He Said What Now?

A few days ago, Comic Book Resources did a feature on comic book panels that either the passage of time or the absence of context now seem, well, weird.

I wanted to share a few panels from some of the classic DC Comics that CBR featured in it's article.

Let's start with a panel from a Batman vs. Joker story.

The theme of the joker's crime spree?

Boners!

Boners refers to jokes or pranks that backfire; instead of having "fun" at the expense of the target, the instigator is humiliated.

The Joker does not like to be humiliated. This was back in the days when the Joker wouldn't kill you for that. Nope, he just goes for wilder and crazier gags.

What's really funny about this story is the sheer frequency of the word "boner". As you see in the panel above the joker gets two boners in one word balloon.

OK, that last sentence sounded skeevier than I intended.

Here's this panel from Justice League of America.

That 75% of the civilians in danger are our heroes' girlfriends can't help to cast Batman's worried thoughts in a different light. Frederic Wortham would've had a field day with that; he was the psychologist who posited that Batman and Robin were in a gay relationship. And remember that Robin is the BOY Wonder which makes that even more iffy. 

Hey, guys. Somebody's got to set Batman up.

And here's Aquaman, a MAN of the SEA and you know where this is going....

Of course, in those long ago, more innocent days, who would find something naughty about "seaman"? 

Check out this blog post from July 2013 where I imagine one of the creators of Aquaman sparing him a most unfortunate name. 

Remember, the men who chart courses over the sea deserve our respect. So don't pull any boners on seamen. (Blog, what have I done to you?) 

Oh No! Not Again!

Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was "Oh no! Not again!" Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the universe than we do now.

        Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

And you may well think the same thing when you see the topic of today's post, Donald Trump. 

"Oh no! Not again!"

Are you tired of hearing about Donald Trump? Of course you are! You're an intelligent person and attractive probably. You've got better things to do than read more about that bloated orange skinned, small handed lump of semi-literate protoplasm trying to pass himself off as a human being.

Well, I’m sure as hell tired of writing about him. 

But when every day brings a new dread of how Trump will embarrass us as a country yet again, every day brings a new fear that he will seriously and fundamentally harm this country, it’s hard to think of anything else.  

I mean, if he were somehow held in check by the rest of the government, maybe we could relax a bit. “Don’t worry, that nuclear button is from Playskool. He doesn’t get the real thing!” Maybe put some Call Of Duty on his TV but tell him its footage of the army kicking ISIS’s butt; Li’l Donnie will sink into his oversized chair with a KFC drumstick in one hand and a contented smile on his face. No harm, no foul. Don’t worry, nobody’s letting him do anything for real. He’s happy, he gets to play “President” without actually hurting anyone.  

But no. The House and the Senate Republicans have got their heads so far up Trump’s ass, they can see out of his nostrils. Why? Why enable and appease such a dangerously stupid man-like creature? Because the hardcore conservatives want to push through big tax breaks for the wealthy, big cuts to the social safety net for the poor and basically get their way. And they have a “friend” in the White House. Li’l Donnie will sign off on whatever they send him. He likes signing things. It makes him look like a big boy. 

So House and the Senate Republicans have put their ideology and their party ahead of the country’s best interests. Because you would have to be so frickin’ stupid to not see that Trump is profoundly and terribly unqualified for the job of President. Maybe some of them are just that stupid but most are just that short sighted; it’s all about holding on to power today, the consequences to the future be damned. 

And today is another damn day of this shit.  

"Oh no! Not again!"

Yes, dear reader, I know you're tired. I'm tired! But there are forces at work against the best interests of this country and its citizens. We cannot become complacent with this set of so-called political leaders or we become complicit in their misdeeds. 

I'm sorry, I truly am. But as long as there remains a threat to America (and trust me, Trump and his gang of enablers in the Capitol are a threat), we need to keep reminding ourselves that this not normal. 

So yeah, more posts to come about Trump.

Or as the bowl of petunias put it: 

If You're Not Sufficiently Afraid

There's nothing more that right wing rabble rousers like to do more than stir up a controversy where none exists. And a favorite topic of the hard right is the war against Sharia law in the Unites States.  

Sharia, or Islamic law is the law that governs a community or state that is derived from the religious precepts of Islam, particularly the Quran and the Hadith. 

The manner of its application in modern times has been a subject of dispute between Muslim traditionalists and reformists. In short, just because you're a Muslim does not mean you're a follower of Sharia law. 

The application of Sharia law tends to follow a stringent view of Islam and is used by radical terrorists like ISIS to subjugate people, particularly women.  

