative staff as well.

        Some have argued that buying the trade equates to buying the issues and that’s true to a certain extent, but what isn’t included is the possibility that the individual issues will go up in value and you can buy trades and reasonable discount at Amazon or B&N. Trades use to be more precious when they were barely published becuase if you wanted to read back issues you either had to dish out the cash for the originals, but a pricey masterworks book, or buy marvel tales or x-men classic.

    2. I liked TV Guide a lot better when it was more useful as a GUIDE to what was on TV. Those double issues are dámņ near useless for the second week of listings because of publishing lead times–you don’t get any synopses and sometimes entire nights are flat-out wrong for some channels (how many months did it take for TVG to acknowledge that Cartoon Network was no longer airing ONE PIECE on Saturday nights?). I also liked being able to find out what was on during the DAY, y’know?

  23. Peter, What did you think of Amazing Spider-Man #600? Specifically,what did you think about the segment with Daredevil and Spidey discussing on whether or not they should both know each other’s secret id’s?

    Also, did you read Archie #600? what do you think of Archie marrying Veronica?

  24. Dear Peter David,

    I want to know, what you think about the Red Hulk Storyline from Jeph Loeb. I love your Hulk run, because it is innovatice, cool, funny, exciting… there are so much more words to describe your run… a very good piece of work. At this time, I search for all your Hulk back Issues, because I´m not able anymore to wait for the Trades.

    I love, what you did with the Rick Jones Character. Marlo Chandler is also very cool. They made a very good evolution in your Hulk Series, and later in Captain Marvel. You made Bruce Banner a very intricate person. The death of Betty has been very shocking and sad, but it was well written….

    Here is my question: are you shocked how Jeph Loeb rapes all the things and storys you made for the Hulk Series? It´s my opinion, that he disagrees in his storys with the things you wrote. May it be, that you in some months or years come back to the Hulk series and be my saviour?

    Thanks for your answers…

    Dear

    Sammy

  25. I want to say that Terminator the Sarah Connor Chronicles was the best show on TV and now I can never settle for mediocre TV again. So, now I’m attending online viewing parties to watch the reruns and reading ‘shippy’ fanfic, also online, for my Sarah Connor fix. If my eyes were better I’d probably read more books, too.

    1. Don’t know if Terminator was the best on TV, but it deserved a chance to wrap things up at the very least. I’m having a hard thing wanting to watch TV if everything I want to watch will get dumped with no resolution.

  26. There have been many a tribute to John Hughes, however many Asian Americans who feel that he contributed to the stereotypical depiction of Asian Americans. I wonder what all of you think of Long Duk Dong and the trauma it has caused for the Asian American community?

    Below are opinions on the character.

    http://www.angryasianman.com/2009/08/director-john-hughes-dies.html

    This is a hilarious strip by Adrian Tomine regarding the impact the character had on his childhood.

    http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2008/mar/in_character/donger_1.html

    This is NPR article on the character and the actor Gedde Watanabe also puts in his two cents.

    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88591800

    And this is a funny anecdote where a discussion critiquing John Hughes including Long Duk Dong becomes a very embarrassing situation.

    http://gawker.com/5332399/how-insulting-john-hughes-and-maybe-his-family-made-me-a-writer

  28. Has anyone purchased the “Tales of the Black Freighter” DVD on Blu-Ray? I bought it from Amazon when Watchmen came out a couple of weeks ago but I think there is something wrong with it. When I play the DVD, doesn’t display a menu of options. It just starts playing the Black Freighter. If I push the menu button on the remote I get all of the options except for “Under the Hood”. “Under the Hood” does not appear as an option until Tales of the Black Freighter is finished.

    Is this the way the disc is structured? I don’t know anyone who has the Blu-Ray DVD so I don’t know if mine is screwed up.

    Thanks for any info and sorry to use PADs site for such a blatantly shallow question.

    2. I can’t answer your question directly, George, but I’m told that the special edition Watchmen DVD has Black Freighter integrated into the film proper. Sounds interesting from where I sit; now I just need to find time/money to go get the thing…
      .
      TWL

      1. I thought it did too but I watched the 3 hr director’s cut and there was no “Tales of the Black Freighter” or “Under the Hood” in there at all. I’m gonna hold out until there’s, like, a 4 hour version of Watchmen that has the whole she-bang in there. Maybe at X-Mas.

      2. Thrre is a later (Ulitmate?) edition of WATCHMEN coming out in (last I’d heard) October that will cut “Tales of the Black Freighter” into the film.

  29. Okay, here’s what’s bugging me.
    .
    Rascism disguised as ‘Obama is a Socialist’.
    .
    Rascism disguised as ‘Obama wants to run your medical life’.
    .
    Rascism by the Republican party, which is pretty much all they stand for these days.
    .
    Ever since the election, many Republicans are acting like whiny little babies. Those who used to discuss things intelligently now have a massive chip on their shoulder. And I suspect the chip’s name is rascism. These are the same people who said for 8 years that elections have consequences, and now that a Democrat has won, want to deny that it is so. The majority of the people wants change, but the Republican minority just votes no.
    .
    There are many other things that bug me, but this is a good start.

    1. I would rate thinking that not going for the current plan for health care reform as prima facie evidence of “racism” is far more whiny than anything else but our mileage obviously varies. Ditto any mocking of the president–after 8 years of bush as vampire/serial killer/nazi/red lectoid from planet 10 it’s pretty hard to get too weepy when a liberal gets his knickers in a knot over a poster of Obama as the Joker. Dissent is the highest form of patriotism and all that…
      .
      I would note that Obama himself has not been active in these “That’s racist, you’re a racist!” complaints because A-he probably does not believe that and B- he knows that it will almost surely backfire. His recent foray into racial politics didn’t do much for his approval ratings and I suspect he’ll declare war of Vietnam before he carelessly ventures into those waters again.
      .
      Indeed, at this point, throwing out the racist card is clearly doing more harm than good for the liberal/progressive/democrats side. Conservatives have been tagged as racists by some liberals for so long it has ceased to have much sting. So now we see collateral damage, as people who are 100% not racist like PAD and Harlan Ellison are getting tagged on the interwebs by people with 1/10 their talent. Why? Well, as I said, calling a conservative a racist has become so offhand as to be practically redundant. It has no sting because it has no bite and how can you show your ferocity and anti-racist bona fides without teeth? So they go after other good people who can’t just reply with the truth, that the accusation is based on nothing more than partisan politics.
      .
      Liberals should be more on guard against this sort of disgraceful slander because they are more vulnerable to it. You hear someone say that about a republican politician and you, if you’re honest, might have to consider the possibility that the accuser is just employing the simple arithmetic of republican=conservative=racist. You hear that accusation flung at someone who has always seemed liberal in their politics and you may well be more likely to think that there must be something to it.
      .
      Given the fact that some of the crazies seem to be sniffing around this board looking for something to cause outrage I can well imagine that PAD might prefer we keep this discussion off the board. My email is kaiju@aol.com

      1. For the most part I agree here — with the exception of many of the “birthers” on the fringe, many of whom I think are just trying to find a slightly more socially appropriate way to think that it’s incorrect to have a black man as president.
        .
        The “Obama-as-Joker” poster isn’t racist — just painfully unfunny. I agree that Obama’s doing a fairly good job of staying out of this, and I also think that he seems pretty comfortable in his own skin, even being poked fun at — half the fun of watching John Hodgman’s “nerds vs. jocks” speech a couple of months back was seeing how Obama totally played along.
        .
        TWL

      2. For the most part I agree here — with the exception of many of the “birthers” on the fringe, many of whom I think are just trying to find a slightly more socially appropriate way to think that it’s incorrect to have a black man as president.
        .

