This is a pretty good Lobo rant from @Coelasquid.

Mind you, I don’t really care about Lobo (for those wondering, he’s a …rather unique… DC character).  But clearly Kelly Turnbull does.

A design DC reported was the New And Improved Lobo that basically amounted to Nightwing with fish barbels painted at the corners of his mouth made the rounds a few days ago to extreme internet backlash resulting in a great deal of backpedalling on DC’s part and the author claiming that the design DC posted was not in fact her Lobo, assuring people he would be much bigger and uglier in the comic.

Of course she’s also said; “My goal for him was to make him less comically hyper-masculine and more focused. He’s still vicious, still savage and still entirely immoral, but I wanted a gravity out of the character. When he showed up, I didn’t want him walking away from explosions and smoking a cigar. When he shows up, I want people to feel like, ‘This is it. This is the end.’” Which kind of says to me she doesn’t really understand what people are taking issue with. The redesign isn’t the issue, Lobo’s been redesigned a million times. He’s been a skinny kid, he’s been a woman, he’s been a squirrel, he’s been a duck, he’s been an android (he was a poorly received serious character when he started out), the problem is the idea that they’re promising to take the hypermasculine comedy out of a hypermasculine satire character. That’s like saying you like the Venture Brothers but wish it didn’t have all those pesky jokes and parodies in it.

Continue reading This is a pretty good Lobo rant from @Coelasquid.

More pointless union protests in front of Mickey Dees.

Lemme translate the Scotsman’s spokeswoman for you.  To give you the context; the unions are trying to organize fast food restaurant workers again, and having a slow going at it because the only compelling reason that anybody in Big Labor can come up with for unionizing fast food workers is We need the dues, man. So they had a bunch of protests in a bunch of places – or, as Politico rather laughably put it, “Fast food strike takes over 60 cities” – and that’s pretty much how it went.  Nobody’s really expecting any movement:

In the past, such strikes on a smaller scale have forced some fast-food chain stores to close temporarily. But McDonald’s isn’t expressing much concern about the impending event.

“It will be business as usual for us,” Casillas Ofelia[*], a spokeswoman, said in an email. “We respect our employees’ rights to voice their opinions. Employees who participate in these activities and return to work are welcomed back and scheduled to work their regular shifts as usual. … The story promoted by the individuals organizing these events does not provide an accurate picture of what it means to work at McDonald’s.”

Translation: if you want to ‘strike’ on your own time, whatever.  Miss your shift, lose your job.  And why are you calling Corp? Most of our stores are owner-operated. Continue reading More pointless union protests in front of Mickey Dees.

…Jeebus, I need a drink: State is *guessing* that the chemical attack was by Syrian regime.

You have got to be KIDDING me.

Continue reading …Jeebus, I need a drink: State is *guessing* that the chemical attack was by Syrian regime.

Just saw “The World’s End.”

I quite liked it. It took a little while to get started, and like the other two movies in this… triptych?… it was actually about something else than what shows up in the trailer; but the former was (as Howard Tayler noted) forgivable and the latter wasn’t really a bug. The only other thing that I can think about this film that might give people cause is the language, which is pretty much why the movie got an R rating. British profanity is a good deal more, ah, robust than ours; and the movie took full advantage.

Still, great flick.

Moe Lane

PS: There’s a hell of a lot of stuff going on in this film in the background and under your nose; I’m going to have to watch it again for all the subtleties.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) loses her chance to, quote-unquote, ‘shine.’

You’d think that the woman and the hour would have met.

Well, that was a remarkably silly little Elizabeth Warren 2016 boomlet while it lasted:

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has been on the warpath against banks since going to Washington, but when it comes to launch­ing a war against Syria, she 
and other liberal Massachusetts 
Democrats suddenly don’t have much to say.

Warren, known for her outspoken stances, has turned timid on one of the most important issues a U.S. senator will ever face — whether to put American 
troops in another military conflict.

Asked to say whether she 
approves launching a strike against Syria, Warren’s press 
office — which churns out releases regularly on financial industry abuses — did not get back to the Herald.

Continue reading Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) loses her chance to, quote-unquote, ‘shine.’

Another delay on #obamacare ‘exchanges;’ difficulties getting products to markets?

Thirty four days, and counting:

The Obama administration has delayed a step crucial to the launch of the new healthcare law, the signing of final agreements with insurance plans to be sold on federal health insurance exchanges starting October 1.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) notified insurance companies on Tuesday that it would not sign final agreements with the plans between September 5 and 9, as originally anticipated, but would wait until mid-September instead, according to insurance industry sources.

Nevertheless, Joanne Peters, a spokeswoman for HHS, said the department remains “on track to open” the marketplaces on time on October 1.

Continue reading Another delay on #obamacare ‘exchanges;’ difficulties getting products to markets?

I would like to thank the #antiwar movement for tacitly admitting that it was all a lie.

Their quote-unquote ‘moral stance,’ that is. I mean, I knew – like all decent people did – that the antiwar movement of the Bush years was comprised of fools, dupes, and knaves; but watching them now slink away from our looming Syrian war like this just pretty much confirms that every sneer, every insult, and every drop of contempt that I’ve ever dumped on them was completely and totally justified. And I don’t even know if the aforementioned Syrian war is the best idea, or even the least worst. But I do know what the antiwar movement’s opinion should be.

And so do they.

Moe Lane

PS: Hey, Gitmo’s still open!

PPS: If you won’t respect yourself, don’t expect me to respect you, either.

Quote of the Day, ‘Just Muscular Enough Not To Get Mocked’ edition.

Alternate title: Quote of the Day, SOMEBODY In The Executive Branch Is Going To Get Fired For This One edition. And yes, that was a direct quote:

One U.S. official who has been briefed on the options on Syria said he believed the White House would seek a level of intensity “just muscular enough not to get mocked” but not so devastating that it would prompt a response from Syrian allies Iran and Russia.

:holding head in hands: I remember a time when we had message discipline in the Executive Branch. It wasn’t that long ago (heck, IIRC the Clinton White House had message disicpline, too). And, you know? I kind of miss those days. Less Deep Hurting all around.
Continue reading Quote of the Day, ‘Just Muscular Enough Not To Get Mocked’ edition.