New Super-man #5

MAGA!

Whenever I see those stupid red "Make America Great Again" hats, Starro is all I think of. I suppose Starro's overwhelming power kept it from needing to evolve into a mind-controlling creature who hides the fact that the people are mind-controlled. But it's good for everybody else because the enemy proclaims its identity loud and clear. Why hasn't somebody shown Starro Invasion of the Body Snatchers? I suppose it would be rude to show Starro there's a better way when there's really nothing it can do about it. Unless maybe Starro could tell its spores to hide up the asses of its victims instead of clinging to their faces. Sort of the same thing Trump Supporters should do with those hats.

You've probably never wondered why conservative voters are constantly telling entertainers to shut up about their politics because it just seems like the kind of thing conservative voters love to shout at anybody anyway. But I sympathize with them. Creative people are more entertaining. And people in the arts are generally more intelligent and empathetic. The Venn Diagram collision of intelligence and empathy can nearly guarantee the person will be a Libtard. I mean liberal. Conservative voters still want to be entertained. Nobody wants to sit around bored and angry all the time! They need some hearty American Yucks and Patriotic Tears! So they want to be ignorant of the political positions of the people whose performances they enjoy. They don't want to have to log in to Twitter to tell them all to shut up and just tell jokes, or shut up and just act, or shut up about politics, you stupid entertainer (not you, of course, Mr. Trump!). But every time one of these Hollywood types open their big fat mouths, sense and sympathy fall out! It's fucking enraging!

There are people who have stopped reading this Blog because of my opinions, all across the spectrum. Because some people can't abide anybody having one strong opinion that differs from their own, especially when it's presented as the only right and logical opinion and you must be a completely fucking stupid bastard to not see that. Which, of course, is my modus operandi. But I've said this almost from the beginning: this Blog isn't about comic books, and it's not for you. Enjoy or go fuck yourself. What do I care?

To be perfectly transparent, I sometimes choose the go fuck yourself route myself. Who doesn't love a good self-fuck every now and then? Monsters, probably!

This issue begins in The Bund in Shanghai, China. Oh! I have a cute picture from when I was there!

Don't worry! Global warming from air pollution isn't a problem! Everything will be okay when seeing a blue sky is a rare occurrence. This was the sky every day in Eastern China and Hong Kong. And this was from 1997.

The comic book shows The Bund at night where you can see stars. When they erupt out of their submarine to discuss books with the people, The People's Book Club of Ultimate Freedom even comment on how "mesmerizing" the stars are. Ha! As if.

The People's Book Club of Ultimate Freedom have stolen Starro from the Ministry of Self-Reliance (I know, I know. So ironic that they'd have Starro!) and they're planning on using it against the communist regime who won't let them read The Cave of Time in its original English. All they get is the Chinese Translation with the Government Approved Endings!

Kenan has just walked in on his father wearing his Flying Dragon Father costume and now he has questions up the proverbial wazoo. Is the wazoo actually proverbial? Do things have to have been mentioned in The Book of Proverbs to be proverbial? What is a proverb anyway? Like a combination verb and pronoun?

Flying Dragon Father tells his origin story to his son because he wants Kenan to fight for the correct side. The correct side is obviously the one against China's governmental interests. Those fucking Communists are evil. Not because they're Communists, of course. Capitalists are fucking evil too! The common factor there is the part where the people who come to power by whatever means one comes to power in whatever economic or political system exists in the country they were raised tend to be ambitious, selfish, greedy assholes. The kind of people who would rule well don't crave the kinds of power, status, and money that comes with ruling. So they never wind up in power. Go figure, right?!

Flying Dragon Father met Kenan's mother in the early college incarnation of The People's Book Club of Ultimate Freedom. They have their Harry Met Sally relationship that eventually leads to Kenan.

I wish she'd become the Leather Liberty Goddess.

Flying Dragon Father reveals the big shock twist: the Ministry of Self-Reliance killed Kenan's mother! Okay, so it wasn't as shocking as you might have thought by my calling it a big shock twist and using an exclamation point. But if you're familiar with my blog then you know exclamation points mean nothing! It's like I'm a rich kid just burning money if money were exclamation points and they made people wealthy.

Now Kenan has a decision to make. Does he continue to fight for the Ministry of Self-Reliance or become a mole for the People's Book Club of Ultimate Freedom? Or does he go his own way and forge his own path which will probably lead to Laney Lan's bedroom and some kinky ass roleplay.

