CSotD: Thursday Short Takes
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Mike Thompson takes a poke at the chickenhawks who would like to see us take on a major nuclear power because, y'know, it would make us more macho and stuff.
I've recently-and-often said that I don't much like chickenhawks, and I like them even less since the draft ended, since now they aren't even required to get their golfing buddy, Dr. Goodpal, to declare their kid asthmatic or pull some strings to get Sonny Drysdale into the National Guard so he doesn't end up in harm's way.
Of course, today we send the National Guard into harm's way, so that wouldn't be a safe dodge anyway.
But while Phil Ochs and several others have been right that "it's always the old to lead us to the war, always the young to fall," I'm not that fond of a lot of the young either, because, with no draft hanging over their heads, they can be pretty brave and bold, too.
And the sad part is, I've already addressed it and am unlikely to improve on this. If you don't want to click, here's some of what you'll miss:
Back in the summer of 2002, I sat a booth at the Washington County Fair on behalf of the paper I was working for.
Across the way from us was a booth signing people up for VISA cards. If you signed up for a credit card, you got an American flag towel.
Next to us was the United States Army Reserve, also willing to provide information on signing up.
I guess I don't have to report on which booth was mobbed with 19-year-olds and which one was avoided as if they had been handing out cases of the plague.
I went into more depth and there was a kick-ass Danziger cartoon, but it boils down to this:
Show up or shut up.
And anybody who is going to advocate killing some more of our kids needs to also advocate a tax increase to pay for it this time around, and to pay for caring for the ones who come home needing care.
Not to mention facing the risk of sending their own kid.
And another thing:
Stuart Carlson nails it. Right now, I'm about ready to give up watching TV because the afore-mentioned "Americans for Prosperity, Warm Cookies and Puppy Dogs" have a massive campaign going to defeat Jean Shaheen (Oh, I'm sorry, no, that's not their intent. This is only "Tell Jean Shaheen" advocacy which is permitted under their tax-free status. Which the IRS must never look into, because Benghazi.).
Anyway, it's a series of outrageous lies about the Affordable Care Act more or less along the lines of Carlson's cartoon and having the Voice of Doom in your face two or three times every hour on every channel is incredibly obnoxious.
We really need to get a handle on this, but, in the meantime, let's not push the controversial Goebbels "Big Lie" button, because that becomes its own cyclical argument.
And we only have to push the "OJ Acquittal" button.
We all know OJ killed her. We all know he had the money for high-priced attorneys. We all know his entire defense consisted of lying, about where he was, about what he did and about the evidence being presented against him.
And it worked.
And it's working again.
And then there is this:
Terri Libenson, I would assume based on today's Pajama Diaries, is surrounded by Vampire Romance, but I'll bet she's not as surrounded as I am, since I assign book reviews to middle-school reporters and, man, do they love this stuff and, man, do the publishers inundate us with examples.
Of course, libraries are on tight rations, and they do need to retain relevance, so you can't blame them for having limited collections.
But the other half of that — the whole idea of what kids should be reading — reminded me of yet something else I already said about as well as I'm ever gonna say it.
(click to embigen)
And also:
Ha! This was a trap! It's a piece that Sandra Bell Lundy did, not in her guise as friend-of-the-blog but in her guise as friend-of-the-festival.
Which means it's a reminder that the Kenosha Festival of Cartoon Art still seeks supporters. If you went to the indiegogo site before and thought about making a donation, you may want to go think about it again, because the goodies you can get keep changing.
For instance, Jimmy Johnson has just donated signed copies of "Beaucoup Arlo & Janis," his huge hardbound definitive collection of that strip. And two of the five are gone, so don't dawdle.
As I've said before, the bonuses are worth the price even if you don't particularly want to support a free festival that helps promote comics to the general public.
Which, y'know, you might not. I guess.
Juxtaposition of the Day
The juxtaposition is an interesting case of similar theme and different perspectives. Both have been trying to get kids involved in something worthwhile.
Deflocked — which has taken the little lad off to a dude ranch — engages in a little mockery, not so much of the generation as of the stereotype that surrounds them, more metahumor than gen-bashing.
In fact, if there is any bashing going on in this pair of thematically linked strips, it's in the mockery of parents who just can't back off and let a kid enjoy something, but have to "help," mostly by turning it into something tedious and, by the way, one more thing to work into the family schedule.
If I may offer a bit of comfort to parents whose kids are not yet out of the nest, mine found things they cared about and became wonderful at and have turned into successful careers.
On their own.
Once I had shut down the helicopter and it got quiet enough that they could hear themselves think.
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
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