One of the consequences of Americans’ increased concerns about terrorism and the rise of an enormous American security state has been a corresponding (if not casually related) rise in entertainment about that security state. We don’t just have shows about cops anymore. We’ve got shows and movies about intelligence analysts, and field agents, and the politics of intelligence. Apparently, even Claire Danes is getting in on the market with a starring role in a Showtime series about a Department of Homeland Security analyst in a vaguely Khost-like situation.

What I’m curious about is whether the popular backlash against the Transportation Security Administration will affect any of this popular enthusiasm for terrorism-busting shows. My sense is that it won’t. Americans haven’t been particularly concerned on a broad level about the expansion of the surveillance state as long as it doesn’t touch them, be it physically, or in the form of inconvenience. I do think a lot of the folks behind National Opt-Out Day are concerned about both civil liberties and a sense of physical violation and inconvenience that comes with airport security. But I don’t think that this protest, even if it changes policies, which I hope it will, is necessarily going to be part of major shift in either our politics or our entertainment. Even if folks were going to make the connection between TSA screeners and the snazzy terror-fighters on their screens, I think we’ll still collectively enjoy seeing whether we can beat the bad guys too much to turn off the TV every time the Department of Homeland Security comes on-screen.

Is it me, or is this video a little…introspective for B.o.B. at this point in his career?

I understand that the process of getting famous has become dramatically accelerated in the age of the mixtape and the internet, and that it is probably pretty overwhelming to rise this fast. But “Don’t Let Me Fall” is both a reflection on fame and B.o.B. at the top of his game. He could stand to be a little more exuberant about it. It’s not bad to be this famous and successful! And I’d hate to see him go the mopey way of Drake at just 22.

I feel like I’ve been ragging on Jeph Jacques’ Questionable Content a lot recently, both in my writing and in conversations with friends who are long-time readers of the strip. I thought Jacques had essentially punted on a major potential plot development that had been a long time in coming. And so I feel like I have an obligation to say I was wrong, and that Jacques surprised the hell out of me last week, delivering one hell of a narrative punch in the process.

I absolutely love the process of discovering a new webcomic and reading through the archives in a tear. But last week’s QC was a reminder of how satisfying serials are. Of course, we have the serial experience on television. But I have this intense nostalgia for what it must have been like when novels were routinely serialized before they were published. I can only imagine what that anticipation and communal cultural experience must have been like. I want a world where we’re all rushing out for the newspaper or the latest installment of a literary magazine because we’ve just been left hanging, and we’re going crazy, and we’re collectively desperate to know what happens next and to talk about it. I want it to feel like the night of a Harry Potter book release all the time.