John Mortell’s blog

Came across this ‘lost’ Tintin book the other day, I hadn’t heard of it before so I was rather surprised when I came across it and picked it up. Why exactly this book has been ‘lost’ is beyond me – while it is the first book in the series, with the second being the ‘not-quite-banned but still’ ‘Tintin in the Congo’ it has fallen out of favor. Some of this is undoubtedly due to the fact that of the Tintin books these are perhaps two of the most dated, there is also a feeling that it may simply be just a result of a desire to ‘whitewash’ away the more raw edges Hérge’s work.

Regardless, the book isn’t anything terrible – it is clearly a less capable work, with the artwork nearly being unrecognizable due to the fact that it has not been recolored and so on and the story (what there is of one) is not up to much. In many ways it is simply a long piece of anti-Soviet propaganda with the vague plot simply just following Tintin around the USSR as he keeps ducking attempted assassination attempts from the Soviet Secret Services. The book establishes the standard style of Tintin being a very well regarded reporter despite the fact that he never gets any evidence or does any, you know, journalistic work! Also an oddity in the book is the complete lack of any attempt at realism – while later books would feature some dubious science and such like this book completely throws out such attempts. Within the pages Tintin fights (and beats) a bear and builds the propellers of an airplane! Also, how exactly such a crowd is there to welcome Tintin is beyond me.

The propaganda element is pretty serious within the book – while many of the elements of the propaganda have in a ‘stranger-than-fiction’ way turned out to be true (the rigged democracy, people starving at home while food is exported to give the impression of a healthy economy etc.) there are many spots where the way it is done is pretty insane – the worst one in my mind being the idea that Lenin Trotsky and Stalin have a hidden bunker with the people’s stolen wealth!

But all-in-all the book deserves a look, whether you read it as a fan of Tintin and want to see where he ‘came from’ so to speak or whether your a history student looking to see how the USSR was perceived even in its earliest days by some people. While the book is not required reading by any means its still quite interesting

Brilliant (if somewhat gross) clip detailing the recent Presidential reign of our favorite war-monger. Though I wouldn’t have put it past him to have thought about going to war while George W. was under the knife…

This is just … bizarre. Very good video though and the music isn’t too bad either, if you like dance music at all.

This is from Steven Grant’s ‘Permanent Damage’ column over at comicbookresources – an extremely scary look at the way things in America could go – and while this is a ‘worst-case scenario’ thing its still quite interesting…

When the Ghost insists on sticking with Iraq (despite that country’s president saying America’s free to leave whenever it wants, though that may be just for consumption by Iraqi constituents, but if it is it’s basically putting an official stamp on the widespread perception of the American army as an occupation force) until it has fully achieved “American-style democracy,” it’s difficult to know for sure what he means. Since his grandfather Prescott was involved in the ’30s in a planned coup to replace Roosevelt with a military dictator ala Mussolini (BBC radio has just done a documentary on it, so you don’t have to take my word for it) and was a major financier of smear campaigns against Democratic Congressional candidates in the post-war ’40s, and the Ghost himself has railed against the Constitution as “a goddamned piece of paper” and praised the value of a dictator as long as that dictator was him, it’s kind of open to interpretation. Certainly his behavior in the White House indicates he doesn’t seem to believe it has anything to do with the rule of law or a system of checks and balances. And in the last week or so he has been on a real tear of trying to rule by fiat rather than process.

First it was the White House staff summoned by Congress to testify about possible White House involvement in the Justice Dept.’s replacement of a number of U.S. attorneys on apparently purely political grounds (one replacement shut down an Enron-level financial fraud case for no apparent reason, it was recently revealed); the Ghost ordered those subpoenaed to refuse to testify. Because he truly believes Congress has no right of oversight on any White House action, or to cover up the interference that Congress suspects? It’s looking a lot like both. New information shows the Ghost’s svengali Karl Rove sticking his nose into attorney appointments as far back as 2002, though the result didn’t do much for the Republican cause (the attorney ended up prosecuting Republicans who backed his appointment), and supposedly no-longer-existing e-mails sent between the White House and the DoJ on a backchannel computer network provided by the Republican Party to transfer documents and information they didn’t want on the public records keep cropping up. Undoubtedly Congress will now go to court to enforce the subpoenas – those summoned are already threatened with contempt of Congress charges – and this could turn into a major Constitutional brouhaha just in time for next year’s elections.

Then Rep. Peter DeFazio, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee with full security clearance, asked for a look at the plans the White House drew up to maintain “continuity of government” in the event of a major crisis, the White House, after initially agreeing, simply told him no. No explanation. Ironically, his main objective in reviewing the plan, details of which are known to no one outside a tiny White House clique but which have been effectively given the force of law via the Ghost’s signature, was to be able to soothe the growing number of Americans who see in the secret plan a conspiracy by a tiny clique to seize power, using a national emergency as an excuse. This “conspiracy theory” crops up periodically, but the White House sure hasn’t been doing much lately to deny it credibility, especially as reports continue to suggest that Dick Cheney, who has consistently shrouded all his movements and records in as much secrecy as he can muster, is the one who really makes the decisions in the administration, even when counter-arguments come from other advisors en masse, as when he was recently pushing very hard (and presumably still is) for military action against Iran. If you’re of a paranoid bent, you can easily see the Ghost’s recent policy signings as setting up a row of dominoes waiting to be knocked over: our most aged battleship, the Enterprise, has been sent into the Persian Gulf to replace more modern craft there; any sort of Iranian incursion on the Enterprise provides an excuse to attack Iran; our invasion of Iran prompts another terrorist attack on American soil; a state of emergency is declared; the “continuity of government” contingencies that no one, not even those allowed to know, are allowed to know about. And Prescott Bush’s ’30s dream is suddenly our reality. Continue Reading »

Astonishing match for the first TNA X-division title. Its funny how they keep emphasising the ‘NWA’ connection considering how that worked out but… Anyway enjoy.

Nice to know where I am I guess…

Interesting stuff with Keith Olbermann here. The idea that the U.S’ aims are being undermined by staying in Iraq is hardly new but still…

Via ‘Ectomo.com’ one of those photos that makes you stop for a minute or several… take a look.

This is actually quite good. I really enjoy Mike Mignola’s creation and this is a pretty good (if short) homage.

Blogs a year old. Wasn’t too sure whether to do this yesterday, which was the day I bought the domain name or today when I did my first post. Man it doesn’t seem that long ago!