But there as been a movement for several years on the hard right that Sharia law is a real and present danger in the United States, that there are communities, towns and cities that are under Sharia law. 

There is no community, town or city in the United States that is under Sharia law. There is no factual evidence that any community, town or city in the United States wants to subvert our laws to Sharia law. 

But that hasn't stopped fearmongerers from espousing Sharia law as an immediate threat. This weekend saw "March Against Sharia" events across the country.  

Now there are some who will say they have nothing against Muslims; they just don't think that Muslims should allowed to force people to live under Sharia law. Not that anyone is doing that, asking to do that and probably couldn't do that legally anyway. 

Others are more open about their hostility to Muslims.   

The “March Against Sharia” in cities such as St. Paul, Minnesota, Seattle, Washington, and New York City attracted Islamophobic hate group members, neo-Nazis and white supremacists ― all to rally against the completely nonexistent threat of Sharia law in the U.S.

That bears repeating: these are protests against the completely nonexistent threat of Sharia law in the U.S.

Packaging hate as being against Sharia law is a softer sale that being against  Muslims. But for these groups, there really is no difference.  For example, the rallies were spearheaded by Act for America, described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-Muslim hate group. 

We must be on our guard. The forces of hate are cowardly and will mask their fearful beliefs under something that seems benign. The “March Against Sharia” is an example of such cowardice, people creating a crisis where none exists to better aim their hate at people who are not like them. 

Which underscores the primary weapon of such small minded people: fear. And if you're not sufficiently afraid, they will make you afraid of something, even of threats that do not exist.  

That's all for today. 

Please remember to be good to one another.  

Batman Was Really Adam West

I heard the news Saturday morning that Adam West had died at age 88. 88 years, not a bad run. It was leukemia that took him but up until then, Adam West was still active, physically and mentally in good shape. His battle with leukemia was short; but I've seen people put up longer battles against the dreaded disease and you have to wonder that staying alive is hardly a mercy. 

Living a long life with your wits about you and your body still able to function, then when it's time to die, a disease takes you out quick but with enough time to say goodbye. If you gotta go (and there is no "if" about it), there are worse ways to go. 

OK, I'm getting a bit morbid. As one gets older while watching death claim the remnants of youth one by one by one, it's hard to not get darkly introspective.  

Let's go to 1989. I was telling my mom about this cool Batman movie that was coming out. My mom said she might want to see it; she really liked Adam West. 

I explained that this movie was going to different from the TV show. Adam West would not be Batman. 

My mom did not care for that. How can someone else be Batman? There was only one Batman and that was Adam West.

She could be stubborn like that. 

My relationship with Batman as Adam West was a bit more complicated. As I child, I enjoyed the colorful adventures of the Dynamic Duo that aired after I got out of school.  As I got older, I got "tingly" whenever Batgirl was on screen. 

Like most comic book fans of the Caped Crusader, I grew to see the Batman TV show as an embarrassment. That's not how Batman was supposed to be. He was a dark avenger of justice, not some brightly garbed, walking in the daylight quasi-policeman.  

It was probably not until my 40's that I began to realize, Batman on TV was a joke and it was a good joke made all the more amusing by the skill of the man at the center of it, Adam West. 

In the midst of all the day-glo absurdity of the Batman TV show, Adam West played Batman seriously which only heightened the comedic tension. It also served to save Batman; he may have been part of the joke but Adam's Batman was himself not a joke. 

As much as us "serious" Batman fans thought the Batman TV show was a silly aberration, it was a show that created a renewed interest in Batman and in comic books. The 1970s were a rough time for the comics industry; imagined if there had not been surge in popularity in the mid to late 1960s? 

Where would we be without Batman by Adam West? 

Thank you, Adam West. Thank you for being Batman, for saving Batman. You had a good run. Now rest easy. If you see my mom up there, say "hi". She was a big fan. 

That's all for today. Don't forget, the Doctor Who episode recap and review are posting as of the next Saturday after it airs. 

Until next time remember to be good to one another.  

Doctor Who Is NEW!: The Lie of the Land

Hi there! Tonight is another new episode of Doctor Who as the Doctor and Bill go to Mars and meet the Ice Warriors. And some Victorian era soldiers too? 

How very H. G. Wells. 

But before we can move forward, we must reflect back to last week's episode. 

The story on that after the break.

The Lie of the Land

by Toby Whithouse

The Monks have ruled the Earth for millions of years, guiding human development.

