The Sorensen Monologues

This Week’s Cartoon: “New Car Runs on Ignorance”

I was initially going to name the ignorance-powered car the Chevy Dolt, but then I Googled it to make sure it wasn’t an existing meme. As it turns out, a number of people opposed to electric cars and hybrids (and science in general) have christened the Volt the Dolt. I found some hilarious blog comments, such as this one:

Give me an old-fashioned car that runs on gas. I LIKE oil. Oil is good. Oil is the fuel of freedom. To hell with these stupid cars.

There’s also a persistent meme on the right that the battery for the Prius makes it less environmentally-friendly than a Hummer. Apparently some college student in Connecticut wrote an article for his school newspaper, it got picked up by Rush Limbaugh, and now it’s a golden nugget of contrarian wisdom, except that it isn’t true.

I learned yesterday to my chagrin that Tom Tomorrow did a similar cartoon in 2009, involving the harvesting of stupidity for power. But hey, in the internet age, that’s like two decades ago, right?

Another background tidbit: I drew this with a sprained thumb. It was literally a pain to ink. Can you tell? I went to the doctor yesterday, and it isn’t broken, thank goodness. Between my pulled back from a few weeks ago and my smashed thumb, I feel like a walking Three Stooges episode. I’m like all three stooges bundled into one.

Escape From Ronald Rump… Again

Matt’s latest cartoon has moved me to share a comic I drew seven years ago, the last time we went through a Donald Trump-oriented media frenzy (click for larger version).The corresponding blog post from April 27, 2004:

I sometimes watch late-night comedy shows while drawing the strip. One night recently, THREE shows in a row had interviews with Donald Trump or a sketch about Trump. When the networks want to ram something inane down our throats, they sure don’t hold back. No wonder a majority of Americans still think Iraq had something to do with 9-11, even though the White House once quietly admitted this was false (it was barely covered).

So, you see, this happens once every seven years. He’s like a PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS!

This Week’s Cartoon: “Zero-Sum Speech”

I’m out of town at the moment, so I will have to let this passage from the NYT article summarize the relevant issue for me:

To William Maurer, the lawyer opposing the Arizona mechanism, whenever “a privately financed candidate speaks above a certain amount, the government creates real penalties for them to have engaged in unfettered political expression.” That “speaks” was not a slip, but a reinforcement of the money-equals-speech notion.

The fundamental problem, he said, is “the government turning my speech into the vehicle by which my entire political message is undercut,” because the public funds triggered are a penalty that reduces the impact of the privately financed candidate’s spending and speech. Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. made clear in the argument that he, too, sees triggered matching public funds as a limit on the privately financed candidate’s speech.

I am simply incapable of wrapping my mind around this interpretation of the First Amendment. To see the world this way, you literally have to have your brain screwed in backwards.

Stumptown Comics Fest

I’m going to be wandering around the con this afternoon and tomorrow afternoon, and will be appearing on a panel Sunday at noon about the possibility of starting a NW chapter of the National Cartoonists Society. If you happen to be there, you are invited to bump into me as I drift about and say hello.

This Week’s Cartoon: “Obama Cuts Deal to Live in Tent”

I’ve probably gone a little easier on Obama than some of my peers — not so much because I think he’s doing a great job, but because I have a certain amount of empathy (possibly too much) for anyone trying to run a country this steeped in nutballery.  The real problems with American politics are systemic. But even with my very low expectations, I’m kind of  amazed by Obama’s caution-to-the-point-of-recklessness. The contrast between Obama the campaigner and Obama the cold-fish prez have grown so stark, he’s looking highly disingenuous — and in politics, that’s a big risk. You’d think someone so risk-averse might start to worry about that.

This Week’s Cartoon: “Old McDonald’s Had a Farm”

Blogging this one a bit late, as it’s been a busy week. I had a big freelance deadline, spazzed my lower back out, and hosted my sister-in-law and her husband while waddling about like a duck. But better late than never, right?

I originally intended to draw a cartoon about that douchetastic governor of Maine who wanted to remove a mural depicting the history of labor from the Department of Labor. But while checking Daily Show clips to see if they’d done my idea (they had, dammit), I came across this utterly ridiculous McDonald’s ad touting the artisanal nature of Big Macs. It’s only 17 seconds — check it out!

I just love the perky smile on the McDonald’s employee’s face as she pours her heart and soul into that Big Mac. Notice those chic, Asian-style bowls she’s grabbing the pickles and lettuce from. Why do I get the feeling those are not standard-issue at all McDonald’s? And then there’s the barn. Why, all Big Macs start out in cute little red barns, don’tcha know!  Heck, why go to your local farmer’s market at all when you can get hand-crafted, 100% beef burgers, lovingly made just for you by a chipper woman in a cute ponytail?

On a related note, my friend Anne pointed me to this article, in which a photographer compares advertised images of fast food with what you actually get.

[UPDATE: Here’s a video on how burgers are prepped to look perfect in ads — fascinating!]

