I was a Marvel, now I'm a Disney

Mickey, Minnie and ... Magneto? Now there's a combo only Goofy could love. Disney World is set to swallow the Marvel Universe for a tidy sum of $4 billion. At least one analyst is calling the deal a win-win situation. The Disney machine will allow Marvel franchises to stretch like Reed Richards and give the mouse access to a boy-dominated audience. Disney will honor Marvel's film distribution current contracts but it is likely that will change. This Team-Up of Hannah Montana and Iron Man may mean it's clobberin' time again for both houses.

Sic transit the Lion of the Senate

The giant sucking sound you are hearing is a product of the Kennedy-shaped hole in the Democratic party. With the passing of the "Lion of the Senate," there is a mad scramble to replace him and chatter regarding what it means for Congressional business. Bridge-building in health care reform may become much more difficult now. Who will take up his duties on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions is in as much doubt as who will fill his now vacant Senate seat. But his influence, as much as it was a matter of the 'Kennedy mystique,' may be all but spent beyond the unfriendly confines of the U.S. Senate. In death, though, he may yet succeed in getting health care reform of some sort passed. The passing of Sen. Ted Kennedy may in fact signal the end of an era because no one seems interested in picking up his torch of bipartisan deal-making.

Bernanke in the saddle again

President Obama has sentenced Ben Bernanke to a 4-year term as head of the Federal Reserve. While the decision was made to provide continued stability to the ecomony, it was probably because Bernanke knows where all the economic landmines are likely to be buried. Bernanke is alternately reviled and revered for his part in the Economic Meltdown that is now being called The Great Recession. Obama made the announcement during his vacation in Martha's Vineyard and the appointment will have to be approved by the Senate with Christopher Dodd vowing to hold "a thorough and comprehensive confirmation hearing.” The announcement was timed to give the markets the Obama Bump and to get ahead of White House deficit projections which put the deficit at $9 trillion over the next decade. While Bernanke promised "to help provide a solid foundation for growth and prosperity in an environment of price stability" the real test is if he can create the conditions for a healthy economy that lifts as many boats as possible while avoiding the danger of the tsunami of hyperinflation.

No regrets

What little I knew of Korea I learned from either watching "M*A*S*H" as a child or from dear friends in either undergraduate or graduate school. What I have learned of Hawai'i I learned on my own. I even tried to learn to speak native Hawai'ian as a highschool student, a real hoot for a midwestern kid who had difficulty enough mastering his mother tongue and failing to learn Spanish.

Alan Brennet, however, has done his homework. A lot of it. "Honolulu" is an absorbing work of historical fiction. For many readers, much of that history will be surprising.

The novel's action begins in Japanese-occupied Korea and follows the life of Jin, named "Regret" by her father according to the fashion and prejudices of the time. Jin assumes her new name after traveling to Hawai'i to become the wife of a man she has never met. She becomes a "picture bride," the equivalent of a mail-order bride. But she is not alone. She shares this fate with four other Korean women and a Japanese woman. The balance of the book is the twists and turns as their lives unfold in American-occupied Hawai'i at the turn of the century.

The lives they live are as colorful as the island they live on. But it's not the paradise they had been promised. There is plenty of hardship as their lives on the island begin with the backbreaking work in the plantations. Later they each find their way into the city where each in their turn establish families of their own, live through the ups and downs of the Great Depression, and confront the outrage of two tiers of justice: one for haoles, one for locals.

These characters are very human, sympathetic and relatable. And Brennert does an excellent job of creating this period piece. As the balance of this book takes place before the Women's Suffrage movement, one does wonder if the women in Hawai'i really were as liberated as they seem in Brennert's book. But this is a minor quibble as the lives they lived in Confucian Korea do seem oppressive by comparison.

"A road need not be paved in gold to find treasure at its end."

"Honolulu" is an absorbing, fully researched work of historical fiction with well-drawn sympathetic characters. This is one journey that is well worth the taking.

Robert Novak, dead at 78

The conservative commentator died of a brain tumor at his Washington, D.C. home. The influence of the 'Prince of Darkness' spread well beyond his days at CNN which included a syndicated column called "Inside Report." He is most infamously remembered for his role in the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame. He began his career as an old-school journalist from the Chicago Sun-Times known for his reporting, especially on Washington's inside baseball during the Reagan era.

He is survived by his wife, Geraldine; his son Alex; a daughter, Zelda Caldwell; and eight grandchildren.

He was 78. 

They found it!

