So, I Hear There's This Doonesbury Strip . . . .

Some newspapers don't want to run it.

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/assets/pdf/BK186474313.PDF

Others are only putting it up on their web sites -- that way, kids won't see it, I suppose.

http://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2012/03/12

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Some people have no sense of humor."\\

The Overton Wall

There's been a lot of talk lately about the Overton Window, the range of generally acceptable opinions and positions, the positions which will allow people, even if they disagree with your position, to at least take you seriously.

To say, "Welfare eligibility should be further restricted" is within the Overton Window. To say, "Welfare recipients should be given six months to find jobs or go to concentration camps" is outside it.

One of the great concerns people have is that the Overton Window keeps moving, and it moves according to the statements and actions of a relatively small number of people. When President Richard nixon announced that he would go to China to meet with Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, the Window moved to meet him. When it was revealed that Justice department lawyer John Yoo had written a secret memo providing a rationale for torture, the window moved.

But what happens to a pundit, candidate, blogger or water-cooler sachem, who misses the Overton Window?

Obviously, s/he hits the Overton Wall [my own coinage -- I Googled to make sure].

I hereby predict that Sharron Angle, Christine O'Donnell and most of their TEA Party classmates in the 2010 election are aimed squarely to the right of the Overton Window, some of them by as much as 45 degrees, and they are going to hit the Overton Wall good and hard.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Normally, I'd wanr you against making bold predictions, but in this case, I'll just suggest that a wise man would make some popcorn."\\

The Genocide Appropriation Project

As members of the Genocide Appropriation Project, our goal is to appropriate images of the Nazi Holocaust and other historic crimes and use them to dress up our political or cultural cause du jour.

We find it easy and convenient to exploit the suffering of other people in order to persuade the ignorant, and to shock those who oppose us into silence.

The Genocide Appropriation Project is not a membership organization. We count as members of the GAP any person who has ever used a specious analogy to promote their own agenda. For instance. we are very proud to associate ourselves with former President Ronald Reagan, for his famous declaration (in front of an African American group, no less) that marijuana smoking was "Twentieth Century slavery".

So, if you are having a hard time getting people to listen to your eleventy-twelfth repetition of your opinion on some subject, just call muster on the unquiet dead of the long and bloody history of our species, preferably invoking a crime committed against a group which does not include your own ancestors (or even committed by a group who are your ancestors). You're sure to win lots of friends, even if it's only among your fellow Appropriationists.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Patience, like genius and unlike stupidity, has its limits."\\

Naughty Sarah

Sarah Palin is wearing Naughty Monkey shoes.

At least she forwent the Quickie, the Nookie and the Bonk Her in favor of the Double Dare, but even so, talk about raising issues of judgment....

Presumably Naughty Moose hip waders were not available in her size.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "John, I understand that you are under a lot of stress, but really...."\\

Now It Can Be Told

At this late date, I suppose there's no harm in revealing that in the Spring of 2001, I was flown to Washington DC to consult with President George W. Bush on Middle Eastern policy.

I don't know why they asked me -- I'm not in any sense an expert on the subject -- but then the Bush Administration hasn't been especially noted for its good sense.

Still, they asked, so I did my best.

So there I was, sitting across the Oval Office desk from George W. Bush, and he told me what he had in mind.

"We're going to transform the entire Middle East with a bold initiative, starting in one country and then moving on, domino after domino. But first we have to establish a beachhead."

I nodded, beginning to get excited.

"That's a bold move, all right. Well, the obvious choice is Israel, which is practically a U.S. client state. Persuading them to grant meaningful sovereignty to the Palestinians, and providing the Palestinians with the support they will need to build up a viable country, will be quite a challenge, but --"

"We weren't thinking of Israel, actually."

"Oh. Well, the obvious second choice is Egypt, where the government is closer to a functioning republic than any of the other Arab countries...."

I stopped as I saw him shaking his head.

"Oh. Well then you must be thinking of Saudi Arabia, where the U.S. has almost as much influence. They're a long way from democracy, but I suppose it could be possible.... But that's not what you had in mind, either, is it?"

So he told me: it was going to be Iraq.

I didn't bother to tell him that was about my seventeenth choice.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "That was unkind, John."\\

The Courage of George W. Bush

George W. Bush displayed more courage than I would have expected of him when he vetoed the torture ban. I would have expected him to just quietly ignore the whole matter and then gone right on torturing. But no, he actually went on record as endorsing torture. That did indeed require a certain measure of courage.

The kind of courage, that is, that it takes to order someone he's never met to torture people he'll never see. But as far as that kind of courage goes, he has more than I would have expected.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Give credit where credit is due."\\

The Voice of History

I am deeply troubled by the way that Republicans are treating the threat of global warming as though it were a fit subject for partisan scheming, and not an issue we should all unite behind.

Why, if they had done the same with the threat of war with the Axis nations, we'd have stayed out of the war for two years or longer, if not actually being caught flat-footed by a sneak attack.

Oh. Right.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "I don't care who was partisan first, John -- stop it already."\\

Dear National Review

Dear National Review:

Are you entirely sure that you want to remind the whole country that you* and the Communist Party USA were on opposite sides of the segregation issue -- and who was on which side, and stayed there . . . and stayed there . . . ?

Well, if you insist . . . .

* And when I say "you", I mean your entire staff back in those days (and more recently), most especially Mr. Buckley, as well as your official editorial policy.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "One man in the right is a majority of one. -- Thomas Paine, leftist activist"\\

Bush Liberates Cuba

In the tradition of the beloved Ronald Reagan, who tore down the Berlin Wall, Our Leader has succeeded in his efforts to topple Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

He has called for...

He has called for...

[ /sarcasm command breaks down ]

Good grief, he has called for open and honest elections.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Don't allow any poll watchers from Florida."\\