Advice For Candidates, Supporters And Successors

What? A post not about my cancer or featuring disco music? WHAAAAA...? It's true, though. I start with a quote:

You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes you might find
You get what you need

(The Rolling Stones)

With Pennsylvania and four other states having held their primaries yesterday, Republican Donald Trump and, especially, Democrat Hillary Clinton are both closer than ever to clinching their party's nominations. FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver says that Trump's sweep of all five states makes it likely that if Indiana wants Trump (whether he can go back there or not) the Cruz-Kasich tag-team, formed much, much too late, will be probably be unable to stop Trump from preventing the contested GOP convention they so desperately need.

FiveThirtyEight also says that, barring a miracle, Clinton (winning 4 of 5, including the big prize of PA) will have more total elected delegates than Bernie Sanders, and adding in the superdelegates (more on them in a bit) makes her pretty much the a certainty to win the nomination in Philadelphia in July. (Side note: if health permits I plan to volunteer at the convention here in some capacity.)

So with that, and the comments I'm reading from supporters of both Bernie and Hillary ranging from angry to smug, bitter to ecstatic, desperate for a miracle to anxious to fast-forward to the fall, and too much it nasty, I've decided to spend a few minutes dispensing some advice -- I'm a little more focused on Sanders, any progressive candidates who may come in his wake, and his supporters, many of whom are younger and idealistic -- certainly much younger than myself and somewhat more idealistic. :o . But I'm nothing if not an equal-opportunity advice giver.

A Hillary Clinton Thought

Maybe Hillary Clinton decided to say something nice about Nancy Reagan by talking about her stance on stem cell research, and had a brain fart and said "HIV/AIDS" instead? If so, that was her second mistake. Her first was wanting to pander to the right-wing nuts in the first place.

In a situation like this, where the deceased isn't worthy of adulation but you want to be respectful, all you do is offer condolences to the family. That's it. Hillary, in trying to score points with conservatives -- who will never, ever, show her the same courtesy -- offended many of her core supporters (in November, if not necessarily during the primaries) -- people of a certain age who lived through the days of the despicable Reagan administration. In case you weren't alive then, or somehow have forgotten that bastard, here's Dan Savage's rant.

Nancy supported her husband's evil, reportedly abandoned her friend Rock Hudson when AIDS was killing him, and only started advocating for stem-cell research after Ronnie was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. And her puerile "Just Say No" anti-drug effort, if anything, did more harm than good.

If Donald Trump becomes our 45th President, remember this day.

I'm Feeling The Bern

So this happened over the summer when I was at the Navy Yard taking pictures of the new development (including park space) there...

And then this happened last night on my way home from work...

A few minutes later it hit me: this is why I should vote for Bernie Sanders.

All of this paranoia and the extra "security" that doesn't really protect anyone, all of this crap that began after the 9/11 attacks, annoys me more and more with each passing day. (Well, pretty much everything annoys me more every day, but that's another story.) And, as much as I like her and much of what she's done and what she wants to do, Hillary Clinton -- previously a United States Senator and Secretary of State -- is part of the political machinery that has led to this steady erosion of our freedoms. This has to change, and I don't think Clinton will be as willing to make the needed changes as Sanders.

Make no mistake: I'll vote for whichever candidate the Democrats nominate to go up against the survivor of the RepubliScum Clown Gang Wars. But when Pennsylvania holds its primary (which is so important with the number of delegates at stake, the state schedules it for the day before the first party convention begins) I'm voting for Bernie Sanders.

All he has to do is be competitive and make my vote meaningful. In 2008 I voted for Hillary even though by the time the PA primary occurred it was a foregone conclusion that she came from way ahead to lose the nomation to Barack Obama. At the time I honestly had doubts that he could win in November. Oops. So maybe I shouldn't think this way, but I see no chance one of the GOP clowns can win in November 2016. They've painted themselves and each other into the most extremist corner. None of them (not even John Kasich, who's probably the most sane of the GOP clowns) can escape this when the general election rolls around.

So do your part, America, and make my vote count!

And look up at the sky!

Cropped version:

Dilworth Park, The Councilman and I

(UPDATE: Eventually I was unblocked by Jim Kenney's Twitter account. I voted for him in the May 2015 mayoral primary and will vote for him in November 2015 in the general election.  Original post follows.)

