Posts

Talking About 'Star Wars': Why does the writer of Star Wars: The Last Jedi think it is plausible for Princess Leia to survive the vacuum of space without a spacesuit?

Image
Why does the writer of  Star Wars: The Last Jedi  think it is plausible for Princess Leia to survive the vacuum of space without a spacesuit? Let me ask you this: Why did George Lucas think it is plausible for starfighters to fly through the vacuum of space and maneuver  exactly  like jet fighters in atmospheric flight without all the complications of reaction control systems, complicated life support systems, and all of the known problems that space travel poses? Why did George Lucas think it was plausible for any civilization, even an advanced one with tech supposedly far more advanced than ours, to build a space station the size of a small moon? Why did George Lucas think it was plausible that a space station the size of a small moon could travel through hyperspace without creating a noticeable gravitational disturbance in its path and wake? Why do the crew and passengers of any starship, including the  Millennium Falcon,  fly in and out of space in a “shirtsleeves envi

Conservative Pundit Goes Wild: Why does Michelle Malkin accuse Cokie Roberts of "fake news"?

Image
Why does Michelle Malkin accuse Cokie Roberts of "fake news"? “I distinctly remember that she was one of the first guilty culprits of fake news."  - Michelle Malkin Let’s compare the career tracks of Michelle Malkin and the late Cokie Roberts, shall we? Michelle Malkin is the daughter of Filipino immigrants who she describes as “Ronald Reagan Republicans” who are not politically active. She majored in English at Oberlin College, which is one of the first post-secondary educational institutions to admit women and African-American students in the U.S. Even at an early age, Michelle Maglagan (her birth name) was a die-hard conservative; in an article she wrote for the student newspaper, she criticized Oberlin’s affirmative action admissions policy. Although Malkin has done some journalism work, she is not a professional reporter. She’s an “op-ed” columnist, which means she provides opinion-based articles as a syndicated writer for Creators Syndicate. She has al

Refuting Confederate Revisionism: Why can't the Civil War be called the "War of Northern Aggression" or a war about states' rights?

Image
Battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia. Credit: Wikipedia Why can't the Civil War be called the "War of Northern Aggression" or a war about states' rights? Because those descriptions of the Civil War are deceitful and odious revisionism of history, that’s why. First of all, the Federal government tried to avoid bloodshed from the time of South Carolina’s secession (December 20, 1860) till Lincoln’s Inauguration (March 4, 1861) and on until the morning of April 12, 1861. Lincoln even addressed the issue of slavery in the South in his Inaugural Address, saying that the government was not going to abolish slavery in the states where it was already legal. Second,  who  fired the first shots of the Civil War? It was not the United States Army (or Navy, for that matter) who did so; it was the Confederate Army that let loose the first cannon shot against Ft. Sumter in Charleston (SC) harbor. So if the Civil War were to be renamed “the War of X Aggression,”

Talking About World War II: When the US entered WWII, how far did geography determine where a draftee would be deployed?

Image
Geography was not a factor in most cases. If you were living in Miami, Florida any time after the draft was reinstated in the fall of 1940 (due to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s declaration of a national emergency) and happened to get the “Greetings! The President of the United States and your neighbors…” letter from the Selective Service office, where you went while in the armed forces was pretty much determined by the needs of the service branch you were in. Thus, if you were a Floridian, you would not necessarily be sent to the Caribbean Command, North Africa, or the European Theater of Operations/ETO (including the Mediterranean Theater). You could be just as easily be sent to serve in the China-Burma-India Theater, the Philippines (before Pearl Harbor), or the South Pacific. Heck, you also had a chance to be stationed Stateside, if the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard needed you there. The only major exception to this: the Japanese-American volunteers who s

Talking About 'Star Wars' Legends: Could Mara Jade Skywalker be incorporated into a canon Star Wars TV series or a movie?

Image
Could Mara Jade Skywalker be incorporated into a canon Star Wars TV series or a movie? Yes, but it probably would not be done in a way that fans of the old Expanded Universe would like. As originally written in the 1990s and early 2000s, the iconic Emperor’s Hand who becomes an ally (and more) to Luke Skywalker would not be a good fit for the current canon. Why? For starters, the ship for making Mara Jade, aka Mara Jade Skywalker, into a canon character (i.e., a major supporting character in an official Lucasfilm Ltd. production) sailed a long time ago in a production company that operates in a land not very far away (California). Mara Jade is a character whose most important story arc occurs in the 1991–93  Thrawn Trilogy  ( Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising,  and  The Last Command ). She was created by Timothy Zahn, a Hugo Award-winning author whose  Star Wars  novels stand out like diamonds in a sea of zirconias in the muddled mess that is the  Star Wars  Expanded Un

Beating a Dead Tauntaun Department, Part Two: Is there such a thing as Grey Jedi?

