I was one of the unhappy few to see the Amazing Spider-Man, a reboot occurring just a few years after the previous sequel. It was terrible.

The new one looks like it was made with the same spirit as the first, which is to say, it also looks terrible. That's the trailer. It looks like an epileptic cartoon. Enjoy.

The main villain is... Electro, a villain even mild geeks have heard of, but who just isn't that interesting. So they've juiced him up with a lot of new CGI superpowers, and he looks even dumber here than he does in the comic. And that's a neat trick, because in the comics, Electro's costume is that of an... angry daffodil.

But no one expects Electro, of all people, to carry a movie, so apparently Spider-Man is fighting the Sinister Six, an Avengers-style team-up of Spider-Man's rogues gallery. Apparently Doctor Octopus is somewhere in the trailer (though I missed him), and they show the Rhino a lot. Green Goblin shows up, Forbes says.

Six villains? Great, you know what that means: More origin stories! And I just can't get enough of origin stories in comic book movies.

At this point, would the audience mind at all if the movie just opened up with a fight between Rhino and Spider-Man, and then didn't bother explaining How the Rhino Came to Be? Would anyone care at all if the film didn't include that critical information? Or if the movie just covered it with a single line of dialogue ("his advanced nano-hydraulic armor gives him incredible strength!")?

Would anyone be upset if the movie just presented all six villains and didn't bother at all explaining their magical powers?

Eh. In this one, it looks like the plot is something about "making humans powerful or something," so they're going to attempt to explain the villains via the same magic serum, which doesn't really make sense, because at least two villains get their magic powers from magic armor, rather than getting their magic strength or magic electricity from from a magic potion.

This might also be the one where Gwen Stacy dies. If you care. I don't. And I actually used to care.

Apparently they're making so much money with bad Spider-Man movies they've already greenlit sequels for 2016 and 2018. I guess that's the ultimate in movie properties -- if you can make $750 million with a bad movie, then why the hell not just keep making them forever?

Anyone can make money with a good movie. It's a special kind of franchise where you make money with bad ones.

So we all have this continuing Cartoon Nightmare for Adult Children to look forward to for some number of years, until they start losing money and the license either reverts back to Marvel or Disney buys it back or something.

Okay, I'm officially done with comic book movies. It took a while to get here, but now I'm agreeing with the cranky guys who've been saying "What the hell is this stupid crap?" for eight years.

Posted by: Ace at 08:54 AM | Comments (363)
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The outrage. The candlelight vigil. The accusation.

Isaac Phillips delivers a statement at a candlelight vigil in his honor, calling out his football coaches for what he says was a lack of support after racist graffiti was spraying on his home earlier in the week, at Lunenburg's gazebo park on Nov. 18, 2013. The graffiti was directed at Isaac and his status on the Lunenburg High School football team, prompting the vigil and the suspension of the football season indefinitely.

The facts:

The investigation into who spray painted a home with racist graffiti last month has turned toward the woman who lives there.

Police said on Wednesday that Andrea Brazier [mother of the alleged target of the racist graffiti] is now considered a “strong suspect” in the case.

Officers say they executed a search warrant on Tuesday and seized two cans of spray paint and ammunition from the home.

Brazier, who is white, and her husband Anthony Phillips, who is African American live at the home with their 13-year-old son, Isaac. Brazier initially cast suspicion on her sonÂ’s Lunenburg High School football teammates, saying he had been bullied in the past.

The schoolÂ’s superintendent cancelled the football teamÂ’s final game on Thanksgiving after no one came forward to take responsibility.

On Monday, Lunenburg police announced that there was no conclusive evidence that anyone on the high school football team is linked to the graffiti.

A police affidavit obtained on Wednesday indicated that Brazier had stopped cooperating with investigators and had changed her story several times.

Initially she told officers that her 6-year-old daughter heard someone outside of her window and saw someone wearing a feather head dress on either November 14 or 15. She later said that alleged incident occurred on November 4.

