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Why ‘The Walking Dead’ comic is better than the AMC series: ‘Something to fear’

February 3rd, 2012 by Andrew Belonsky

There are still nine days until “The Walking Dead” series comes lurching back to finish its sophomore season on AMC. That’s more than enough time to tear through the 93 issues of the comic book upon which it’s based.

At about 22 pages each, 93 issues may sound like a lot of material, but it’s not. It’s never enough, actually. The mostly monthly serialized narrative is above and beyond far more effective than the televised version. Though made of black-and-white ink, not flesh and bone, Robert Kirkman’s characters capture the real horror of the zombie era, a reality in which you’re forced to fight for your life against both flesh-eating doppelgangers, other men and yourself. How far will the characters, or you, go to survive? The answer will horrify you.

Man’s gruesome nature will surely be revealed as “The Walking Dead” comics’ latest arc, “A Larger World,” unfolds over the next seven months. Kirkman and his publishers at Image Comics released this teaser image today: a man — possibly increasingly unhinged Rick? — holding a blood-dripping chainsaw, invoking flashbacks of cannibal Leatherface. The tagline: “Something to fear.”

Newsarama passed along Kirkman’s remarks on the chilling teaser image: “After Rick and the other survivors are brought into a larger world, they are given something to fear.”

In the most recent issue, Rick lamented how unfazed he has become to his new reality, how it’s too familiar and combating zombies has become rote. He’s obviously about to remember what true terror feels like, or maybe dole it out himself. The reader, meanwhile, will have little choice but “watch” in captivated horror. Seriously, I dare you: pick up the first three issues of “The Walking Dead” comic and try not to consume the remaining 90. For those of you who aren’t into it, the series returns on February 12th.

Here’s a full look at the teaser image for the “A Larger World” story arc.

$500,000 worth of weed found off California coast

February 3rd, 2012 by Andrew Belonsky

What a waste. Some poor schlub, perhaps trying to get rid of evidence, lost 30 bales of marijuana worth an estimated $500,000 in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Marina del Rey, California. The water-logged stash was discovered by sheriff office’s investigators Wednesday, and was recovered later in the week by lifeguards, who then turned the bud booty to customs officials, the LA Times reports.

This scene reminds me when Celia Hodes dumped Nancy Botwin’s stash in her pool on Showtime’s “Weeds.” Nancy, of course, later moved — after Guillermo burned down her entire suburb — to a place called Ren Mar, California, a fictional town that somewhat resembles Marina del Rey. Coincidence or conspiracy? Probably just a coincidence, but if you’re high and paranoid, maybe you’ll think the latter.

Image via doubl’s 23HQ page.

Here’s a shot of Mitt Romney in his Mormon underwear

February 3rd, 2012 by Andrew Belonsky

As mentioned yesterday, Mitt Romney won’t say whether he wears the Mormon temple garments, or what some have described as the religion’s “magic underwear.”

Most people have assumed he does — the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints prescribes the underwear to “set the standard for modesty” and to “serve as a constant reminder of one’s temple covenants,” according to LDS’ official explanation.

So, the temple garments are kind of like a yarmulke, only hidden and secret, so it makes sense Romney would remain demure when discussing an aspect of his religion that’s private and very often misunderstood by those outside the Mormon circle.

Well, an intrepid reader sent us this screen shot of Romney in which, thanks to the sun god’s revealing rays, what could be a temple garment is seen through his dress shirt. Or is that simple a trendy deep-v like a hipster or gay person would wear? Romney wears dad jeans, sure, but maybe he’s privately cool?

My money is on temple garment, but you be the judge, and send in any other pictures or video that may provide further evidence.

57% of Republicans should just be Democrats

February 3rd, 2012 by Andrew Belonsky

Thanks to their long history of putting private corporate interests ahead of public welfare, the Republican Party has cultivated a reputation for helping the very rich while ignoring the very poor. That’s probably why Mitt Romney said, much to his eventual embarrassment, that he’s not concerned about the most down-and-out Americans because, you know, we have a big government “safety net” that will take care of them.

