Dr. Rand Paul!

Self certified ophthalmologist Rand Paul, a Republican Senator, wants to become president in 2016.  But Rand has spread a lot of misinformation lately. He was spreading lies about Ebola, claiming it was highly contagious and wanted a travel ban. I contend that the media were the real fear mongers about Ebola but Rand jumped on the bandwagon because, fear works.

And before that, Rand was blaming the choking death of Eric Garner not on the police officer that choked him but on high cigarette taxes! Most people observing the case noted that he said he could not breathe because he was being choked, not from exposure to high cigarette taxes.

Now Rand Paul is doubling down, even more bad information, this time about measles, which has become an epidemic, thanks to parents refusing to vaccinate their children; fear of vaccinations was unknown when I young in the 1960’s.

On February 2 Rand said, "I’ve heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines…I’m not arguing vaccines are a bad idea. I think they’re a good thing. But I think parents should have some input.”

Then on the 3rd Rand got vaccinated and said “I did not say vaccines caused disorders, just that they were temporarily related––I did not allege causation!” That same day Rand Paul twittered, "Today I am getting my booster vaccine. Wonder how the liberal media will misreport this”. The Daily Beast had a very angry response to that.

Self certified ophthalmologist Rand Paul may think he has the perfect plan to become President but he seems to be on the wrong, or even both sides of the measles issue. I couldn’t attend school without vaccinations, no one should. I would never trust any candidate that would suggest otherwise.

The Squadron Supreme!

DC Comics had their premier super-hero team, the Justice League of America. They inspired Marvel Comics to create their own team, The Fantastic Four. Eventually though, that was not good enough for editor Stan Lee, so he created a more direct copy of the JLA, The Squadron Supreme.

The SS was a direct swipe of the JLA, person by person. Their leader Hyperion was the last Eternal of his reality, and was raised by normal humans. As an adult he worked as a reporter in a major metropolitan newspaper in Cosmopolis, New Troy and dated coworker Lonni Lattimer. Futhermore, Nighthawk was Batman, Power Princess was Wonder Woman, Dr. Spectrum was Green Lantern, and The Whizzer was the Flash, you get the schtick. 

I believe this crossed a line from homage straight into pure rip off! My theory is that Marvel was jealous of the popularity of DC Comics and wanted some of that for themselves.  Plus, often the personalities they gave them seemed to reflect how the bullpen at Marvel saw the JLA, which was not very flattering.  Hyperion, for instance, was arrogant and a bit of a bully. The Whizzer was  overly impulsive, and so on. They met a moderate level of success and even used characters Squadron characters throughout the Marvel Universe.  And how do you think DC Comics reacted? The Assembers! 

The DC Comic team The Assembers were analogs to the Avengers (Avengers Assemble, get it?) in a very similar vein, eventually the two teams even fought each other! The Assembers were much less successful but also developed a rich history. In any case, creating homage super hero teams is a time honored tradition, I just cited two, albeit two of the most interesting tributes ever.