If you follow me on Twitter you know that, besides the various things I get obsessed with (#EverySimpsonsEver) or angry about (#FireRuben), I can also get silly and snarky. However, I can also be quite sincere.

Let's face it: there are lots of problems, here and around the world. Members of Congress (especially Republicans). The Pennsylvania state legislature (ditto). The worst PA governor in my lifetime, who thankfully seems to be on track to be the first one-term governor of the state in over 40 years. The lack of funding for public education, especially in Philadelphia (see above re: PA governor and legislature).

The economic "recovery" in which so many people still struggle because the minimum wage isn't nearly high enough and huge corporations have seemingly every advantage thanks to the aforementioned Republicans and their servants on the Supreme Court. The health care system, slightly improved by the Affordable Care Act but still wildly inadequate and too expensive (just ask my friend Kurt, and while you're at it could you sign his petition, and maybe make a donation to help him get his new laptop? Thanks.)

The moronic fight against immigration reforms. The increasing havoc that climate change is having on our planet. Russia's efforts to take over Ukraine. Everything going on in the Middle East. And hey, did anyone #BringBackOurGirls or find Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 yet?

Yet, as pessimistic as I can be about, well, everything, I also realize there are still good things happening. For example, there was another victory this week in the effort to make Philadelphia a nicer, greener, more lively and fun city. Already we've seen success on the Delaware River waterfront with the Race Street Pier. This summer brought the (seasonal) Spruce Street Harbor Park (with the hammocks!) and the (permanent) Washington Avenue Pier. And yesterday, Dilworth Park opened.

#EverySimpsonsEver -- Day One

The greatest twelve days in the history of television is nearly upon us.

Starting tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time, FXX begins airing a marathon of every single episode from the first 25 seasons of "The Simpsons," plus "The Simpsons Movie," in order. I desperately wanted someone to sponsor my attempt to stay awake for the entire twelve days and watch the entire marathon. I mean, I would need some support to even attempt that -- people to cheer me on, prepare my food and beverages, someone to slap me awake after a few seconds of dozing -- but it did not happen because no one with money or power apparently follows me on Twitter, and nothing I've said or done online has ever gone viral.

Anyway, I thought that I'd post daily listings of at least five must-see episodes. And, to be fair, at least one that you can skip, if you're going to try and watch as much as possible and want the occasional nap. (The "at least" part is because I couldn't limit this first day to just five. As much as I love the show, I may not have this problem by the end of the marathon.)

MUST-SEE!

8/21 12:30 PM ET “Moaning Lisa” -- I know many people don't care for the Lisa-centric episodes but I identify with her struggles a little, and I loved Marge's response to Lisa's following her advice.

8/21 4:30 PM ET  “Bart Gets an 'F'” -- Bart's going to have to repeat the 4th grade unless he passes a makeup test. As he didn't study, he prays for school to be closed due to a blizzard. God answers his prayer...

8/21 5:00 PM ET “Simpson and Delilah” -- The first episode that touched on the gay thing. Homer commits insurance fraud to obtain Dimoxinil, which cures his baldness and leads to a promotion to an executive job -- and an assistant, played by Harvey Fierstein.

8/21 6:00 PM ET “Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish” -- Commentary on a political system that has only gotten worse since this originally aired. Mr. Burns runs for governor and is doing terribly in the polls, until his handlers execute a comeback. Then he has a televised dinner at the home of a regular family: the Simpsons. Oops.

8/21 7:30 PM ET “Bart vs. Thanksgiving” -- Features one of my early favorite moments, when Homer explains to Bart, who doesn't recognize Bullwinkle or Underdog, that the Macy's Thanksgiving parade shouldn't be flooded with "flash-in-the-pan" balloons...as a Bart Simpson balloon appears on their TV screen. Also: Bart makes Lisa cry. Then they make me cry.

8/21 8:30 PM ET “Itchy & Scratchy & Marge” -- My favorite episode ever, I think. Marge's protest against violence in cartoons leads to the end of Itchy & Scratchy as we know it.

8/21 9:30 PM ET “One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish” -- It may be Homer's last day alive due to eating possibly poisoned fugu at a sushi bar. Meanwhile, Bart and Lisa perform "The Theme from 'Shaft'" in the karaoke bar.

MEH. M-E-H, MEH.

