Recent Comments

1. 11 months ago on Lisa Benson

   Hilarious, Lisa! Thanks!

   BTW, Gerard O’Neil offered a true ‘renewables’ program to Congress back in the mid 70’s, but to no avail. If it ain’t woke, don’t do it…

2. 12 months ago on Lisa Benson

   ⇧gopher gofer⇧

   appears terrified by even the suggestion of change. The U.S. made the Louisiana Purchase and bought Alaska. If the current sovereigns of Greenland were willing to transfer sovereignty to the U.S. for some consideration and the residents agreed, what would gofer’s objection be? No harm in broaching the subject. Nothing asked, nothing gained. If they say no, nothing lost.

   Only people who ridicule any suggestion for change that isn’t approved by their religion would find fault for just considering change… (giggle giggle)

   Get Smart!

   Have a lovely day!

3. 12 months ago on Lisa Benson

   One party seems obsessed with ‘firsts’. As part of the broad middle, we prefer ‘bests’. Ukraine lost Crimea and wound up with years of war in its east when we had our ‘first’ black president. We also got healthcare through insurance company middlemen because it was easier than providing everyone, rich or poor, with the option of a National Health Service. Trump got elected because the broad middle was tired of being bullied by the radicals and wasn’t ready for Hillary as president, regardless of her race or gender.

   You radicals push for the changes that please you, but are terrified of climate change. You don’t mention that the carbon in fossil fuels was once part of the atmosphere, removed by lifeforms incorporating it in living bodies. The earth was once rather warmer than it is now, and life flourished. You don’t mention that a warmer earth could make Siberia and Alaska and northern Canada and the entire continent of Antarctica pleasant places to live again. You ridiculed Trump for showing an interest in the US acquiring Greenland, ignoring the mineral wealth and additional living space we could have acquired when it warmed up. Face it- the only ‘change’ you are comfortable with is forcing everyone else to live according to your preferences. You are radically conservative people.

   Oil exploration and drilling companies have many stock owners, large and small. When President Biden tells them to drill more wells and ramp up production, but still expect to be shut down as soon as he can arrange it, what is their fiscally-responsible response? Not to spend shareholders’ cash on efforts that will never pay for themselves, of course. If President Biden were less concerned about his reputation regarding climate change, and more concerned about the energy needs of many, many little people, he could have more oil without using up our reserves to buy votes for his party in the fall.

4. 12 months ago on Lisa Benson

   How extremely refreshing, Viktor! Your age is no impediment with us. It is part of the refreshment. :)

   Welcome to Lisa’s page. Comments here are often from persons convinced that Lisa produces nothing but lies which it is their partisan duty to deny, disparage, and demean. If anyone speaks up and points out that their comments are both uncivil and overly zealous in their drive to convert wrong-thinkers to their one true faith, they heap abuse upon such. If someone offers reason and alternative views, they respond with ridicule.

   It actually seems to be their object to flock here and support each other in their superior condemnation of wrong-thinkers. Needless to say, they inflame some of the aforesaid “wrong-thinkers”, and succeed in getting some responses in kind.

   We have had the experience of trying to reason with some of them, only to be belittled for being too wordy rather than responding with mindless insults of the kind they prefer.

   We see that you follow Wiley Miller. We read his work once, but he lost us when he used a children’s coloring page to demean the sitting president. If he had simply remarked to his adult viewers, it would have just been in bad taste, but we felt a more definite response was necessary since children all over might have colored that page in the paper and seen it. In the end, we felt the only response we had in our power to execute was to leave his page, and never return. That we have done.

   We hope you will pardon our lengthy welcome, but we do appreciate your willingness to discuss, and look forward to having interesting discussions with you!

5. 12 months ago on Frazz

   Jef (or, as Pastis would have it, Jeff the Cyclist) can produce lovely artwork from time-to-time. Exercise is indeed important (over 70 here, not saying how much, but still do handstands…), but not so funny. Fart jokes get laughs from many, but they are not our style.

   On the other hand, Watterson makes us laugh out loud, often makes good social commentary, and has some lovely artwork. Something for Jef to aspire to?

   Perhaps you could mention it to him…

6. 12 months ago on Get Fuzzy

   OK, this one made me laugh. I had to change my avatar.

7. 12 months ago on Frazz

   It might, of course, even be possible to ‘get people thinking’ AND make them laugh at the same time…..but that might require exceptional talent?

   Ç’est la vie. OK, la vee!

   :)

8. 12 months ago on Back to B.C.

   Johnny Hart had a delightful sense of the absurd. This cartoon is an example. Like his detachable shadows that would climb a mountain and rejoin a character who went through a tunnel when coming out the other side, this is using the fact that an object subtends a smaller angle at the viewer’s eye as it flies farther away. It looks smaller as it goes farther.

   The joke is that the ball still looks smaller when the character catches up with it, as if flying away had made it really shrink rather than just being an effect of distance vs. angle subtended.

   I have always liked Hart’s absurdities. :)

9. about 1 year ago on Get Fuzzy

   While I have never tasted dog or cat myself, I am aware that shops in the far east, in China, e.g., sell live puppies for peope to eat, as well as snakes, scorpians, and just about everything else. Remember the bats?

   I knew a man who had established trade relations in China. He spoke of ‘shopping’ with his government-assigned guide. They saw live animals of many descriptions, and the guide even got him to buy a live snake for dinner- it writhed continually in a bag as they walked. When they passed a display window full of cute puppies, the guide noticed his interest and asked if he wanted a puppy for dinner- it was not a pet shop, but rather a live food shop. He managed to explain to the guide that eating a puppy was not his wish for that evening.

   Humans have cultures. They can be very different in detail, but a culture still represents a group’s adaptations to their environment, and their adjustment of that environment to better suit their needs.

   I don’t trouble people whose cultures include eating animals I don’t eat. I don’t try to tell them they are wrong to do as they do. After all, from their viewpoint, I am the one with strange customs…

10. about 1 year ago on Get Fuzzy

    My question was directed at your “I think people who have a hatred for either cats or dogs have a severe mental disorder” remark. I didn’t notice anyone expressing hatred for cats or dogs.

    My own remark was directed at the trend toward cooperation in biological systems. All ‘higher organisms’ are a cooperative collection of cells, which cells must perform their special tasks in order for the organism as a whole to survive.

    Some species of ‘higher organisms’ have one-upped that success, by developing mechanisms by which ‘individual’ organisms (which are themselves cooperative groups of cells) are able to cooperate to make their groups more successful. Homo sapiens, dogs, bees, ants, etc. are examples of this next level of cooperation.Humans are highly suggestible, sensitive to group acceptance, fiercely cooperative in destroying any threat to their group, quick to establish leadership/dominance relationships, pained by the loss of group members, etc, etc.Dogs also establish dominance relationships, fight together, defend the group together, seek comfort from and give comfort to each other, and so fit into our social groups. They accept us as group leaders, and will fight to the death to defend us as part of their group.

    So far as I have been able to observe, cats have not reached the same level of group necessity. That does not mean the ones that live with us are not acquiring traits that make their symbiosis satisfactory to members of both species. It does suggest they are not at our level of caring cooperation yet.