An article I agree with

I tend to read townhall.com more to know what conservatives are thinking than because I agree with anything. (To know what their opponents are thinking, I have no problem: I just have to watch TV.) Nevertheless, a couple of articles today have really impressed me, and one, in particular - by Allan Hunt - I agreed with every word of. Here is the link: http://townhall.com/columnists/AllenHunt/2009/08/31/john_edwards_outclasses_rick_pitino,_really!?page=full&comments=true - but if any of you for any reason prefer not to increase the hit count of townhall.com, I have placed the whole article behind the cut.

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Walt Disney acquires Marvel

I don't know whether to be happy or not. On the one hand, given Disney's current habits, this will do nothing to slow down Marvel's descent into unmitigated sleaze. (Find out how many Marvel characters are now said to have incestuous relationships, you'll be surprised.) On the other hand, it probably represents the final end to the old and bad tradition of Marvel being the cash cow for financial adventurers using it for their own purposes. (Two words: Ron Perelman. I think that using the company you are buying as collateral to have the money to buy it, and thus load it with debt the moment you bought it, ought to pass from the number of sharp financial practices into the register of criminal frauds.) Whatever else may be said about Disney, it is at least an entertainment company, and to that extent its goals are the same as Marvel.

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At 92, Dame Vera Lynn, the musical heroine of World War Two, is in the charts again; but I found that less plasant and worth noting that, in a TV report today, she was shown with a house full of CDs. That shows an ongoing interest in her trade, and a vivacity of mind, that does a lot to explain how she got to her venerable age with her faculties intact.