Police discovered two cans of spray paint in the family's firepit, burned up. They suspect those cans were used to spray the "hate messages." The father claims the spray paint was used in some kind of home-improvement project in the living room, but apparently the police don't believe them. Not only did the mother begin changing her story, implausibly claiming the racist messages were left November 4, or alternately, November 14 of 15 (10-11 days later-- hardly a plausible mistake), but the father offered three "distinct" versions of his story as to how the spray cans wound up in the firepit.

As the police began asking these questions, the mother began saying she just wanted the investigation to end, and when they put it to her that someone in the family had defaced her own car, she began saying "Okay" and then "You don't understand."

The school superintendent who collectively punished the football team for something they didn't do, Loxi Jo Colmes, is now saying she didn't punish anyone at all.

Colmes also addressed the cancellation of the Thanksgiving football game. “I never looked at the cancellation as a punishment although it is certainly viewed that way by many,” Colmes said. “In the end the safety of students and attendees at the game was deemed to be of paramount importance. At no time did I or any employee of the schools indict or implicate any of our players. In fact, my statements were that the graffiti investigation could NOT be limited to the team.”

Uh-huh.

For a really interesting analysis of the phenomenon of racial hate hoaxing (for fun and for profit), read David Thompson. Here he speaks generally of people in the Militancy Industrial Complex:

In order to maintain a self-image of heroic radicalism - and in order to justify funding, influence and status - great leaps of imagination or paranoia may be required. Hence the goal posts of persecution tend to move and new and rarer forms of exploitation and injustice have to be discovered, many of which are curiously invisible to the untutored eye. Thus, the rebel academic tends towards extremism, intolerance and absurdity, not because the mainstream of society is becoming more racist, prejudiced, patriarchal or oppressive – but precisely because it isn’t. As mainstream society becomes less fixated by race, gender, sexuality, etc., so peddlers of grievance and victimhood must search out - or invent - something to oppose. Overstatement and escalation are all but inevitable.

Posted by: Ace at 08:09 AM | Comments (312)
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After once again demonstrating their prowess on all matters economic with ObamaCare, liberals have turned their attention to another economy crippling idea...increasing the minimum wage.

Naturally all the usual suspects, Obama, the media, and professional liberal agitators are united for the push.

First, Obama had his big economic speech yesterday in which he called for hiking the minimum wage to address income inequality. Gotta spread it around, right?

This was tied to today's strike against fast food shops in selected cities across the country.

And then there's the lefty propaganda under the guise of non-partisan scholarship.

Whether or not most of those who work 40 hours a week at the minimum wage or near it and are supporting families believe that they are entitled to food and housing, the fact is that they are doing what we have long believed was fulfilling our basic social contract—work hard, be productive, and you and your family can live a decent life with a place to live, food on the table, clothes on your backs, and other necessities. In the past, Republicans thought that the market ought to set wages, and that a combination of government devices—including the earned-income tax credit, housing subsidies, food stamps, Medicaid, and other social-welfare programs—could fill in the gaps to make that social contract work, while also trying to remove disincentives from work via welfare reform. There is not only a continuing belief in some quarters that markets should set wages, but strenuous efforts to make deep cuts to food-stamp funding and slash other programs that help low-income workers—condemned as “takers.”

It is a fact that our economic system continues to have big gaps. The web of subsidies can create real disincentives for those at the bottom of the scale who want to work but would actually lose more benefits than their minimum-wage income would bring in. The effective marginal tax rate for a couple both making low wages if the second person works can be more than 100 percent because of benefit formulas. A couple of weeks ago, when I wrote about the war on food stamps, I mentioned a D.C. woman who is struggling to feed herself and her daughter, but calculated that she would need a job paying $15 an hour to do better. That is an artifact of poorly constructed, patchwork policies. Liberal cant notwithstanding, there is a culture of dependency that can discourage work among many. But the fact is most people out of work want to work—it defines their self-worth.

So because the liberal welfare state has become so (relatively) generous that the minimum wage would need to be nearly doubled for it to make economic sense for a person to get a job. It then of course falls to businesses to somehow find the money to pay workers more money, even though they are not providing any additional value for that increased wage.