Kenan chooses to go off with his father to help the People's Book Club of Ultimate Freedom. Bat-man and Wonder-Woman also head to The Bund to try to stop the Book Club. Also joining the fray? The Great Ten! You might remember one of them, August General in Iron. If you remember any of the other nine, you get a cookie. But not my cookie.

Even Book Clubs of Ultimate Freedom have to deal with power-mad narcissists who insist on ruining everything by thinking the end justifies the means.

Uncle Human Firecracker actually says, "Whatever it takes for the greater good." See? Total dickmonster. Mmm, dickmonster.

Both Kenan and Flying Dragon Father aren't too happy about Uncle Human Firecracker's methods and decide it might be time to stop him. Isn't this always the way with book clubs? They always fall apart due to infighting.

I just realized why I like Kenan so much. He's a total Huck Finn.

I like to assume that I can say something like "he's a total Huck Finn" and people will completely understand what I mean. While I believe the literary canon really needs to be expanded to include more voices of non-white males, I still think it's usefulness in writing shorthand to others is beyond compare. The literary canon should never shrink, it should just grow bigger and bigger. Sure it's more work for those who want to understand everything anybody ever writes. But fuck is it useful. I'm not religious but you'd better believe I've read The Bible because without that foundation, you're not fully accessing a majority of Western Literature. If the Ultimate Literary Canon of Freedom is expanded enough, people will be expected to also know The Koran and the Bhagavad Gita and, um, the other ones that are probably important to people who didn't grow up with a white, Western education.

Uncle Human Firecracker somehow does something to remove Kenan's powers. He probably had some of those miniature red suns in his glove. Kenan almost drowns but Flying Dragon Father rescues him and takes him to the Ministry of Self-Reliance to be healed. So people's loyalties are becoming a bit fuzzy due to other loyalties.

Meanwhile, Uncle Human Firecracker shoves a bunch of Starro-captured motherfuckers onto a plane. He's going to fly it into Beijing and the seat of Communist power so that he can mind-control them all into becoming a democracy. Sounds about right. But! On the plane is Lixin, the fat kid whose lunch money Kenan used to steal! He's not supposed to be there but his parents own the airline and he's trying to make a Youtube video or something in the cockpit. I guess he's going to have to be the hero on the hijacked plane! Always bet on fat!

Super-man doesn't get his powers back even with a blast of yellow sun radiation. It looks like he lost his powers when he felt his dad was disappointed in him. So his powers fluctuate based on his esteem? That's actually a good thing for Kenan! Mostly, he's as cocky and arrogant as I am.

Heh heh. Compliance devices.

Super-man and Flying Dragon Father rush off to stop the plane. I guess Kenan's powers will come back now that he knows his father is proud of him. I hope Lixin becomes his pal! Does Lixin mean "Jimmy Olsen" in Chinese?

What Did We Learn?
Being confident is where real power comes from! You know that's true because it's what all the Men's Rights Advocates say! I think they're basic rule is to be confident even when you know you're a disgusting piece of shit that no woman in their right mind would ever touch. The worst part about this advice is that it's right. Being confident is attractive! The problem is faking confidence simply to get laid. If you need to get laid and you want confidence, pay a sex worker (preferably in someplace where it's legal because it should all be legal and by participating in places where it isn't legal, you're just encouraging illegal sex work which endangers women). They'll tell you how big your cock is and how good you are at the penetrations! Even if you blow your load too early, they won't act disappointed and upset and become bitter and resentful that you're not seeing to their needs. Although thinking you're good at sex when you're not might be harmful to your relationships in the long run. But at least getting laid might keep you from going on the Internet and getting involved with these MRA jerks.

The Ranking!
+1! This comic book is the best! Or close to the best! Don't challenge me! What I say here doesn't have to match up with what's over there on the sidebar in the Rankings. Especially if you're reading this on Blogger since I never fucking update the list on that site.

Superwomans #4

Do women who fuck put "woman" in their super-name while the others use "girl"?

