Which is a huge mistake in many ways, but a sad reflection of our times.

What wannabe-elitists fail to understand is what the “American Way” Superman stood for is all about. Superman was created in the late 1930s by two Jewish teenagers, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. They created Superman at a time when Nazis were rising to power and taking over Europe. When communists had taken over Russia. Superman stood for freedom and justice and fought for the allies during the war because, not only were his two creators patriotic, they understood the threat to freedom that existed out there. Superman, like America, was fighting for the people of the world. He was a bringer of justice and peace at a time when organized crime was rampant in America, when fascists where threatening executing innocents in death camps and conquering the globe.

Superman was unique, the last survivor of the planet Krypton, just as America was unique in the world, a nation founded on the principal of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, a constitution with limited government that guarantees the rights of the individual. It stood in stark contrast to the rest of the world, which was mired in despotic regimes, kleptocratic states, not unlike today.

America was proud to have super-heroes on their side, representing our culture and values. Our culture was a beacon to the world at large. A symbol of hope and liberty, something everyone desires. People all over the planet responded to our movies, our music, our clothes, almost everything we produced. They wanted to be like us.

But now we live in a time where elites have ruined our economy and seek to strip us of many of our liberties in the name of big government. Elitists favor the global culture, which doesn’t even exist in except in their fevered minds. In a world of collapsing economies, of terrorist states, of totalitarian regimes, the attempts by some politicians to move us in that direction does not change the nature of what made America and Superman what he is. Superman doesn’t represent the

Superman was raised in the heartland of America. His values were informed, not only by his parents, but by the nation he grew up in. Superman, the selfless hero, was a reflection of this great land, which has shed blood and treasure in the defense of others. America has liberated millions of people, poured untold billions into rebuilding nations torn apart by wars. We’ve propped up economies and currencies. We’ve protected others from encroaching totalitarian communism and terrorists. Those are things to admire, but to the many people who went to colleges infected by leftist professors, they’ve been taught that America is a curse on the world, instead of what it really is. There is a sad attempt to distance our heroes from our nation. Captain America was also created in the same spirit as Superman by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon. All of these creators would be rolling in their graves if they knew what the publishers of their characters are doing with them now.

The excuse given in Action Comics 900 is Superman doesn’t want to be accused of being part of American government policy. But what actions would Superman be ashamed of being accused of exactly? Superman acts to save and help people. Without reward. Sure, motives by the powerful are always being questioned and spun. America’s were and are to this day. But the difference between politics and superheros should be vast. There have been times in the comics where the heroes acted in the interests of their government, but that has not been the case in many years. It has been a common theme in many of the comics that the heroes are distanced from their governments or sometimes at odds.

When the heroes have worked for their government it has often ended up badly. In the DC universe they have often portrayed the Justice League, which Superman belongs to, as being at odds with the state. Even in this season’s Smallville, that has been shown. Whatever excuse they make, DC and Warner Brothers are missing the point. America and Superman can’t be separated by some editorial fiat. The history of that character is long and proud. People identify him with America no matter what some mealy mouthed dialog some writer puts in his word balloon. Just as Superman (and Captain America) has died and been reborn, one has to wonder how long this stunt will last before they face reality and have him come back home.

Comics publishers have a long history of making huge mistakes with their characters. We can add this to the heap of disgrace.

—–

You can tell how spellbound the audience was in the clip. They swayed back and forth like extras in the Walking Dead show that airs on AMC Sunday.

Aside from the smug sanctimony oozing from these alleged comedians, this tuneless anthem can’t decide if it’s pro or anti-American. But it stands as a good example of the kind of “entertainment” what preceded it. An attempt to extol the virtues of big government sandwiched between performances by geriatric pop stars and lame humor bits that sucked harder than a million vacuum cleaners.

How many people showed up? Hard to tell from the crowd shots because they wouldn’t allow filming except from approved camera people (how Soviet!). But this says it all.

Comedy Central’s park permit puts the crowd estimate at 60,000.

Here’s an aerial photo.

