History Now

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Super Spoilers for Angel: After the Fall #13

Cordy: Saw it coming, but still sad.Gwen: Good for her! (Bad for her?)Spike: Growing in leaps and bounds the last two issues to a point where I actually like him. I didn’t understand his resurrection until I came here but it makes perfect sense.Gunn killing Fred: Brilliant. What a great way to not explain if it really was her and keep everyone happy. Kill Fred again, and have Gunn do it. Now, the puzzle cover and the tentacle cover make more sense, too. Without Fred for
Illyria to revert back to… Uh oh!
Illyria being the key: Totally not Wolfram & Hart giving Gunn the visions if that’s the case. I said it before, but couldn’t the Powers That Be be using Gunn in the same way Wolfram & Hart are using Wesley and Angel (and everyone else)?

Connor: Man, what a way to take the most hated Angel character ever and make him awesome.

Cordelia: Glad to see they were using her sparingly.

Angel: Taking a back seat but in a good way—to let others shine. 

And a quick survey:1. Favorite character
Gunn was fantastic in this issue.
2. Favorite surprise
Gunn killing Fred. That worked out perfectly.
3. Least favorite surprise
The fake out Spike death being peppered in with the real deaths.
5. Favorite line of dialogue and/or single line of dialogue
Man, there’s no way to pick
6. Least favorite line of dialogue
Hm… There were moments that Cordelia didn’t sound like Cordelia.
7. Favorite panel of art
Fred’s dead!?
8. Least favorite panel of art
 Maybe the big two page spread—wasn’t quite as epic as it was meant to be (though maybe I was spoiled with the last two page spread from issue 12).
9. Question you most want answered
What the hell is going on!? 

All in all: Great issue. It feels like this is the first step to the climax and I have no idea what’s coming! Man… I don’t even know what else to say. 

Just finished the most recent Christopher Paolini book Brisingr. The best of the series (so far). The writing is solid and streamline if not innovative or riveting. It reads, at least in part, as a bridge or a prequel to the final book (which it is so that can be forgiven). It seems as if Paolini forgot about the more interesting members of the secondary cast. He gives them cameos in order to tie up loose ends so that he can push them into the background—as if he realized they would not play a bigger part in the book despite the build he gave them. Most notably: Arya, and Angela. Straight forward fantasy with mediocre character development and at least a couple hundred pages that could have been cut or used to focus on Arya and Angela. The Roran story line became somewhat tiring, and Paolini made the character unbelievable even in a fantasy world such as this one (killing 200 men alone), and the once good character of Nasuada may have been diminished into nothing more than a cliché despite a strong showing from her in the beginning of the book. All in all, worth reading if you have already read the previous two books.

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I’ve heard a lot about universal healthcare. Government run hospitals—hospitals consisting of doctors and nurses who are, due to government regulations, getting paid a lot less than they are right now. With such a pay cut, there will be less people willing to go through the rigorous task of medical school (why should they with such a small pay off) that leads to two eventualities. (1) Tax payers pay more in taxes to keep these doctors’ pay up. Or (2) medical school becomes less rigorous (and cheaper) meaning… doctors of lesser quality. If any of you have ever dealt with public government offices—the county clerk’s office for mortgagers, the DMV if you want to get your driver’s license, etc.—you all know that it is not a pleasant experience. Now put over worked doctors, sick people in dire need of medical attention right now, and hundreds of charts that can get more easily mixed up than a couple files at the treasury department… Where does that get fun?

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I believe there should be a National Derogatory Term Day where everyone is required to call at least 10 people (at least 5 of which must be of different “race”) racial slurs—within their hearing—and use specific words (such as the N-word—which I must refrain from using because of the sensitivity I must fight—and the S-word) at least 20 times, and at least once during sexual intercourse if one belongs to an interracial couple. I mean, honestly people. Isn’t it about time that we let racism die? It’s already 5 feet in the hole. The only reason it lingers on is for political reasons. One NDT Day would fix all that. Anyone who believes in racism propagates it further.

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Subsistence vs. Commerce. In smaller populated areas, in a time prior to the industrial revolution, people survived happily producing, within their communities, only that which they needed to survive on a day to day basis. This is fine in a world with a population cap and absolute monarchs. But we like our republics and democracy, right? We like that we don’t have to wake up every morning hungry while our survival is based on if we might end up with a bad harvest this year. We like being warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Distribution of wealth would end all that. It would collapse the capitalist system of the country, create class wars, and require a dictator to keep everything together. Of course, however, this country is too large and too spread out to stay a country for too long when supply suddenly outweighs demand, and the crops rot on the tracks while the boys in Washington spew out worthless money to buy out the idiot consumer. Do these modern day socialists realize how many people would have to die to revert back to a subsistence-like economy? Billions.