Image
™ Lucasfilm Ltd. On Quora, Jason Lowman asks: Is there such a thing as Grey Jedi? Grey Jedi exist only in the minds of  Star Wars  fans who are enthralled with the idea that a Jedi Knight can use both the dark and light side of the Force without suffering the fate of Darth Vader or Assajj Ventress. Other Quora members, such as Mike Prinke and Eric Lowe, have written extensively on the topic of the  non-existence  of Grey Jedi. They’ve pointed out the same facts about the “Grey Jedi” mythos, which are: There’s no mention of “Grey Jedi” anywhere in the official  Star Wars  canon, especially in the material that most counts: the eight (soon to be nine) Skywalker Saga films, the three existing Lucasfilm Animation TV series, or any of the canonical novels, comic books, or post-2014 Lucasfilm-licensed video games None of the maverick Jedi characters seen or mentioned in the aforementioned canon are Grey Jedi. Not Qui-Gon Jinn. Not Ahsoka Tano. Not Quinlan Vos. Not

Refuting Conservative Propaganda: My Reply to 'When will the left finally realize who really colluded with foreign countries to influence the 2016 presidential election?'

Image
© 2019 Scribner and The Washington Post On Quora, Trump supporter Jeff Blake asks this insincere question:  When will the left finally realize who really colluded with foreign countries to influence the 2016 presidential election? My reply:  News flash, sweet summer child: The “left,” the “center,” and the sane, honest members of the “right” are painfully aware that it was the Republican Party and - especially - the Trump campaign team who colluded with the Russians to influence the 2016 general election. It’s only most of the “right,” particularly the die-hard core of Trump supporters and the craven leadership of the GOP, that constantly bangs on the “No collusion, no obstruction” drum. The Red Cap Brigade uses several tactics to gaslight the public and hide the modern-day Republican Party’s cozy relations with the Russians. They range from outright denial (“Russia did not intervene in the 2016 election at all.”) to clever deflection (“Russia  did  intervene, but

Talking About 'Star Wars': Are Star Wars animated series only placeholder canon until the movies decide what actually happened during that time frame?

Image
Are Star Wars animated series only placeholder canon until the movies decide what actually happened during that time frame? No.  Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels,  and  Star Wars: Resistance  are coequal in canon to the live-action films. Especially  Star Wars: The Clone Wars,  because that series was created and executive produced by George Lucas and was the last  Star Wars  content he personally oversaw. The only animated series that meets the “placeholder” criteria is the 2003–2005  Star Wars: Clone Wars  2-D micro-series created by Genndy Tartakovsky and co-produced by Lucasfilm and Cartoon Network. Intended as a means to bridge the three-year in-universe gap between  Attack of the Clones  and  Revenge of the Sith,  Tartakovsky’s series was just one of many elements in Lucasfilm’s multimedia Clone Wars campaign, as well as a backdoor pilot to George Lucas’s CGI animated series.  Star Wars: The Clone Wars. In the early days of  Star Wars: The Clone Wars,  Luca

'Star Wars' Collectibles & Toys Review: Hasbro 'Star Wars Saga' TIE Fighter (Imperial Dogfight) and Imperial Pilot (2003)

Image
Photo Credit: PicClick.com Part One: The first TIE Fighter versions: Good but flawed...   Ever since 1978, the year Kenner Toys (now Hasbro) started the Star Wars action figure collection and its assortment of vehicles and playsets, one of the mainstays has always been the Empire's Twin Ion Engine (TIE) fighter. Unlike the first production version of its Rebel counterparts (the X-Wing and Millennium Falcon ), it has always been proportionate in scale to the 3.75-inch figures, mainly because of its layout -- ball-shaped cockpit connected to two hexagonal solar panels that give the TIE its distinctive H-shape -- is simple and efficient. It could hold one figure -- at first, collectors had no choice but to use either Darth Vader (until he got his own TIE-Advanced X-1 fighter) or a stormtrooper until l

Much Ado Over Fox News Channel: Can NBC News buy the Fox News Channel?

Image
NBCUniversal's new logo. © 2017 NBCUniversal, a Comcast company On Quora, Rich Madhok asks Can NBC News buy the Fox News Channel? No. NBC News  cannot  buy the Fox News Channel. Here’s why: NBC News is not now, and never was, an independent entity capable of purchasing any of its competitors. It started out as the news division of the National Broadcasting Company back in the days of radio. (Fun fact: Until 1943, NBC had two networks: NBC Blue and NBC Red. In 1943, RCA spun-off NBC Blue and sold it to Edward J. Noble’s American Broadcasting Service. which renamed the Blue Network as the American Broadcasting Company.) The National Broadcasting Company itself is not an independent company; it’s now part of NBCUniversal, which in turn is owned by Comcast. Comcast is not interested in acquiring another news channel; it already owns NBC News (over the air), MSNBC, and CNBC. It does not need Fox News Channel, nor does it desire to acquire Fox News Channel in order to “s

Talking About Republican Hypocrisy: Why do some people say Mr. Trump instead of President Trump?

Image
Photo Credit: Pixabay Why do some people say Mr. Trump instead of President Trump? In everyday usage, or in journalistic reporting/editorial writing? Since I studied journalism and mass communications in high school  and  college, I’ll start with how mass media refers to presidents and foreign leaders. Although newspaper and news magazines’ stylebooks allow for local variations when dealing with honorifics and titles (the  New York Times  usually places honorifics such as Mr., Mrs., or Ms. before a person’s last name upon second reference), the general style rule is: Use a government official’s title and complete name on first reference, e.g. “President Donald Trump.” After that, use the person’s last name only, e.g. “When Trump was asked about the issue, he said, ‘Fake news!’” In print media, page space is like real estate: a valuable commodity that is measured in column inches. Newspapers especially have only so much space on a page, and there is a limit on how many