Beck’s “Restoring Honor” Rally, that this was supposed to be an answer to, drew in over 200,000 people and they weren’t even astro-turfed by PeTA and the Arianna Huffington. Beck’s rally was non-partisan and non political. This rally had people with signs comparing Republicans to Nazis. And had various left wing activists on the sidelines hoping to score some guilt gelt from the self haters to fund their causes.

Despite the meager crowd, about an hour in it started resembling a party. The kind with FAIL written all over it.

“People are abandoning the Mall en masse, report Judkis and Cooper. “Mass exodus,” says Judkis, who reckons many people are heading to bars near Union Station.”

And to show how inclusive they were, they had Yusuf Islam (aka Cat Stevens) singing Peace Train. The guy who supported the fatwa (Death Sentance) on Salman Rushdie. I guess he was there to appease the Muslims who want to blow up Comedy Central for daring to pretend to show Mohammad by not showing Mohammed.

It ended with no encores. Stewart and Colbert may be tired, but at least they aren’t cruel. Though the last bit where they said they weren’t trying to insult anyone’s patriotism or religion was pretty funny in a non-intentional way.

Carter capped off the sad decade of the 70s, where America bailed on Vietnam, a president resigned in shame and Carter let Iran fall into Islamo-Fascist hands and then failed to rescue our hostages, which Iran humiliated before the world. His economy was as terrible as this one. And the Democrats of his day echoed the same defeatist sentiments of this period, claiming people better get used to high unemployment and an moribund economy because it’s here to stay. American cities were decaying. The Big Apple was said to be rotting and it’s best days were over.

The 70’s movies, echoed the sentiments of many film makers of that era, which showed a government that was corrupt and predatory. America was seen as a hopeless, crime ridden nation where the little guy had to fight corruption at every turn. Hollywood cranked out revenge films, crime films, conspiracy films. Many of them had an unhappy ending. The few exceptions, like Star Wars were a huge hit, but they were an exception to the rule.

Things changed when Reagan was elected. Reagan brought real hope and change. A sense of optimism and a can-do attitude. He was not without his critics, and his first couple of years were spent dealing with the economy he inherited, but he turned the country around and we were off to the races.

And with Reagan came a new decade of films that reflected this attitude. The era of the macho hero: Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Willis, Gibson, Norris, Van Damme, Seagal and others; beating and blowing up villains all over the world. Fighting terrorists, communists, drug lords and other assorted riff raff. The 70s action heroes, Eastwood, Reynolds and Bronson were still around doing their part as well. But they were winding it down while the others took over their game.

The 80’s heroes took action to the next level. The over the top, explosive heavy, bullet saturated thrill ride. And in those films the individual fighting crime and corruption was celebrated. Gone was the message that America was failing. Now America was fighting back. America was strong. America wasn’t gonna take any crap. Look out, bad guys!

I’m sure many might dispute the Reagan connection, but after Carter gutted our military, Reagan built it back up. With the exception of the withdrawal from Beirut, Reagan was going around putting fear in some of our enemies. A strong leader does that. And with a strong leader comes confidence that you’re on the winning side. With a weak leader, like Carter, who went around apologizing for America and befriending dictators (sound familiar?), America was in the doldrums.

This decade is young and we’re starting it off with lots of superhero movies and fantasy films. But many of them are financed by foreign money and the message is moving away from America as a positive light. The movie villains of today aren’t terrorists and drug lords. They’re corporations and capitalists. It’s almost a comment on our society that America is somehow bad for being a success. While our economy continues to flounder in inept hands, let’s hope the culture doesn’t feed that insecurity. The movie business thought they were doomed in the 70s. Things were getting dire for them until Spielberg and Lucas came along. The 80s proved that theory wrong. The business roared back. Part of that came from a positive message in the films of that decade.

Let’s not forget that a positive attitude can accomplish wonders and negativity and despair only leads to more depression.

It deals with the first fifty years of the United States and the life of our second President. John Adams, played with his usual panache by Paul Giamatti, wasn’t the most loved, best looking or even heroic of our founders. But he was a brilliant man and an important part of the forging of this nation and the drafting of the Declaration of Independence.

