Cartoon Saturday

Another week gone by ...

Dozens of people are dead and destruction is in the millions of dollars as tornadoes ripped a deadly swath across the American Midwest; 1960's teen idol and Monkees lead singer Davy Jones passed away at his home in Florida; professional far-right gasbag Rush Limbaugh finally went far enough over the decency line that even House Speaker John Boehner said his remarks describing a young woman who advocated for women's access to birth control before a Congressional panel as a "slut" and "prostitute" were "inappropriate;" a civilian mortician who was recently demoted for misconduct in handling remains of American war dead at the Dover Air Force Base mortuary has resigned; and Russia is preparing for tomorrow's elections, which are widely expected to return former President Vladimir Putin to power ... one way or another.

Yep, no doubt about it ... it's time for another big dose of Cartoon Saturday.

We lead off with the traditional ghastly pun ...

Nessa has complained that I don't feature enough cartoons about dogs, and so I thought I'd comb my collection for a few cartoons that cater to that demographic. Perhaps she and Izzy will enjoy these ...

It's the 21st century, and even the dogs are going hi-tech ...

And ...

And ...

Meaner than the proverbial junkyard dog, he is ...

In case you can't read the sign on the gate, it says "Beware of dog's attorney."

If you're going to beg, you might as well beg properly ...

Well, it works for Rush Limbaugh ...

You sometimes need to be able to get that wet-person smell out of your car ...

It pays to have just the right breed of dog for your optimum companionship ...

And finally, I'm over the miserable cold that hit earlier this week. Believe me, I was sick as a ... uh ... never mind ...

And so another week disappears down the rubbish chute of history. The coming week should be a good one ... Agnes gets back from Germany on Wednesday night, so I can finally get past this dumb sleeping-alone thing. Tomorrow, we're going to try to set up a Skype call between Agnes in Germany and my daughter's house so that the great-grandparents in Germany can see Leya and Elise live, as opposed to just in pictures. We tried to do this a year ago, when Agnes was last there, but it didn't quite work out ... Elise, the very happiest and laughingest of children, just stared blankly into the camera, and Leya thought it was more fun to hammer the mouse on the keyboard than actually talk. Wish us luck for more success this year.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

Monkee Music ... So Long, Davy Jones

Editorial Note: this is a corrected copy of the original post, which originally reported that it was Mickey Dolenz, rather than Davy Jones, who had passed away. I should know better than to post late at night, after a few glasses of wine with dinner. Oy.

This past week it seems that everybody has been blogging about the death of Davy Jones of the 1960's group The Monkees ...

Why should I be any different?

I really enjoyed The Monkees and their music back then, and I still do today. Songs like "Last Train to Clarksville," "Daydream Believer," "Look Out - Here Comes Tomorrow," "Sometime in the Morning," and "Don't Listen to Linda" were among my favorites when I was a teenager in the mid-60's, and are in my "The Very Best" mix on my iPod today.

Lately, though, I've been thinking about another song by The Monkees that is pretty timely today ... "Shades of Gray," from the album "More of the Monkees." Here are the lyrics:

When the world and I were young, just yesterday,
Life was such a simple game, a child could play.
It was easy then to tell right from wrong,
Easy then to tell weak from strong,
When a man should stand and fight or just go along.

But today there is no day or night,
Today there is no dark or light,
Today there is no black or white, only shades of gray.

I remember when the answers seemed so clear,
We had never lived with doubt or tasted fear.
It was easy then to tell truth from lies,
Selling out from compromise,
Who to love and who to hate, the foolish from the wise.

But today there is no day or night,
Today there is no dark or light,
Today there is no black or white, only shades of gray.

It was easy then to know what was fair,
When to keep and when to share,
How much to protect your heart and how much to care.

But today there is no day or night,
Today there is no dark or light,
Today there is no black or white, only shades of gray,
Only shades of gray.

Oh, and let's not forget another of my favorite songs: Joanne, by Michael Nesmith.

There was a lot of talent in that group. The Monkees may not have been the greatest group ever, but they were great enough for me.

So long, Davy. Wherever you are, they're enjoying great music.

Have a good evening. Cartoon Saturday will be up in a few hours...

