Vol, 9, No. 7

Jeff Taylor | February 14, 2006

In this issue:

1. Gunning for Trouble
2. Batman vs. bin Laden
3. Iran: Brilliant or Batty?
4. Quick Hits
5. New at Reason Online - The Age of Corporate Environmentalism
6. News and Events

1. Gunning for Trouble

Only the relatively minor injuries of Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting companion make this weekend's hunting accident, in which the V.P. inadvertently unloaded a round of birdshot into Austin attorney Harry Whittington, remotely humorous. For once again we are confronted with the almost indestructible bubble in which the upper tier of the Bush administration conducts its day-to-day affairs.

Had the owner of the ranch at which the accident occurred not phoned the local paper with the story, and had a reporter for the local paper not followed that call up with a call to the White House demanding some response, the world might still be unaware of the incident. No huge to-do was required: Just call the pool reporter within a few hours and put out a brief, factual release about an embarrassing but minor snafu. That did not happen, and now the irked press corps smells a story, which it will doubtless proceed to beat into the ground.

Everyone comes off worse as a result, not to mention that public trust in this administration takes another hit. A few pellets, really.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html

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2. Batman vs. bin Laden

No joke. The Dark Knight mastermind himself, Frank Miller, is deep into writing a new graphic novel featuring the caped crusader defending Gotham City from al Qaeda. Miller is unabashedly saying he intends the work to be anti-terror propaganda, a throwback to the days when Captain America battled Nazis, the Red Skull, and Hitler himself.

Miller says the work is an emotionally raw story featuring a hero reacting to an attack on his beloved city. He also intends the book to be "a reminder to people who seem to have forgotten who we're up against." To that end, it seems likely Miller's previously complex Batman will have to give up some of his demons to throw the evil of al Qaeda into sharper relief.