Event Wars: Infinity vs. Battle of the Atom vs. Forever Evil
Last week, the comic industry celebrated the release of the opening chapters of Forever Evil, DC's newest event, and Battle of the Atom, the latest
Who coordinated the Occupy crackdown?
When the nationwide Occupy crackdown began in late 2011, this author found himself in California. Increasingly I was drawn to Occupy Oakland, where I had lived previously, and where a police raid on the occupy encampment had nearly killed a protester, Marine Corps Iraq veteran Scott Olson, by shooting him in the face with a tear gas grenade at short range.
The DOJ’s Clarified Clarifications
Let me first stipulate that I’m not an attorney, but I have an opinion. I didn’t know that you had to be one in order to have one. My opinion concerns the recent guidance issued by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) with regard to marijuana enforcement under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). Call mine an educated opinion. Let the Letters to the Editor debate me.
Building Real Peace
“Imagine if we sent 5,000 well-trained nonviolent peacekeepers from throughout the world to protect civilians and work with local civil society in building the peace."
Indeed, imagine if we knew that doing this was an option.
Mel Duncan, cofounder of an organization called Nonviolent Peaceforce [2], was talking about Syria, the country we almost bombed and maybe still will. In lieu of tossing godlike lightning bolts at Bashar al-Assad, “The CIA has begun delivering weapons to rebels in Syria, ending months of delay in lethal aid that had been promised by the Obama administration,” the WashingtonPost [3] reported last week.
“The shipments began streaming into the country over the past two weeks, along with separate deliveries by the State Department of vehicles and other gear — a flow of material that marks a major escalation of the U.S. role in Syria’s civil war.”
Indeed, imagine if we knew that doing this was an option.
Mel Duncan, cofounder of an organization called Nonviolent Peaceforce [2], was talking about Syria, the country we almost bombed and maybe still will. In lieu of tossing godlike lightning bolts at Bashar al-Assad, “The CIA has begun delivering weapons to rebels in Syria, ending months of delay in lethal aid that had been promised by the Obama administration,” the WashingtonPost [3] reported last week.
“The shipments began streaming into the country over the past two weeks, along with separate deliveries by the State Department of vehicles and other gear — a flow of material that marks a major escalation of the U.S. role in Syria’s civil war.”
Five years after the crash began
Five years after the beginning of the financial collapse and the Great Recession, where are we? This week, President Obama offered Americans a progress report. He hailed the steps taken to turn the economy around and rescue the auto and financial industries. He used the occasion, sensibly, to challenge Republicans in the Congress not to do more damage to the slow recovery by manufacturing another unnecessary budget crisis.
The president was candid about how far we have to go. He suggested that the very trends that were destroying the middle class prior to the Great Recession have gotten worse. The wealthiest 1 percent has captured virtually all of the rewards from growth coming out of the recession, while most Americans haven’t experienced a recovery at all.
This isn’t an accident. The auto industry was rescued, and the big three are generating profits and beginning to hire more workers. The big banks were rescued, and are now bigger, more concentrated and more dangerous than ever.
But while the big boats were righted, too little was done for the boats on the bottom.
The president was candid about how far we have to go. He suggested that the very trends that were destroying the middle class prior to the Great Recession have gotten worse. The wealthiest 1 percent has captured virtually all of the rewards from growth coming out of the recession, while most Americans haven’t experienced a recovery at all.
This isn’t an accident. The auto industry was rescued, and the big three are generating profits and beginning to hire more workers. The big banks were rescued, and are now bigger, more concentrated and more dangerous than ever.
But while the big boats were righted, too little was done for the boats on the bottom.
Having it both ways
As the crisis in Syria continues to evolve day by day according to the whims of foreign diplomats and leaders, President Obama’s foreign policy has been under special scrutiny. Concerning the Syrian dilemma, Barack Obama has relayed a message to the American people and the global community at large that is rife with confusion and contradiction. But, amidst that confusion rests one coherent signal: the President is insisting on having it both ways in Syria.
