Category: Uncategorized

Jack and the bullshit artist

Despite having been threatened by an unlikely beating at the hands of his corpse and being more than a little dubious about his war stories, I find that I rather like the aspects of Jack Kirby that are revealed by this extensive interview. I particularly liked the way he took on Jimmy Olsen, the worst-performing comic in the DC catalog, rather than the Superman comic that was offered to him, simply because he knew that doing so would be a better way of proving himself.

And frankly, it strikes me as more than a little fitting that Stan Lee will exit this Earth under a cloud of disgrace, given the fact that he appears to have pulled off one of the great con jobs of the 20th century:

GROTH: At the risk of sounding partisan, let me ask you this: every time I read something by Stan or see Stan speak publicly, I’m struck by how obvious a bullshit artist he is. Was he always that way?

ROZ KIRBY: Yeah.

KIRBY: Yes. Yes, I knew Stan when he was a young boy.

ROZ KIRBY: He was Mr. Personality. That’s what he was.

KIRBY: If you ever get to talk with Joe Simon, Simon will tell you exactly what the hell Stan Lee was. He was just a little wise guy, and he came from a family that was upper-middle class, and he could do whatever he liked. He could say whatever he liked. I’ll be frank with you. We considered him a pain in the ass. He grew up to be exactly what we considered him.

Let’s face it, America can’t say that Jack Kirby didn’t warn them.

“Stan Lee was a pest.” You don’t say.

That’s the idea, sport

As I have repeatedly noted, Trump is proving himself to be a much better president – a much better CONSERVATIVE president – than the great Ronald Reagan himself:

The Environmental Protection Agency is on track to slash 47{4bbad798630efc4433864d09618c79dc37ec93bd369a8697e8847adaf672eacc} of its total staff by the end of President Trump’s first term, according to a report in the Washington Examiner. After just one year, EPA chief Scott Pruitt has reduced his staff to levels unseen since the Reagan administration. If just those federal employees set to retire by 2021 do indeed leave, Pruitt will have cut more than 7,000 bureaucrats.

“We’re proud to report that we’re reducing the size of government, protecting taxpayer dollars, and staying true to our core mission of protecting the environment,” Pruitt boasted. Meanwhile, other federal agencies have followed suit after President Trump’s January 2017 hiring freeze hit large swaths of the executive branch. Trump’s order stated, “No vacant positions existing at noon on January 22, 2017, may be filled, and no new positions may be created, except in limited circumstances,” including those pertaining to national security. Although the freeze technically lifted in the spring, most agencies have continued to abide by its guidelines. The last president to enact a major federal hiring freeze was Ronald Reagan.

With the exception of Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, and Interior, all Cabinet departments by September had fewer permanent staff than the day Trump took office. In addition, Trump’s proposed spending cuts triggered a spending slowdown across agencies despite the absence of a 2017 budget from Congress.

Tony Reardon, president of the National Treasury Employees Union representing 150,000 federal workers at over 30 agencies laments, “Morale has never been lower. Government is making itself a lot less attractive as an employer.”

Reagan laid off the air traffic controllers. Trump has already halved the size of the EPA and is slashing the payrolls at dozens of other agencies. There is no comparison.

Mailvox: up your game, people

JF writes about the declining quality of the comments here:

Over the years that I have been reading your blog, I haven’t always agreed with everything you say, but I always find that it challenges my thinking about the world. I traditionally have enjoyed the comment section, also. However; over the last year, after reading the post I find myself doing a quick skim through the comments to see who is actually posting to see if it is worth following the discussion.

A number of the commenters who brought thoughtful, funny, and intelligent views seem to have moved on or only comment sporadically now. This has left the comments section to become filled with more midwit posturing and monomania that derails conversation (such as “muh purity”). I don’t know what the solution is, or if it even needs one.

If I am out of line, just let me know. Either way, I’ll continue to read.

He’s not out of line, he’s absolutely right. Now, it’s important to keep in mind that this is a natural consequence of the blog readership having grown from 3,000 pageviews a day to 105,582 pageviews a day. The early readers tended to be highly intelligent outliers, almost all of whom were WorldNetDaily readers and familiar with a wide range of political subjects and authors. They were not monomaniacs and they had the ability to intelligently discuss a wide range of subjects as well as an interest in doing so.