Bilbo

The Best Defense Is a Good Offense ... If You Can Afford It

As Congress casts its covetous eyes across the federal budget, seeking politically safe things to cut so as to bring spending more into line with income, one of the few semi-sacred cows appears to be the defense budget. Republicans pride themselves on appearing to be strong, stalwart defenders of the realm, while Democrats are afraid to not appear to be strong, stalwart defenders of the realm. Another reason it will be difficult to cut the defense budget is that so many other parts of the economy depend upon it: all the small businesses and housing markets around military bases that cater to soldiers, sailors, and airmen; the gigantic military-industrial complex that provides tens of thousands of jobs building weapons (or parts of weapons) in key Congressional districts; and the simple fact that no other country can project power, for good or ill, the way we can.

Yes, there's an enormously powerful, multi-faceted lobby that defends defense, and there aren't any really obvious things to cut from the budget.

Which brings me to a defense program the GOP and the Democrats could probably agree on, at least for simple political advantage: build a Death Star ...

There would be a number of advantages to this, even though it would be a ... gasp! ... government spending program, according to this article: How Much Would a Death Star Cost?

1. It would require about 1.08 x 10¹⁵ tons of steel, giving a major boost to America's long-moribund steel industry, with all the attendant jobs. That much steel would require a very great deal of iron ore. This is, happily, available in sufficient quantity at the earth's core, which would give a major boost to the mining industry for millenia.

2. The steel industry would need, at current rates of production, about 833,000 years to make that much steel, ensuring long-term employment for very large numbers of steel workers.

3. And think of all the construction workers who would find certain employment for hundreds of thousands of years! And all the other people who would support them: the people driving the food trucks (or food space shuttles, or whatever), the electricians, the metal fabricators, the lawyers to handle all the inevitable lawsuits over workplace safety, etc, etc.

Yes, Dear Readers, if we really want to give the economy a major shot in the arm, we should ignore the small thinking of people like Newt Gingrich, skip the little stuff like building moon colonies, and build the Death Star. Not only would we have full employment over the vastly long term, but just think of how easy it would have been to get rid of a Saddam Hussein or an Osama bin Laden with one shot! Of course, that shot would eliminate the rest of the world, too, but hey - if you're going to insist on a strong defense, there's no such thing as too strong.

Write to your Congressional reprehensives today. Insist on the Death Star - the ultimate stimulus package.

Tell them Darth Bilbo sent you.

Have a good day. See you here tomorrow for Cartoon Saturday.

More thoughts then.

Bilbo

Yes, Leap Day Was Yesterday ... Just Bear with Me on This, Okay?

I really do wish my 2,000^th post would have been yesterday, like the Blogger Dashboard said ... how cool would it have been to have that milestone occur on Leap Day, eh?

Leap Day. What a concept. You know all about the leap day, of course, because every newspaper and website in the world had a story about it yesterday, explaining about how it actually takes the earth 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds to go once around the sun, and so every four years a day has to be added to the calendar to account for the extra time. Why that day had to be put in February, of all months, heaven only knows ... had it been my decision, I'd have put it in a nice month like May or June. We could even have slipped it in right after Christmas so we could have an extra holiday.

If only they'd asked me.

Because the leap day has fallen in an election year, the bloviating political classes are enjoying the free gift of an extra day to pour out lies, half-truths, distortions, and other general BS intended to obscure their own ineptitude while convincing the unthinking masses that their opponents are all greedy, ungodly, racist, baby-murdering thieves unworthy to hold elective office, much less being allowed to actually exist and breed. If you doubt that, just count up the number of actual, specific, well-thought-out solutions to any of our problems which have been offered by anyone running for president. I'll wait while you do ... it won't take long.

Back so soon? I thought so.

Anyhow, today is March 1^st, a whole day later than usual. Less than a week until Agnes returns from Germany. I can't wait to have her back ... it's not easy putting up with all this ass-clownery without her help.

And that's all I have to say for today. My cold has abated to the point that I think I can go back to work, at least until everyone starts putting on those filter masks and wiping down everything I breathe on, at which point I'll come home and go back to bed.

Nothing like having a plan, is there?

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

The Shortcomings in My Education

Without appearing to pat myself on the back too much, I like to think I'm a man of many talents. I can cook well. I can dance a mean tango (and waltz, and rumba, and other dances). I enjoy writing interesting and chatty letters (as many of you know from personal experience) and am very good at reading to children.

But for all that, I am a babe in the economic woods. I don't understand a lot of the economic gobbledygook spewed out by the presidential wannabes and have to work very hard to make sense of the competing statistical broadsides launched by each political party. It continues to amaze me that different commentators can use different interpretations of the same data to prove diametrically opposing positions, in the same way that accountants using differing accounting systems can use the same data to prove a profit (for the shareholders) or a loss (for the tax man). I wrote about this back in December of 2008 in this post. I wish I understood economics, but I don't, and I'm not likely to in time to be as well-informed as I'd like to be for the presidential election.

