Cartoon Saturday

Fierce fighting between government forces and rebels continued in Syria, with large numbers of civilians among the casualties; in the wake of the sexual abuse scandal at Penn State University, a statue of legendary coach Joe Paterno was removed, and debate has begun about whether Paterno should lose his place in the College Football Hall of Fame; presidential wannabe Mitt Romney came down with hoof-in-mouth disease during a European trip meant to burnish his foreign policy image, when he insulted his British hosts over the adequacy of their preparations for the Olympics; strong opposition from lawmakers reacting to pressure from the business community has weakened a proposed law meant to provide minimum standards for protecting critical infrastructure systems; and - as usual - calls for reasonable controls on certain types of deadly weapons and ammunition are diminishing with the passage of time since the massacre at an Aurora, Colorado theater.

Well, although you probably wouldn't know it from listening to the current news, there are Constitutional amendments other than the Second, and one of them protects your right to enjoy Cartoon Saturday. Aren't you fortunate?

As usual, we lead off with the week's "best" (yes, the term is relative) pun cartoon ...

How low can you go? Two cartoons riffing on the limbo theme ...

and ...

When animals strike back ...

The GOP is slowly, agonizingly, coming up with some ideas of its own for health care reform (other than simply screeching about how bad the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, is) ...

This one is great, if only because it's so ridiculously bizarre ...

Some people just don't know how to dial back the intensity ...

High-tech solutions to low-tech problems ...

This is another one of those cartoons that's funny, if pretty obvious ...

And finally for this week, my co-worker Brenda sent me this cartoon, scientifically designed and 100% guaranteed not to offend anyone* ...

And that's how it is for the last Cartoon Saturday in July. The weather forecast here in Northern Virginia continues to call for hot and muggy conditions with isolated thunderstorms**, so I need to check on my stock of critical high summer supplies: gin, tonic, fresh limes, and ice. You can't be too careful.

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

Bilbo

* Don't worry ... the way the world is today, there's bound to be someone who will be offended.

** This is actually the same forecast we use every day between July and November ... it saves time and effort for the meteorological prognosticators.