Now we’ve got everything from Disney shills to commenters who see a nefarious Jewish hand at work in the fact that they ran out of skim milk this morning. I don’t follow every discussion in the comments myself.

Now, this doesn’t really matter all that much because the blog does not exist for the sake of the comments. The comments are mostly there as a requested courtesy for the readers and the posts of most interest to me seldom receive anywhere near the most comments. That’s fine, because things are what they are, not what we might wish them to be. But if you’re a commenter, perhaps it might matter to you that people notice the fact that you don’t have much to say and you say the same thing over and over again.

(Which, of course, you could say is true of some of my posts on certain subjects, but then, history keeps happening and you can’t say I don’t manage to throw the occasional curveball on even the oldest chestnuts.)

The moderators do a pretty good job of blocking the trolls and neutralizing the shills, but they can’t make people smarter, give them a broader perspective, or make them better-read or more interesting. That’s something every commenter will have to do for himself. So, perhaps you might want to think about this and put a little more thought into your next comment. Or perhaps you’ll just blurt out the same damn thing you’ve already posted here to no noticeable effect on 27 previous occasions.

It’s up to you. Just don’t think the readers don’t notice… and remember that there are more than a thousand of them for every one of you. Also, drop the posturing. If you feel the need to strike poses and posture, just get your own blog. Or a mirror. If you find that you’re about to make your third heated comment in another tedious pose-off with another commenter that everyone else is ignoring, just walk away from the keyboard. Believe me, no one – NO ONE AT ALL – is interested in those ridiculous arguments that never resolve anything.

We could, of course, turn on the feature that limits comments to members of the blog, which would permit the moderates and me to eliminate the shills, the trolls, and the tedious. In the past, I’ve resisted doing so in the interest of maximizing the range of the discourse, but if we’ve now reached the point of the tragedy of the commons, perhaps it is time to consider doing so. Then again, informing Google whose comments I permit here might be unwise, in light of recent revelations about the converged tech giant. Feel free to share your opinion.

The one-two punch

I have to admit, I never, ever, envisioned this kind of start for Arkhaven. Thanks to all of you who are making it happen.

What’s particularly interesting about this category is that it covers all the normal 24-page comics. So, not a bad harbinger for the coming print editions.

UPDATE: Not, I suspect, entirely unrelated, is the annual report from Diamond.

YEAR 2017 VS. YEAR 2016 (units)

COMICS -9.69{4bbad798630efc4433864d09618c79dc37ec93bd369a8697e8847adaf672eacc}
GRAPHIC NOVELS -11.86{4bbad798630efc4433864d09618c79dc37ec93bd369a8697e8847adaf672eacc}
TOTAL COMICS/GN -9.86{4bbad798630efc4433864d09618c79dc37ec93bd369a8697e8847adaf672eacc}
TOYS -19.90{4bbad798630efc4433864d09618c79dc37ec93bd369a8697e8847adaf672eacc}

People are obviously looking for something else. And we’re definitely offering something else.

See, Marvel was RIGHT

Chasing the elusive minority dollar is the secret to massive success. This just proves it!

Appetite for presale tickets leaves little doubt — Marvel Studios’s next big blockbuster is “Black Panther.”

The film, which will be released by Walt Disney Co. DIS, +1.09{4bbad798630efc4433864d09618c79dc37ec93bd369a8697e8847adaf672eacc}  on Feb. 16, was already one of the most-anticipated movies of the year. It just broke the record for highest ticket presales in the first 24 hours for a Marvel film, according to online movie ticket retailer Fandango.

The previous record-holder was “Captain America: Civil War,” which coincidently is the film in which Chadwick Boseman’s portrayal of the Black Panther first made an appearance on the big screen.

Fandango, which is owned by Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal, didn’t reveal actual numbers for “Black Panther” or “Civil War” presales in making its claim.

What is known is “Civil War” pulled in $75.5 million in its first day in theaters, according to data from Box Office Mojo. The film went on to garner $179.1 million in its opening weekend—the third largest opening in 2016—and $1.2 billion in total worldwide gross.

And if Black Panther doesn’t beat Civil War at the box office, that will just prove that America is too racist to appreciate a proven blockbuster.

They really are getting desperate, aren’t they. Speaking of desperate, my December 19th prediction is still in play, as barring a big weekend, The Last Jedi will fall short of $624 million domestic.

