It's not like Dylan was the only one who was prolific. He drew from other poets and writers as Jim Morrison does. He is not the only game changer. But he is a prophet who wants to remain anonymous and not understood.

Thor is a god from the Norse mythology, not Greek, but the idea to make him into a superhero is just lame. Hancock did it a bit better (though he's a lame superhero too).

Green Arrow/ Hawkeye - they turned Robin Hood into a cop, wow, big achievement...well, at least, he doesn't shoot black kids...

Beast - the premise is interesting, but I didn't like the execution.

Wolverine - personally, I hate the yellow costume. The way I see it, him wearing plain clothes makes him more...real, but that's just me. Still, there are other, better costumes for him out there.

Silver Surfer - never really understood this character.

Green Lantern - well, the premise is also decent - one gets a magic ring that gives them superpowers (sounds more like fantasy than sci-fi, but what the hell?). I only wish they didn't add all those colored rings because if feels like Power Rangers...or Sonic the Hedgehog (come on, there's Sonic - blue, Shadow - black, Super Shadow - golden, plus there's Sonic gf - pink, Sonic's brother and sister - green and pink accordingly, etc., just lame!).

Aquaman - oh please, that's just an Amphibian-man rip-off!

Superman - he bores the shit out of me, he's just too righteous, and he talks funny. A real goody-two-shoes!

Wonder Woman - this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2bD7Mpixl0

Bravo! You said it better than I did.

Guternberg? Really?

Thurgood Marshall was the first African American justice of Supreme Court.

I visited Duluth in April this year following a family wedding in Stillwater, Min. I was there 3 days before I saw any mention of Dylan. Wake up Duluth you are missing out. Cllr Tricia Gilby, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, UK.

Good job, Carol!!!

No, you didn't call the subjects of your most recent hit job racists. For instance this sentence, "But, of course, it is not the building they fear, but who will live in it: people of color. I mean renters." That sentence had no relationship to the wide paintbrush you smeared everyone attending the planning meeting in opposition to the first proposal. Suuure... I applaud these people who showed up and expressed their views. They have every right to use the tools provided to them to voice their support or objection to something happening in their neighborhood. Because they steadfastly organized, please don't backhandedly call them racists and then at the end of your attempt pose a halfhearted retraction. You served nothing in this column. All you did was a smear, aimed at good people to fuel an overt contempt for that side of town. Good luck gadfly!

Thanks, Chesterman! I'm having a great time with my column.

Please don't let anybody know my name. I live in a poverty stricken, high drug use area in Duluth. I have called the police a few times in the 5 years I've lived here. I have found that they treat me as a criminal for calling them. I will never call them again no matter what I see or hear. Police brutality goes beyond color. It's a matter of economics.

Not religious myself I get more than a little tired of people hating on religion. Please enlighten me as to who expends more money, time, effort on behalf of the poor. I see many problems with organized religion. But it offers better than the alternatives. Few of the religious I know are murderers, rapists, armed robbers, thieves and assorted other hooligans. Yeah, they may be guilty of sexual misadventure, (cheating) and lies, distortions and any number of mischievous deeds. But overall I see them more as givers than takers. There are as well giving atheists. And there are downright EVIL people who profess to be holy. But given the choice of 1000 at my back, I'll take the believers, the true believers.

Required reading: How the Mayor Ann Coulter blinded the peasants into believing her own library would make them special.

Peter Yarrow is brilliant and perceptive in scope. Great job on the article, Paul.

Mr. Kohls' article contains so many factual errors and sinister insinuations and innuendos that it would be impossible for anybody to address all of them.

Genuine historical scholarship does not attempt to manipulate readers by use of ad hominem slurs, gross exaggerations, half-truths and defamatory accusations, and outright falsehoods.

Describing the Birch Society or its founder (Robert Welch) as betokening "authoritarian, anti-liberal, anti-Semititic (sic) and racist ideologies" is so blatantly false that it discredits Mr. Kohls as an impartial or fair-minded critic.

I will briefly address just two of Dr. Kohls assertions re: the alleged anti-semitism and racism of the JBS.