Fuck this comic book. The entire comic book was Lana Lang walking around talking to the ghost of New 52 Lois Lane and saying things like, "You're not here! You're a ghost! I need my medication!" But the ghost spent the whole time not exactly saying she's not a figment of Lana Lang's imagination so Lois might be in the same fourth dimensional prison as Lex Luthor. Who can tell? Not me! I was too angry at every word that didn't advance the plot to pay attention. Which is weird because usually I like when stories spend time building characters through slow moments and dialogue. It's just I'd rather not have that dialogue be with a ghost and most of it concerned with being refutations of the current experience. I had enough of this shit with twenty issues of Doctor Fate!

What Did We Learn?
We learned I have no patience for this grief bullshit masquerading as entertainment. I have no patience for Lana Lang dealing with mental illness and grief and relationship troubles and Lena Luthor and some overarching scheme that is so confusing a character named Traci 13 shows up to not explain it very well. I suppose I don't recognize Traci 13 because she was created in 2003 which is right around when I stopped reading comic books and entered The Great Hiatus. I have no patience for the city of Portland that completely shuts down because of a foot of snow because the city refuses to plow or ice the streets and just leaves thoroughfares covered in cobblestone ice. I need to get out of this house!

The Ranking!
No change because I realize I'm probably not in the right frame of mind to judge anything. Except the art. The art by Emanuela Lupacchino is top notch.

Red Hood and the Outlaws #4

Lobdell should be a whiz at writing Bizarro since he was so terrible at writing Superman!

I just saw that meme with a photo of a Native American and then the words obviously written by an agnostic white guy with a 4chan account that says that thing about birds having two wings and people are fools if they believe the wings are different just because they're on opposite sides of the bird. It's pretty shocking when you realize that bird's wings have such different governing philosophies and yet the bird still manages not to crash and burn because the right wing refuses to do its job for eight years. I wonder exactly how dumb a person has to be to think that whole right and left wings being part of the same bird analogy is profound? One time, I made an analogy that I actually thought was clever but because it was an analogy, I forgot it immediately because analogies are simply a way to ignore the subtleties and difficulties of specific problems. I do love to make analogies to make fun of the terrible people who think analogies are clever tactics to use in a debate.

Some of the worst people in the world are those people who refuse to choose a side in a debate because they think it shows they're more open-minded and intelligent. Fuck you, you dumb assholes. You aren't better than everybody else simply because you can't be bothered to support a side unless it's been proven 100%. I like people who passionately believe in the thing they believe! Unless it's the opposite of what I believe and then I hate them more than the "I'm so fucking smart" agnostics. I point this out because I can't fucking stand Scott Lobdell's writing. So if you like it or don't have a fully formed opinion that isn't "It's got some good and bad qualities!" then I probably can't stand you. Figuratively speaking, of course! I totally wouldn't tell you to your face that I hated you just because you liked Scott Lobdell's writing. I would absolutely love to hang out and grab a beer (or a root beer if you're Mormon or Muslim or a teetotaler!) and discuss comic books! Of course after we parted company, the first person I ran into, I'd have to say, "Hey! You see that fucking idiot over there? Totally thinks Scott Lobdell isn't the worst!" Unless the first person I ran into was Scott Lobdell. Then I'd probably say, "Eeep!", and run out of the room.

Is Scott Lobdell the only person left in the world who thinks it's clever or okay to nickname somebody with red hair "Red"?

The high jinks continue on the next page. I'd say it's comedy written by somebody who thinks vaudeville is coming back into style but that doesn't get to the heart of how bad it is. Bringing back vaudevillian humor isn't necessarily bad and has probably been done before by Alan Moore in some comic book I forgot to read. But I also didn't just want to say Lobdell obviously thinks the old jokes he's repeating are funny and original because that opens me up to people saying hurtful things like "Kettle, meet pot!" or "That's you, you stupid cunt-faced motherfucker!" See? I just did it there! How old is the insult "cunt-faced motherfucker"?! I probably cribbed that from Perfect Strangers.

I don't know if Scott Lobdell doesn't understand how Bizarro speaks or if editorial told him to drop the Bizarro shtick because it's just too confusing. Because Bizarro doesn't kill Jason Todd by crushing him against the omnium glass. Instead Bizarro says, "Too many words! Bizarro am confused!" Normally, that would mean there are just enough words (or too few!) and that Bizarro totally understands what's going on. But at least Lobdell understands how Bizarro refers to himself in the third person but speaks with first person singular verbs.

You're better off alone! Jason Todd is the most annoying character in the DC Universe since he's practically only been written by Scott Lobdell! Run, Bizarro! Run far away! I mean, walk slowly close by!

