The Sorensen Monologues

This Week’s Cartoon: “Violent Spin”

What really drives me nuts in the wake of the Giffords shooting is the chorus of voices — mostly on the right — tut-tutting that “we can’t jump to conclusions.” As though they are the source of caution and reason and all things prudent and high-minded. Well, guess what: Your candidates are anything but. I don’t really care whether Loughner is schizo, or what particular bits of tea party propaganda he swallowed or didn’t. If you don’t find the violent language of the right utterly repugnant, then it’s a sign of how far we’ve drifted away from normalcy in this country.

As any anthropologist will tell you, human behavior doesn’t happen in a vacuum; we live in a cultural stew, and by all accounts, that stew is a-bubblin’. Tom Tomorrow linked to a depressing timeline of armed insurrection in America just since 2008. Hint: it’s long.

This Week’s Cartoon: “Winter Hat Semiotics”

Been a while since I rapped at ya, I know. I’ve been busy vacationing at the Slowpoke Underground Bunker and Research Lab in an undisclosed location in the Rockies, and also working on a cool freelance project I hope to share with you in a few weeks.

I’ve been fascinated by the rise of the ironic trapper hat, as shown in the first panel. A couple months ago, I tried on a big one at REI. Then, the other night, I watched a hip young woman dancing in a bar while wearing one of these grandfatherly noggin-warmers. The left girl in the first panel is basically her. I also saw a mohawk-hat kid the other day. For more silly hats and amusing ski vacation anecdotes, I suggest you check out my friend Lloyd Dangle’s recent blogging and sketching from the Sierras.

I saw a bunch of animal-ear hats when I was at the San Diego Comicon, and also one at that same bar the other night. Please, people! Friends don’t let their adult friends walk around wearing little knit cat ears! Unless they are filming porn, that is.