And this is why this article, which has been in my blog fodder file for a while, is very timely: Politicians Exploit Economic Ignorance, by Walter E. Williams. I don't agree with everything Mr Williams writes, but he does make some very good points about taxes and the double-talk and sleight-of-hand politicians use when they try to convince us about who really pays them, and why.

Where I break with Mr Williams is where he discusses the issue of taxing corporations. He writes that a corporation faced with a tax increase on its profits has three options: raise the price of its product (which essentially passes the tax on to its customer ... you); lower the dividends it pays to its investors (which could well be ... you); or lay off workers (which might mean the loss of a job ... yours). His main point is that "In each case, it is people, not some legal fiction called a corporation, who bear the burden of the tax."

Mr Williams was, of course, writing before the Supreme Court decided (in Citizens United v Federal Election Commission) that corporations are, in fact, people. And Mr Williams clearly implies that economic ignorance means ignorance of conservative economic theories ... under which anything that interferes with the ability of a corporation to make maximum profits is bad.

It's true that, ultimately, it's you and I who pay taxes, because we can't afford the reinforced battalions of high-powered lawyers and lobbyists who ensure that corporations and the very wealthy are legally protected from the burden of taxation. Is this fair? Well, of course it is, if you're a corporation (excuse me, a person) or a very wealthy individual. If you're a member of the struggling middle and lower classes, not so much.

And this gets back to my original wish ... that I better understood the ins and outs of economic theory - in both its liberal and conservative interpretations - so that I could more intelligently fine-tune my BS filter during this trying season.

Unfortunately, I'm stuck with the storehouse of information and experience I have now ... which allows loudly-shouting talking heads to give me a variation on the lecture I got from my four year-old granddaughter Leya this past weekend: she was upset because I couldn't see the gaping wound she thought was there on her utterly unscratched knee, and told me that "If you can't see that, Opa, you need to go to the hospital and get your brain fixed!"

All I can say is that it'll need a lot of fixing once the election is over...

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

Good Editor Still Wanted

I got all excited this morning when I saw on the Blogger dashboard that I had 1,998 posts. Wow! Only two more posts until I hit the magic 2,000 number!

Well, not so fast there, Bilbo ... I added up the number of posts on my archive list (over on the left side of the screen), which totals only 1,975. Why the difference? Is Blogger playing with what's left of my mind in this election year? AARRGGHH!!

Well, anyhow, I guess I'll err on the side of caution and assume that the smaller number is correct, meaning that we'll celebrate the Big 2,000 sometime next month. Next week (on Thursday) will be my sixth blogoversary, and it would have been nice to have the two events come together, but I'll take what I can get.

But you don't care about statistics, you care about other stuff ... like more great moments in editing. Here we go ...

I wonder if this is where all those dance lessons will finally end up ...

I wonder if it's just the math majors who are having the reunion ...

And if they're in the majority of the class of 1971 ...

Despite what you might think, it really is a good idea to know a second language ...

Most cops I know could work with this description of the perp ...

I don't think Agnes will be letting me stay at this particular hotel on my next trip ...

I wonder if these guys will be catering the continental breakfasts at the Republican and Democratic conventions later this year ...

What? Are you kidding?? STOP THE PRESSES!!! ...

It just might work, as long as the improvements include big-screen TVs and in-cell minibars ...

Well, I guess you've got to be practical when you make a big investment like this ...

I'm down for maintenance today with a terrible cold, so I think I'll just go back to bed for a while. Check back tomorrow to see if the coroner has been by.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

Unfortunate Apologies

If you've been reading this blog for very long, you know that one of my running themes is the danger of blind religious faith. You don't have to look very far for examples nowadays, from the desire of the homegrown religious right to impose its values on the country to the current situation in Afghanistan, where dozens of people have been killed and injured in riots protesting the burning of copies of the Quran at an American base there.

The wild rage displayed by those who protest the burning of copies of the Muslim holy book is compounded by the despicable behavior of those here at home who take advantage of the situation for cheap political advantage. I refer, of course, to the Republican presidential wannabes who have condemned President Obama's formal apology to Afghanistan for the inadvertent destruction of the books.

So, what would a President Gingrich (God forbid) or a President Romney have done?

