Congressman Schock Can't Tell You Anything.

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So, if that's all that you can tell us, then why the hell are you in the Congress? What Congressman Shock is doing here, is playing the argument from ignorance. It's frankly all he can do when he's up against Rhodes Scholar Rachel Maddow, who directly squared off against him, confronting him with factual inaccuracies that he stated and all but calling him a hypocrite for touting programs in his district that were funded by the stimulus bill that he voted against and still criticizes to this day. It's a disturbing political tactic where you play the "aw shucks, I ain't nothin' like those Harvard intellectuals, I'm one of you folks." They're telling people that smart is not a positive quality.

Here's some news for you, Aaron Schock is not stupid. He got his degree in Finance in just two years from a very fine college in Illinois. He could talk intelligently about economic issues and be able to present his case very well, and his THREE committee positions (other Congressmen only take two) reflect this area of scholarship. The problem with him here arguing that he is just following the will of the people is that he is a leader, and has always wanted to be a leader. Look at his biography and you'll see that he's always wanted to lead. Representing yourself as being a follower is just being dishonest when you obviously want to lead.

This tactic that politicians use is troubling because our leaders need to know more than we do. Our leaders need to be able to know where to go to learn about issues that they're going to have to take a position on. Our leaders need to inspire us to learn about issues just because we want to relate to them. We currently have a President that has a Doctorate in Congressional Law* after having a president that didn't seem to want to read his daily briefings completely, and didn't bother to learn to say the word "nuclear."** We can like intelligent people, as long as they're engaging. It bothers me when this tactic is used, because it's not always used by intelligent people trying to seem "like normal folk," and sometimes the unintelligent people win with it.

*(TRIVIA: the only other one with a Doctorate was Woodrow Wilson)

**(FULL DISCLOSURE: I too used to say "nukular," but have since made effort to pronounce it right.)

Reviews Of Old Comics: Avengers #255

Avengers #255

May 1985 - Marvel Comics

Writer: Roger Stern

Penciller: John Buscema

Inker: Tom Palmer

Letterer: Jim Novak

Colorist: Christie Scheele

SYNOPSIS:

Captain Marvel Monica Rambeau arrives at Thanos's abandoned starship, Sanctuary II, seven light hours away from Earth. Nothing seems amiss, as the station has been abandoned since Thanos's defeat. Back on Earth, both the US Government and the Avengers recover from the Vision's takeover of the world's computer networks. The Vision has decided to leave the Avengers and submit fully cooperate with a government investigation of his actions. Captain Marvel reports in and the Vision admits that he sent her on a wild goose chase.

As she goes to leave, a ship docks, and two passengers, Skunge the Troll and an orange alien named Kehl attack her. The attack is called off by another passenger, a Rigellian named Gunthar. The last passenger, the apparent leader of the group, Levan apologizes. Captain Marvel stays behind because something doesn't sound right with these salvagers' story.

The Wasp returns home to learn of the Vision's takeover attempt and see him and the Scarlet Witch off, noticing that the Vision's voice has gone from flat and modulated to more human.

Meanwhile, Levan's crew acts on their duplicity, engaging Sanctuary II's star drive, temporarily nullifying Captain Marvel's powers, and abducting her millions of light years away from Earth!

REVIEW:

This is a recovery issue from a previous culmination of a subplot that took a year to develop. John Buscema returned to the Avengers with this issue and his style was a welcome departure from the previous regular artist, Al Milgrom, who could draw the most unattractive women. That's all the background you need for this review.

Roger Stern's story has to accomplish much in this issue, including recapping the previous storyline and introducing a new sub-plot. The best element that gets pointed out late in the story is how different the Vision's voice is, depicted visually by his word balloons, which use to be rectangular with rounded corners, and now are organic and oval. Roger Stern is unknowingly giving a lesson in how to convey the tone of voice here.

The art, as I've touched on, is exquisite. Captain Marvel had only briefly been drawn remotely attractive, yet despite the worst examples since her creation, John Buscema draws her as an attractive woman.

NOTES:
To my knowledge, this issue has not been collected in any trade, nor would I expect it to. This was not a very influential period in Avengers history, despite the solid creative force on it.

FINAL RATING: 7.5 (out of a possible 10)

Art-wise, it's fantastic, at least a 9, but this is a recap issue, and on its own just reaches for too much and doesn't deliver enough, albeit it does well enough to get by. For a while, this review was going to be for the issue following this one, which is much better. This was a good run for Avengers, up until the culmination of the Masters of Evil multi-issue storyline. I picked my copy up for a couple of dollars, and it should be easy enough to find at an affordable price.

I Call Shenanigans!

This video is from that wonderful bastion of journalism, Inside Edition.



What do I think, given the research I've done on the issue? Desiree was faking it. She wanted attention and found a way to get it and perhaps, just perhaps could get a little cash out of it. It's entirely possible that she was unintentionally faking it. The presence of a new accent is also suspicious, given that she didn't have it after her keylation therapy in late October.


I am very skeptical, especially with the explanation of a new accent. Sorry, Foreign Accent Syndrome actually seems to involve brain damage. My theory, and it's an educated guess is that Desiree just might be a hypochondriac, and reads a brief bit about a rare disease and then mimics its symptoms.

This also brings up the subject of journalism. Inside Edition shouldn't be the one thwarting these claims that the vaccine caused this woman's illness. When she's latched on to by people trying to discredit flu vaccines and is used by quack doctors to promote ineffective and expensive pseudo-medical procedures, that should be the area of major news investigation. Sadly, what we have now is a news system that doesn't investigate like it used to, so we're left with Inside Edition to do this crap, and they, quite frankly, do it badly. This should have been on 20/20 or Frontline, but I guess looking into the alt-med industry is likely to make too many viewers mad.