8/21 12:00 PM ET “Bart the General”

8/21 1:30 PM ET “The Telltale Head”

Okay, you probably won't need a nap during the afternoon of the very first day, but these two Season 1 episodes didn't connect with me like the others.

Things I'm Not Buying

Two categories here...

Things I'm Not Buying...Yet...

1) The explanation that Manti Te'o is the victim of a hoax. There are too many inconsistencies -- the reports that flat-out said he met this girlfriend of his, who supposedly died of leukemia but as it turns out never actually existed, in person; varying reports saying she died just before the death of his grandmother, while others said she died after the grandmother died; and lots of other things in the Deadspin report. Also, the fact that Notre Dame hired an outside firm to conduct an investigation but isn't releasing the name of the outfit that they hired to conduct it, or the firm's report itself, seems a bit questionable. It'll be interesting to hear what Te'o himself says, and if the media does some digging of its own -- especially the "mainstream" media (such as ESPN), who ought to be angry that their outlets once again got scooped by a website.

2) Chip Kelly as Eagles' head coach. Sure, he ran up tremendous offensive numbers at Oregon and had a 46-7 record there. And sure, some of his offense's tactics are being adapted by NFL teams such as the New England Patriots. But can Kelly's offense in full work in the NFL? There are much better defenses in the NFL than in the Pac-8, or 10,  or 12, or whatever number they are now. And Nick Foles may not be ideally suited to such an offense. Will Kelly water it down immediately or will he try it in full at first, then dumb it down if it doesn't work? And even if he can get the offense in gear, the Eagles' defense is a huge mess. Kelly and the guy who ends up becoming defensive coordinator have a lot of work to do. Lots of WIP callers are, as usual, overreacting, saying the hiring of Kelly is a disaster. I'm not willing to go that far. But I am skeptical. And it bothers me (whether it should or not) that he initially decided not to take the job, and then changed his mind. According to one report I saw a mutual friend of Kelly and Eagles' GM Howie Roseman supposedly told Roseman that Kelly's mind could be changed.

3) The return of the NHL. I don't know if it's the recent lessening of my intense level of interest in sports in general or because the NHL was a joke for being shut down by a union-management bitchfest to begin with, but I'm not overly excited about the return of the Flyers. Maybe seeing a game will help in that regard. I don't know.

Things I'm Not Buying...At All...

The likelihood that extensive reform of gun laws will actually occur. Even if Democrats unite, it won't pass Congress without Republicans, and they are enslaved by the NRA and the Tea Party maniacs. I still believe everything I said here.

Sleepy New Year

It's about 1 a.m. as I begin writing this, and I'm actually thinking of going to bed soon. I guess the rum I added to the diet Pepsi tonight is making me a little sleepy even though I was not up early this morning by any means. Anyway, it's 2013. Let's hope things are much better than they were in 2012. So much needs improvement: the economy is still a mess, the political system is failing to fix it (because the Republican party somehow finds itself enslaved by the Tea Party extremists -- doesn't any of them realize that these nuts are destroying their party's hopes of winning the White House for the next 20-30 years?), the Eagles turned out to be a disaster and the Phillies are on the verge of a similar fate (unless their old, now injury-prone stars discover the fountain of youth), the NHL doesn't even exist right now -- and that's not to mention the usual hurricanes, earthquakes, crime, war, etc. I could go on but like I said, I'm sleepy. Happy New Year. Please?

Newtown: Same Old Same Old

Many of you aren't going to like what I have to say, but it's how I feel. Right now the only thing that truly angers me about the latest massacre via gun, in Newtown, Connecticut, is that the Fox network has decided to televise the prayer service going on right now, instead of showing the new episode of "The Simpsons" that my DVR is supposed to be recording. (And the prayer service -- don't get me started. It seems like they're trying to include every possible religion, so every speaker is trying not to say something that might offend someone else. A Lutheran chaplain just said that we all call God by different names but "however we address you, you are still father and mother to us all...") Since I started writing this, I switched to the NFL game on NBC, and now they've also switched to the prayer service because President Obama has begun his remarks. So now I have no "Simpsons" and no football.

I'm not investing another ounce of emotion into these things unless something, heaven forbid, happens to someone I actually know and care about personally. Every time this happens, the same old responses happen: people say it's senseless and a tragedy and they're shocked and outraged and sad and their prayers and thoughts are going to the victims and post pictures and article links and quotes and memes on Facebook, Twitter, etc. and ask why we don't have more gun control laws/complain that gun control laws wouldn't make a difference and blah blah blah blah blah. Then a few days go by and it all fades into the background and people start obsessing over the Kardashians again.

