This observation actually comes from my wife:
The police in Highland Park, IL were able to arrest a white suspect accused of killing at least six people and injuring dozens more without firing a shot, despite the fact that the suspect had a rifle in his car when they stopped him.
The police in Akron, OH, had to fire some 90 rounds, hitting the black suspect in a "traffic stop" 60 times and killing him--even though he was running from them after leaving his weapon in his car.
This occurred to me just this morning: Have the Republicans inadvertently become the proverbial dog who caught the car?
For the past 50 years, the GOP campaign has relied on primarily two issues to drive their base to the polls: abortion and guns. It has worked because the voters for whom those two issues are important (and they are not necessarily always the same voters) are, for the most part, one-issue voters. For the misnamed pro-life crowd, if a politician was opposed to abortion and supported the overturning of Roe v. Wade, it didn't matter what else he or she supported. Nothing else mattered. For the strident Second Amendment supporters, if the politician would vote against even the most reasonable gun control measures, nothing else was important.
Well now, at least for the abortion issue, the fight is over. Roe v. Wade has been scrapped. There's no longer anything to drive those one-issue voters to the polls, at least in federal level elections. (There may still be states where the issue will remain a controversy in the legislature or in governor's races, but on the congressional and Presidential levels, it's a done-deal.) So, can the GOP still count on those folks as committed Republican voters? Hell, can they can count on them to vote at all? They've won the only fight they cared about, why would they bother?
Does this mean a serious diminution of Republican power at the ballot box? I think it might.
I needed a day to process what I was going to say on this.
Yesterday, I was glad I never had daughters, but saddened for my brother, who has two, my nephew who has three, and all my other relatives and friends who have daughters and granddaughters. I will never face (unless one of my sons begets a girl) what each of them may now someday deal with--a loved child or grandchild who cannot get the medical care she needs.
I know how even the best birth control can fail. My first son was conceived while my wife was "on the pill". I know how complications can arise in even a well-cared-for pregnancy; my wife had to go on bed rest for the final trimester of her first pregnancy and underwent an emergency C-section when the doctors could not get an adequate response from the monitoring equipment during labor. (Fortunately, there was nothing really wrong--just my recalcitrant son lying in an odd position in the womb.)
No patient should have their legitimate options in such a situation curtailed by a legislature's or judge's view of when "life begins." That should only be between the parents (and primarily the mother), their doctor, and their religion (whichever one, if any, that may be). I am not, personally, in favor of "abortion-on-demand"...but that is my personal belief and it should not be imposed on anyone else, anymore than my personal belief that liver is unedible. (You like liver? Go for it--just don't expect me to join you. And if I decide an abortion is the right choice for my situation, I won't ask you to participate.)
One last thing--pay heed to Justice Thomas's dissent, in which he suggests that other rulings (such as the ones in favor of contraception, criminalization of gay sex and gay marriage) based on much the same interpretation should be re-examined. (I note he does not include the long-standing decision on inter-racial marriage--also based on that interpretation. Perhaps it strikes too close to home?)
Been quite a while since I posted, but two recent incidents lead me to finally do so.
Just over a week ago, a police chase involving multiple cop cars speeding around the area (apparently in pursuit of a thief from the local Home Depot) ended literally outside my door, though thankfully on the other side of the street. (I live on a major road, just off the intersection with a secondary road and near a shopping center and the police station.) I didn't get any pictures of that.
But yesterday afternoon, about 5:00 PM, a big tractor-trailer (operated by Wawa, regional convenience store chain) broke down, again right outside my house, this time on my side of the street and blocking my driveway. The driver, when I asked, explained that his transmission was "busted" and pointed to the leak of fluid coming from the vehicle.
Never a dull moment around here.
My local papet, The Delaware County Daily Times, has a feature called "Sound Off" in which readers can call or e-mail with anonymous commentary on news or local events or just a personal pet peeve.
