The comparisons of Barack Obama to Hitler strike me as a weapon of agonized desperation, hurled by folks who don't have anything meaningful to throw at him. That's pretty much the same as any comparisons of anyone to Hitler unless, of course, the person in question has actually waged genocide. I think if someone kills a lot of Jews, it's okay to liken them to ol' Adolf. But short of that, it's just a matter of some cluck thinking, "Hmm...what's the worst thing I can say about this guy? I know! I'll say he's like Hitler!"
This blog post by someone named "citisven" has an interesting take on the old Call 'em Hitler trick. You might want to give it a peek.
My amigo Sergio Aragonés is being celebrated in his home town of Ojai this month with an exhibition of his work. Personally, if I were setting up the gallery, I'd hang drawings by Mort Drucker and Jack Davis, then have Sergio draw on the baseboards and in the corners. But that's just me.
Seriously, it's a great honor for a most deserving individual and there's a very nice piece in the Los Angeles Times about it...actually two items. Read the short one first, then read the long one.
The exhibition is at the Ojai Valley Museum and it's there until October 4. There will be several appearances there by Señor Crowdscene during the run...and when he isn't there officially, he'll probably be in the Men's Room, drawing on the walls.
Incidentally: The above photo is the earliest known picture of Evanier and Aragonés together, though we'd known each other for several years by that point. It was taken (I deduce) at the 1972 San Diego Comic-Con, which was called San Diego's West Coast Comic Convention and held at the El Cortez Hotel. What puzzles me is why I found the negative to this photograph among the strips of negatives I took at that convention. The obvious answer is that someone else took it with my camera...but as you can see, in the photo I'm holding my camera, and I'm pretty sure that's the only camera I owned at the time. One of life's little mysteries.
By the way, my computer has been fixed but I'm still way behind.
My primary computer has gone banana-whackie on me again and I'm over here, as you can plainly see, on my backup computer. I was "behind" enough before this happened and now...well, I may not be posting a lot here during the rest of this weekend.
I would appreciate it if there were no deaths of anyone I care enough about that I feel I need to post an obit. Actually, I'd prefer it if all such people would wait a long, long time before dying...at least until after I go. But if you must die before then, try not to do it before...oh, if you could hold off 'til Tuesday at the earliest, that would help me out a lot. Thank you.
As we mentioned back here, the economist and game show host Ben Stein has outdone himself in the "I'll say anything if you pay me enough" sweepstakes with his endorsement of a new online scam. That has proven to be enough to get him tossed out of The New York Times. Apparently, being consistently wrong about everything wasn't enough.
Nate Silver crunches numbers better than just about any number cruncher on the Internet. He says Obama has cut taxes for 98.6% of working households in this country. You'd think Republicans would like him for that, wouldn't you?
Dick Cavett brings us the video of a second interview he did with Richard Burton. In it, Burton addresses all sorts of interesting questions but none so interesting as asking what the hell I'm doing posting links at this hour?
I don't take nearly enough photos at comic book conventions. I always get home and wish I'd taken more. Fortunately, there are folks like Bruce Guthrie who take oodles of them and he trains his camera mainly on the people particpating in programming, not at the odd people who think they look good in a Princess Leia outfit.
Bruce has a whole online gallery where you can see pics he's snapped at conventions and also at places like the La Brea Tar Pits where, for some reason, I wasn't hosting any panels. If you want to view just his pictures from this year's Comic-Con International in San Diego, try this link. If you were on one of my panels this year, you're probably in here.
Here's a memorable commercial from my youth...for Fruit Stripe Gum. I can't identify the voices except that the zebra is that male New York studio singer, name unknown, who turned up in half the kids' records and commercials recorded in Manhattan in the fifties and sixties...
Steven Pearlstein says that Republicans aren't even trying to make an honest case against the plans for Health Care Reform. They're just flat-out lying about what's being proposed.
Maybe Democrats should try lying right back: "Did you know that insurance companies have the right to put you into internment camps and make you eat foods you don't like? And they can force your daughters into prostitution and perform forcible sex changes on your sons to make them into daughters? We need this bill to outlaw those insidious practices!"
It might work. Claiming that Obama wants to kill your grandparents seems to be working with someone out there.
In the meantime, Sarah Palin says that Obama might have euthanized her son, Trig. This must mean it's an even-numbered week. Next week, she'll be out there complaining that her foes are dragging her kids into political matters.
August 9, 2009
