Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Spider-man 3

With all the bad news out there, from Iraq to Blacksburg, it is good to know that at least one true American hero is getting ready to hit the silver screen again and take our minds off current events. On May 3, the third edition of Spider-man will be out and judging by the trailers, Spider-man 3 should be just as good as the first two, which were both spectacular.

Marvel has generally done a better job than DC at translating their heroes to film and this is probably due to their general adherence to utilize already proven popular plots from the underlying comic books. For some reason, DC generally tries to work up new scripts, which are rarely going to be as good as a popular story arc taken from the comic book's past.

In Spider-man 3, Marvel again follows this key to success by incorporating one of the most famous storylines from the comic book: the Venom saga, together with one of the more famous Spider-man villains, the Sandman. Best of all, and what kids and comic book fans are going to really love, is that Spider-man 3 shows Spidey wearing his infamous black costume. I don't want to give anything away, but the black costume is really cool and all my sons can talk about is Spider-man's black costume and the effects that it has on his crimefighting. It should be fantastic, especially for anyone able to see it on an Imax screen.

Monday, April 23, 2007

60 Minutes and Stop Snitching

60 Minutes did an apoplectic piece last night about the current phenomenon in black communities not to talk to police when they investigate crime. From my point of view, it makes perfect sense.

The criminal justice system is slanted against African-Americans in terms of criminal penalties and criminal targets. Most of the investigations involve the so-called "War on Drugs," under which possible sentences are so severe at the federal level as to make Draco look like a bleeding heart liberal. The United States currently has more people in prison than any other country in the world, including far larger nations such as China and India. The United States imprisons blacks at a far higher rate than did the formerly racist government of South Africa.

Why should any American black be interested in helping the very law enforcement officials who are dedicated to such dubious propositions? I can think of few good reasons.