        There are many who agree with you, but I dunno: I have this gut feeling that if it were a white Democrat in office, there would be conspiracy theorists trying to find loopholes to impeach him or get him out of office.
        .
        Is it racism? Or is it just flat-out stupidity? I mean, I was listening to Air America the other day and this very topic was brought up. Randy Rhodes, I think her name is, was discussing it. And this guy called in and started going on and on about Obama’s birth certificate. And she said, “Look: Is Obama’s mother a US citizen?” “So far as we know,” he said. “Then it’s moot, because since his mother is a US citizen, then so is he.” And the caller says, “That’s not true.” “Yes, it is!” she says. He tells her condescendingly, “Randy, you’ve obviously been misinformed. It doesn’t matter if his mother’s a citizen if he wasn’t born in the United States.” She practically howled, “Hawaii is part of the United States!” “No, it’s not.”
        .
        I swear, it was like listening to a Monty Python sketch.
        .
        PAD

      3. I’m not even sure that all of the birthers are motivated by racism so much as the pure paranoia conspiracy stupidity that all recent presidents and candidates have had to deal with.
        .
        Bill Clinton had those who tried to prove he ran cocaine with his brother from some airport. A distressing number of Democrats voiced support for the idea that the twin towers were deliberately demolished and the pentagon was hit by a missile (I assume that the true believers of this must now add Obama to their demonology list, since he is the one now keeping The Truth from coming out). Sarah Palin believed that dinosaurs were Jesus-Lizards and pretended to give birth to her own grandson.
        .
        I think the “secretly a Muslim” thing was way more likely to be motivated by racism–after all, even if Obama were born in wherever they think he was, it’s not exactly his fault.
        .
        (I don’t know if anyone else has proposed this but here’s my take–I doubt that many of the “birthers” are really at all concerned about where he was born–they want to see the original birth certificate for other reasons. Could there be something potentially embarrassing on it–a different guy listed as his father, maybe his name was actually given as “Barry” and he changed it to Barak to become more authentic, a “Jerry rivers/Geraldo rivera” thing? It’s a fishing expedition, nothing more.)

      5. No argument with you there, using Trig to ague against the health care plan in that way is a low blow. She should be ashamed.

      6. Yeah, that’s some rational debate there, you betcha.
        .
        This woman is quickly becoming a plague to sanity. What a complete fûçkìņg joke it is for her to describe Obama’s plan this way when insurance companies do the REAL “death panel” act to people EVERY DAY in this country.
        .
        Caribou Barbie wants to see a real death panel? Wait until her insurance company turns her down for something. Then maybe she’ll have a clue as to what the fûçk she’s talking about.

      7. Peter, it’s Randi Rhodes. And I haven’t heard her show in ages. Miss her unique sarcasm.

      8. Bill,
        .
        It just so happens this was covered a bit on Countdown tonight. The speaker was Melissa Harris-Lacewell, a professor at Princeton. She mentioned The Authoritarian Dynamic, by Karen Stenner. Stenner writes: “The Authoritarian Dynamic (2005) is the first of two books that explore racial, moral and social intolerance.”
        .
        http://www.karenstenner.com/tad.php
        .
        Authoritarianism defined as “…a general predisposition to intolerance of difference.” In essence, people can become riled by change to become Authoritarian and Intolerant.
        .
        Also mentioned was Conservatives Without Conscience, by John Dean.
        .
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatives_without_Conscience
        .
        It was further stated on Countdown that this is being deliberately stoked by the right.
        .
        So I stand by my statement that it is racism, but it is also more: fear of change. These people are afraid of life. Change is constantly surrounding us, and there is no way to stop change, and there is also no way to stop people from trying to stop change.

      9. I’m sorry, Alan, but none of that seems to me to in any way validate the idea that opposition to Obama’s health care initiative is in any way grounded in racism. People opposed Clinton’s attempts as well and a whiter guy never lived, despite bizarre attempts to claim him as “the first black president” (though you sure don’t here that claim much any more).
        .
        I’m sure the dissent=racism trope will be a big theme on Olberman but that will not make it true. And it’s repetition will only hurt Obama, which is probably not a major concern to Olberman–like Limbaugh, he probably does best when he can stoke feelings of anger and helplessness in his followers, a challenge when your party has a both houses, the presidency and a veto proof majority. Cue the vast racist conspiracy.

      10. I think the “secretly a Muslim” thing was way more likely to be motivated by racism–after all, even if Obama were born in wherever they think he was, it’s not exactly his fault.
        .
        I’m not sure if saying that Obama is secretly a Muslim is necessarily racism.
        .
        However, I am certain that implying that if someone is Muslim, therefore he is automatically a threat to this country, sure as hëll IS racism.
        .
        PAD

      11. Bill, you said:
        .
        “I’m sorry, Alan, but none of that seems to me to in any way validate the idea that opposition to Obama’s health care initiative is in any way grounded in racism.”
        .
        And my argument is that the major thrust of the anti-Obama forces is racism, not just the health care initiative. You have avoided the direct discussion of racism and how the information I provided may tend to explain it. But that’s okay.
        .
        And, separately, I must apologize to our host and to everyone else here for my misspelling of racism in my initial post. I don’t know how I made that mistake, and I don’t know how I let it slip past the spellchecker.

      12. I’m not sure if saying that Obama is secretly a Muslim is necessarily racism.
        .
        However, I am certain that implying that if someone is Muslim, therefore he is automatically a threat to this country, sure as hëll IS racism.
        .
        It’s not the Muslim part that is a slur, it’s the secretly. At the very least it would mean that Obama is a coward but given his longtime association with Christian churches and repeated use of same in his biography and speeches, it would mean that he is some kind of Muslim Manchurian candidate. Considering how McCain also had some lunatic fringe claiming he was also a Manchurian candidate (those Manchurians really know how to cover their bets!) it’s amazing how many people are willing to believe in the plot of that movie. But I go about planning for the living dead to rise and feast on the living and I’m some sort of weirdo.

    2. Here’s the thing, though, Alan: The GOP’s default treatment of Democrats is to find new and different ways to tear them down, but declaring that not wanting to support a GOP president is de facto unpatriotic. It’s not like they treated John Kerry like a prince but took off the gloves when Obama showed up. It’s easy to say that they’re behaving like racists, but maybe they’re just behaving like SOP jerks.
      .
      PAD

      1. Can’t it be both?
        .
        I think a lot of the birther nonsense is typical conspiracy theory madness, but there are also some racist people adding to it. The people who started the “secret Muslim” stuff are still around and definitely part of the birther movement.
        .
        So while I don’t think racism is the primary cause (some people just love conspiracies), or even the secondary cause (that would overeagerness to attack a president from the opposing party), I do think racism is fanning the flames among some of the birthers.
        .
        Unfortunately, I also think the media is throwing on some gasoline. 24 hour news networks weren’t the monster they are now when Clinton was in office. If they had been, the whole “We have a list of thousands of people the Clintons killed” nonsense probably would have blown up much bigger than it did. Those 24 hour networks are so desperate to fill time that they’ll fill any gap between stories with nonsense like this.

      2. The whole birthers nonsense is basically just sore losers trying find a loophole that doesn’t exist. The simple truth is at this point it doesn’t matter. Obama was sworn in. He is the president. I try to tell my mom this every now and then. She’s bought into the whole birther conspiracy. However no one has pointed out that the rules of citizenship aren’t as defined as they should be: remember how McCain’s citizenship was challenged.

        It’s interesting that people keep referring to the dissenters at these Town Hall debates as thugs. All I’ve seen is people who are upset and not having their questions answered. Maybe there are video’s out there that I haven’t seen. But it’s a natural thing that when people feel they aren’t being listened to that they get angry and raise their voices. I hope no violence comes from it but considering how few people seem to have manners these days the chances are high that some violence will happen.

        I think that “racism” is the token argument used for if a white person doesn’t agree. I believe most people that use this argument have never faced a true racist. The difference between a true racist and someone with prejudice is quite substantial. Also the term reverse racism is idiotic.

        Bill Mulligan that was a great response.

      3. Kevin, there’s nothing natural about the people screaming at the town hall meetings. These are coordinated, preplanned disturbances. There’s a website giving out instructions for what to say, where to sit so that they look like they’re a bigger majority than they are, and everything else that they’re doing. They have been specifically told to shout down anyone who disagrees with them and not let the Congressmen answer any questions.
        .
        The reason people are calling them thugs is that in a few cases, there has even been violence. There have been injuries and arrests.
        .
        This is not in any way a natural response to people not being listened to. This is a coordinated effort to “shut down” (their words) the debate in a loud, offensive way.

      4. Oh, that’s definitely their way, Peter. I think it’s gotten noticeably worse since 1992, though. I was younger and, perhaps, less observant, during the Carter administration, but I don’t recall a concerted effort to drive him from office before his term was over, and there was a definite “Let’s get rid of this guy by any means necessary” vibe from the other side that started about five seconds after Clinton secured the required number of electoral votes and ran right up until Bush 43 was inaugurated.
        Then things were relatively quiet (except for the whole Florida controversy) until 9/11, at which point any criticism of Bush or anything he did could be counted on to earn a reply from the right suggesting that the critic hated America and should be either deported or tried for treason and maybe we should look into that whole “Bill of Rights” thing. This continued for eight years.
        And then a Democrat was elected President, and now suddenly the right has decided that nothing is more American than dissenting speech.
        It’s exhausting, really.