2018/01/08 $1,791,497 $423/screen   $574,483,043 Day 25
2018/01/09 $2,368,317 $560/screen   $576,851,360 Day 26
2018/01/10 $1,744,275 $412/screen   $578,595,635 Day 27
2018/01/11 $1,678,949 $397/screen   $580,274,584 Day 28

To put it in perspective, on Day 28 of The Force Awakens, it brought in $757 per screen to reach $825,932,841 of its $936,662,225 total.

Mailvox: Israel or the West

Howard takes an inherently anti-Zionist position on Jewry:

The notion that Jews are not part of Western Civilization, particularly those Jews who’s family’s and history are linked to the West and the U.S by multiple generations, is without merit…and again, simple, ignorant anti-semitism.

No, the idea that Jews are part of Western civilization necessarily eliminates any legitimate territorial claim they might have to the land of Israel, which is not and has never been part of the West. Jews can claim Israel or they can claim to be of the West, but they cannot claim both. Furthermore, Christianity is an integral element of Western civilization and Jews are, again by definition, non-Christian. They are not part of Christendom, which you will note is a synonym for Western civilization.

Howard’s historically ignorant posturing is reflective of the growing divide between Israeli and American Jewry. Many Israelis are already openly contemptuous of diaspora Jews who refuse to make aliyah and become citizens of the Jewish nation despite being able to do so, so it won’t surprise me if Israeli Jews eventually decide that the diasporans are not Jews at all, especially in light of the fact that most of them are less than half genetically semitic already.

No nation can survive its people not sharing a language, a religion, genetics or geography for long.

Promises, promises

Ted Kennedy illustrates why third-generation immigrants should not ever be permitted to govern or even vote in his deceitful argument for the 1965 immigration act.

First, our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually. Under the proposed bill, the present level of immigration remains substantially the same…

Secondly, the ethnic mix of this country will not be upset… Contrary to the charges in some quarters, [the bill] will not inundate America with immigrants from any one country or area, or the most populated and deprived nations of Africa and Asia…

In the final analysis, the ethnic pattern of immigration under the proposed measure is not expected to change as sharply as the critics seem to think… The bill will not flood our cities with immigrants. It will not upset the ethnic mix of our society. It will not relax the standards of admission. It will not cause American workers to lose their jobs.

They have to go back. They ALL have to go back. It is no longer up for debate. The post-1965 mass immigration policy was entirely based on lies and misrepresentations, and 50 years on it is clear that global migration has destroyed America, the largest invasion in human history has severely weakened the United States, and if a significant portion of the post-1965 immigrants and their descendants are not repatriated in the next decade, they will cause the complete collapse of the Union, violent ethnic conflict, and a civil war of unprecedented magnitude. At this point, the Yugoslav option may be the best possible outcome; the Czechoslovak option appears to be already beyond reach.

Listen to the warning of an American Indian. The dirt is not magic and it will not remain yours once you permit foreigners to settle on it. And rest assured that your descendants, if you have any that survive, will curse your incredible stupidity and short-sightedness, which is of epic historical magnitude.

Caelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt.

So, go ahead and signal your virtue. Go ahead and cluck about how gloriously cucky and Churchian you are. Go ahead and dream of that glorious multicultural future before you. Just don’t expect us to lift a finger, shed a tear, or open the gates when those on whose behalf you are preening and posturing decide to take what you have away from you.

The most hostile work environment on the planet

James Damore’s lawsuit is making it clear to everyone just how toxic the work environment is at Google. It is so extreme that even Rod Dreher has taken notice of the lethal convergence.

7. ‘Discourage them all throughout the industry’
“If we really care about diversity in tech, we don’t just need to chase serial offenders out of Google, we need to discourage them all throughout the industry,” a lengthy internal post on Damore read. “We should be willing to give a wink and a nod to other Silicon Valley employers over terminable offenses, not send the worst parts of tech packing with a smile …”

8. ‘I will hurt you’
Damore’s memo prompted another employee to post this quote: “I’m a queer-ass nonbinary trans person that is fucking sick and tired of being told to open a dialogue with people who want me dead. We are at a point where the dialogue we need to be having with these people is ‘if you keep talking about this shit, i will hurt you.”

9. ‘Relies on crowdsourced harassment’
Google encourages employees to enforce unwritten norms by harassing and ostracizing those who break them, according to the suit, and by allowing employees to create “blocklists” on their communications systems. “[Google] relies on crowdsourced harassment and ‘pecking’ to enforce social norms (including politics) that it feels it cannot write directly into its policies,” the suit states.