Today, it included what has to be the most heartless two paragraphs I have ever read in my life. At first, I thought the author was dealing in sarcasm, but by the second paragraph I knew she was deadly (and I mean that adverb literally) serious. Here it is in its entirety:
NOTHING TO SEE HERE
I hate these school shootings! Every single time there’s one, the same people start with the whining. “Oh the guns! Oh the guns are bad! We have to do something about all the guns!” Here’s what needs to be done about all the guns. Nothing. That’s right. Nothing. Because it’s not the big awful problem these dummies try to make it out to be. These Dumocrats, they exaggerate everything. Look, there are tens of millions of schoolkids in the country. In any given year, how many get gunned down?
A couple dozen, maybe three dozen in a busier year. Out of so many millions of kids, that’s nothing! Look, COVID was another big exaggeration, but more kids probably died from that than from school shootings. Just stop with the moaning. Crying about it only makes more people want to shoot up schools. Stop making those shootings front-page news. There’s more important things going on, like how Biden is destroying the country.
MARCI
I have nothing more to say.
After nearly 50 years, it's tough for me to remember these events exactly, but I first recall meeting George Perez at Jim Glenn's home in Brooklyn in 1975 (maybe '76). Jim and I had just published the second issue of our fanzine, Factors Unknown, and up until then, it had consisted only of stuff Jim and I had done, including our creations the Hazardman and the Symbiote. I don't remember where Jim encountered George (and his friend Tom Sciacca) but they were there to show us some pages to publish in the the next issue.
That got George noticed by pro artist Rich Buckler, who hired him as an assistant--and that got George noticed by the editors at Marvel. His career took off rapidly, with assignments to marquee titles like Fantastic Four and Avengers. He never looked back after that.
I am very proud to have had a small part in introducing this talent to the world...and I am extremely sad now at his passing.
There's so much I could say about George Perez, who died on Friday at the age of 67 after a battle with cancer, but I need time to work it all out in my head (and my heart). He was still a teenager and I was barely out of college when we met, so I have to work through a lot of memory and history.
I'll get to it.
Neal had a reputation for being simultaneously generous to newcomers in the business (undoubtedly remembering his own difficulties breaking in) and, at times, rough on those he felt didn't meet his standards. Those familiar with his work do not need me to give a list of the major characters and titles he worked on and usually improved. He introduced a more "photo-realistic" look to superhero comics, one that he developed in his time working in advertising and newspaper comic strips. (He notably drew the comic-strip version of the TV series Ben Casey, as well as "ghosting" on other strips over the years.) He was instrumental in getting DC Comics and Warner Bros. to restore Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's creator credits on Superman (including the first movie). He went on to similar campaigns for other creators.
In addition to obituaries in all the usual places, his passing is noted in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, and on Twitter by celebrities such as Guillermo del Toro, and James Gunn.
I doubt I have to explain what this post is about, but just in case:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/27/entertainment/will-smith-chris-rock/index.html
Anyway, today on Morning Joe, they were actually criticizing Will Smith for only apologizing to the Academy and not to Chris Rock. I think they have that backward--Chris Rock should have made a public apology to Jada Pinkett Smith for making her medical condition the subject of an ad-libbed joke (and don't try to claim he didn't know why she shaves her head--she's discussed it openly on line and on TV--plus he has a history of taking shots at her:
After Pinkett Smith boycotted the 2016 Oscars ceremony for its lack of diversity, that year’s host, Rock, suggested in his opening monologue that the actress wasn’t even invited to the show in the first place. “Jada went mad,” he began. “Jada says she’s not coming. Protesting.” Then he quipped, “Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties. I wasn’t invited!”
Rock went on to poke fun at Smith, who many had pegged as a lock to be nominated that year for his work in Concussion. “Jada’s mad her man Will was not nominated for Concussion. I get it,” Rock said. “It’s also not fair that Will was paid $20 million for Wild Wild West.” [https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-news/will-smith-chris-rock-jada-pinkett-smith-history-timeline-1328492/]
What do you think?
The snow ended here about noon time, after tapering off for about an hour. We ended up with about six inches of light powdery stuff, relatively easy to clear. I have now cleared the driveway and gotten the car out, including a trip to the store to replenish my salt supply.
The very kind young lady who lives at the other end of the block used her massive snow blower to do everybody's sidewalks, including clearing the plow leavings from the entrance to my driveway.