Of course the money for that new higher wage will come from a combination of fewer workers or increased cost to consumers. Meanwhile the consumer and business owners who are expected to carry the increased wage burden will still have to pay the taxes to fund the welfare benefits that compete with wages in a never ending upward spiral.

And that's going to create economic growth?

According to Barack Obama, yes.

Here's how to improve our economy and create hundreds of thousands of jobs: #RaiseTheWage. http://t.co/NLM2t9NyhS pic.twitter.com/UDTcTSaqZJ

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) December 4, 2013

Do these people really believe this or are they just messing with us?

Of course no policy fight in the Age of Obama would be complete without liberal totalitarians wondering if King Barack I could just do this on his own without all the messiness of congressional involvement.

Well, progressives say, there's a whole group of low-wage workers that he can fix this for, just with the stroke of a pen. The chairmen of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Reps. Raul Grijalva and Keith Ellison, wrote a letter that urges the president to circumvent Congress and sign an executive order to raise the minimum wage for workers employed through federal government contracts with private companies. This letter comes months after 49 members of the CPC requested the same thing from the president, only to hear radio silence about it from the White House.

"It's frustrating," says Ellison, who hand-delivered the letter to the president after his speech Wednesday. "We know his heart is in the right place and he wants to do something, and this is something he can do."

It's especially frustrating for Ellison and his caucus considering there is no chance such a measure could pass the Republican-held House and that Obama said months ago that he would use "whatever executive authority I have to help the middle class."

Unrelated prediction: Liberal love of robust unilateral executive action will end the second a Republican wins the White House again.

The minimum wage fight comes down to a fight between two camps..people who understand economics and the vast majority of Americans. You either understand that wages are a function of labor supply and demand as well as individual skills or you think pay rates are simply social constructs that can be raised or lowered devoid of any connections to real world conditions and consequences.

But hey, the same coalition that brought the wonders of their economic understanding of health insurance market to us through ObamaCare can be wrong, can they?

In crass political terms the fight to raise the minimum wage is simply about paying off Democratic constituent groups like the young, minority women and union workers with other people's money.

What's not to love about that? Unless of course you are the one being stuck with the bill or a worker who will either lose their job or fail to get one because reality will kick in no matter what liberals want to believe.

Posted by: DrewM at 07:11 AM | Comments (311)
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• Obama's "Become The Very Danger The Constitution Was Designed To Avoid
  
• Panicked Dem Senators Hold Meeting With The WH
  
• The Id And The Ick
  
• Theives Who Stole Cobalt-60 In Mexico Likely To Die
  
• VDH: Ignoring History
  
• The War Of The Wages
  
• Schumer Sleeps Next To Poster Of Obama
  
• The Equilibrium Of East Asia
  
• Taranto: The Time Thief
  
• Idiot Dem Quotes The Borowitz Report To Refute Obamacare Critics
  
• Bashir Had Previously Been Suspended By MSNBC
  
• Elizabeth Warren Pledges Not To Run In 2016
  
• Opposition To Gun Control Up 23 Percent Since January
  
• A Case Study In The Wonk Gap
  
• Kaus: Obamacare Needs A Doohickey
  
• 400,000 Year Old Human DNA Found?
  

Sorry it's a bit light on links, I've been busy this morning.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:26 AM | Comments (246)
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Happy Thursday.

I'm always surprised when Penny Arcade's comic & blog post manage to dovetail with what we're talking about, but I suppose I shouldn't be, since they're often reacting to the same news that we are. If you're new to PA, the comic is satire, the blog post is where the goods are at.

The NRCC is trying to teach GOP politicians how to run against women candidates without Todd Akinizing themselves.

Fox News has recap from yesterday's congressional hearing on Obama's end runs around Congress. Ace talks about that hearing on the podcast that'll be posted tomorrow.

Oh, hey, 2 million Facebook, Gmail, and Twitter passwords were stolen, so if you happen to use those services, you might consider changing your passwords.

