Dog wisdom

This is a Mutts strip which appears in the Eckhart Tolle/Mutts book, "Guardians of Being," which I love.

Dang. Wish I'd thought of this one.

Great toon from Ted Rall.

Another banjo hit!

ASPEN, Colo. (AP) -- A banjo player accused of assaulting another man with his instrument will get to keep pickin' while awaiting his trial. Joseph Stancato, 33, of Denver faces second-degree assault charges after allegedly hitting another man upside the head with his banjo on New Year's Eve. Authorities said Stancato got into an argument with two men at a bus stop.

District Judge James Boyd on Monday approved Stancato's request to be allowed on the road to tour with a band while awaiting his next court date Feb. 6.

The banjo is considered ''a deadly weapon'' under Colorado law, so Stancato could face prison time, the Aspen Daily News reported.

Thanks to Orin Friesen and Mike Theobald for the links!

A good link about Best Buy scam

http://consumerist.com/2010/01/consumerist-investigation-best-buy-optimization-is-a-big-stupid-annoying-waste-of-money.html

Where Frank Zappa got it

This is the actual cover that inspired Zappa's album title. See the red type, lower right.

Still, I think he should have gone with "Sin happy vacationists."

Matt Bors says it all

Eat fire, banjo jokesters!

Perspective

Here's an amazing video from the American Museum of Natural History that shows the known universe, the image gradually pulling away from Mount Everest and all the way out to light reflected from the big bang.

Sort of makes things like whether or not I get our Christmas cards out on time seem a little less important...

We live in interesting times

I first drew this for The Eagle back in 2005. The next year it was reprinted in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the highest circulation newspaper in Germany.

Then out of the blue today I received a request from Australian Mensa magazine to reproduce it as well. Wild. (Hey -- a banjo-player gets work in a Mensa publication??? What's wrong with this picture...)

Protesters break into song favoring public option

Random drawing of the day

Sometimes I wonder if I play music just so I can draw posters (which I love doing) or if I draw just so I can play music (which I love doing.)

Either way, I enjoy this stuff.

How many chances do these guys get?

Kick or treat

Hope I never have to draw another one of these

Don't turn football into footbaugh

The video I had linked to is no longer available so here are some of Boss Limbaugh's quotes which sound an awful lot like racism to me:

• "We are being told that we have to hope [Obama] succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles ... because his father was black."
• "I do believe" Obama is an "angry black guy."
• "[I]n Obama's America, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering."
• "Obama's entire economic program is reparations."
• Obama is "more African in his roots than he is American" and is "behaving like an African colonial despot."
• Obama is "Halfrican-American."
• "Obama has disowned his white half ... he's decided he's got to go all in on the black side."
• Sotomayor "a reverse racist" appointed by Obama, "the greatest living example of a reverse racist."
• Obama "wants us to have the same health care and plan that he had in Kenya" and "wants to be the black FDR."
• Latching onto LA Times op-ed, Limbaugh sings "Barack, The Magic Negro."

• "God does not have a birth certificate. Neither does Obama"; Obama "has yet to prove he's a citizen."

• Limbaugh on Gates controversy: "Here you have a black president trying to destroy a white policeman."

• Limbaugh suggests Obama would not have acted on Somali pirates if he'd known they were "actually young, black Muslim teenagers."

• Limbaugh suggests Democrats, media believe "you can't criticize the little black man-child."

• "The government's been taking care of [young blacks] their whole lives."

• "The days of [minorities] not having any power are over, and they are angry."

• "[M]inorities never do anything for which they have to apologize."

• Limbaugh: "The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well."
• Limbaugh says "NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips."

• Limbaugh declares basketball "the favorite sport of gangs."
• Limbaugh invented "racial component" to Hackett's decision to withdraw from Ohio primary race.
• Limbaugh on Survivor series: "African-American tribe" worst swimmers, Hispanics "will do things other people won't do."
• Limbaugh suggested Colin Powell only supported Obama because of race.
• Limbaugh: Gates is an "angry racist."
• Limbaugh called illegal immigrants an "invasive species."
• Limbaugh repeatedly calls Native Americans "Injuns."
• Limbaugh says Democrats' interest in Darfur is securing black "voting bloc."
• Limbaugh says that if "feminazis" had remembered to oppose "affirmative action for black guys ... they wouldn't face the situation they face today."

For more information, please see: http://mediamatters.org/research/200910130049

Imagine! It was John Lennon's first instrument!

Hooray for Garrison Keillor who pointed out this important fact today on Writer's Almanac:

It's the birthday of John Lennon, born on this day in Liverpool (1940). His parents separated when he was one. His mother came in and out of his life, and he was raised by his aunt and uncle. But his mom taught him to play the banjo and they listened to rock 'n' roll records together.

And thanks to my pal John Lenoch for pointing it out to me.

Rotten Chamber policy causes Apple to exit

Now I have another reason to love my Apple Mac. The company just announced that it's dropping out of the Chamber of Commerce because of the Chamber's anti-science, pro-pollution stance which favors more global warming. Really, it's shameful that the Chamber of Commerce is also a Chamber of Denial. 

I've always thought the name "Chamber of Commerce" is a hoot. How pretentious can you get?Sounds like something out of a Superman comic book. "Superman flew into his Fortress of Solitude because he was super-bummed by the idiocy displayed by the Chamber of Commerce." 

Apparently there's this show called Family Guy...

...and they "poked a little fun" at traditional editorial cartoonists. I know this show really exists because many 10-year-olds in the classes I speak to ask me to draw the baby character. Stewie or something like that. I tried to watch it once but decided my sock drawer needed organizing that night and switched it off. Anyhow, over at the Daily Cartoonist blog they posted this vid which instigated much navel-gazing and self-flagellation amongst some cartoonist types. I think it's pretty funny. 

We should start worrying when they stop making fun of us.