Reality immitating art? Is Obama trying to be "Captain United"?

[cascadiance]

Check here of this photo today (currently on www.rawstory.com):

and this one:

and the page from the "Challenge of the Super Duper Friends" video:

Perhaps the above could use some photoshopping, to make Superman into Clark Kent, and Obama into "Captain United".

http://www.challengeofthesuperduperfriends.com/cast_bo.asp

Here's the video clip page BTW:

http://www.challengeofthesuperduperfriends.com/teaser.asp

(OK I'll admit I'm trying to find a Green Lantern costume for Halloween to be the "The Green Solution" Al Gore "to the rescue" that he hopefully will be after the Nobel peace prize is announced in October).



http://www.challengeofthesuperduperfriends.com/cast_ag.asp

[BlooInBloo]

1. Green Lantern is a bad choice....

http://yglesias.tpmcafe.com/blog/yglesias/2006/jul/10/the_green_lantern_theory_of_geopolitics

Up at Cato Unbound you can find Reuel Marc Gerecht's latest argument for bombing Iran. I think I've covered the policy arguments on this score extensively elsewhere, so let me just note something in particular about Gerecht's essay. Like a lot of conservative writing on foreign affairs it puts a huge amount of weight on things like will, resolve, and perceptions of strength and weakness. It's a view of things that reminds me of nothing so much as the Green Lantern comics, which I enjoy a great deal but regard as a poor guide to national security policy.

As you may know, the Green Lantern Corps is a sort of interstellar peacekeeping force set up by the Guardians of Oa to maintain the peace and defend justice. It recruits members from all sorts of different species and equips them with the most powerful weapon in the universe, the power ring.

The ring is a bit goofy. Basically, it lets its bearer generate streams of green energy that can take on all kinds of shapes. The important point is that, when fully charged what the ring can do is limited only by the stipulation that it create green stuff and by the user's combination of will and imagination. Consequently, the main criterion for becoming a Green Lantern is that you need to be a person capable of "overcoming fear" which allows you to unleash the ring's full capacities. It used to be the case that the rings wouldn't function against yellow objects, but this is now understood to be a consequence of the "Parallax fear anomaly" which, along with all the ring's other limits, can be overcome with sufficient willpower.

Suffice it to say that I think all this makes an okay premise for a comic book. But a lot of people seem to think that American military might is like one of these power rings. They seem to think that, roughly speaking, we can accomplish absolutely anything in the world through the application of sufficient military force. The only thing limiting us is a lack of willpower.

[cascadiance]

2. I was just trying to find a costume that had some "history"...

With this video clip it looks like Gore's superhero character is in effect a parody of the Green Lantern ("The Green Solution").

Actually it's really a bad choice when it comes to trying to find a costume of this sort. The only ones that are available are for kids, and they don't even look like this older version of the Green Lantern anyway. I may still have to rethink my strategy. But would be nice to dress up as Al Gore somehow "saving the day" if indeed he announces right before Halloween.