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- Memento Men: Why Many ‘Conservatives’ Keep Forgetting Themselves
- Tim Allen Back at Disney? Actor Headlining ‘The Santa Clause’ Disney+ Series
- ‘Real Steel’ Adaptation Series Currently in the Works at Disney+
- Venom 2 & Spider-Man 3 Drove Most Revenue Recovery at Cineworld
- Black Panther 2 Production Welcomes Letitia Wright Back on Set
- Regarding the Subject of the Superhero’s Wife
| Memento Men: Why Many ‘Conservatives’ Keep Forgetting Themselves Posted: 15 Jan 2022 03:25 PM PST
As Conservatism continues its steep decline, its remaining adherents present symptoms of memory failure similar to those of the protagonist in the movie Memento. Like him, these otherwise intelligent and decent people suffer astonishing short-term memory lapses. Unlike in the film, Conservative amnesia is limited to politics.
For example, you can point out that student loans are by nature usurious and therefore impose no moral obligation of repayment. Conservatives will nod and agree that a just society would take steps to make victims of fraud whole. But as soon as democrats renew their empty posturing about student debt forgiveness, those same Conservatives will rush on stage to don their devil horns.
Since dissidents are in a moral war against people who hate us, and our nominal allies suffer memory dysfunction that is easily exploitable by the enemy, periodic reminders of what having moral principles really means are necessary. In the spirit of fraternal instruction, I re-blog the following post.
It's no secret that members of the younger generations, especially Gen Y and the Millennials, lag far behind their parents' financial attainment at the same age. This brewing economic crisis threatens Baby Boomers housing, pensions, and entitlements. Aging Boomers are having trouble finding buyers for their large, single-family homes because younger folks aren't earning enough to have families, much less buy houses.
That's just in the short to mid-term. In the long run, the economic drain of having multiple generations whose standards of living fall far below their parents' invites a disaster to make the 2008 crash look like a picnic.
Understanding the problem gives you the solution. Why are Millennials, Ys, and even Xers economically underperforming?
Is everybody younger than the Boomers possessed of weak character and a shiftless work ethic?
That's not what the data show. Ys and Millennials forfeit more vacation days and work more overtime than Boomers. Most of the differences in generational work habits arise from members of those generations being at different stages in their lives with correspondingly different goals.
Is the earnings discrepancy caused by Millennials choosing majors like interpretive dance and underwater basket weaving instead of tried and true STEM fields?
Again, no. Only 26% of STEM graduates actually work in their field of study, STEM jobs only account for 6% of the US work force to begin with, and the influx of H1 visa workers further increase competition and depress wages. Telling Millennials to get STEM degrees is like telling everyone on the Titanic to cram into a single leaky lifeboat.
A major cause of younger generations' impoverishment, besides the aforementioned insane immigration policies, is the student loan racket.
US student loan debt currently stands at $1.5 trillion. Much of that debt is unrepayable. We're not just talking Starbucks baristas with studies degrees. There are doctors and lawyers pulling down six figure salaries barred from buying homes because their minimum monthly payments exceed mortgage payments for even modest houses. These kids would have to become millionaires to pay down the principal.
Massive fiscals disasters like the student loan crisis don't happen for no reason. Those who chalk the entirety of the problem up to Millennial students being too lazy and stupid to research lucrative majors or the perils of usury are blithely ignoring another problem. The people they glibly assume are too dumb to stave off personal financial ruin will soon be in charge of the nation's finances.
The truth that certain quarters don't want to admit is that these kids were conned. A functioning society relies upon the young trusting their parents, educators, authorities, and elders in general. When absolutely all of those authorities give their charges wrong information and urge them to take actions that later prove ruinous, the correct conclusion is that the students were defrauded.
Based on many of my interactions with self-professed Christian Conservatives, a shocking number of them just don't get this. When you confront them with the reality that these aren't lazy punks deferring their job searches to play Fortnite, but young professionals busting their humps just to tread water, it just doesn't penetrate. The usual excuses they give for ignoring their fellow Americans' suffering are bromides about harming the free market, paeans to individual responsibility, and even snide, "I got mine!" vitriol.
It's that thinly veiled contempt for the young and the poor that outs this cult as thralls of Mammon. Christ exhorted his followers to sell half their possessions and give the proceeds to the poor. He endorsed fraudsters repaying those they defrauded fourfold. Christians are to exercise a fundamental preference for the poor–especially the poor among their own countrymen. You cannot sneer at someone who is impoverished–even by his own bad choices–and at the same time say that Jesus is Lord with any shred of integrity.
