Deep Thoughts on Shallow Subjects

2012-01-11T15:26:00.000-06:00

Here's a letter that my hometown newspaper (The Camden Chronicle) and former employer (The Jackson Sun) were both too cowardly to print: Dear editor, While spending the last 18 months studying at a seminary outside Boston, I’ve been keeping track of events back at home in Benton County. And as I’ve lived in Boston and seen how the descendants of the original Tea Party participants run things,

What addiction is depends on who you are

2011-11-05T13:29:00.001-05:00

The major textbook for my Justice Matters course this semester is Margaret Urban Walker's Moral Understandings: A Feminist Study in Ethics. Her methodology can be applied to issues that extend well beyond race, however. <A HREF="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?rt=tf_cw&ServiceVersion=20070822&MarketPlace=US&ID=V20070822%2FUS%2Fthemennompod-20%2F8010%2F5c0e1278-e6f9-4187-8de8-

Deaths in 2011: September

2011-10-09T20:46:00.001-05:00

As usual, this is not an all-encompassing list of notable people who died in the month in question. (See Wikipedia for that.) Rather, it's just a summary of the ones who struck me as particularly consequential or who meant something to me personally. September: &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;A HREF="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?rt=tf_cw&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;ServiceVersion=20070822&amp

Deaths in 2011: August

2011-09-08T18:40:00.000-05:00

As always, this is not an all-inclusive list of notable people who died in the given month; look to Wikipedia for that. Rather, this is a list of those newsmakers and personalities who meant something to me in particular or struck me as important to pass along for one reason or another. August Sister Carmela Marie Cristiano (born in 1927 or 1928, deceased 1 Aug. 2011) was a social worker and

Has anybody here seen my old friends Sid 'n' Susie?

2011-08-17T23:40:00.000-05:00

The title, of course, is a nod to Dick Holler's 1968 song "Abraham, Martin, and John," made famous by Dion (Dimucci). That's NOT a song that Sid 'n' Susie -- aka Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs -- covered on their album of '60s covers, Under the Covers, Vol. 1, but roll with it. Whilst driving around doing errands today, I listened to the entirety of that first covers album by the pair of

More thoughts on DC Comics

2011-08-10T23:17:00.000-05:00

So, I've been thinking a lot -- as usual -- about the DC Comics revamp (coming Aug. 31 with Flashpoint #5 and Justice League #1), and I'm generally pleased by what I see taking shape not only in the first month of the relaunch but in the second and third months as some miniseries come to light. The First Wave series (integrating Doc Savage and The Spirit into a shared world with a gun-toting

The religious left is not an oxymoron

2011-08-07T12:42:00.001-05:00

Click to enlarge screen grab -- take anti-nausea medication first. The above image was posted at picture-hosting site Imgur under the headline "Threats of rape & killing from Fox news comments. Lovely people." Which is accurate as things go, so long as you catch the 180-degree use of irony in characterizing these sociopaths as "lovely." While I do think American Atheists is legally right in

Deaths in 2011: July

2011-08-01T22:00:00.000-05:00

As usual, this is not an all-encompassing list of deaths in the given month. I merely list and discuss the ones that struck me as especially newsworthy or had particular meaning to me. You can find a fuller list at Wikipedia. July: Lawrence R. Newman (23 March 1925 - 4 July 2011) was a two-term president of the National Association of the Deaf and an author whose works included the collection

I ain't marching anymore

2011-07-27T22:50:00.001-05:00

The Norway shootings were a last straw for me, though I think in retrospect I'll see that this decision has been coming for a long time. I'm throwing my hat in with Chris Hedges and saying: I don't believe in atheists. Note: I am still an atheist, in that I do not believe in any particular deity. I am also an agnostic, in that I believe "knowledge" of a deity is impossible. I am also an

Have I mentioned lately that I hate these people?

2011-07-20T22:10:00.001-05:00

The only good thing you can say about a Republican politician is that the carbon dioxide he or she exhales will be good for plants, which will then emit oxygen that actual human beings need to survive. That's it, really.

(Repost) I’m currently taking commissions. Please read. | Bohemian Zen

2011-07-20T17:38:00.001-05:00

If you have a few dollars to spare for the help of a talented comics artist, check out what William Blankenship is offering during a difficult economic time for his family: Commission work at very reasonable rates. I’m currently taking commissions. Please read. | Bohemian Zen

To e-book or not to e-book, that's barely even a question

2011-07-20T14:24:00.000-05:00

Amazon.com reports that is now selling more e-books than printed-and-bound books. Borders has announced this week it will liquidate, having deserted plans to go into bankruptcy protection and seek a buyer. (That was my fault, by the way. The chain over-extended by opening a store in a St. Louis suburb I used to visit frequently -- right before the relationship that took me there ended, thus

Versatility, thy name is Norm

2011-07-16T13:35:00.000-05:00

If you heard an explosion late last night, it was just my mind being blown. Nothing to worry about. (My head being largely empty, it wasn't even that messy an incident.) And the source of this turn of events? The discovery that the clean, dynamic art on the Life With Archie/Archie: The Married Life series (Archie Marries Betty and Archie Marries Veronica, which I've been reading via

Chynna Clugston Flores: Comics with a mod-ern spin

2011-07-15T15:24:00.000-05:00

Art from Scholastic's Queen Bee graphic novel by then-Chynna Clugston. So, what was I talking about, again? Oh, yes, women in comics. They exist. Some of them work on books where people dress up in silly costumes and hit each other over the head with stuff. Others don't. In the times since I first talked about this and laid out the plans to start paying tribute to -- and hopefully drawing

Let us now praise famous women...