Based on David McCullough’s Pulitzer Prize winning book and starring a host of great actors like Giamatti, Laura Linney, David Morse, Tom Wilkinson, Danny Huston, it shows is how fragile the nation was in its infancy, the forces that drove the founders to revolt against the English crown, the politics that threatened to tear the country apart afterward, how the country was treated by the Europeans then. It’s very eye opening.

John Adams was lawyer who believed in the rule of law. He served two terms as George Washington’s vice president and one as president. He had to make some tough decisions in his one term, which meant he was vilified in his time, much like the last president. John lived to a ripe old age and saw a lot of changes come to this land. He even lived to see his son John Quincy become president.

It’s important for viewers to gain some perspective on what makes America one of the most unique nations in the history of the human race and why our constitution is so valuable. While kleptocratics and crypto-marxists try to whittle away our freedoms and send our children down the bitter road of statism, this series reveals why we need to fight them. Why our nation is too important in the annals of history for any corrupt bureaucrats and incompetent political cretins to squander our founder’s legacy.

America is a treasure that its besotted, ungrateful descendants have tried to loot like the selfish children of an old money estate. But America is made of all of us and we still have the chance to right the ship of state and repair the damage made by those who would run us aground.

Our founders risked everything they owned, including their lives, so their descendants could be free. And we should not let the disreputable among us sully their great gift to us all.

Many Americans are ignorant of how important this country is. And how it has stood as a shining beacon of liberty these long years. This series is a great introduction to our history and helps shed light on one of America’s most overlooked creators.

Once again DC shows it doesn’t know what to do with one of its most iconic characters. The problem with Wonder Woman isn’t her costume. It never was. But leave it to the suits to think a PC reboot is going to solve the problems that have plagued this character since her inception.

DC describes the new outfit as “a Wonder Woman look designed for the 21st century” that will allow Diana “to be taken seriously as a warrior, in partial answer to the many female fans over the years who’ve asked, ‘how does she fight in that thing without all her parts falling out?’ …The bracelets are still there, but made more colorful, tied on the inside and over the hand, with a script W on each of them that form WW when she holds them side by side… and if you get hit by one of them, it leaves a W mark. This is a Wonder Woman who signs her work.”

The problem with Wonder Woman isn’t her look. It’s her personality. She has never been a warm, appealing character. She comes from an island populated only by immortal Amazons who hate men. And men aren’t allowed to set foot on the island. This island of super-women send her to “the man’s world” where she brings the baggage of this sexist worldview.

See, here is problem #1. Most comics readers are male. So you start off telling them their gender sucks. Great sales pitch.

Let’s deal with some reality for a second. I know the PC crowd and leftists in general love the concept of “protected classes” and the idea that, say, women could do things better than men if they had the chance. But aside from the chauvinistic mentality of this argument it ignores a simple axiom. Women are human beings. Human beings are flawed creatures.

The idea that someone’s gender makes them wiser or better is the kind of elitist nonsense that every tyrant has used to justify their atrocities. Ask yourself this question: Has everyone you’ve come across in life who is a member of your gender, race or religion been wonderful to you? Can you honestly say that every member of your race, religion or gender has an impeccably perfect history of treatment of others?

The idea that a race, gender, sexual orientation, whatever sets a group apart from others is complete nonsense. We’re all human. And any story that sells the idea that one gender is bad and another good is nothing more than classist porn.

Secondly, while Diana Prince (Wonder Woman’s real name) does change her attitude somewhat when she comes ashore, the “whole men are evil” mentality continues. It’s misandry, plain and simple and that’s unappealing. She does undergo some growth as a character from her early days, but writers continue to revert to this lame argument, which is going to limit your audience to the self-loathing types. More on that in a second.

Third, she lacks personality. Any protagonist needs to be appealing in some way for the reader to identify with them or care about them. Every writer of that character failed to give us enough reason to invest ourselves in that storyline. Being good looking isn’t enough, especially in a world were 99% of the women are babes. Being able to do heroic deeds isn’t enough since that’s standard operating procedure for super-heroes and most comics writers don’t even seem to know what heroism means.

