JMS, the man who developed Babylon 5, works on the Spider-Man comic book also developed a mini-comic book series called Rising Stars. Rising Stars is a limited series comic book about 113 children who are given super human powers and how they grow up and deal with it (along with their peers and their government -- the United States in this case). The story started out well but JMS, who seems unable to get along with anyone (that's right fan boys, I think JMS has some ego problems) stopped ...

I'm not one of those people who is nastalgic for the good old days. That's because looking at a beloved old movie, book, or computer game usually leads to the destruction of that good memory. We remember things being better than they really were. One of my guilty pleasures in life is comic books. I have comic books from the 50s, 60s, 70s, and of course contemporary ones. The golden age of comics wasn't. Simplistic plots, poor artwork, and cliched premises were the norm. Today's comic books ar...

At first I detested the new Battlestar Galactica. Starbuck a girl? Way too much sex, not enough substance. The show has come along nicely since then. I'm really enjoying it.

Draginol wrote an essay outlining what he seems to think are misconceptions about conservatives. That's fine and good but there is no shortage of misconceptions about American liberals. ...let me count the ways... Liberals like to spend other people's money. No, the difference is that liberals are just not nearly as money-conscious as conservatives. We make life choices that don't lead to material wealth. Just because we tend to choose careers that involve enriching our culture, teacher ...

If and when Kerry wins the election, the world will not come to an end as some right-wingers seem to think. Kerry's positions are fairly straight forward unless you're a Republican where it all gets fuzzy. I think that's a result of putting ones hands over ones ears and yelling "I can't hear you!" Kerry on Iraq: Work harder to internationalize the situation and with a better team is likely to get more international support. Then begin a phased pull-out of American forces over the course of...

     Does anyone really care that much about what Bush or Kerry was doing 35 years ago? Yes, it looks like the CBS memos are forged . So what though, it doesn't change the fact that Bush was a goof off during his National Guard time. But will that change anybody's vote? I doubt it.      What do these two men offer for our future? Bush wants to solve our growing health care costs with "private accounts" for health care. I guess these are suppos...

    George W. Bush is going down this Fall. Well...at least if Kerry is smart enough to put together a campaign strategy based on statistical analysis. Bush is very vulnerable but not in the ways Kerry seems to think.     Kerry already has the votes of progressives such as myself. We're all motivated to remove Bush. He doesn't need to do too much to mobilize his base. We'd vote for Kerry no matter what. Anyone but Bush is our mantra. On the other hand, I don'...

Summary: Lionel seems to be coming closer to learning Clark's secret, and goes to Dr. Swann for help. Meanwhile, it seems that Jonathan is somehow communicating with Jor-El, and the consequences of the deal the two of them made are coming to the forefront. Thoughts: Blech. Nothing special. It has Christopher Reeve in it which is good. But it just didn't really go anywhere. Raises lots of questions but not very self contained.

    Bush and the Republicans have betrayed their own neo-con brethren. And for what? Do they think progressive America is gullible enough not to see their clumsy attempts to buy their votes? Prescription drug benefit? How about just a big government hand out to the drug companies? Help for farmers? More like subsidies for agribusiness. Tax cuts to stimulate the economy? More like a huge hand out to rich people to cover their losses from when they screwed the pooch during the dot-c...

I hate Lana Lang. There, I said it. I just can't stand her character. The Lana-less portion of the episode was excellent though. This season has really picked up steam since the return from "the break". Last week's episode was great too. In this episode, a freak accident causes Clark to temporarily lose his vision. During that time, his super hearing power makes its first appearance. Clark can now, when he concentrates, hear things from incredible distances. The main story had to do w...

    We live in a society that has increasing access to information but seemingly less willing to actually make use of that information. Every 4 years politicians will argue that things aren't as good as they were in some past golden age in an effort to win the election.     Nowhere is this myth propagated more than in the area of standard of living. People are told by unscrupulous politicians that today you need two wage earners to make ends meet. Politicians don...

    Mad cow disease has arrived in the United States. The US of A is the world's largest exporter of beef and with countries quickly moving to temporarily suspend imports of American beef, the US cattle industry could be in very very big trouble. Should we worry? I do only because I will feel bad for the people who lose their jobs. On the other hand...it will be very interesting to see how this happened in the first place.     Mad cow disease doesn't just happe...

Saw Return of the King Today. I very much enjoyed it. It could have used a little editing to weed out some scenes that needed to be tightened up and the pacing at times was slow. But wow. What a masterpiece of movie making. LOTR will go down as the greatest movie trilogy of all time. It is simply astoundingly good. The crap that was Matrix Reloaded helps remind us how even the best of concepts can go terribly bad and so the excellence of Return of the King shouldn't be taken for granted. ...

    The problem with rich people in the United States is that too many of them think buy into the line that they are truly self-starters. That they "did it on their own". No American "does it on their own". Being rich means, first and foremost, that you happened to be lucky enough to be born in the United States. Think about what the United States provides a would-be rich person... The world's largest single language common market The world's largest, m...

Justice League Episode Guide I'm starting from season 2 because this was the season when they started targeting adults. The results have been amazing. Smarter stories, better dialog, and more interesting characters. It's not that season 1 was "bad" but it was a kid's show with "standard kiddie plots". Season 2 Episode Name Description Review Twilight Darkseid tricks the justice league to help him in a plot t...