The Arctic Sea, which was carrying a load of timber to Bejaia, Algeria, was discovered at 1 p.m., Moscow Time, on Monday, about 300 miles off the coast of the Cape Verde islands according to Russian authorities. The 15-man Russian crew was  reportedly in good health and aboard the Ladny, a Russian antisubmarine vessel. She ship was reportedly boarded at 3 a.m. on July 24 by a group of about 12 men armed with guns and pistols in Swedish waters posing as law-enforcement officials who left the ship after 12 hours on an inflatable boat. The particulars remain a mystery, though there has been no shortage of theories ranging from commercial disputes, to secret cargoes, to hijacking by prawns. The two questions that beg are who issued the ransom demand and who sponsored the ship boarders?

Shiver me timbers

Hijackers have demanded a ransom for the Finnish-owned vessel Arctic Sea. The ransom has yet to be verified as genuine. The Russian-manned vessel disappeared off radar two weeks ago after passing through the English Channel. The 4,000 ton Maltese-flagged ship was carrying a load of timber and was due into port on Aug.4 in Algeria. Solchart Management in Finland received a ransom demand that was characterized as being “not huge, but let’s say it’s significant.” It is unclear where the vessel is, who is behind the hijacking and even if the demand is real. Three different police groups -- Finnish, Maltese and Swedish police --are investigating the matter. What does seem clear is that the problem of piracy may have just gotten bigger.

A Green Way for Iran

Iran's opposition leader Mir Hussein Moussavi's been busy remaking himself. He has founded Green Way of Hope, a "grass-roots and social network" to advocate democracy in the Persian republic, though he's said little else in the way of what the group will do. Since the government continues to try protesters in kangaroo courts, that tack is likely to have mixed results. On the one hand it'll make it harder for his political enemies to find a pretext to jail him. On the other hand, it'll make it harder for his supporters to rally around him. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for his part, is trying something completely different. He's naming two women to cabinet posts. The Ministry of Health post will go to Dr Marziyeh Vahid Dastjerdi, with the Ministry of Welfare post will go to Fatemah Ajourlou. There may be one more post filled by a female in his government when his full list is presented later in the week. At this point, Moussavi and Ahmadinejad seem to be in a race to see who can remake the face of Iran. The questions are 1) who will cross the finish line first, and 2) who's change will actually be meaningful.

Interesting 'District 9' comes up short

Imagine that a million refuges from another world arrived in South Africa and these aliens resembled insects. Now imagine that after 20 years of living in one internment camp, a multinational corporation is tasked with evicting them and moving them to another camp. That would be the story of "District 9."

"District 9" is several different movies. The framing device is a documentary. Indeed, portions of the documentary almost seem like an episode of "The Office." But the movie is also a SciFi action movie with plenty of alien technology and lots of violent gun play. Then there's plenty of social commentary. The South Africans don't want the aliens which they derisively refer to as 'prawns.' All the stranded aliens really want to do is go home. They are being exploited by both Multi-National United, the firm charged with moving the aliens, and a gang of Nigerians. And both parties want the same thing: access to the aliens' weapons technology which seems to be keyed to work only for them and thus is useless to humans.

That changes when MNU employee Wikus van der Merwe is exposed to a substance that begins changing him into an alien. In the process, Wikus becomes connected to one of the prawns and not only helps the prawn recover the substance but helps the alien and his son escape, thus setting up the possibility of a sequel.

This is another movie with the color bleached out. The CGI aliens and their ship are fully realized and believable. The powered armor sequence is worthy of "Iron Man." And there's plenty of carnage. The main failing of the movie is that it tries to be too many things and fails to adequitely focus on its natural theme.

The movie is a decent diversion and offers a new spin on the alien invasion film. It should have been a stronger statement and could have been better if it had put less emphasis on formuliac approaches based on alien tech inspired violence and focused on the 'humanitarian disaster' that alien refugees had both created and were facing. That would have been something to move the genre forward.

Inglorious Bastard

Josef Scheungraber, 90, was given a life sentence in a Munich state court for ordering the executions of 11 Italians on 26, June 1944. He was a 25-year-old lieutenant during WWII. Ten died and one survived. That sole survivor offered his testimony during the trial. He had been found guilty of the crimes in 2006 in an Italian court but served no time. Prior to this conviction, Scheungraber ran a furniture store and was recognized for his municipal service. Heinrich Boere, a Nazi hitman, will go on trial in October and a judge is considering the case of John Demjanjuk, 89, who is charged in connection with murders at the Sobibor camp in Poland. At long last, the last Nazi suspects of WWII are finally seeing justice.

Who's resurrecting the electric car?