The White House hopeful should really consult with his party’s less fortunate members: according to a Pew Research poll, 57% of lower-income Republicans — families that make less than $30,000 annually — think the government does “too little” for their ranks. Eighty-five percent of that population also expressed general distrust for the government, while 34% said they’re angry with the government.

By comparison, 34% of Republicans who earn over $30,000 think the government only doesn’t do enough for poor people, and only 21% of those who earn $75,000 agree with that statement. Forty-four percent of that last population thinks the government does too much for their struggling fellow citizens. About the same amount, 40%, of people who earn between $30,000-75,000 agree.

Replacement earth only 22 light-years away

February 3rd, 2012 by Andrew Belonsky

Most rational people agree we humans have completely trashed the planet. Sure, we won’t freeze in another ice age, but the global warming we have wrought brought about droughts, melting glaciers, coastal erosion, manic temperature fluctuations, and almost guaranteed destruction. Future generations will either die trying to save this doomed planet or have to find some other place to live, a la the short-lived NBC series “Earth-2.” Good thing we have super high-powered telescopes like the Magellan II in Chile, which helped scientists identify GJ 667Cc, an Earth-esque exoplanet within the elusive habitable zone. That means it’s not too close to its sun and not too far, creating the perfect habitat potential for alien life forms.

UC Santa Cruz astronomer Steve Vogt described GJ 667Cc as a celestial “holy grail” of exoplanets, the planets that exist outside our solar system, while the Carnegie Institute for Science’s Guillem Anglada-Escudé, one of the lead researchers of the study, said the planet “is the best new candidate to support liquid water, and, perhaps, life as we know it.”

Since GJ 667Cc, about 4.5 times the size of Earth and in a solar system with three suns, revolves around its closest sun once every 28 days, everyone gets more birthdays without actually aging. Perfection. But not all is well on this planet: there’s a deficiency of metal, so if we travel the 132 trillion to get there, we’d need not just oxygen, land and a hospitable atmosphere, we’d also need a new natural resource to mine and subsequently for our architectural needs and the such. Or we could keep looking.

This latest discovery had scientists psyched about the possibility of finding other promising exoplanets out in the abyss.

From Science:

With the GJ 667C system being relatively nearby, it also opens exciting possibilities for probing potentially habitable alien worlds in the future, Vogt said, which can’t easily be done with the planets that are being found by NASA’s prolific Kepler spacecraft.

“The planets coming out of Kepler are typically thousands of light-years away and we could never send a space probe out there,” Vogt said. “We’ve been explicitly focusing on very nearby stars, because with today’s technology, we could send a robotic probe out there, and within a few hundred years, it could be sending back picture postcards.”

And if you lived there, you’d be home by now.

Arizona lawmaker wants holiday to celebrate white people

February 2nd, 2012 by Andrew Belonsky

Arizona Republican Cecil Ash could be the new standard bearer for his state’s racist reputation. During a discussion in the state house about perhaps enacting a Latino American day or month like Black History Month, Ash suggested that the state should also consider a “White American Day” of some sort.

“I’m supportive of this proposition. I just want them to assure me that when we do become in the minority you’ll have a day for us,” said the Caucasian lawmaker, local KPHO reports. Not surprisingly, Ash is a Birther who believes Obama’s blackness somehow signals foreignness.

With census numbers showing that more minority babies are being born than white babies, meaning that white people will one day be a minority, the Census Bureau hypothesizes that the threshold may be crossed as soon as 2042. Whenever the demographics shift, some white conservatives fear that future will be a dystopia in which they’re suddenly subject to race-based discrimination.

These people fail to realize that racial dominance is not about numbers — there were at one point more slaves in the United States than owners — but about control of legal, political and social institutions. Even if one billion people of color suddenly appeared here, white people would still be more economically and politically powerful than any other demographic. They would be the “minority majority.” Will this trend one day change? Probably. As time goes on, we may see a world in which the levers of society are pulled by an equal amount of all races, but that’s still a long way off.

Ash’s fear-based suggestion reminds me of when a girlfriend of mine whined that there’s no “Straight Pride Day.” Every day is straight pride day, of course, just like every day is white American day, and there’s absolutely no need to create another one.