Except, no, they haven't. Bill Potts and a few others are aware of the truth: the Monks have only been present on Earth for six months. Admitting that gets your butt tossed into prison for "memory crimes".

Well, the Doctor must be on the case, getting ready to apply a swift kick to Monks' backsides and off earth.

About that....

The Doctor is appearing on television praising the Monks' guidance and benevolence.

Bill's holding to the truth by imagining she's talking to her long-dead mother, based on pictures the Doctor gave her. It's weird but it works.

Nardole shows up (Yay! Not dead! Also not mindwarped by the Monks). Bill and Nardole go on a mission with a commando team to an old ship where the Doctor is being held captive.

OK, about that...


Doctor tells Bill he is cooperating with the Monks, willingly. Well, why not? Humanity was doomed without  guidance. Might as well be the Monks. Could be worse; it could've been the Daleks. 

So this is about all Bill can take. she grabs a gun from a commando and (Bang! Bang!) shoots the Doctor, who starts regenerating. 

Now, about that. 

The Doctor stops and tells Bill the entire scenario was a test by Nardole, the Doctor and the team, to make sure Bill was not under the influence of the Monks.

So Bill is not under the influence of the Monks. She IS under the influence of being ticked off at the Doctor for messing with her like that. 

But we ain't got time for that. The Doctor needs to talk to someone who is almost as smart as he is.

After quietly and calmly bringing the ship to shore... No, I mean the exact opposite of 'quietly and calmly". Nothing scarier than hearing this Doctor laugh maniacally.

Where was I?

So it's back to the University and the mysterious vault the Doctor and Nardole have been guarding. And inside, we find...

OK, it's Missy. No, that shouldn't be a surprise. We were told two weeks ago Missy was in there. But c'mon, it's Moffat! Since when has he followed a straight line? You hear, "Missy's in the vault" but you're thinking there's a catch right?

So, hello, Missy. 

The Moff tricked me by not tricking me.

Missy has encountered the Monks before and she knows how to stop them. The person who gives consent serves as a psychic link to the numerous Monk statues that are all over the Earth that send out their mind controlling broadcast. Missy defeated the Monks by killing the psychic link.   

The Doctor is not having any of that! No one's going take Bill's life if he has anything to say about it. And he thinks he does.  

The Doctor, Bill, Nardole, and the commandos infiltrate the Monks' pyramid in London . The Doctor's going to plug his brain into the psychic transmission. The Monks have other ideas and the Doctor is overpowered.  

Over the Doctor's protests, Bill plugs herself in but seems to be heading for defeat and death. But then the Monks' broadcast is replaced with images of Bill's mother. 

Bill never knew her mother so she's made up an imaginary version of her mother to talk to. It's made up; it's not real. But Bill's love for her mother is real. 

People of Earth, wake up! People don't remember the Monks. 

Meanwhile, the Monks hi-tail it off Earth as fast as that pyramid can carry them. 

The day is saved! The end. 

OK, about that...

We have one last scene in the vault with the Doctor and Missy.  Missy expresses remorse for those she has killed.

NOW... the end.  

The Lie of the Land concludes the Monk trilogy and is the weakest episode of the three. Maybe even the season? 

The episode starts off strong. Bill's fear and paranoia of living under the Monks rule is palpable. Everything is wound up so tight and the pressure is building. 

Then the Doctor fakes a regeneration. (Why? Does Bill know what a regeneration looks like? Does she know what a regeneration is? If not, why the light show? Knowing the doctor, because it looked cool.)  

And it all unwinds from there.  

In the two episodes prior, The Monks stealth and planning made them formidable adversaries. The Monks are now just ugly mind controlling alien monsters.  Compared to the first half's tight plotting, the second half is more nebulous. The Doctor sticks his head into a plot device. It doesn't work. The Bill hooks up to the plot device and it works thanks to the healing power of love. Or something.  

The third act of a trilogy is always the toughest.

Let me just say that Pearl Mackie is a gift to this show; her portrayal of Bill is nuanced and complex, unfolding week after week. 

Matt Lucas as Nardole continues to delight with a persona that is goofball and badass in his own singular style. 

And Peter Capaldi's Doctor gets to do what he doesn't usually: grin. 

And laugh maniacally.

The Lie of the Land is not a bad story; it just succumbs to same problems of a lot of 3rd acts of trilogies. 

"All that complex stuff you did in parts 1 and 2? We ain't got time for that for part 3. We got a plot that needs finishing off." 

I will be watching with the family tonight as the Doctor and Bill travel to Mars. What is the secret of... "the Empress of Mars"? We'll find out tonight.

