I’ve been sitting on this one for a while.
Slowpokes: Heroes of Population Control
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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Traffic engineers are worst than Hitler, I've wasted half a lifetime sitting at red lights for no goddamn reason.
For a similar reason I argue that if we are to keep the "Death Penalty" we should add one for high financial crimes.
Now, religiously and socially we can't put a value on human life. However, statistically there is a value. About US$3 million +, that's how much a US worker produces in his lifetime on average, probably higher now.
So, if someone embezzles or does other financial crimes/mis-manages a company and that much disappears, he has created a "Statistical Death". There might not be any suicides (like the Made-OFF guy) but in tiny 'surcharges', prices raised, wages lowered or stagnated, debt taken in our names we all pay for grotesque financial crimes, the recent "Bailouts" only recent examples.
So I say that in cases of high financial crimes there should be first a RICO attack siezing assets of a large business/billionaire then a capital murder trial for killing by statistics… Hey, they recently tossed people in jail for naughty "Loli" japanese manga. If literal "ThoughtCRIME" is crime, why not "Statistical murder"?
As Gregory Peck would have said:
"Amusing."
I like it, but have a few thoughts about the first panel:
I just took a road trip and received a lot of derision for driving "so slow." In America, "so slow" means less than 80mph in a 65 zone.
Sheena's "slow" driving should be commended–she's saving gas and making others do the same.
But, seeing that she's yacking on a celly-cell while driving makes me want to slash her face.
Fucking cunt.
Ted, I'm torn between telling you to be glad you live in New York and accusing you of being spoiled by living in New York.
Just be glad you're not in Sacramento. This place will have you running down the middle of the street just to get past the meandering pedestrians.
On another note, this whole thing could be seen as a fallacy of the modern age. This notion that life is defined by how closely we adhere to a schedule is both absurd and dehumanizing. You include the absurdity, of course. 1,000 people being frustrated does not equal one person being vaporized (although 1,000 peoples' frustration does equal a potentially lethal measure of rage.)
I'm over thinking this out of shear habit, since you're usually so serious. Really, this is the funniest I've seen you be in quite some time.
For a similar reason I argue that if we are to keep the "Death Penalty" we should add one for high financial crimes.
I agree with you, let's start with those voting for TARP.
One mans comute is anothers Sunday drive. Don't blame me for your bad planning. 🙂 What ever happened to making lemonade out of…lemons?
Anonymous —
Even without suicides, do recall that lost jobs/theft can lead to medical problems, due to stress, and due to inability to afford medicine. Tens of thousands die each year due to lack of affordable medical care. And stressed-out individuals endanger others. Financial crimes should definately carry the death penalty*; they don't due to race and class issues.
*(Even though I disagree with it; it needs to be applied evenly if at all.)
And, yeah, slow driving: not necessarially bad. It depends upon what lane you're driving slowly in. The cell phone thing, however. . .
Continuing the structural criticism: Panel Two depicts an act of terrorism. The TSA's excessive & humiliating invasions on people's persons seem designed to keep us fearful and thus docile. They consume time when people are in high angst – missing your plane can put piles of your money (which is supposed to be of highest value) at stake.
Like the incredibly inventive mob who figured out how to marshal and crash not one but three big passenger jets into important US buildings are about to try to do this the same way again? At least Sheena remains blithely unterrified (yet I agree with Grouch about the cellphone driving thing, certainly not his/her parting shot), and maybe this is part of Rall's point?
Nothing has changed except the faces & voices.
"I want to slash her face, fucking cunt!"
No dude, you don't have a problem with women.
Anyway, if you could drive faster and wait less at traffic lights you'd just live farther away from work. 'Cause having a great big lawn proves you're rich. Or something.
"I want to slash her face, fucking cunt!"
Holy hell, grouchy. I hate it when people blab on their cell phones while driving, but I think calling her a fucking asshole would suffice.
I must admit, I remember thinking a bit the same thing once, on a drive from San Diego to Los Angeles. If there's no traffic, the drive might take less than two hours. One night I was stuck in a traffic jam for two extra hours on that route. I did a quick calculation and estimated that more than two man-months of time were wasted by that one single jam, in other words, somebody working for you 40 hours a week for two months. When I got to the head of the jam and saw the pickup truck flipped over, my first thought was, "I hope nobody was seriously hurt." My second thought was, "How dare these people drive so recklessly as to waste two man-months of time with their mistake!"
Sources vary but apparently the average American spends somewhere between 40 and 60 hours per year stuck in traffic. 1 to 1.5 work-weeks out of the 52 weeks in the year. Work a job for 40 years and traffic has taken the better part of a year away from your life for no reason. Statistically that adds up to deaths.
(To say nothing of wasting $30 Billion in fuel every year, which translates into wars for oil and American casualties.)
I agree with this, but I think that it's probably too obscure for the average reader of any cartoon to really understand.