Brandon's Personal Blog

Comic Review: Mystery Men #2

I’ve really enjoyed rediscovering comics over the past few months, and I’ve decided to start posting reviews at my favorite comic site, Comic Vine.  Here’s my first review, for the 1930’s noir series Mystery Men, issue #2.

The plot thickens…

The Good 

The comic starts out great with a brief flashback that sets up one of the big reveals of the comic nicely.  As the book progresses, we learn more about why The Revenant is so invested in solving the murder of Alice Starr, and we start to see a team gradually forming around the search for justice.  There’s plenty of mystery all around, but we’re starting to see how everyone is connected to each other.  This feeling is enhanced by one the big twist at the end of the comic, and it definitely left me excited for more. 

The art is fantastic! Lots of hard, dark lines enhancing the grittiness of this hard boiled story.  The Operative doesn’t have much in the way of a costume (just gloves and a mask), but it works perfectly for his character and gives off a great anti-hero vibe.  The colors are somewhat muted and darkened to enhance the atmosphere, and this makes the severe splashes of bright color significantly more jarring and exclamatory, as they should be. 

The Bad 

A new character joining the ranks, shown on the bottom-left of the cover, is too much of a Rocketeer look-alike for my taste.  The helmet and puffed-out pants are darn near identical.  Also, some of the Revenant’s dialog comes across as silly. It’s supposed to be dramatic and theatrical, but it seems over the top. Then again, this may be intentional given the background that is revealed about the character. 

The Verdict 

So far, I’m really loving this trip into 1930’s era noir, and the way the plot is growing and connecting the various characters is very compelling.  The art is superb, and the action is great.  This is definitely a must-read in my opinion.  I really hope they do something more with these characters once the limited series is over!

Alcohol and the Believer

The topic of drinking has come up recently in my life in a few different ways, and I want to take a moment to describe my position and the biblical basis for it.

One of the primary arguments for prohibition says the the alcohol content of wine in the bible was so low that it would not cause intoxication. I’ll start out with the most common example cited when anyone talks about alcohol and Christianity, Jesus turning water into wine. This event is detailed in John 2:1-11.  The key quotation that is always cited is from the master of the feast. “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” Why would the common practice be to defer the poor wine until later if the alcohol content was so low it prevented the dulling of senses?  This simply doesn’t make sense in context.  Matthew Henry’s commentary describes it this way: “Good wine is brought out to the best advantage at the beginning of a feast, when the guests have their heads clear and their appetites fresh, and can relish it, and will commend it; but when they have well drank, when their heads are confused, and their appetites palled, good wine is but thrown away upon them, worse will serve then.” The original Greek word used is “methuo” (Strong’s number 3184), which is translated elsewhere in the bible as to “be drunken” or to “be made drunk”.  It clearly refers to the effect of alcohol, which would not be an issue if the alcohol content was so too low to intoxicate.

Ephesians 5:18 says “do not get drunk with wine”, and Acts 2:13 tells of spectators supposing that the apostles were drunk with wine when they began speaking in tongues.  These and many more examples show that wine clearly had an alcohol content strong enough to intoxicate.

Another perspective asserts that drinkers of wine in the Bible made sure to water it down to prevent intoxication.  Wine was used with water to kill impurities in the water that would make the drinker sick otherwise.  This is most certainly true for their everyday consumption of wine, but it was not the case during celebrations or feasts like the marriage described above.  The master of the feast made his exclamation because the wine that Jesus miraculously created was full and flavorful, not the watered down wine one would expect towards the end of a feast.

Isaiah 25:6 speaks of the day that “the Lord of Hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.” What would the benefit of well-aged wine be if it were watered down?  New wine can counteract bacteria just as effectively as aged wine, if not better.  This is clearly referring to a rich, flavorful wine fit for a feast.

A strong point that advocates of prohibition use are the many warnings and commands against drunkenness in the bible.  These commands are clear and unmistakable, drunkenness is something that should be avoided except in very extreme circumstances (those who are dying or are in bitter distress - Proverbs 31:4-7).  However, drinking is not drunkenness.  There are many of God’s creations that can be abused, but that doesn’t mean one should abstain from those creations altogether.  Good food can be abused through gluttony, medicine can be abused through misuse, sex can be abused in a myriad of ways - but by no means should we strictly abstain from these things in our lives if we are not involved in their abuse.

