Intravenous Caffeine

Totally Unfair and Completely Unbalanced

Didn’t any of these guys read any dystopian sci-fi when they were kids?

I knew that family that moved in down the street looked suspicious.

I certainly hope they aren't "next-door" neighbors!

You gotta wonder what politicians did when they were kids, sometimes. I’m starting to question whether or not any of them had a real childhood. You know, playing games for fun, reading science fiction, watching television. I’m starting to think that they all led this incredibly dedicated existence, meeting other kids of important people for power play sessions, joining the teams and clubs that would be useful to say they belonged to later on when they became adults.

I say this because of the incredible vacuum that seems to exist in the “real consequences” portions of their brains. OK, we got hit by a terrible terrorist attack back in 2001. So what did we do? Well, how about “becoming the biggest terrorist organization in the world.” What, us, terrorists? Think about it. If we don’t like you, we’ll invade you, overthrow your government, see that its leaders are permanently out of the picture and wait around until “you” create a government more to our liking. Now if that isn’t scary. Heck, if we don’t like our FRIENDS, we’ll rename fast foods to eliminate their names from our menus!

Now, you could argue that we are the good guys and, therefore, any heavy-handed actions on our part are justified. And that seems to be what our argument is with these anti-terrorist drones. If you’re on the “kill list”, better watch out. One day, you could be sitting on the toilet, reading a newspaper, minding your own business and then WHAM! Wiping is no longer one of your options! You could literally kiss your ass good-bye, if you had time to pucker up when it flew past you.

So the question of collateral damage comes up. What about innocent people who just happen to be in the blast radius? As one commentator mentioned, it’s a “Catch-22” response. If you’re a male of military age living in proximity to a terrorist, why, you must be one yourself! Simple logic. Better not be the mailman or garbage collector. Or any stray women or children. Do you see a moral slippery slope?

Now, none of our weapons have ever been completely fool-proof. There are thousands of unexploded bombs littering the Iraqi landscape. All that has to happen is for one of these drones NOT to explode and guess what? The TERRORISTS have our technology! Hell, we don’t even have to worry about that, one of our patriotic corporations will sooner or later sell the technology to the highest bidder. Maybe one of our trustworthy friends. Like Pakistan.

Now who’s the next-door neighbor?

Anyone out there remember the Star Trek episode where there was an eternal war between two planets? But there’s no sign of any battles? Seems the whole thing is run by computer. It became too expensive to actually FIGHT wars because of the loss of infrastructure, so the computers simply create lists of the “casualties” and then they’re herded off to … become heroes? I don’t think any of our leaders ever saw this episode–must not have been on their list of important things to watch to prep for being a honcho.

Welcome to dystopia.

ANNOY YOUR FRIENDS! CONFOUND YOUR ENEMIES! PRESS ONE OF THESE BUTTONS--OR ELSE!
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The No-Compromise Compromise, or, 3-D Chess finally works out

Spock/Obama wins a 3-D chess match

Chief Science Officer Obama's 3-D chess playing pays off -- Fascinating.

How often have we heard the following statement about President Obama: “Oh, you don’t understand–he’s playing a 3-D chess game. You couldn’t possibly follow his strategy!” If you were a progressive (or, in hushed whispered tones, a “l-i-b-e-r-a-l”), probably a lot. Why was single payer health insurance taken off the table before the negotiations even began? 3-D chess move! Why no public option? 3-D chess move! Why no investigation into the Bush era torture policies? 3-D chess move! Bank investigations? 3-D chess move! Fascinating!

An astute observer might have noticed that all these 3-D chess moves appeared to variations on the Nimzovich strategies–instead of fighting for the center of the chess board, you concede it and allow your opponent to get overconfident so you can rush in and take advantage of his over-extended supply lines! Of course, it’s hard to overextend your supply lines on an 8×8 chess board so these openings seem to have fallen into obscurity. Nonetheless, our chessplayer-in-chief appears to be devoted to showing that they can work.

The only problem was, while Spock was playing 3-D chess, the Klingons were playing poker. Ah-HAH! I take your knight! Big deal, Full House beats one of a kind! Whoopsies!

However, we’ve finally had a situation where Obama’s chess playing has finally paid off. The brouhaha about Obamacare forcing poor religious zealots from denying women the choice of contraception. Why that’s against the freedom of religions to force their moral standards on people who need not even be members of said religions. Specifically, Catholics, the largest single church in the US–who usually vote Democratic. How quickly the Republicans rushed to their defense! I wonder how quickly they’d rush to the defense of Muslims objecting to universal health care based on Shariah law?

So Obama compromised. The church run hospitals would not have to provide contraception coverage. The health care companies would do it instead. GREET! Oops, many Catholic hospitals are self-insured! Too bad!

Mitch McConnell is furious and threatens a vote … on something. Problem is–the Catholic BISHOPS are against the idea, but Catholic women seem to applaud it. Oh, well. It gets interesting, don’t it?

On personal notes: I will be running an artists alley table at Katsucon at the Gaylord at National Harbor Friday through Sunday this coming weekend. And being as it’s a Monday holiday, there will be no cartoon until the next week. My dental problem is in the middle of recovery (I needed an extraction and implant) and it’s good not to feel the pain that has been with me for many months now. And finally, there is a very sweet kitty cat who is very ill and needs your best wishes. Thanks 🙂

ANNOY YOUR FRIENDS! CONFOUND YOUR ENEMIES! PRESS ONE OF THESE BUTTONS--OR ELSE!
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