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Busy times. I’d like to comment on the political atmosphere around a college campus in
Texas. While many people think all Texans are die-hard conservatives, those people are idiots. I have had the pleasure of experiencing, as a guest and as a student, colleges in different parts of the country, and I’m somewhat proud to report that college students in Texas are far more open minded and knowledgeable about the world, on average. This, of course, doesn’t mean that MOST of them are knowledgeable. A vast majority are ignorant idiots, but I have met more than a few people in recent days that may even give you guys a little hope for the future. Just a little…

Anyway, I’ll post a real blog tomorrow.

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Rhino from http://therelevantrhino.today.com/ responded to my gas prices blog a few days ago with: “You’ve missed the connection…imploding economy= less travel=lower prices. They can’t afford those multi-million dollar bonuses if no one’s driving. The simple fact of the matter is that in order to operate, companies have been forced to drop the barrel price, and we see the results at the pump.”

I’m not here to attack this person, whom is intelligent and writes a mean blog, but their comments confused me. Gas prices go up and that is bad, right? Gas prices go down and… That is also bad? How does that work? I’ve stated many times that I’m not an economist, but I’m trying to learn. If up is bad and down is bad… Then what is good? Is there anyone out there who can help me out with this one?

And to throw fuel on the fire, wouldn’t off-shore drilling solve these problems? Providing Americans with their own oil while freeing up money to invest in research for alternative fuel sources? Also, what about a high speed rail system for travel throughout the country?

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If you are a fan of Ayn Rand or many other political satirists/novelists, you may have run across more than one similes, metaphors, or allusions involving tennis courts that may not have made much sense when you first heard/read them. Why would someone’s smile make them look like they could take in a whole tennis court when tennis hasn’t been mentioned throughout this entire article/novel/essay/speech? Why would Dagny Taggart suddenly feel the need to play tennis with the Destroyer or her brother James? Seemed a little out of place, right?

When the 3rd Estate broke from the Estates General because they felt they were being underrepresented in the vote (the 1st Estate was made up of one class, the clergy, the 2nd Estate was made up of one class, the nobility, and the 3rd Estate was made up of two classes) that would decide the fate of France in the late 1800s, they formed the National Assembly. They were bourgeoisie and peasants and so, naturally, weren’t taken seriously. When Louis XVI, still delusions of an absolute monarchy in which the king would have all the power in the country, locked the National Assembly out of their meeting place, they moved their congregation to an indoor tennis court where they made an oath: They would not end the National Assembly assemblage until they had come up with a new constitution for France.

This became known as the Tennis Court Oath and signified the beginning of what later became known as the French Revolution. While the revolution not only didn’t work, but failed miserably, it was this moment that set the entire European world on its head, leading to revolution against the oppression of the mind in every country in one form or another.

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Obama didn’t offer anything new and McCain showed that he was human. The problem with Obama’s lead so early is that he is stuck. He can’t say anything new or different for fear of offending/scaring off people that currently support him, but he also can’t stand still with the same message because it will become stale. It may not seem like it, but McCain has a luxury right now in that he can test the waters. He can attack from different points without any fear of retaliation. He can find a foothold and stick it in, gain a solid place, and wait/hope that Obama falters. People calling this race… Well, they may end up being right if McCain doesn’t play his cards right, but as it stands right now, this presidential race is far from over.

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As you all know, tonight is the second of three presidential debates. For those of you who have been living in your own personal idiot bubble (which, if you are reading this, probably refers to none of you) the Democratic candidate is Barrack Obama and the Republican candidate is John McCain. In case your idiot bubble extends to economic affairs, don’t be surprised if a major topic of the debate tonight is… You guessed it: The economy!

It would be interesting to find out what these two candidates thought about the bailout and the aftermath (though I’m not holding my breath). Half the country is saying, “Oh no! The bailout didn’t work at all!” pointing at the fact that the Federal Reserve will now be used to “but out massive amounts of short-term debt” (see: http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081007/financial_meltdown.html?.&.pf=banking-budgeting) while the other half is saying, “Just give it time!”  

The clear winner for anyone looking at it from an unbiased standpoint during the last debate, the VP debate, was Sarah Palin. Currently the polls show Obama ahead by a wide margin (in much the same way Kerry was ahead of Bush four years ago) but the strange thing is that while people seem to like Obama over McCain, they also seem to like Palin over the entire Democratic ticket. McCain’s disadvantage in this debate is the fact that he chose someone (Palin) who would fit with him perfectly if he is what he claims to be—but we don’t know if he is that! He has to prove tonight that he is a maverick. He has to prove that he’s a straight talker. Obama’s largest hurdle is the fact that unless he has a chance to memorize his speeches, he comes across as naïve and inexperienced.

After the debate, people who lean left will say Obama was the clear winner and people who lean right will say McCain is the clear winner. I challenge you to listen to these two people as if you had no idea what their parties were or what they were running for before you decide who was better, or who was worse.