Why does it take multiple deaths to even get this response, as short-lived and futile as it is? People of all ages are gunned down every day, over and over, all over this country. Why is one child's murder in, say, North Philadelphia less important than 20 children in Connecticut? Add up all the gun deaths that occur one at a time and they'll add up to a hell of a lot more than 26.

And why does anyone think this time is going to be any different? All this talk about making sure this never happens again has been heard after the Columbine massacre, and after the Virginia Tech massacre, and after the Dark Knight movie massacre, and on and on and on. Nothing changes because the only real way to bring about change (not just on guns but on lots of issues) is if everyone rises up and makes their voices heard by voting. But most people don't vote except in presidential election years, and even then nowhere near 100 percent of eligible voters actually bother. And those who do vote don't put enough thought into it. People say they're in favor of this or that but vote for politicians who completely disregard those wishes. Everyone says they hate Congress but they keep voting for the same clowns in their own district. The politicians who are in bed with the National Rifle Association keep getting reelected by somebody.

And what passes for TV news reporting falls into two general categories: insensitively interviewing children who may have just seen their playmates killed, or asking politicians important questions like whether they're too fat to be elected President. Here's a couple of ideas: try to interview a child during a traumatic event and you lose your job. And if a politician refuses to answer important questions about why they don't stand up to the NRA, then they don't get airtime for puff pieces like when mayors or governors make a bet on the Super Bowl or World Series.

So, sorry, but I'm just bored with this whole thing. Hurry up and get over it so we can all go back to the business of making sure that evil criminal mastermind Lindsay Lohan finally gets locked up.

About Last Night...

I told you I wasn't worried. The chess match played out as I expected. But to be honest, even after reading Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight blog in the closing days and watching President Obama's chance of winning go from about 73 percent on October 29 to 91 percent early yesterday, I was a bit concerned. Not to a great extent, but just enough. I wasn't so worried about the polls -- I find it impossible to take them seriously on an individual basis, the polling criteria are so varied, but summarizing them and determining the trends and such, the Silver calculus works for me. (This will not change my mind about the baseball stat geeks and their Moneyball junk, however.)

My biggest concern was that the GOP would try to steal Florida or Ohio again. Well, if they did try, they failed.

But beyond the Obama victory, other events offer signs of hope. The asinine GOP extremists who opined that there's such a thing as "legitimate" rape and rape that "God intended to happen" both got their asses kicked. Beyond the win in Wisconsin by Tammy Baldwin, making her the first openly gay U.S. Senator, California sends to the House the first LGBT person of color in Congress. And Arizona -- Arizona!?! -- may  have elected a bisexual woman to Congress (the race is still too close to call).

What really stunned me, though, was the results from the four states where marriage equality was on the ballot. The last 32 or so times that voters had their say on the issue in some way, the pro-equality side lost every single time.

I saw a comment from a pundit saying (and I'm paraphrasing) that it would be helpful/important to have two victories out of the four. I guess that would constitute a trend. I was honestly hoping for just one.

#WhyImNotVotingForRomney

I saw the hashtag on Twitter and just had to use it. But since I didn't want to issue a bunch of individual tweets, I decided to put it all on here...well, maybe not everything, but as much as I can think of right now.

I'm sick and tired of the Republican party in general.

I'm sick and tired of the extremist, racist segments which have taken firm control of the Republican party -- the Tea Party and the religious right (aka the American Taliban). Even if Mitt Romney is not in fact a racist or a religious extremist, he has encouraged and emboldened the racists and religious extremists with his words and actions, making him no better.

I'm sick and tired of the wealthy and the large corporations getting more and more tax breaks that they do not need, and reduced regulation in so many areas, while the rest of us find our lives becoming more and more of a struggle every day. Mitt Romney will continue the tax cuts for the wealthy. In fact, as it was reported yesterday, it seems that Mitt Romney may not have paid a single penny in taxes for the years 1996 through 2009. NOT A SINGLE FUCKING PENNY. FOURTEEN YEARS.

