SSgt Baloo

Re: Jokes That reminds me of something my dad once told me: Little Johnny died last night. His face we'll see no more. For what he thought was H2O was H2SO4.

Re: You Don't Have to be Crazy to be a Superhero, but it Helps! I get that logic propaganda. I reject the notion that as many people as have been told that this is the truth, some people know that you can't just condemn an entire group for the actions of a few bad actors. If the X-men are the only heroes opposed to Magneto, wouldn't it cast a pall of suspicion that no other prominent group of superbeings seems to have objected? Why haven't the relatives and friends of mutants gathered in the same way as has been done with LGBT groups? I would expect the Marvel universe to have a slightly larger supply of decent people than are in evidence even as background story. "I've known Bob all my life! If he's a mutant, he's not like those other ones, he's an okay guy!" Insert any ethnicity for the word "mutant" above. Do you like it any better? Then what makes you think groups of decent people wouldn't organize in defense of people who just might be a national asset, and maybe your son or daughter you love very dearly? In Marvel's X-Men dimension, the possibility that one's child may be a mutant is repeatedly portrayed as being fraught with danger. Good parents keep mum about it. Others disown their children. Dad: "Pack your bags, Marge, we're abandoning the kids!" Mom: "What? are you crazy?!?" Dad: "They're mutants!" Mom: "Forget the luggage. It'll just slow us down!"

Re: Foods for those that just don't care anymore Your answer HERE.

Re: A Thread for Random Videos The song the above one repurposes.

Re: Genre-crossover nightmares In the average Bugs Bunny cartoon, the person he does this to does not still remain in love with him after the reveal.

Re: Why Your Heroes Shouldn't Kill The key question is, is the Character killing villains because he finds it less of an exertion than trying to bring them in alive (and I presume, reduces the paperwork?) or is the character killing villains only when it makes sense to do do given the context of the situation? CVK is a different consideration. Heroes should, by default, at least be reluctant to kill. Killing other people does weird things to your thinking, and can be very traumatic (unless you're sociopathic, in which case YMMV). Most people recognize this on a gut level and will do anything to avoid actually killing someone. If your hero is killing out of convenience rather than unavoidable necessity, he is no hero.

Re: You Don't Have to be Crazy to be a Superhero, but it Helps!

Re: I have a dream. (and MAN was it wierd!) I can't quite recall the whole dream, but I was part of the staff at a High School for superpowered teens. One seven-foot tall Samoan "kid" with super strength and durability was harassing some other kids. The principle intervened and somehow thought punching him in the stomach would get his attention off his victims (now I'm awake, this seems rather excessive given the circumstances ). I realized then that I would have to intervene. I hoped I could avoid harming him in the process. That's when I awoke.

Re: You Don't Have to be Crazy to be a Superhero, but it Helps!

Re: You Don't Have to be Crazy to be a Superhero, but it Helps! You may have brought this whole issue into focus for me. Your example of the crowd chasing the guy they had falsely accused of being a mutant reminded me so much of the recent incident where that guy attacked a Sikh Gurdwara, apparently because they wore turbans and therefore could only be Muslim terrorists! It only takes a few fanatics to put some people into a panic. I still think Marvel's universe has way more mutant-fearing members of the general public than warranted by the circumstances. Their political effects may be disproportionate, because fanatics will spend more time, money and effort to root out whatever "evil" they are against than most other groups (with no offense intended to any monomaniacs with a work-ethic who may be reading this ).

Re: You Don't Have to be Crazy to be a Superhero, but it Helps! True, but Marvel's universe is a contemporary setting that has had 50 years' of change since the X-Men were published. Overt racism was much more common in the '60s, and while it was considered repellant by many, too many others agreed. Teh gay hadn't really become a movement until the Stonewall riots in 1969. Bullying was considered a matter for the children to figure out for themselves. I think if the number of people that are completely freaked out when they suspect someone may be a mutant should be dialed way back. The isms X-Men were intended to reflect he attitudes of the day, which were along the lines of "We get a along fine, so long as they remember their place." The X-men would work better for me if, after 50 years, occasionally someone who isn't a mutant should throw the B.S. flag on mutant-haters. Of course, it's only recently that our own culture has begun to recognize the need for overtly condemn bullying, racism, etc.

