It's the last day of the month, which means... time for the SILVER STAR AWARDS. (Sometimes that's also what the first day means: time for LAST MONTH'S awards! LOL) Anyway, were' up to the MLB HoF election of 1963, which saw four members elected by the Veteran's Committee - so no Golds this month, but for Silvers going out.
The John Clarkson Silver Star #28: Misfile
Its seems every time I get a bunch of Silvers in one month, I have at least on web-comic. Well... no sense changing now! LOL. Misfile is a very funny web-comic featuring two characters, one that's had his gender changed and one that lost (was forced to repeat) the last two years of her life (the two miserable years she spent studying her ass off to getting into Harvard no less!) due to a celestial fuck-up on the part of a certain, mostly drunken, Angel who's now laying low and trying (not very hard) to set things right. The artwork is very Manga-like, and very clean considering it's mostly pencil-work. In additional to a kick-ass art-style, the characters Chris Hazelton's created are strong, human, interesting, fallible, flawed and perfect. The relations are real and complex with ups, downs, trust and betrayal. Oh yeah, and the odd gender-bending humor? Funny as hell. And while is NOT what I would consider a trans-gendered comic, since the whole plot is magically-based, it does get into issue of acceptance, both public and self. As with all web-comics, I recommend reading this one from the beginning.
The Elmer Flick Silver Star #29: The Nostalgia Critic
If you were alive at any time during the 1980's, and either loved the decade or remember how utterly tacky and cheesy it was (or both) you'll love to hear this obnoxious foole absolutely eviscerate it. He takes the best (and worst) of popular culture from the last 1970's, 1980's and early 1990's (so, IOW: my life, or the part I remember) and has great fun goofing on it. He's obnoxious... but he elevates it to an art form. Funny as hell. But if you're under the age of 30? Maybe 25? Don't bother. You won't remember it. (Which is OK, because the Nostalgia Critic remembers it, so you don't have to!)
The Sam Rice Silver Star #30: The Perry Bible Fellowship
OK, so this months, there's two comics! This one's been on hiatus for a long time (finished?) but it's still very worth checking out. The humor is ironic, irreverent and subtly dark and twisted. The artistic style varies from cartoony to actual ART, using a variety of media. It's great stuff. Check it out.
The Eppa Rixey Aluminum Star: Newsbusters
(It's been a while since I high-lighted a low-light. LOL)
Ah, good old Newsbusters. "Exposing and Combating Liberal Media Bias." Well... not really. To expose something, it must first ACTUALLY EXIST. Reading Newsbusters provides one with little more than evidence that anything to the Left of Rush Limbaugh's Oxycontin-fueled wet dreams is "Liberally Biased." (Or, as Stephen Colbert put it: That REALITY has a Liberal bias!) What's more, to "Combat" it, one needs to formulate an actual ARGUMENT. Some of my readers might instinctively point out that convincing a Right-Winger that the Right is right is about as difficult as putting on a hat. But that's all they've really managed to do: Convince die-hard conservatives that Liberal's are "wrong." Which... is pretty much completely unnecessary, since most Conservative usually START OUT their argument with that assumption! So, why do they even need to exsist then? What's their raison detre? For all their "exposure" and "combat," the most they can do? Is reach level four.
Cheers, my friends!
Oddly enough, I managed to get approved as a poster on Newsbusters (a process that took a month), and I've been spending some time there, lately:
ReplyDeletehttp://newsbusters.org/user/66587/track
I've written about the work of the MRC for many years. Their work is rather dismal, on the whole; targeting "liberal bias" in the press, they're left without much about which to write. Like all Bubble People groups, they peddle, to a conservative audience, the notion that they are persecuted and that they should resent it, and, inherent in the formulation, that outlets like Newsbusters are the ones who actually tell it like it is. Unlike the liberal "media watchdog" groups, their criticism is not intended as constructive, and makes no pretense of being so--they put forth absolutely no concept of the press as serving a necessary function in a democracy. The press is presented, instead, as merely something that gets in the way of their agenda. A thing to be overcome and defeated.
The Ed Schultz situation caused a furor over there--probably over a dozen articles in only a few days. It's good to see the MRC suddenly become so concerned about misogyny, but their concern is disingenuous--strictly limited to gender attacks on conservative women. Gender attacks on liberal women (and women in general) are, of course, a routine feature of right-wing radio and tv, and elicits not a peep from MRC. By the end of the Schultz cycle, Newsbusters had offered up an article asserting that ANY criticism of the views of conservative women (regardless of whether there was a gender component) was "misogyny."
The regular posters at Newsbusters are, it should be said, some of the absolute worst you'll find in the right-wing blogosphere. Virtually every time I've posted anything, I'm reflexively met with charges that I'm a black-hearted liar. When I pointed out the flood of gender attacks flowing from right-wing radio and tv, for example, I was called a liar. I then posted multiple examples. I was called a liar again, and the posters, there, then began aggressively demanding that I provide links to the offending comments (which is just another way of calling me a liar, as it is intended to insinuate that I'm unable to do so). The thing is, these are people who watch and listen to the shows I was referencing, and thus know, as well as I, that what I was saying was true. They know it, and STILL they act this way. They never back off. They never admit they were wrong. They never apologize.
When I said the left doesn't make rock-stars of people who say the sorts of outrageously offensive things one hears on right-wing radio all the time and used Michael Savage as an example, I was challenged by a fellow who used Mike Malloy to "prove" me wrong on this, and who, further, said Savage is a nobody of no significance, and is no rock star in conservative circles. I pointed out to him that Savage has the 3rd highest-rated radio show in the U.S., with millions of listeners on over 400 stations, and has written 4 or 5 bestsellers in the last few years, while Mike Malloy does an internet radio broadcast out of his own basement to an audience of tens. He remained unfazed, and pointed out that Malloy's show is carried on a satellite radio station.
So what can you do?
@Classic - I was just about to ask Eddie if he had heard from you lately - I was wondering if you had fallen off the face of the Earth! I miss your posts at your blog, and hadn't seen you at MMfA in a while.
ReplyDelete@Eddie - Sorry to hijack your comments, but it had to be said. Welcome back.
okiepoli
I thank you for the kinds words. I'm still around, just maybe not all of me. I've been having a very bad time the last several months. At best, I have moments.
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