It's a bird! It's a plane! It's ....

Super Duper Hero Person!

(CNN) -- Mr. Ravenblade, Mr. Xtreme, Dark Guardian and hundreds of others. Some with elaborate costumes, others with haphazardly stitched outfits, they are appearing on city streets worldwide watching over the populace like Superman watched over Metropolis and Batman over Gotham City.

As people become disillusioned from financial woes and a downtrodden economy and look to put new purpose in their lives, everyday folks are taking on new personas to perform community service, help the homeless and even fight crime.

"The movement is growing," said Ben Goldman, a real-life superhero historian. Goldman, along with Chaim "Life" Lazaros and David "Civitron" Civitarese, runs the New York-based Web site Superheroes Anonymous as part of an initiative dedicated to organizing and making alliances with superhero groups.

According to Goldman, who goes by the moniker Cameraman because of his prowess in documenting the movement, economic troubles are spawning real life superheroes.

"A lot of them have gone through a sort of existential crisis and have had to discover who they are," Goldman said. People are starting to put value in what they can do rather than what they have, he said. "They realize that money is fleeting, it's in fact imaginary."

Estimates from the few groups that keep tabs put the worldwide total of real-life superheroes between 250 and 300. Goldman said the numbers were around 200 just last summer.

Just don't walk in front of a gun, you guys. Nobody but Superman is faster than a speeding bullet...

Longing for the days when men were men

And women were chaste... *sheesh*:

Ann of Feministing:

I can't believe we missed this. Last week, after a debate over legislation that would amend the state constitution to say that it does not guarantee the right to abortion or require funding for abortion, Tennessee state Sen. Doug Henry (at right), said,

“Rape, ladies and gentlemen, is not today what rape was. Rape, when I was learning these things, was the violation of a chaste woman, against her will, by some party not her spouse. Today it’s simply, ‘Let’s don’t go forward with this act.’ ”

In the modern era, now that all women are dirty whores, rape is really no big deal. After all, women can just say no!

Perhaps we should write Sen. Henry an email or two and let him know what has and hasn't changed about sexual assault in this country?

Apparently women being in charge of their bodies has made rape so much harder to define or something. Damn those hippies! At this very moment, Sen. Henry is receiving an education from women across the US. (Read the comments to Ann's post.)

Happy Valentine's Day to you, sir!