Re: Genre-crossover nightmares Aliens, remade with Lassie as Sigourney Weaver's Character.

Re: Genre-crossover nightmares Surfin' Safari Nazis must Die; Good Vibranium; Silver Surfer Girl (sung by the Beachboys). The Crying Game; Starring Bugs Bunny in that role.

Re: Gods with Off Switches vs. Loaded Guns. DC vs. Marvel in Character Design. I believe he is saying no, but they get each other as contacts anyway, because that's what a team does.

Re: A Thread for Random Videos Standing behind any large hooved mammal is ill-advised, even with animals that aren't obviously skittish.

Re: Creepy Pics. Cruella Deville rep! That pic is so unearthly. I had to click "back" 3 pages when the penny finally dropped. "That's no creepy doll in a costume! It's a creepy kid in a costume!"

Re: Quote of the Week From My Life. Got 'im for ya!

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Today was a Mom day. I had to pick her up early today because my sister had a colonoscopy for this morning. She got waaay better drugs than they gave me when I had mine! We watched Wheeler-Dealers on the Road, then Evil Roy Slade, which I somehow missed during my TV-saturated youth.

Re: A Thread for Random Videos That's how they tell you. ETA: I doubt any bison would have anything to say to me that didn't end up with me in the emergency room or the morgue, even when I was most fit.

Re: A Thread for Random Videos For those of you who do not yet understand the danger of standing too close to wildlife, the following video is provided as an education in why. Short version? Wild animals much smaller than this will F-U Up! Be the guy recording natural selection in action*, not the guy in the viewscreen who only just now realizes that you can't tell how pissed a bison is until it's too late do anything but spin crazily in the air. And hurt. Lots. *And look! He's even standing at a safe distance! Amazing!

Re: You Don't Have to be Crazy to be a Superhero, but it Helps! I'd suspect you could classify superpowered "psychoses" as lying on a spectrum ranging from "Good" (socially acceptable/laudable compulsions/motivations) right through minor neuroses to "Evil" (socially unacceptable/asocial compulsions/motivations). So sometimes you get paragons of virtue or avatars of evil, but more usually you get people with an inflated sense of social responsibility to go along with their expansive powers, or they have an inflated sense of entitlement as a result of the belief that "if you can't stop me it's mine anyway". In a universe where the majority of people are not super, any activities that Supers regularly engage in that normals cannot (or do not) Such as, but not limited to, wearing a costume, using a code-name to conceal one's alter-identity, fighting crime, natural disasters, etc. (heroic) or robbing banks and trying to conquer the world (villains) would be judged by many outside the supers community as at least eccentric if not downright crazy. Clinical distinctions aside, superheroes and supervillains engage in behavior that makes sense in context but it doesn't follow that the world outside the super community is hip to the jive. In other words, the rest of the world will still contain large numbers of people who may appreciate being saved from a house-fire by the Big Red Cheese, "...but really, if he's going to wear a costume, he could've chosen something less undignified than those red longjohns he runs around in." In that world, a lot of people would still be debating this subject because for most folks, superheroing is as remote a possibility as winning the gold medal in an Olympic event*, and the motivation to become a hero (technically a vigilante in many cases) would baffle some folks. *Odds not actually calculated. YMMV

Re: The cranky thread Got a call at 2:00 p.m. Apparently my oldest sister passed away alone in her apartment a short while ago. Possibly a heart-attack. She had been suffering from mental illness much of her life and the last few years were about like I was experiencing when I hit bottom a few years back. At least she's at peace. It would have been nice if she had had health insurance. She might have been with us longer.

Re: Quote of the Week From My Life. TSAR!

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Today was a Mom day. It's her 89th birthday today! I bought us lunch at a Nepalese restaurant that was having a grand-opening in Roseville. then we stopped at the store so I could "get a few things". I bought some bite-sized cupcakes and when we got to my place to chill, I gave her one and sang Happy Birthday. We watched some Futurama and then some Home-and-Garden show about buying "Million-Dollar Homes". Mom found the latter interesting and I always take mental notes for later use in RPGs (or making homes in the Sims.)

Re: Foods for those that just don't care anymore Ayup.