Indeed, defrauding workers is one of three sins, along with murder and mistreating widows and orphans, that cry out to Heaven for vengeance.
That's right, Libertarians and BowtieCons, we have a new Witch Test parameter here.
What sets the Mammon Mob apart from political ideology and into the cult category is its adherents' elevation of practical political matters to articles of faith. Student debt relief is a practical economic measure necessary to stave off catastrophe. It's also so popular with the electorate as to be inevitable. You'd think Republicans would embrace student loan forgiveness out of sheer self-interest.
Millennials are suffering the most under the student debt burden, and they're about to become the largest voting bloc in the country. Whichever party convincingly offers to break their debt shackles is guaranteed to dominate at the polls. Yet when I've pointed out that the GOP is foolish for ignoring this issue, Conservatives have recoiled like vampires splashed with holy water because they say student debt forgiveness violates their beliefs.
It's the exact same aversion to winning and wielding political power you see from Republicans on the immigration issue. And once again, they invent a false principle out of inaction instead of acting on the genuine moral principles of justice, prudence, and compassion.
Politics is the art of the possible. It is about winning elections and then using that political power to help your friends and crush your enemies. The Death Cult gets this. The Mammon Mob unwittingly helps them by refusing to use their last scraps of power even to help themselves.
Student debt forgiveness is going to happen. The only choices afforded Conservatives is whether to jump in front of the parade to implement debt forgiveness on their terms, or to keep doing nothing, hand this winning issue to the Death Cult, and let them continue leading Millennials into socialism. And as go the Millennials, so goes America.
Republicans have to wake up and propose their own serious student loan forgiveness plan. It's a rare case in which the politically savvy move is also the moral course. We'll see what happens, but based on the BoomerCons' screeching, I'm not holding my breath.
Those who want solutions, see this post.
"Goes beyond analysis into action"
 
The post Memento Men: Why Many ‘Conservatives’ Keep Forgetting Themselves appeared first on Bleeding Fool. |
| Tim Allen Back at Disney? Actor Headlining ‘The Santa Clause’ Disney+ Series Posted: 15 Jan 2022 12:55 PM PST
Tim Allen is returning to Disney — and to the North Pole. The actor-comedian is set to star in and executive produce The Santa Clause (working title), a Disney+ original limited series, in which he will reprise his role as Scott Calvin from the Walt Disney Pictures holiday franchise, Deadline reports.
Allen is reuniting with Jack Burditt, creator of Allen's hit sitcom Last Man Standing, who will serve as executive producer and showrunner on The Santa Clause. Last Man Standing writer-executive producer Kevin Hench will executive produce the new series, alongside Allen's managers, Richard Baker and Rick Messina who also had EP credits on LMS.
In Disney Branded Television's The Santa Clause series, produced by 20th Television, Scott Calvin (Allen) is on the brink of his 65th birthday and realizing that he can't be Santa forever. He's starting to lose a step in his Santa duties and, more important, he's got a family who could benefit from a life in the normal world, especially his two kids who have grown up at the Pole. With a lot of elves, children and family to please, Scott sets out to find a suitable replacement Santa while preparing his family for a new adventure in a life south of the Pole.
Production on the series is set to begin in March in Los Angeles. The post Tim Allen Back at Disney? Actor Headlining ‘The Santa Clause’ Disney+ Series appeared first on Bleeding Fool. |
| ‘Real Steel’ Adaptation Series Currently in the Works at Disney+ Posted: 15 Jan 2022 10:25 AM PST
Shawn Levy is continuing the Real Steel story.
Deadline reports that Disney+ is developing a series based on the 2011 movie that starred Hugh Jackman, Evangeline Lilly and Anthony Mackie.
The film, directed by Levy, followed a boxer and father, played by Jackman, and son, played by Dakota Goyo, as they reconcile years of distance and discover an obsolete junkyard sparring robot who just might be more than it seems.
The series comes from Disney Branded Television and is produced by 20th Television in association with Levy's 21 Laps, for its sister streamer.
The platform is currently searching for a writer for the series, which is exec produced by Levy, Robert Zemeckis, Jack Rapke, Jacqueline Levine, Susan Montford and Don Murphy.