1. ANTI-SEMITISM

The JBS welcomes people of all religious faiths into its ranks as members, as writers for its publications, as paid speakers and as chapter leaders, section leaders, and Coordinators for the JBS as well as on its National Council (the official governing body of the JBS). For example, when the JBS was formed, prominent Jews were among the first members -- including Albert Kohlberg, Dr. Samuel Blumenfeld (who passed away earlier this month) -- not to mention such major JBS writers, speakers, and officers as: Gary Allen, Alan Stang, Joseph Siegel, Dr. Barney Finkel, Georgia Gabor, and David Eisenberg.

About 5 years after the JBS was founded, JBS members of the Jewish faith created the Jewish Society of Americanists to defend the JBS from libelous attacks such as authored by Dr. Kohls.

Significantly, any JBS member who expressed anti-semitic sentiments was terminated as a member. In fact, many famous virulent anti-semites wrote scathing articles which denounced both Welch and the JBS. See, for example, articles by George Lincoln Rockwell and William Pierce. Pierce was the former Information Officer of the American Nazi Party and (later) he founded the neo-nazi National Alliance

Lastly, for now, to my knowledge there has never been a genuine anti-semitic individual or organization in history that has ever declared that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion was an anti-semitic forgery. Significantly, the JBS published articles and created a webpage to explain the history of the Protocols as an anti-semitic forgery intended to demonize and de-humanize all Jews.

2. RACISM

What Dr. Kohls "forgets" to mention is that the JBS also welcomed African Americans into its ranks as members, authors, chapter leaders, and paid speakers. In addition, it is significant to report that it was a JBS member (Rev. Delmar Dennis) who infiltrated for the FBI the most violent Klan unit in our nation's history (the White Knights of the KKK of Mississippi) and its was the testimony of Rev. Dennis that was responsible for convicting numerous Klan members for various crimes.

3, FRED KOCH

As often happens when ideologues write articles about subjects they know little or nothing about -- Dr. Kohls omits materially important factual information in his article. For example, Kohls "forgets" to mention that Fred Koch resigned from the JBS because he considered the views of Robert Welch to be "too extreme".

I'm sorry, Mr. Whyte, but your interview is problematic.
First of all, Peter Yarrow was not "the guy behind" the song "If I had a Hammer". Yes, he and his cohorts, Paul and Mary, recorded it on their very first album; in fact, they would close their concerts with it. The song was, in fact, written by Pete Seeger and Lee Hayes.
Second, I wish you or someone in your organization had proofread your text. For example:
"In the since that there was all the fraternities and the wealth of the parents."
"...the dangers of doing it wrong now stell the real possibility of the destruction of the planet."

Jane Hoffman is one of the few writers who doesn't inflate the fact and gives a bent on stories that are factual and relevant. I would like to see more of her stories on U.S. government.

Wow.
I think this is a fantastic piece of investigative journalism. -what a refreshing contrast to the DNT's city-spun narratives. I had no idea this kind of reporting- reporting the truth- was going on at the Reader.
I've been turned off in the past by flaky content of some Reader contributors, but this, to me, warrants wading through some muck.
Thank you very much for your service to the community.

You betcha this makes me angry! This article is a brilliant eye opener and should be sent immediately to be set on Governor Dayton's desk. Carla Arneson understands the value of clean water and the health of Minnesota's people and other living things. It's people like her we need as legislators instead of our current spineless representatives.

You can beat a dead horse but what Mayor Don Ness did wasn't that big out of the ordinary. He picked a spot he liked. There has been no retribution in the the Duluth News Tribune. Your only power is in the words you write but they aren't going to make an impact.

I agree that having "objective" consultants secretly push the mayor's agenda at taxpayers' expense is not out of the ordinary. What is unusual is that this time we caught them red-handed.

Obviously the News Tribune won't say anything about it, because that would mean having to admit the administration played them like puppets. Articles about rhubarb festivals are more their speed.

Whether or not my words have an impact is beside the point; the real question is how I feel about writing them. I feel awesome!