The bible actually speaks positively of wine and strong drink on many occasions.  Psalm 104 praises God for his many blessings, including “wine to gladden the heart of man” (v15). Proverbs 3 presents wine as a reward for tithing in v9 and 10 - “Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine”. This sentiment is also expressed in Deuteronomy 14:26, where it says those that cannot haul their first fruits all the way to their town can sell them and bring the money to the town, where they are to “spend the money for whatever you desire—oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves. And you shall eat there before the Lord your God and rejoice, you and your household.” Notice the use of “strong drink” here.  The Hebrew word here is “shekar” (Strong’s number 07941), which means “strong drink, intoxicating drink, fermented or intoxicating liquor.”

There are numerous places in the bible where the lack of wine is presented as a judgement (Jeremiah 48:33, Hosea 2:9, Joel 1:10, Haggai 2:16), and its abundance is a blessing (Genesis 27:28, Deuteronomy 7:13 & 11:14, Joel 2:19, 24 & 3:18, Amos 9:13, 14).

I believe that the Bible makes it very clear that alcohol is one of many of God’s creations that can be honestly enjoyed, or horribly abused. Enjoying alcohol in moderation is not sinful, but drunkenness and excess is. A great many things can be easily abused and addictive to certain people, but that doesn’t mean that those who are not abusers should abstain.

That being said, it is an area where many have a weakness to abuse.  There are many to whom I believe God gives the conviction to absolutely abstain.  Perhaps these are people who have fallen into abuse in the past, or who God foresees would abuse in the future.  I think 1 Corinthians 8 is speaking directly to this issue when it says in v8 and 9 “Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.” If we are in the presence of someone who has a conviction against drinking and we are not sensitive to that conviction, we could easily become the stumbling block that sends them back over the edge into abuse. We should take care to limit our own freedom in cases where that freedom would cause others to sin.

That was the most sanctimonious, insulting, and infuriating speech yet from our President.  I’m not one of the people claiming that Obama wasn’t born in the US, but I think that he handled those that are in the worst way possible.  He should have put this issue to rest two and a half years ago by simply showing the public his birth certificate and silencing the “birthers”.  Instead he’s kept the issue alive and smoldering this whole time, and now he unleashes a putrid wave of derision on the American public who dare to question him.  We can’t let this arrogance and audacity continue into a second term!

User Agreements == Oppression

Over a year ago now, Sony removed the “Other OS” feature from the Playstation. This was something they advertised as a feature, and was a big part of my decision to switch to Playstation. I’d like to be able to install Linux and awesome software like Boxee and use the Playstation as a media center. Through an online “update”, they took the feature away without warning or compensation to their customers.

Now, Sony is suing developers left and right who have found ways to open the PS3 back up so that they could install Linux and restore this feature that they were promised. People in the US and UK are having their homes invaded by police who are confiscating their computers and treating them like criminals. It’s a sad world when Sony is more closed and draconian than Microsoft.

Though I know full well that the Playstation is a superior piece of technology that still hasn’t been pushed to its limits, the company behind it is corrupt and actively seeks to destroy the rights of those who purchase their products.  The fact that we as consumers don’t own our technology, but merely pay for a license to use the technology, is a serious problem that could endanger our freedom if it goes on unchecked.  If we decide to use a piece of hardware that we own in a way that the manufacturer doesn’t like, then we could be hit with enormous legal costs and fines.  The public needs to be aware of this danger, and we need to fight back!

Last night, I woke up around 1:30 am to find that the temperature in the house was approaching sauna-like levels.  I stumbled out of bed and hurdled over the baby gate so that I could adjust the thermostat.  On the way back I hit my foot on the gate hard, immediately and irrevocably waking me up.

I tried to go back to sleep, but it just wasn’t going to happen.  So, I headed into the office and proceeded to hack on my netbook and iPhone.  Finally, around 7 am, I started to feel tired again.

I hate insomnia.