Month: January 2019

Bill Maher has informed us, both on Twitter and again last night, that comic books are for kids and that fans of them are basically stunted individuals who are unable to accept adulthood.

So let’s talk about fans.

Continue Reading “Bill Maher’s anti-fan rant” →

And now the beginning of the end has commenced.

The FAA has halted flights into LaGuardia. A major Eastern seaboard airport has suddenly become inaccessible to outside airlines because of safety concerns over air traffic controllers.

Here’s what it comes down to: a crash is inevitable. Or someone will sneak a bomb on because of depleted security. The bottom line is that Trump’s shutdown will no longer simply have a count of 800,000 workers who aren’t getting paid. It’s going to have a body count.

Does everyone understand that? People are going to die because Trump is holding the country hostage over his useless bid for a wall. People. Will. Die.

Tell me, Donald…how many are worth it?

Continue Reading “Freak Out Friday – January 25, 2019” →

I found this posting by an Esther Heimberg on Facebook. It was very educational.

January 20 at 5:51 PM ·
I’ve seen a lot of chatter about the disgraceful incident involving students from Covington Catholic High School and an Indigenous American and Veteran in Washington, DC this weekend. This morning, as news of the “full video” began to break, people started hedging, saying that there were “multiple perspectives.” Here’s my perspective.

I served an Episcopal parish in Northern Kentucky, approximately 15 minutes from Covington Catholic High School. It’s a prestigious all-male school with a reputation for strong academics and strong athletics. You can learn that much from the website.

What you won’t learn from the website is that there is a sinister pattern of similar behavior within the Diocese. While the Bishop there concerns himself with bizarre pronouncements (such as admonishing the faithful not to hold hands during the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer) and quashing “unorthodox hymns” that are otherwise approved for use in the Catholic church, he also has created a culture that is not only anti-LGBT, but also actively seeking out teachers and other administrators who might even hold sympathetic views toward people who are LGBT.

As a (retired) soccer referee, I dreaded officiating matches where Covington Catholic was involved. The fans were always among the rudest, most disrespectful, and mean-spirited that I’ve encountered–and I’ve refereed for a long time at almost every level of the game! Student after student has come forward over the years to try and shed light on the abuses that not just LGBT students faced, but students of color. Racial epithets and slurs were commonplace in the halls.

My point is that what we’re seeing on the (many) videos circulating should not come as a shock. It is a continuation of a long and disgusting pattern of toxicity and abuse that has been allowed and even encouraged at all levels of the school and, as far as I can tell, from the diocese.

While we might be concerning ourselves with “who moved first” or “who moved toward whom” in the video, I encourage you to reflect on this: notice the posture and demeanor of the young man. There is a troubling display of xenophobia embedded here. It’s the kind that says that white bodies (read: white, cis, straight, male bodies) can be anywhere they choose at any time, but that non-white bodies (read: non-cis, straight, male bodies) must first seek permission to exist outside of their “place.” This is a window into a perverse system that thrives on toxic, fragile masculinity embedded with xenophobia. And it’s not pretty. Let those who have ears to hear, listen.

Remember when one dìçk on this board kept asserting I was done at Marvel?

Yeah, not so much.

Read about a new Spider-Man limited series here.

Also have several other projects that haven’t been announced yet. Be patient: there’ll be information about them soon.

PAD

Bob Greenberger has begun a Kickstarter Program for a new short story collection, “Thrilling Adventure Yarns.” Anyone who is a fan of Doc Savage, the Shadow or any classic heroes of the 1930s and 40s is going to want to get on board to support it.

If we get enough money, it will include a brand new short story by me, “Professor Ironheart and the Fuhrer Bunker.” So by all means, read about it and, if you can, contribute.

You can find the Kickstarter page here.

PAD

Trump always likes to boast about being the biggest and best. In the past week, he has actually managed to achieve genuine bragging rights about something: the longest governmental shutdown in the history of the United States.

And this week we’ve seen more back and forth between two of the key players: Trump and Pelosi. Meanwhile Mitch McConnell, who has abrogated his responsibility to the three equal branches of the Constitution, has refused to send any bills to Trump that he know Trump won’t sign. Rather than, y’know, wait for the veto and then override it in the Senate, as he would have done without hesitation if Obama were still president. Screw the constitution: partisanship trumps all (no pun intended.)

Continue Reading “Freak Out Friday – January 18, 2019” →

I read an opinion piece in the Washington Post that described Trump’s reign as entering the “terrible twos,” and dissected all his behavior from the point of view of how Doctor Spock says to treat a recalcitrant two year old. It’s actually a great article that you can find here. . The point is that you know a normal two year old is going to grow out of it, but it’s becoming abundantly clear that Trump is never going to change. If anything, he’s going to get worse.

Continue Reading “Freak Out Friday – January 11, 2019” →