If you’re not following my friend Dave’s MY YEAR OF EVERYTHING project, here’s a good example of why you might want to start:

The Enemy Of My Enemy Is Kind Of A Dick:

This morning, I found out that Glenn Beck is simulcasting his Christmas show ‘The Christmas Sweater: A Return To Redemption’ in theaters nationwide this Thursday, and that one of those theaters is not far from my new house. I think Glenn Beck is a jackass, so I immediately emailed three good friends and made plans to go. I mean, how can you miss a return to redemption? You sneak in a flask of bourbon, and you’ve got material for weeks. Comedy writer heaven. Better than ‘New Moon.’

I posted my intention to go on Twitter, figuring the more the merrier, and went to work. A couple of hours later, I logged back on and found reply after reply to the effect of: ‘your a looser!’/’boy, glenn beck gets all the brainiacs!’/’your so stupid!’ Huh? Anyone who even sort of knows me knows I’m kidding, right?

Reading back, the mishegoss started with a message from the Twitter account of an anti-Glenn Beck website: ‘It’s not just Scott Baio, now Former MTV VJ @DaveHolmes has come out as a Glenn Beck fan!’ And since this account doesn’t follow me, it would appear that he just does Twitter searches for ‘Glenn Beck’ and rolls his sleeves up for a slapfight. Even with political kingmakers like Scott Baio. This is how we define ‘activism’ in 2009. Fantastic.

I don’t mind being called names. (I do mind the misspellings, but what are you gonna do?) Here’s what galls me: this guy sent out incorrect information with my contact info on it, a clear incitement for his followers to send me vitriolic messages, and his bio reads: ‘I’ve had enough of Glenn Beck’s vitriol, misinformation, race baiting, & incitement of violence – and so should you.’ Too bad I’m white, because we had a good shot at an irony grand slam.”

(Via My Year Of Everything.)

You can hand your old comics out at Halloween (which, unless you have a huge collection of Scrooge McDuck’s, I do not recommend), donate them to your local library, put them in the recycling bin, leave them at a barber shop or use them for kindling (we’ve done that and honestly, for a few of those comics it was no better than they deserved).  One of the most satisfying options, however, is to send them off to American troops fighting overseas.

Andy Khouri and Mark Sable asked me on Twitter yesterday to remind them how you go about doing that.  Good news: it’s pretty easy.  You’re going to be out the price of postage, but it’s worth it.

Here’s how it works:

1. Go to anysoldier.com.
2. Click on WHERE TO SEND.
3. Click on ANY SOLDIER SEARCH TOOL.
4. Leaving everything else blank, put either COMICS or COMIC BOOKS into the REQUESTS AND EMAIL CONTENTS field.  (As I write this, COMICS returns 8 units requesting comics–7 Army, 1 Air Force; 5 in Iraq, 1 in Qatar, 1 in Afghanistan and 1 in the Philippines.)
5. Click on one of the soldiers names and read their email, making sure what they want is actually what you’ve got.  Often they’re specific — they want funny comics, or newspaper comics, or Marvel comics, or they may even request a particular hero.
6. Once you find someone who either wants what you’ve got or is just generally requesting comics, click where it says CLICK HERE TO REQUEST THE COMPLETE ADDRESS.

Now, it’s been a while since I’ve done this and I can’t proceed any further right now because I don’t actually have any comics to send, but if I recall correctly, you fill out a short form and then you’re emailed the soldier’s address.  I believe you can request up to 2 addresses per day.  (While you’re at it, you might look at what else your soldier is requesting–sometimes it’s something as simple as cotton swabs.  Surely you can throw a package of q-tips in the box.)

The postage fees you pay to an APO or FPO address are NOT international shipping rates.  You pay domestic rates, so while you are picking up a bill, it’s pretty small considering the effect.  And it’s worth mentioning that our local UPS store in KC used to pack up any donations for troops overseas for free.  They’ve since changed ownership and we’ve since moved, so I have no idea if that’s common practice or not, but it’s certainly worth asking.

Good luck!