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The villains associated with The Flash may be the only villains arrayed against a single hero that have ever taken on a group identity The Rogues Gallery. I must confess to not being entirely sure why either. I have theory, but it is mine alone. Villain groups are common against hero groups, but it's rare against a single hero.

Like Superman, the Flash was a pretty tough to beat character. They kept trying to come up with a worthy opponents and the Flash just was able to handle them too easily. They had to team up for a fighting chance.

Things started to get really interesting with the Rogues when Barry Allen died. For those not in the know, Barry Allen was the Flash from the early '60's until the mid to late '80's when he died, eventually to be replaced by Wally West, who was Kid Flash when Barry was around.

The Rogues genuinely mourned the loss of Barry. He may have been the enemy, but he was their enemy and they actually resented that they were not the ones to bring him down. They actually helped Wally get going as the Flash. They figured "the game" was no fun without a worthy opponent so they nursed the kid along for a while.

As time has gone on, real ying/yang thing has developed between the Flash and the Rogues. There are very serious rules that should not be broken and the Rogues have been known to fight by Wally's side when a bad guy violates those rules.

It's important to remember that not every bad guy the Flash faces is a Rogue. Officially Captain Cold, the guy in the hood with the frosty shoulders, is the leader of the gang. The Rogues are, in large part the second string villains that face the Flash. The top picture shown here are of guys that are really a little too formidable to qualify as rogues. Oh sure, they have teamed up with the Rogues from time-to-time, but they aren't hanging out with them.

And yes, the Rogues have a hide out and they hang around a lot there, mostly boozing and playing cards. It's more clubhouse that hide out really, except for the fact that its extradimensional and therefore impossible for the Flash to find.

The Flash is one of those heroes made far, far more interesting by his villains. Wally has far better character development than Barry ever did, but that is still, in large part because of the villains he has worked off of. Some have, as is inevitable in situations like this, "left the dark side" and are practically members of Wally's family.

There is another reason the Rogues have organized -- because the Flashes have. Barry may be dead (well sorta, you know how these things go in comics) but Jay Garrick is still around and Bart Allen has come from the future to be the new Kid Flash, and then there are all the other speedsters in the world. There's pretty much an army of people that run really, really fast.

I like Flash's Rogues Gallery. They may not be the most worthy opponents, or the worst villains, but they are some of the most entertaining ones out there.

Related Tags: comic books, comic art, comics, Flash, Rogues Gallery, DC Comcis

The interior dome of the "Cathedral of the Spilt Blood" in St. Petersburg, Russia. Nobody does Easter like the Russians.

Related Tags: Good Friday, art, beauty, Russia, St. Peterburg

Whith thank to Great Dane Addiction!

Related Tags: humor, Friday humor, Easter humor

Related Tags: scripture, Christianity, illuminated scripture, beauty

But I could not believe I found this blog, let alone that it was advertising on Haloscan.

Declaring War on Easter, Beyond Belief Media has launched a preemptive attack on the Christian holiday, the company announced today. "Operation Easter Sanity" has already begun.

Using its documentary THE GOD WHO WASN'T THERE as the chief weapon, Beyond Belief Media is covertly planting DVDs of the film in churches throughout the United States. The popular movie, currently ranked #1 on Amazon.com's independent documentaries list, is critical of the irrational beliefs of Christians and asserts that Jesus Christ did not exist.

"IRRATIONAL?" I don't see many Christians playing spy and "covertly planting DVDs" in local atheistic watering holes.

You must agree these people are just juvenile, which is why they will enjoy the juvenile response here in the left. Courtesy the BBC

Images taken by Europe's Mars Express spacecraft show a crater on the Red Planet that looks like a "happy face".

See - God's getting the last laugh.

Related Tags: Easter, atheism, Mars, Smiley Face, crater

Between Two Worlds maps the religious landscape.

Vice without a downside strikes me as a bad idea.

Okie on the Lam stays all over that fool in Texas that think most of us ought be dead.

Predicting the inevitable is a no-brainer, regardless of circumstance.

Scotwise sings of joy!

Is a genuine religious war in the offing? I wonder based on this piece from the Waffling Anglican.

A chemical weapon?

Related Tags: maps, religion, vice, syntehol, Planka, global warming, extinction, joy, religious war, prune

In No Particular Order

Al Mohler on JS Bach's faith and music

Catez Stevens on Stephen Hawking's Brief History of Time, its philosophical implications, or lack thereof.

Timothy P McConnell at Common Grounds Online on being a military Chaplain and a death in the line of duty. God bless EVERY soldier.

Always Reformed, Always Reforming on the intersection of faith and politics.

Prometheus on science as a tool of politics

Mark Steyn on Iran.

Finally, something that made me laugh - well a little, laughter hurts post-surgically.

Related Tags: links, daily links, science, faith, Bach, politics, Iran

INSTALLMENT #4

Read this story from the beginning at The Terrorbuster Saga Blog

True to form, the President loved nicknames. He constantly called Carter "Terrorbuster," which Carter loathed. Every time the President used that name, Carter thought of children?s shoes and that ugly dog and he cringed. But the guy was President. There was little Carter could do.

Carter did, however, love the other nickname the President had for him ? ?PhD sweeper?. The first time he used it Carter must have looked very quizzically at the President because the President went on to explain that most people started with a BS degree, and of course everyone knew what that stood for. Then they got an MS, which stood for ?more of same.? Finally they got a PhD which stood for ?piled high and deep.?