Should Mormon Mitt Romney return nicotine-laced donations?

February 2nd, 2012 by Andrew Belonsky

Mitt Romney refuses to say whether he wears the Mormon temple garment, but the Republican presidential candidate swears he abides by most other Biblically endowed rules, like abstaining from alcohol and tobacco. In a People magazine interview last December, Romney confessed, “[I've] never had drinks or tobacco. It’s a religious thing. I tasted a beer and tried a cigarette once, as a wayward teenager, and never did it again.”

Personal prohibition aside, Romney appears more than willing to accept forbidden fruits from the tobacco industry. According to FEC files at the Center for Responsive Politics, the White House hopeful has accepted $36,550 from either groups or people working for the makers of sinful yet delicious cigarettes. By comparison, Obama, a smoker, has received $12,450, while the rest of the presidential candidates vary, but are all less than $5,000. Romney’s also received $25,950 from the casino and gambling industry. Games of chance are also wicked, according to the Church of Latter-Day Saints.

“The Church opposes gambling in any form, including government-sponsored lotteries,” reads LDS’ official homepage. The All About Mormons section of Light Planet explains, “Gambling is founded upon the ‘desire to get something of value for little or nothing [according to their gospel], it cultivates within us a spirit which opposes the divine ability to work for that which we desire… Gambling cultivates a spirit of craftiness and contention.” As for tobacco, the scripture reads, “tobacco is not for the abody, neither for the belly, and is not good for man, but is an herb for bruises and all sick cattle, to be used with judgment and skill.”

Discussing this story, my colleague Alex Moore mentioned how, in the post-Citizen United United States, the line between ethics and political coffers is not blurred, but totally obliterated. Compared to all the shady and dirty money going into all the campaigns, Romney’s tobacco and gambling donations are less than a drop in a bucket. They’re one droplet of cash-soaked condensation. They’re basically two simple hydrogen atoms stuck to an oxygen. But the tensions between Romney’s personal faith and his campaign’s need for cash speak to the moral porousness of politicking.

Candidates have returned dirty money in the past — President Obama and the DNC returned a total of $70,000 donated by disgraced MF Global CEO Jon Corzine and his wife — so asking the Romney campaign to return the dough wouldn’t be unprecedented. Plus, wouldn’t it be fun to watch Romney try to come up with a defense of his moral fortitude? Or maybe he’d just quip, “Hey, at least tobacco and gambling aren’t as evil as my best-friends over at Goldman Sachs: they helped ruin the economy and I totally accepted their $496,430!”

Rick Santorum: prescriptions should cost the same as an iPad

February 2nd, 2012 by Andrew Belonsky

The Kaiser Foundation found that Americans spent about $220 billion on prescription drugs in 2010. And considering that annual prices for pills has increased an average of 3.6% annually over the past decade or so, according to the Kaiser Foundation, that number will only continue to rise. That’s precisely why progressives and liberals, including President Obama, want the government to start regulating drug prices. Republicans, naturally, are against such a suggestion — that includes White House hopeful Rick Santorum.

Asked about this controversial topic at a Colorado campaign rally yesterday, Santorum claimed Americans should stop bitching and moaning, because if they’re willing to pay for an iPad, they should be willing to pay just as much, or even more, for life-saving medicines.

“People have no problem going out and buying an iPad for $900. But paying $200 for a drug they have a problem with — that keeps you alive. Why? Because you’ve been conditioned in thinking health care is something you should get and not have to pay for,” he said, before explaining drug companies “need to have a profitability,” as if those money-drenched companies face some dire future of bankruptcy.

The problem with Santorum’s argument, reported by NBC News, is that our Declaration of Independence insists “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” These truths, it says, are “self-evident.” Apparently not to Santorum.

Life in that document could easily be replaced with “health.” We all have the right to have a healthy existence. Health is, or should be, a right. An iPad, obviously, is a privilege. Sure, you could argue that such gadgets fall under the “pursuit of happiness,” but that would be an empty contention, because not everyone wants an iPad. Everyone, however, wants good health, but with the prices of prescription pills skyrocketing, they’re denied the ability to achieve this goal. And it is people like Rick Santorum (and those who believe his asinine comparison of an Apple product to prescription pills) who sustain the economic barriers keeping this nation’s citizens from achieving their ultimate health potential.

