Your "War On Terror" Tax Dollars At Work!

Another negative result brought to you by President Shit-For-Brains.

WASHINGTON - Terrorist attacks worldwide shot up more than 25 percent last year, killing 40 percent more people than in 2005, particularly in Iraq where extremists used chemical weapons and suicide bombers to target crowds, the State Department said Monday.

You're doing a heck of job there Bushie!

Ugly Poker, but Great TV

I mentioned a while back that almost ten years ago I started a poker game in my neighborhood. A couple of things I failed to mention at that time is the overly conservative nature of the neighborhood I live in. In 2000 and 2004 this caused some problems during the poker gettogethers as I was one of the few liberal voices in the neighborhood and, being mindless Republicans, my neighbors talked a lot about how liberals had no ideas and how they had taken over the country and would own it forever.

As you might guess, over the years, as the true horror of President Shit-For-Brains has become evident, there is not a lot of political talk at the games anymore, mainly because I don't want to rub their faces in what jackasses they have been in the past. Well, the calm was broken at last week's game, and god did it get messy.

It started when I was talking to a neighbor about the weather. All of a sudden another neighbor at the table started talking about how "the next thing you know the liberals will be blaming all the weather on global warming." Then a guy from another table comes running into the room yelling, "I'm Al Gore and I know everything!" and then they both started laughing. I said, "Jerry, global warming is nothing to laugh about."

"There is no such thing as global warming. Al Gore invented it for his movie!"

How do you respond to such nonsense? How would you? I did rather poorly, I said, "Jerry, you are joking, right? I mean you'd have to be an idiot to believe what you just said." OK, calling my neighbor an idiot was most likely not the best approach I could have taken, but I really believed at that moment that he was pulling my leg. No one can be that stupid, right? Wrong! Since I had already called him an idiot, there was no positive place this was going to go. But I had some assistance, someone trying to pull this back into a discussion.

Sitting next to Jerry was Gilbert Ivey, another neighbor. Gilbert is the Chief Administrative Officer of the Metropolitan Water District of Los Angeles and a heck of a nice guy. He brought a calming voice of reason to the table, "Jerry, I'm in charge of seeing to it, that when 17 million people turn on their faucets, water comes out. That's my job and to keep the water flowing we look at all the scientific information we can on any subject that could possibly affect the supply of water, including the weather and the climate. Jerry, let me tell you, global warming is very real, I stake my job on it."

"No it's not," replies Jerry and off we went again. For the next 10 to 15 minutes Jerry argued the wrong side of just about every issue you could imagine, including he still believes that there were WMDs in Iraq, we just didn't find them because they were sent to Syria (something for which there are no facts to support, but that won't stop Jerry).

And on this issue I wish Jerry could have seen the Bill Moyers' Journal that was TiVoing at my house even as our nastiness was occurring at the poker table.

"Buying the War" detailed how the Iraq War was "sold" to the American people and how most of the press went along with it. I say "most" because a great deal of the show looked at the Knight-Ridder news service and how a number of reporters there never believed any of it and wrote story after story of how the administration was plain lying to the American people. But without an outlet in Washington or New York, the Knight-Ridder stories were pretty much ignored by the more "mainstream" press.

If you didn't TiVo it, you can watch all one and a half hours of this amazing show online at the PBS website. I think you will find it well worth your time.

The Erotic Art of Bob Oksner -- Part I

A few months ago we lost comic book artist Bob Oksner, who was a mainstay at DC Comics from 1947 till his retirement in the late 1980s. Oksner began his career in comic books in either 1939 or 1940 and by 1942 was working directly for Timely (Marvel) drawing The Destroyer and Marvel Boy. In 1945, he began drawing a syndicated newspaper strip, Miss Cairo Jones, which lasted until 1947.

