Glorifying a villain as misunderstood due to a deprived, troubled childhood is beyond inappropriate. It’s reprehensible and diminishes the hero, who should be the one being glorified and romanticized or what the heck is the point of the hero? The hero is not the supporting character, what part of “hero” do some hack writers not get? Romanticizing the villain without the character fully and permanently redeeming him or herself isn’t even good writing in terms of character development nor plot so there is no real point of doing it.  Particularly when they are as twisted and evil as DC’s The Joker. There is no redeeming factor for some of these devils as much as can be said for some real life people out there who are just plain evil. Some do it by choice, for others it’s in their nature.  Whatever the case, they commit terror against other people who have every right to live out their lives, so NO. It isn’t grey. It’s clear cut. They kidnap, rape, torture, and kill people in barbaric ways. He or she chose to do the bidding of evil. They are the bad guys. PERIOD. There should be no shades of grey here. A perfect life is rare, even for the hero. This incessant need to humanize villains is off center. It is the victim and the hero with whom the reader should identify with. Not the character who chose the wrong side of justice. We all have problems which is why we should tolerate and be kind to each other instead of miserable. It is part of being a mature, responsible adult and citizen. Most of us still know to take the loss and still do right by others, but glorifying and romanticizing villains, be it mobsters like those seen in The Godfather, The Sopranos, Scarface, and Goodfellas to comic book villains in the upcoming Warner Brothers feature film Suicide Squad, it’s twisted.

Marvel Comics’ The Punisher (Frank Castle), saw his entire family get murdered. He became a vigilante. He took the law into his own hands because he saw the law as slow, full of loopholes, useless. The law frowns upon vigilantism because of population control. The government doesn’t want everyone going around taking the law into their hands. It doesn’t justify the existence and authority of the police and the judicial system, so it’s seen as a crime in its own right. In real life, President Andrew Jackson supported vigilantism. If it was fine for the Democratic President, then it is fine for fictional soldier and citizen Frank Castle; especially when you have an inept criminal justice system and people whipped into fear through shaming and political correctness.

People refer to the Punisher as one who is glorifying guns, others see him as a hero who is getting rid of some bad guys before they hurt others. His character is reminiscent of Charles Bronson’s character in the Death Wish franchise and Clint Eastwood’s character in the Dirty Harry series.  Punisher is doing Batman‘s job but in a more permanent way that goes against Batman‘s views.  Both characters are known in their respective universes as needing psychiatric attention; Frank Castle is Dick Tracy on steroids. He just happens to be a more believable character than Bruce Wayne is. One whose existence could be possible and probable. He doesn’t have the luxuries Wayne has so he needs to come up with money and he needs guns.  It’s hard to fight evil without a gun when evil has guns. He has to fight fire with fire. The difference is, the gun in Punisher’s hand is used for good; to take out evil. The guns in the bad guys hands are used to carry out crimes, usually heinous ones. Yet both Batman and The Punisher find that more often than not they have to work under the cover of night where there are less witnesses out and about. The night gives them the extra chance to disappear into the darkness without being caught by the local and/or government authorities who despise vigilantes because vigilantes are doing a better job than the ones deputized to do the work in the first place, particularly in literature.

Writers need to stop humanizing and glorifying a depraved individual like The Joker. When the final installment of the Christopher Nolan Batman movie premiered in a theater out west, a lunatic shot up a movie theater and killed a number of people. That sick individual did it for the notoriety. What made him into the monster that he is, isn’t guns or comic books. It was the medication he was on and his warped feelings toward society. Taking gun rights away from all Americans wouldn’t have changed anything. When you get an evil nut like him out on the street, he’ll figure something out to kill a large number of people. From building a homemade bomb to simply locking everyone in the theatre from the outside and setting the building on fire.

The movie theater tragedy re-ignited the gun debate. The irony  is not lost here. The Batman character himself has his origin in gun violence as we have seen it played out time and time again in the comics, on film, and in animated media. As a result of  what happened to his folks, Batman does not carry a gun. He originally did but that was before they concocted his origin; after his origin was explained, he never really carried a gun again and he never killed until recent reboots of the character by DC that is. Bad move on DC because DC just destroyed the most admirable part of the character. The issue here is mental illness, not the gun. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have guns and they have them at home to protect their families. Hundreds of thousands of these guns were not used in a crime today. It’s not the weapon. It’s who has possession of it. Much like Batman’s utility belt, the gun is a piece of technology and like any other piece of technology, it can be used for good or bad. The Punisher uses guns for the side of good; his enemies use them for evil.

The movie theater killer is an insane guy who got dressed up as the equally insane Joker with the only difference being that The Joker is fictional. He committed a heinous act while an audience watched the Batman movie, something like The Joker would do in the comics. Maybe that nut was trying to call out a real life Batman to his real life Joker.  Surprisingly, the Media and the politicians did not attack comic books over this issue.

They chose not to because superhero movies are big box office for Hollywood and Hollywood is politically active. Hollywood gives lots of money and perks to the politicians who do its bidding. There is the crime that really goes unpunished. Comic Books are glorifying guns and evil as much as the rest of the entertainment industry is. It’s where the money is.