I'm sick and tired of not having the same rights as everyone else because of my sexual orientation, and of having a woman's right to control her own body being restricted or completely removed, and having Planned Parenthood and other agencies that provide quality health care services threatened, all due to the influence of the American Taliban. Romney has thrown in with the American Taliban on these issues.

I'm sick and tired of the lack of affordable quality health care for everyone. I'm sick and tired of the efforts to stop health care reform, when we've finally begun to make progress after decades of failure. Not only has Romney thrown in with the Tea Party extremists, he's going against the health care reforms he pushed for while Massachusetts governor. This is not leadership -- this is hypocrisy and gutlessness.

I'm sick and tired of hearing about how jobs aren't being created because taxes aren't low enough, and how Barack Obama didn't do anything to fix the economy. Taxes for the wealthy were cut during the execrable George W. Bush presidency and somehow we ended up with many fewer jobs and the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression. Why didn't the "job creators" create jobs with the windfall profits they received then? Why does anyone think they'll do it now? And while the economy is still in bad shape, all the indicators show it's beginning to recover. And it would have begun sooner had it not been for the Tea Party extremists in Congress who have spent the last four years doing nothing but blocking any legislation supported by Obama, because their ONLY goal for the last four years has been to do everything possible to make sure Obama wasn't reelected.

I'm sick and tired of the GOP still trying to paint Barack Obama as weak on foreign policy and terrorism. If the death of Osama bin Laden isn't enough evidence to the contrary, Mitt Romney proved with his blundering excursion to London during the Olympics that he has about as much expertise in foreign affairs as Paris Hilton.

I'm sick and tired of the Tea Party extremists and American Taliban's complete repudiation of science. Whether in fighting against stem-cell research or regulations to improve the environment and lessen the effects of climate change (unthinkable, especially after the unprecedented strength and path of Hurricane Sandy) or teaching "creationism" instead of evolution in schools, there's no excuse for this utter stupidity.

And, because it just seems to need to be said, I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired.

It's very simple: unless you're a wealthy, white, heterosexual male, or a racist, there is simply no reason to vote for Mitt Romney. He is NOT on your side. His policies will NOT make your life better. Only a complete moron would think otherwise.

Phila. Daily News Update

I previously outlined some problems I had with my newspaper, which were enough to make me consider not renewing my subscription. I ended up renewing it, so I'm still a Daily News subscriber.

Although (and sorry in advance for this digression), every time I see the right-wing garbage from one of their editorial board members, Christine Flowers, I want to vomit. I don't even read it. I just see her name and wonder why she's allowed to spew her filth. I mean, there was an editorial in the paper regarding the teenage girl who wore her Mitt Romney t-shirt to school and was harrassed by her teacher, leading to all kinds of stupidity, media whoring, etc. The editorial says, in part:

The T-shirt flap and the resulting hostility that had a high-school student afraid to return to school because of obscenities hurled at her parents and rumors that students were going to attack her is a sickening indictment of an uncivilized society that has become increasingly intolerant of differences of opinions, political outlooks, religious beliefs and beyond.

Whether it takes the form of blatant questioning of, say, the current president's love of God, country, or his supposed lack of a birth certificate, or nasty commentaries on non-Christians, or distorted political ads with both sides accusing the other of lies and worse, or even Rush Limabugh calling a Georgetown legal student a slut and a whore for speaking out about birth control, the rise of the political echo chamber that has replaced useful and thoughtful debate that is grounded in respect is the real culprit.

Quite the thing, except these words are a near-perfect description of Christine Flowers. The only area where she has anything but an extreme right-wing view is on immigration. She has stated that, as a practicing attorney, she represents immigrants trying to stay in the USA. I can't help but wonder how she'd feel about it if she weren't making money off these people. I also can't help but wonder, considering the stance taken in the editorial, why the paper continues to employ her, thereby contributing to this "uncivilized society."

Anyway, that's not why I'm writing this post. Regarding one of my post's criticisms, there's good news: starting in January, home subscribers of the Daily News and Inquirer will get the digital version of the paper for free. I'm very happy about this because if I'm out of town I'll be able to read the paper on my tablet. I don't know why it can't start right away, but that's a minor quibble.

Speaking of minor quibbles, this centerspread appeared in last weekend's Sportsweek edition. There was a feature story on the Eagles' time at the Vet as this season marks the 10th anniversary of their last season before moving to the Linc. This photo begs the question...

...why did they use a picture taken during baseball season?

Money's Too Tight (To Mention)

If you know music of the 1980s then you know this song by Simply Red, although a couple of things seem to have slipped my memory. First, I didn't really remember the direct jabs at Ronald and Nancy Reagan near the end of the song. In addition, according to Wikipedia this was the band's first single, released in 1985, with their first big smash "Holding Back The Years" not coming out until 1986. Somehow I had them reversed in my mind.

At any rate I think some artist should cover it now, updating the lyrics to refer to Mitt Romney and some other GOP frauds instead of the Reagans.

A Fox-"Bones"-Romney Conspiracy Theory

I present to you a still image from Monday night's episode of "Bones." Here we see a map on a screen at the Jeffersonian, the fictional institution where all the forensic evidence in the murder cases on the show is analyzed. This map displays an area from which came some of that evidence, based on...well, a bunch of scientific jargon that I usually can hardly keep up with. No big deal, right? But when I watched it, a name on the map caught my eye. In fact, it jumped out at me immediately. So I paused the DVR and took two pictures. Look closely...

If you can't tell what I'm talking about, here's a closeup...

WTF, you ask? Why is Mitt Romney's name on screen? Is it a devious form of subliminal advertising by Fox, or by the show's producers, or a conspiracy planned by both?

Well, I did a Google search and found that the map is of an actual town -- Romney, West Virginia, not all that far from Washington, where the show is based. Still, I can't help but wonder. Can it really be a coincidence that the map used in an episode airing a month before the election is of a town that shares the same name as the GOP candidate for President?

Wait -- on the other hand, we all know that Hollywood is dominated by liberals. So maybe another plot was devised. Maybe the producers threw his name on screen just to rile up the Romney opposition -- maybe Barack Obama even gave them the idea!

What do you think? Should we demand an investigation by the Senate or something?

Political Chess (Inspired by Ben Franklin and a singer!)

You should know that this post has been quite a while in the making. Well, actually, it was a couple of hours or so in the actual making and the rest of the time was spent on other things. But the inspiration for this came way back in February 2011. I procrastinated, as I often do, and then time would pass, and then something would happen to make me think of this again, and then I'd procrastinate some more, lather, rinse, repeat. I'd think that it would be good to finish this to coincide with certain events, and then I didn't. Until now.

So, back in Febuary 2011, on my Twitter feed I saw a tweet from Mike Furey, lead singer of what was a duo called Dangerous Muse (the other guy went off to do his own thing; Furey is continuing the group using other musicians as needed). I discovered them through a music video played on one of Logo's music shows a few years ago, and I've been a fan ever since.

It was a fairly simple query.

Now and then, I like to reply to the celebrities I follow, though I think most of them, even if they tweet personally and everything isn't handled by a publicist, probably don't even see my tweets. But sometimes they're kind enough to acknowledge my existence. So, that night, I replied...

A short time later, I found this in my feed:

This intrigued me.

Simpsons Already Did It (GOP Version)

Wow, Republicans, not only are you about 70 years behind the rest of us philosophically, but you're even 10 years behind South Park...

Quick Review: The Dark Knight Rises

I suppose this is a not-so-quick review. Then again, the movie was 2 hours, 40 minutes long. (And I managed to sit through it without running to the bathroom. Woo-hoo!)

It seems impossible to discuss "The Dark Knight Rises" without mentioning the mass murders in Aurora, Colorado. I'm still angry that much of the hoopla and excitement for this movie was wiped out by the actions of an evil individual -- not to mention our nation's pathetic excuse for gun laws. Since it happened, I haven't seen a single advertisement for the film. (On the other hand, we also got a respite from those slimy political ads, as the Obama and Romney campaigns, and the super-PACs supporting them, suspended their advertising.) Still, it only slightly tainted my enjoyment of the film.

Looking at the trilogy as a whole, Christopher Nolan did a masterful job of telling what is really one long story with multiple themes. "The Dark Knight Rises" goes back to plot points and themes in "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight" and weaves them into the film coherently, tying everything up extremely well. It even borrowed some from various story lines in the Batman comic books. (Does Bane break Batman's back? I'm not telling, just like I'm not telling whether or not Batman dies, as has been hinted and rumored.)

