Unqualified Offerings

And in Response DOD Announces New “Ultimate” Pentagon – That manga boom – it’s everywhere:
In an effort to increase readership of its annual defence white paper, Japan’s defence ministry plans to issue a version of it as a “manga” comic book.
“We’d like to be able to reach the younger generations, those in their 20s and [...]

Spider-Blogging Monday! – All Spider-Man 2 spoilers, all the time! Start here and work up.

Spider-Blogging 6: “Cool Spidey Outfit!” – So I liked the movie. You figured that out. Since that’s not true for some people, it’s worth noting some of the film’s formal virtues.
The “Mary Jane post” that starts us off discusses the care with which the film is framed. While I personally think the “Christ figure!” [...]

Spoiler-Blogging 5: the Virtue of Inequality – “With great power must come great responsibility,” say Uncle Ben, Stan Lee and Peter Parker. (Not, presumably, Steve Ditko.) But there’s a flip side to that: you can’t accept great responsibility without great “power” -really, resources. Bill Gates can do a lot more to combat disease than I [...]

Spider-Blogging 4: Is Aunt May a Bitch or What? – Let me make one thing clear right now. If Rosemary Harris doesn’t get “Best Supporting Actress” for this movie there will be hell to pay. The Academy’s prejudice that SF films should get technical awards only – finally broken by “Return of the King” – [...]

way to ease Harry’s pain? Aunt May, who raised Peter, is losing the house in which she raised him. Surely, if he applied his powers and talents – and attention – to the problem, he could help her save it, safely, legally and ethically.
“Joe’s thirty-minute guarantee is a promise, Peter!” Mr. Aziz upbraids him at [...]

Spoiler-Blogging 2: Isn’t It Time Someone Saved YOUR Life? – Our title comes from the movie’s most important question, asked by Mary Jane Watson of Peter Parker after her “runaway bride” act. Like all rhetorical questions, the answer is obvious, which brings us back to one of Matthew Yglesias’ few remaining misunderstandings about the film. [...]

Spoiler-Blogging: When Liberals Attack! – Matthew Yglesias somewhat misses the point of Spider-Man 2; Henry Farrell somewhat sets him straight; Brayden King somewhat understands the most important thing about the movie; and Matthew integrates their insights into a somewhat greater understanding and appreciation of the film. I think if they weren’t liberals they could get [...]

Happy Birthday, America! – Errands all day, fireworks with the kids in the evening. Spider-blogging will resume tomorrow, in the meantime, I offer you the following entries from Fourths past:
Crap! I see I pulled this trick last year too.
Anyway, try “We Hold These Truths,” my poem “Independence,” and two entries on Shanksville PA, crash site [...]

Spider-Linking – Jesse Walker weighs in with some spoiler-dependent political subtext mixed into an actual review. It’s worth noting that Jesse was at best lukewarm on the first film, so his very positive assessment of this one gains significance.