Since my last post, the Senate's come up with their own version of a health care reform bill, this one even more heavily compromised than the House version already is. In the Senate's case, the public plan option is stripped, with something called "non-profit cooperatives" substituted in their place. A Time magazine article on what those are:
The part about a previous such coop failing and being bought out by a private insurance company makes me suspect *why* it's being touted by the Senate as a "solution" in lieu of a public option.
Either way, seems as if it might be awhile before they come to a vote on any of the proposals, which means a lot of TV ads trying to sway public opinion on all this, including probably more scare tactics about how "scary" and "evil and socialist" the United Kingdom or Canada's systems are. Apparently, news of this use of other countries as scare tactics by US conservatives hasn't gone unnoticed---see this response to such by a columnist for the Ottawa Citizen.
... despite having majorities in both the House and Senate, *and* that the Republicans made clear they won't back any type of remotely-useful reform.
I'm wondering if this means Obama's health care proposal might be dead, just like the Clinton plan years ago, not to mention making the Democrats look weak if they can't get it together well enough to vote in passing such major legislation.
Granted, instead of Obama's proposal (which still keeps giving money hand over fist to money-grubbing, lackluster-care-providing private insurers), I'd rather the US stretched Medicare to cover the entire population, setting up a system something like what's in Canada or Europe (which probably would've better controlled the costs that the "Blue Dog" Democrats and Republicans are complaining about). But of course, that'd be "politically unfeasible", being "socialist" and the "government running health care" and all. As this Senator notes:
"We could have a plan in a few weeks if the goal is not a government takeover," said Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. "We've never seen the government operate a plan of any kind effectively and at the budgets we talked about."
Like the fire department, public education, or ("at the budgets talked about") the military (and its near-blank check spending "budget"), apparently.
Either way, while the Obama plan isn't exactly what I wanted, I'd still rather see it passed, as a "giant band-aid" on the current system is better than nothing at all. Plus, if it doesn't pass now (with a popular president and Democrat-majority in Congress), I suspect we won't have any real health care reform proposals for a long time to come...
Time again for my monthly picks for DC Comics, this time for October 2009.
Will be buying: - Showcase Presents: DC Comics Presents - Superman Team-ups, vol. 1 TPB, on sale Nov. 18, $18 - Tiny Titans #21, on sale Oct. 21, $2.50
Might consider buying: - Batman: The Brave and the Bold #10, on sale Oct. 28, $2.50
Comments: The current crossover-du-jour is "Blackest Night", IIRC something about "Black Lanterns" (dead characters brought back to life as zombies with black-colored Green Lantern rings) doing bad stuff or such. Riveting stuff, I'm sure...
In Superman news, the "Secret Origin" retelling of his backstory continues. Interestingly, the description actually refers to teenaged-Clark as "Superboy" (not "teenage Clark", "Young Superman" or other euphemisms). Hope that means they resolved the Superboy copyright disputes/lawsuits, or DC just realizing that a teenaged Superman in action *is* Superboy...
Hmm, "Brave and the Bold" #28 missed the chance to make reference to the first-ever JLA story (which appeared in "Brave and the Bold" (vol. 1) #28 back in 1960). Guessing next year we'll see 50th anniversary stuff for the Justice League of America, though.
This month's $40 "DC Comics Classics Library" volume is the Captain Marvel "Monster Society of Evil" epic from 1943-1945.
The DC Comics Archives continues, at least, with a volume two of the "Robin" Archives coming out in... late March 2010. Awfully early solicitation. This volume continues the run of Robin stories that appeared in the late 40s and early 50s in "Star Spangled Comics."
This month's Showcase: "DC Comics Presents", the Superman team-up series that was similar to Batman's "Brave and the Bold" teamups.
In the Johnny DC line, this month's "Batman: Brave and the Bold" features Green Arrow, the Atom and old Batman villain Hugo Strange. Meanwhile, the "Super Friends" take on the Shaggy Man (the invulnerable, monstrously-strong old JLA foe), and it's an "All Pet Club" issue of "Tiny Titans" (more Ace, Streaky and Krypto action!). "Looney Tunes" features one new story (and several reprints) about Rocky and Muggsy, the two gangsters.