    4. An email sent out by someone who is participating in the disruption of town hall meetings:

      “You socialist f—s have the nerve to say stop the violence at the town hall meetings when they weren’t violent until you p—ies showed up because your n—– leader obama said to?????? When we have ours in Racine, Wi, I want you there. I want one of your little b—– to put his hands on this Marine. I want one of you to look or talk to me wrong. I’ll be the last thing your ignorant faux body guards will remember for a very long time. You can f—ing guarantee that.”

      http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/08/unions-receive-increasing_n_254704.html

      1. Alan, just because some people who are calling Obama “socialist” are also racist doesn’t mean that’s true of *everyone* who thinks Obama is a socialist. In fact, by generalizing the way you are you’re engaging in the same kind of illogical thought process that racists do.

      2. Bill, I agree with you on the generalizing, but I’m seriously starting to wonder if what’s on display here IS the norm. It’s very possible that the GOP has lost control of the fringe elements after spending all that time nurturing them through the election last year. And now those elements are becoming mainstream thought. Ugly, disgusting, wave the 2nd Amendment in your face thought.
        .
        The same stuff gets dragged out every time Sotomayor is mentioned, as far too many are also more than willing to claim that since she’s of Puerto Rican descent, she’s going to hand the country over to Latin American countries. Or turn us into a third world country. Not to mention, she’s a woman, which brings out another group of nuts.
        .
        It’s just plain fûçkìņg absurd right now.

      3. And my argument is that the major thrust of the anti-Obama forces is racism, not just the health care initiative. You have avoided the direct discussion of racism and how the information I provided may tend to explain it. But that’s okay.
        .
        I haven’t seen any actual “argument” in the sense of logical evidence, to support the idea that the major thrust of anti-Obama forces–whatever that means–is racism. What seems clear is that any criticism of Obama, even if it does not reach the hysterical level of the most extreme anti-Bush criticism, will be attacked as racist in nature by some of his “supporters” (in quotes because I think they are doing Obama far more harm then good, whatever their intentions).
        .
        I can see why they do so, racism is a poisonous accusation to have to defend against and if people fear being tagged with it they will be more likely to shut up and keep their dámņ dissenting opinions to themselves…but like all such weapons it must be used judiciously, lest it lose its ability to work. And I think we are already seeing that. Frankly, I’m hearing people laugh at the racist charge more than feel the need to deny it. It’s becoming a cliche and the day may come when someone accusing someone else of being a racist based on simple difference of political policies will have all the potency of that cranky old guy who calls everyone he dislikes “A pinko commie!”
        .
        So far most of the violence at the town halls seems to be against the protesters. Some union guy slugged a protester and when he was accused of having attacked him his reply was “he attacked America!” (this is on tape). That’s what happens when people are told to “punch back twice as hard” against “terrorists”. And it will only encourage more people to come out. There was a protest a few days ago in town, I drove by in case there might be some hot protester on protester action I could post on Youtube and become famous for. No such luck. But I’ll say this–if you think all these people are phony protesters, trust me, they aren’t. I saw some folks there I never would have expected to see at something like this.
        .
        Similarly, a friend of mine, an anarchist in nature, went to a roadside protest when Obama came to Raleigh. he and his girls were given signs to hold, professionally printed, to flash at the president as he drove by, signs of support for his initiative. Opposing them were a much larger group of people with hand written signs and posters, opposing it. he took photos and had a good laugh at how silly they looked compared to his side, with their great signs and matching t-shirts. And I’m thinking, maybe I’m reading this all wrong but shouldn’t you be terrified by that comparison? Those folks went through a hëll of a lot more work than just showing up and holding a preprinted sign. It’s the difference between getting a form letter and getting a handwritten note. And like it or not, their vote counts just as much as yours, assuming you both show up, which is a function of how deeply the feelings go. Right now, it looks like a lot of the people who worked so hard to get Obama elected are willing to sit back and relax now that he is. His opponents are not willing to do the same and if you want to chalk that up to racism, well…it comes off as a sign of weakness and lack of confidence in the strength of one’s position on the issues.

      4. And yes, my anarchist friend who is demonstrating in favor of a trillion dollar government program may well qualify for the coveted Worst Anarchist of the Year Award.
        .
        But That’s the namby pamby world we live in. back in the 60s people were rioting and burning down ROTC buildings in the name of peace and we remember them as brave fighters against the establishment. Today, Gramps raises his voice against his senator at a townhall meeting and we worry that things are getting out of hand. Even the anarchists are more worried about getting their fair share of the government pie than in throwing cartoon-like bombs, the ones that look like bowling balls with a fuse.

      5. he took photos and had a good laugh at how silly they looked compared to his side, with their great signs and matching t-shirts. And I’m thinking, maybe I’m reading this all wrong but shouldn’t you be terrified by that comparison? Those folks went through a hëll of a lot more work than just showing up and holding a preprinted sign. It’s the difference between getting a form letter and getting a handwritten note.
        .
        Granted, but Bill — you’re missing the point in some regards. As has been pointed out here by multiple posters, the “protests” (which are primarily aimed at disruption and not debate, hence my quote marks) are very much organized and getting their tactics from a centralized source. Maybe it *looks* more spontaneous or evidentiary of home-grown passion, but it’s looking pretty clearly like it’s anything but. (And no, I don’t think that all of them are phony protestors, to use your phrase. A great many of them, yes. Most of the orchestrators, hëll yes. The protestors themselves, often no.)
        .
        All I know is that I’m keeping an eye on my representative’s schedule, and if he holds a town meeting in the area I’m going — not because he needs persuading in this case, but so that I can try to forestall or rebut any attempt at intimidation.
        .
        And I also see this as akin to the people shouting “traitor!” and “kill him!” at Palin rallies. I don’t really give a dámņ whether that’s spontaneous or orchestrated — it’s SCARY, and I do consider it opposed to the American ideal.

      6. At the same time, we are seeing some politicians pretend that they are being oppressed and shouted down by people who are doing no such thing–http://hotair.com/archives/2009/08/07/video-democrat-screams-at-constituent-for-asking-tough-question-on-health-care/–here’s a guy getting all hot under the collar when he opens the floor to questions of any kind and is confronted by one of his constituents having the temerity to make his question about health care. He implies that the questioner is not genuine and form his district–he’s a doctor and he is indeed from his district–and generally acts like the poster child for term limits.
        .
        I have also yet to see any proof that most of the protesters are not genuine grass roots types, though that claim is being made by many (not you, I note). yes, there are places on line that give instructions on how to organize a protest. There are also those that give instructions on how to do the same from the other side- http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/documents/2009/08/hcan-playbook-for-thwarting-town-hall-protesters.php?page=1
        .
        However I would not use the promulgation of this document to in any way impugn those who show up to support the administrations proposals or to assume that they are merely far left ideologues recruited by paid organizations.

      7. His opponents are not willing to do the same and if you want to chalk that up to racism, well…it comes off as a sign of weakness and lack of confidence in the strength of one’s position on the issues.

        I’m sorry, Bill, but I can’t give these people points for passion when their ignorance knows no bounds. Most of the protestors are frightened of legislation that exists only in their imagination. For example, there has been bleating about a provision in one bill that would fund euthanasia for the elderly, when in fact that provision merely stipulates that the dying must have access to end-of-life counseling and hospice care. There’s nothing helpful or virtuous about spreading ignorance.

        I don’t think it is “namby-pamby” to be concerned about people taking over public hearings and prevent a public discourse, either. Not unless one believes that the goal of civil, reasoned discourse about an important issue is “namby-pamby.”

      8. .
        “…that provision merely stipulates that the dying must have access to end-of-life counseling and hospice care.”
        .
        And that provision was put in the bill by a Republican. And there was a similar provision proposed by a different Republican.

      9. At the same time, we are seeing some politicians pretend that they are being oppressed and shouted down by people who are doing no such thing
        .
        I appreciate the link for extra evidence, though I would have believed that anyway — there’s no shortage of political opportunism on either side of the aisle on any given week.
        .
        I have also yet to see any proof that most of the protesters are not genuine grass roots types, though that claim is being made by many (not you, I note). yes, there are places on line that give instructions on how to organize a protest. There are also those that give instructions on how to do the same from the other side-
        .
        Granted about the latter, but (a) several lobbying groups and conservative organizations have openly declared that they’re behind the protests (I’ll find a link later if you want one), (b) talkingpointsmemo is, while IMO very cogent, not exactly on the same power level as one of the big corporations funding the original protests, and (c) the TPM document was generated in response to the original protests being created and disseminated, so again there’s a clear order of operations here.
        .
        I appreciate the reasoned responses, and I’ve no doubt that if you were to attend one of these town halls you’d raise objections in a skillful and civilized way, but I also think you’re being somewhat disingenuous in pretending that a lot of these protesters are anything other than bused-in thugs. Congressmen are getting death threats here.

