Canada Says: We’re Not Welcome
An Anonymous Canuck sez:
Russell commented in your blog about moving to Canada, and although he wasn’t endorsing it, by mentioning it he gives power to the stereotype of Lefties as whiners that give up too easily. Had Kerry won, the Righties wouldn’t even joke about moving north.
The pioneers didn’t say “aww geez, there sure are a lot of natives here. Let’s go back to Europe for a few years until things quiet down
a bit.” They rolled up their sleeves and methodically annihilated those that didn’t groove with the America that they wanted to create.
So stay clear of Canada; stand and fight, you ninnies!
Listen you Canadians…Haven’t you heard of NAFTA? We can come up there any time we want and poach your jobs with our cheap labor and more relaxed environmental regulations?
New Math
Pieter writes:
I continue to love the comics and enjoy the columns. I’ve just got two comments about some of the numbers in your recent column and on your blog.
First, about the alleged hordes of poor, “Nixon-hard hat” Republicans, I don’t really believe they exist. According to the CNN exit polls,
http://us.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/US/P/00/epolls.0.html income and the likelhood of voting Republican are pretty strongly correlated. For people earning under $15000, the chance of voting Republican is 36%, and for people earning over $200,000, the chance is 63%. These are splits that are as strong as gun ownership, union membership, church attendance, and age. Furthermore, the chance of voting Republican strictly increases with income. There’s no “U”, as some people claim. It’s not true that the poor and rich support Democrats and the middle support Republicans. Generally speaking, the rich vote Republican; the poor do not.
Second, the tsunami’s not a “piker” compared to Bush. Which killed more really comes down to how you count the Lancet figures. As I read the article, it included casualties during the invasion, so that would put Bush at 100,000 in Iraq + 40,000 in Afghanistan, for a total of 140,000, compared to the tsunami at 156,000, according to the most recent figures I saw. On the other hand, the Lancet article said that 100,000 was the reasonable minimum, that an accurate estimate would be hard to make, but it could be 300,000. That’s a lot more, but it’s still in the same general range as the tsunami.
Keep up the good work.
Don’t forget, though, that the Lancet figure doesn’t count those Iraqis murdered by Bush after summer 2004 or Iraqi soldiers. Gen. Tommy Franks estimated this second figure at 30,000 weeks after the invasion. So Bush is still at 170,000, rock bottom. And the tsunami is running a close but distinct second. Go Bush!
Please Don’t Go
Phil writes:
I’m sure that in spite of your guidelines, you receive lots of negative comments — ever look at the “Sticks and Stones” section of www.dubyaspeak.com? Truly bizarre, the mass dysfunction caused by modern American alienation…
I therefore wanted to take a minute to drop you a line, let you know how much I dig your cartoon. I’m so glad that Yahoo carries it, else I would probably still be unaware of it. It makes me laugh, and it gives me a tiny dose of encouragement regarding the world and its future, when so much is overwhelmingly discouraging, particularly regarding the world as I see it developing in my lifetime…
Don’t pull a Dave Barry-type retirement on me anytime soon; I appreciate your work immensely.
Don’t worry, I’m 41 years old. I don’t plan to retire any time soon.
Your Requests Taken
A FOR writes:
Some friends and I have put together a web site that I think might interest you. It’s a competition to design an Iraq War Memorial: http://www.nationaliraqwarmemorial.org/index.html
If you you’ve got the time, you should submit a design. And, if you don’t mind, please spread the word!
Word hereby spread.
Tsunami Benefit in NYC
A close FOR has asked me to post this here:
Featurewell.com invites you to
THROWN TOGETHER
A reading to benefit Tsunami survivors
@
Jefferson
121 W. 10th Street
New York City
Phone: (212) 255-3333
Sunday January 23, 6 to 9 PM
Complimentary Hors dŨouevres/Cash Bar/$15 at the door
100% of proceeds will go to charity.
READINGS BY:
Adam Goodheart (The Last Island of the Savages) was a founding editor of Civilization magazine. His essays have appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, the New York Times, Outside, and Travel & Leisure.
Ayun Halliday (SumatraŨs Men of the Forest) is the author of No Touch Monkey! And Other Travel Lessons Learned Too Late. Halliday is BUST magazine’s Mother Superior columnist. She also contributes to NPR, Bitch, The Utne Reader.
Suketu Mehta (Peace in Paradise On Sri Lanka) is the author of Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found, which the Economist chose as the Book of the Year for 2004. Mehta’s journalism has been published in the New York Times Magazine, Time, and Condé Nast Traveler, among other publications.
Bob Morris (Some Adventures in Karma on India’s Holiest River) writes the Age of Dissonance column for the New York Times Sunday Styles. Morris is a contributing editor for Travel and Leisure, and has also written for NPR, the New Yorker, Vogue and Details.
