Cartoon Saturday

And away we go ...

With the huge budget cuts of the so-called sequester poised to jolt the country back into recession, Congress remains on vacation with all sides trading blame rather than ideas; on Thursday, shooting and a fiery crash left three people dead on the Las Vegas Strip ... oddly enough, the killer used a gun rather than chasing after his target's car and beating its occupants to death; another huge winter storm is marching its way across the country, threatening the northeast with "staggering" amounts of snow and rain; the nation's fleet of F-35 fighter jets ... all 51 of them, valued at nearly 400 billion dollars ... has been grounded for investigation of cracks in the engine compartment; and former Olympic hero Oscar Pistorius - known as the "Blade Runner" for his unusual prosthetic legs - has been released on bail in South Africa as he awaits trial for the murder of his girlfriend.

There's not much to laugh about in the news, so that's why I bring you Cartoon Saturday.

This week, in honor of Congress's decision to go on vacation and President Obama's decision to take a golfing trip to Florida instead of dealing with the looming threat of the "sequester," I thought a collection of cartoons about clowns would be appropriate ...

I've used this one before, but it just seems appropriate to lead with it ...

I thought this was a clever twist on the "cloud computing" craze ...

It's not always funny when clowns need counseling ...

Clowns are noted for wearing outlandishly large shoes. This cartoon takes off on that idea ...

And this one uses the same basic idea, but with a clever pun as well ...

Even clowns can suffer from the occasional embarrassing social faux pas ...

Occupational hazards for an Ob-Gyn attending to a pregnant clown ...

There are all sorts of specialized video games out there ...

When clowns go to war ...

And finally, Congress returns from its vacation on Monday to continue shamefully pointing fingers instead of soberly addressing the nation's problems* ...

And that's it for this week's edition of Cartoon Saturday, brought to you by the clowns you elected.

It's going to be a wet, miserable weekend here in Disneyland on the Potomac, great for staying inside and doing fun things, like finishing the letter I promised my granddaughter in Germany. And recovering from the happy beating I took from my local granddaughters while babysitting last night. You have no idea how much kinetic energy can be stored in a five-year-old and a two-year-old. Well, I guess Amanda does.

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

Bilbo

* If you don't get the joke, just think of famous songs by Judy Collins.