      10. Congressmen are getting death threats here.

        That’s abominable under any circumstances, but it’s particularly so because many congressional representatives are actually reading these bills more than once and really trying to do the right thing. I realize that’s very “un-kewl” of me to say, but I’ve heard more than one congressional respresentative discuss these bills in a knowledgeable and reasonable way. Unfortunately, it’s the kind of discussion that is un-sexy and difficult to distill into sound-bites, which is why we don’t hear much of it.

      11. I’m sorry, Bill, but I can’t give these people points for passion when their ignorance knows no bounds.
        .
        I’m not giving anyone points, I’m merely pointing out that right now it would seem that the opponents are more concerned about this than the proponents are. Assuming that the proponents want this stuff actually passed this could be cause for concern and maybe make them get off their butts and show up and/or organize their own protests (and try to at least outnumber the counterprotesters–doesn’t do much good if more of them show up.)
        .
        but I also think you’re being somewhat disingenuous in pretending that a lot of these protesters are anything other than bused-in thugs. Congressmen are getting death threats here.
        .
        I can’t very well be disingenuous about pretending to know something I don’t. Please, by all means, point me to the source of the proof that “a lot” are “bussed-in thugs”. I genuinely have not seen that, though it’s quite believable. And pretty easy to prove; one would think some enter[prizing reporter from the Huffington Post could show up at one of these things a little early and watch the bus unload. Take photos even. Instead, we have a headline where they cropped a photo of some dopey kid in an Obama=Hitler t-shirt holding a sign so that his hand was not visible and captioned it as him “making what looks like a Hitler salute”. (They now have removed that caption but have no apology or mention of their previous libel).
        .
        http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/07/pelosi-protesters-includi_n_253762.html The original story can be seen at http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/08/atlas-vlogs-libel-fauxtography-and-smear-campaign-kkkgop-leaders-are-behind-the-town-hall-protesters.html
        .
        I would think that disingenuous pretending might be more accurately pointed at Keith Olbermann for criticizing anti-health reform protesters and using as a reason the “violence” that led to “arrests” at a recent meeting, while disingenuously pretending not to know that the ones who got arrested for the violence were union guys who supported the reforms and were apparently beating the protesters!

      12. I’m not giving anyone points, I’m merely pointing out that right now it would seem that the opponents are more concerned about this than the proponents are. Assuming that the proponents want this stuff actually passed this could be cause for concern and maybe make them get off their butts and show up and/or organize their own protests (and try to at least outnumber the counterprotesters–doesn’t do much good if more of them show up.)
        .
        That I agree with wholeheartedly, and I for one intend to do just that. I’ll also try to find the evidence you asked for sometime tomorrow.

      13. Assuming that the proponents want this stuff actually passed this could be cause for concern and maybe make them get off their butts and show up and/or organize their own protests…
        .
        Which would ratchet up the tension in an already tense situation. I’m not sure what that would solve.
        .
        I think the best we can hope for is that those who know what they’re talking about will take to the airwaves and make their case in a reasoned way, and that people will listen. I’m not going to hold my breath for that, though.

      15. It seems convenient that every protester is just part of a Republican conspiracy. I mean there is no way that anyone could disagree unless if they are Republicans.

      16. Kevin, it’s not a conspiracy. Conspiracies are secret. This is very much out in the public. The people organizing it have organized similar things in the past. They’re sending out instructions on how to do it. At town hall after town hall we’re seeing people following those instructions to the letter, screaming the same misinformation about death panels and mandatory abortions and not letting anyone else speak. That’s not convenient, it’s just how it is.
        .
        Let me say that I’m not lumping legitimate opposition in with the organized disrupters. There are people having serious conversations about why they think this isn’t the best plan for this country. I respect that and I consider them completely separate from the people who are trying to shut down discussion in the town hall meetings.
        .
        Having said that, let’s be clear: there’s no point in defending those people. Just because they’re fired up doesn’t mean they deserve respect. Small children yelling “He started it!” are also fired up. The people who are asking their representatives hard questions deserve respect whether I agree with them or not. The people who are screaming about Obama killing their grandparents and refusing to let their representatives speak do not deserve respect. Yes, they’re passionate, but they’re passionately ignoring the facts and that makes them completely different from people like you, Kevin.

      17. I think that’s absolutely true, that shouting down people who disagree with you, preventing them from speaking, is not worthy of respect.
        .
        Sadly, this has become expected and even accepted behavior in some places. One could list a number of instances of speakers at college campuses, where one would hope that a premium is placed on respect for divergent views, being shouted down, forced to cancel or end speeches early, etc. Most of the ones I know about were of conservatives being chased out by radicals (I won’t sully the word by calling them liberals) but that doesn’t make it any more justified when conservatives do it.
        .
        I also think that too many people either kept quiet or even expressed approval when people like the folks at Code Pink disrupted events. Approving of the message does not mean one must approve of the method.
        .
        But regardless, it’s in everyone’s interests to keep this civil–shouting at and threatening people does not win hearts and minds and, of course, the people who actually assault anyone should be charged with the full force of the law.
        .
        What amazed me is how the left has been so out organized. Obama needs to do something he should have done from the very beginning–take control of his agenda away from congress. they are not up to it. They are politically tone deaf. They are far far far more concerned with keeping power than they will ever be in his plans. And they are so unpopular that anything they touch will probably automatically drop a few points in popularity.

      18. Most of the ones I know about were of conservatives being chased out by radicals…
        .
        It’s human nature to focus on those things that fit our biases and ignore those things that don’t. I feel you tend to dwell on the excesses of liberals moreso than those of conservatives. Perhaps my liberal bias affects me similarly, and I’m simply unaware of it.
        .
        The problem as always is the extremists. I don’t think it matters whether they’re hitting us from the right or the left.
        .
        I was watching Meet the Press yesterday and the panelists did a great job of putting all of this into perspective. It all boils down to Obama acting very un-Obama-like. He’s delegated the crafting of a health care reform bill to Congress and hasn’t been at all aggressive about getting his message about reform to the American people. The vacuum he left has been filled by noisy, ignorant and weak-willed thugs who are being manipulated by Rush Limbaugh and others in the conservative media who specialize in verbal flatulence.
        .
        Bill Mulligan, I’m not sure why you’re so perplexed as to why the left has been “out-organized” by the right with respect to health reform. There are competing health reform bills, and nothing but confusion and misinformation surrounding them. The left needs a message around which to rally, and Obama hasn’t given it to them. The right-wing extremists have the easier job: all they have to do is rally around a message of “no.” It’s far easier to oppose change than to effect it.
        .
        Recent polls show a majority of Americans disapprove of Obama’s handling of health care reform. I certainly don’t think he’s done a spectacular job.
        .
        It’s been reported that Obama is planning on drafting his own plan at the end of the month in order to steer the ship back on course, and will begin aggressively stumping for that plan. I hope he does so, and soon. Obama needs to bring his “A-game” to this one.

      19. Bill Mulligan, I’m not sure why you’re so perplexed as to why the left has been “out-organized” by the right with respect to health reform. There are competing health reform bills, and nothing but confusion and misinformation surrounding them. The left needs a message around which to rally, and Obama hasn’t given it to them. The right-wing extremists have the easier job: all they have to do is rally around a message of “no.” It’s far easier to oppose change than to effect it.
        .
        An excellent point, but what I guess I meant was that it seems as though they were caught off guard by the effectiveness of the protests. They should have seen this coming. And I know that the Obama team still has the records of those who worked for the campaign before. It doesn’t take more than a few dozen people to look like a big group, they should not be having to play catch up (and having to be so obvious about it–it looks bad when, on the same day nancy Pelosi calls those who shout down people “unamerican”, SEIU Local 2001 announces “Action: Opponents of reform are organizing counter-demonstrators to speak at this and several congressional town halls on the issue to defend the status quo. It is critical that our members with real, personal stories about the need for access to quality, affordable care come out in strong numbers to drown out their voices.”

    1. Because it’s just sad and depressing, I guess. I’ve been a little surprised at the outpouring of shock from my peers, though, upon reflection, it’s a no-brainer. he made some of the really influential movies at that very influential time of our lives.
      .
      I think that an argument can be made that John Hugues will be looked on in the future in much the same way that Frank Capra is. He had a definable style, his movies are easy to spot as his work, he had a gift for characterization, his movies are very much of a particular time yet have qualities that have allowed them to age. kids today STILL find 16 candles and the Breakfast Club relevant.

