The Sorensen Monologues

Reader Mail, Surveillance Edition

Last week’s comic about the domestic use of aerial drones drew a number of interesting comments from readers. Here are a couple emails I received:

From Ogden Utah, TC writes:

The Aerial Drone comic hits particularly close to home! Our illustrious Mayor, Matthew Godfrey, has been trying to push the city council to approve a freaking blimp for surveillance purposes in our town.  It’s really smart. I think he’s trying to cover some of his more sinister ideas by pushing this asinine idea out in front.  I’m pretty sure our criminals run much faster than the blimp can fly.

TPM has more on that here.

Reader Bruce P, who I’m guessing is writing from abroad, who is writing from New Jersey, says:

In the second frame you have “Soon businesses jump on the bandwagon.” Here in my local Rite of Shoppes and the APe, they already have. Next to various products on the shelves are little boxes that extol the virtues of kitty crunchies, toilet paper, etc. These have a small video screen and a speaker to spout their drivel. They are motion sensor activated and trip when one gets within 3 feet or so of them. Life imitates art or vice versa….. None the less it is spot on.

Wow, I hope that doesn’t catch on further.

Reality Eclipses Satire, no. 87,493

I love this. In my cartoon this week, I suggested an absurd way that Michelle Bachmann might explain her quote that voters should be “armed and dangerous” over the cap-and-trade bill. As I learned today via TPM, she actually did walk that quote back a month later, saying the following:

“I want my people in Minnesota to be the most educated people. I want them to be armed with knowledge, so they can be dangerous to the policies of the left.”

Almost like my comic. Clearly I didn’t go far enough.

Slowpoke on NPR

Just found out my latest cartoon is on NPR right now. The comments section seems to have quite a few people trying to depoliticize the AZ shootings, blaming “both sides” for their partisanship. (Personally, I don’t think questioning the violent, paranoid rhetoric of Palin, Angle, Bachmann, et al, makes one particularly partisan, but whatevs.)

Not that there’s anything wrong with having strong political convictions. As reader AC wisely pointed out, people mistakenly believe “it is partisan politics generally, not any actual positions on either side, which is the problem.”

People Saying Intelligent Things

I liked Amanda Marcotte’s recent analogy:

Holding the right responsible for their paranoid, incendiary, violent rhetoric reminds me strongly of trying to put a cat in its carrier.  You know it has to be done, but you really don’t want to do it.  The cat is going to lash out.  She’s going to hide under the bed.  She’s going to hiss and scream.  She’s going to grab the sides of the carrier as you push her in, in a pathetic final bid not to go the carrier.  But you have the fight anyway, because you can’t just renege on your responsibilities the second they become a problem.

Matt Bors also has a good post:

And that’s where we are at. You can’t talk about the issues underneath this without being accused of “politicizing” it. The shooter is crazy and incoherent enough that we can all comfortably write him off as a “lone nut,” America’s favorite term to absolve us from looking at any of the societal problems that causes this type of behavior–or, god forbid, the tools he used to kill so many so fast. Unless the shooter fits into the binary mold of a mainstream liberal or conservative, we are content to pretend his behavior took place in a vacuum. “A lone nut! you’ll get those.”

There’s also a refreshingly nuanced take on my latest cartoon over at Comic Strip of the Day:

There are a number of cartoons about the Tucson shootings, ranging from “weepers,” which serve the important purpose of informing people that death is sad, to those suggesting a direct, specific correlation between the rhetoric and the action, as if the right wing had purposefully delivered a detailed “to do” list into the hands of the shooter. I haven’t seen many that managed to make a persuasive point, but I would count this as one…

As for countering her examples, feel free, but I want to see something more persuasive than the time Obama explained his planned debating style with a flippant reference to Sean Connery’s advice to Kevin Costner in “The Untouchables,” or a DNC map that used traditional archery-style bull’s-eyes to show the areas in which they planned special efforts. Don’t waste my time unless you have specific examples of times nationally-known progressives used rhetoric about “refreshing the tree of liberty” or “reloading” or encouraged people to bring firearms to political rallies.

Predictably, I’ve been accused by others of not looking at the oh-so-incendiary rhetoric of the left, but tell me: when is the last time you heard a “mainstream” progressive pundit talk about killing ATF agents?

War on Christmas Flashback

I haven’t been paying much attention to right-wing media lately, but Mr. Slowpoke just informed me that the “War on Christmas” is apparently still on. I’ve been so busy traveling and working and preparing to bake a feast and saying “Merry Christmas” to people I know who celebrate Christmas, I didn’t even notice! Anyway, I thought I’d share this cartoon from the Great Christmas Battle of 2005.

(PS: I received an early Christmas present in the form of having a cartoon published on NPR.org yesterday. I think I may have a cartoon in the LA Times this Sunday too!)

