Tom Tomorrow's Veteran's Day cartoon has got to be the least funny cartoon I have seen in a long time. It's not cretinously evil, like Ted Rall's digestive-tract leavings; or rancid and moldy like the stuff Gary Trudeau yanks from the back of his refrigerator and sends to his publisher; it's merely unfunny, in a really stupid, juvenile way. The horde of sycophants that were compelled to come to the defense of their beloved here see deep, meaningful political commentary in these panels. But all I see is that same old dull taunt from the grammar school playground: "Bookworm (Fatty, Skinny, Four-eyes, whatever) is a big chicken!" Nice going, Mr. Liberal.
Posted by Andrea Harris at November 11, 2003 09:22 PMNot only is it not funny, it's so, like, last January. This stupid put-down was chewed up, swallowed, digested, excreted, and used to fertilize the begonias months ago.
Now I, as a female womanly-type person of the lady persuasion who is above the age of forty and therefore was disqualified from combat duty, will go off in the corner and quietly practice having my assent crushed.
Posted by: Angie Schultz at November 12, 2003 at 01:05 AMHey, Angie, join the crowd. Damn Guard even turned me down for sentry duty at airports because I was over (okay, well over) 45.
Posted by: Kim du Toit at November 12, 2003 at 03:54 PMHe's making fun of geeky bloggers. Why is he mocking himself?
Out of respect for Mr. Yesterday, I made some comments in a cartoon.
Posted by: mary at November 12, 2003 at 04:19 PMMust ... not... taunt ... Kim ... must ... not ... taunt ...Kim.
Well, Kim, you manly macho stud you [doh!], my point would be that in your youth it was possible for you to join up, knowing that you may well be required to fight. (And for all I know, that's what you did.)
Whereas, when I was young and supple, women were prohibited from all combat duties. Oh, yeah, I could've signed up, but the odds of my butt ever being in danger were exceedingly slim (much slimmer than today's non-combat personnel such as Jessical Lynch).
Therefore, by Tomorrow's reckoning, I can just STFU (unless I'm against the war, of course).
I still don't see how TT's defenders do not see the Starship Troopers aspect of his strip. (Actually, yes I do. They believe that you had to have been in a war in order to advocate war. But anyone can oppose war.)
Posted by: Angie Schultz at November 12, 2003 at 06:02 PMFunny, I thought you were talking about being unable to join up because you were forty years old, and that Kim was commiserating with you because he apparently tried to join the National Guard and was rejected because he was too old. But what do I know. I guess I just read plain English differently than everyone else.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at November 12, 2003 at 07:17 PMAndrea---No, I said I was disqualified. If I had been talking about the present, I would have said that I am disqualified.
And I was (or am) mildly teasing Kim for his status as the blogosphere's he-man, not trying to start a fight.
Posted by: Angie Schultz at November 12, 2003 at 08:09 PMYour sentence was unclear. I read it -- and clearly Kim read it -- as being the story of someone who was now forty, and knew -- either from personal recent experience or just from general knowledge that the military is not currently accepting new recruits above a certain age -- that you were currently disqualified from joining up. And I'd like the "mild" teasing of anyone by anyone to stop here on my blog right now. As you have perhaps ascertained (or will) I am in a bad mood, and getting quite sick of the entire sniping, posturing, one-upping blogdrama thing.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at November 12, 2003 at 08:27 PM