Fourth, her backstory isn’t very well thought out. It’s a hodgepodge of slap dash Greek Mythology badly researched and poorly executed by most who’ve handled her. The man (gasp!) who created her, Dr. William Moulton Marston, was a bit of a perv who was into bondage. This is why she got tied up a lot back in the ’40s when he worked on the comic. The story was supposed to be about feminism, but this is coming from some bondage loving guy who who lived with two women. One of his views was that there is “a male notion of freedom that is inherently anarchic and violent, and an opposing female notion based on ‘Love Allure’ that leads to an ideal state of submission to loving authority.” Creepy.

So, the characters origins come from a somewhat warped dude. And then, through the years DC has tried to make her some kind of ersatz feminist icon, spouting the usual clichéd bromides, basically saying “you can look but don’t touch!” Hostile, icy women may appeal to some, but are generally not going to win people over unless we’re given a good understanding of them as people. And writers over the years have failed to do that.

Until Wonder Woman gets handled by someone who understands the problems with this character and knows how to really fix them, this reboot is going to be yet another in a long line of failures. As for the costume, it’s shrug inducing. The whole point of a super-hero costume is to make them stand apart from everyone else in some way. Making her look more normal takes away what little fun was there in the first place.

Classic super-heroes are supposed to be bright spots in a dark world. Making them more muted and ordinary looking just makes them yet another face in the crowd.

Many in Hollywood may be scratching their heads trying to understand why this company has had so many winners. But the secret ingredients are the very things that Hollywood often forgets are the most important elements to any movie. It’s like baking a cake without eggs, flour or sugar. It can be done, but good luck with that.

Let’s review the simple ingredients that makes the Pixar cakes so delicious.

1. Story Fundamentals: Every story is an argument. It should have a point. The point should be made strongly and you should either learn from it or come away with more understanding than you had going in. A story is really there to put things in some kind of perspective. A protagonist is given a set of problems they have to solve in order to achieve the thing they desire. In overcoming those problems they learn about themselves and grow as a person in some way.

If the story is well told, we relate to the characters and identify with them. Pixar does that. They create stories that we can relate to, that show us a world we understand. These tales give worthwhile meaning to the lives of the characters we just went on a journey with. And because of this, they are stories we remember and want to see again. They teach you this stuff in writing school, if you had a good teacher, but many studio execs completely forget all this and go for effects and exploitation and anything else they think will fill the seats. They completely forget is that no one cares about characters they don’t like or relate to. This brings us to ingredient #2.

2. Strong Characters: Pixar creates good stories around strong characters. When I say strong, I don’t mean they can beat people up. In most cases, the Pixar characters are a threat to no one. They are like most people, easily harmed by life’s cruel ironies and twists. But they overcome these problems by being proactive. They heroically defeat their obstacles. And often, through teamwork with others who they often disagree. Through these experiences everyone learns something and the audience is satisfied. Characters in stories need to grow because there has to be a net change from the beginning of the story to the end. Or a movie can feel neutral or pointless. Again, this is a simple truth known since Aristotle’s time that so many movie-makers fail to grasp.

3. Great endings: Endings are at least 50% of what makes a movie good. If your ending is lame, predictable or doesn’t live up to the preceding parts of the film, then the whole picture is forgettable. How many movies have you seen that thrilled you until a stupid ending ruined it? The ending is the last thing an audience remembers. It isn’t called the climax for nothing. Our excitement is built up to a point and If the ending is a fizzle, there are no fireworks, kids. And you don’t want people walking away disappointed. Pixar always delivers satisfying endings. You get plenty of bang for the bucks.

4. Magnificent Art Direction and Animation: These are animated films after all. Pixar has always been one of the most cutting edge animation houses in the business. Their work is superb. It’s the icing on the cake. And the cake they make is moist and delicious.

The rest of Hollywood could learn a lot of Pixar, but hubris being what it is, they probably won’t. Noneth less, we are very happy that Pixar is with us and keeps delivering fine films.