      1. All I can think of is that this has been a miserable summer for icons of one stripe or another. Farrah Fawcett defined the ’70s for many people — not me, as I’m slightly too young to have really, er, appreciated her properly at the time. Michael Jackson was, well, Michael Jackson. Walter Cronkite was incomparable — his obituary was one of the only ones I can think of that actually had me sitting in stunned silence. And now John Hughes, who absolutely defined a decent portion of my adolescence. I was shocked when I heard the news just because he was fairly young.

      2. He had a definable style, his movies are easy to spot as his work, he had a gift for characterization, his movies are very much of a particular time yet have qualities that have allowed them to age. kids today STILL find 16 candles and the Breakfast Club relevant.

        Indeed. I just discovered there’s a whole milieu on YouTube of teenagers, who weren’t even born when the movie came out, recreating the dance scene in the library from THE BREAKFAST CLUB.

        On a related note, which John Hughes film will be the first to be inevitably remade?

        O

  31. Y’know what bugs me? How the Jays are in the same division as Yankees and Red Sox and all they complain is, “Well, it’s really hard because we’re in the same division as the Yankees and the Red Sox”. what did you think they’d suddenly put you in a DIFFERENT division some year? Plan ahead and stop playing mediocre ball!

    Of course, right as I type that the Jays light up two solo home runs in a row. Oh well, they still mostly stink.

    I also dislike the amount of praise that was undeservedly washed over “Knocked Up”. One of the best movies of 07, my behind…

      1. Another thing that irked me about the movie (note the term “irk”, I don’t hate it, it made me laugh, I just thought it was overrated) was that Heigl had not one, but TWO sex scenes in the movie and she kept her top on both times? The first one I can kinda see because it was supposed to be a sloppy drunken encounter, but the second one? It’s an R-rated movie, lets see the goods, girl.

  32. I’ll throw this out–what recent movie that isn’t a Hollywood blockbuster would you recommend everyone rent and see?
    .
    And since I’m first i get to make the obvious choice- LET THE RIGHT ONE IN. Not just the best vampire movie in just about ever, one of the best movies period. Brilliant filmmaking, achingly well acted by two kids, a movie to watch with friends and argue about later (the motivations of the characters are ambiguous enough top make the conversation worth having).
    .
    One problem–the planarian worms who are in charge of whoever released it thought it was a good idea to dumb down the subtitles. Example: Oskar, our young protagonist, is in his snowy Norwegian courtyard when he sees Eli, a 12 year old (Ha!) girl standing on the jungle gym. The dialogue:
    .
    Oskar- Do you live here?
    Eli- Yeah…I live right here, in the jungle gym.
    Oskar- Seriously, where do you live?
    Eli- Next door to you
    Oskar- How do you know where I live?
    .
    So Anal Fissure Releasing Co, a subdivision of Pinhead Entertainment ltd, commissioned new subs that go like this:
    .
    Eli- I live here. Next to you.
    .
    Oh. my. God. (go to http://iconsoffright.com/news/2009/03/let_the_wrong_subtitles_in_to.html for more hideous example…but not until you see the movie! lots of spoilers.)
    .
    So, you have to look for the DVD that has the THEATRICAL subs included. Unfortunately, I don’t know when that will be released, leaving you with only 2 options–download off a torrent site (stealing, I know) or getting the streaming video through Netflix, which, I am told, is the real deal. If you get a dvd from netflix it will be the crap version.
    .
    there is also a dubbed version. It makes Gamera Vs monster x look subtle and sublime. Avoid on penalty of death. this movie is so good that I urge you to hold off on seeing it until you can see it right–I would no more encourage you to see it with the bad subtitles/dubbing than I would want you to read Fallen Angels with the consonants removed.
    .
    Seriously, people have been beaten senseless for worse reasons than this.

    1. I don’t have an answer, but I love the question — we’ve seen so few movies in the post-Katherine era that recommendations are always good to have.

      2. She’s a blast. Some days I’m not sure she’s my kid (among other things, she’s the biggest girly-girl on the planet, which has both of us mystified), but it’s fun. She’s totally into the arts — drawing, painting, dancing, some singing, and LOTS of drama. She’s already playing mind games with the Boy Next Door (okay, two doors down technically), and she’s not even 5 yet.
        .
        When she hits about 13, we’re doomed. ‘Til then, we’ll have fun.

    2. I’ll throw in my two cents (and continue with the Scandinavian theme) and say Just Another Love Story. It’s an astonishing movie that absolutely no one is paying any attention to, but I think it’s the best movie of the year so far. It’s available on Netflix’s Watch Instantly feature, which is where I discovered it.

    3. I’ll second your recommendation of LET THE RIGHT ONE IN but only with the “smart” subtitles. I saw it in a theater and loved it. Roger Ebert included this movie at “Ebertfest” (formerly the “Overlooked Film Festival”) this year.

      I work in Customer Relations for Hollywood Video and we got more complaints about this movie (not because of the bad subtitling) than any other film in the last year. I’d consider that a recommendation in and of itself.

      Another Ebertfest entry which everyone should see is THE FALL directed by Tarsem Singh. I’d recommend this above LET THE RIGHT ONE IN as a general recommendation.

      1. Michael, I’m curious, what are they complaining about? (Unless it’s a spoiler) I can think of one shot in particular that shocked the hëll out of me and…I’ll say no more.

      2. That would be the shot they’re complaining about most likely. Funny thing is, I didn’t even remember it until people started complaining.

      3. I’m sure it’s the shot you’re thinking of. Funny thing is; I don’t even remember that shot from when I saw the movie. It was just part of the story.

    4. I just saw another foreign made movie called “timecrimes.” (coincidentally, “let the right one in” was among the coming attractions). It was actually pretty decent, though slightly predictable in places to anyone who likes time travel movies. The dubbing was not quite as good as I would have liked, but the treatment of the time travel was handled well.

      1. As far as time travel movies… i’ve got to recommend “Primer” as my favorite… though i’ve been wanting to see “Timecrimes” too.

  33. Bill, I agree with you about Let the Right One in. There were some wonderfully atmospheric moments in it that stayed with me for quite some time afterwards.

    Regarding little cult movies that maybe people didn’t get to see, my wife is a member of Bafta, so every Christmas-time, one of our great pleasures is going through the pile of DVD screeners to find those wonderful gems that you might normally not get to see otherwise. My pick from last year is Three and Out, with Mackenzie Crook playing a London tube train driver and Colm Meaney as a would-be suicide victim. Maybe the blackest comedy of the year and never released theatrically to my knowledge thanks to pressure from London Transport.

    I don’t really want to get into the political discussion that seems to be winding its way through this thread only because it’s Friday night and I’m tired, but Peter I agree with your last point about the GOP versus Obama. Still, I wonder which genius at Fox News said, ‘Hey guys, you know what would be really cool? If we actually called Obama a racist!’

    That being said, I think the birthers do have a point when they suggest that Obama wasn’t actually born here in America. In fact it’s such an obvious ploy that the Hawaiian Board of Health actually planted that birth announcement in the local papers half a century ago just in case there was a chance that Baby Barack would one day grow up to be president. It was a beautifully staged plan and I’m really disappointed that the right wingers actually managed to figure it out.

  34. THE YEAR MY PARENTS WENT ON VACATION. Don’t let the title fool you. This 2007 Brazillian movie is set in ’70 as the military junta’s death squads are roaming the streets and it’s not a ‘Leave It To Beaver’ sort of story. The 12-year-old lead character is unceremonioualy dumped on his granfather’s doorstep by his parents who are “going on vacation” (code for “trying to stay one step ahead of the authorities”). Unbeknownst to them, said grandparent died of heart failure just hours earlier. Kid, who can’t reach his parents, has no one to turn to in this strange city (Sao Paulo) and grandfather’s neighbour, an elderly Jewish gentleman reluctantly winds up taking him under his wing. Beautifully acted, lovingly photographed, the film has one caring for the characters and, as days stretch into weeks, worry about what’ll happen to the child if his parents don’t come back after all. Saw it in a repertory house cinema, and got the DVD (Portugese with English subtitles) as soon as I could get my paws on it. There’s also some Yiddish, and it’s interesting to note that some of it isn’t subtitled as the boy doesn’t understand the language, so the audience is also kept in the dark.

  35. I would like to ask another set of questions if I may. Sorry if I’ve been commenting to much. I’ve become an insomniac which has given me way to much time to think.

    Anyways I’m planning on one day opening a comic book store; hopefully in about four years at the latest. I’ve never owned a business before but I’m doing plenty of research on how to setup and run a retail business. So the advice I need is on the comic merchandise it’s self. What kind of profit is made off of comics?

