Hey Internet Long Time No See

I've been running around and seeing things and doing stuff, but you'd never know it Internet, because I haven't made you part of the adventure. Sure I've checked in on how you're doing, read my comics and whatnot, but I haven't put my bits into the ever growing flow.

So here's a little something.

I saw Iron Man the other night. It got me thinking about Morality and Civil Disobedience again. A lot of superhero stories involve an individual taking the law into his own hands, often in a way that violates the law, for the cause of greater good. That's cool and all (see also: Gandhi) but it also made me think about the way that America behaves in the international community. America presents itself as a sort of superhero, outside of the laws of other nations, rushing in to save the day. And, you know, maybe make a buck or two while doing it. And while our intentions may be good (there are a lot of people convinced that our intentions are good, even if I'm not one of them), we end up rubbing a Lot of people the wrong way, and become outlaws in the process. Many of our superheros reflect that sort of good guy/outlaw image (think of Spiderman and how Jameson is always trying to spin him in the paper as a menace to society). The other thing that superheros do is breed supervillains, (btw, firefox recognizes the word 'superhero' but not the word 'supervillain'. Weird.) which was a point brought up at the very end of Batman Begins (by Commissioner Gordan) and I'm sure will be explored further in the next Batman. And so by that logic it seems obvious that our very heroish self-image is the sort of thing that creates villains like Osama Bin Laden. It's also our superhero self-image that makes us have to think of people like Osama as supervillains, and never as human beings to be confronted in a human way, convinced of our principles, engaged in lively debate. No no, blowing things up is debate enough for us, thanks very much.
The real hero's way should never involve violence.
Turn the other cheek kids.