Specifically concerning the finale, it lived up to all of my expectations, particularly in regard to two of my fave actors. Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle was her usual marvelous self. She's never actually called Catwoman in the film; no mention of cats at all, only her master skills as a thief, thus avoiding the campiness usually associated with the character. (I'm not complaining about the camp: I adore Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman.) And Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a cop -- the trailers gave away nothing about why he was important to the story at all, but it pays off, especially with a hat tip to another Batman character at the very end.


To be honest, though, I think "The Dark Knight" was slightly better than "TDKR," mainly because of one aspect: Bane. No complaints about Tom Hardy, and I even was able to understand most of what he was saying under that mask with that weird voice, which still wasn't as annoying as Christian Bale's Batman voice. But even before Bane's motives were somewhat undercut by a plot twist near the end, as strong and powerful as he is, there's a little lacking when compared to the brilliant madness of Heath Ledger's Joker. My grade: A.

Sucker-Punched On SEPTA

So maybe a few people are curious about what happened the other night, although you wouldn't know it by the number of responses I got on Twitter and Facebook. Last week I was helping my friend Kurt pack his things in semi-orderly fashion so he could move on Friday, so I was at his place a few times during the week. On Thursday night I caught the bus from South Philly to Market Street to catch the Market-Frankford El at 8th. I was lucky in that I managed to catch both the bus and the El with little or no waiting. Or so I thought.

I was standing next to the doors on the opposite side of the doors that opened to the platform, because there were few seats available and I was carrying a laundry bag with some stuff in it, and I didn't want the bulky bag on my lap or disturbing the person next to me. So there I stood, reading the paper.

There were 2 or 3 young black guys -- teenagers or a little older -- in the seats on the same side as where I was standing. They got up as if they were getting out around the York-Dauphin station, but instead stood near the doors, and then were joined by another couple of guys who arrived from the next car. The train arrived at the Allegheny station at almost 8:35 pm, and they all left the train except the guy directly in front of me, who stayed on and had his arms outstretched as his hands were on both poles by the doors.

There was a brief delay for some reason -- the train's conductor later said he thought the others were holding the door open -- and then, just as the computer voice began to announce "Doors are closing,"

Today's Horror Show Started Here

This is on Locust Street between 8th and 9th. The building, according to Wikipedia, was eventually abandoned, the same way the GOP abandoned the principles of Lincoln and instead began sucking at the teat of the Religious Right. The building was turned into condos in order to keep it from being torn down.

Prop. 8 Mania!

Just a quick comment in a desperate attempt to keep at least some content flowing here...sigh...

When the ruling came down today declaring California's Proposition 8 -- the ban on same-sex marriages in the state -- unconstitutional, there was, as you might expect, great joy on my Twitter timeline. Some flat-out declared Prop 8 to be dead. Well, it's not. It's not dead until the U.S. Supreme Court kills it, and there's no real guarantee of that. The court's ideologically split. People can guess all they want and read the tea leaves and so on, but until the court rules there's no real way to know how it will go. It'll be a 5-4 vote either way.

Or will it? Check out this bit from the linked article:

But the appeals court did not address whether marriage was a fundamental right available to same-sex couples as well as heterosexuals, focusing instead specifically on Prop 8.
Some lawyers predicted that the narrow ruling would lead the Supreme Court to limit itself to deciding on the California measure or to refusing the case altogether.

So, in theory, the court could get rid of California's law but other states would still be free to enact or enforce similar laws, at least for a while? Hmmph.

Thus, I found some of the reaction today to be just a little over the top. Sure, it's good news, but let's not get carried away. After all, there are still lots of people eager to vote for Despicable Dick Santorum. (Speaking of whom, here are more links, just because we shouldn't forget this...)

Thanks Again, Republican Scum

Their stalling and infighting resulted in this message, emailed to me at work:

“On December 23, 2011, President Obama signed legislation extending the payroll tax cut until February 29, 2012. This means the employee Social Security Tax will remain at 4.2 percent until February 29, 2012. Future legislation is also expected to extend this tax cut to December 31, 2012.

"Due to the late passage of this legislation, employee Social Security taxes will be deducted at 6.2 percent until the new rate can be implemented into the Commonwealth payroll system. Once the reduced rate is implemented employees will be credited for any overpaid Social Security tax.”

Seriously, you may not like the Democrats, and they often give you valid reasons not to like them. But if you vote Republican and you're not wealthy, you are a stone-cold moron.