Despite the jeering and deriding that now accompanies any mention of the name George W. Bush, the fact remains that the former president had a sound, singular, stated foreign policy. Whether one agrees or disagrees with Mr. Bush, it is indisputable that his rhetoric of aggressive, preemptive action matched his operations as commander-in-chief. When President Bush delivered his remarks that portrayed the Saddam Hussein regime as one unable to coexist with the United States, Mr. Bush carried out those words with the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Like it or not, his words matched his actions.
Despite the jeering and deriding that now accompanies any mention of the name George W. Bush, the fact remains that the former president had a sound, singular, stated foreign policy. Whether one agrees or disagrees with Mr. Bush, it is indisputable that his rhetoric of aggressive, preemptive action matched his operations as commander-in-chief. When President Bush delivered his remarks that portrayed the Saddam Hussein regime as one unable to coexist with the United States, Mr. Bush carried out those words with the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Like it or not, his words matched his actions.
Paramount Drops Details On Transformers: Age of Extinction
Pop culture has a love/hate relationship with the Transformers movie franchise. The second and worst movie in the series, 2009's Revenge of the Fallen, made over $400 million in the US alone despite having a 20% positive rating on review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes. Dark of the Moon made $350 million with a slightly better 36% positive reviews. The entire series is notorious for bad plots, bad pacing, bad characterization – and lots of really, really good explosions. So of course there's going to be a fourth one.
Paramount recently revealed the title of the giant robot action franchise's fourth movie: Transformers: Age of Extinction. Online geekdom was alternately pulling for and rolling their eyes over simply Trans4mers, but alas, Paramount didn't go for the obvious pun.
The extinction of what? It probably has something to do with Dinobots. Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura recently confirmed to the Beijing News that the Dinobots will be appearing in Age of Extinction, and that's got to be a huge draw for all the 30-something kids who loved the robo-T. Rex Grimlock and his team of saurian Autobots in the 80s.
Book Review of Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans And the End of Slavery By Deborah Willis and Barbara Krauthamer
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Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans
And the End of Slavery
By Deborah Willis and Barbara Krauthamer
This year is an anniversary year for a number of events significant to the struggle for racial equality in America, including the sesquicentennial of the Emancipation Proclamation. While the document technically did not free any slaves–if you are interested in that, I will see you in my class on African American History Before Emancipation, Spring semester 2014!–it has always been interpreted, especially by enslaved African Americans, as though it did. Despite President Abraham Lincoln’s assertion that the Civil War was not about slavery, the enslaved thought otherwise. From the time the first shots were fired, they assumed and acted as though the war was about their freedom.
For years Deborah Willis, Professor and Chair of Photography and Imaging at the New York University, and Barbara Krauthamer, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, had been discussing what the freedom of African Americans looked like.
The Institute for Policy Studies mourns the loss of filmmaker and author Saul Landau
In his more than 40 years at the Institute for Policy Studies, Saul Landau produced more than 40 films and TV programs, 14 books, and thousands of newspaper and magazine articles and reviews. Among his numerous accolades, Saul received an Emmy and a George Polk Award for “Paul Jacobs and the Nuclear Gang,” a film he directed with Jack Willis about the cover-up of health hazards related to 1950s atomic bomb testing.
Beyond his extensive body of work, Saul will be remembered for his steely nerve and caustic wit. “He stood up to dictators, right-wing Cuban assassins, pompous politicians, and critics from both the left and the right,” said IPS Director John Cavanagh. “When he believed in something, nobody could make him back down. Those who tried would typically find themselves on the receiving end of a withering but humorous insult.”
Beyond his extensive body of work, Saul will be remembered for his steely nerve and caustic wit. “He stood up to dictators, right-wing Cuban assassins, pompous politicians, and critics from both the left and the right,” said IPS Director John Cavanagh. “When he believed in something, nobody could make him back down. Those who tried would typically find themselves on the receiving end of a withering but humorous insult.”