Although I was very young when Cronkite stopped anchoring the CBS Evening News (in 1981), I have been exposed to footage of his old newscasts, as well as read some of the articles he's written and seen or heard him in various other places. Thus, I can see why he became a household name---his news anchoring was highly professional, and much better than, say, the slop that passes for local TV news nowadays (or the likes of pretend journalism like Fox "News").
In pop culture, Cronkite's voice or appearance has been imitated or referenced in various productions; among other areas: - In DC Comics, Cronkite existed on Earth-1 (and probably its other Earths as well); Superboy references him in the 80s published "Superboy's Mission For President Kennedy" story. Additionally, the early 70s "Kryptonite Nevermore" saga has Lois think Clark pales in comparison to Cronkite. The 80s "Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew" comics also featured "Walrus Concrete", an Earth-C walrus version of Cronkite, in a few stories. - "Pinky and the Brain" featured "Walter Concrete" in the episode "All You Need is Narf", an episode taking place in the late 1960s. - Walter Cronkite himself is also no stranger to animation, having done voiceovers for the PBS animated series "Liberty's Kids", where he played Ben Franklin, as well as the early 90s movie "We're Back: A Dinosaur's Story." - Cronkite also appeared in an episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."
Finally, here's a clip of one of Cronkite's newscasts, his newscast from the night Martin Luther King was killed:
While I didn't watch it, apparently Obama met with a pretty tough crowd in St. Louis last night for baseball's All-Star game---per a good chunk of the crowd (though not the majority) booing Obama. Meanwhile, Dubya got cheered loudly in his appearance on some public service announcement that featured all the currently-living presidents. (Yes, there's people who still prefer someone like Dubya over Obama... or, from the level his applause reportedly got, even over his own way-more-competent-than-he-ever-was *father*).
All that and Fox's usual jingoistic refusal to air the playing of "O Canada" (while finding time to air "God Bless America") makes me think the first comment in this article was probably dead-on...:
Thought I'd write up on this classic cartoon, given I've been ripping my DVD collection (and thus rewatched the episodes)...
"Wacky Races," if you don't recall, was a 1968 Hanna-Barbera cartoon that was modelled after a film from a few years earlier, "The Great Race" (set in the early days of road rally racing). In this case, "Wacky Races" featured 11 different wackily-designed racecars racing against each other in road rallies in different settings, all competing to become the "world's wackiest racer." Seventeen episodes were made, featuring two races each (the DVD collection features them as 34 seperate segments, however).
The racers included: - Peter Perfect in the Turbo Terrific: A posh-sounding racer whose car (despite his name) constantly fell apart. - Rufus Ruffcut and his beaver sidekick, Sawtooth, in the Buzzwagon: A lumberjack driving a wooden car with circular sawblades for wheels. - Sgt. Blast and Pvt. Meekly, in the Army Surplus Special: A pair of US Army soldiers in a modified tank. - The Ant Hill Mob in the Bulletproof Bomb: Seven short gangsters (in the 30s gangster film fashion), whose leader was named Clyde (presumably a reference to the then-recent hit film "Bonnie and Clyde") who drove a 1920s/1930s-era car (whose engine sounded like it was on its last legs). - Professor Pat Pending in the Convert-a-Car: A scientist who drove a car that could transform into anything he wished (a pogo stick, a jet pack, etc.). - Penelope Pitstop in the Compact Pussycat: The sole female character in the series, a southern-accented young woman who drove a stereotypically feminine pink-colored car (with makeup and hair-themed gadgets built in). - The Slag Brothers in the Bouldermobile: Two cavemen (no explanation why they were in the present, though one episode featured a caveman living in Carlsbad Caverns) who spoke mostly in grunts, driving a car shaped like a boulder. The two looked like "The Addams Family"'s Cousin It, and whose looks were the model for later creation Captain Caveman. - The Gruesome Twosome in the Creepy Coupe: two monsters (Big Gruesome and Little Gruesome) driving a haunted house-themed car (equipped with a fire-breathing dragon, summoned as "dragon power"). - The Red Max in the Crimson Haybailer: A German-accented World War I-styled flying ace "driving" a modified biplane. - Luke and Blubber Bear in the Arkansas Chuggabug: A hillbilly and his cowardly pet bear driving a car with an old water boiler for an engine. - Dick Dastardly and his dog Muttley, in the Mean Machine: The show's resident villains.... Dick would spend every episode trying to cheat his way into winning the race, via the use of various traps reminiscent of the Coyote's in the "Road Runner" cartoons (probably since one of that series' writers wrote this show), but to no avail---Dick never won a single race. His dog, Muttley, usually would snicker at his owner every chance he got.
