Cartoon Saturday

On this date in 1876, General George Armstrong Custer made one of the world's premiere bad military decisions when he decided to attack an Indian encampment on the Little Bighorn River in what is now South Dakota; speaking of bad decisions, Republican majority leader Eric Cantor petulantly walked out of budget negotiations this week, insisting that it was now up to the President to cave in to Republican demands to strike the word "tax" from any discussion of the current budget crisis; today is the anniversary of the birth in 1903 of English author and journalist George Orwell, who would have appreciated Republican social and economic theories; actor Peter Falk, famous for his portrayal of disheveled, underestimated, yet shrewd and tenacious detective Colombo, died yesterday at his California home; and rising flood waters have forced thousands of people from their homes in North Dakota.

Yes, Dear Readers, it's been another week that cries out for the relief of Cartoon Saturday.

Budget reduction negotiations ... or petulant demands, if you're a Republican ... are big news here in Disneyland-on-the-Potomac this week. Everybody has an idea of what it will take to get government spending under control and in line with income (can't say taxes or the Tea Party will picket my house). This is probably the next feature of Republican economic theory to come out in the discussions ...

Nobody likes to pay taxes, but they do serve a purpose by providing the funds the government needs to provide essential services. Of course, we could do without them ...

It's easy to blame "the government" for all of our problems. Unfortunately, anarchy and total, uncontrolled freedom (or license) doesn't work quite as well for maintaining social order and providing services as far-right wingnuts would have you believe. Maybe there is a role for responsible, prudent government (not that the Republicans would ever admit it) ...

Cartoons based on stories and characters from mythology are often very funny. Here are three spins on the tale of Pandora's Box:

I've used this one before, but it fits the theme, so ...

Pandora was once a child ...

And she may well have had other boxes to play with as well ...

Here's a twist on one of the classic sub-plots of war movies ...

Earlier this week, Amanda blogged about her concern with her son's possible challenges with numbers. But he's only four years old, for pity's sake. His uncle Bilbo, closing in rapidly on the big six-0h, has his own issues with numbers ...

Now this is my kind of cartoon - it combines two things I love: steak and puns ...

And to wrap things up for this edition of Cartoon Saturday, we look at one of my biggest pet peeves ... and the sort of creative way I'd love to see it addressed ...

It looks like it's going to be a nice day here in Northern Virginia ... with any luck, I can get some much-needed yard work done, and a few inside chores done as well. And who knows? - perhaps I can even get in some quality, quiet time to read and write a letter or two.

Stranger things have happened.

Have a good day and a great weekend. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo