"Canadians do not have a cast-iron stomach for offensive speech," Mr. Gratl said in a telephone interview. "We don't subscribe to a marketplace of ideas. Americans as a whole are more tough-minded and more prepared for verbal combat."

This statement pretty much captures why I endorse the modern, extreme form of free speech that developed in American jurisprudence over the 20th century. Limiting speech, even hate speech, makes your people wimpy. It's a vicious cycle.

• Anyone ever using the word "squee".
• People talking about their brain, and how weird/funny/strange it is. Thanks, I get how smart you think you are.
• Use of the phrase "Who does that?" in a rhetorical manner to imply that things not practiced by a sufficient quantity of people are somehow invalid.
• People who walk slowly.
• 99% of political cartoons. Stupid bully pulpits.
• People who continue to say "bless you" every time after a string of consecutive sneezes. Once a day is sufficient.
• Professional sports.
• Overly dismissive and self-satisfied lists. (D'oh.)

I regret, Ian, that I will never have the opportunity. Wild horses could not drag me to the opportunity. SATC is so definitely not my cup of tea that, for me, it is not tea at all, and does not come in a cup.

It was a pleasure, then, to watch The Cartoon Wars episodes recently and have them skewer The Family Guy so beautifully, a show about which I cannot say enough ill. You can get an excellent summary of their criticisms here, or just go watch those episodes.

Iron Man is probably the best and most accurate transfer of comic to film of any comic-book movie to-date. Its script follows worn, familiar cadences and the plot arc of its hero--in which a successful inventor and weapons dealer discovers that maybe weapons development isn't the purely humanitarian endeavor he thought it was--is just about the right level of profundity for me-at-thirteen. This is, in my opinion, a completely authentic reproduction of the level of quality of the majority of Marvel comics, and certainly Iron Man, who was never one of my favorites. But the extra time and attention that a feature-length film gets made this formula unusually well-crafted. Its familiar tropes just work a little bit better here than they do in most comic-book movies. In fact, the whole thing felt like a genre getting really comfortable with itself: no, this isn't their bid for Oscar glory. (They tried that with Hulk, a substantial movie by Ang Lee that alienated everyone but me and the Onion AV Club.) But this is the first movie I've seen that is almost devoid of any personal, artistic directorial flair (unlike Spider-Man) that's also... pretty good.

If Marvel can duplicate that in expanding Iron Man's world (his character begs to be in collaboration... there's just not that much room to explore with him) as they clearly intend to do (stay through the credits... ALWAYS stay through the credits), I think they will richly deserve the success they get.

Seven Samurai, 5/5 monads:

Oh, hey, someone else watched Seven Samurai for the first time and thought it kicked ass. ALERT THE PRESSES. Yes, I'm late to the party. Very, very late. But, still: it's a delight to watch such a wonderful film for the first time. I didn't realize, of course, that it was over three hours long when I picked it for Koine: this was the first time we didn't have time for a discussion. But it was wonderful to sit in a room full of people, all of us enthralled by the flickering grey light that recreated for us that fascinating, beautiful village with its seven guests.

Also: I like Catholic Online's favicon.

At any rate, if I go on to read Wright's full remarks and the next line is something like, "All white people must die," I'll probably have some back-pedaling to do. But am I really, really expected to get furious at this man because he reiterated the accusation that America might have reaped what it sowed in 9/11? This is the opposite of justifying terrorism, or saying America "deserved" it; on the contrary, it's an unequivocal attack on terrorism of any kind.

I am a bit angry at Wright for not sitting down and being quiet. Some of us would really like this Obama guy to be President, okay?

I've also created a feed of all Monadological Muxtapes using the crazy Yahoo! Pipes. (Yahoo! Pipes is crazy fun to play around with, by the way.) It should let us keep track of when people are adding new music to their mixes, which I intend to do presently to test it. Keep me posted if you are not on here and would like to be.

Glad it was written: Superman needs to be talked about. Disagree for various reasons.

• Power given > power earned. Yes. Yes! How fundamentally human that is. We are powerful beyond imagining, with no idea why on earth we should have it, or how we could possibly merit it.

• Superman chooses vulnerability. Dispassion toward others would leave him invulnerable; concern for others makes him mortal. Superman doesn't need kryptonite to be defeatable, he just needs Lois, his parents, Jimmy, &c.

• Moral absolutism. Many interesting stories already written on this angle. Frank Miller often uses Superman as someone able to be made miserably complicit in the evil of others because of his sympathy, or moral simplicity. Makes him the perfect foil for Batman, who is cynical and pragmatic. But frightening. Superman's weakness is that he sees so clearly the way the world ought to be. Deeply sympathetic.