For some odd reason, today I began thinking about the degree to which one must suspend their disbelief in order to enjoy Superman. And thus, I present my findings here, in my of-late neglected blog.

Specifically, the biggest problem that I have is that, in order to make engrossing storylines, there must be an inherent danger to the hero. This is difficult in any story, especially with recurring heroes, as is the case in comics, TV series, and film franchises, as your hero is the one selling tickets, attracting viewers, and getting those comics off the shelves.

But, for those of you who haven't noticed, Superman is a fucking god in all but name.

Superman used to be faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to jump entire buildings in a single bound. Now, his list of skills and feats is far more impressive. We all know about the freeze-breath, the heat-vision, x-ray vision, his ability to fly at supersonic speeds, and his nearly-complete invincibility.

But add to those the abilities granted to him in film, television, and one-off comics, and you begin to wonder why churches aren't erected. In Superman 2, he flew around the earth counter-clockwise so fast that he reversed the direction of its rotation and literally turned back fucking time.

In an episode of Lois and Clark, he was trapped in a cage of kryptonite bars that he was unable to bend or break, so he "vibrated" so fast that the molecules of his body separated, floated through the bars, and reformed on the other side. Great, now, not only is he a master of all he surveys, he's a fucking sex toy.

In Superman 3, which is decidedly not his greatest showing, while fighting the fellow aliens, he ripped the logo off his chest and threw it, trapping them in some kind of cellophane bullsh - you know, seriously, what kind of shit writer needs to INVENT a new superpower for the only fictional character more gifted than Jesus?

And, you'd think that with a list of powers this long, he'd have a pretty serious weakness. After all, you need some kind of drama, right? Remember that danger I mentioned earlier that a story needs to make it compelling? Like, maybe his powers require an extreme amount of concentration and will mentally and/or physically exhaust him if used too extensively. Or maybe he only gains these powers when he's angry or sexually aroused, or some other bullshit, so that at least part of the time, he's a regular, vulnerable person.

But no. He has no weakness on earth. The only weakness he possesses comes in the form of kryptonite, a non-earth mineral that's so rare, only the lucky can find it, and only the rich can afford it. To say that the stuff is scarce is a massive understatement.

So, to clarify; unless you've got this incredibly rare piece of a goddamn space rock, you'd be better off filling a Supersoaker with jizz and hoping he gets so grossed out that he just lets you go.

Oh, and about that kryptonite stuff... You may remember that in the movie Superman Returns, Lex Luthor made an island of that shit, prison-shanked Superman with a nice chunk of it, and even still, he was able to lift a fucking island out of the ocean floor and throw it into space. He spent the night in a hospital, presumably just so doctors could observe his superhuman balls in a controlled environment.

Even more frustrating is when Superman is cast in a support role. A team-member. Like the Justice League.

Teams are supposed to work together in such a way as to utilize each member's unique skills and cover for any weaknesses. But clearly, when the only accomplishment missing from your resume is creating life, the team relationship is decidedly one-way. Many Justice League plots, as well as those from similar shows/comics that put Superman into a team role, completely neglect to explain why Superman needs any of these other superheroes. Did I mention that he once turned back fucking time?

One show, a teen Justice League kind of show full of a bunch of no-name heroes that presumably all died when Superman told them to fuck off, accurately demonstrated how the team really works. Teenage Superman meets this girl who immediately realizes she wants him to fuck her brains out, but he keeps telling her that the team needs her. Possibly because he's fucking Superman, and they're the Green Teabagger or some shit. So she gets jealous and sends a false distress signal in space (suspended disbelief is, afterall, the main point of this whole diatribe), which sends Superman off on a wild goose chase for the next nine minutes. In the meantime, she teams up with the main badguys from this episode and raids the Dorm Room of Justice and immediately incapacitates all of the other adolescent "heroes." Superman flies back, apologizes for taking so long and explains it's because he stopped off to have sex with a neutron star or whatever, and then single-handedly defeats everybody. The jealous rich bitch is leading them all in a big robot suit kind of thing, which he dismantles in seconds. When she asks how, he basically looks at her and says, and I might be paraphrasing a bit here, "Hi, I'm fucking Superman. So unless you're hiding some green shit behind your back, I'm going to throw your spoiled ass into the sun." End of episode. Pizza party commences.

