At least, that's what Glenn Beck says.

Well not this blog exactly, but you get the idea.

I love that he almost cries.

Speaking of destroying America, today's issue of Science is dedicated to one of key pillars of thought bent on undermining America and it's Christian values: Human Evolution.

Researchers have unveiled the oldest known skeleton of a putative human ancestor--and it is full of surprises. Although the creature, named Ardipithecus ramidus, had a brain and body the size of a chimpanzee, it did not knuckle-walk or swing through the trees like an ape. Instead, "Ardi" walked upright, with a big, stiff foot and short, wide pelvis, researchers report in Science. "We thought Lucy was the find of the century," says paleoanthropologist Andrew Hill of Yale University, referring to the famous 3.2-million-year-old skeleton that revolutionized thinking about human origins. "But in retrospect, it was not.

[From Ancient Skeleton May Rewrite Earliest Chapter of Human Evolution -- Gibbons 2009 (1001): 1 -- ScienceNOW]

Sounds like pretty cool stuff. I haven't read the articles yet, but plan to do so before the weekend.

Oh, there's also this full frontal picture.

Both hands above your desk, please.

I really need to think of a better title for these comic book entries. Comics [date] is pretty lame or even shitty, if you will. Then again, why mess with tradition? I'd hate to betray my shitty blog roots.

Here's what I bought this week.

Wall of text with possible spoilers below the fold.

I saw Michael Moore's new film, Capitalism: A Love Story, on Friday night. I went to the 10 PM showing, which turned out to be a good choice. There was hardly anyone there. Who knows. Maybe attendance was low for all of the showings. Regardless, the fewer morons present, the better. It makes it easier to enjoy a movie when fewer people are there talking or letting their cellphones ring.

I thought the movie was pretty good, though it was a little scattershot in it's approach and loosely focused. My biggest complaint is that Moore never bothered to actually define capitalism. Rather, he assumes the audience knows what is meant by capitalism. Key concepts are included without definition as well, e.g., profit, profit motive. It seems to me that these definitions are crucial. Examples are present of various aspects of capitalism, but there's never a clear statement about the essential concepts. For example, Moore never tells us the difference between benefiting one's own labor and capitalist profit (expropriation of another's labor) that underlies the capitalist economic system. Furthermore, he never explicitly discusses capitalist profit generated by merely moving capital around. It seems to me that making these conceptual factors clear would be important. He does a fine job at showing how capitalists scam and screw people and gives examples of people on the receiving end of capitalism. But the actual mechanisms of how this screwing takes places are largely unspecified.

Also, I thought his juxtaposition of democracy with capitalism a little vague. Yes, workplace democracy is a fantastic idea, but he never reveals what worker-owned means of production and workplace democracy might mean social relations. He also never clearly presents why worker-owners and democratic, non-hierarchic workplaces are anti-capitalist. Maybe the was worried about people calling him an anarchist, communist or socialist?

In the end, the documentary illustrates why capitalism is bad, particularly the means by which the ruling class is able to mobilize the government against the majority of the country. This should come as no surprise to anyone though. The parts about dead peasant insurance and Citigroups's plutonomy documents are definitely angering. Of course, that's the goal: to get an emotional response from the audience. However, the lack of thoughtful analysis of capitalist social relations, development of crucial concepts, and a clear alternatives to capitalist social relations left me disappointed. I wasn't even expecting alternatives I agreed with, but just saying "let's have democracy" isn't enough.

Having said all of that, it is worth seeing. If anything the film should cause viewers to have an actual conversation about capitalism and its consequences. Of course, I saw this by myself so I really didn't hit the conversation part. Then again, most people who might see this movie are probably sympathetic with Moore's cause, so I'm not sure how much useful discussion might result anyway. Who knows. I'm a pessimist like that. I also have little hope for reformist policies that circulate through our political system (e.g., healthcare reform). Here we have a chance to literally break capitalist control of healthcare. Instead we'll likely receive a few regulation changes and a new legal obligation to purchase for-profit insurance. So much for change.

Anyway, go see it. Even if you don't like his politics, there's enough in there to at least make you think about what capitalism means for most of us.

You be the judge:

On Thursday, F.B.I. agents descended on a house in Jackson Heights, Queens, and spent 16 hours searching it. The most likely reason for the raid: a man who lived there had helped coordinate communications among protesters at the Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh.

The man, Elliot Madison, 41, a social worker who has described himself as an anarchist, had been arrested in Pittsburgh on Sept. 24 and charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution, criminal use of a communication facility and possession of instruments of crime. The Pennsylvania State Police said he was found in a hotel room with computers and police scanners while using the social-networking site Twitter to spread information about police movements. He has denied wrongdoing.

[From Arrest of Queens Man Puts Focus on Texting to Rally Protesters - NYTimes.com]

...

A criminal complaint in Pennsylvania accuses him of “directing others, specifically protesters of the G-20 summit, in order to avoid apprehension after a lawful order to disperse.”

...