Daniel Asa Rose (Prom Queens in the Mist — A Thai Rhapsody), the senior book reviewer for The New York Observer, won the O. Henry Prize for his collection of Short Stories Small Family With Rooster. His recent memoir Hiding Places: A Father and His Sons Retrace Their Family’s Escape from the Holocaust earned starred reviews in Publishers Weekly. He has also been a humor writer for GQ, a travel columnist for Esquire, and a food critic for the past 20 pounds.
Pay up, you scurvy dogs! It’s for a good cause.
Funniest Right Wing Email of the Day
It comes from Dmitry:
I just finising reding your editorial.I know you are liberal from Masatuchess,but i don’t know you hate America so much .Every editorial you do is against this country.If your background is from other country then i can understand you do.I just come in United States of America 5 years ago.I can tell you for sure ,I love this country more then you and Michel Moore do ,which God give you this blessing to be born in this awsome country. You don’t even have a piece of education what alberto Gonzales has .You don’t even serve America like this guy did >You are monster senior! Leave this country and go in Canada where all the liberals want’s go after Bush relection .Hello TEd wake up .Your hate doesn’t help Democrats to have moral value.Cuba,North Korea is still waitng for people like you .I come form a country where freedom wasn’t .Reagan help us thanks God for him.We don’t have the freedom you have now to write whatever you wish or like it without be punished for death.Wh y you are selfish?why you don’t like miilions of people from Afganistan and iraq to be in freedom ?Just becouse you are from Massatuches/.The good thing about your state is this .Thanks God with don’t have the value you guys have there.I hope that state to be part of any socialism,comunism ,country,because their share that value.
Just loose it !
Dimitry
Dimitry [sic] is third in line to become Secretary of Homeland Security.
Bush Admits: There Never Were Any WMDs in Iraq
The news that the Pentagon has “quietly” abandoned its “search” for Iraq’s WMDs prompted many emails. This one was my favorite:
well its official. We’ve given up. The weapons of mass destruction that brought an entire nation to its knees and had them quaking in fear don’t exist, and most likely they never did. So now I as an American citizen want an apology, I was lied to by my
president. Mr. Bush said that we were in danger from this country half way around the world, that Mr. Saddam had the means that could attack my children and cause great devastation on my own soil, but that was untrue. I may have missed the headlines “Bush Apologizes to the World for His Lies and Deceit.” or in his colorful Texan accent “Umm… Well, I guess them folks down there in Iraq just didn’t have no weapons of mass destruction, I’m an ass. Sorry.” Where is the public out cry? Where is the call of all Americans to bring our troops home. To impeach a false war mongering president. To AT LEAST demand an apology from this idiot who has caused the deaths of tens of thousands for NOTHING! I give up.. I’m moving to Canada.
Jason
news article btw
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1802&e=9&u=/washpost/20050112/ts_washpost/a2129_2005jan11
The Future of Editorial Cartooning
Harvard weighs in on the future of editorial cartooning. Download the Winter issue of Nieman Reports as it focuses on “The Impact and Issues of an Evolving Craft,” with articles from 14 of today’s most provocative cartoonists. http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/
I’m one of the 14.
Yet Another Request
Dave writes:
As always, I enjoyed today’s column. In it, you cite a Washington Post article about the current Resident’s admininstration’s policy change – do you happen to remember the article title and/or author? I would like to read it and I can’t seem to find it.
This breaks one of my rules, but this is important, so:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41475-2005Jan1.html
A Response from a Regular Reader About This Week’s Column
Fred writes:
As a matter of fact I did just read a great book about… um … it occurs to me that you might have been being ironic there at the end of your latest column.
While I don’t disagree with your column (the idea of what they’re proposing drives me crazy), I do have to ask one question:
How many Ted Ralls and Michael Moores and Al Frankens and Donnesburys and Tom Tommorows were there in Nazi Germany?
Keep up the good work. Your dissent (even when I dissent from it) is what is keeping us from the abyss.
Actually, there were a number of high-profile anti-Nazi Germans active during the 1930s. Most were killed or exiled after the invasion of Poland. But what really matters is whether the vast majority of people pay attention.
Grammar Note
David writes:
Having just read your column comparing the United States to Nazi Germany, I feel compelled to alert you that the words “comprise” and “compose” are not interchangeable. For future reference, the parts comprise the whole. The whole is composed of the parts. Your phrase, “comprised entirely of archival footage,” should read, “composed entirely of archival footage.” “Comprise” is frequently interchanged with “compose” during those occasions when people are overdriving their intellectual headlights in a misguided attempt to sound more intelligent. As a professional writer, your not knowing such a simple and easily verifiable item calls into question your entire column. Just something to think about the next time you decide to grace us all with your pearls of wisdom.
Sure, David’s snotty. He’s also right.
Let Me Help
Dave writes:
Who cares about torture? I’m too busy trying to figure out why Jen and Brad broke up.
Well, the NY Post claims that Brad wanted kids whereas Jennifer wanted to focus on her career
iPod Fundraiser Successful
The offer is hereby rescinded. Thanks to all who responded! Now to go buy that little gadget…