After that he was invited to work for DC and never left. He started on the Black Canary and other strips featuring pretty ladies, something Bob was a master at drawing, and soon moved on to the DC humor features, especially ones based on licensed properties. Oksner did great caricatures and that made him the perfect choice for books like The Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis and the book it eventually became, The Adventures of Jerry Lewis. He also drew Sgt. Bilko, Doberman, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Pat Boone and The Adventures of Bob Hope. Oksner also worked on many of the DC humor titles, like Leave it to Binky, Miss Beverly Hills, A Date With Judy and Arnold Drake's Stanley and His Monster. Bob was the artist and co-creator of the short-lived, but much loved, The Angel and the Ape series in the late sixties. Oksner received the National Cartoonists Society Award in its Comic Book Division for 1960 and 1961 and won the Shazam Award in 1970 for Best Pencil Artist (Humor Division).

When DC didn't have humor work for him, he did romance tales for Girl's Love Stories and other such comics. Later, when both the humor and the romance comics died, Oksner worked on Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Lois Lane and other adventure-type strips, especially those featuring heroines. He also worked as Curt Swan's inker on Superman and drew a number of Superman stories on his own and illustrated many classic covers.

It is a couple of these covers that I want to direct your attention to. Oksner drew a couple of classic Supergirl covers that drew heavily on his years in the humor line.

These two Oksner Supergirl covers are infamous. The first is from Adventure Comics #420 and it was published 35 years ago. Now some people look at this cover and see Supergirl tossing a cannon, others see something else entirely. You might call this one "Walk Softly and Carry a Big Dick." It even has testicles and something white shooting out of the head. The real genius of Bob Oksner is that he not only got this thing past the editor, he got it past the prissy Comics Code Authority.

Next time we will look at a much more subtle cover by Bob, but one that he said he waited years to get past the editors and the CCA. Look for The Erotic Art of Bob Oksner -- Part II tomorrow.

Grizzly Attack

Today's Los Angeles Times has the first part of a two-part series of absolutely harrowing events, the first-hand account of a grizzly bear attack in Glacier National Park. A father places himself between the bear and his teenage daughter and pays a horrible price. This first part is absolutely gripping and well worth the read. A hike into horror indeed.

The LA Times site is also one of the slowest on the Internet. I don't know what they are thinking. Believe me, the story is worth the wait, but my wait to get the link was almost five minutes. No excuse for such a long wait.

You Gotta Love Harry Reid

You gotta love Harry Reid this past week. He spoke the way Democrats should be speaking all the time.

When Cheney challenged the motives of Congressional Democrats on Tuesday, Reid fired back, “The president sends out his attack dog often. That’s also known as Dick Cheney.”

Reid also said he was not going to engage in a tit-for-tat with the vice president. “I’m not going to get into a name-calling match with somebody who has a 9 percent approval rating.”

40 Years Ago Today From DC Comics -- Strange Adventures #201

Strange Adventures #201 (On Sale: April 27, 1967) has a great Carmine Infantino and George Roussos Animal Man cover. What sells better than an purple gorilla? How about a purple gorilla in a black and white pen-striped suit and polka-dot tie? I love the colors on this one too: purple, green and orange.

Inside we have "The Cackling Conjurer" drawn by Bernard Baily. The Animal Man story is the second feature. "The Mod Gorilla Boss" is drawn by Jack Sparling. In it Buddy witnesses a robbery committed by a gang whose leader appears to be a gorilla. Buddy tries to stop the robbery as Animal-Man, but he can't absorb the gorilla's strength. After a pair of battles with the gorilla boss, Animal-Man is captured and locked up.

Edited by Jack Schiff.

This is the last issue of Strange Adventures with the original logo. It lasted unchanged for seventeen years, while the new logo, to be unveiled next issue, will last a year and a half. The problem with some books cannot be corrected by changing the logo. For years Strange Adventures had been the home of odd-ball science fiction stories and third-rate heroes like Immortal Man and Animal Man. In four months it would premiere a strip that would change the look of comic super-heroes forever, though it still would not garner any sales.

Debatable Outcome

Well, the first Democratic debate is history and not surprisingly, there were no death blows landed. But the race became clearer or muddier depending on how you look at it.