I guess Bizarro is going to be a Lenny or big dumb kid type of character. Does that mean he's going to have a bunch of cutesy, adorable scenes that will make everybody who loves Lobdell's Jason Todd to say things like "He's my baby!" and "My baby Jaybird's Bizarro baby is my baby!" and "Baby baby baby baby Jason Todd baby! Booga too doo booty boo!"?

Red Hood tells Bizarro a bedtime story and Bizarro falls asleep. That's when Black Mask and his goons — all wearing sex fetish gimp masks, of course — pack up Bizarro and take him back to the lab. Black Mask is impressed because Black Mask has chosen to be impressed by everything Jason Todd does. He has a huge crush on him. It's the only thing that explains why he's ignoring all of the signs that Jason Todd has infiltrated his organization to take him down. It's the only reason Black Mask would dare to hire as his second-in-command a man with close ties to Batman who is outside of his organization. He just wants to put his leather clad dick inside of him.

Black Mask invites Jason Todd to breakfast so he can reveal his true feelings to him. Not only does he think Jason Todd will make a great heir to his criminal organization, he also considers Jason Todd a friend. Oh? Is that you make friends as an adult? You hire them into your organization and after one or two days, you choke back the bile and declare they're you're friend? That seems dangerous. What if on the third day of knowing them, I realized they were actually an annoying asshole? Are you allowed to just as easily declare somebody not a friend, or an enemy even?

Jason Todd eats it up even though he doesn't want to because he is lonely and he likes how everybody is confessing to him that they're lonely too. It really helps build the theme of loneliness that lonely Scott Lobdell is trying to express. Lonely people are weak. And apparently they have roast turkey and wine for breakfast.

Black Mask takes Jason Todd down to his warehouse of weapons where he reveals that he's known all along what Jason Todd was trying to do. Of course he did! It was so fucking obvious! Black Mask doesn't need Jason anymore even though he was talking about friendship just a few pages earlier. I guess he was just trying to butter him up so that Red Hood would agree to take over Gotham and run it in a way that would make it better than the way it would be if other people ran it. Why are so many people so obsessed with controlling Gotham? You'd think it rained fucking diamonds there. Gotham City must be the fourth largest economy in the world.

Since Black Mask knows who Red Hood is, Jason Todd is finally able to tell him he's not interested in working with Black Mask. But Roman doesn't care because he's not lonely anymore. He has an even better friend than Jason Todd: Bizarro! With Bizarro, he can rule Gotham easily! I just have to ask again though: why?! How much fucking power does Gotham City give to whoever runs it?! It's just a goddamned city! I don't see the Mayor of Gotham wielding a might influence over anybody else in the DC Universe. It must be the ports, right? Gotham City has the best fucking ports in the world and everybody is just dying to ship their goods through it, right? Who fucking cares about Gotham City?! Just let Batman have it, you imbeciles. It can't be that great. Go take over New Orleans! That's a fun town and no superheroes!

What Did We Learn?
Loneliness will drive anybody to do anything. But mostly, loneliness will allow people to bound, one lonely loser to another. Then lonely loser readers will read the book about the lonely people who can't stop explaining how lonely they are (otherwise how will the reader know?!) and they'll identify with the characters. Then they'll post on the Internet about how much they love their poor little lonely Jaybird while furiously masturbate over that one panel where he's in the shower and you totally see his abs and almost the place where his penis attaches to his body. So close! Oh Jaybird! JAYBIRD! JAAAAAYBIIIIIIIRRRRRRD!

Scooby Apocalypse #9

They're either looking at Scooby's latest shit or Scrappy Doo.

In this issue, Velma decides to ditch the rest of the Scooby Gang because she's feeling guilty for her part in ruining the world. She can't face them so she just leaves the computer open to her report to The Four on The Elysium Project. That's the project that probably ruined the world although, I'm sure, it'll turn out that The Four modified Velma's nanites so she doesn't have to live with the responsibility. Aside from that, nothing much happened. The characters in this comic book have a habit of repeating the same conversations over and over again. I don't think it's their fault. It's Keith and J.M.'s fault! They love to write the same jokes over and over again and since most of the conversations they write are "jokey," things tend to get repeated over and over again. So Daphne and Velma are still bickering but then pointing out that they're getting closer while punctuating that statement with more bickering and mistrust. Fred is still useless. Shaggy is always hungry and usually talking about bodily functions. And Scooby Doo says "Ruh-uh!" and "Ruh-huh!" a lot. No monsters appeared in this one.