11. ‘You’re being blacklisted…at companies outside Google’
Google manager Adam Fletcher wrote in 2015 he would never hire conservatives he deemed hold hostile views. “I will never, ever hire/transfer you onto my team,” he wrote. “Ever. I don’t care if you are perfect fit or technically excellent or whatever. I will actively not work with you, even to the point where your team or product is impacted by this decision. I’ll communicate why to your manager if it comes up. You’re being blacklisted by people at companies outside of Google,” he added. “You might not have been aware of this, but people know, people talk. There are always social consequences.”

It’s really rather remarkable how completely out of control the big technology companies are. And it’s going to be even more remarkable to see how fast they collapse once the artificial circumstances keeping them afloat change. They are like hollow, cancer-ridden giants and I expect that several of them will vanish as soon as the debt-equity bubble pops.

Convergence tends to metastasize after a company hits its peak. We’re seeing this in industry after industry, and particularly in corporations whose executives start to believe their position is unassailable.

RIGHT HO, JEEVES #1 now on preorder

A Binge at Brinkley is the first issue in the RIGHT HO, JEEVES series, which tells of the travails of the inimitable Bertie Wooster, who is summoned from the comforts of #3A Berkley Mansions, London to Brinkley Manor by his imperious Aunt Dahlia. Love is in the air and Wodehousian shenanigans are afoot, as Wooster is not the sole guest at the manor, which is also playing host to the fairy-gazing Madeline Basset as well as the famous newt-fancier Augustus Fink-Nottle.

Adapted from the classic Wodehouse novel by comics legend Chuck Dixon and drawn by SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN illustrator Gary Kwapisz, A Binge at Brinkley is issue #1 of 6 in the RIGHT HO, JEEVES series. 24 pages. $2.99.

Now available for preorder. RIGHT HO, JEEVES #1: A Binge at Brinkley will be released on January 29. The series is currently on schedule to release issues on a monthly basis. Please note that because Right Ho, Jeeves is only in the public domain in the United States, this comic is only available from Amazon.com for US customers. We have presently have an offer in to the Wodehouse estate to acquire the necessary permissions to produce comics and graphic novels for the works that are not in the public domain.

UPDATE: Very pleased to see there is genuine interest in this experiment.

  • #1 in Kindle Short Reads > 45 minutes (22-32 pages) > Comics & Graphic Novels
  • #1 in Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > Graphic Novels > Adaptations
  • #1 New Release in Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > Literary Graphic Novels
  • #1 in Kindle eBooks > Comics & Graphic Novels > Historical & Literary > Literary

Ask the Norwegian-Americans

SJWs don’t merely always lie, they usually posture while they’re doing it.

Trump made headlines on Thursday when he lashed out in a meeting with lawmakers about immigration reform, demanding to know why the US should accept citizens from what he called ‘s**thole’ countries. He was speaking about people from Haiti, El Salvador and various African nations, people briefed on the meeting told the Washington Post.

‘Why are we having all these people from s**thole countries come here?’ Trump said. ‘Why do we need more Haitians?… Take them out.’

Trump then suggested the US should welcome immigrants from places like Norway, whose prime minister met with Trump on Wednesday.

But Twitter users, some of them from Norway, quickly lashed out asking Trump: Why would Norwegians want to come to America?

‘I’m confused – why the f*** would anyone migrate to the US from Norway? Why would you give up healthcare free at the point of access, living wages and reliable public services?,’ one tweet read.

‘I live in Norway and would never move to USA. We have free health care, free higher education, 5 weeks vacation 8 hours work a day. No thanks Trump,’ another user tweeted.

Meanwhile, back on actual Planet Earth: There are more than 4.5 million Norwegian Americans according to the most recent U.S. census, and most live in the Upper Midwest. Norwegian Americans currently comprise the 10th largest European ancestry group in the United States. 

And here is why:

The introduction of the Danish grain monopoly caused severe shortages of grain in Norway that led to famine and conflict. Crop failures led to a terrible period of famine in Norway which was followed by disease and dire poverty causing thousands of deaths. Norwegians began to look to America as an escape from the devastation, political strife and hunger.

So, devastation, political strife, and hunger is the answer. I wonder what is going to happen in Norway when the oil runs out and there isn’t enough money to pay for all the useless non-working invaders?