After being declared a guilty accomplice in the killing of the EV1, GM is seeking redemption in the new Volt. GM's leadership may have been heartened by the fact that it's nearest electric car competitor Tesla Motors finally turned a profit. The Automaker is declaring that the new electric vehicle will get 230 miles to the gallon. That claim is based on unproven technology. The first generation electric automobile is expected to cost $40,000 and is slated to roll into showrooms in November 2010 and will qualify for a $7,500 federal tax credit. GM is currently producing 10 a week at a plant in Warren, Mich, and has created around 30 of the cars, with pre-production models being tested in Yuma, Ariz. But Nissan is expecting to release its own electric car at about the same time but with a 357 mpg rating. The problem electric car manufacturers are confronting is urban commuters who lack plug-in capability. But if GM gets this right, it could go a long way to defibrillating the ailing auto industry and reduce Detroit's carbon footprint.

All's health that ends health

The second health care reform war is on. The most visible front in the struggle is the town hall meeting. People like Bob MacGuffie are loading these meetings with people who subvert discussion forums on health care and turn them into shouting matches. This is leading congresscritters like Bloomington's Blue Dog Baron Hill (D-IN) to avoid the town hall format altogether. Who's to blame? There's plenty to go around. Well the Democrats blame the Republicans. Republicans retort that this is a grass-roots rebellion. As is usually the case with such wide sweeping legislation, there are contradictory claims to be resolved, leaving reform open to all sorts of misinformation. Partisans seem more interested in sinking Team Obama than actually making helpful and thoughtful contributions to the very complicated process of reform.

Bon appetite!

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There was a moment of temptation. The line for "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" dwarfed that of "Julie and Julia." The commercials for the former offered the promise of a perfectly dreadful special effects flick. A woman came by looking to exchange passes for the second movie. Since the person with whom I was going to see "Julie and Julia" failed to show up, an assuredly awful film might just be the perfect cathartic tonic.

I let temptation pass, and I'm glad I did. "Julie and Julia" is a wonderful character film. Nora Ephron has done a wonderful job of weaving the stories of these two lives together. The first is that of the cook Julia Child and the other is Julie Powell. Despite the separation of years they lead remarkably similar lives and Ephron has expertly weaved their stories together.

The times in which they lived were eeriely similar. Julia Child lives in Paris during the days of Joseph McCarthy and the Red Scare. Julie lives in New York City and works in an office cubicle worthy of anything depicted in "Dilbert" in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Each of them is at a point where they are seeking meaning in their lives. For Julia, she comes to master cooking and this leads her into the writing life. For Julie, she is a writer who establishes a blog for Salon magazine and that leads her into cooking. The ups and downs of their lives make for a gentle drama.

It's a movie about cooking. It's a movie about writers. It's about two people seeking meaning in their lives and finding it. Meryl Streep offers a performance that is absolutely radiant. Amy Adams offers a strong performance as well. While the movie has a satisfactory ending, one wishes that they had met in real life, as Streep and Adams never share a scene. Both women are well matched by the actors playing their husbands, though Stanley Tucci as Paul Child, Julia's State Department husband, is a standout.

When a lead actress can bring up fond memories of a former girlfriend, then you know that the movie has heart. "Julie and Julia" has a lot of heart. And this is a movie worth paying the $9 to see in the theater. And if you're writing a book, it should be required viewing.

The Great White Fail Whale

Well it seems that the Marine Corps' blanket embargo on Social Networking Sites (SNS) may have been justified. Twitter was the victim of a denial of service attack that began at about 9 a.m. creating a complete Twitter blackout. The service was back up after about three hours. The service's last outage was May 8. Facebook and Livejournal were also targeted by the attack but the scale was smaller. While Twitter believes it was a coordinated attack, the responsible parties may never be identified. What these attacks may mean is unclear. What we may be in need of is a Gunnery Sergeant for the Internet.

The Apple in Google's eye

An Apple - Google War may be in the offing. Twin shots were fired on Monday. The first involves the FCC they want AT&T and Apple to do some 'splainin' as to why, exactly, Google's Voice ap for the iPhone has been rejected. The FCC wants to know what did AT&T and Apple know, and when did they know it. The second shot was fired when Google CEO Eric Schmidt resigned from Apple's Board of Directors citing 'potential conflicts of interest.' The FTC has been getting curious about the relationship between the two companies and possible violations of antitrust regulations. It may be just as well since Google is now aiming for the commuter IT market to get them to switch to Google Apps. Probably just as well. For a company that has taken "Do no Evil," it's looming multifront war against Microsoft, Apple and AT&T may force Google to make some morally questionable choices to win.