The Right-Cheek Ass Clown for November, 2023

As we approach the end of the year and the designation of our last five Ass Clown awardees for 2023, the churning cesspool of candidates continues to make it difficult to single out individuals ... or even groups ... for proper derision.

After long thought, I've decided to do something different this time. Instead of presenting this period's award to an individual or group, I'm going to present it to one of the most uselessly ugly and pernicious expressions in common usage. Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Readers, the award for 

The Right-Cheek Ass Clown for November, 2023

is presented to

Thoughts and Prayers

Last week, 18 people were murdered in Lewiston, Maine, in the nation's latest mass murder by gunfire - there have been more than 560 such mass murders so far in 2023, according to statistics compiled by the Gun Violence Archive. One would think that in a normal world, carnage at that level would result in swift and effective action to address the cause ... but you would, of course, be wrong, because this is the United States, where the worship of firearms is the national religion. Rather than addressing the proliferation of powerful, military-style semiautomatic weapons (not to mention firearms of all sorts), the standard response of our "leaders" is to piously offer Thoughts and Prayers for those murdered and their families, in lieu of positive action to address the root problem. Thoughts and Prayers is the meaningless buffer used to defer action, because the immediate aftermath of a mass murder is always said to be "too soon" to consider remedial action, as if it's wrong to think of solutions at the moments the effects of the problem are most obvious. You may recall that I have previously addressed this with Bilbo's First Law of Temporal Suitability - 

Thoughts and Prayers is the excuse used by those who close their eyes to the problem of widespread access to powerful weapons, and leaders who try to deflect responsibility for the horrible carnage to "mental illness" while routinely voting against allocating the resources to deal with it. It sounds pious and caring, but masks cowardice and avoidance of reality.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Readers, the Right-Cheek Ass Clown for November, 2023, is Thoughts and Prayers - the dodge used by cowards to avoid responsibility while seeming to care. After all, if the massacre of more than 20 young children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 wasn't enough to spur action, nothing will be.

Have a good day and come back tomorrow for the first Cartoon Saturday of the new month. More thoughts then.

Bilbo