Thursday, August 2, 2007

Cartoon for August 2, 2007



Here's today's cartoon. Enjoy, and comment if you feel like it.
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6 comments:

  1. AnonymousAugust 2, 2007 at 8:21 PM

    This comic is very timely because if I'm n ot mistaken Bush has designs to take complete control over all governmental functions if there is another attack on the U.S. The other constitutionally co-equal branches' functions are not articulated. Funny how these guys just run roughshod over all of us and we do nothing.

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  2. John MadziarczykAugust 2, 2007 at 11:43 PM

    I appreciate the traffic these comments are sending to my blog, however, I don't want this to turn into the "John Commenting on Ted Rall's Comics" comment section. It would be nice if other people wrote too.

    If I wanted to get all high falutin' and theoretical I'd say that the idea of Americans as enveloped in a simulacra of reality created by the mass media combined with the consumer economy, like that envisioned by Jean Baudrillard, goes a long way to explaining why exactly people aren't in the streets protesting. Of course Baudrillard also wrote an essay after 9/11, maybe misleading titled "The Spirit of Terrorism", where he argued that the 9/11 attacks were something that the media-consumer system couldn't handle because they'd gotten so far away from any concrete reality, and so the United States was having a kind of nervous breakdown dealing with this foreign intrusion into the tv-viewing, competative brand name buying public.

    References to the consumer economy as being the source of all evils are a little bit limited because not everyone really participates in it as an equal consumer per se. There's still class stratification.

    Plus, the media side of it can be taken too far as well, for instance in the writings of people associated with the Frankfurt School, like Horkheimer and Adorno, who basically argued that the media had given Americans such a fantastic view of the world, divorced from reality, that the mental space normally used for critical thinking had been replaced by media created pseudo-logic, and so Americans couldn't rationally think about the world.

    If someone says that people are so media programmed that they can't rationally think about the world, then there's basically no hope, because you have to possess at least a functioning mind to be figure out what's going on and to try to change it.

    Like I said, these things can go too far.

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  3. TheDonAugust 3, 2007 at 8:11 AM

    My take is that watching this administration rape us without any real way to address it left us with a feeling of helplessness. We got lazy because being active did us no damn good. Now that we can make a difference, it's time to (as Gordon Ramsay might say) WAKE UP and keep the pressure on. I'm starting to have fantasies of turning Georgia back to a lovely shade of blue, and it won't happen by itself.

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  4. AnonymousAugust 3, 2007 at 4:32 PM

    I doubt strongly that this cartoon implies that the American people niether know nor care about the current administration. Bush's approval rating is at an all time low. Nor should it imply that they have chosen to dig their heads in the sand voluntarily.

    Me thinks that the people are misinformed. They believe that with the climate of terror caused by Bush, that they have voted themsleves into a facist state and powerless to make a change. Keep in mind that the writ of Habeas Corpus has been absolved and we are all under wiretaps.

    However, depsite mounting evidence that we might find oursleves marching down the streets shouting "Removen Der Jewsen Outrightzen!" this remains a free country. But it will not remain so unless the people act.

    I think that is what Mister Rall was trying to convey to us. If I am wrong, I would like for him to post a correction.

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  5. AnonymousAugust 3, 2007 at 11:27 PM

    Russia wants to get in on the ground floor for when there is no longer permafrost, so our former Cold War Enema (sic) has claimed the North Pole. Oh, Ha Ha, choke! Excuse me, oh, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha HA! Russia has planted a flag under the ice! Oh, my ribs hurt so much! Please, Mother Russia, don't plant any more flags. Remember, we have the craziest, incompetent fruitcake residing in the White House with Doctor Strangelove as Vice Presydink. MMMMBWAAAA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...AH-AH-AH...HA HA HA

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  6. AnonymousAugust 5, 2007 at 3:48 PM

    Lake Superior is disappearing. We'll see who laughs in ten years.

    Not to get off the subject. But with all of these bodies of water disapearing, why are authority figures still baffled about the cause? Do you think the warmer water might be a clue?

    Next subject: "Melting Shoes: Terrorist Attack or Poor Asian Manufacturing?"

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