Surprisingly, I thought Sen. Joe Biden did rather well and maybe that is because I wasn't expecting much, but he was far more articulate than most of the others. He also had specific plans for Iraq (something Republicans try to harp on Democrats for not having), joked about his own foibles and seemed to be having a great time on stage. The country could do far worse than Joe Biden (like Shit-For-Brains for example).

I was very interested in hearing from Gov. Richardson and was rather surprised at how poorly he held himself. He seemed agitated and a little pushy. He was the only one who repeatedly violated the time limits (I think only once did he not violate them) and if you can't keep a simple rule like that when everyone else in the debate can, I don't have a lot of faith in you keeping your word on things that might really matter. I think he hurt his already slim chances by his showing here.

Sen. Dodd make a few good points. Though he didn't show me a lot of charisma, he did nothing to hurt himself. That is not enough to turn his slim chances into anything, but it does allow him to fight another day and unlike Richardson, he is no worse off than he was when the debate started.

Congressman Kucinich made some points but near the end he was not doing himself any favors. Dennis is a good man with his heart in the right place, but he appears weak on national security and defense and that is the death knell to a campaign right now.

Mike Gravel of Alaska made a lot of good points, but he didn't come off as a serious candidate as he is somewhat of a loose cannon. He did come the closest of anyone to firing a shot at the other candidates.

John Edwards did pretty well until the last question, were he seemed to stumble a bit. I like Edwards and was hoping for a better showing as I think if he keeps on message he could be the dark horse who takes home the nomination. For that to happen he will have to do better than he did last night.

I thought Sen. Clinton started off well but seemed a little flat as the debate wore on. She certainly did nothing to hurt her chances and as the front runner maybe, for now, that can be considered a "win"for her.

Sen. Obama did real well. He was focused and articulate and unlike Clinton, did not seem to lose steam as the debate wore on.

I think Obama and Clinton stayed about the same, Biden gained some momentum, Edwards lost a little, Kucinich and Richardson lost a lot and Dodd and Gravel gained a smidgen. Your mileage may vary.

One Look Would Have Told You That!

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics released the results of a study today, which says that intelligence has nothing to do with wealth, that people with below average smarts were just as wealthy as those with higher IQ scores.

Duh, one look would have told you that!

Let the Squirming Begin!

So Monica Goodling, the only member of the Justice Department to ever plead the Fifth has been granted immunity for her testimony regarding the Gonzales Eight. The only fear I have is that Monica Goodling is one of those Pat Robertson Law School graduates who have infested the Bush administration. As such, I don't know if I would trust her to tell the truth even under oath. However, one positive sign is that the only members of the House Judiciary Committee to vote against giving her immunity were all Republicans. Let the squirming begin!

40 Years Ago Today From DC Comics -- World's Finest Comics #167

World's Finest Comics #167 (On Sale: April 25, 1967) has an interesting Curt Swan and George Klein cover. I bought this one used a few months later, 'cause who could resist this cover?

Inside we have the cover story "The New Superman and Batman Team." This is writer Cary Bates' first full story (he sold some plots earlier that were scripted by Ed Hamilton) and it is a doozy, drawn by Curt Swan and George Klein. This story is an imaginary story, which was DCs way of doing stories that did not take place in the "real" world of DC Comics, and may be the only Superman-Batman World's Finest issue without Bruce Wayne. "How can you have a Batman story without Bruce" you ask? Take a look.

Jor-El sends his son Kal-El to Earth as Krypton is destroyed. On the trip to Earth Kal-El's rocket passes a Gold Kryptonite meteor which removes his super powers permanently. Kal-El then lands on Earth, is found by the Kents, and named Clark Kent.

Clark grows up in Smallville and becomes friends with genius Lex Luthor. While Clark doesn't possess powers, Luthor creates a serum to give himself powers and becomes Superboy. Meanwhile, the Kents are killed by a hoodlum. Clark vows vengeance and is sent to live with his uncle Kendall in Gotham City where he eventually grows up to become Batman.

