Comics and Fun

I got Iron Man: Extremis, and the third Ble Beetle trade. Extremis was dark and serious, with Iron Man deciding to take himself to the next level to fight a domestic terrorist who has been reborn as a biological weapon. Deciding that he needed to evolve his heroism, Iron Man uses the same stuff, Extremis, to fuse the inner part of his suit with his body. He can control the armor with his thoughts, and is now a true superhero, not just a guy in a suit. He wants to bring about the futre, and to do that, he has to be stronger. In effect, he wants to fight the past with the future. Marvel makes him the villian in the Civil War arc, which I believe was a collosal mistake. Right when this new series got good, they throw him into the role of a government inforcer. But Extremis hasn't gotten into that, and so is a great book.

Blue Beetle was serious, but not too serious, and wasn't dark at all. The Reach, evil aliens who made the Scarab, are shocked to learn he is free of their influence, but they play it cool. They can phase-hift tech out of the vision of most humans, only Blue Beetle can see them. They also start recruiting evil DC villians like Ultrahumanite (Dc villians that are not part of the Batman franchise are kinda silly, but this series can handle that). He also gets a mage for a girlfriend, who is usually out hunting vampires or helping an odd pair of detectives who took her in. In fact, much of this trade introduces the more traditional parts of DC. Jamie meets a crazy Green Lantern who helps him fight Ultrahumanite, and advises him to be more like the unpowered Blue Beetle and use strategy and longterm planning, for example. Superman shows up as well. Jamie even helps the Teen Titans (who have decided to forgo the teen designation) fight Lobo (villian for higher, basically a Superbiker with a flying motorcycle).

All in all, my exploration of traditional comics has made me realize that for all the silly things DC and Marvel make, even they can make good, fun stories.

Dean Kamen, or Punishing prosperity

Wikipedia

I check military sites, and he has impressed people with his prosthetic arm. Its people like this that make me doubt that people are ever going to be fully equal. Why shouldn't he be rewarded for all he has done? Why the heck should he pay higher taxes? I get the complaints about sports stars and executives that make bad decisions, but make loads of money, but they are the minority of the rich. True, not all the rich are Dean Kamen, but lets be honest, most of them are smarter than our government. I believe that everybody who actually pay taxes needs to be taxed at the same rate. Get rid of deductions and child tax credits (all those do is cancel out the poor peoples taxes) and just don't tax the truly poor. Everyone else should pay at the same rate.

This does mean the government gets less money, but the government has shown it is willing to waste billions, and thus does not deserve the money we give it anyway. We would just stop punishing people for earning more money, and instead punish them for actual negative behavior. Lets see, big fines for white-collar crime, wrecking property(yeah, that includes pollution), and losing peoples personal information. Not as a way too get revenue, as a way to deter these behaviors . It wouldn't be included in budget information, it would used to clean up the messes caused by cutting corners.

Bad Propaganda

This is a liberals photo of McCain, using some lighting tricks. Hmmm.... anyone else think he looks, I dunno, cool? I know it makes him look bad on the campaign trail, but noir really looks good on him. Like the grumpy old detective, looming over a suspect, or a grim king, prepared for war. The fact that liberals think it makes him look evil shows how far gone they are.

Young people are kind of into darkness, older people like old detective movies, who is this trying to scare? Liberals who would never vote for him anyway. They have to make political enemies evil, because they are too childish to discuss issues. Too bad they can't do propaganda very well. Oh, well, they don't have too, they have the media! Problem 2: no one likes the media. Ooops. Epic Fail.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

The best animated series I have ever seen. Upon my completion of the series, I can say that with conviction.
The art style was perfect, and I wish that it would be the norm. The storytelling and world building were great as well. It managed to be both simplistic and deep, never taking itself too serious, but never being too silly. 4 seasons, with a solid ending.

The world has gone mad, where's my coffea?

Um?

Germans obviously never got over their whuppin in WWII.
Mexico is worse than Palestinians, which suprises me.
Ukraine is weird, Don't Know? Maybe they haven't thought about it.

Of course, Nigeria and Kenya have experienced terrorism, maybe not from Al Qaeda, but they are smarter about it.

Weird.

Perfectionism, and why it must be exterminated.

I believe the worst ideology in modern history is perfectionism. Nazism, communism, and militant theocracies all are based in it. Capitalism, its enemy, is based on personal desire, but does not preclude helping others or feeding the poor. Capitalism is not perfect, and never claims to be. All the perfectionists want is a perfect world, and they don't care how many die in making that world.

Eugenics, a weapon of the Nazi wing of perfectionism, has made a comeback in recent years, with 90% of babies with Down Syndrome being killed, and more advanced screening allowing men and women to find and exterminate imperfect humans. What is the response to pointing this out? Abject horror that you would question "women's rights", not horror that we are choosing to act as Nazis.

Communism takes a less genetic path towards perfection, full economic equality. Not equality under the law, mind you, but something more sinister. Harrison Bergeron, a fascinating short story by Kurt Vonnegut, tells why this is a bad idea by switching economic equality with physical equality. Its best read, but the jist is this, a smart, strong young boy is shot because he is strong and smart, and thus not equal to others.

A big error in reasoning comes here. People assume that Nazis and Commies are different because they go about implementing perfection in a opposite manner. Nazis wanted the best to rule over the rest, Communists cared about the rest. However, look at the truth of how Russia was run. The party bosses had more than the workers. So, the Nazis were just more honest.

Militant theocracies are the oldest form of perfectionism, worship our god and nobody gets hurt. They often try to make people perfect on earth. They all fail. However, their ideas were passed on to secular people, who still like the idea of a perfect world. The Nazis and Communists fail as well, but leach their ideas into even American culture. Radical environmentalists change the definition of perfect to be living like animals, Radical islamists continue trying militant theocracy, and some idiot philosopher believe that imperfect children should die.

How to exterminate it? Well, shooting works, and when perfectionists start wars, they should be crushed with brutal force. But the wrongheaded philosopher and radical ecofreak need to be confronted with ideas and facts. Even if they are too far gone to be reached, you cannot let them go unchallenged.

Soul Eater, or, why fantasy doesn't bug me.

Soul Eater is an odd anime about three very powerful kid spirits and their weapons, who are also people. Now, many people assume that a Christian can't enjoy such oddness. Now, if my main problems were not knowing the difference between reality and fantasy, I wouldn't watch these kinds of shows. I can't stand reality TV with spirits and demons, as its fake, but the truth is it won't hurt most people.

The truth is, whats on standard TV these days is worse than ever. The Japanese have a very similar problem, of course, but at least they add weirdness to it. I mean, watching trashy dating shows and contests between people who revel in their malicousness is something I could never do, because petty malicousness is a major problem for me. Japanese Grim Reapers blasting through insanity is way more my style.