To quote the late professional wrestler Randy “Macho Man” Savage: “Where money lies, honor dies”…and usually it’s with a body count.

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Major League Baseball was founded in 1903.  It wasn’t until April 15, 1947 when the color barrier was broken. After all of those years, you can easily argue that “it was time” for a black man to play baseball although some people still weren’t ready for it.  Knowing that,  The Brooklyn Dodgers’ did not just grab any black baseball player to be their new second baseman. They scouted and found a man who could play the position and play it well. A man who was just as good offensively as he was defensively and who could run the bases with the best of them. A man who was as tough on the inside as he was on the outside. A man named  Jackie Robinson. So when it came to “breaking the barrier”, a qualified person was found and selected to play for them, and he produced. Credibility was key in breaking the racial barrier.

The Liberal Democrat party likes to state in its rhetorical dialogue that “it’s time (for this or that)”. It’s time for a black president; it’s time for a woman; it’s time for a one- legged- blue -clad -circus -clown- from- the planet -Klingon, whatever, whomever. Ok. Sure. I don’t have a problem with that; but can we get qualified people please? President Obama, a community organizer who barely showed up as a Senator, eloquently sweet talked his way to get elected. He has flip-flopped on a lot of issues while the economy has seen a slow growth in his administration and he has made some highly critical decisions that some have called treasonous.  Blaming things on his predecessor is a weak excuse. If you get a new job and are replacing another person, your new boss doesn’t want to hear you whine about your job; your new employer wants you to fix things and get the job done. That standard should also apply to the President. Obama knew what he was up against when he ran for the position; he was getting stuck with the decisions of those before him much like our next President knows that he or she will have to deal with Obama’s errors and there have been plenty. Obama gave $535 million of economic stimulus/tax payer money to SOLYNDRA for what? Solar batteries that never came to be. That deceitful company soon went bankrupt.  Not just that, but since he’s taken office 46 million people in America are on food stamps. That’ s more people than the population of Denmark, Greece, Norway, Portugal and Sweden combined. That’s 5 countries worth of people! How he can just shrug that off and go play golf all the time with those numbers is extremely disheartening. Even the Obama girl burned her shirt and regretted supporting this man as have many others. I can get into so much more about his failures which have outnumbered his successes but it’s a waste of time because we’re all just going to get angry about it and besides, there will be plenty of articles looking back at his multiple failures and errors. For crying out loud, even the Nobel Peace Prize Committee asked him to return the award they gave him.

If it’s all about “breaking barriers” for the Liberal Democrat party, then they should take note of the way The Brooklyn Dodgers ended racial segregation in the major leagues with Jackie Robinson. If “it’s time for a woman” as many Leftists proclaim it is, then simply elect a candidate who is qualified. It’s a no brainer. We don’t need figureheads. Don’t just pick Hillary because she’s Hillary. She really hasn’t done anything great as a New York Senator and she really hasn’t done anything great as Secretary of State. She’s rude and crass to reporters and to US citizens asking her fair questions about legitimate concerns. She either tap dances around the questions or ignores it with contempt, if she’s not busy yelling at the person asking the question that is. She STILL hasn’t addressed the questions of why she referred to young black people as “super predators” and she has the gall now to say all whites are racists? This is what she is running on? More divisiveness and her hypocrisy?  She certainly hasn’t seemed presidential yelling the way she has been at Senator Bernie Sanders. I ‘ve been expecting the camera to focus in on Bill Clinton when Hillary yells at Bernie so I can read Bill’s face and I know what I would see–Bill looking at Bernie and thinking: “I feel your pain Bernie, I feel your pain”. Her husband President Bill Clinton has been publicly  criticizing President Obama while  SHE says she will carry on Obama’s policies…WHAT?! Well what is it then Hillary? Do the Clintons support Obama’s policies or not?

Bill Clinton felt that the “race card” was played against Hillary when Obama ran for President, stealing the nomination from Hillary. Maybe Obama did. Maybe her time was then because it certainly isn’t now.

Hillary comes with a lot of baggage. The scandals attached to her and Bill since Hillary got kicked off of the Nixon-Watergate scandal for her lack of ethics and fraudulent legal brief alone would disqualify so many other candidates several times over, probably even have gotten them jail time but no, she and her impeached husband continue to get a free pass because  of who they are. “It’s time for Hillary”, sage wise people like Robert DeNiro have suggested.  No Bobby, it’s not.  It’s time for someone else. Someone who won’t be so incompetent, who doesn’t come with all this baggage, who is qualified, and has credibility. Someone who won’t have another scandal, or two, or 47, lurking around the next day that would be another national embarassment. Jackie Robinson faced adversity. With what he brought to organized baseball with his talent, skills, and leadership he earned respect and credibility because he deserved it. The man was worthy. He was qualified. He proved to himself and the world that it was time for him.

Hillary has not. She’s had plenty of opportunity and chances but she has not proved to be qualified to be President as many Democrats have pointed out. Don’t say they haven’t because many Democrat voters have either voted for Sanders or have switched parties to vote for Donald Trump.

It’s time for Hillary to go away.

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