Sometimes, the news is just too weird, even for a comics fan. Now a mayor is accusing U.S. President Barack Obama of purposefully sabotaging A Charlie Brown Christmas. Good grief!

In more grounded news, Peanuts video maven Scott McGuire points out that Warners has released a DVD of all the short new Peanuts animations that they’ve been offering for download. It’s a print-on-demand DVD-R thing, which means it may not be the ideal archival disk, and it’s currently available only through the Warners website. I don’t think the “motion comics” format looks as good on the big screen as full, proper animation… but there’s about 70 minutes worth of shorts on this disk, giving it more cartoon material than most Peanuts DVDs.

For today’s shameless commerce bit, I’m not going to offer up one of those big bargains. Instead, I’m going to mention something that I’ve found to be a great value.  I’m a Netflix subscriber, and that’s a great service if you want to see just about any movie on DVD with two or three days planning. And Netflix includes free streaming for a ton of movies that you can watch instantly – only a fraction of what’s out there, but when you want something to watch right now, you can find it. Only promise is that the streaming goes to you computer If you’re paying your monthly TiVo fees, or if you have one of the higher end HDTVs with Internet connection, you can take it right to your screen… but if you don’t have those things, get a Roku box. My wife got me one as a gift, cost just shy of $100. It hooks up easily to the Internet (either via cable or wifi) and to the TV (with a variety of connectors, so hen I upgrade to HDTV, it’s ready), and I can now stream my Netflix movies right on the TV. It also streams Amazon videos, and some Major League Baseball service, but those cost. Now, there’s always something for me to watch. It works out well. If you’re a Netflix subscriber, this box is a good deal.

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