Luthor later moves to Metropolis and becomes a reporter at the Daily Planet. He also continues his career as Superman. On a case involving Brainiac, Superman and Batman join forces, then discover each others secret identities.

In his personal life Clark meets and falls for Lois Lane. The two marry, then Clark shares his secret identity with Lois. When Supergirl lands on Earth Lois and Clark agree to adopt her and she becomes Linda Kent.

Still later, Toyman battles Superman, Batman, and Supergirl. During the fight Batman succumbs to one of Toyman's weapons which reacts with the Gold Kryptonite poisoning from Kal-El's infancy. Clark then learns of his Kryptonian heritage. This was reprinted in Best of DC #19.

Jack Selegue over on the DC History list mentions that by today's standards this much plot would require at least a six-issue mini-series, but Bates packs it into one neat little package. How economical is the scripting? There is room for a back-up story!

And what an odd choice for a back-up story in a Superman/Batman book: "The Three Prophecies" is a Jack Kirby reprint from House of Secrets #3.

Edited by Mort Weisinger.

Roger and Me

As Bev Kennedy pointed out this morning on the Tony Isabella Board, Roger Ebert has written a piece for the Chicago Sun Times today on Roger Ebert. In it he discusses just how ill he has been, how bad it has gotten and how he is finally starting to improve. He also talks about how badly he looks, how unable he is to speak, but how well his mind and his typing fingers still work. The piece also contains an almost unrecognizable picture of what Roger currently looks like, which a lot of people seem to be making a big deal of. I'm just glad Roger is still with us no matter how he looks.

This all reminded me of the time I met Roger at a book signing, which I talked about here. He was as much a delight in person as he is on TV and I can't wait to see him back on the tube just as soon as he is able.

Kryptonite found in Serbia!

Geologists in Serbia have discovered Kryptonite. The new mineral shares virtually the same chemical composition as the fictional kryptonite from outer space, used by the superhero's nemesis Lex Luther to weaken him in the film "Superman Returns." The Reuters story continues:

"We will have to be careful with it -- we wouldn't want to deprive Earth of its most famous superhero!," said Dr Chris Stanley, a mineralogist at London's Natural History Museum.

Stanley, who revealed the identity of the mysterious new mineral, discovered the match after searching the Internet for its chemical formula - sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide.

"I was amazed to discover that same scientific name written on a case of rock containing kryptonite stolen by Lex Luther from a museum in the film Superman Returns," he said.

The substance has been confirmed as a new mineral after tests by scientists at the Natural History Museum in London and the National Research Council in Canada.

But instead of the large green crystals in Superman comics, the real thing is a white, powdery substance which contains no fluorine and is non-radioactive.

The Beer is Extra

We've all read by now of the New York restaurant that is selling the $1,000 pizza. The best thing about this story was Bill Maher's take on it. On a recent episode of Real Time Bill quiped, "Interestingly that's the same price Halliburton charges the troops in Iraq."

I would be funnier if it wasn't true.

All and All

What is the deal with President Shit-For-Brains and walls? It seems to be his answer for every problem. Immigrants running across the Mexican-US border? Build a wall. Sunnis killing Shiites and vice versa, build a wall between them. At least someone in the world still has some common sense. What is Halliburton going to do now for extra cash?

Remember when this country opposed walls that separated people? "I don't think we're in Camelot anymore, Toto!"

I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was the President of the United States and a man who appealed to the good in people. Shit-For-Brains, you're no Jack Kennedy.

Young Young

Neil Young's Live At Massey Hall 1971 CD is a wonderful peek back in time, when a young Young was bursting with creativity. This is Young a few years removed from the defunct Buffalo Springfield (my first concert at the age of 11 was the farewell tour of Eric Burdon and the Animals and the Buffalo Springfield) and is an acoustical wonder.

Many of the seventeen songs were, at that time, unreleased, including "Old Man," "There's a World," "A Man Needs a Maid, " "Heart of Gold" and "The Needle and the Damage Done." Though much of the concert and CD point knowingly to the future, it opens and closes with two Buffalo Springfield songs. The first track is a dynamite version of "On the Way Home" sung with that incredible sweet and pure voice Young possessed when he was 25, and the ending second ovation is "I am a Child."