2011-07-07T19:31:00.047-05:00

After much talk online about the role of women in the comic book industry -- some saying that by sheer numbers alone, the superhero publishers should be ashamed of themselves, others pointing out that at least some indie presses do just as poorly or worse -- I'm just thinking about the women writers and/or artists whose work I particularly enjoy. My tastes have largely run toward superhero

Greeting card categories we need

2011-07-05T16:37:00.001-05:00

Valentine's Day, Mothers' Day, Fathers' Day, birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, bereavement, bar/bat mitzvah, first communion, Passover and Hanukkah, Secretaries/Executive Assistants Day, Grandparents' Day, general congratulations or support or horniness ... the greeting card companies have you covered on a lot of these events. But there are lots of areas of modern life that are still

Deaths in 2011: June

2011-07-05T09:00:00.002-05:00

You should know the score by now: This is not a comprehensive list of all the newsmaker deaths in the given month, just the ones that caught my eye for whatever reason. A fuller list is available at Wikipedia. June: Former Black Panther Party leader Geronimo Pratt (13 Sept. 1947 - 2 June 2011) spent 27 years in prison for a kidnapping and murder he didn't commit, which one supposes was a more

Notes on categorization

2011-06-29T20:37:00.000-05:00

h One of my classes this past spring was titled "Understanding Interfaith Dilemmas." It was a great class, online-only, with lots of interesting discussions from a variety of points of view. I was probably the most secular of the people in there; other classmates were Christian or Unitarian Universalist, as far as I could tell, though one was a UU who lives with a Jewish family. We looked at

If I were king of the world (Justice Society of America edition)

2011-06-26T14:25:00.000-05:00

Still have comic books on my mind, sorry. With the news that DC Comics is giving the Justice Society of America "a rest" in its September relaunch -- represented only by the Mr. Terrific series that we know, with no mention of the JSA in the solicitation information, which suggests no ties to the team -- I've been thinking about how DC can move forward when it decides to pull the Golden Agers

If I were king of the world (DC Comics edition)

2011-06-16T19:17:00.002-05:00

The content of this post should be obvious, right? Given the previous entry was my own personal take on what a 52-book Marvel Universe (main continuity) would look like if I were picking the books, here's the same for DC Comics. There will be some overlap with what DC is planning, but some of these are not on their list. As with what DC is already doing, some of these books incorporate

If I were king of the world (Marvel Comics edition)

2011-06-16T16:31:00.000-05:00

DC Comics has announced it will relaunch its entire DC Universe line in September with a first salvo of 52 books, as discussed, oh, pretty much everywhere. A user at Comic Book Resources asked the obvious question to a bunch of opinionated comics readers: If they were in charge at Marvel Comics and tasked with doing the same thing, what would THEY pick as the 52 books? Here's my list, after

Reboot, revamp, retool, rethink, etc.

2011-06-05T18:22:00.000-05:00

With apologies to Bob Dylan: The pop culture times, they are a-changing. The geekier corners of Teh Interwebz have been all a-quiver this week with news of DC Comics' plans come September and the end of the Flashpoint miniseries and its tie-in shorter mini-series and one-shots (and related issues of the Booster Gold ongoing series). Professor Zoom, the Flash's evil opposite, has changed the

Deaths in 2011: May

2011-06-01T20:09:00.001-05:00

As usual, this is not the all-encompassing list of newsmaker deaths for the given month. Included here are the ones who either meant something to me or struck me as especially significant. Not everyone on this list will be missed -- especially not given the death of Osama bin Laden -- though most will. (See Wikipedia for a more comprehensive tallying.) May: Israeli jurist Moshe Landau (29

Deaths in 2011: April

2011-05-06T00:11:00.000-05:00

As per usual, these entries to not by any means represent all newsmaker deaths in the given month, only the ones that struck my eye as particularly noteworthy or had personal significance to me. See the Wikipedia entry for a more comprehensive list. April: Manning Marable (13 May 1950 - 1 April 2011) was a scholar of African-American studies, history and public affairs at Columbia University

The day (long) after

2011-05-02T23:12:00.000-05:00

My 9/11 story had elements of dark comedy at its core, as does my response to news of Osama bin Laden's death and burial at sea. I've told some of this story before, but here it is again with a little new context, perhaps. At the time, I was working as a page designer at The Jackson (Tenn.) Sun, a daily newspaper; I forget what my work schedule looked like at the time, whether I was working