Inner Discord ... Satisfied?

"Guys, are we okay yet?"

"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Ok, do you want to try talking about the Avengers?"

"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Really? It's been weeks, and you still can't use words. This is sad."

"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"I understand it, but it's still a bit much. Nothing at all to say?"

"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!WE THINK YOU MEAN MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Insightful. Can we move on with things now?"

"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!WE PRE-ORDERED THE DVDEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"You what? Does it even have a release date yet?"

""!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"


"How -- how did you do that without me knowing about it?"


"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!HULK SMASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"I'll check back in the fall."

South Park Enriches Us All

Here's something I just realized.  Mitt Romney is the Underpants Gnome Candidate.

Step 1: "Elect Mitt!"

Step 2: ". . . . . . . ."

Step 3: "Prosperity!"


And it's currently a tie.

Inner Discord Addendum

"Guys, we got to see 'Cabin in the Woods.'"

"CAAABBIIIIIIIN!!! JOOOOSSSSS!!!"

"I know! It was awesome! But are we okay now? Are we good?"

"NO! AVEEENNGEERRRRSS!!! JOOOOSSSSS!!!"

"I only made it worse, didn't I?"

"AVEEENNGEERRRRSS!!!"


It's still not going so well.


"THOR / JAMES T. KIRK'S DAD DOESN'T GO DOWN LIKE THAT!"

Inner Discord

With "The Avengers" (official title, "Marvel's The Avengers," which yeah) opening next month, my inner teen is positively vibrating with excitement. And unfortunately my inner twentysomething Buffy/Angel fanatic is holding his hand, whispering, "Dude it's going to be wicked awesome."

The mid-80s issue of The Avengers where Captain America asks Namor to join the team was one of the first two comics I bought in my life, and let's just say that I stuck with them. For an embarrassingly long time. But getting over-excited for a superhero movie is a classic misstep. So you can see my dilemma.

My present day outer shell is trying to hold all this in check and not get too excited.


"AVENGERS!!! JOSS!!!"

"Guys, I know, but calm down. It's still a superhero movie."

"CAPTAIN AMERICA WAS GOOD! THOR WAS GOOD! IRON MAN WAS GOOD!"

"First of all, Thor was pretty good, if you overlook the fact that the plot boiled down to waiting for 2 hours for somebody to punch Thor really hard. And Iron Man was fun, but remember how we couldn't even trick ourselves into being interested in Iron Man 2?"

"CAPTAIN AMERICA WAS GOOD!"

"No, Captain America was awesome. But it was a fluke. Remember Spider-Man 3?"

"ANGRY JAZZ DANCING!?!?!?"

"Yeah, because how else would you know a superhero's gone bad if he doesn't do a dance routine really, really mad. It's way clearer than having him beat the snot out of somebody. And now we get a Spider-Man reboot? Oh look, it's Spider-Man's origin, like nobody knows how that story ends."

"BUT! JOSS!"

"I know. But this isn't Joss with nobody's looking creative freedom. This is Joss with a huge budget and who knows how many marketers and accounting types standing in a circle around him with sharp instruments and stabby gleams in their eyes."

"... YOU BETTER NOT BE SETTING US UP TO LET YOUR DECISION TO HAVE A CHILD GET IN OUR WAY! WE ARE SEEING THIS MOVIE IF WE HAVE TO LEAVE THE KID IN THE CAR!"

"You don't get to make that decision. And yes, this is sitter-worthy. I get that."

"WE MISSED GREEN LANTERN!"

"By all accounts, Green Lantern sucked."

"BUT STILL!"

"And besides, if this is good, we'll all be excited to watch and share it with the kid when he's old enough. You know that. Like with the new Star Trek movie, we might have something great to to nerd bond over."

"STAR TREK!!! DVD!!! NOW!!!"

"We're at work."

"..."

"Guys?"

"AAAAVVVVEEEENGERS!!! JOOOOSSSSS!!!"

"I KNOW, RIGHT?"


It's not going so well.


"THOR IS JAMES T. KIRK'S DAD!"

No really

Today I saw for the first time, in life, a man sporting a full-on Hitler mustache.

Bold, sir. Bold.

Okay, now this can't just be me...

So please, tell me.

Does anybody else find it profoundly disturbing that we now have nationalized investment insurance while health insurance is still largely in the private sector?

Is it just really, really weird?

I don't want to think that I'm the only one.

I know they have to have a narrative and all...

Because of course the news needs a basic, easy-to-follow story arc, as it tracks events in the world, without adjusting. But why has no commentator pointed out the simple fact that this is the Democratic Party?

For Democrats, this is unity.