Donald Trump’s Newt Gingrich endorsement all about the press (update)

February 2nd, 2012 by Andrew Belonsky

[Update: Politico now reports that Trump will be backing Romney, rather than Gingrich. Still, the point remains the same: Trump wants -- and is getting -- plenty of free press.]

After a brief resurgence last month, Newt Gingrich’s presidential run is again down in the dumps following his stunning loss to Mitt Romney in Florida’s primary earlier this week. As he struggles to hold on — and convince donors he has what it takes to win the nomination — the former House Speaker has found a new friend, Donald Trump.

Multiple news outlets, including the National Journal and Politico, report that reality and real estate star, Trump, will officially endorse Gingrich at an event in Las Vegas today, just ahead of that state’s Saturday caucus. We don’t know what Trump will say, but the mogul a few days ago praised Gingrich’s debate skills and “great ideas,” so expect something along those lines.

Gingrich would neither confirm nor deny the impending endorsement. CBS News notes however, that Gingrich remarked of Trump, “I have no idea what the Donald is going to do. He is always interesting, and I don’t know of anybody who does a better job of getting attention by announcing that he will presently announce something.” And that’s really all that matters here: the media attention. (Endorsing front-runner Romney, while perhaps more understandable, would not bring as much media love as backing the perceived underdog.)

Donald Trump is not a popular man. The most recent polling put him at 8% unfavorability, and none of the surveys taken during his own flirtation with a presidential campaign last year found a positive view. His endorsement brings no real political heft and won’t likely sway undecided voters. But he is a lightning rod for media coverage, which is precisely what both he and Gingrich need.

Gingrich needs to change the narrative, or at least the current subject, of his campaign, and Trump can at least briefly help him do just that. As for Trump, the endorsement will finally put to rest (hopefully) rumors that he’ll launch an independent bid, which of course means less media attention on that front, but a Gingrich endorsement also guarantees a few days, maybe even weeks, of new Trump-centric reports, particularly if he stumps for Gingrich on the trail. Trump of course lives for attention, so you can bet he’s salivating over all the virtual ink that’s about to be spilled about his alliance, especially since the latest installment of his “Apprentice” franchise starts February 19th.

Think the timing here is some kind of coincidence? If so, then you don’t know Trump. The only surprising thing here, really, is that he didn’t wait until February 18th.

Mitt Romney is not programmed to care for very poor people (video)

February 1st, 2012 by Andrew Belonsky

During his Florida primary victory lap this morning, Mitt Romney stopped by CNN and declared, as he’s wont to do, “I’m in this race because I care about Americans. I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair I’ll fix it.”

He added, “I’m concerned about the very heart of America, the 90-95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling.”

Host Soledad O’Brien was understandably stunned. What presidential candidate and multi-millionaire would actually admit his utter disdain for the less privileged? Totally gauche! She described his “very poor” comment as “odd.”

Realizing he had missed the mark, Romney tried to correct course and explained, “There’s no question, it’s not good to be poor… but my campaign is focused on middle income Americans.

“You can choose where to focus. You can focus on the very rich; that’s not my focus. You can focus on the very poor; that’s not my focus,” he said, adding, “I’m concerned about the very heart of America, the 90-95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling.”

The incident is just another in a long-list of Romney’s economically offensive remarks, like his assertion that corporations are people, that he enjoys firing people and that he was once unemployed, all of which lend themselves to the popular notion that Mitt Romney is simply out of touch with regular people and perhaps out of touch with all of the human race.

Brian Fung at The Atlantic took this theory one step further and wonders whether Romney’s real problem extends beyond his wallet-centric politics and to his very core. Could it be, Fung muses, that Mitt Romney actually falls into the emotionally dissonant realm known as the “uncanny valley,” in which human-seeming automatons like sex robots or even zombies invoke an unsettling empathy?

