By The Numbers

To anyone who thinks I'm being too over-the-top with todays comic, that I'm painting too simplistically idiotic a picture of Republicans, try this.

In Florida, Senator Charlie Crist is facing a tough primary challenge from newcomer Marco Rubio because voters in that district don't think that Crist is "Republican enough". What do they mean by that?

Currently, a Research 2000 poll shows that voters in Florida prefer Rubio 58% to Crist's 30%. But 75% of that same 58% don't think Mr. Obama was born in the United States.

This kind of nut-baggery almost defies parody or satire.

This Just In! A new Harris Poll reveals the following:

• 67 percent of Republicans (and 40 percent of Americans overall) believe that Obama is a socialist.

• 57 percent of Republicans (32 percent overall) believe that Obama is a Muslim.

• 38 percent of Republicans (20 percent overall) say that Obama is "doing many of the things that Hitler did".

• 24 percent of Republicans (14 percent overall) say that Obama "may be the Antichrist."

Holy. Fucking. God.

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It was a surprisingly chilly weekend so Beloved Girlfriend and I stayed inside and caught up on three movies of recent vintage. I know you don't care but here's a brief critique of each.


The Princess and the Frog.

Someone needs to be punished for this lump of insipid treacle.  The producers went to great lengths to make sure they didn't step on any sensitive, racial toes by amputating any and all entertainment from the story. Worse, the death of one of the characters near the end was a shamelessly pandering attempt to inject a little heart. And it ends with a wedding. Wow, that's new.

Even the Randy Newman songs fell flat. The main tune was titled "Almost There", which perfectly sums up the movie itself.

How this thing managed an Oscar nod only shows the power of Disney. Avoid.


Where the Wild Things Are.

If I were given the opportunity to reimagine the original book into a screenplay I don't think I'd fill it with mopey, furry emo-goths and cranky, spazzy kids like this film did.

This is no means a comparison but at least the original Wizard of Oz left us with the satisfying conclusion that the fantastic events were all a part of Dorothy's dream. But this movie, ostensibly for kids, only left me scratching my head as I'm not sure what to make of the reality of the island of monsters.

The film was technically well done and the choice of the young actor playing Max's part was a good one but this was not so much a lost opportunity as an exercise in WTF.


Planet 51

This is the final movie we saw this weekend and it was an unexpected delight from start to finish. The idea of an alien race reliving the American 1950s was inspired, and the conception of the alien architecture was so thorough and clever I can't believe it didn't get an Oscar nomination for Design. (I so want to live in one of those houses!)

The voice acting was spot on and the character animation was deft and imaginitive, especially the little "alien" dog. Best of all the characters weren't all a bunch of idiots trapped in a farce. They were real people (or aliens) with foibles and dreams and heart. Very refreshing.

The reason I didn't see this in theatres is because the trailer centered on its gooey coating, giving no indication it had such a chewy center. Too bad.

This one goes in the permanent collection. Click here to order a copy of your own.

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Givesgoodemail.com is Ellsworth Toohey's classy and dependably lefty blog that I've chanced upon from time to time. So it is with great pride that I share his recent comment about my 3-19-2010 Raging Pencils comic:

"There is a notion in the study of aesthetics (the philosophy of art) that says that great art reduces complex concepts, containing tens or hundreds of ideas and opinions, and takes them to the perceptual level–i.e., such art makes complex ideas simple to see and understand.

Mike Stanfill does this regularly, and damnit! He makes me wish I could draw. "

All I can say is "Blush". And thanks, Mr. Toohey.

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Mea culpa: I'd misspelled Mr. Obama's name as "Barak" in the first incarnation of the comic even though I'd spelled it correctly in the Google Chow below. <shrug> It was probably a combined fault of haste and the limited space in the word balloon. The error is now fixed and I have therefore put my brain on reduced rations of grog for the remainder of the day.

=lefty=