Movie and comic geeks, Israeli actress Gal Gadot has been cast as Wonder Woman in the upcoming Batman vs. Superman film.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:48 AM | Comments (289)
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The Family from the Carol Burnett Show

So I've been on a kick of watching old Carol Burnett episodes especially the classic Family skits. Some of these I haven't seen since they originally aired and I was pleased to see that they're still as funny and timeless as I vaguely remembered. (Mama's Birthday and Forgive Your Enemies are classics)

Of course I see a lot of Eunice, Mama and Ed in my own extended family (I suspect I'm not alone in this which is what made them so appealing) and watched many a family holiday start out with high hopes and a veneer of good cheer and joviality while the tension and periodic squabbling slowly built until you just knew a Scene was about to erupt. Entertaining as long you're not involved and just accept Christmas screaming matches and reconciliation as another family holiday tradition. Good times, good times. Norman Rockwell they weren't but that doesn't mean that they don't love each other (mostly) and aren't a real family.

Another thing I noticed is that the skits are rather long by today's standards. Some are as short as 10 minutes but most run around 20 minutes or more which allows for a good amount of build-up and character development. After watching a few I've realized that they were essentially written as short one act comedy plays with recurring characters (as well as an underlying layer of pathos).

You can watch practically the entire collection here.

Blog Alert: CAC will be on The Wrap with Bruce Carroll and Amy Otto at 10:30pm eastern discussing his blog treason excellent piece for the Federalist.  You can listen here.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:45 PM | Comments (550)
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OK, this one is actually a mounted specimen.

more...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 05:54 PM | Comments (213)
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Okay, so, the RNSC jumped on Pryor's newfound devotion to Jesus, or, as Pryor calls him, "The Jay Man," contrasting his recent ad with previous statements averring (when convenient) that the Bible should not be used to inform political choices.

Actually, that seems perfectly reasonable to me. If Pryor previously claimed that the Bible shouldn't guide his votes, it is perfectly fair to point out his hypocrisy in now waving around the Good Book to help him out in a political campaign.

But I guess they didn't clear this with the candidate Tom Cotton. Or something. I don't know. The Pryor campaign has claimed the RNSC is "questioning mah faith!!!!," and the Cotton campaign is now agreeing: Yes, you questioned his faith, and that's horrible. Stop questioning people's faith.

RSC communications director Brad Dayspring emailed reporters to say that statement contradicts one Pryor made last year, however, when he said the Bible "is really not a rulebook for political issues" and that "everyone can see it differently."

"So is the Bible Mark Pryor's compass, providing the 'comfort and guidance to do what's best for Arkansas?' Or is it really not a good rule book for political issues and decisions made in the Senate? Guess it depends on which Mark Pryor that you ask," Dayspring said.

Cotton's campaign ripped Dayspring's remarks.

"That is an incredibly bizarre and offensive email from the NRSCÂ’s press secretary. We should all agree that America is better off when all our public officials in both parties have the humility to seek guidance from God," Cotton campaign spokesman David Ray told The Hill.

ItÂ’s an unusual break for Cotton from the NRSC, which has provided strong backing for his campaign while regularly attacking Pryor.

Pryor's campaign seized on the controversy to strike at Cotton.

"It's frankly despicable that Congressman Cotton's Washington allies are manipulating quotes to question the sincerity of Mark's religious beliefs," said Pryor campaign manager Jeff Weaver. "Tom Cotton needs to step up and denounce these shameful attacks on Mark Pryor's faith."

To me, a secular guy, the RNSC attack seemed perfectly fair game. Pryor is plainly trying to have it both ways here. When he casts votes that offend the religious, he says the Bible shouldn't inform public policy. When he's about to get voted out of office, he's on the air saying Jesus is his Copilot.

But I guess maybe... among Arkansans, questioning someone's actual religiosity (even when there's a fair justification for questioning it) is considered dirty pool and out-of-bounds?