    How important is the back stock ( older issues)? And where should I get them from?
    I’m planning on going into a different niche and would prefer to send customers to another comic shop for their searches for older comics,especially since it’s a store that has been around a lot longer, that way I don’t compete as much with them, with the hope that they will send customers my way or is that like cutting my own throat.

    Any other advice or questions I should ask would be appreciated. Thank you.

  36. Ok, here’s something that’s bugging me. First of all, I’m a fan of PAD’s work, especially in X-Factor, not just some random guy who’s stopping by to rant.

    I’m bugged by how my “career” doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. I graduated with a B.A. in history from the University of Texas at Austin 10 years ago. Ever since I graduated, I’ve had a number of jobs that have been mostly unfulfilling. I’ve worked at computer help desks, I’ve been a file clerk, worked as a research assistant at an educational think-tank, worked part-time at an admissions office at a college, etc. My last job was being a library assistant at an engineering firm. I filed engineering documents and made labels for them! How exciting! In the last 2 years, I’ve earned an associates degree in GIS, or geographic information systems, at a community college. Basically, it is computer mapping with a geospatial database underneath the maps. Not too many jobs in this field at the current moment. And do I really want a GIS job? I think it was more fun studying it than actually doing it for pay. Anyway, my beef is that I’m stuck in my career. A few ideas I’ve had to boost my flagging career it is to get a master’s degree in either geography (since I’m interested in climate change), public health (surveillance of diseases, monitoring trends like obesity) or political science. So, that’s what’s bugging me. That and all the parking tickets I apparently have to pay to get my car registration renewed. Fun times.

  37. I’m eagerly awaiting 2012. All these idiotic people are telling me “It’s gonna happen. The Mayans said so!!! Right, because they certainly had enough foresight to predict the end of the world, but not that the white man would anihilate them.

    And now a big budget movie is coming out that is surely going to scare stupid people (IE most of the country) by spoon-feeding them bits and pieces of the actual prophecy.

    I’m sadly predicting a big jump in suicides and violent crime around December 2012. It’s a real shame…

      2. The world has ended at least 60 times.
        .
        http://www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrl2.htm
        .
        I’m just surprised that even conspiracy theorists can get excited about an end of the world theory right now. 2000 was such a big, round number, I’d think they’d still be getting over the disappointment from that.

    2. A year or so ago, I was reading something about the 2012 Apocalypse theory and a cartoon idea came to me.
      A Mayan warrior in full period dress is standing in a classroom with a couple of professor-types and maybe a more fringey-looking guy. Caption: “We start over at the beginning. What do YOU do when YOUR calendar runs out?”

    3. What does it say though about the Mayan end of the world prophecy for 2012 when they couldn’t even predict their own downfall?

      1. The Mayans didn’t even predict the end of the world. They just made a calender that only goes to 2012. This whole thing is about on the level of saying that the world will end at the end of the week because that’s when the TV Guide stops telling them what will be on TV.

      2. My question about it was simple. Everyone is always up in arms about the fact that this calender maps out centuries of dates and then just suddenly ends. That’s the big thing with a lot of people. Why. they ask, did it just end all of a sudden in 2012?
        .
        Did anyone consider that maybe the guy doing it died? Or, hey, maybe they all got bored with keeping the thing going. My wall calendar ends in March of next year. Does that mean that there won’t be a April 2010 because the world ends in March 2010?

      3. My wall calendar ends in March of next year. Does that mean that there won’t be a April 2010 because the world ends in March 2010?

        Yes.

    4. I’m sadly predicting a big jump in suicides and violent crime around December 2012.
      .
      If Palin’s elected president, you may well be right. Especially about the suicides.
      .
      PAD

  38. Wow…60 times the world was supposed to end. I remember an idiot in my class a few years ago refused to go to a big party because she was CERTAIN that the world would end on 6/6/06.

    I just think making a movie about this is really dumb and irresponsible. I’m certainly not advocating taking away freedom of speech, but basically making a movie that is light on facts and “loosely based” (which Roland Emerich films ALWAYS ARE) on a prophecy about the end of the world is really dangerous.

    From one of the early trailers, they even indicated that all the world leaders know about the 2012 Armageddon, and refuse to share the knowledge because they know it would incite panic.

    1. Wait… You mean you honestly don’t know about the evacuation ships? I thought all of the important people…
      .
      Never mind. Just forget that I said anything about.

      1. Which ship are you on? I’m trying to swap so I can be on the same one as my girlfriend.

      2. That’s it, Jerry, to the back of the ship!! Jenn and Ian can stay up here, but you’re in the back, shoveling the fuel and drinking the cheap stuff!

      3. Which ship are you on? I’m looking for someone to trade so i can be with my girlfriend.

    2. James, you’re a better person than I am because if I knew that some dope was seriously having an end of the world party and thought it was really going to end I’d probably round up a bunch of my friends and make them up as fleshy headed mutants and start pounding on the door demanding brains and/or canned food. Or make a video tape to be surreptitiously placed in her VCR at an appropriate time that would imitate a newscast and show all kinds of disasters: bridges falling down, earthquake footage, Laura Nyro at the Monterey Pop Festival, whatever. It would be great.

  39. 1: Anyone else notice that the system is rigged to keep you from having some of the things you like? Case in point for me right now; Diet Pepsi with Lime.
    .
    I’m not a big soda drinker these days but I loved that stuff. Thing is, at least around here, the system almost seemed design to kill the stuff. You can never find it anywhere and when you ask about it you get some of the dumbest, most circular “logic” in the world. Real conversation here almost word for word.
    .
    Me: Do you have any Diet Pepsi with Lime today?
    .
    7-11 Clerk: No, we stopped carrying that.
    .
    Me: Ðámņ. Too bad. i liked it.
    .
    7-11 Clerk: Yeah, well, it just didn’t sell.
    .
    Me (somewhat confused by that statement): What do you mean it didn’t sell? I come in here every day and whenever you got any in always I grabbed a couple of bottles the day they went on the shelf. When I would come back in the next day they were always all sold out. Sometimes I would even grab four bottles so that I knew that I would have some if you were out the next day.
    .
    7-11 Clerk: Yeah, but we never really sold any significant amount of them. We’d sell a couple hundred bottles of Diet Pepsi in a day and only about a case of the lime ones.
    .
    Me: Did you ever even order more than a case? I mean, you only had one row set up for them on the shelf and, other than for about one day when you got th shipment in, it was always empty.
    .
    7-11 Clerk: No, we didn’t order a more than a case because we never sold them in the numbers to warrant getting more than a case. They never sold in high numbers and there was no demand.
    .
    Me: But you always sold out in less than a day…
    .
    7-11 Clerk: Yeah, but we never sold them in the numbers we sold the other stuff in.
    .
    And so on…
    .
    I actually ran into one of the local Pepsi reps in my local supermarket and asked him about getting hold of a case or two. He said that they weren’t working it like that with the lime Pepsi. I asked him about where they were stocking it because I was having issues with the only place near me that was selling the stuff in bottles. I got something that was almost word for word what I got from the 7-11 clerk.
    .
    Seriously, why waste the time to even do it if you’re just going to kill it off from the start?
    .
    .
    2: What the hëll is up with children’s television programming that it actually causes the adult brain to meltdown in ways too weird to be believed?
    .
    Ian was plopped down in front of the TV one rainy day a while ago watching a Thomas and Friends mini marathon and my brain went into a seriously… strange… self defense mode. I’m not a pørņ person. Never have been. Just never cared for the stuff. But my brain, in a desperate attempt to stave off a Thomas created implosion, started working out what the pørņ star versions of all the Thomas and Friends character’s names would be.
    .
    Thomas the Tank Engine becomes the burnt out Thomas the Tanked Engine, Sir Topem Hat became Sir Tappem… Well, you can work out the last word on your own. We won’t even discuss what the new lyrics became.
    .
    And I’m not the only new parent I’ve spoken to who has mentioned the flat out bizarre things that children’s programming has caused their minds to do in order to survive. What is this strange power that they have that makes your brain turn to mush and go to places it doesn’t normally go?
    .
    And, while I’m talking children’s television shows…
    .
    Did the creators of Toot & Puddle intentionally name those pigs after the two things that their target audience enjoys doing the most or was that just a really weird coincidence?
    .
    I’m going to go and try to catch up on some lost sleep now.

    1. Yes, especially this last month.

      I go out to start to get in shape before training starts. It rains.

      Two or so days later, I decide to go to my comic shop, and it rains.

      The day after, I’m determined to go there because I find out that Wolverine: First Class has my favorite character EVER, Siryn. I get there, only to find that some woman has bought the last copy for her young daughter. It’s GREAT to see little kids reading comics, but that pìššëd me off.

      And then that Saturday, I’m supposed to take Celia out for dinner and then a movie, and guess what? Strep throat.