For the record, I don't think President Obama should have issued the apology. In my heart and in the long view, I think it was the wrong thing to do, because it appears to put the United States in a subservient position vis-a-vis the Muslim world.

But let's look at the situation on the ground.

We have many thousands of US troops in Afghanistan, many of them serving in isolated or exposed positions, some of whom have already been murdered by people whose passions were inflamed by irresponsible religious leaders. Something needs to be done to help defuse the situation. Halfhearted calls for calm by some Islamic clerics and Afghan president Karzai don't seem to be doing the job, and so the President took the unfortunate step of issuing a formal apology in an attempt to help defuse the situation.

The sad truth is that deeply-held religious beliefs can drive otherwise reasonable people to terrifying acts of cruelty and violence. Whatever else you might say about Muslims - and much of it is very good - they take their religion very, very seriously. Many of them, particularly in extremely religious conservative lands like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, are spring-loaded to react with extreme negativity ... and often with violence ... to real or perceived slights against their faith. Such people would never believe that the burning of the Qurans was an accident or an honest mistake - to them, no matter what the evidence to the contrary, it's a deadly insult and an example of a war being waged against Islam by a West whose beliefs, customs, and culture they despise.

Writer and commentator Thomas Friedman once said that in the Middle East, people will never believe a simple and honest explanation of an act when it can be explained by a sinister conspiracy theory, and it's true. The average simple citizen of Afghanistan doesn't read the Washington Post or the New York Times, doesn't listen to CNN or Faux News or MSNBC, and doesn't subscribe to The Economist. He believes what his local imam tells him, and his local imam doesn't read, listen to, or subscribe to those information sources either ... that imam believes with all his closed and circumscribed heart that the West is hell-bent on destroying his faith, and makes sure his followers believe it, too.

So ...

While it pains me deeply to agree with people like Newt Gingrich on much of anything, I think the President's apology was wrong but, unfortunately, necessary. Will it do much good in the long run? Probably not. But ask yourself honestly: whatever your personal political beliefs are, what would you have done, given the many moving parts of this unfortunate situation?

Sadly, I think you'd have done the same as I ... and apologized, as much as it might have stuck in my craw to appear to bow to wild religious bigots.

Just something else to think about as you decide which candidate to back in November. And when you think about your own religious beliefs.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

Cooking for One, and a Way-Cool Website

I am now in my fifth full day of geographical bachelorhood, and have not yet starved to death.

Yes, Dear Readers, it seems that when a married man is suddenly left temporarily without wifely care and supervision, the assumption is that he will either starve to death or die buried under a vast, collapsed mound of dirty laundry and take-out food packages.

Because I enjoy both cooking and saving the money I would otherwise spend on overpriced lunches at the various eateries in and around the Pentagon, I am working my way through the list of recipes I enjoy, but that Agnes doesn't care for as much as I do ... such as my Chicken in Zesty Peanut Sauce (recipe available on request) and the platter of hot wings I made last night to eat while watching TV. I have even kept up with the dirty dishes AND washed several loads of laundry AND gotten a good start on spring cleaning (even though spring is a bit iffy at this point).

Bottom line, Nessa and I are surviving quite well ... although Nessa would like you to believe otherwise ...

Dinner tonight will be leftovers as I work on eating my way out of the refrigerator and freezer. Tomorrow, I think I might marinate and grill some pork chops ... or maybe make a batch of my famous Baked Macaroni and Cheese, which will yield a lot of leftovers for lunches. Hmmmm ... decisions, decisions ...

Speaking of food (you'll see why in a minute), I wanted to point you to a really interesting website I stumbled on the other day: Retronaut ("The past is a foreign country. This is your passport.") It's a fascinating collection of old photos and other information about years past, subdivided by decade (once you get to the 1900's) and with special sections for World Wars I and II. It's an awesome site for anyone interested in history, or for anyone just interested in taking a stroll down memory lane.

One of the things I found there was a copy of the US Senate restaurant menu from 1964 (see, I told you there was a food connection!), which features such delicacies as a 12-ounce broiled US Choice New York-Cut Sirloin Steak with french fries, green salad, hot rolls and butter, for $3.75. By way of comparison, the restaurant at the US Capitol Visitors Center today will happily serve you just the french fries for $3.50 (check the whole menu here). The Senate restaurant menu also includes, on its back cover, the recipe for the "Famous Senate Restaurant Bean Soup," which my mother used to make back in the day, and which I never did really like very much. Of course, I don't care much for the Senate in general, so I guess dissing their soup just goes with the territory.

