The Sorensen Monologues
Reader Mail
A reader with a credible email address writes in to report:
Jen, my office is two blocks from the White House.
As you can imagine, we get a lot of Tea Partiers around here. The “I’m Taking Back America” shirted folks.
During one of their recent rallies, a guy paraded past here holding a sign that read, exactly:
NO REPRESENTATION
WITHOUT TAXATION!I am not making this up.
To be fair, I suppose it’s possible that a counter-protester was walking around with an intentionally-bungled sign. But given the number of badly-spelled signs and confused statements made by tea partiers that I’ve heard over the past year, I’m going with Occam’s razor. If it looks like a tea partier and quacks like a tea partier, it’s probably a tea partier.
Cartoonists In Afghanistan
I should let you know that my colleagues Ted Rall, Matt Bors, and Steven Cloud are currently traveling across Afghanistan on a fact-finding mission. They’ve got an expensive satellite phone and are posting all sorts of fascinating reportage, including sketches and photos. I find the easiest way to follow everything is to tune into the Cartoonists With Attitude blog, which aggregates the feeds from Matt and Ted. You won’t want to miss the photos of them in Afghan garb!
Webless in Seattle
I really do seem cursed when it comes to internet access. Having some problems getting broadband in the middle of Seattle, one of the tech capitals of the world. So this space will continue to be quiet for a little while.
This Week’s Cartoon: “Why We Still Need the Bush Tax Cuts”
If there was ever any indication that the Republican party does not represent a political philosophy, but sheer self-interest of the moneyed class, it is their insistence on keeping the Bush tax cuts at the same time that they howl about deficits. They tried to shut down unemployment benefits for desperate workers, and filibustered a bill to help small businesses. They speak plaintively about “burdening our children.” But hey, if you’re still makin’ mad Benjamins, nothing compares 2 U. Have some more!
The art in the second panel was inspired by an illustration I did many years ago. You can see the original here.
If You Regularly Watch PBS NewsHour…
…you might see a Slowpoke strip in an upcoming segment about digital culture and the book Hamlet’s Blackberry. I don’t know exactly when the segment is scheduled to appear, and I’m too busy these days to watch much TV, so if you happen to spot it, please let me know. (Hopefully it will also be posted on their website, which I will monitor; I’m not 100% sure they’re using the comic, but it sounded probable.)
My Chat With Harvey Pekar
As you’ve likely heard by now, the great comics writer Harvey Pekar died on Monday. I didn’t know him personally, and am probably less qualified to share stories about him than those cartoonists who did, but I did get to hang out with him once. It was the summer of 2005, and I was in Cleveland for the Funny Times anniversary party. I’d arrived a little early, and found myself sitting in a small yard behind the Funny Times offices, waiting for other people to show up. I was chatting with the staffers, and maybe one or two other cartoonists, when all of a sudden Pekar appeared and sat down just a few feet away. It’s not every day Harvey Pekar pulls up a seat next to you; I hadn’t known he was coming, and was momentarily overwhelmed with surprise.
We got to talking about the American Splendor movie and his various projects, and I nerdily told him about my senior thesis that referenced a comic his wife Joyce Brabner had written. What I remember most clearly from our conversation was how disarmingly frank and down-to-earth he was about having to make a living again now that the flurry of attention from the movie had subsided. He put on no celebrity airs; he seemed preoccupied with the practical matters of life. Just like in his comics.
I had some audio equipment with me at the time, lent to me by a friend who asked me to interview cartoonists for a podcast. I remember being tempted to get Pekar on tape, but decided against it. It would have ruined the moment. I’m glad I didn’t.
This Week’s Cartoon: “Unemployment Solved!”
Would’ve posted this sooner, but in addition to being busy with moving, the internet at my current location went down yesterday and shows no sign of returning until the cable company comes tomorrow. (I’m typing this in a coffee shop.) I’m not sure what’s the biggest time-waster: when the internet is working, or when it isn’t. Suddenly everything I need to do has become ten times as complicated.
Sharron Angle is far from the only fruit loop when it comes to unemployment benefits. Most of the Republicans and Democrat Ben Nelson have been sucked into the cruelty cult. Paul Krugman’s Monday column was, coincidentally, a perfect companion piece to the strip. Is it really too much to ask that people running for office understand basic economics? Like, at the very least, that there are way fewer jobs right now than there are people looking? If you can’t grasp that, you should be in remedial math, not in the halls of Congress.
Choice Reads
I’ve been too busy with real-life stuff this week to do much babbling on the internet, but a few items caught my eye that I simply must share with you.
First, the Supreme Court ruled against Arizona’s campaign finance laws that provided matching public funds to candidates who ran against wealthy, self-financed candidates.
It was those matching funds that produced a challenge from well-financed candidates, backed by the Goldwater Institute and other conservative interests. The candidates argued that the matching funds “chilled” their freedom of speech because they were afraid to spend more than the limit that triggered the funds.
Just try to wrap your brain around that logic. Can we now all agree that the Roberts court is dangerously stuffed with plutocratic wingdings?
In other irritating news, this Texas billionaire managed to even die at just the right moment, during the one-year lapse in inheritance taxes built into George W. Bush’s budget chicanery. Now his heirs will get a cool $9 billion tax-free (unlike, say, the income one earns through working). On top of that, it seems they’ll inherit some stuffed polar bears too:
An avid big game hunter — Mr. Duncan has more than 500 entries in the Safari Club International record book for killing animals including polar bears, rhinoceroses, bighorn sheep, lions and elephants— he made a $1 million donation in his will to the Shikar Safari Club International Foundation.
On a somewhat lighter — though perhaps no less disturbing — note, the Stranger has an amazing cover story (NSFW!) about a strip club in Seattle called the Lusty Lady, which is closing down. It’s a long piece, but I’ll just say that the details get more eye-popping as you keep reading, and leave it at that.
Divine Punishment
Got a chuckle out of this letter to the editor in my alumni magazine:
I was dismayed when I opened my copy of Virginia Magazine and found a short article celebrating the appearance of John Waters at the Virginia Film Festival (“Filthy Fun,” Spring 2010).
It is to my shame and regret that I admit to attending a late night showing of his Pink Flamingos in Wilson Hall in the spring of 1975. I remain haunted to this day not by the “fun” of attending the film, but by the fact that it was my first experience with true pornography.
The invitation by the U.Va. arts community to host Mr. Waters is a profound commentary on our social order today. Surely a host could have been found to help celebrate light, goodness and truth in the arts, rather than one who will lead minds and hearts into the descent into the shadows of the soul.
Dr. Kent D. (Col ’76)
Plymouth, Mich.
Shadows of the Soul, Exhibit A
Slowpoke an AAN Finalist
Slowpoke has been named a finalist in the 2010 Association of Alternative Newsweeklies awards, to be announced in July. As it turns out, I know all of the other finalists — Matt Bors, Karl Stevens, and Steve Greenberg. Props all around.
Signs of the South
Oh, also yesterday, I actually saw a billboard for Nestea in Atlanta saying “Throw yourself an inner tea party!” I am not making this up. [UPDATE: The actual wording was “Throw your inner superstar a tea party” and a commenter and further research have convinced me that Nestea is innocent of pandering to kooks. Apologies for leaping to conclusions. But really, I do think it’s time for a new ad campaign.]
A Wee Note About Feeds
I set up Feedburner today, and it seems to be working fine. If you were waiting to subscribe, go ahead, and if you’ve already subscribed, there’s nothing further you need to do.
