The Sorensen Monologues
How to Save the Republican Brand
The New York Times ran an article the other day about the advance planning on the right that went into the government shutdown. I got a kick out of this line:
A defunding “tool kit” created in early September included talking points for the question, “What happens when you shut down the government and you are blamed for it?”
So the pamphlet in the cartoon is not much of an exaggeration.
New Facebook Page
I’ve started a new Facebook page where I’m going to be posting my comics and other things. This will be replacing the old Slowpoke Comics page, if you’ve been following me there. I hate to lose the large number of followers on the old page, but Facebook is somewhat inflexible when it comes to updating professional Pages. Please help me rebuild — go forth and Like!
The Conservative Health Exchange is Open
Those Koch-funded ads to convince young people to opt out of Obamacare were so weird, I have trouble believing they’d be terribly effective. Nonetheless, it pains me to watch billionaire fossils long-detached from the realities of America give bad advice to an economically-hosed generation.
Change the Brogram
A dust-up has been ensuing in the tech community over various tweets and statements made by the now-former Chief Technology Officer at Business Insider, Pax Dickinson. To make a long story short, Dickinson has displayed hostility — often crassly — to those who would like to make the industry a more hospitable place for women. It is obvious that this sort of rhetoric contributes to the lack of women in tech and unhappiness of women in tech, but I’ll let these Slate and Washington Post articles explain more.
Debut on Medium
My “Surveillence Bait” comic on the NSA is up on Medium today. If you haven’t heard of Medium yet, it’s a new site for writers (and now cartoonists) started by the founders of Twitter. My colleague Matt Bors recently started a new gig there as comics editor, and will be posting his work and others’ to a section called The Nib. Check it out.
2003 vs. 2013
Shortly after posting this cartoon, a reader emailed me asking if I was saying that I wanted the US to bomb Syria. But this comic isn’t really about what we should do. I don’t have any good answers. What I find fascinating about this whole situation is how different our reaction was ten years ago to the idea of chemical weapons in the hands of a brutal dictator. In that case, of course, Americans had been knowingly misled to think Iraq had some connection to 9/11. Much of our nonchalance about Syria is clearly a reaction to the debacle of Iraq. But I can’t help but wish more of the skepticism and prudence people are exhibiting now (including many politicians who were gung-ho on attacking Iraq) had been around in 2003, when those of us who voiced such skepticism were pilloried.
Teddy Bear Devolution
Yes, I know there are more important things going on in the world, but hear me out. Miley Cyrus’s performance at the VMA’s didn’t strike me as offensive so much as painful to watch. Cyrus probably has enough money to buy herself a giant animatronic bear every single day for the rest of her life, yet she still apparently felt compelled to do a cringeworthy PR stunt that seems like the ultimate amateurish knock-off of the kind of thing Madonna used to do so well. Am I saying “If a woman does this kind of thing it’s bad”? No. If a woman does this kind of thing truly badly, it’s bad. In the end it is kind of sad that she felt the need to objectify herself so flagrantly yet could not pull it off successfully; it had a hint of desperation. (There was also the questionable matter of the African-American female-bear-dancer booty-pounding, which has been discussed on the internet at great length.)
I had some fun researching this one. Did you know that there was a real Smokey Bear who lived at the National Zoo and received so many letters from children that he had his own ZIP code? Or that there was a Soviet adaptation of Winnie-the-Pooh called “Vinni Pukh”? You can tell a lot about a culture by its anthropomorphized bears.
Put a Panel on It
I commend Obama for returning solar panels to the White House roof after their ignominious removal by Reagan some decades ago. It’s a symbolic gesture, but symbolism goes a long way when you’re the Prez. What’s irritating, however, is his glaring inconsistency when it comes to actual energy policy. Obama recently criticized the influence of the fossil fuel industry on Congress. But the coal from the Powder River Basin that the administration has been planning to auction off would, as Grist’s David Roberts put it, “undo all of Obama’s other climate work.”
The first coal tract, which was scheduled to be auctioned off last week, had no bidders. Nonetheless, I find myself utterly confused as to where Obama actually stands on climate change.
Creative Disruption
A subtle point this week, but one I’ve been meaning to make for a while. This article about Amazon founder and new Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos served as a reminder:
“But then, few newsrooms have ever been confronted with a new owner whose zeal for disruption is matched by his obsession with tinkering until he gets it right.”
I’m not opposed to disruptive technology, or change in general. iPhones happen. But simply valuing market upheaval for the sake of market upheaval strikes me as a little self-serving. It’s an approach that tends to benefit the owners of a company and the financial industry, which thrives on churn, but not necessarily the public. If anything, it seems most people could use a little more predictability and stability in their lives — the comfort of knowing their mortgage will be paid, and their health insurance kept.
Commenters on Daily Kos pointed out an essay by Judith Shulevitz on this very subject that had coincidentally appeared in The New Republic just a few days earlier. Well worth reading.
NSFWCORP Comic Unlocked
For the next 48 hours, you can view an exclusive comic I drew for NSFWCORP #4: TWEETS IN MEATSPACE. Link will expire after that!
The Don’t Show Me State
For more on this absurd story, this NYT article explains it all. In short, Missouri’s health care gag rule came about as a ballot measure approved by voters. It seems to me that such a speech-limiting law would be in violation of the Constitution, so the local Tea Party should be up in arms about it, right? In any case, Missouri, be sure to check out healthcare.gov (or even better, enrollmissouri.org).