Here’s the crux of their discontent. Prince of Persia and The Last Airbender have male leads played by white actors; Jake Gyllenhaal in Prince of Persia and Noah Ringer as Aang in ‘The Last Airbender. So, like the predictable hacks they are, they jumped on the racism argument. Dancing around the “R” word by reciting the industry’s history of casting white actors in non-white roles.

Yes, that did happen a lot in the past, and it does happen on occasion now. But here’s where the stupidity starts. Persians, aka Iranians, are ethnically white. In fact, most people of Eurasian stock are considered ethnically white. Casting a white actor as a Persian is hardly a racially insensitive move. And the Last Airbender is directed by Indian-American M. Night Shyamalan, who took exception to the criticisms his movie has gotten on this subject.

“Ultimately, this movie, and then the three movies, will be the most culturally diverse tent-pole movies ever released, period,” he told the Los Angeles Times last summer.

The cast of the film includes people of all races. But the politically correct police aren’t satisfied.

This selective outrage is typical for the identity politics junkies who desperately look for something to ride their high horse over. If they were really concerned about the wrong race being cast in movies, why didn’t they get upset at Marvel and Kenneth Branagh, who cast black actor Indris Elba as the Norse God Heimdall in the upcoming Thor movie. They also cast Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano as one of the Warriors Three from the same film (all Norse gods originally). And don’t forget casting Samuel Jackson as Nick Fury, a long time white character in the comics (except in the alternate time line of the Ultimate Avengers). Funny, but we’re not seeing any outrage there.

In fact, over the years Hollywood has seriously considered casting Will Smith as Superman, and even cast him as Jim West in the execrable Wild, Wild West movie. The biggest protest heard over that flick was from people wanting their money back because it was so craptacular. Hollywood has played with casting black actors in white roles before, or even done things like have white and black actors play relatives as in Charlie’s Angels II, where Bernie Mac portrayed Bill Murray’s brother.

In film and the theater there’s a long history of casting actors in roles that may be “against type” in order to do something fresh. Actors are supposed to be able to take a character and bring them to life so you don’t question them as real. Sometimes Hollywood will throw in minority actors to round out a cast. In the case of the two films above, they were going for actors they thought might be more bankable. Asian kid actors haven’t yet hit the big time internationally. So they went with a more generic white kid in Airbender. The character in question doesn’t really have to be of any race. It’s not that important to the story. In the case of the Prince of Persia, they just needed a good-looking leading man with dark hair who can pull off the stunts. It seems Gyllenhaal fit the bill nicely.

There’s nothing really complex or surprising about that. But newspapers and blogs like to create controversy whenever they can to sell stories. Leftists especially like to play the race card whenever possible, as long as it’s done to make white people look bad. If a white actor is given a job playing an ethnic role, it must be racism. But if they cast a minority in a traditionally white role, that must be “progressive.” No wonder they’re losing readers.

We’ve seen many a black actor from Eddie Murphy to the Wayans Brothers put on white face to mock Caucasians in films and that’s accepted without question. Compare that to the hysterical scolding of these films where the characters are heroic and you can see the “people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones” rule still applies.

Hollywood will cast actors who are available and bankable first. Race is less of an issue than it has ever been. They know that. We know that. They know that we know that.

The more the press continues to spout these absurd lies, the more they expose their own racist problem.

But then I saw this trailer and my mood changed.

—–

This is not the lame rip off that Van Helsing was, this is a faithful adaption of Howard with no tongue-in-cheek, campy scenes. Here’s a hero who’s fighting evil in the name of God, something you don’t see much anymore. And he’s not afraid of taking on whatever comes his way, no matter how terrifying it may be. He’s fierce and unwavering and even demons from hell better think twice about pissing him off. My kind of character.

I saw the film and I can tell you that it’s way better than you’d expect. Excellent music, effects, acting. A top notch supporting cast which includes Max Von Sydow and Pete Postlethwaite, but even better, a great leading man in the title role, James Purefoy. Purefoy rocked Rome as Marc Antony and is perfect here. Purefoy does Howard’s character right.