      I think the cosmos are out to get me.

    2. I can live with Toot and Puddle, though it’s not a favorite of mine.
      .
      What I want to know is how in the world ANYONE is supposed to watch “Yo Gabba Gabba” without the assistance of large amounts of drugs. How this thing has won awards is completely beyond me.
      .
      If anyone with a small child wants good programming, however, I’ll recommend “The Backyardigans” and “Phineas and Ferb”. Both are creative, both are awesome, both are catchy.

      1. I still like Spongebob! And Chowder seems nice. Batman: Brave and Bold is a good one, especially since the last Batman cartoon was stupid and Batman:TAS was probably too adult for kids (despite being BRILLIANT.)

        On the other hand, while they’re not cartoons, why hasn’t someone stopped this mess on the Disney Channel? This is coming from someone who still loves Saved by the Bell. That Hannah Montana monster is the Fifth Horseman.

      2. Tim, I’m sure you’ve seen it by now, but the Space Garbage Truck Backyardigans is my favorite, followed closely by the spy one and the Robin Hood one. Phineas and Ferb has caused an infection of Brian trying to come up with ideas to invent. It must be stopped!!!

      3. “Garbage Trek” is cool, but not my favorite. I think the ping-pong one is way up there, along with the Mighty Knights and the spy one. (“Shaken…”)
        .
        As for P&F, I’ve no doubt that that may be in our future. Not just yet, though.

      4. Yeah, Jenn banned “Yo Gabba Gabba” from the house some time ago. Only Barney lasted less time (zero episodes) before getting on her X list.
        .
        Lazy Town doesn’t drive either of us crazy though.

      5. I watch Go, Diego, Go. Most of it is fine, but that Rescue Pack of his freaks me out almost every time. There’s this weird, aggressive tone to his voice.
        .
        .
        Diego: Oh no! The mudslide is headed right for the momma sloth. Rescue Pack, activate!
        .
        Rescue Pack: I’M GONNA SING A SONG!!!
        .
        Diego: Uh, the mud is almost on top of her.
        .
        Rescue Pack: SONG TIME!!! YAHHHH!!!
        .
        Diego: But she only has a few moments before-
        .
        Rescue Pack: SHUT UP AND WATCH ME DANCE!!!!! UNH!!! UNH!!!
        .
        .
        It’s like the character is voiced by a small child who was raised on nothing but espresso and aggression.

      6. Agreed about LazyTown, Jerry — it has a certain very weird charm to it, but it’s only decent in VERY small doses. I’m not sure Lisa can watch it at all. Barney never made it into the house at all.

      7. Tim, how can you not love a children’s TV show created by the frontman for a glam-ska band (the Aquabats – producer Christian Jacobs, also the voice of Plex, is known to his fans as MC Bat Commander), and featuring regular appearances by Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh as an artist? (And, of course, Biz Markie’s Beat of the Day…)
        .
        I think it’s a wonderful throwback to the drug-induced shows of my childhood, like H. R. Pufenstuf and Lidsville.
        .
        I’m also quite fond of The Backyardigans – helps keep the kids occupied, without making me want to tear my ears off. I think my favorite episode was “Mission To Mars”, mostly because of he kids’ concept of a Mars Rover (a wheeled robotic vehicle that carries them and their gear, barks, and chases a ball). I also really liked “Key To the World”, where the superheroes Weather Woman and Captain Hammer (not that one, a cooler one) faced off against evil villains Yuckyman and Dr. Shrinky in a race to control the Key to the World…

      8. Tim, how can you not love a children’s TV show created by the frontman for a glam-ska band (the Aquabats – producer Christian Jacobs, also the voice of Plex, is known to his fans as MC Bat Commander), and featuring regular appearances by Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh as an artist? (And, of course, Biz Markie’s Beat of the Day…)
        .
        Apparently pretty easily. 🙂 I do respect Mothersbaugh a lot, which is one of the reasons I wanted to give it a chance … but ugh.
        .
        I’m also quite fond of The Backyardigans – helps keep the kids occupied, without making me want to tear my ears off.
        .
        A great way to put it. Katherine’s best friend’s dad is a musician, and he loves the musical variation of the show – particularly the fact that the musical style never really relates to the style of the story.
        .
        In terms of favorites, both of the ones you mentioned are great, and along with the superhero one (actually called “Race to the Tower of Power”) I always think of “The Quest For the Flying Rock” — an episode that actually made disco entertaining.

      9. I’m also quite fond of The Backyardigans

        If I may engage in a little namedropping, the director of that show — Dave Palmer — is one of my best friends. He’s also an animator par excellence, whose work on Blue’s Clues earned him a mention in an textbook on animation. Also, he’s a heckuva great guy and it’s wonderful to see him enjoy the level of success that he has.

      10. Well, tell him that we hope he’s getting a cut of the merchandising: we’ve got all three CDs, virtually every DVD of the show, and plushes of all five kids.

    3. Jerry – Never understood that. People would sell out of a book/comic/product in a very short time … and then not order more, as if there can’t possibly be any one else who’d want to buy the things. I understand that there are occasions where the distributor/publisher/manufacturer refuses to make any more available, but there are instances where it’s just the shop not being interested in continuing to sell the successful product.

  40. I’m wondering why we never read reports of sightings of Neanderthal or early human ghosts. Are they not attired fancy enough for us?

  41. Today I went to celebrate a friend’s birthday at the Royal Gunpowder Mills, Waltham. This is in the áršë-end of nowhere, where London suburbia fades but the proper countryside hasn’t started yet, and so it’s this weird mix of verdant and unspeakably trashed.

    In the middle of all this is this historic site where they made gunpowder and cordite from the 1700s through World War II, and then they tested rockets there. So there are all these old buildings that are mostly derelict and falling down because they don’t have the funds to keep them up, but if you have any questions, there are very polite and well-informed volunteers to tell you about all about it and point out the scenic pond where they used to test depth charges.

    It would make an excellent hiding place for a gang of comic book villains, but that’s not the point. The point is: apart from the regular gift shop near the entrance, there was this very strange little second-hand shop in one of the disused buildings there– one cramped room, full of random dusty bric-a-brac like china figurines and ashtrays (because no one has ashtrays in their house any more) and books.

    Among the books — lying face up, on display in front of the shelf — was the first New Frontier novel.

    My point, Peter, is that if your work has reached the incredibly random tiny shop in the middle of the Waltham Royal Gunpowder Mills, then it may be truly said that YOU ARE EVERYWHERE.

    …how do you DO that?

      1. Perhaps they died, and the coffin was already overflowing with your many other novels.

      2. They can only have my copy of Strike Zone when they pry it from my cold, dead hand. Either copy.

      3. Somewhere in Essex, a budding geek is about to visit the Royal Gunpowder Mills and enter the tiny shop. The book is destined for them.

        Some years later, when they wear their Next Generation uniform for their Nobel Prize acceptance speech, it will all be your doing.

      4. One can find lots of Lundlum or Steele on the shelves of second-hand book stores around here. I’ve only ever found one copy of one of Pete Hamill’s novels, and only a very few of PAD’s. So, who are the better authors? The ones who’s readers promptly sell off their copies, or the ones who’s readers hang on to them? Note: I didn’t say ‘most popular’. A phrase which, unfortunately, doesn’t necessarily have much to do with real quality.

  42. Since we can talk about anything we want, I wonder if i could convince you to read a few comedy/sci-fi stories a friend and I have writen and maybe tell us your opinion on them. It’s only three of them so far in english so i believe it won’t take you too much time to check them out

    1. Professional writers ALMOST ALWAYS refuse to read scripts by other people, especially if they don’t know that person. The reason is to avoid lawsuits from people claiming their idea was stolen.

      3. well, it’s already on the internet for everyone to read for a very long time, they have been copyrighted, and in english there is only 3 of them so far, just the basic setup. after we finished the fourth we though about stoping translating them (it takes as much time as writing them) and we failed to market them properly so not many people have read them over the internet. i would like the opinion of a professional but i understand your reason and i thank you for your responce

  43. Do any of you like Japanese stuff? Not just manga and anime (though you should chime in if you like that too) but the music, the movies, the culture, the everything.

    I’m still looking for someone who likes the manga of Yoshihiro Tatsumi. That stuff is dark and dreary and awesome with not a single magical girl or mecha or karate psycho in sight. I have all of his U.S. released books.

    1. I enjoy a lot of anime, but not so much manga. I’m not really into a lot of fan servicey shows, so I enjoy a lot of darker and a tad more mature shows like Ghost in the Shell or Ergo Proxy. Code Geass is without a doubt one of my favorite shows, and it had one of the most brilliant endings I’ve ever seen.

