Yearly Archives: 2015

A Marathon of Appeals

This entry was posted in comics and tagged Boston Boston Marathon death penalty on by

A Marathon of AppealsThe younger Boston Marathon bomber was sentenced to death on Friday. There will be victim impact statements this week, and then the appeals process begins which will drag on until I am old.

I don’t support the death penalty, even for shitty humans like Tsarnaev, and the majority of my neighbors agree. He was tried in Federal court, which sought the death penalty, so only jurors who were open to the idea (or “death qualified” in terrifying legal parlance) of state-sponsored murder were allowed to serve. Those jurors had a terrible job, and I’m sure they performed commendably, but their selection was not representative of the community.

The Richard family, who lost their young son and so much more in the bombing, publicly opposed a death sentence in a moving essay in the Boston Globe. It makes arguments in favor of the death penalty look like nothing more than petty vengeance.

Read the comic at The Nib.

America’s Rapidly Rising Faiths

This entry was posted in comics and tagged 2016 Election climate change Jeb Bush NFL Obama Patriots religion on by

Rapidly Rising FaithsA Pew survey came out last week showing that the ranks of Christians are declining in America, while the unaffiliated and other faiths are growing. Of course Christianity will remain a super-majority in the U.S. for decades to come, but it offers some hope that in the distant future, the religious right might lose their grip on national politics. Maybe.

Read the comic at the New York Times.

Reality-Based Conspiracies

This entry was posted in comics and tagged 2016 Election conspiracy theory NSA Obama on by

Reality-Based ConspiraciesThe Jade Helm 15 conspiracy theory is a doozy. If you’ve managed to escape the insanity, Jen Sorensen has a great overview.

I’m fascinated with conspiracy theories the same way I’m interested in cryptids. I know they’re garbage, but it’s still fun to see the mental gymnastics the true-believers do to bend the facts to their will. Or maybe they’re all true and my dismissiveness is just proof that I’ve been brainwashed by the lizard people.

Read the comic at the New York Times.

Cryptids on the Campaign Trail

This entry was posted in comics and tagged 2016 Election Bernie Sanders cryptids on by

Cryptids on the Campaign TrailUgh, this election. Everyone’s entering the race and they are terrible. At least Bernie Sanders seems cool enough to make the Democratic primaries somewhat watchable.

I’m more interested in cryptozoology. It’s trash, but fascinating trash. One cryptid I wanted to include was the Pukwudgie, which was said to roam the swamps near where I grew up, but his PR team is shit and nobody outside of southeastern Mass has heard of him.

Read the comic at The Nib.

A Tale of Two Baltimores

This entry was posted in comics and tagged Baltimore black lives matter police police brutality on by

A Tale of Two BaltimoresFollowing the murder of Freddie Gray, Baltimore erupted into protests and the national media came running. Burning police cars and riot squads storming the streets are much better for ratings than lengthy explanations of the physical and economic violence that has been inflicted on its citizens for decades.

I’m not going to pretend to have a deep understanding of Baltimore’s problems. I was a white kid at Johns Hopkins, living relatively close to the tony neighborhoods surrounding its Homewood campus, but my years there gave me more empathy for its residents than the Baltimore City Police seem to have for them.

Read the comic at The New York Times.

Trans-Pacific Speculation

This entry was posted in comics and tagged free trade Obama trans-pacific partnership on by

Trans-Pacific SpeculationThe portions of the Trans-Pacific Partnership that have been leaked show that it’s a giveaway to corporate interests. Only legislators and lobbyists have seen the whole thing, and most of them want to “fast-track” it to prevent amendments and keep the pesky public from commenting on its terribleness.

If the minutiae of trade deals seems too arcane, Robert Reich has a very quick and helpful video about why the TPP is a bad deal for everyone who isn’t a multinational corporate person.

Read the comic at the NYTimes, or The Nib.

The Wide World of Parenting Styles

This entry was posted in comics and tagged parenting on by

Parenting stylesKids can’t play outside unsupervised anymore without a nosy neighbor calling Child Protective Services. I grew up in the eighties when “stranger danger” was prevalent in the media, but I was still allowed to wander around all alone and somehow I’m still alive.

So get over yourselves, overprotective parents. No one wants to kidnap your shitty kid.

Read the comic at the Nib.

The Personal Shopping Assistant

This entry was posted in comics and tagged Brownback income inequality Kansas Koch brothers welfare on by

Personal Shopping AssistantKansas Governor Sam Brownback recently signed sweeping welfare “reforms” into law. They’re ostensibly supposed to curb welfare fraud, but in reality they create even more hurdles for the poor, much like how voter ID laws exist to keep the poor and minorities away from the polls rather than prevent voter fraud.

We’re all beneficiaries of government assistance in one way or another, be it tax cuts, tax credits, and if you’re a large bank, free billions from the Fed, but it’s only the poorest who get shamed for getting what amounts to a pittance. At least Brownback has spared the poor from going on cruises and getting diarrhea.

Other states are pulling the same shenanigans, and it’s all thanks to Bill Clinton’s welfare reform.

Read the comic at the New York Times.