The President's work day always started with the PDB, Presidential Daily Briefing, as delivered by the National Security Advisor with mounds of input from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, head of CIA, head of FBI, and all the other "lesser" intelligence agencies. The document itself was one of the most heavily classified documents in the government and it was supposed to give the President the best and most important information on National Security for that day. It was,; however, often more an exercise in agency infighting than anything else. One had to sort through a great deal of chest-thumping, posturing and finger-pointing to get to the meat of the matter. In other words, it had a PhD all its own.

Carter's briefing of the President was not an independent briefing. Rather, Carter "sat in" on the PDB electronically. Actually, he could watch the document come together first at the various agencies and then in the NSA's office and at the same time he was able to access the raw intelligence that lead to this highly filtered, massaged, spun, and targeted document. This was the second thing Carter did every morning, after his general scan.

Then, using a special circuit he had set up in the President's office, he would watch the meeting from his own office. When the meeting was over and everybody left the room, the President would hit a few buttons on his computer, Carter?s image would appear and the President would say, "How high and deep today?"

Time in his office alone like this was rare for the President. He had long ago left specific instructions he was not to be disturbed after the PDB so he could "work off his morning bran muffin."

On this particular day, Carter told the President that the intel was good, just the usual assortment of politics mixed in, but there must have been something hesitant in his voice because as he got ready to sign off the President asked, "T-buster, what aren?t you telling me?"

Carter reflected that the President probably wanted him for this job because he was the worst liar on the planet. (And to think he wanted to be a field agent ? they live lies!) He had to work very hard not to show visible signs of his distaste for that name as he responded, "It?s probably nothing, sir."

"You?re sounding like them now - that?s not what I?m paying you for."

Carter quickly told the President about his radiation finding in Mobile and what he had done about it.

"Sounds like you did good to me, so why the concern?" was the President?s response.

"Because it's too close to a large spike in communications within one of the apparent terrorist cells working in southern Asia."

"Now that," says the President, "is what I am paying you for. None of these other yahoos picked up on it. So what are you going to do?"

"Sir? We have no appreciable assets in? I just monitor and redirect?."

"There you go making me waste my money again T-buster." The President said the nickname with a certain emphasis that let Carter know...The President knew Carter found it irritating. Despite seeing through the President?s obvious motivational ploy, it worked. The fire in Carter's belly had not cooled completely, but it had definitely settled to "simmer" during these last months in the Executive Office Building. Now it was blazing.

"Sir, I may need?," but the President cut him off.

"Carter," Carter knew it was serious when the President called him by his actual name, "I'm paying you to be a sneaky bastard, and to sweep the piles. I'm paying you because you are more interested in the job than in the piles. I'm also paying you because you are one of the most highly trained sneaky bastards in the country."

That was the first reference the President had ever made to Carter's training. It dawned on Carter that the President knew a lot more about him than he had let on. Carter knew that maintaining deniability for the President was a big part of his job. Had he just been given permission to go out in the field?

"Highly trained sneaky bastard on the job ? SIR!" and the connection was severed.

Related Tags: fiction, comic books, story, terrorism, terrorbuster, GWOT

I've been sharing about the troubles in my own PC(USA). Here is a great link to some revival resources and this declaration is one to whcih I will hold tight. Please pray for my denomination.

This video from FOXNews makes me say only one thing "SHIELDS UP! RED ALERT!"

This link to the WSJ requires subscription, but says more about environmental litigation that a dozen books

For 30 years, judges have sat by as the tort bar flooded courts with phony suits, dragging some 75 companies into Chapter 11. Bankruptcy judges have proved particularly resistant to investigating swindles, fearful of the months such probes would add to already complex proceedings. Yet the past few years have witnessed a reversal. The insurance community, whose deep pockets paid the asbestos bar's ransom, has mounted an aggressive legal campaign to expose fraud. Its cause was bolstered last June when a Texas federal judge, Janis Graham Jack, issued a blistering opinion showing that many law firms responsible for the asbestos mess had subsequently "manufactured" silicosis suits "for money." Under pressure, judges have started allowing some digging into their cases.

This would be funny if it wasn't so sad

Reduced air pollution and increased water evaporation appear to be adding to man-made global warming.

Research presented at a major European science meeting adds to other evidence that cleaner air is letting more solar energy through to the Earth's surface.

It's a trap, no matter what we do, global warming will get worse, and someone will have to pay - see item above.

Finally, file this under too little too late.


Which leads me to where I have been this extended weekend. A couple of years ago I had become a very large man - VERY large. In the past two years I have been working pretty hard to get smaller, losing well over 100 pounds - without the bariatric surgery. Last Thursday, I did; however have some surgery done to remove "leftovers" that occur with that kind of weight lose. Five hours on the sleepy gas, big stuff

Now, before you tell me how truly wonderful I am - I still have some weight to lose, so your prayers and encouragment are welcome, but your congratualtions are best saved for the final completion of this process. That also means, before and after photos will wait until all is said and done.

This has come at a time when I am very busy with work and the recovery means I do not see a fully productive day in my immediate future, so the energy and concentration I can muster will have to be first devoted to income producing activity. Thus blogging is likely to remain sporadic and light for several weeks.

Many thanks to my readers! God Bless.