Monthly Archives: August 2015


Panic in the Real Economy

Panic in the Real EconomyLast week’s stock market turmoil here and in China threw the financial infotainment shows into a tizzy. If only they covered the financial drama unfolding in regular homes across the country with the same level of enthusiasm.

Gas and oil prices are really low right now. In a sane world, this would be a good time to raise the gas tax and plug the long-neglected gaps in infrastructure funding. But things are not sane, and low gas prices are only seen as an opportunity to go back to the SUV excesses of the 90’s.

Read the comic at the New York Times.


The G.O.P.’s Anti-Immigrant Stupor

Anti-Immigrant StuporWith Trump leading Republican polls with a full-blown racist nationalist platform of slurs and insults, the rest of the field is following his lead and it’s ugly. Stripped of the dog whistles and coded language employed by Republicans for decades, the hatefulness of that party toward immigrants is now obvious to anyone, especially those who will be voting in the general election.

Read the comic at The New York Times.


The Sugar Water Workout

The Sugar Water WorkoutA story in last week’s NYTimes revealed how Coca-Cola funds scientists who tout exercise while downplaying the role calorie consumption has on health. The amount of exercise you’d have to do to burn the empty calories in sugary sodas is a lot more than simply cutting sugar water out of your diet.

Soda’s not evil, and it’s a fun treat and caffeine delivery system for hot summer days. But claiming it’s part of a well-balanced diet and exercise regimen is laughable enough to make me snort my aspartame carbonated beverage of choice through my nose.

Read the comic at The New York Times.


Cut from the E.P.A.’s Clean Power Plan

Cut from the Clean Power PlanLast week President Obama and the E.P.A. revealed the final rules of their Clean Power Plan that finally attempts to set limits on our suicidal consumption of carbon and other greenhouse gases. They mostly require individual states to reach emission reduction targets by 2030.

These rules will be challenged for years by people who have the luxury to either buy themselves out of harm’s way or die before the disasters really start piling up. But if you or people you love will be alive at the end of this century, there’s no excuse for delaying actions that could prevent the disaster that awaits them.

Read the comic at the New York Times.