Getting the picture? This is how Superman was supposed to be. Siegal and Shuster got their asses kicked as kids, and wanted to create someone whose ass was completely unkickable. But sadly, an unkickable ass does not lend itself well to compelling storytelling.

Tonight was the first round of performances for the top twenty dancers on So You Think You Can Dance.

First off, wow. This was an amazing round of performances, with only one falling slightly flat for me. And to be fair, it's from the dancer I expected the least from.

But, secondly, and possibly more important to the competition as a whole... At the very end of the show, as the credits rolled and Cat Deeley announced the local news to follow, there was a bit of text mixed in.

Some folks may have heard about the so-called "texting parties" that so greatly influenced the outcome of American Idol. Well, that won't be a problem with So You Think You Can Dance. There were a few lines of text that went by during the credits that stated that if the producers identify any "power texting," voting with the aid of "technological enhancements," or other forms of vote-bombing, they have the right to reject those votes.

I don't watch Idol, so I can't complain about who did or didn't win. In fact, I can't even say who actually did win. But I can say that I'm glad to see that this Fox competition is being run a bit more honestly, fairly, and openly. This is the kind of transparency that competitions like this, which are largely based on the votes of the viewers, should champion.

And Kayla, with that samba she did with Max... That's why I watch this show. Hot.

Yeah. I saw it. Now I'm reviewing it.

This film was hyped more than any movie since Dark Knight. Cross-promotion in Esurance and Burger King commercials, commemorative toys and glasses, teaser trailers two years in advance of release, interviews on nearly every major channel, a pre-screening for our troops in the Middle East. Not to mention, every Trekkie out there has been looking forward to this film with an ambivalent mix of dread and anticipation.

Suffice it to say, general expectations were high. Even given that, I tried to go in completely unbiased. This is something I'm quite capable of, given that my experience with Star Trek goes only so far as watching a few episodes of the original series late at night on basic cable, and watching Star Trek 4 just for its campiness (this was the film where the crew travelled back in time to 1984 to save a blue whale; very convoluted, yet fun in an it's-so-bad-it's-good kind of way). I'm no Trekkie.

That said, I loved this film.

Chris Pine has received loads of praise already as the young Jim Kirk, and I add my voice to the choir on this. He was excellent, and my hat is off to J. J. Abrams on picking up this relatively-unknown talent. Coincidentally, thanks to his performance, Chris Pine's IMDB page has seen a 900% increase in popularity since the film's release. Not too shabby.

Simon Pegg as Scotty is charming as hell, and Karl Urban, playing Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy, is outstanding. Even Eric Bana, who's never been anything wooden in any role I've seen him in, is utilized well.

The script is perhaps the most unexpected standout. As has been touted by Abrams for quite some time now, this film isn't made strictly for Trekkies, it's made for everyone. There is nothing here that requires any previous knowledge of Star Trek lore. There are very few instances of nonsensical techno-babble, and even those few are explained in layman's terms immediately. My suspended disbelief was never shaken, there were no dues ex machina, and the characters were all written much better than I would have ever expected of a Star Trek film.

The special effects were spectacular, the action was intense, and I left the film with a smile on my face. What more can you ask of a summer blockbuster?

Also, I'd like to include a side note about the plot: I'd heard a Trekkie or two complain about a certain event in the movie that they claimed contradicted the storyline of the original series. To this, I can only say that if you're not intimately familiar with the entirety of the Star Trek universe, you won't even know what they mean (I didn't till I looked it up, and still don't care in the slightest).

If I were to quantify my review for the movie... I'd say it gets a solid 90% from me. A truly fun film to watch, and suitable for the completely uninitiated Star Trek fan. Go see it.

Yes. That's right. The Republican Party have proposed a resolution to rename the Democratic Party. They wish to call them "The Democrat Socialist Party."

