Thank you, thank you. As an English teacher, a writer, an Obama voter, a New Yorker fan, I have been absolutely freaked out over the response to this. Where to start? The people who think the magazine should censor itself and dumb down to the point where the "average American", whatever that is, can understand? The people who think it is about Obama? The people who think the cartoon is racist? The anti-semites who blame some sort of Jewish media? The good liberals who have never read the New Yorker and yet presume they know all about it? The idiots who never heard of it and yet assume it is anti-Obama and presume to dictate its content?

I and my fellow teachers are failures. Our students have learned nothing. Not only can they not interpret a piece of literature, now they cannot interpret a cartoon.

Oh. My. God. The end of American civilization is near. I'll cling to my copies of the New Yorker (as long as they don't dare apologize for being smart) and go down with the ship.

Great cartoon. The best part is when he addresses "irony-challenged literalists". Hey, those of you who still b**** and moan about the New Yorker -- he's talking about You. You didn't get it. You don't perceive beyond the literal. You're not sophisticated enough for the New Yorker. Fine. Now shut up and leave that great publication alone.

As a Christian I find the comment about the dwindling of Christianity very interesting and agree to a great extent. So much of "Christianity" is cultural christianity -- the megachurches being a prime example. The megachurches are American, not Christian. The same goes for military chaplains blessing the war in Iraq, "christian" weight loss programs and fashion shows. True Christianity will always be counter-cultural and will always be a minority faith. In Africa, true Christians will stand with gay people who are being persecuted, and ethnic minorities. In America and Europe they will stand with poor people and against multinational corporations. In the middle east they will stand with women. Etc. They will always be persecuted. That is central to Christianity because Christianity is God becoming flesh and standing with those who are afflicted.

I get a real hoot out of those of you who claim the New Yorker is unimportant or is only read by a few elitists. It's the effing best magazine in the country, and probably the most important. Who do you people think broke the Abu Ghraib scandal, just for starters? Educate yourselves.

I voted for Obama in the primary but this Bush league move is really starting to push me toward the Green Party.

You shouldn't be watching it anyway. You should be sending a message. Human rights violations, oppression of Tibet, censorship, massive toxic pollution, exporting contaminated products including fish and pet food, eating dogs, allowing substandard buildings including schools that collapse and kill people, religious persecution, supporting genocide in Darfur. Why would you want to support this? This is how evil is allowed.

Oh, by the way, someone should boycott the US too.

So someone makes $250,000 a year and she doesn't think she's rich? I make $38,000 a year. I think she's rich. And then there's someone in Africa subsisting on pennies a day who thinks I'm rich. And I am, and should give more away. Give me a break, woman.

This Republican woman should go back and read the Gospels and see what Jesus said about this.

Oh, I LOVE that last paragraph. Count me as a Christian who sees nothing church-like about not only these monstrosities like Saddleback as buildings but who sees nothing much that is Christian about much of what is claimed as Christianity in the U.S. It's mostly worship of US affluence and power, not worship of God.

Um, I'm not aware of anything in the Bible about class envy or individual choice. Want to quote me a chapter and verse? I am however aware that all through the Bible the poor are upheld and the rich "sent empty away." Check it out. The Bible is about as socialist as you can get.

"If the Bible is about "as socialist as you can get", then I wonder why Marx didn't hand them out. Carl not Groucho..........."

Perhaps because Marx was only exposed to institutional religion (the opiate of the people) and its corruptions rather than actually looking at what scripture said.

The Bible may be a "template for personal responsibility" (among many other things), but I took your statement about individual choice to mean the typical capitalist/libertarian/western fetish with "it's all about me and what I want." That is very different from the free will exercised by Adam and Eve.

Not only did Mary say God had filled the poor with good things and sent the rich empty way, the prophet Amos called down curses upon the rich, the Pentateuch calls for the redistribution of property every 7 years, Jesus told the rich young man to give away his possessions, and the early church in Acts practiced socialism, all goods held in common. Socialism any way you cut it. Our current economic system is based on a premise antithetical to Judaism and Christianity, It is motived by selfishness. Period. The megachurches are serving that capitalist tradition, not scripture.