The main drag we live on, which is officially a state road, was plowed and salted by PennDOT and is clean to the pavement. Other roads are plowed but still have a coating of packed snow; not hard or dangerous to drive on so long as you aren't reckless.
Well, Amy Schneider's run on Jeopardy! ended yesterday, after 40 straight wins that put her in second place for all-time streaks, between Ken Jennings and Matt Amodio. I had an inkling she might be at an end when I saw two different on-line pieces about her, both discussing how difficult it is for long-run champions to keep their secret. One of them included the kind of questions I can only imagine she would answer after she had finally lost.
There was also a hint when the contestant who ultimately beat her, Rhone Talsma, a librarian from Chicago, dominated the early play in the first round, hardly letting Schneider get in at all. He also hit two of the three Daily Doubles: he missed the first one, but crucially went all in on the last one, putting him within striking distance of Schneider's total.
Then, in Final Jeopardy, he was the only one with the correct answer, finishing with a total just $2000 bigger than Schneider's to that point...and Schneider, perhaps over confident, had wagered $8000, putting her about $10,000 behind Talsma.
The Champions tournament later this season should be very interesting, with both the second and third-place all-time winners competing. I expect we'll see them head-to-head in the finals (but not before, if the producers are smart in how they arrange the quarter- and semi-finals).
Covid is playing havoc with community theater productions throughout the local area. One theater has stripped its schedule down to the bare minimum, canceling two productions outright and moving the shows set for its smaller "black-box" venue to the main stage. Another cancelled its annual "murder mystery" dinner theater production. A third just had to cancel a performance of its current production when one of the actors tested positive and plans--for now--to add an extra performance next weekend.
The show I'm working on has had a few scares, mostly handled just by re-arranging who is called for specific rehearsals. We're all hoping things will be much quieter, Covid-wise, by the time our performances begin in late March.
One of our local TV stations prides itself on its weather coverage and whenever there's even a chance of a bad storm they issue what they call a "First Alert," and begin talking about it as much as three days or more ahead. Of course, like most TV stations, their signal reaches a wide area--in our case from the Jersey shore to nearly Lancaster, from southern Delaware to the Poconos. That means, in most cases, a wide range of impact for most weather events.
Case in point: Starting early this week, they began talking about a winter storm coming in late Wednesday night into Thursday morning, and predicting rain changing over to snow, with freezing rain or sleet mixed in, and snow totals anywhere from one to six inches. Our particular neighborhood, located on the famed I-95 corridor, was told to expect one to three inches, followed by below-freezing temperatures which would rapidly turn everything to ice.
So, what happened? Well, it started raining around midnight on Wednesday, just as they said, and turned to snow about 10 AM Thursday. But the temperatures stayed above freezing throughout, so the snow never accumulated--not even on unpaved surfaces. It just hit the relatively warm water already on the ground and melted.
Temperatures did plummet--but not until after dark (it's about 16 degrees as I write this), long after any rain water left had either seeped into the ground or run into the storm sewers, so the warnings of "black ice" (at least around us) were false alarms as well.
I think the TV meteorologists have to begin targeting their forecasts more closely.
Has the world of crypto-currency and money laundering at last intruded upon comic-book collecting?
It is further speculated that the price was actually paid in crypto-currency; such deals for artwork (though never before for comics art, as far as anyone knows) are said to be a frequent method for laundering illicit income, especially by foreign entities.
Certainly, absent the current interest in Venom, the page would never have reached such an astronomical price--the pre-auction estimate was $330,000 (and I think even that is incredibly inflated).
This post is in the way of an apology to the producers and writers of The Book of Boba Fett, A few days ago, I complained that they had apparently ignored the relationship between Fett and the Tuskens in setting up the "current day" portion of their story. This week, they corrected that "error"--which I admit was not one--by showing that the Pikes (the fish-like aliens who ran the train through the Tusken territory) wiped out the Tuskens in revenge, while Fett was away.
In addition, except for that one scene, they avoided flashbacks for the most part this time around, finally telling a story that was predominantly about Fett's struggle to control his domain. A good part of it, though, was simply a Tattooine-based version of a classic urban car chase in any contemporary crime caper--it was fun, but the various tropes they included were just too obvious.