SlowpokeBlog Flashback: On Obama

Two years later, I find it interesting to read what I wrote about Obama on the eve of the 2008 Virginia primary:

Tomorrow is the Virginia primary, and for the first time ever I am considering intentionally not voting… The trouble is, neither Obama nor Hillary have shown solid progressive leadership. Both of them pander to the right to the point of grotesquery. I could almost forgive Obama his weak health care plan even though that issue is extremely important to me, but that “Harry and Louise” ad was so wildly irresponsible, it really made me question his judgment. Wouldn’t it be nice if Obama used his rhetorical talents to promote a real health care plan? He has also repeated right-wing lies about there being a Social Security “crisis”; his praise of Ronald Reagan was steeped in gauzy right-wing frames about the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s; and his campaign actually created an oppo page about Paul Krugman, a true-blue progressive hero whose intellectual integrity I greatly admire… Obama has been so reckless in his approach to these bedrock issues that I simply don’t trust him. Sorry to rain on the hope parade, people, but there it is.

I actually admire Obama for what he managed to accomplish on health insurance — but aside from that, I’d say my misgivings were justified. Not that you’ll ever see me as a vaunted TV pundit.

Signed Slowpoke Books

…are now available in the Slowpoke Bookshop, just waiting to be personally-inscribed by moi, and shipped off via Priority Mail for the holidays. Whomever you give them to will love you forever. This concludes our public service announcement.

Chuckles aplenty!

Kwik Links

A couple interesting reads I’ve been meaning to share lately: The Oct. 25 issue of the New Yorker had a great article about one of my biggest pet peeves, leaf blowers.  (See related cartoon about blowers here; thanks to Matt for sharing his copy of the magazine with me, because he knows how much I hate them.) Only the abstract is freely available online, but if you have a digital subscription, you can find a link to the whole article here.

The gist of the story is how a well-to-do California town has become leaf blower hell, and how one couple’s efforts to do something about it has earned them the animosity of their libertarian neighbors. (Apparently the right to peace and quiet in your own home doesn’t count as a proper “freedom.”). After reading the article to Mr. Slowpoke, he immediately went outside and started raking leaves. With, you know, a good old-fashioned rake. These days, I’m very tempted to say “thank you” to people when I see them raking the neighborly way. Except they’d probably look at me like I was some kind of weirdo.

Also worth reading, apropos of Joe Miller’s defeat: this column on Alaska as welfare state.  Thanks to Adam D. for the link.

That Election Thing

I haven’t really been talking about the election much, partly because I’ve been busy with real-life stuff and partly because I don’t have much to say that I haven’t said already about the Tea party. It’s hard to argue policy with people who occupy a fictional universe. As for last night, yes, I’m disheartened. I find it especially ironic that Republicans are winning on economic issues when the biggest threat to the economy is a return to Republican policies. I truly fear for the future of this country.

I’ll add that any discussion of whether Obama should have moved more to the “left” or “right” is setting up a false binary. Obama should have pursued a clear and consistent moral argument. Instead, it seemed like his wires were always crossing; he was sending mixed messages, and he allowed Republicans to claim the traditional position of “the left” — that is to say, the underdog, the representatives of ordinary people. Which they most certainly are not. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, pea-headed pundit class.

[Update: Also, I’d say lockstep Republican obstructionism in Congress, which went largely uncriticized by the media, was highly successful at dampening the enthusiasm of Obama supporters. Let’s not forget that. I watched the Frontline episode “Obama’s Deal” on PBS last night, which really put the ugliness of legislating into perspective.]

Farewell, Honorable Namesake

I was saddened yesterday when I learned that JFK’s right-hand man Ted Sorensen had died. We were not related — although I did have a pleasant email exchange with his grandson (or grandnephew?) once. I always thought maybe I’d get to meet Ted someday, and we could rap about our shared Sorensen-ness. Alas, it’s too late. But I did get a kick out of this quote in his NYT obituary:

Mr. Sorensen once said he suspected that the headline on his obituary would read “Theodore Sorenson, Kennedy Speechwriter,” misspelling his name and misjudging his work…

Apparently not even Ted could escape the dreaded “-son” misspelling. Speaking for myself, it has caused countless problems with appointments and reservations. I’m actually surprised when anyone gets it right. But I digress. Here’s to Theodore Sorensen, one of history’s better figures to have shared a name with. (Apologies to all you Nixons out there!)

A Correction

In the spirit of journalistic integrity, I should mention that last week’s “Trojan MILFs” cartoon contained a factual error. Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell (DE-Nutball) is not, in fact, a “hot mom” as implied in the cartoon. She is unmarried and without children. I mistakenly assumed that all that talk about masturbation and abstinence meant she had some kids of her own (who would ultimately grow into repressed, confused adults with bizarre  leather fetishes).  I was wrong, and I apologize. If one were feeling uncharitable, one could suggest that her crusade to stop the nation from having sex might not exactly be helping her in the relationship department, but that would be catty.

Despite this error, I maintain that O’Donnell is part of a larger phenomenon — a symbolic MILF, if not a literal one. Republican women are claiming the motherhood mantle, using it to promote themselves as pillars of decency and common sense, when in fact they embody the opposite.

Short Takes

A couple must-reads from today:

In case you missed it, comedian Marc Maron was seated on a plane next to newly out-of-the-closet former RNC chair  Ken Mehlman. Tweeting and exposed nipples ensued.

Also, today in weeniedom: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos have donated $100,000 each to defeat a Washington state income tax on high earners (which is also bundled with a 20% property tax cut). Bill Gates, Sr. has donated $500,000 in support.