No wait! There was one monster: Scrappy Doo! But he was in the back-up story and not the main story. In this issue, he murders a starving puppy. Sure, it's more like the murder of Lenny in Of Mice and Men than the murder of Tommy Devito in Goodfellas. So while Scrappy Doo moans about how he's become a monster, this terrible act of compassion seemingly proves otherwise. Except that he still killed a fucking puppy. What kind of Puppy Power is that? What a piece of shit.

What Did We Learn?
Post-apocalyptic stories can get pretty boring when there isn't any sex. It's just monster killing and foraging for food! These are four young people in a desperately scary situation, spending every single minute with each other. They've got to release the stress and tension in some fashion. And since nobody is hooking up, I suspect there's probably been a lot of sneaking away to masturbate.

The Ranking!
No change!

Scooby Apocalypse #8

Now that's a thigh gap! Ooh la la!

I see "Wagner" there on the cover and now the only thing I'm thinking is, "I fucking hope Matt Wagner is writing the Scrappy Doo back-up story!"

It's not. It's some jerko named Ron Wagner who probably changed his name to sell a few more comic books to overly excited Matt Wagner fans who pick up every Wagner book, just in case.

Last issue, Scooby Doo had run off, leading a bunch of monsters down a hallway lined with doors while some wanna-be Monkees music played. The rest of the gang drove off to the hospital, leaving him behind. This is the first page of this issue:

I guess somebody realized Scooby's name was in the title so maybe it wasn't such a good idea to have him run off.

Scooby Doo found his way back to the Gang because he's loaded down with Smart Dog technology and also he can smell Velma's ass from like five miles away. Lucky dog.

This episode begins with the formulaic bit where Scooby and Shaggy go off on their own to shit themselves. Also, they're looking for medical supplies. I imagine they'll also find the ingredients to make a five foot tall sandwich. And Scooby will say, "Roh boy!" And Shaggy will prepare to eat it and then look away and Scooby will eat it one bite and go, "Reee reee reee reee!" I think that's the way he laughs.

Daphne joins up with Shaggy and Scooby because this comic book doesn't know how the cartoon works. I guess it's okay this time because Fred is unconscious and Daphne usually fucks Fred while everybody else is busy investigating the haunted circus tent. Also it's okay because Daphne is a cold stone killer. She's also probably a lesbian since she keeps rebuffing Fred's advances. Also because this is a modern take on an old cartoon. You can't have everybody in the group be white and heterosexual! This is 2017! And Velma being the lesbian is too obvious. Also Fred being gay is too obvious. I mean, an ascot? What is that? Seriously. What is an ascot?

While Fred and Velma disappear into the Mystery Machine to do mysterious things like rest and celebrate life the only way they know how in the face of terrifying oblivion, Scooby, Shaggy, and Daphne explore the hospital looking for survivors.

This comic book is nothing like the cartoon! This should be a kitchen full of stuff to make sandwiches and also olives and toothpicks! I guess there is a ham hock on the floor.

Shaggy, Scooby, and Daphne discover a monstrous doctor torturing a human being unaffected by the nanites. I don't think the human being is famous so he'll probably die. The Scooby Gang only allows famous people to pal around with them in the Mystery Machine.

I suppose that might be Matt Leblanc. Maybe he could join up and drive the Mystery Machine! As long as he keeps from doing donuts around war memorials.

Daphne shoots off the demon doctor's arm but that doesn't help save the patient because the bed eats him. It's death bed! The bed that eats people! Actually, it's Death Hospital, the Hospital That Eats People. Because the entire hospital begins transforming with Scooby, Shaggy, and Dapne inside. For some reason, Fred and Velma don't drive away to live a life of bliss as the last man and woman on Earth. Instead they wait for the others like I probably wouldn't do. Especially since Velma isn't one of the ones in trouble.

Surprisingly, everybody survives the Death Hospital and they drive off on another adventure. Hopefully a sexy adventure that will force me to look up the meaning of the phrase "double penetration".

