Just kidding.

Words cannot accurately capture what this comic is about. (But I am going to try anyway...) In order to make sense of a tragedy, we need to label and categorize it. But by doing so, we also trivialize it. Perhaps it's the only way to cope.

Thanks.

"We need strict gun control" is equivalent to "I hate U.S. policies on immigration?" Both are equally rational responses to the Virginia Tech killings? Both originate from the same impulse -- the childish-but-oh-so-human need to impose order on chaos?

I'm not sure.

And: who exactly is using this event as an excuse to bash Koreans? I'm addicted to being outraged by bigots and right-wingers, and I've got to say, I haven't heard a single racist sentiment expressed by anyone anywhere in relation to this story, except for the anti-"Paki" nutcase quoted in the Salon piece.

So: basically, this comic is astutely (poignantly!) observing, and wryly commenting on, a social phenomenon that doesn't actually exist.

This is the first time I've had the thought that Tom the Dancing Bug, sometimes so brilliant, might really be no better than the mawkish editorial cartoons (with their pat -- and often completely incorrect -- conclusions) found in local dailies all across the country. Color me grossed out.

What elevates this from a snide lefty remark about righties to something quite brilliant is in fact the gun control remark.

I always love it when you see something that makes you sit back and really think. Making things like this shows the best facets of humanity.

@My Man Godfrey, my personal interperation:

The point is that incomprehensible things happen to us from time to time. The VT massacre, 9/11, the slings and arrows that life flings upon us and we must try to comprehenend the incomprehensible. We look and learn and try to find some way to understand, some "box" to fit it in, to pack it away in some way that make it understandable. Still, even when we manage to box it in, we carry it with us always, our personal burden that shapes the way we are.

Bolling really hits it. The VT tragedy seems to have engendered a lot of this "boxing it up" coping strategy, perhaps because it is one of those things that can't be controlled, like an asteroid smacking you in your arm chair at home. We need to think something could be done, and so that incomprehensible weight hangs over us until we find a box to put it in. The op-ed pages of my local newspaper have featured some remarkable examples, such as Cal Thomas saying "It's because we allow abortion," and Thomas Sowell with his "It's the fault of the '60s radicals."

I still remember a similar comic he did 8 years ago after Columbine, where an ink blot was responsible for the massacre. Everybody saw what they wanted to see -- "This proves what I've been saying for years! Maybe now you'll start listening to me! We need to [ban controversial music] [stop the culture of bullying] [promote Christianity in the public schools] [have stricter gun control laws][etc] right away!"

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. Can anyone name a cartoonist with such depth since Alan Moore? Already here there are naive comments (to be expected) from partisans howling at how their special stance could not possibly be compared to the other ones in the final frame. Like the fundamentalists who don't understand why their religion isn't public policy, they've missed the point entirely.

What happened at Virginia Tech was too terrible to wrap our heads around, despite our natural inclination to do otherwise. This is the first reasonable reaction I've seen to it anywhere. Bravo, bravo. I just can't commend this enough.

I was on my way to Brazil last Monday and saw the reports all day in airports on CNN. This came the day after a dog killed all our chickens (I am not equating the two). I wept off and on all day. Even wept when Roger Maris hit a home run on the in-flight movie. I'm back home now, and this is the first intellegent thing I've seen on my return. Of course, I work in local bioterrorism mitigation planning, so I'm surrounded by the cult of fear every day, but this was the first reasonable thing I've heard since I got home. Thanks.