Lasantha Wickrematunge

Lasantha Wickrematunge was a Sri Lankan newspaper editor. On January 8th he was murdered by gunmen on motorcycles, his newspaper turned around and published a posthumous column he'd written earlier. In the column he predicted his own death and said "When I am finally killed, it will be the government who kills me." He mentions his three children and wife, wondering if his work and the death he earned from it is worth it

His last editorial, translated into English.

Found thru The Factual Opinion: Economist Versus Idiot...

New Comics Day 1/28/09

End of the month and a heavy pull list. Though the shop didn't have the new Buckaroo Banzai book I wanted to take a look at. Of course given that the last comic for it was pretty bad and this one was a five dollar one-shot, maybe thats for the best...

From the regular pulls we've got Savage Dragon, with Larsen basically doing single panel shots as he speeds thru about four months. Team-ups, dating attempts and Malcom adjusting to "regular" life...

Proof has a funeral for the agent killed during the Thunderbirds mission and an explanation for how the Lodge keeps their Crytids a secret. They go with the using the tabloids as cover thing. Also, I'd still like an ink monkey...

The war continues in Jack of Fables with Gary losing his temper and letting loose as the Pathetic Fallacy. And various revised Fables are given back their Unabridged stories...

Blue Beetle moves ever closer to its final issue. And Jaime and Traci attempt to go to a nice, normal school dance. I mean nothing could happen at a school dance. Certainly not an invasion by the newly freed from the Reach and organized to stop "tyrants" Blue Beetle Corps right? Stupid aliens...

In The Umbrella Academy: Dallas Number Five gives the low-down on his time travel escapades to sister The Rumor. And his former co-workers Hazel and Cha Cha play with The Seance and Space Boy...

Wolverine: First Class has more fun and games with Werewolf-erine and Team-Up of Kitty Pryde and Werewolf-By-Night. Where we learn that Kitty shouldn't be allowed to drive again for awhile...

Nova introduces Nu-Xandar, built from the lobotomized Ego the Living Planet. Which is something that TOTALLY won't come back and bite someone in their A.I. butt I bet. Oh and Reed Richards and the Worldmind geek out at each other...

And we finish with Avengers: The Initiative. Good news, the two stories (one about Robot/Clone Thor run amok and one about the Shadow Initiative going to take down Hardball in Marjipoor) are both solid. Gage picks up strong as the solo writer with Slott off to write regular Avenger stuff. The bad news? New artist Humberto Ramos' stuff looks like crap for much of the book. Especially his fight sequences. He draws a decent Gorilla though...

The Wrestler

Here is the deal. I'm a lapsed wrestling fan. So I bring some extra baggage to this movie. Even allowing for that, this is a movie more than worth seeing. The Oscar nods to Rourke and Tomei are well deserved. And watching Rourke as Randy "The Ram" Robinson is heartbreaking. Especially as he attempts to rebuild some kind of relationship with his estranged daughter (with another stellar performance, from Evan Rachel Wood)...