Election Day

Today, Tuesday, November 7th, 2023, is Election Day.

Many people view elections like today's to be relatively minor, with local offices on which we're voting mostly confined to more or less unexciting contests like (as here in Fairfax County), members of the state Senate and House of Delegates, County Sheriff, Chair and members of the County Board of Supervisors, members of the Soil and Water Conservation Board, local school boards, and various bond issues. 

Because there's no "major" office on today's ballot - President, Senator, or Member of Congress, for example - a lot of people won't come out to vote. This is a seriously mistaken viewpoint, though, because our state and local officials have a lot more impact on our day-to-day lives than our national leaders. You may complain about the federal income tax, for instance, but you pay a lot more taxes and fees imposed by your state and local officials. Your state and county (parish, in Louisiana) govern the zoning around your home, the sales taxes you pay, how your children are educated, and whether you have an honest and effective sheriff's department or a corrupt, lawless minor tyrant (see Constitutional Sheriff).

If you only vote in national elections, you are ignoring the offices that have the most effect on your life. True, it's critically important to make sure that a corrupt and ignorant wannabe tyrant like Der Furor never again reaches the White House, and that gawdawful ignoramuses like Ronny Jackson, Empty G, Matt Gaetz, Louis Gohmert, Rafael Cruz, and the like don't get elected or re-elected to Congress. But do you want someone who wears a tinfoil hat and despises much of the population because they're the wrong color, religion, or sexual orientation making decisions on your child's education?

I am working today, as I do each election day, as an Election Officer at my local precinct. I look forward to greeting my friends and neighbors as they arrive to do their civic duty, as I hope you will do yours.

As the old saying goes, "we're all in the same boat" ... just make sure you have a voice in how that boat is steered.

Have a good day, and vote today. If you don't, you have no cause to complain about your government.

More thoughts coming. 

Bilbo

Poetry Sunday

It's the first Poetry Sunday of the month, and it's appropriate to call out the eleventh month as we get ready for what may be a tough winter in a very tough year ... 

In November

by Lisel Mueller

Outside the house the wind is howling

and the trees are creaking horribly.

This is an old story

with its old beginning,

as I lay me down to sleep.

But when I wake up, sunlight

has taken over the room.

You have already made the coffee

and the radio brings us music

from a confident age. In the paper

bad news is set in distant places.

Whatever was bound to happen

in my story did not happen.

But I know there are rules that cannot be broken.

Perhaps a name was changed.

A small mistake. Perhaps

a woman I do not know

is facing the day with the heavy heart

that, by all rights, should have been mine.

Have a good day and enjoy the rest of your weekend. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

Cartoon Saturday

It's time to kick off a new month. Or is it time for a new month to kick us? 

Many thousands of persons, including women and children, continue to be killed in the murderous war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, with the violence threatening to spread across the Middle East; Cryptocurrency magnate Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted of defrauding consumers and investors of his FTX currency exchange of at least $10 billion; an Australian woman charged with murdering three people with poisoned mushrooms has also been charged with trying four times to murder her ex-partner; Der Furor's adult children testified under oath (and under protest) in his business fraud trial in New York City, with Der Furor and his daughter Ivanka scheduled to testify next week; and in Australia, a woman who arrived too date to board her flight at the Canberra airport evaded security and raced out onto the taxiway and attempted to flag down her departing flight to prevent being left behind. She was arrested by police, and will get to her destination much later than planned, and certainly not by air unless shot out of a cannon.

This week, in honor of all the intractable, never-ending problems and futilities of the world, we turn to Greek mythology and the legend of Sisyphus, punished by the god Hades to roll an immense boulder up a hill for all eternity, only for it to roll back down every time it neared the top. 

How even the ancient Greeks could make the best of a bad situation ...

The job interview ...

Irresistible force meets endlessly movable object ...

No rest for the weary ...

Endless labors updated to the year 2023 ...

I wonder what will happen when Hades finds out ...

The cats manage to get into everything, don't they ...

That's a pretty simple to-do list ...

Sisyphus's GPS was pretty easy to program ...

Do you suppose Hades would allow a snow day?

And there we have it - the first Cartoon Saturday of the month of November - I hope you enjoyed it.

Don't forget that this coming Tuesday is Election Day ... be sure you are registered and be sure you turn out to vote. Most of the races in this election will be for local or state-wide offices, which many people ignore, even though they have much more of an impact on our daily lives than the presidential elections. Get out and vote. And remember that if you don't, you have no right to complain about your government at any level.

Have a good day and a great weekend. More thoughts coming tomorrow on Poetry Sunday - see you then.

Bilbo

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

Freedom of Speech Then, Freedom of Speech Now

A major topic of discussion lately is freedom of speech, a fundamental American freedom less valued than the right to pack iron, but nevertheless generally considered to be relatively important.

When most of us think of freedom of speech, we have a mental image of the famous Norman Rockwell painting of an everyman standing up to have his say while his neighbors listen respectfully ...

Nowadays, though, the image called to mind by freedom of speech is more likely to be Der Furor whining noisily about the injustice of being called out by a judge for his hateful and inflammatory rhetoric ...

or American nazis and crazy racists of all sorts exercising their freedom of speech to demonstrate their ignorance of history, denial of reality, embrace of hatred, and utter lack of empathy, and to deny the same freedom of speech to others ...

It's a reminder that while we have freedom of speech, not all of that free speech is worth listening to.

Have a good day, and come back tomorrow when we name the Right Cheek Ass Clown for November. More thoughts then.