I don't know. But I know there's a botch here. Somehow this Fat Ass Elmer Gantry Motherf***er has turned his despicable "Re-Elect Me Because God Wants You To n' Stuff" ad into a referendum on whether his opponent sufficiently respects religious faith.

Posted by: Ace at 04:00 PM | Comments (348)
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This got stomped when I last floated it, so lets try again.

...now it looks like a set on the History ChannelÂ’s show Life After People, only itÂ’s still inhabited. Baghdad in the middle of the Iraq war was in better shape physically. I know because I spent months there and wrote a book about it.

Roofs have collapsed. Balcony doors hang not vertically but at angles, allowing passersby to see inside homes where the interior paint is just as peeled as it is on the outside. I could even see inside some peopleÂ’s homes through gashes in exterior walls. The weight of rain water knocks whole buildings down as if they were dynamited...

...Trust me: you would not want to live there, especially not on a ration card and the governmentÂ’s twenty dollar maximum salary. Not that additional money would do you much good. Where would you spend it? Not even in the slums of Mexico have I seen such pitiful shops...

A similar thing seems to happening in the DPRK:

...Australian Mark Freeman has visited the DPRK four times and is preparing an academic paper on the North Korean propaganda. He doubts the fences in the northeast are live and believes that they are the relics of a more effective and extensive system.

“In North Korea, the electric fence, the barbed wire, is in people’s minds. They have been very effective in making the outside world appear very, very dangerous and unpredictable,” says Freeman.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 01:31 PM | Comments (342)
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A cargo truck ferrying dangerously radioactive material was hijacked in Mexico.

The truck was carrying a metal container of cobalt-60 headed to a nuclear waste facility in the state of Mexico, said Juan Eibenschutz, director general of the National Commission of Nuclear Safety and Safeguards....

Direct exposure would result in death within a few minutes, he added.

"This is a radioactive source that is very strong," Eibenschutz told The Associated Press on Wednesday, adding that is can be almost immediately fatal, depending on proximity. "The intensity is very big if it is broken."

Eibenschutz didn't know the exact weight, but that it was the largest amount stolen in recent memory, and the intensity of the material caused the alert. Local, state and federal authorities, including the military, are searching for the tr

...

The thieves likely didn't know what the truck was carrying, he said, and may have discarded the metal container, which he said is about a meter square.

Yeah, the update casts doubt on that appraisal.

"If someone finds a big chunk of metal with radiation symbols all over it, they should notify us immediately and don't open it," Eibenschutz said.

Hm-hm.

The driver of the truck was doing his level-best to combat stereotypes about Mexicans when he was hijacked:

He said told authorities he was sleeping in the truck when two men armed with a gun approached about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Authorities have now found the container which formerly held the radioactive material -- but the container was empty.

Why would they take the material out of the container? Given that the container exists to shield nearby people from lethal radiation?

That's extremely dangerous. Either leave the container behind if you don't want it at all, or, if you're looking to sell the material, keep it in the container as you move it.

I can only think of one reason for moving the material out of the container: Because they suspected (wrongly, it turns out) that the container had some kind of electronic tracker in it. So they swapped the radioactive material into their own container.

Which is alarming. Because that means they cane prepared, and were looking specifically for nuclear material. Which means they have specific plans for the material.

Update: My alarmism might have been premature. I had skipped this story, based on the 24 hour rule, but became alarmed to hear it had been moved out of its containers.

Now I see Brandon Darby tweeting the material itself has been found 1 kilometer from the container:

I'm not sure that update is accurate, though: The FoxNews piece, stating that the container was found but not the material it once held, is very recent (updated three minutes ago as I type this). So I don't know about this new claim that the material has been recovered as well.

Update: Live on FoxNews, they're saying the container was found empty, but not the material, which is what I originally thought. I think this tweet about the material being found is just wrong, or at least it's unconfirmed.

BBC: Material Has Been Found, But "Its Condition Remains Unclear." What does that mean? I have no idea myself.

Updated Again: FoxNews Reports Mexican Officials Saying the Material Has Been Recovered.

Posted by: Ace at 02:30 PM | Comments (286)
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