Awesome TNR article on the changing view of integration in the X-Men books. Part of why I stopped reading the things. (I was always a bigger Spidey fan anyway, and I'm one of three human males who thinks Cyclops is cooler than Wolverine.)

Two quibbles:

* With reference to Magneto fooling around with Rogue: Wouldn't you?

* I'd say the downfall actually started just after Wolverine lost his adamantium -- the battle that led to that was the last assault of the good guys on the Separatists that made Xavier's dream seem like the rational one. That would be, what, 1993? X-Men seemed pretty clear-cut in the 1980s, to me. (With the exception of the Fantastic Four v. X-Men series, but that was so staged, anyway, even if the art was fantastic.)

God, I'm a nerd.

(Hat tip: Ben Domenech.)

In the interest of fairness, here's the very last of my Santorum-related posts: Arthur Silber says that if you're in favor of sodomy laws, you're a Klansman without the good sense to know it makes a long post about his travails with his sexual orientation, and why Santorum is wrong on every level.

That's it, I'm done. I don't care what anyone sticks anywhere, so long as everyone sticking and being stuck consents (and is able to consent), for at least the next few months. I doubt most Americans will remember, or care. Have fun, Libertoids, with this great trauma on your collective soul; stack it with those deadly, ever-present, fascist steel tariffs, and while we're at it, blame Bush for the Patriot Act that some other branch of the Government helped put in place (and sunsetted). Being a fringe ideological group has its perks, doesn't it?

(Hat Tip: Eve Tushnet, who still makes me feel stupid whenever I read her blog.)

Remember everyone: Men are inherently violent and stupid, women are inherently loving and nurturing.

Memo to Trial Lawyers Who Give to the Edwards Campaign

From: A Fellow Trial Lawyer

RE: Ethics

Guys and gals: You aren't doing yourselves, the Plaintiff's Bar, the ATLA, the profession, or the Edwards campaign any favors by pulling poop like this.

And, in case that doesn't turn your rocks, I'd like to remind you that you are under an ethical obligation to comport with the laws of this nation, and to hold yourself out as being beyond reproach. This... falls short of the mark.

Seriously, this is good and fair: If each album costs $12 or so, and there are twelve or so tracks, why not charge $1 per track? I'll pay in a heartbeat. (And it'll eventually make it easier to find guilty pleasures like Rhythm of the Night -- try finding that outside a "Music of Miami Vice" sountrack. And those went off the shelves in, oh, 1990.)

UPDATE: Jimmy has a counterpoint:

ok, here's where i'm going with this. now we have online sales. online sales means that costs have just dropped like a frenchman's gun in battle. a whole fucking dollar PER SONG???? you gotta be kidding me. so let's say you wanted to download the whole matrix CD. 19 different songs on it. so that's $19. so you're paying the same as retail. you aren't getting anything MORE. at that cost you might as well buy the fucking CD so that's it's pre-burned onto a CD for a CD-player. you can always just rip the songs off the CD if you want them for MP3 players. you get the booklet in the CD which probabaly has lyrics or cool pics. and by buying it online, you just saved the company shipping, materials, and slew of other costs. you're paying the same amount of money yet getting nothing MORE in return. the only person making off like a bandit in this is the record company.

As I mentioned to him in a reply email, that:

I can't really speak to the end of that rant, but very briefly:

Why I find it acceptable is this: I almost never want every song on an album. A lot of the songs I like are hard to find -- remember the Transformers soundtrack before Rhino got in on the game? -- and if you can database all of those songs, I'll only have to pay $1 for a song I want and can burn away on at will.

Yes, I know, that's a lot -- except it's not. It's a [bleep]ing dollar. It's a dollar to cover the broadband cost, the server space, the license fee (screwy, but legal, and indeed, legally required), and the record companies' cut (yes, they're evil, but they're just capitalists, and I want them to keep putting out music).

So I won't end up paying the same as on an album. I'll pay for a single song. I'll get "She Bop" (shiver) for the wife without hassle, and the Demolition Man soundtrack version of Demolition Man without buying the whole, [bigoted sexuality remark] album. If I want a whole album, I'll buy that, then rip it.

This is not to negate his rather obvious point: We're still paying too much for the music. True. But we can drive cost structures down, even within this market arrangement (which smells suspiciously like a cartel arrangement to me) with online services and other media. (Query: How many other industries, when faced with a market signal that they're charging too much -- i.e., millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens take product from them on a regular basis -- respond by turning around and yelling that it's the customers' fault?)

Jimmy has a good point. But I find $1 a good cost-benefit meeting point.

I have no idea how to evaluate this.

As a Texan (yet as an American), I feel only mildly guilty about not saying something yesterday about Beat Up a Frenchman Day.

I would like to point out, however, that March 6th is either Beat Up a Mexican Day, Spit on Santa Anna Day, or, arguably my favorite, Thank a Vaquero Day. Missed it this time around, but it's worth noting for next year.

Bull$&!#.

Oh, golly, he sucked, didn't he? Most wins for the franchise, got a team that was hobbled as often as not into the playoffs, and this close to home-court, won when they had no home...

Tightfisted morons. This'll bite you in the butt next year, I promise.

This is so cool:

DEAR,

MY NAME IS KEN KURU THE CHAIRMAN OF KEN GOLD AND DIAMOND LTD SIERA LONEAN,BUT NOW IN DAKAR SENEGAL. I HAVE QUALITY GOLDS AND DIAMONDS FOR SALE.PLEASE IF YOU NEED IT CONTACT ME,BY MAIL OR YOU CALL ME ON PHONE 002215676650

THANKS,
KEN
CHAIRMAN

Do you get it? The Nigerian scam artists are branching out!! They're adapting, like marketing Borg.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Ok, now I'm really gonna cry. Excuse me.

Wow. Kids, Patrick Ruffini is on his soapbox about Dean and decline, and you simply will not find a more moving bit of analysis any time soon.

I was gonna say something about the end of the StocktontoMalone era, but Ben said it quite well, without the blubbering I would have done. Am doing.

I just noticed that nothing posted for a while. Ah, the delight that is Blogger!

Screw you, Jimmy. Now I have to dry off my damned keyboard.

The Dante's Inferno Test has sent you to Purgatory!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very High
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Very Low
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Moderate
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Low
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante Inferno Hell Test