All that said, get vaccinated. Stop going to quacks.

Ka-Blam!

I just picked up my books from ka-blam! printing in Orlando, and I must say that they look very nice. The full bleed is perfectly done, the print quality is excellent, and if it weren't for the fact that I put in so few pages, it'd seem like a proper comic book. Very professional, and I couldn't be more pleased.

If you want one of these excellent books, you can order them print-on-demand through IndyPlanet. I'll put a permanent link on the web site soon.

Mad World Dancing

All I know is that I want an edit of this video that's just Roland Orzabal dancing.

Tears for Fears - Mad World - Watch more Music Videos at Vodpod.

It's Just Math, Right?

For those of you a little more in the know about me, you already know that I've taken a second job as a tax preparer.  I took the job primarily because after doing my taxes for three years ago, each experience bringing different challenges that I overcame.  Well, knowing how to do YOUR taxes is completely different from knowing how to do EVERYONE's taxes. The real challenge is all the rules regarding the Earned Income Credit.

The EIC, as it's called because we hate syllables when an acronym will do, is something you're familiar with if you don't make a lot of money and have kids. It's free money and everyone wants it. Everyone wants it to the point of lying about it. This year, you can get credit for three children, which is one more than in previous years. From what little I've seen so far, people are so stupid as to confess to a tax preparer that they're out to defraud the government by claiming other people's children and relatives. If you're going to lie, please don't tell us you're lying. That implicates us and we are personally responsible for being certain that your tax return is correct and not fraudulent.

I don't know yet if I'm going to face any instance where I am being used to defraud the government. It's good to know that my office has already refused to file a return because it was obviously fraud.

I Need More Zip-a-tone!

NAMOR, THE SUB-MARINER #8

February 1990

I've got a few minutes this afternoon, so how about another review? You down with that?

Right after High School, I was big into John Byrne. It was a good time to be into John Byrne, too. He had produced Omac for the DC, West Coast Avengers, She-Hulk, Next Men and of course, Namor, the Sub-Mariner. Of course he didn't do them in that order, but those are the comics that he worked on in the late 1980s and early 1990s that just seemed to be Byrne flexing his artistic muscles. I got rid of a lot of my mainstream comics a long time ago, but just cruising bargain boxes has gotten me replacement copies of a few that I really remember fondly.

This particular comic was stashed away in an office paper box, since it's not really among my prized possessions, comic-wise. I have to admit that nostalgia is the main reason that I own this, so a lot of this review will hinge on that perspective.

As always, Spoilers abound from here. That means I'll tell you exactly what happened.

SUMMARY

In 1961, German agents, including a scientist stash away a project before the Russians seal them into the city of East Berlin. While escaping the scientist is shot, and the two agents violently get him past the US checkpoint in an effort to get him help.

Namor wakes up in a puddle of sludge on top of a skyscraper, after flying a viral agent into the heart of a Sewage based creature inadvertantly created by scientists that was threatening New York. In attempting to fly down, he finds that his ankle wings have vanished and only his strength and skill save him. Namorita escapes from a pod she'd been placed in inside the creature, and she proceeds to rescue other captives as Namor walks up. One of the scientists to survive tells that the creature was an attempt to escape funding cuts, and Namor and the authorities were misled by the creator, now killed by her creation. Phoebe Marrs then runs up and begs Namor to help her brother, who struck a horrible deal with the corporate raider known as Headhunter. he rides off with her, and seems to be falling prey to her charms.

Meanwhile, Misty Knight and Colleen Wing are shocked to see the return of Banny Rand, aka Iron Fist, who they believe to be dead. Namorita is being brought uiup to speed by Namor's allies, Caleb and Carrie Alexander, as Carrie confesses her love for Namor, which does not appear to be returned, as Namor looks to be enthralled by Phoebe Marrs.

Namor and Marrs arrive at Headhunter's offices and we learn that her agreements with businessmen come at a high price as she reveals her collection of their mounted heads on her wall!

REVIEW:

The story flows by a series of coincidences, someone walks up, someone runs up, and everything happens in the course of an afternoon. There's not really a reason for this, as time could have passed before Marrs approached Namor, with no ill effect to the story. Namor's personality is very stoic and pompous, which is the biggest trouble in centering a book on him. Byrne did seem to make it work, but Namor's thought balloons should reveal more of the trouble in dealing with his loss of flight.

The largest attribute to the art that's noticeable is the zip-a-tone. Byrne used this on Omac and after leaving Namor, on She-Hulk. He uses it for shading and the colorist Glynis Oliver adds subtle colors to accentuate them so it doesn't get terribly distracting. It's an added effect that Byrne didn't need, but took the time to add, which gives some sense at how much pride he took in his work on this book. No one can fault Byrne's anatomy or basic artistic skill. If I find fault with anything in this comic, it's in the writing.

Byrne took, in this issue, a character seen at the time as one of the more powerfuul characters in the Marvel Pantheon and gave him more limitations. At the same time, there seemed to be no pondering of the circumstances that brought about it. The dialogue seems to render the characters two-dimensional in the context of this issue. Byrne was better at writing long-term, and in an era of sub-plots, he was able to excel at that. In smaller stories, he seemed hindered.

NOTES:

Like many comics that I've reviewed, this issue has never been collected. Also like most of the comics that I've reviewed, it should be cheap, provided that you can find it. Don't pay more that two bucks for an issue, and if you do, pick one up, try to pick up a run of several issues. Byrne makes Namorita interesting.

FINAL RATING: 6(out of 10)

The story weakness really hurts this comic. If it was on par with the art, then we'd be looking at at least an 8. John Byrne comics of this era probably need to be read in a series rather than individually.