Yes, it’s got demons, witches, and warlocks in it. It’s full on, unapologetic pulp fantasy and it’s definitely on point. Most fantasy films fail to pull it off because they don’t understand the rules. They either let some actors chew scenery or they throw in attempts at humor that undermine the suspense of disbelief needed to keep you with the story. Writer/director Michael J. Bassett knows how to do fantasy. The film is solidly entertaining from start to finish.

In what the creators hope to be part one of a trilogy, this film tells Kane’s origin. He starts off as a ferocious mercenary, leading his men to storm a castle in the middle east. Inside the castle hell seems to have been unleashed on those within. Kane’s men die one by one and when he meets the demonic creature at its summit, it tells him the devil owns his soul, that he is damned. Kane escapes, haunted by the experience and goes to live in a monastery. He renounces all violence and vows to devote himself to prayer. But the head monk makes Solomon leave, telling him that God spoke to him in a dream and said Solomon has more important tasks out there in the world.

On the way across England, in the dead of winter, he comes upon a family of pilgrims who take him in. They’re heading for the coast where they plan to catch a ship for America. He joins them for a time, but they don’t make it too far. Evil crosses their path and Kane is forced to break his vows. Like the man says: “If I kill you, I am bound for hell. It is a price I will gladly pay.”

And then he starts dealing out the pain in a way that would make Robert E. Howard proud.

Solomon Kane will be released by Rogue Pictures later this year.

Censorship must die!

(Warning: language)

The Wire producer/creator David Simon and Eric Overmyer has brought together an eclectic cast including John Goodman and the ever zany Steve Zahn, to create an ode to the Big Easy and its citizens, while taking a few opportunities to show how the government often fails the citizens. Simon, who co-created one of the best crime shows ever, The Wire, is a rare commodity in Hollywood. He’s not only a great writer, he’s a liberal who is critical of big government. Simon is a former journalist who covered the mean streets of Baltimore in his youth and developed a seasoned cynicism when looking at the big picture. His stories deal with people on all levels of society trying to operate in a dysfunctional landscape.

Where the Wire tackled Baltimore, Treme deals with New Orleans. Famous for great music, food, culture as well as poverty, corruption and crime. While the show is, in many ways, a love letter to the town, it is also realistic portrait. Neither Democrats nor Republicans are spared when politics rears its ugly head, but Simon is less interested in politics than the people whose lives are effected by it.

John Goodman plays Creighton Bernette, an English professor who’s angry that the city’s problems are being handled so badly. His wife Toni (Melissa Leo) is a civil rights lawyer who deals with the poor. She’s trying to help bar owner Ladonna Batiste-Williams (Khandi Alexander) find her brother who was arrested during the flood and seems to be lost in the jail system. No one knows where he is or even why he was arrested. Janette Desautel (Kim Dickens, from Deadwood) is a restaurant owner trying to keep her business alive, while her part time musician/”friend with benefits” Davis McAlary (Steve Zahn) is busy trying to put jazz CDs together. The Wire alums Wendell Pierce and Clark Peters are on hand to play two aspects of the rich culture of the city. Pierce plays Antoine Batiste, a well known and respected jazz trombonist who’s always broke and has girlfriends all over town. Peters plays Albert Lambreaux, a mardi gras leader and costume maker who’s trying to get everyone back together for Mardi Gras, even though many have fled to other states. He’s determined to keep the cultural traditions alive in his community and won’t take no for an answer.

Every episode is full of wonderful music and flavor. Despite all the problems the characters are having it’s doesn’t dwell on them, but rather shows how they all come together to try to solve problems and rebuild their city. As is usual with a Simon show, many disparate characters from all walks of life cross paths eventually. Their lives become intertwined for a story that feels organic and natural. It’s one of the strengths of his series, is that they don’t feel forced or fake. There may be political views expressed here and there, but Simon deals with it all in an evenhanded fashion.

The show is full of real characters, natural dialog and acting and some real sweet jazz and dixieland.

Treme airs Sunday nights on HBO.