A search warrant executed by the F.B.I. at Mr. Madison’s house authorized agents and officers looking for violations of federal rioting laws to seize computers and phones, black masks and clothes and financial records and address books. Among the items seized, according to a list prepared by the agents, were electronic equipment, newspapers, books and gas masks. The items also included what was described as a picture of Lenin.

THe LA Times articles notes there two men arrested:

Elliot Madison, 41, and Michael Wallschlaeger, 46, both from New York, face charges of hindering prosecution, criminal use of a communication facility and possessing criminal instruments.

...

Police say they found the two men sitting in front of computers, wearing headphones and using maps and scanners. They are said to have been using Twitter to inform protesters on the ground of police movements.

The FBI raided Madison's home in New York and spent 16 hours searching it.
They found items including anarchist literature, gas masks, goggles, face masks and test tubes.

Books and newspapers? A picture of Lenin? These are relevant how? Is it suddenly illegal to own these items? Is anarchist literature officially the wrong kind of literature now?

Gas masks and goggles? Given the anti-protestor paramilitary and police units willingness to deploy tear gas against protesting citizens to keep dissent away from the political managers of global capitalism, neither of these items seems unreasonable.

The NY Post reports that the raid wasn't just conducted by FBI agents, but by an anti-terrorist unit. Does civil disobedience now qualify as terrorism?

Right now, none of the government's actions make sense. Is there more here than is being reported or is this a federal crackdown on dissident voices protesting capitalism?

Until I hear otherwise, these arrests seem entirely unreasonable to me.

I don't have a lot of time this week so this will be short until I can write more. Here's what I bought:

No spoilers this time, but I have an asinine new rating system. That should make up from the lack of effort right? Here's the scale from worst to best:

Fuck no!
No.
Meh.
Yeah.
Fuck yeah!

Get it? It should be self-explanatory.

Batman Annual #27: I don't care for Azrael in any form. Meh.

Batman and Robin #5: This is the best Batman comic you can buy right now. This book just keeps getting crazier. Fuck yeah!

Batman Confidential #34: This is the only Batman comic you can buy with Bruce Wayne as Batman. Meh.

Final Crisis Aftermath: Run #6 (of 6): Final issue of the best of four lackluster FC followups. The series started Yeah, finished Meh. I can't imagine reading this again.

Justice League: Cry For Justice #4 (of 7): Why did I start buying this? Nice art, though some of the poses are a little on the ridiculous side. The dialog isn't very engaging either. There's a lot characters I just don't care about. Meh.

Superman: The World of New Krypton #8 (of 12): I like Superman. I don't care much for Thanagarians. I was going to give this an apathetic meh. But, if I just picked this up as a random issue without having read issues 1-7, I would have been said Fuck no!

I also picked up the trades for Ultimates (1-6 and 7-13): Fuck yeah, indeed! Thanks for the recommendation, guys.

Oh. And I finally got a copy of Batman: The Black Casebook. It a bunch of reprints of stories between 1951 and 1964 that inspired Batman R.I.P. If you like that kind of thing, you'll probably like this. The first story includes this classic scene.

President Barack Obama said Friday that he was humbled by the decision of the Norwegian Nobel Committee to award him the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

[From Obama: Nobel Peace Prize is 'call to action' - CNN.com]

Um...what the fuck?

No really. I don't understand.

Can someone explain this to me?

Zombieland. Why did I go see this fucking movie?

I was bored last night and decided that a seeing a movie might be a decent break from work. So I went to the 10:10 PM showing of Zombieland. I've heard people say it's a good movie. Rotten Tomatoes lists an 88% Fresh rating. Turns out, 88% of movie critics are idiots. Now I'm tired and $10 poorer.

I spent most of the movie bored and waiting for something to happen. How the hell is this a zombie movie when most of the movie is spent with two (or four) idiots driving down the highway with no zombies? It's really easy to avoid being killed by zombies if you're nowhere near them. They should have called the movie Douchebag Road Trip with the Occasional Zombie. By the end, I was on the zombies' side. I didn't want the characters to live. They didn't deserve to live, especially after driving halfway across the country essentially to turn on a neon sign that says "Hey Zombies! Dinner is over here!" I wanted to see zombies ripping into their flesh and ending their pathetic lives. Seriously, nothing good can come from these four losers living another day even if it means the extinction of the species.

Even the supposedly hilarious cameo was a let down. It wasn't funny, or at least it wasn't $10 funny. The predictable ending to the cameo scene was incredibly lame. Who couldn't see that coming? Like an asshole, I sat through the credits waiting for the extra footage I'd heard about. I was told it was funny too. That was another waste of time. Honestly, I have no idea why I waited for it, but I was pissed that I did.

Here's what the whole experience boiled down to: It was as if I was starving to death and someone sold me a $10 shit sandwich while telling me it was great. Then after choking that down because I paid for it after all, I stuck around for a free diarrhea shake.

And now I can't get the taste of shit out of my mouth.

There are a lot of morons out there sharing their outrage, paranoia, misspellings and inability to form grammatically coherent statements in their native language.

So, Morons with Signs is attempting to document the signage of your basic, American moron.

Enjoy.