This Week’s Cartoon: “Conservative Counseling”

Continuing with a long series of obnoxious happenings in matters repro, South Dakota has passed a law that pretty much forces women to seek “advice” from those faith-based  “Crisis Pregnancy Centers” that I blogged about a few weeks ago. These centers are, as you might expect, notoriously unscientific. Poor South Dakotans. This is the second time I’ve had to make fun of them for this sort of thing. In all fairness, I will say the Badlands are lovely, and I spent a fine evening in Rapid City a couple years ago.  South Dakota is also the home of the Corn Palace and a giant pink prairie dog (see below).

I debated whether or not to call this strip “Conservative Counseling”  because I have misgivings about the term “conservative.” It implies the opposite of radicalism,  yet a number of self-described “conservative” pundits have policy prescriptions that are, to put it gently, nothing short of dramatic. But in the end, the alliterative “c’s” had it.

[Afterthought: for a fascinating map of passport ownership that ties into the fourth panel of the cartoon, see this post by Krugman.]

Writin’

I wrote a review of Sarah Glidden’s How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less for Cartoon Movement.

This Week’s Cartoon: “Dictator Do’s and Don’ts”

This strip doesn’t really have much deeper meaning beyond being a vehicle for me to draw Mr. Perkins as Qaddafi. I had started writing this when the Egyptian revolution was taking place, and then updated it for the present. I find it hard to write cartoons about the uprisings in the Middle East, as they aren’t exactly comedic affairs (aside from the mannerisms of certain prideful and eccentric despots).

As for my thoughts on the bombing of Libya: I don’t know. In general, I find the active slaughtering of civilians to be one of the better reasons for military intervention, but the more I read, the more I realize the situation is fraught with complications. My current mantra is “WWNKT?” — What Would Nicholas Kristof Tweet? Kristof is back in the Middle East for, I think, the third time in the past few weeks, which makes me envy his adaptable circadian rhythms (meanwhile, I’m still recovering from the switch back to Daylight Savings Time).

A telling side note: While the NYT has several journalists on the ground over there, with four of them being released recently from a harrowing capture by Qaddafi’s forces, the Huffington Post’s top stories are all AP reports. Yesterday, their top story on the Libyan conflict was datelined Paris. And yet pro-Arianna types call the NYT irrelevant?

WTF Email

A reader is upset about my Unplanned Parenthood cartoon:

Hi Jen, this is in response to your recent depiction of Planned Parenthood. First of all, I am not irrationally upset, please do not delete this message upon noting that it is a complaint. My lady associate and I found the particular section “Sexual Assault Victim” to be offensive and particularly insensitive. You have obviously never been raped, though many readers of Santa Cruz Weekly have been. You probably ruined someone’s day. Play nice, bitch.

Now, the second panel of that cartoon obviously criticizes the viewpoint of the Unplanned Parenthood counselor, who suggests the sexual assault victim was “probably showing a little thigh.” It illustrates the horror and absurdity of being told such a thing. This reader seems to think I’m attacking Planned Parenthood itself. But it says right underneath the title, “Pregnancy Centers, GOP style!” For some people, I suppose cartoon interpretation is a bitch.

This Week’s Cartoon: “Edu-Gangsters”

As the daughter of teachers, I find myself more incensed by what’s happening in Wisconsin than I’ve been about anything in a while — and there’s been plenty to get upset about. Last week’s coldhearted maneuver by the Wisconsin GOP was bad enough, and then that vapid, braying dipstick Sarah Palin — the opposite of education personified — went on TV (wearing a jacket from the set of “Star Trek,” I might add) and called the teachers’ union leaders “thugs” after the Wisconsin Republicans received a death threat:

“Well, these union bosses that are acting like thugs, as they are leading some of their good union members down a road that will ultimately result in, unfortunately, somebody getting hurt,” Palin said… ” it is these unions bosses’ responsibility to turn down the rhetoric and start getting truth out there, so that nobody gets hurt.”

Good one, Ms. Blood Libel! Of course, Palin is hardly the first to try to smear the WI protesters as “thuggish” despite amazingly peaceful demonstrations, so it seemed appropriate to draw a cartoon reminding everyone that these are the people who taught you to write the alphabet. They are not thugs, unless boring you to death with quadratic equations counts as thuggery.

Adding further insult to injury, Gov. Scott Walker actually had the gall to spin union-busting as “progressive” and “innovative.” Um, no.

This Week’s Cartoon: “Unplanned Parenthood”

As you may have heard, House Republicans are looking to solve our nation’s economic problems (not) by defunding Planned Parenthood. What you may not know is that there are currently over 4,000 anti-choice “crisis pregnancy centers” around the country, more than five times the number of abortion providers. These largely “faith-based” operations, known for disseminating medically-dubious advice, received at least $60 million under the Bush administration. (You’ll recall the many Republicans who howled about that instance of deficit spending, no? Hmm… neither do I.) So, in a sense, Unplanned Parenthood already exists, and this cartoon is merely absurdist exaggeration. I hope.