Am I reading the same cartoon as most of you? Tom Tomorrow isn't making fun of liberals. He's making fun of whiny pseudoliberals who've found writing conservative diatribes--in the guise of contrarian rants--to be a lucrative pastime. To ensure that they are welcomed with open arms, striking a pose as disenchanted, alienated former liberals is de rigeur, and the mythical liberal cocktail party/dinner party is merely a plot device which usually involves everyone at the table except for Our Hero applauding Stalin or Che Guevera at some point. These people, like the post-9/11 pants-pissers, are fakes and weenies, and so are their testimonies.

As for the cut and paste talking head thing: hi, that's his style! This cartoon is not a work of art; it's a political expression. Repetition is key. If the Republicans can repeat a lie loudly enough and frequently enough, it is often accepted. Why not use this strategy to get the truth across?

As far as I'm concerned, he nailed it to the wall this week. Next time you hear a so-called "lifelong Democrat" whining about the mythical liberal cocktail party, ask him whether the toast to Pol Pot was made with chardonnay or pinot grigio.

TheGlimmering brings up a really good point. Start scrutinizing the childrearing process a bit more carefully, and maybe people won't be so quick off the mark to have that baby just to demonstrate that they've arrived at adulthood.

Oh, I know this kind of response will bring a flurry of indignant responses: "I will have you know that I carefully planned for my child and raised him only on organic vegetables and soy protein, that is, after I breastfed him until he was six on a raw-food diet! And I read the complete works of Proust to him in the womb! And I quit my job as a cancer researcher to home school him!" Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. As always, it's not about you. It's about the people who simply don't think, either before or after having children, about whether they're really prepared to raise them and whether they even want them or love them, even. Children don't deserve parents who are total fuckups. Since indolence and selfishness are these would-be parents' primary motivations for reproduction, they might not think too hard about their children's best interests--but they'll think long and carefully about their own.

Ye gods. I can't understand what kind of old biddy would attempt to seize money from a war widow with children. Can someone explain this to me? So much for "women's culture."

You want to know what kinds of greed and manipulation mother-in-laws are capable of, you should check out www.motherinlawstories.com.

I don't want to live to see 100. The world is going to hell in a handbasket, and I'm counting on not being around when it finally gets there.