Bilbo

Musical Sunday

Yesterday we celebrated the birthday of country music star Charlie Daniels, who went to that big hayride in the sky back in 2020. What could be more appropriate (and more timely) for our last Musical Sunday of the Halloween season than Charlie Daniels' story of the time the devil went down to Georgia ....

Yes, the Devil did go down to Georgia, but it wasn't souls he was looking to steal. And this time, he's not facing Johnny's bow, but Fani's jury.

Have a good day and enjoy the rest of your weekend. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

Cartoon Saturday

Just when you think it can't get any stupider ... 

After three weeks of embarrassing flailing and buffoonery, House Republicans elected hard-right Louisiana Representative Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House; the nation's latest mass murder by gunfire took place in Lewiston, Maine, where at least 18 people were murdered and dozens injured by a suspect who seems later to have committed suicide; Der Furor was fined another $10,000 by Judge Arthur Engoron for comments made about a member of the judge's staff; the brutal war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza continued, with many thousands of dead and injured, mostly civilians and including many children, on both sides; and in New York City, rescuers worked for ten hours to free a man accidentally trapped in the steel-reinforced concrete vault of a building housing several jewelry businesses, only to find that the door was on a timer and would have eventually opened by itself the following morning. 

This week, our final Cartoon Saturday of the Halloween season honors the often-overlooked Creature from the Black Lagoon ... 

Yep, that would work ...

The economy is so bad that even monsters need a second job ...

There's good news, and there's bad news ...

I think I'll skip the black beans in future recipes ...

No wonder he's angry and ferocious ...

I'm not sure that's the right reaction ...

Even monsters have musical preferences ...

He's probably better than a lot of others ...

Dating a creature can be a problem ...

He's not so scary ...

And there you have it - our final Cartoon Saturday salute to Halloween for 2023 ... I hope you enjoyed it. 

Have a good day and a great weekend, and make sure your Halloween decorations are ready. More thoughts tomorrow, when our final Halloween-season Musical Sunday goes down to Georgia in search of the Devil - see you then.

Bilbo

Great Moments in Editing and Signage

It's the last collection of the month, and awaaaay we go ...

Oh, look! Deviled eggs are on sale ...

Ewoclem mats, only 6 Euros each! What a deal ...

My garden must be worth a fortune ...

That must be why it's on sale ...

That lamb must be completely worn out ...

I guess it was an understandable mistake ...

A pitcher of what?? ...

I wonder if they've had problems with that door ...

Ummm ... okaaaay ...

In case you want to treat yourself to lunch after your colonoscopy ...

That's it for now, but there'll be another collection in two weeks. Don't forget to e-mail me great examples you find!

Have a good day and come back tomorrow, when the Creature from the Black Lagoon emerges from the swamp (no, not Washington, a different one) for our final Cartoon Saturday of the Halloween season. More thoughts then.

Bilbo

Here We Go Again

As I write this, the person who murdered at least 18 people and injured dozens more in a mass murder by gunfire in Lewiston, Maine, is still at large.

I'm tired of writing about the carnage we can lay at the feet of the gun lobby and those besotted with a desire to own and brandish military-style deadly weapons. Nobody listens, anyhow. Instead, I thought I'd perform a public service and offer something useful at times like this ... 

Mass Shooting Checklist

1. Send thoughts and prayers. Tearful performance in front of cameras is optional.

2. Lower flags to half-mast.

3. Declare that the aftermath of a mass murder is not the right time to discuss remedial actions. Consult the diagram below to determine an appropriate time.

4. Describe the precipitating cause as “mental illness,” “troubled childhood,” or “workplace issues.” Divert attention from the gun as the instrument of violence by noting that people are killed by knives, explosives, strangulation, and other methods as well.

5. Argue over semantics of the term "assault rifle."

6. Invoke the supremacy of the Second Amendment and describe firearms deaths as “the price of freedom.”

7. Ensure proper terminology is used (NOTE: never use the term “murder” or “murderer.” Approved terms include “incident,” “active shooter incident,” “shooter,” “perpetrator,” “suspect,” or similarly fuzzy expressions which do not reflect negatively on the Constitutionally-protected status of firearms. Minimize use of the term “gunman” ... the more generic “shooter” should be used instead, as it implies that the victim might have been shot with a bow and arrow, blowgun dart, or the like.)

7a. If the suspect is Muslim, use "terrorist." 

7b. If the suspect is Christian/White, use "lone wolf" and cite "mental illness" or "troubled past" as motivating factors

7c. If the suspect is Black, use “gang member.”

7d. If the shooter is Mexican/Latino, use “illegal immigrant” or “alien,” regardless of the actual citizenship status; “gang member” may also be used.

8. Congress takes no action other than to vote against funding for mental health care. 

8a. NRA increases donations to members of Congress just in case.

9. Ensure at least five copies of this checklist are on hand at all times.

That's all. Hug your children when they leave the house, duck at loud noises, and put kevlar clothing on your Christmas wish list. Nothing else will get done, anyhow.

More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

Poetry Sunday

October marches on, Halloween draws nearer, and it's time for our next poetic salute to the season ...

Theme in Yellow

By Carl Sandburg

I spot the hills

With yellow balls in autumn.

I light the prairie cornfields

Orange and tawny gold clusters

And I am called pumpkins.

On the last of October

When dusk is fallen

Children join hands

And circle round me

Singing ghost songs

And love to the harvest moon;

I am a jack-o'-lantern

With terrible teeth

And the children know

I am fooling.

Do they really know you're fooling?

Have a good day and enjoy the rest of your weekend. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo