Monday, June 6, 2005

More Spider Stuff

And if that eBay auction doesn't satisfy your urge to browse Spider-Man collectibles, here's an even bigger collection. Thanks to Paul Merolle for telling me about it.

• Posted at 5:03 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Some articles on taxation to call to your attention. One is this page from FactCheck.org which shreds the myth that Estate Taxes (what some call "The Death Tax") can wipe out your inheritance and force your heirs to pay tax on wealth that has already been taxed. This is one of those Big Lies that keeps getting debunked but some people just hear "Death Tax" and think it's everything its opponents say it is.

Meanwhile, this blog post by Kevin Drum analyzes data that says that very rich folks are now paying a smaller percentage of their income in taxes than a lot of us. And this post points out that in the last quarter century, the "Super Rich" have seen their taxes go down 9% whereas the Middle Class has seen theirs increase 1%. The latter may actually be fair on some levels but I'll bet most people think it's the other way around.

• Posted at 3:15 PM · LINK

Spider-Stuff

If you're a big fan of Spider-Man, you might want to bid on (or at least browse) this eBay auction. It bills itself as "The World's Largest Spider-Man Collection" and it sure gives you an idea of how many Spider-Man items there have been for which co-creator Steve Ditko never saw a nickel. Thanks to Pam Noles for the pointer.

• Posted at 3:04 PM · LINK

Follow-Up

Pat O'Neill writes to say there was a brief shot of Jerry Orbach in there as an intro to Jesse Martin's rendition of "Razzle Dazzle." Bet I wasn't the only one who missed it. My thought was that they were singing that song because Fred Ebb wrote the lyrics and only later did I connect it with Orbach, and I don't think this is just me being dense. I think it was rushed to the point of confusion.

• Posted at 10:49 AM · LINK

Yet Another Tony Thought

One more awkward moment at the Tonys was the segment devoted to the deceased. Pressed for time, they had to rush through a very incomplete list...which may be worse than doing nothing at all. Did they really leave out Jerry Orbach? That's a pretty big Broadway star to omit in favor of a couple of agents. Christopher Reeve was there but they cut to his picture so late that most people probably didn't see him.

Then came the "Razzle Dazzle" musical number which might have made sense if someone had reminded us that its lyrics were by the departed Fred Ebb (or even that it was introduced on Broadway by Mr. Orbach) and if the director hadn't opted to cut to a camera located in upstate New York. The long shot may have been because one of the dancers was showing a bit too much dorsal cleavage...but if so, that's like the silly need to bleep words in a pre-recorded musical number. Weren't the Standards and Practices people at rehearsals?

• Posted at 10:16 AM · LINK

Today's Political Rant

The Supreme Court says that laws against medical marijuana can and should be enforced. I suppose this may be an example of non-activist judges at work. Those laws are idiotic and illogical but they are on the books, and perhaps it is not the job of any judicial authority to parse them in a manner that weakens them. Justice Stevens, in his opinion, made clear that he was not cheering the federal ban on marijuana; just that it was up to Congress, not the courts, to repeal those laws.

Which means Americans oughta start pressuring Congress to do so — and in a hurry, since people who might be helped by the drug are suffering, and the enforcement of those laws is a splendid waste of resources and manpower. The decision related to a couple of cases, one being that of an Oakland woman named Angel Raich. Ms. Raich, it is reported, suffers from a wide array of ailments including scoliosis, a brain tumor, chronic nausea, fatigue and pain. She has been able to alleviate some paralysis by smoking marijuana but we sure can't allow that to continue. Let's pull some law enforcement folks away from watching for terrorists and send them to arrest this woman, who is clearly a threat to us all.

I don't know why there isn't some national doctrine or A.M.A. precept that says that anything that can be done to alleviate pain and suffering can be at least tried. The bureaucracy involved here helps no one, to say nothing of the inconsistency. "Our national medical system relies on proven scientific research, not popular opinion," says John Walters, director of National Drug Control Policy. "To date, science and research have not determined that smoking marijuana is safe or effective." Yeah, right. That's why all drugs are thoroughly tested before the public is allowed access to them — like, say, Vioxx or whatever other widely-used pain reliever will next be judged unsafe after hundreds of thousands of people have used it for years. But we can't let Angel Raich have something that she's found works for her.

Would someone ask Mr. Walters if excessive consumption of alcohol is safe or effective? I've had more friends killed in one way or other by Jim Beam than by pot...and yes, I know this is an old argument. But for 40 years, I've been asking why using marijuana should be put in a different category from drinking vodka, and I've never seen an answer more useful than Jack Webb's in a 1967 episode of Dragnet. He said something about how booze does a lot of damage but it's here and it's not going away, so why do we need to add marijuana to the list? (Actually, the most honest answer I've seen was a guy on the old Joe Pyne Show, also in the sixties, who once said that alcohol was the establishment drug and marijuana was the anti-establishment drug, and the establishment has a selfish duty to deny "the enemy" everything.)

It was interesting to see that today's Supreme Court decision had Rehnquist, O'Connor and Thomas in dissent. There's a strange mix. I've always thought Thomas was a judicial mediocrity but he does seem to believe in states' rights...so give him points for consistency.

• Posted at 10:08 AM · LINK

A Nichols's Worth of Advice

Several folks who didn't catch the Tonys wrote to ask me to quote Mike Nichols with his counsel to the losers. It was as follows: "Cheer up. Life isn't everything!"

• Posted at 7:15 AM · LINK

Tony Tally

Let the record show that in this post, I predicted the winners in 25 categories of Tony Awards, and that I only missed in five: Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play was Bill Irwin in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Best Revival of a Play was Glengarry Glen Ross, Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play was Liev Schreiber in Glengarry Glen Ross, Best Scenic Design of a Play was Scott Pask for The Pillowman, Best Costume Design of a Play was Jess Goldstein for The Rivals. That's not a bad track record when you consider that I haven't gotten to New York for a couple of years and so did not see any of the shows.

• Posted at 12:53 AM · LINK