In robotics, researchers have observed that as an object acquires human-like properties, people respond to the object with more positive feelings. The less anthropomorphized an object, the less empathy. What’s cognitively demanding about this formulation is that engineers are beginning to create robots that approximate human behavior so closely that the mind interprets the robot in human terms even if the machine lacks distinguishing anthropomorphic features, like a face. The result is an unsettling feeling that borders on anxiety or revulsion. When a robot inspires such emotions, it’s said to have fallen into the uncanny valley of a conceptual graph that charts fluctuations in our empathetic capacity.

On one end of the graph, objects that look nothing like humans elicit a minimum of empathy. On the other end are real humans, with whom we identify most. In between are things that resemble humans to some degree and earn some measure of recognition for it. In the case of objects falling into the uncanny valley, the recognition can actually be negative. They recall humanity, inviting us to empathize as we might with a real human, but imperfections in the illusion create a kind of dissonance that makes us uncomfortable.
Romney’s problem is that he occupies a kind of uncanny valley for politicians. Just as people who interact with lifelike robots often develop a strange feeling due to something they can’t quite name, something about Romney leaves voters unsettled.

Here’s the graph to which Fung refers:

Aside from convincing very conservative voters he has their collective back, Romney still, after all these years campaigning for himself, has to learn how to relate to actual human beings, or he’ll continue being seen as a simple human caricature — a creation that mimics and resembles humanity, but still falls short of achieving flesh-and-blood likability.

Image via Goddamn Liberal.

Alan Moore calls ‘Watchmen’ prequels ‘completely shameless’

February 1st, 2012 by Andrew Belonsky

DC Comics teased yesterday that they had a “big announcement” due today, and that big announcement is… prequels to the classic 1985 series “Watchmen.” Pause for reaction.

The new 7-part series, due this summer and called “Before Watchmen,” will follow most of the legendary tome’s characters through their respective evolutions into flawed heroes and the start of “Watchmen” proper.

So, yes, readers will get to see what the Comedian did between torching innocent Vietnamese and getting thrown out a window or how Nite Owl spent his evenings before hooking up with the Silk Spectre. What readers will not get, however, is original “Watchmen” author, Alan Moore, or artist, Dave Gibbons, leaving many to wonder, “What’s the point?”

DC co-publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee tried to spin the prequels as a way of keeping famous characters fresh and “relevant” after two-and-a-half decades of neglect. “It’s our responsibility as publishers to find new ways to keep all of our characters relevant,” they said. “After 25 years the Watchmen are classic characters whose time has come for new stories to be told.”

Plus, “Watchmen,” one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comic series ever, is a cash cow, and there’s money to be made, so why the hell not, right?

Creator Alan Moore’s pretty pissed off about this latest development, telling the New York Times that DC Comics’ actions are “completely shameless.”

“I tend to take this latest development as a kind of eager confirmation that they are still apparently dependent on ideas that I had 25 years ago,” he said.

Moore’s reaction could be expected: he famously rejected any profits form Zack Snyder’s big screen adaptation of “Watchmen,” and is known to turn his back on the comic industry’s capitalist roots, making him — and his “V for Vendetta” version of Guy Hawkes, a perfect patron saint for the international Occupy Wall Street movement.

“I don’t want money,” he said of the new project. “What I want is for this not to happen.”

Original artist Dave Gibbons was more diplomatic than his former colleague, and offered a cold congratulations of sorts: “The original series of Watchmen is the complete story that Alan Moore and I wanted to tell. However, I appreciate DC’s reasons for this initiative and the wish of the artists and writers involved to pay tribute to our work. May these new additions have the success they desire.”

Others are more torn on the matter. Jonathan Lethem, author of “Motherless Brooklyn,” told the Times he was initially disgusted by the news. “That story was absolutely consummate and an enunciation as complete as any artwork in any realm,” Lethem remarked of the Cold War-era narrative. “And it’s just inviting a disgrace, basically, to try to extend any aspect of it.”

But he also pointed out to the paper the original Watchmen, which drew on seemingly disparate cultural myths and morals, left room for reinterpretation.

