A Comic-Book Plot in the Making

Reuters sends this dispatch from the Lwate Prefecture in Japan:

A professional wrestler who fought his way to victory in local assembly elections under his ring name and wearing his trademark mask has vowed the mask will not leave his face even after he enters the staid halls of Japanese politics.

"This is my face," the wrestler -- known as "The Great Sasuke" -- was quoted by the Nikkan Sports newspaper as saying of his black and white full-face mask with bright scarlet streaks and golden wings by the eye holes.

So how many comic-book superheroes have run for office? How many of them kept their secret identities while doing it?

All Syria, All the Time

The local laundromat's TV is always... uh ... informative. Today it's on FOX News. It's pretty much all Syria, with an occasional Pentagon briefing. The anchorman interviewed an IR expert who said we had no legal pretext to invade Syria, and if we wanted to remove its WMD we'd have to send in UN inspectors. The anchorman was having none of it: 'Do we have to go through the whole rigamarole again?!' It was obvious he thought we should stop pussy-footing and invade the place pronto.