I like the way these two looks back wrap around the "Harvest" to come and the acoustic versions of Crazy Horse hits like "Cowgirls in the Sand" and "Down by the River." Young also does a wonderful version of his political anthem "Ohio."

The quality of the live recording is amazingly clear and rich as Neil moves back and forth from guitar to piano. His intros to some of the songs are illuminating, particularly "Old Man" and "The Needle and the Damage Done." This is one of the best "live" CDs in my collection and well worth adding to yours.

Vonnegut on Shit-For-Brains

"The overwhelming popularity of President Bush, in spite of everything, finally shows us what the American people, whom we have so sentimentalized for so long, a la Norman Rockwell, really are, thanks to TV and purposely lousy public schools: ignorant. Count on it!"

Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

La Verne Makes the News

I recently wrote about how my city of La Verne was not known for much of anything. Well, we made the news a couple of times today.

Due to what police called "a threat of violence," Bonita High School in La Verne was kept closed Friday as authorities sought a 17- year-old student who disappeared along with some firearms that were kept at his home, officials said.

The Dreamer of Muscoy and Astral Projection -- Part IV

Last time out when we talked about astral projection and Douglas Q. McMasters, the Dreamer of Muscoy, we covered the silver thread that Jack noticed connected his astral body to his physical body and Doug talked about the properties of the thread and how if it were to be broken an astral body would not be able to return to its physical body. Jack found this concept more than a little bothersome. As Jack began to explore being out of his body, he became more aware of his limitations.

"When I left my body and went out into the bowling pin, Doug wanted to know all about it. Through his questioning, I was able to describe being a point of consciousness. I assumed I was in the bowling pin, but had no sensation of being there except the angle and distance were right for it being where 'I' was.

"I was aware, but did not seem to have thought. I did not think, 'I’ve done it! I’m out of my body!' I just looked at my body sitting on a stool, eyes closed as if asleep, and it freaked me out and just like that I was back. I returned to my body with a start, a jerk, as if waking up from dozing off when you weren’t supposed to be dozing – like when driving. I jerked back and pulled the bowling pin over." This was only a temporary condition, "Later, on subsequent journeys outside, I was not startled unless presented something completely alien and unexpected. If I had done it before or it seemed natural, I just accepted it."

Jack began to take inventory of his senses while in his astral body, "I could hear, but what I heard did not have any meaning to me. Or rather it had meaning but I did not care. I could hear the bowling balls knocking down the pins outside the room we were in, but I didn’t think about what I was hearing. Doug wanted me to trace the sounds back to their origin – to become the bowling pin being hit by the ball and knocked into other pins, to make the sounds I was hearing by interacting with the scene. I never could do this the way he wanted me to, but I could trace sounds back to their origin. I just couldn’t become a dynamic part of the sounds’ creation."

Jack noticed an expanded sense of sight, "I could see, with focused sight as if my eyes were seeing. I could look at my physical self and I could turn and look at (his friend) Buzzy. Doug wanted me to try seeing both at the same time – to defocus and see panoramically. Interestingly, this was not difficult to do. When out there, all I had to do was want to do it. If I wanted to see Buzzy, I turned and saw him, but if I wanted to see both of us at once, my vision just widened and curved and I saw us both at once, as if I had eyes in the front and side of my head at the same time."

While at first trapped inside the bowling pin, Jack slowly learned to move his astral body around the room he was in; sometimes with unexpected consequences, "I could move. Buzzy was talking on the phone to a girl and I just kind of drifted over to the phone and went into the mouthpiece and suddenly I was in a bedroom looking at a girl on a bed talking on a phone. It wasn’t who I though Buzzy was talking to and in fact may not have been the right person, but seeing a stranger was so unexpected that it brought me back with a jerk."

