Over half a century ago a certain Dr. Frederic Wertham actually gained the attention of the US Congress over the pressing issue of the contribution of comic books to juvenile delinquency. He very much believed comic books were a direct factor, and many congresspeople seemed more than willing to believe him. From that imbroglio emerged The Comics Code Authority and the destruction of comics books as a mass medium in the US.

The numbers don't lie. Back in the mid-40s a publisher could move 500,000 copies or more of an average comic book title without half trying. Today sales figures of one-tenth that would be cause for dancing in the streets.

Do the movies made these days based on comic book characters help sales of actual comics books? In the main, not really. And what sales blips they do cause are almost always just that, blips that come and go without any lasting effect.

So no one really needs to worry, least of all those who view the matter as did the late Dr. Wertham. What few brains are being polluted by comic books today are a piss in the ocean compared to the numbers surely being rendered into excrement by TV, movies, video games, all the wonderful diversions available on the Internet.

Well, Daniel, if it's any comfort, to certain people I'm a worse Dad than you'll ever be. I never had any kids at all.

Let us now contemplate the Comics Code Authority, created as a mode of self-censorhip by most of the major publishers of comic books in the wake of US congressional hearings back in the 1950s on the influence of comic books on juvenile delinquency. The CCA was charged with reviewing all publications by the participating publishers to ascertain their suitabiity to a set of standards that Ward Cleaver would have happily pasted into the family Bible.

This wasn't a mere bump publishers either went over or drove around. Without the CCA's literal seal of approvel on the cover, a comic book would not be handled by most of the major US newsstand distributors. This meant a mainstream US comic book business that willfully targeted itself to an 8-to-10-year-old readership until, at the earliest, the late 1970s. With such clear parameters on which to base it, the "everyone knows that comics are for kids!" mindset took root in this country with a vengeance during this period, and lingers to this day.

Understand that the CCA was not a ratings body. It either approved a comic or it didn't. Publishers and their editors bent their efforts to making sure approval was assured. Spinner racks were even produced that featured placards proclaiming "Hey Kids! Comics!" at the top. Yet these efforts were only partially successful. Comics books continued to be published in the US, but the adults—the parents—remembered those congressional hearings, and especially the accusation that comics caused juvenile delinquency. And parents controled kids' discretionary income.

So, pinned down by governmental scrutiny (or the threat of same), self-censorship, and parental suspicion, mainstream comic books in the US were not a fertile ground for literary excellence. In fact, the medium overall was dying through the 1960s and very near death in the early 1970s when a new sales concept—the direct retail market—was born and eventually drained the CCA of much of its clout. The direct retail market enabled a rennaissance in US comics publishing, one that threw off most of the shackles of the CCA and would lead to the wide diversity of comic books (call them graphic novels, drawn books, whatever you like) we see today.

It is a diversity, and a degree of maturity in the medium, we should have seen fifteen to twenty years earlier. But fear and politics and public misperceptions played central roles in quashing any possiblity of that. Where US comic books would be today, without those external and internal impediments, is a very real question.

We've seen a sudden halt in the proliferation of check-cashing/payday-loan boutiques in our area. A couple have even shut down. Could this be a symptom of a slowdown in real estate sales? In spite of the fact that everyone from Phoenix and LA supposedly wants to move here?

Could the "Price Reduced" notices that have also been proliferating be an additional indicator?

I really don't want to draw any undue conclusions here, especially since the NAR must be more than able to explain how this actually indicates that the surge is working...uh, that is, the housing market is gradually turning around.

What is particularly hideous is that this person harrassing the EBIO at the U of C in Boulder is just another masked terrorist trying to create a straw man for his/her "followers" to hate and attack. And this masked terrorist will twist or ignore anything, including what's in the Bible, to achieve this end.

Anyone who thinks seriously about this for even one minute has got to wonder how scared anyone's supposed to be of a university biology department. Last time I checked, there has been no report of evolutionists ever taking to the streets to bring down God-fearing governments, or donning masks and hefting Uzis in order to go out and kidnap Creationists. Maybe that's because evolutionary theory provides almost no basis for religious-style fanaticism, which goes back to begging the question: what's there to be afraid of?

Can't say I found this one very funny. The connotations are too ugly, and too pointedly mirror other statements from real organizations with not-dissimilar objectives. As for terms like "precious baby", they're strictly for cooing aunties.