All of which reminds me that it's time for Nessa and I to have breakfast. This afternoon, I'll spend some time with the local grandchildren, do a bit more housecleaning, and then ... well ... I guess I'll just do whatever it is that geographical bachelors do. Probably be in bed by 9:00.

The life of the swinging single, eh?

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

Cartoon Saturday

And the ass-clownery just keeps on coming ...

In Afghanistan, deadly riots continue and at least three people are dead in protests over the burning of Qurans at a US base; international inspectors report that Iran is increasing its efforts to enrich uranium, probably in order to build the nuclear weapons they say they're not building; GOP presidential wannabe Newt Gingrich said that if elected, he would get the price of gasoline down to $2.50 per gallon; international leaders meeting in Tunisia have promised to get really, really angry if Syrian president Bashar al Asad doesn't stop what he's doing; and Hollywood is preparing for its annual orgy of self-congratulation as Oscar night fast approaches.

Don't worry ... Cartoon Saturday is here to get you through it all.

In leading off with the awful pun of the week cartoon, I was torn between going with the political in "honor" of the ongoing GOP scrum ...

Or with the just-plain-silly ...

Ever had to do one of those sleep tests? This is pretty much how it really works ...

The bad news is that an election year brings bumper crops of lies, distortions, robo-calls, yard signs, and general BS. The good news is that it's all good for cartoons. Here are a few of the latest good ones ...

This is why you really need Fact Check.org ...

Yes, elections ... and, particularly, primaries, can actually be fun ...

Old adages, updated ...

There's something to be said for getting back to basics ...

As I suspected ...

Gives new meaning to "pain in the neck," doesn't it? ...

And finally, there's the old joke about the woman whose husband was a notorious hypochondriac. One day, she runs into a friend who asks how her husband is doing. "Well," she says, "I think he's worse. He used to think he was sick ... now he thinks he's dead." Which leads me to today's final cartoon ...

And so we end another week here in Disneyland-on-the-Potomac. We're expecting bright and sunny weather today, but with a high wind warning. The winds will be worse than usual, of course, since Congress is in session.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

Remembering the Important Things

I've written a number of times in the past about the need to forgive or forget things that happened in the past, and how the acts of forgetting and not forgetting can be something for either good or ill (you can read one of those posts here).

I thought about the dual subjects of remembering and forgetting again yesterday when I saw this article on CNN: Fury Over Japanese Politician's Nanjing Massacre Denial.

It seems that the mayor of the Japanese city of Nagoya set off a firestorm of rage in China when he made comments which downplayed the 1937 incident in which Japanese troops raped and murdered as many as 300,000 people in Nanjing. He was quoted as saying that "It is true that a considerable number of people died in the course of battle. However such a thing as so-called Nanjing Massacre is unlikely to have taken place."

A statement issued by the Nanjing information office said, "The historical facts of the Nanjing Massacre have been solidly proven. The claim by Kawamura [the mayor of Nagoya] is extremely irresponsible. We hope the mayor can admit the historical facts and draw lessons from the past." In its turn, the city government of Nagoya tried - somewhat ineptly, in my opinion - to repair the damage with a statement which read in part,

"What our mayor said is only his personal opinion. As a city government, we are to follow the national government's perception that the occurrence of [the] Nanjing Massacre can not be denied."

I don't know about you, but if I were Chinese, I probably wouldn't view that as a ringing denunciation of Mr Kawamura's comments.

The horrifying events at Nanjing in 1937 are well-documented and unquestioned by historians - they are not a "national government's perception"; nevertheless, many unrepentant Japanese nationalists continue to deny the historical reality of the Nanjing Massacre, just as many fervent anti-Semitic activists deny the Holocaust. A particularly good history of the Nanjing events can be found in Iris Chang's book The Rape of Nanjing: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II.

There's a danger in never forgetting trivial hurts, but an even greater danger in forgetting things that are important. Some things have to be remembered so that we draw the right lessons and redouble our efforts to prevent them from happening again. The Bible (Matthew 5:39) tells us,

"But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also."

Of course, you don't want to turn the other cheek just to get hit by the other fist.

I think the Chinese tend to be overly sensitive to some perceived slights or insults, but in this case, I think they're right. Mr Kawamura is clearly wrong, and his position needs to be denounced by all people of goodwill. And whoever drafted the Nagoya city government's statement needs to be taken to the historical woodshed as well.

Because there are some things we really need to remember.

Have a good day. Be here tomorrow for Cartoon Saturday.

More thoughts then.

Bilbo