The film was based on Richard Matheson's 1956 short story Steel. The post ‘Real Steel’ Adaptation Series Currently in the Works at Disney+ appeared first on Bleeding Fool. |
| Venom 2 & Spider-Man 3 Drove Most Revenue Recovery at Cineworld Posted: 15 Jan 2022 07:25 AM PST
Regal Cinemas owner Cineworld Group has an accelerating recovery in group revenues in the second half of 2021.
The recovery has been driven by a slate of movies including "Spider-Man: No Way Home," "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," "Venom 2," "Black Widow," "Dune," "Free Guy," "Eternals" and "No Time to Die," Cineworld said in a trading update on Friday.
While actual financial numbers were not disclosed, Cineworld said that July 2021 revenues were at just 50% of the same month in pre-COVID year 2019. That increased to 54% in August, 60% in September, 90% in October, 56% in November and 88% in December, 2021. November was negatively impacted by "Top Gun: Maverick" moving its release date to May 2022. December was particularly strong thanks to the release of "Spider-Man: No Way Home."
The strongest growth rate was in the U.S., which grew from 45% of 2019 levels in July to 91% of 2019 levels in December. This was followed by the U.K. and Ireland, which climbed from 54% of 2019 levels in July to 89% of 2019 levels in December. Cineworld's operations in the rest of the world declined from 79% to 72% of 2019 levels. Nevertheless, the group said that it generated positive cash flow in the fourth quarter of 2021.
via Variety The post Venom 2 & Spider-Man 3 Drove Most Revenue Recovery at Cineworld appeared first on Bleeding Fool. |
| Black Panther 2 Production Welcomes Letitia Wright Back on Set Posted: 15 Jan 2022 05:25 AM PST
Actress Letitia Wright has resumed filming on the Black Panther sequel, almost five months after being injured when a stunt went wrong.
The British star, who plays Shuri, was said at the time of the accident in August to have suffered minor injuries.
But Marvel’s bosses later said she turned out to have sustained “a critical shoulder fracture and a concussion with severe side effects” and filming on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was suspended in November creating speculation that her stance on mandated vaccinations was the true cause of the delays, and outlets like CBR demanding she be replaced on the Marvel sequel for not giving her full-throated endorsement of forced vaccinations of emergency use authorized drugs.
A spokesperson for the star said she has now recovered and production has resumed.
Wright’s Princess of Wakanda character is expected to play a bigger part in the blockbuster’s sequel. The late Chadwick Boseman led the the 2018 film and his role has not been re-cast following his death in 2020.
via BBC The post Black Panther 2 Production Welcomes Letitia Wright Back on Set appeared first on Bleeding Fool. |
| Regarding the Subject of the Superhero’s Wife Posted: 14 Jan 2022 03:45 PM PST A reader of my blog with the royal yet ranch-hand name of Roy Brander recently commented:
My comment: Depends on the comic.
Batman, back when Adam West was Batman, would end up in a cliffhanger deathtrap in every show. Catwoman would be crazy to marry him. Of course, on the other hand, she was the one putting him in the deathtrap when she was the guest-star, and what girl does not like teasing her guy a little bit? With sadistic death?
On the other hand, Spider-Man, as best I remember, never ended up in the hospital, never got a broken leg, rarely got a black eye. He could dodge bullets, and spin a web into a bulletproof shield, and so on.
Of course, on the third hand, Batman never got married, whereas Spider-Man did. Maybe there is a good reason for that.
Iron Man, at least in the original run of the comic, refused to get married, not because he thought he would die of a gunshot wound in his invincible armor, but because he knew his heart would fail.
Superman, who is even more invincible, at least in some versions of the character ends up with Lois being Mrs. Lois Kent.
And Reed Richards, rocket scientist, knew his bride could protect herself better than nearly anyone on earth, between being invisible and being able to erect an invulnerable force field. He is not the only Super who got married, but he is the second most famous to do so.
(The most famous being, of course, Mr. Incredible, who gave up his life of danger, and settled down to a nice, routine job as an insurance adjuster. I am sure the domestic bliss would not make him yearn for the dangerous glory days of old! That would be nuts.)
The least famous super wedding, at least from coign of vantage, is that of Nightwing and Starfire. I never even knew there was an issue, or a timeline, where that happened, and I have never heard the wedding mentioned or discussed. But they had a child, who grew into the smokin' hawt babe named Nightstar:
It is a sign of the sad times in which we live that this superheroine was reimagined as the self-insert character from the heart of the realm of Beyond-Parody, beyond the boundary of I-Swear-I-Am-Not-Making-This-Up, in a oneshot called I AM NOT STARFIRE:
Which introduces the idea that there may be OTHER reasons why no one wants to marry a Cape. I mean, you would have to be blind or something to fall for a monster like The Thing!
So, the point is well taken, that Supers are likely to be killed in the line of action, it is also true some of superheroes simply live safer lives than others, no more dangerous than what a Marine, or a Cop, or a Lumberjack might face, or a sailor in a storm, or a missionary in a communist nation.
And a lot of Capes just don't get married for exactly that reason.
Of course, they also do not age. Ben Grimm served in the Pacific as a fighter pilot in World War Two.
Comics, admittedly, are not so realistic, as genres go, but, honestly, how would being Mary Jane, wife of Spidey, not seem as if it must be noticeably worse than being the wife of a prizefighter. He gets into a fistfight every day, but Spider-Man is not likely to be killed, or even wounded, by the Tarantula or Stiltman or Pastepot Pete, or even Doc Oc or the Scorpion.
Most of the drama in many of these superhero stories is detecting the crime and chasing down the criminal. The early run of Hawkman has him basically acting like Philip Marlowe, just with wings, and carrying a mace instead of an automatic.
Of course, Hawkman is the third most famous happily married Cape in superherodom. He was together with Shiera since his fourth episode, and, technically, the two were married before he met her, since they are both reincarnations of an ancient Egyptian couple.
Having said all that, please note Capes are more or less immune from dying from bad luck — no superhero ever perished because he sneezed or blinked while disarming a bomb, or accidently dropped his bat-lockpick trying to unchain himself from an exploding squid.
If real life, such things would happen all the time. See the death of Captain Amazing in the film MYSTERY MEN, for example. Pure fumbled die roll, caused by one too many a flip of the double-throw switch during a squabble among the player-characters.
If the genre were one where the fans did not demand returning characters, well, then, Sherlock Holmes would have died wrestling Moriarty when both went over the brink of the Reichenbach Falls.
Likewise, Zorro, in the original story, revealed his identity and hung up his mask after "Curse of Capistrano" with no idea in mind of a sequel.
Likewise for THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE — the ending was to be the children returning to their old lives, youth restored, at the precise moment they left, and the mind-bending oddity of living through a second childhood after having been an adult is never addressed, because it was never meant for this story to continue.
Likewise for GODZILLA. He was obliterated by the oxygen-destroyer, and his radiation-scarred lizard body turned into a skeleton. As long as mankind learns its lesson, and halts nuclear testing, unwise human tampering in the order of nature will not produce additional monsters to rise from the deep and plague us.
In war stories, for example, THE SEVEN SAMURAI by Kurosawa, four of the seven can be dead before the end, because that is the grim point of the story. The soldiers die and depart, and the farmers gather the harvest, singing.
But you cannot have sequel, the THREE SAMURAI and its sequel, the TWO SAMURAI, not the mention THE LAST SAMURAI, unless each sequel starts with a recruiting sequence to introduce the new candidates to fill out the roster.
For similar reasons, you cannot have a sequel to GONE WITH THE WIND, even if the estate hires a hack to write a book called a sequel, because Scarlet Butler is not going to survive yet another war, recover and prosper with her way of life destroyed, and get married and divorced again.
Nor can you have a sequel to NINETEEN-EIGHTY FOUR, because once the boot is seen trampling the human face forever, it would be simply a different book, to have Codename: V overthrow Big Brother, or a different genre, not a dystopia; or it would be a repeat of the first, and we could see Winston Smith get more broken under torture, and forget his love for Julia even more entirely.
But in the Adventures of the Lone Ranger, John Reed has already been left for dead at the beginning of the first episode, and if his likelihood of surviving pitched gun battles was the same as it really was for gunfighters in the real Old West, the show would have been a one-shot about his retaliation against the gang that killed his patrol, and then he would retire, or be dead.
Superhero stories, with a few exceptions like the Alan Moore's THE WATCHMAN or Archie Goodwin's MANHUNTER (from Detective Comics vol. 1 #437-443), generally do not end with the character dying, and, if so, not from a lucky shot by a mook during a shootout, or an icy patch of road during a car chase. Such is the nature of story telling.
It is not because men who live dangerous lives do not die young. They do. It is correct to say that there are old heroes and bold heroes but not any old, bold heroes. The numbers always get them.
It is because if the hero is dead, there is little room for a sequel.
Originally published here. The post Regarding the Subject of the Superhero's Wife appeared first on Bleeding Fool. |
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