Until next time, remember to be good to one another.  

We've Always Been At War With Eastasia

In the book 1984, there is a state of perpetual war between Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia, the superstates which emerged from a global atomic war. Eeach state is so strong it cannot be defeated, even with the combined forces of two superstates—despite changing alliances. To hide such contradictions, history is re-written to explain that the (new) alliance always was so; the populaces accustomed to doublethink accept it. At the start of the book, Oceania and Eastasia are allies fighting Eurasia in northern Africa and the Malabar Coast.

That alliance ends and Oceania, allied with Eurasia, fights Eastasia. In mid-sentence an orator changes the name of the enemy from "Eurasia" to "Eastasia" without pause. When the public are enraged at noticing that the wrong flags and posters are displayed, they tear them down—thus the origin of the idiom "We've always been at war with Eastasia".

Yesterday, I wrote on this blog:

Dear sweet Jesus on a pogo stick but Li’l Donnie is incredibly stupid. He really thought that firing James Comey as FBI Director would make the Russia stuff go away?

Every piece of info up until this point backs that up. Trump told his Russian visitors that a lot of pressure regarding the FBI investigation was relieved by firing James Comey. He told NBC’s Lester Holt he had fired Comey because of “the Russia thing”. On top of all that, Li’l Donnie really thought that Republicans and Democrats would both be happy that he fired Comey.

Apparently that wasn’t so. 

The Republican National Committee says President Donald Trump knew that firing FBI Director James Comey would be "detrimental to his presidency" but believed it was the right thing to do for the country.

That's among the talking points the RNC is providing to Trump backers. Republicans also say the president does want the Russia investigations to move forward, an argument the White House has used against Democrats who say Trump fired Comey in an effort to halt the FBI probe.

"We've always been at war with Eastasia"

This 'n' That Thursday

Hi there! Dave-El here but NOT in the Fortress of Ineptitude. Taking a break at lunch to update the blog thing.

 

Sorry about yesterday’s poop & vomit themed post. Then I made it worse by bringing up Donald Trump.

 

Dear sweet Jesus on a pogo stick but Li’l Donnie is incredibly stupid. He really thought that firing James Comey as FBI Director would make the Russia stuff go away? He really didn’t see he was just pouring gasoline on a smoldering fire.

And that fire got hotter today with Comey testifying to the Senate.  Comey was out the gate with a strong comment on the Trump White House: that Comey was "defamed" and they flat out lied about him and his firing.  As for Trump’s threat about tapes of their meeting, Comey called his bluff. On the subject of Trump having tapes, Comey answered, “Lordy, I hope there are tapes.”

 

Over on Fox News, Neil Cavuto has gotten himself in hot water by addressing the real cause of Donald Trump’s problems: Li’l Donnie himself. Particularly all the tweets that just get people mad at him. There is a serious backlash against Cavuto being mean to the President. How dare he!

 

As I’ve pointed out in prior posts, Trump still has a solid base of support out there in the poor, uneducated hinterlands of America. They look at things like this Russian investigation and see a bunch of liberals scapegoating their President and a main stream media all too ready to be complicit in this assault on Trump.

 

And people in the Senate know that too. Several Republicans in today’s hearing tried to steer the conversation towards Hillary Clinton’s emails which was not the topic of discussion. And Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) wondered in light of Comey’s leaked email which was not very complimentary towards Trump, why aren’t there any leaked documents about what Trump is doing right? Really! He asked that.

 

“Your honor, all this discussion about my client Ted Bundy and all the women he raped and killed, why are we not hearing about all the many, many more people he didn’t rape and kill? I think this trial is biased towards only Mr. Bundy’s alleged misdeeds. Harumph!” 

 

I can only hope that Marco is not really that stupid. Maybe Eric Trump* has a Rubio family member held hostage somewhere who will stay safe as long as Rubio says stupid shit like, “Duh! Where are the GOOD leaked memos, huh?” Because anything less than that dire circumstance does not give any reason for Marco Rubio to be that stupid. 

 

*Of course it would be Eric. If Donald Jr wanted to do that, he would just get Eric to do it anyway. “Maybe dad will finally love you now, Eric.” 

 

You know, this whole mess in Washington is just filled up with oh so much fucking stupidity. And all to the service to what? So the Republicans can hold on to power a little longer? It’s not service to the American people, I’ll tell you that.

 

Not sure what’s on the blog tomorrow but Saturday is the write up on The Lie of the Land in advance of this week’s new Doctor Who episode.

 

Until next time, remember to be good to one another.