First of all, let me just illustrate how effective this "change" will be. According to the latest ABC poll, only 21% of Americans are registered as Republicans. And this "resolution," if passed, is a piece of paper.

Michael Steele, in his typical Michael Steele fashion - that is, swallowing some pride and agreeing just enough to appease the hardliners, but not so much as to alienate the moderates - claims that he agrees with the resolution's depiction of the Democratic Party, but would rather not see it officially become the party-wide policy.

Michael Steele, in this half-assed agreement, half-assed disagreement, claims that he agrees that Obama is taking America down a "dangerous" path to European-style socialism.

What exactly is so dangerous?

"Socialism" is a word that John McCain, Sarah Palin, and Fox News began throwing around during the election, hoping the dirty stain left on the word by Communism would frighten voters. And this campaign ploy, this cheap word, hasn't gone away.

Cuba is a soclialist country. Cuba's has a mostly state-run economy and lacks a stock exchange. Cuba's economy ranks 177th on the Economic Freedom Index. This would indeed be dangerous, and would be something to fear, were we actually on the road to becoming Cuba. But we're not. More on that later.

Now, what's really bizarre is that many point to Sweden, not Cuba, as being the chief example of socialism, and warn that we, too, could become like Sweden.

Let me explain why Sweden is considered socialist. Sweden has mostly private industry, but with many well-funded government programs available, as well as universal healthcare, government-provided education at all levels available, and does have a stock exchange. Sweden's economy is ranked 26th on the Economic Freedom Index.

Can we PLEASE be more like Sweden?

Universal healthcare, government-provided education at all levels (this is including college), a mostly private economy (this means the state does NOT control the entire economy, but rather, regulates responsibly), and these "government programs" include business start-up grants, measures to increase representation of women, granting of parental leave for new fathers, and so on. They're also really big on gender equality in the workforce, meaning equal wages for equal work.

Is this what we're fearing? Is this the "danger?"

The Republicans would have you believe that we're headed down a slippery slope towards total government control of the economy. They're bemoaning the "death of the free market." They're teabagging in the streets.

Reality is much simpler, though. The reality is, the "free market" hasn't been completely free in a very, very long time. There has been regulation in place for years; this is what the SEC exists for. Under Bush, however, and, to be fair, even under Clinton, the market slowly underwent a bit of deregulation. Had the economy been responsibly-regulated, the market collapse would most likely have been averted.

Obama is calling for stricter regulation and accountability on Wall Street. Some companies have been bailed out with government money, and as such, will be under supervision by the government to see that the taxpayers' money isn't squandered. Yes, it's true that if these policies are taken to an extreme, to such a point that the government takes control of the majority of the market, "owns" a majority of the companies, and mandates rather than regulates, we would become a socialist nation.

But that's not happening. Drafting a resolution calling the Democratic Party a bunch of socialists is more than a misnomer, it's smear tactics adopted as doctrinal party policy.

But such is the Republican Party. They can smear even the most positive aspects of their opponents. Such as the intelligence of Barack Obama - "He's an elitist."

So, go ahead, Republican Party. Draft your resolution. Vote away. The other 79% of America will write you off as irrelevant, as per usual.

I performed a nearly-40-minute set on Sunday, and I fucking killed. My concerns about the showcase at the Fizz are completely gone.

I got this spectacular set on camera, and have spent about a day or so working to create a DVD. Honestly, I don't know why I'm bothering to spend twelve to fifteen hours designing this DVD so painstakingly, given that this is a single-camera video of  mid-grade quality. Yet, here I am, working my ass off.

This thing is packed; I went all-out. The entire 40-minute set, with hand-designed scene selection, each joke in its own chapter for easier navigation, special features including an episode of the webseries I'm in, a stand-up blooper, and even the MP3 of my song, Dual-Nature. There's a special thanks page, and a contact page for booking purposes.

This is an intense amount of work. And I'm going to have to do this all over again and then some when I finally get around to intentionally filming a DVD, with multiple high-quality video cameras.

At any rate. For anyone who wants this well-designed and truly funny DVD (ignore the single stationary camera), let me know. It's called "Ken Keepin' It Real Sikora: I Do It For The Cash."