CSotD: Past, Present, Future
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Pat Bagley offers a rebuttal to Trump's notion that it's smart to avoid taxes, quoting not simply a great jurist but a staunch advocate for veterans. Holmes doesn't get the credit he deserves in history books, but he's known and quoted not only for his opinions from the bench of the Supreme Court but on Memorial Day as well.
The notion of a social contract seems antiquated to some and central to others, but Holmes personifies the citizen-soldier as well as anyone in our history.
It's frustrating to see all the weepy flag-worship over our "heroes" coming from the same self-centered sources who don't want to spend a dime on education or health care, and who applaud Trump's me-first attitude.
But that's what this election is about, after all: Are we serious about our form of government and society, or is it just a pleasant cover story?
Speaking of which, let me say this not in defense of Trump but in defense of truth:
Stop saying Trump "dodged the draft" with five deferments.
I did not even know that taking a II-S (student) deferment through the four years of a college degree counted as four deferments. I assumed it was one, and a very temporary one at that.
Each fall, when you registered for classes, you signed a card saying that you were still there. I would have called it one deferment, but I guess each fall counted as a new one.
In any case, about half the males in our age group took a II-S in order to go to college. Some went into the service when they graduated, some never did. Some had to make a decision about the draft, others never did.
And, admittedly, there was a small contingent who went to notoriously lax schools like Parsons for the sole purpose of claiming a II-S.
They were not statistically significant and were not well-respected at the time, but, while the prospect of the draft did keep young men from dropping out of school without giving it a lot of thought, there is no evidence that Trump was any less of a student than anyone else.
If Trump is a draft-dodger for having taken a II-S (or four of them), he is among millions of "draft dodgers" and so you need to STFU because you're outnumbered.
The heel spurs letter is more interesting, mostly because of the timing.
Spurs are not permanent and, had the lottery not made it irrelevant, he'd have had to go back to confirm that they were still an issue, but, yes, he dodged the draft, based on one medical deferment. And, as Chris Britt notes, it puts him in no position to comment on other people's service.
Here's the thing: You don't have to lie to make this guy look like a schmuck, and you don't even have to lie to make him look like a draft dodger.
And you sure as hell don't have to slander the millions of us who took student deferments.
Coming attractions
Go Comics has sort of announced a major site change.
I say "sort of" because they're pretty cagy about what it entails and are gearing the announcement not so much to the Go Comics Blog where I found it as to the New York Comic Con, which I figured out because, when I signed up to try out the beta version of the new site, my confirmation email said "Thanks for stopping by the GoComics booth at NYCC. We enjoyed meeting you!"
Well, I'm sure all their changes will go smoothly from here.
Meanwhile, I hope they do get their search engine improved and I also remind you that both GoComics and Comics Kingdom memberships should be part of every comic fan's standard yearly purchases.
Once I get on the beta, I'll let you know what I find.
And speaking of things you can buy
Again with the early holiday shopping: The Nib has a calendar of obscure holidays featuring illustrations from their growing stable of unobscure artists. Go have a look.
I'm still thinking wombats, but this is tempting, too. Both wombats and independent-minded cartoonists are endangered, after all.
Juxtaposition of the Woodsy/Wooly
Otherwise known as "Just when you thought it was safe to litter again."
John Deering's Tuesday panel is belied by a cartoon curriculum series current in the Aspen Daily News, and, much as I laughed at poor Woodsy the Owl, I take my hat off to Wooly the Mammoth, because this is not only a pretty good payday for the cartoonist and whatever other curriculum writers got involved, but — speaking as someone who does this sort of thing for a living — it's a pretty good example of doing it right.
"Wooly" isn't a random character, by the way: There is a major fossil bed at Snowmass currently being "recycled" by the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and others.
Cory Thomas and I collaborated on a national curriculum piece several years ago, and it's not something you just knock off in an afternoon.
You find yourself constantly walking a line between the demands of an often humorless educational bureaucracy — the client — and the demands of what kids will find attractive and fun — the audience, though it's actually the teachers you need to get on board.
Having walked that line with mixed results over the past couple of decades, my hat is off to Wooly and his gang.
Plus it's a victory any time a cartoonist pays the rent. To pay the rent and feel good about the way you did it is a victory indeed.
And finally:
And then there are all those other times. Thank god for sympathetic wives.
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