The writers of the new character-specific titles certainly have big plans. Darwyn Cooke, who will pen the Silk Specter issue, wants to shed more light on Laurie’s life as an independent woman: “We never get to see her being self-sufficient and dealing with herself and dealing with her own problems. She’s there for a man. I came up with the idea of looking at the brief period of time when she becomes an adult.”

And Len Wein, head of the new Ozymandias story, offered this thought: “I think reboots are almost mandatory in an industry that has existed for over three-fourths of a century now. The need to inject new blood, new ideas, new approaches, is the only thing that keeps our readers coming back for more.”

Be that as it may, Moore put it well when he remarked, “As far as I know, there weren’t that many prequels or sequels to ‘Moby-Dick.’”

Ultimately, however, Moore’s protests will likely be in vain: whether they like it or not, “Watchmen” fans’ curiosity will get the better of them. DC seems poised to make some serious bank off an old idea.

Here are some images of a few “Before Watchmen” covers, via Bleeding Cool:

Mitt Romney wins Florida primary, no thanks to Tea Party and uber-conservatives

January 31st, 2012 by Andrew Belonsky

Mitt Romney won the Florida primary. Big surprise there, huh? It’s also surprising — not — to hear that he walloped second-place finisher Newt Gingrich by between 15 and 17 points, according to preliminary results.

Though double digits were always to be expected, it must be a good ego boost for Romney after losing to Gingrich in South Carolina. But big win or not, Romney can’t rest on his laurels, because he still faces the same hurdles he has for months.

Romney won among predictable populations. Women, always fans of the Mitt, overwhelming preferred him to thrice-married Gingrich — Romney bested Gingrich by about 20 points, according to NBC News — and less conservative voters also tipped the scale in the former Massachusetts governor’s favor. NBC says 62% of self-described moderates preferred Romney. “Somewhat conservative” citizens also leaned toward Romney 51-32. CBS News‘ count puts Romney’s moderate win at about a whopping 59 over Gingrich’s measly 20%; “somewhat conservatives” were the same as NBC’s reading.

Romney’s business background certainly helped with those who ranked the economy as their number one concern. And despite Gingrich’s attempts to scare seniors, particularly Jewish seniors, about Romney cutting kosher food from medicare menus while governor, seniors went for Romney about 50% over 35%, says Fox News. And CBS notes that Romney won seniors, those 65 or older, by 17 points, 51-34. All news outlets have found that a majority of voters who weighed electability — odds of beating President Obama — preferred Romney.

Yes, Latinos too went to Romney — 53-30, Romney, CBS reports — though this number isn’t necessarily as straight forward as the other breakdowns. First, Florida’s Latino population is primarily Cuban, a typically more conservative electorate than many other Latino populations across the nation, which more often than not vote Democrat. If he spins the numbers hard enough, though, Romney could use this win to help woo other Latino voters in Nevada, which holds its caucus next week, and beyond.

Gingrich took home top honors among his more loyal populations, though his margin is not as wide as he would have liked. While voters who said they were very conservative or identified with the Tea Party heavily favored Gingrich, Time, NBC and the AP all report, evangelicals, always wary of Mormon Romney, seemed to be more evenly split: NBC News estimates Gingrich won that group only three points, 39%-36%; Fox had similarly close numbers — 40% for Gingrich and 36% for Romney. It’s the “very conservative voters” who pose the biggest challenge, again, for Romney: NBC projects Gingrich winning there 43-29; CBS reported the same numbers. Meanwhile, NBC found that 41% don’t believe Romney is conservative enough.

This is a troublesome and familiar trend for Romney, and these figures are undoubtedly nagging on the candidate’s mind, another reminder that he has a steep climb before the August nominating contest in Tampa.

Romney knows these limitations exist, and he’s definitely trying to turn them to his advantage. “A competitive primary does not divide us; it prepares us. And when we gather here in Tampa seven months from now for our convention, ours will be a united party with a winning ticket for America!” he said during his victory speech this evening.

He’d better hope so, because if most likely GOP candidate Romney can’t bridge the evident divides between him and the most traditionally Republican populations, he and the party both will be in serious trouble heading into November.