Saturday, June 18, 2005

From the E-Mailbag...

A reader of this site named Greg Cox just sent me the following...

If Hagel wants to see us succeed in Iraq, he'll support the commander in chief, rather than say things like, "Things aren't getting better; they're getting worse. The White House is completely disconnected from reality..." How could anyone take him seriously?

Well, let's see. If a Democrat says things aren't going great in Iraq, he's dismissed as being partisan. Now, if a Republican says it, we can't take him seriously. That certainly makes for useful political discussions. From what I can tell, the Independents in Congress all seem to be siding with the Democrats so I guess we can't listen to them, either.

Is the premise here really that once we go to war, it's the duty of every American to waive his right to criticize our elected officials? That if you feel our leaders are erring and taking things in the wrong direction, you should just shut up and "support" them? (I never quite know what "support" means in that context? Almost half of America voted to remove George W. Bush from office. Was that not a lack of "support?" If so, shouldn't we have cancelled that election?)

We're starting to see a number of people who formerly endorsed the current actions in Iraq express doubts and pessimism, and I suspect their ranks will swell in the months to come. Is the primary response going to be that those folks don't want to see us succeed over there? If so, it could be a long, divisive summer...

• Posted at 9:49 PM · LINK

Super Update

Tommy Donovan, who's obviously smarter than I am, figured out a way to do a direct link to the Mo Rocca report from Metropolis. Here it is.

• Posted at 5:56 PM · LINK

Bruce Hamilton, R.I.P.

Comic book publisher and collector Bruce Hamilton passed away early this morning following a prolonged illness. I'm afraid I don't have a lot more in the way of details but just losing Bruce comes as very sad news. Bruce was a great patron and promoter of classic comic artists, most notably Carl Barks, and was involved in most of the major, high quality reprintings of Barks works the last few years. Obviously, what made Carl's work so popular was its basic quality, but Bruce did a lot to make sure that it was kept in print and that high standards were maintained, and that financial rewards trickled back to Carl in his retirement years. Bruce had several publishing imprints, including Gladstone Comics, Another Rainbow and Hamilton Comics, but they all showed enormous love and respect for the material they issued, and I always enjoyed the time I spent with him talking comics. One hopes that tradition will continue.

• Posted at 5:51 PM · LINK

Super Report

The other night, Jay Leno sent Tonight Show correspondent Mo Rocca to Metropolis, Illinois for the 2005 Superman celebration. Posted now on the show's site is the segment, which includes interviews with Noel Neill, John Schneider and Superman museum curator Jim Hambrick. Unfortunately, the way the NBC website is configured, there seems to be no way me for to give you a direct link to the video. So if you want to see it, you'll have to go to this page and find it yourself.

Incidentally, you'll note that in addition to not being willing to provide direct links, the folks who run that website also think the gentleman's name is Mo Rocco. Unless he's changed it lately, it's still Mo Rocca.

• Posted at 5:22 PM · LINK

Deal of the Decade

Last year, the year before and the year before, the fine folks at TwoMorrows Books published fine collections of my silly articles. The first volume was Comic Books and Other Necessities of Life. The second was Wertham Was Right. And the third was Superheroes in my Pants.

There is no new volume this year. I've been too busy to assemble one. However, you can still purchase those three. In fact, if you've never bought any of them, you can get a bargain: All three are now available in a bundle for thirty-four bucks, which is almost like getting one free but not exactly. Go here to do this...and consider yourself fortunate. If you just need one, you can find a link to purchase it on this page. If you don't need any...well, what can I say?

• Posted at 5:03 PM · LINK

Today's Political Rant

Mark "Deep Throat" Felt has reportedly closed a book and movie deal to tell his tale...what he remembers of it, anyway. Since his identity became known, one of my correspondents has bombarded me with messages, trying to convince me that Felt is not and never was a man of any honor. My pen-pal seems to think this announcement proves it, and others are touting it as evidence of Felt's bad motives. I'm more than a little amazed at the leap.

First off, Mark Felt has now become the absolute last major Watergate figure to sell a book about his role in that scandal. They all wrote books. They all tried for movie deals and many got them. If exploiting Watergate for profit was a crime, a lot of those guys would be returned to prison, and G. Gordon Liddy would have to give back his entire career since then.

Secondly, I fail to see how someone's actions in 2005 — and this is assuming they're his actions and not his family's — reflects on his motives in 1971. Is the premise here that Felt met with Woodward in that garage only because he was thinking, "Oh, boy. Maybe years from now when I'm old and can't recall anything, I can get a deal to write a book about this"?

Some of the attacks on Felt's arguable heroism have been hysterical, and some contradicted their own points by trying to simultaneously dismiss him as a figure of little importance and blame him for subverting the entire Nixon presidency. I think the record will show that a lot of people brought down the Nixon presidency, starting with Nixon. He was accused of using the C.I.A. to stop an investigation that might lead to him or his aides...and, lo and behold, there was a tape recording of him giving the order to have the C.I.A. stop an investigation that might lead to him or his aides. When that came out, even the loyalest Republicans deserted Nixon and he got the message and resigned. I don't see how any of that was because of anything Mark Felt did that might have been unethical...including making a book deal 34 years later.

• Posted at 2:25 PM · LINK

June 19, 2005 • Current • June 17, 2005