      Michiko to Hatchin and Black Lagoon are guilty pleasures of mine.

      1. Code Geass must be the exception to your fan servicey rule, since it has metric tons fan service.

      2. I never got into Code Geass but I really like Ghost in the Shell, both the series and the first movie (the second movie was a little dense.) I will have to look into Ergo Proxy and the other ones you mentioned. I’ve never heard of them before.

    2. By the way, Hulu.com has several anime now. They’ve got some dark and dreary stuff like Mushi-shi. Dark and zany stuff like xxxHolic (don’t let the name fool you, there’s nothing xxx about the show). And they have just plain zany, like Ramen Fighter Miki, which I’m watching right now.

    3. I have several series/one shots which I’ve loved in the manga/anime world. From the works of Tsukasa ‘CITY HUNTER et al’ Hojo to a current series titled TOKYO MAGNITUDE 8 where the main character, a 12-year-old-girl and her 9 year-old brother are trying to get back home through an earthquake-devastated Tokyo. Believable situations involving realistic people you can care for in an interesting plot. What more can you ask for?

      As for dark? Try Urasawa Naoki’s MONSTER. A riveting psychological/police thriller about a brilliant neurosurgeon who finds his life falling to pieces over a period of years as he becomes unwittingly involved with a truly frightening psychopath. This is especially noteworthy as the author is the same person who gave us the delightfully goofy, lighthearted YAWARA! series as well.

      As for the movies/culture et all, well … I was president of the Canada-Japan Society of Ottawa for a few years until recently. Feel free to use my electronic mail address above if you wish to take the discussion further.

  44. I was wondering if you had seen a show called “Jeckyll” that was put out by the BBC a couple of years ago.

    It was a good take on Jeckyll and Hyde.

    1. I haven’t seen it, but I’d love to — I’ve heard it’s incredible. AND, conveniently enough, it was run by Steven Moffat, who’s about to take over Doctor Who.

      1. It was incredible!

        He also did Couplings, which I also loved. So I think Doctor Who is in very good hands.

  45. Liza, your story about Peter’s novels finding their way into really obscure areas reminds me of the favorite vacation/refuge spot for my wife and I, which is a little island off the coast of Malta called Gozo. A friend of ours, who was born in America but now runs a successful scuba diving school on the island, is a mega Star Trek/SF fan, so whenever we got there, I used to bring a few Trek novels that I had already read. One night, he invited us to a little barbecue that he was having outside the diving school, so we went along to the get-together, where we were introduced to two German friends who apparently dress up as Klingons for conventions back hom. Anyway, they had bought a bunch of DS9 episodes (this is about a decade ago), which were played on a big TV that had been placed on the tailgate of the diving school truck, with a handful of people sitting on folding chairs in the dusty parking lot drinking beer and eating burgers, just a few hundred yards from the Mediterranean. Probably the most enjoyable Star Trek ‘convention’ I’ve ever been to.

  46. I would like to officially complain that the GI Joe movie was bad. I did like the acccelerator suit sequence, Rachel Nichols being insanely hot, Ray Park’s moves (in the unfortunate “lips” snake eyes outfit), and every single line that Joesph Gordon-Levitt delivered with pure evil.

    Other than that, way lame.

    1. Yeah, I could only sit through half of it before I had to leave, it was so bad (and I sat through all of Alone in the Dark). They turned a cheesy 80s cartoon into a live-action movie and somehow managed to make it even cheesier and more cartoonish.
      .
      I wouldn’t know about Rachel Nichols being insanely hot (I just thought she was a bad actress), but Channing Tatum was insanely hot, so that was the only enjoyable part of it for me.
      .
      I wish everyone going to see this movie would go see A Perfect Getaway instead, which is a terrific movie that is nonetheless being undeservedly ignored (and I hereby nominate David Twohy as the most under-appreciated genre filmmaker in the business).

      1. I heard there was Kyle Sanchez (Nikki from Lost) side-bøøb, but is it visibile or obscured? I need details, people!

        I may check it out, Pitch Black is a personal fav. and Chronicles of Riddick at least had an amazing ending, and I generally like Mila Jolovich in anything. I think she’s actually made the Resident Evil movies better than they deserve (she actually has some genunie pathos going on when she discovers her disposed of clones in the third one). and Steve Zhan is usually great in just about anything (although I think his best scene in Rescue Dawn just happened to be his final scene. But it was certainly memorable)

      2. Well, when you first see Kiele Sanchez in the movie, she’s lying naked face-down on a raft. I wasn’t really looking at her side-bøøb, though. I will say that she’s very good in this movie. And Steve Zahn is awesome as always (as is Timothy Olyphant… Jovovich is actually the weakest link here, but she’s still passable).

    2. Joesph Gordon-Levitt is the only reason to watch this movie–and it’s not enough for me. That boy is going to win an Oscar within 10 years if not sooner. He usually makes such good movie choices but I guess this one he did for money.

      As the only person on Earth who doesn’t like the Mummy, I know to stay far away from this flick. That and the lack of Shipwreck. Shipwreck was my favorite Joe as a kid.

      1. I don’t know what his personal motivations were (I think he even saw this as an odd cross-promotion for 500 Days of Summer, which I also want to see) but it’s also possible he just wanted to go completely out there and have some fun. Which he does, because the voice and his mannerisms are almost entirely unlike him. It’s real just cartoonish supervilliany (but I mean that in a good way). And he emotoes most of the movie through just a single visible eyeball, but he gets so much pure, seething hatred out of that one eyeball that there has to be some sort of reward for it. My favourite evil villian line he has was when someone goes, “But you were dead! We had a funeral” and he snidely responds, “Moving ceremony, I’m sure.”

        The Cobra Commander reveal at the end is a bit of a WTF moment, probably because the mask isn’t very good, but it’s entertaining enough.

    1. I liked the first season of True Blood, though sometimes it seemed like they threw in some sex just because they felt every episode had to have some.

      I only watched the first episode of Being Human. I didn’t care for it. I guess it felt more depressing than I was in the mood for.

      1. I think the sex is almost obligatory for HBO, just so they can sell audiences on the fact that they can show a lot of stuff that basic cable networks can’t. That being said, it’s a wild ride.

        As for Being Human it’s a little uneven so far. I give BBC America a lot of consideration for at least trying to offer scifi/fantasy programming, even more than SyFy does nowadays. I think a lot will depend on the cast developing sufficient chemistry.

      2. As for Being Human it’s a little uneven so far. I give BBC America a lot of consideration for at least trying to offer scifi/fantasy programming, even more than SyFy does nowadays.
        .
        I was at the BBC America panel during SDCC, the first half of which was for “Being Human”. It was interesting to listen to show-creator Whithouse and the cast talk about the show. Specifically with Whithouse talking about how the show was NOT sci-fi/fantasy to start with, but it evolved to that.

    2. This was the third week in a row that the cliffhanger on “True Blood” had me going “What?! That’s IT? Until NEXT WEEK?! NO!!”

    3. Not sure about True Blood, although I do make a point to see screencaps and vid captures whenever Anna Paquin gets naked. But as for the general tone, oh-so-sexy vampires, I really can’t hack it just because I like my vampires to be nasty and mean and animals and bloodthirsty and not sexy. I tuned in once for about 30 seconds, and some dude was mucnhing on a chick’s neck as she moaned orgasmically, and I rolled my eyes and changed the channel. If Blade shows up, then I’ll consider watching it again.

    4. Loved the pilot of BEING HUMAN if only for the great line where the vampire and werewolf are looking over this two-story house they’re thinking of subletting and, recalling the ‘stories’ they’d heard about the place, hear a noise from upstairs. Nervously heading up the stairs one asks the other …
      “Come on, we’re a vampire and a werewolf. What could be possibly scarier than that?”
      To which the other replies …
      “A bigger one of us?”

    1. Slightly Star trek related–http://www.physorg.com/news168797748.html
      .
      Touchable Hologram Becomes Reality
      .
      One commentator states the obvious, “Please let me know when they can combine this with the most outrageous pørņ. It will make an absolute fortune, akin to the GDP of most developing nations.”

  49. >>I’m not sure if saying that Obama is secretly a Muslim >>is necessarily racism.

    >>>However, I am certain that implying that if someone is >>>Muslim, therefore he is automatically a threat to this >>>country, sure as hëll IS racism.

    I am not sure I’d call that racism. “Theism”, maybe (if that is even a word). fallacial thinking, absolutely

  50. Has anyone seen “The Cove”, the new movie about the dolphin slaughter in Japan? I saw it yesterday. “Enjoyed” would be the wrong word, but I am very glad I saw it.

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