Letters to the Editor
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Nailed it, Ruben, but will they listen?
Conservatives live in their own fantasy world, where we're fighting in Iraq so Frodo can toss a ring into Mount Doom and we will be greeted as liberators. Sending ill-equipped soldiers into battle for a war built on lies is just politics as usual, a cudgel to swing at liberals and Democrats who want to deal with real problems and not just create sound bites. Republicans will happily sacrifice our young men and women for votes. It's worked so far.
The far right has spent the last forty years hammering away at a non-exitstent Culture War... and now they find themselves on the wrong side. Sad but true: It takes a sleazy sex scandal to puncture the self-righteous pomposity of people who deny global warming and think Bush actually respects Jesus as a political mentor.
Congratulations, Ruben, for placing two of their major crimes in perspective. Let's hope they can see themselves in this cartoon; I'm not holding my breath. I am, however, laughing painfully at this cartoon. Thanks. You're one of the reasons I subscribe to salon.com.
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The Real Chickenhawk Threat...
Brilliant!!
"Chickenhawk" meant something entirely different when I was in my teens and twenties... For those who don't know remember, just google "chickenhawk" adding "gay" and "sex" to the search...
Explore the connections between the two, seemingly separate uses/forms of chickenhawkery...
Once you consider the various aspects and dimensions of the question, the sexualization of militarism, the militarization of sex, the integral part that rape has played in war since, well, forever... Consider the meaning of man-on-man violence and its formal connections with homophobia and the recruitment of the young, vulnerable teenage males of our country.
When looking at the latest photo of Bush 43 jogging around the oval driveway at the White House with the latest double amputee on ingenious cybernetic running protheses, how can you not exclaim, "Boy, you've been screwed laddie!"
And then take a look at a photo of Geo. W. Bush walking and talking with Mark Foley (seemingly talking about the size/length of something...nudge, nudge, wink, wink...) and ask, "Really now, which of these two "chickenhawks" is doing the MOST damage?"
But how to bring this analysis out and promulgate it so that it can't be spun, twisted and its message misunderstood? How to make it so obvious, so devastating, that it has only one effect, the satirical incapacitation of the the real "evil-doers"?
Wait... I feel a song coming on...
In the jungle, the mighty jungle
The chickens fly tonight
In the jungle the quiet jungle
The chickens fly tonightNear the village the peaceful village
The chickens fly tonight
Near the village the quiet village
The chickens fly tonightHush my darling don't fear my darling
The chickens fly tonight
Hush my darling don't fear my darling
The chickens fly tonightCould we turn it into a music video?
Add a few more verses... Find clips of Bush 43 in a flight suit? Jogging with the amputee? Get Ashcroft and Rumsfeld to sing backup? Maybe Condi could do a turn for one of the breaks... Perhaps there would need to be text graphics added to communicate levels of meaning...
Oh I don't know... Is this just some sort of hopeless "magical thinking" on my part? Do I only wish that art, music and critical, rational thinking were more powerful than they are?
Thank you Ruben Bolling for a delightful strip.
All the best,
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The real scandal
...Is still Iraq. I was just harranging someone the other day, saying "I can't believe the GOP is going to be thrown out over a sex scandal, Iraq is a million times worse." She said "I don't like to talk about politics or religion." I said, "Well, I'm an atheist, too." She said "I'm not suprised.
Best cartoon since the one where the terrorists in the cave are reading the New York Times and learning that their banking transactions are monitored, after one says you get a free ipod for opening an account and the other guy says "Let me see that... Son of a jackal, it's only a Shuffle." That line always cracks me up.
Keep up the good work.