THE CENSORED CARTOONS PAGE: What has been cut from Warner Bros. and MGM cartoons? (I should be clear that I have exactly no problem with cutting racist, really really violent, or just outdated/obscure stuff from cartoons being shown on TV. But some of the “violence” cuts sound silly–I mean, this is the world where anvils get dropped on people’s heads, you know–and I do hope the original versions survive.) The Censored Cartoons guide tells you who cut what–were the cuts... Read more

VACLAV HAVEL: STILL AWESOME. Read more

ULTIMATE MARVEL TEAM-UP: RASKOLNIKOV AND WOLVERINE BATTLE GANDHI AND PHILIP MARLOWE! So someone writes a very silly column saying that superhero comics and movies alienate us from the possibility of our own heroism, and end up discouraging heroism rather than promoting it. NeilAlien has already growled at this silly column, but I’d like to point out a few scattered things I noticed about it, since there are implications for a broader theory of art and “realism” (what a misnomer! Is... Read more

GRATUITOUS: So a commenter at CalPundit’s site (following Kevin Drum’s quite courteous linkage of the Marriage Debate blog) writes, “What gets me about people like Maggie Gallagher and Eve Tushnet is their intellectual and moral conceit that their opposition to gay marriage has nothing to do with animus towards homosexuality or gay people.” I fear I’m about to be catty, but I can’t help replying, “M’dear, even my ex-girlfriends don’t think I hate gay people!” Kiss Kiss, Eve (PS: I... Read more

PICTURES AND CONVERSATIONS: I bought more comic books. (First set of reviews here and here.) Here are some mostly-brief thoughts. We’ll go in order from least to most fun. “X-Force: The Final Chapter.” Fine as far as it goes. Fun. Some people call this series cynical (since it’s about a team of superheroes created to win media attention and earn big bucks), but it consistently chooses drama and (more often) melodrama over cheap cynicism, which I think makes its satirical... Read more

FLOOD: Why, why, why are all the good old movies showing in the same week??? This week brings “The Birds,” “Topaz” (OK, probably not a great movie, but I’m a Hitchcock completist and I haven’t seen this yet), “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” “Mildred Pierce,” “Macao,” “Night of the Hunter,” “White Heat,” “Colorado Territory,” and “Five Star Final,” plus a few more that I don’t need to see again right now (“Marnie,” “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” “Double Indemnity,”... Read more

See the marketplace in old Algiers, Send me blogwatches and souvenirs, Just remember, when a dream appears, You belong to me… Making Light: Fascinating excerpts from a crisply-written, vivid memoir of a woman’s life from 1831 to the turn of the century in Wheeling. And two sharply contrasting views of the “If you want your family released, turn yourself in” story, here and here. Read more

“Haven’t seen you in a couple of days. How’s everything?” “Living a dream. Aaand… I think I got in trouble again.” “Legal trouble?” “Maybe. Do you know who J. Jonah Jameson is?” “Not one of my favorite people.” “I don’t think he’s one of his favorite people.” –exchange in Alias vol. 3, “The Underneath” Read more

BASIC POST ON THE “TERRORISM MARKET ANALYSIS” THING. With pros and cons. Read more

MARRIAGEDEBATE.COM: Maggie Gallagher has started a new blog dedicated to the same-sex marriage argument(s). Gallagher opposes same-sex marriage, but she’s gotten some of its most cogent defenders to contribute to the site, and right now the content is about 50/50 pro-con. This is going to be the resource for people seeking respectful, passionate, insightful commentary on the cultural, moral, and legal questions surrounding same-sex marriage. Full disclosure: I’m doing some work for the site and may be writing for it.... Read more