What Did We Learn?
Hospitals are the worst places in the world. Why don't hospital dramas ever portray hospitals as they really are? This Scooby Doo comic book came closer than shows like Grey's Anatomy or Chicago Hope or Doctors Fucking Like Rabbits. They're grisly and terrifying and the doctors are all a lot more monstrous than they look. The doctor in this comic book looked monstrous but that just meant he was even worse than real doctors like House or Trapper John. Hospitals would go a long way in not being creepy death vaults by changing up the architecture and minimalist hospital style they all like to stick to. Nobody wants to walk down an echoey hallway with stark florescent lighting and fuzzy beige walls because we all know that a madman lurks around the corner at the approaching T-intersection. If you never want to be completely sane again, get a file cabinet and a hand-truck and go to a nearby hospital. Tell them you're there to deliver it to whatever part of the hospital is located in the basement. Then go down there alone and walk those fucking empty halls until you shit yourself. Fucking hospitals are the worst.

The Ranking!
No change.

Scooby Apocalypse #7

These meddling kids are still murdering victims of the nano-virus?

I'm so glad nobody really writes about clip art anymore because I was tired of being constantly disappointed after realizing I'd misread it.

That had nothing to do with Scooby Apocalypse but then what is there to really say about it? It's the Scooby Gang solving problems with violence as opposed to solving problems with logic and science. It's the Scooby Gang America deserves. The only thing that would make it more American is if Fred and Shaggy were wearing the same clothes they wear in it now but Daphne and Velma were in bikinis.

In this issue, Fred breaks his leg because it's an easy way to get the Gang to their next plot location: a hospital. Not that a hospital needed to be the next plot location but it had to eventually be somewhere other than a Walmart. Why not a hospital? Plus hospitals are creepy! Especially if they're the ones for the criminally insane and they've been closed down and there are corpses and raving lunatics everywhere.

I've been playing Outlast on the Xbox One the last few days which might explain why I think closed down asylums are full of corpses and raving lunatics. And when I say "the last few days," I really mean a few minutes here and there because it's about all my heart can stand. That game is scary!

What Did We Learn?
We learned that no matter how short Velma's skirt seems to be, it's always long enough when it needs to cover up the goods. Stupid skirt that changes lengths constantly! We also learned that Scooby Doo is way too brave and Daphne has gotten over the fact that she's probably murdering sick people.

The Ranking!
No change!

All Star Batman #6

Which came first: a story with Batman needing an arctic suit or a toy distributor thinking up a new way to sell another Batman figure?

Batman takes a trip to the Arctic to visit Mr. Freeze. The tale is like an old fashioned science fiction story. It's all about an idea untethered from characters and emotions. I suppose the reader is supposed to connect emotionally because it begins with a Frost poem and Nora Fries is mentioned a few times. You can't not feel emotional when you remember "Heart of Ice," right? It's like a free emotional trigger when writing a Mr. Freeze comic book now. But I didn't feel it was much about Batman or Mr. Freeze. It was more about Scott Snyder having read some facts about bats and why they're good at carrying viruses, and he saw a few X-Files episodes about viruses unlocked in melting ice that could become an extinction level event. It was like being at the pub when a friend sits down with a pint of lager and begins the conversation with, "You know what I read about the other day?" Then he proceeds to completely bore you while you stare dreamily at the bartender you've had a crush on ever since you first started going to that pub. How is this All Star Batman? It's more like All Boring Shit Batman.

The back-up story features Batman getting a crossword clue wrong which blows up an innocent person. Still doesn't count as Batman killing somebody!

What Did We Learn?
I don't know what you may have learned but I learned that Victor Fries has terrible taste in Frost's poetry. He had so many better poems to choose from! Like that one about the celebration of a wall or the one where the guy is trying to beat the snow on his way home or the one about the guy lost in the woods or the one about the kids knocking down all the trees. But that fire and ice poem? So boring! At least he didn't choose "Design"!

I just pulled out an examination book from college from the big box of old shit I'll probably never look at again (unless I need something to talk about on my comic book blog) because I thought I had written an essay on "Fire and Ice". But I hadn't. The essay was a comparison of "Design" by Robert Frost and "Hap" by Thomas Hardy. It was in in-class test and here's what my professor wrote: "Bravo! This is the most memorable, the most intelligent discussion I've seen from a student on this challenging topic. Excellent insight and analysis!" Heh, heh. He wrote "anal".

The Ranking!
No change! But my ranking on that test was 33 out of 33. I should have better self-esteem now that I've remembered a professor once wrote "Bravo!" on one of my tests. I could use more "Bravo!"s in my life.