As seen above, the show lived up to its name, given such a lineup. While the show had just one season produced, it had some lasting life in syndicated reruns, plus had two spinoffs produced, "Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines" (Dick and Muttley in a World War I-ish setting, trying to stop a messenger pigeon via the use of various wacky airplanes) and "The Perils of Penelope Pitstop" (Penelope in silent-film-melodrama-esque adventures, trying to avoid being killed for her inheritance by the villainous Hooded Claw. The Ant Hill Mob were here as well, as Penelope's bumbling rescuers). Indeed, Dick and Muttley became Hanna-Barbera's main "master villains" in many of their 80s productions involving Yogi Bear and the other early H-B gang, appearing as the main villain in "Yogi's Treasure Hunt" and in "Wacky Races"-redux series "Fender Bender 500" (the less said about "Yo, Yogi", the better....).
"Wacky Races" debuted on CBS in 1968; its competition that season: ABC: "The Adventures of Gulliver": A Hanna-Barbera animated series based on the classic Jonathan Swift novel. Lasted two seasons (one as reruns).
NBC: "Top Cat": Reruns of the early 60s Hanna-Barbera primetime takeoff of "Sgt. Bilko."
In 1969-70, "Races" got another round of reruns aired, in a later timeslot; its competition: ABC: "American Bandstand": the long-running Dick Clark-hosted teen dance show.
NBC: "Underdog." Total Television's biggest hit show about the bumbling canine superhero.
Between 1968's hit shows such as "Wacky Races" and its biggest hit, "Archie", and 1969's way-bigger hit, "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?", programming exec Fred Silverman found success careerwise, and was promoted into programming CBS' primetime schedule, where he greenlit such classics as "All in the Family" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."
1968 itself also was a turning point for Saturday mornings---the previous few seasons had mostly featured superhero and action series, presumably spurred by the hit live-action "Batman" series and the James Bond spy craze. However, parents' groups had become vocal about violence in children's TV programming by this time (with the violence of real-life events in 1968 possibly an influence), with the networks responding by ditching most of the previous action and superhero shows. The fact that "Wacky Races" and "Archie" (and "Scooby") were big hits also no doubt helped, and by 1970 the previous superhero/action shows were pretty much gone.
Finally, in real life, the show seems like it must've been popular over in the UK, given every other link in Google about it points to a UK website (or a few Japanese ones---the show was a big hit in Japan a few years ago), with even news articlese about members of Parliament using the phrase "wacky races". Plus, there's the links below---the "Goodwind Festival of Speed" features real working replicas of the various "Wacky Races" cars:
And, to top it all off, here's the opening (and part of an episode of) the actual cartoon itself--or one of the better (though still a bit poor looking) YouTube copies I could find, anyway. Enjoy:
"Gone With the Wind" still reigns supreme ("Titanic" clocks in at #6), while "Star Wars" still claims runner-up (not "The Dark Knight", which is #27, two notches below "Grease" and one notch above Disney's "Jungle Book"). Of the top 10 films, only "Titanic" dates from the past 15 years.
This makes for a much more objective list of the "top films of all time", given that ticket prices have shot up so much in recent years that new films' claims of being "the top grossing film of <x, y, z>" ring hollow. It also shows a wider range of films as being top-ranked, not just a bunch of sequels and summer blockbusters. There's one animated entry in the top 10, "Snow White", in tenth place, though just below it at #11 is "101 Dalmations."