This is not necessarily a COVID-related question, but for some it might be.
What's one thing you haven't done in a long time that you miss doing? As I thought about this last night, I realized that, for me, it's something that long pre-dates the pandemic. It's been several years since I saw a live, professional performance anywhere. Play, concert, whatever--I honestly can't remember the last one I saw. It might have been the Billy Joel/Elton John show at Citizens Bank Park about ten years ago. I really can't recall anything I've seen since then.
I've seen numerous very well-done amateur performances (and been in a few, too). I've seen recorded live performances, such as David Tennant's turn in Hamlet that played as, I think, a Fathom Events show in theaters a few years back.
But I haven't seen a live performance, with me in the audience surrounded by others, in ages. I miss it.
Temperatures today are not expected to break 30, with a wind chill dropping the "feels-like" to the high teens. By tomorrow morning, it will be even worse--air temperature high in the low 20s, wind-chill taking it to about 11 or 12....and morning low not getting out of the single digits.
Of course, by Thursday, it'll be in the mid-40s. I haven't been on a roller coaster like this since my last visit to Six Flags!
Watched the second episode of The Book of Boba Fett last night. I have a couple of problems with this series, which really began with the first episode and have not been corrected with the second (if anything, they have been exacerbated).
The first is the extreme reliance on flashbacks to give us Boba Fett's backstory--a backstory that, so far, seems to have little relevance to his current situation. Why is he not relying on his close relationship with the Tuskens in his position as the new boss on Tattooine? Why use the apparently unreliable Gamorreans (after all, they turned on their last two employers)?
The second is the content of that backstory. Last night, my first impression was that this was just a new version of the first several chapters of Edgar Rice Burroughs' A Princess of Mars, as John Carter is first captured and then ingratiates himself with the Tharks. On second thought, I realized it was really all based on T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and his campaign to assist the Arabs in fighting the motorized forces of the Germans. In either interpretation, it all smacks of the "great white savior" trope, doesn't it?
Anyone else see it all this way?
I suspect many of you will expect a posting about the events of a year ago today, but I have nothing to say on the subject I have not said before or has not been said by others, more eloquently and more cogently than I could.
But I will take this opportunity to make the formal announcement of my next theater project:
https://spotlighttheatrepa.org/2021-2022-season/the-lion-in-winter/
"...Don't do that...."
I've been having a minor health problem--not COVID, something entirely unrelated to that--and last Thursday afternoon I had a telemedicine conference with my doctor to discuss it. She said she would put in a prescription for me at my pharmacy to see if it helped. Normally, when she does that, the prescription is filled within a few hours.
This time, not so much. By mid-afternoon on Friday, the pharmacy said they had not even heard from the doctor yet. So, I called the doctor's office to inquire--they were closed. OK, it was New Year's Eve, maybe they closed early...but still, why hadn't the scrip been called in on Thursday?
I called the doctor again yesterday...and they were closed at 10 AM (usually they open around 8). Tried later, still closed. We had snow predicted, maybe they decided to close out of caution. (We actually got only a dusting.) Now, I'm annoyed: Tell me you're going to take a step to help treat my condition (admittedly, not life-threatening, but still) and then close for four days without doing so?
Am I wrong to think the doctor's office dropped the ball on this one?
Ever had a period of time where you simply lost track of what day of the week it is? That's how it's been for me over the past ten days or so.
Part of it may be the timing of this year's holidays. With Christmas and New Year falling on Saturday, it seemed as though the weekend began on Friday, with the eves of both those celebrations...so Saturday became Sunday and the rest of the week simply a blur. Of course, being retired, the work week means much less to me now than it did two years ago, but I still keep track because Jill is still working full-time.
But she works from home...and her business is closed from December 23 until January 3, so that no longer mattered for the last ten days, either. Add in that all that means we have not been keeping to our usual morning routine, either--sleeping late, for instance, nearly every day this week. (Although "sleeping late" in this house means getting up at 7 or 7:30 instead of 6, so.....)
So, today is Sunday, right? I think....
