"It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's SUPER Hillary!"
My family and I recently spent a week in Walt Disney World, and there is enough Catholicist Nation fodder there for a writing episode at another time. I will admit much of it is quite fun, and after we returned from a six-day binge we had to detox.
I popped in a wonderful film, The Incredibles, something my children have seen a half-a-dozen times but I’d only seen once, back when it was in the theaters. As I watched it I was intrigued by its similarity to Watchmen, which I’d webzined on last month. I have to believe Brad Bird, the guy who put The Incredibles together, had to have been very familiar with Watchmen, because the Pixar film is a virtual children’s version of the classic graphic novel.
At one point in The Incredibles the superheroes are outlawed because they are saving people who don’t want to be saved. What do you think about this idea? I ask my Government students this discussion question: “We all have a right not to be beat up for no reason. But what do you think if the people who are fighting want to fight?”
I mean, really, what if some guy leaping to his death wants to commit suicide and his rescue by Mr. Incredible violates his firm desires? Can Mr. Incredible be sued? Should Mr. Incredible be censured or restrained in some way?
This brings up that profound puzzle regarding what people really want. It is said all the time, “He doesn’t know what’s best for him!” The question is, what is best for him? How does one know what that is?
The superhero conundrum comes up in another interesting place, this from one of president-elect Barack Obama’s latest cabinet nominations. Hillary Clinton has been slated for the Secretary of State job, one for which she is constitutionally ineligible.
Yes, Barack and Hillary are plainly violating the U.S. Constitution the minute she takes the oath of office at Foggy Bottom. Article 1, Section 6, Clause 2 plainly states that any sitting member of the Senate may not hold a cabinet position if the salary of that position was increased during her legislative service. The reason is simply to prevent the buying and selling of cushy government positions.
As it is anyone who brings this up is just one of those rabidly conservative kooks to be dismissed without a glance. I’m actually not even addressing here whether or not it is really an issue—the government has routinely violated the Constitution for eons no matter how many have screeched about it. Eh.
What I do want to point out is that potentates do anything they must—constitutional or not—if it is indeed perceived it is in the best interests of the nation. Do you really think agents of Cain don’t regularly lie and murder? The real question is how deftly they do it.
Just like really super strong Mr. Incredible, Barack, Hillary, and all the rest of the "transition" players are being handed seven-fold power over anyone who challenges their authority, even those who’d wave the Constitution in their faces. Hillary is indeed then a superhero, enthusiastically urged to take on the charge of gallantly zipping off to other belligerents and smiling at them so magnificently that they’ll either be nice to us or slink away so our stomping-about won’t be too expensive.
What is more remarkable is that what these "real" superheroes do is really not a whole lot different from what the fictional ones do: Putting on a damn good show. It's best to prominently bound about rescuing wailing victims somewhere somehow. Their most rigorous challenge is not the rescuing but making it look good in light of the reprobate behavior that must accompany it.
Just today some bipartison investigative committee on looking-at-bad-things-all-around released a very official sounding report that stated there is a high probability of a terrorist attack before 2013, most likely involving biological weaponry. How is this any different from "Emperor Ming, drat your nefarious schemes!"
But lo! There she is! Ta-da! SUPER HILLARY! Hooray! Thaaank you for saving us from the dreaded anthrax threat! It's a good thing you were there right there, right where you needed to be to dutifully defend truth, justice, and the American way! And thank goodness those cursed constitutional nitpickers couldn't deter you from your appointed rounds!
It does have nice ring to it. Perhaps it may be added to the show:
Hillary--hooray! Hillary--hooray! HILLARY--HOORAY!
For a bit more on the modern superhero saga, I've devoted my webzine home page this month to it. It is here.
I popped in a wonderful film, The Incredibles, something my children have seen a half-a-dozen times but I’d only seen once, back when it was in the theaters. As I watched it I was intrigued by its similarity to Watchmen, which I’d webzined on last month. I have to believe Brad Bird, the guy who put The Incredibles together, had to have been very familiar with Watchmen, because the Pixar film is a virtual children’s version of the classic graphic novel.
At one point in The Incredibles the superheroes are outlawed because they are saving people who don’t want to be saved. What do you think about this idea? I ask my Government students this discussion question: “We all have a right not to be beat up for no reason. But what do you think if the people who are fighting want to fight?”
I mean, really, what if some guy leaping to his death wants to commit suicide and his rescue by Mr. Incredible violates his firm desires? Can Mr. Incredible be sued? Should Mr. Incredible be censured or restrained in some way?
This brings up that profound puzzle regarding what people really want. It is said all the time, “He doesn’t know what’s best for him!” The question is, what is best for him? How does one know what that is?
The superhero conundrum comes up in another interesting place, this from one of president-elect Barack Obama’s latest cabinet nominations. Hillary Clinton has been slated for the Secretary of State job, one for which she is constitutionally ineligible.
Yes, Barack and Hillary are plainly violating the U.S. Constitution the minute she takes the oath of office at Foggy Bottom. Article 1, Section 6, Clause 2 plainly states that any sitting member of the Senate may not hold a cabinet position if the salary of that position was increased during her legislative service. The reason is simply to prevent the buying and selling of cushy government positions.
As it is anyone who brings this up is just one of those rabidly conservative kooks to be dismissed without a glance. I’m actually not even addressing here whether or not it is really an issue—the government has routinely violated the Constitution for eons no matter how many have screeched about it. Eh.
What I do want to point out is that potentates do anything they must—constitutional or not—if it is indeed perceived it is in the best interests of the nation. Do you really think agents of Cain don’t regularly lie and murder? The real question is how deftly they do it.
Just like really super strong Mr. Incredible, Barack, Hillary, and all the rest of the "transition" players are being handed seven-fold power over anyone who challenges their authority, even those who’d wave the Constitution in their faces. Hillary is indeed then a superhero, enthusiastically urged to take on the charge of gallantly zipping off to other belligerents and smiling at them so magnificently that they’ll either be nice to us or slink away so our stomping-about won’t be too expensive.
What is more remarkable is that what these "real" superheroes do is really not a whole lot different from what the fictional ones do: Putting on a damn good show. It's best to prominently bound about rescuing wailing victims somewhere somehow. Their most rigorous challenge is not the rescuing but making it look good in light of the reprobate behavior that must accompany it.
Just today some bipartison investigative committee on looking-at-bad-things-all-around released a very official sounding report that stated there is a high probability of a terrorist attack before 2013, most likely involving biological weaponry. How is this any different from "Emperor Ming, drat your nefarious schemes!"
But lo! There she is! Ta-da! SUPER HILLARY! Hooray! Thaaank you for saving us from the dreaded anthrax threat! It's a good thing you were there right there, right where you needed to be to dutifully defend truth, justice, and the American way! And thank goodness those cursed constitutional nitpickers couldn't deter you from your appointed rounds!
It does have nice ring to it. Perhaps it may be added to the show:
Hillary--hooray! Hillary--hooray! HILLARY--HOORAY!
For a bit more on the modern superhero saga, I've devoted my webzine home page this month to it. It is here.
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