With practice Jack was able to move from the room by means other than the telephone, "But I wanted to really move around and found this to be difficult. I managed to float over to the Big M, to San Bernardino High School, and to the Orange Show Stadium, but could not “fly” around town like I had set out to do."

Jack found locomotion of his astral self to be rather hit and miss, "I once slipped out of my body and was instantly a dozen miles away in my bedroom, but when I tried to move around the house I snapped back into my body. I thought I should be able to project myself onto the moon, but could not. I did end up a couple of times at places I did not know, with people I did not know, and had no idea why or how I ended up at these places."

Nirvana Smirvana!

Doug kept pressing Jack to go even farther, "Doug wanted me to expand my consciousness, to become more than the bowling pin, more than the room housing my body, more than the point of view that moved around observing things. Doug wanted me to do two things. First, he wanted me to become other than myself. For example, he thought I could become a tree if I really tried, feeling what the tree felt and possessing the consciousness of the tree. I never could do that. I could never become anything other than who and what I was. Second, Doug wanted me to dilute myself, to expand my consciousness so wide and so broad that I became one with the entire universe. This, he promised, would be blissful. This was the way to achieve Nirvana."

Doug told Jack that he thought "you could achieve Nirvana while still on earth. Buddha did it. The secret was being able to leave all worldly possessions behind. They only way he knew how to do this was to leave your body and become an astral being without self. You shed the self by becoming other-than-self, and when you had experienced life as many other-than-self you then diluted your consciousness by becoming more and more than yourself, by becoming one with more and more until you are one with everything. Doug called this 'integration.'”

Jack had problems with this, "I could not integrate. Doug said it would take time – perhaps a lifetime – but once I reached this state I would understand everything and would not want to come back. The physical world would hold no promise for me and I would just break the thread and stay out there." When first confronted with the idea of accidentally breaking the thread, Jack had become cautious, but doing it on purpose? Willingly? This really bothered Jack.

"Well hey, this is pretty scary stuff to be laying on a 17-18 year-old kid. I didn’t want to be 'out there.' I wanted to be right here on Earth, enjoying the sensations of the flesh. So I asked him, if it was so blissful, why he came back. And he said, 'I’ve never been able to integrate either.'

Well, I didn’t mind doing things that Doug knew about, but I didn’t want to be breaking new ground – especially if you could get stuck out there."

And that ended Jack's student-guru relationship with Doug on metaphysics. Doug was an amazing guy, with a number of unusual talents. Scaring the shit out of a teenager just happened to be one of them.

EVOL Seltaeb

Most days I listen to my Sirius satellite radio while working. It is either tuned to Howard Stern or my favorite station, Classic Vinyl. But it seems that once a day I have trouble connecting to the Sirius satellite. My radio will pick up and then lose the signal over an over. The satellite might be too low in the horizon at this time, but whatever the cause, I have to stop listening for a while.

When that happens I put a CD into my computer and listen to that. Lately the CD of choice has been the brilliant Beatles LOVE CD. If you don't own this you should. It is a remixed mash-up of different Beatles' songs produced by George Martin and his son for the Cirque Du Soleil show of the same name playing Las Vegas. I really do enjoy every track on this CD, but one of my favorites, at least this week, is Gnik Nus. Gnik Nus is of course Sun King spelled and played backwards. It has this haunting, "other world" quality to it that I actually find rather comforting right now.

Gnik Nus is good stuff!

Mauser in the Gutters!

Christopher Mills has a special treat at his Guns in the Gutters blog today. With the full permission of the creators, he is running the entire, little-seen Michael Mauser, Private Eye story, "Blue Ice," from 1982.

The story was one of the first published works of artist Rick Burchett (Batman Adventures, Batman/Huntress, She-Hulk, Gravedigger) and originally appeared in Charlton Bullseye #6. Rick both wrote and drew it, and it has never been reprinted.

I've been a fan of Nick Cuti and Joe Staton's Mike Mauser since the character first saw the light of day as a back-up feature in Charlton's E-Man and Vengence Squad and I never read this story. A great treat for all.