Sunday Funnies 140629

The Sunday Funnies word of the week is bird:

bird |bərd|noun1 a warm-blooded egg-laying vertebrate distinguished by the possession of feathers,wings, and a beak and (typically) by being able to fly. • Class Aves; birds probably evolved in the Jurassic period from small dinosaurs that may already have been warm-blooded.• an animal of this type that is hunted for sport or used for food : carve the bird at the dinner table.• a clay pigeon.• informal an aircraft, spacecraft, satellite, or guided missile : the crews worked frantically to ready their birds for flight.2 [usu. with adj. ] informal a person of a specified kind or character : I'm a pretty tough old bird.• Brit., informal a young woman; a girlfriend.

1. Who's the pigeon?

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2. A Sitting Duck

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3. Birds of Different Feathers

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4. He's Toast!

There is no avian connection here. This comic is a fugitive from last week's Food For Thought edition. Of course I could justify it's inclusion here by calling it a flight of fancy.

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5. A Bird-Brained Enterprise - It will never fly.

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6. Watch The Birdie...Tweet!

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7. For anyone about to board a big bird...

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8. Partisans will undoubtedly flip the bird at this observation.

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9. Patriotic Paunch Line

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10. A Religious Dinosaur Attempts to Evolve

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11. Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's an anachronism!

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12. Yellow Bird (with apologies to Harry Belafonte)

Yellow bird,
Up high in Washington D.C.
Yellow bird
You sing for the Tea Party

Sing their ugly song 
Act like you belong
They are mean and cruel
You are such a tool

You should fly away
In the sky away
And be happy like me

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That Was Then; This Is Now - Cheney vs. Cheney

Former Vice President and would-be dictator, Dick Cheney continues to insist that America adopt his discredited, megalomaniacal agenda. In response, and with no political standing other than that of a loyal citizen of THe United States of America who is capable of thought, I offer a critical analysis of Kommandant Cheney's continuing diatribe.

Consider the following hierarchy of motivating forces for right-wing political entities:

1. A rank and file GOP elephant never forgets, but his memories are often flawed.
2. Conservatives work to maintain the status quo at the expense of meaningful change.
3. Neoconservatives work to bring back the "good old days" that never were.
4. The Tea Party works in the service of a self-serving wealthy minority.
5. Dick Cheney works solely for the benefit of Dick Cheney.

Then: Chicken-Hawk Cheney beat the drum for war in Iraq.

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Now: Duplicitous Dick blames President Obama for the devastating war he started.

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Sunday Funnies 140622

The Sunday Funnies theme of the week is Food For Thought:

1. Now ain't that just swill?

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2. A Miracle (almost as difficult as turning water into wine)

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3. A Very Perceptive Waiter

But he'd better can the sarcasm. They'll all tip the same amount.

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4. Jimmy Becomes A Foodie?

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5. Find the culinary reference.

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6. Paper, Plastic, or Body?

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7. Going Nuts at the SPFic Ocean

Summer arrived yesterday at 10:51. Break out the sunscreen! 

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8. I believe they may be passing a pizza shop.

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9. Welcome, Scott Walker. Welcome, Chris Christie. Welcome...

(obligatory, politically-themed offering)

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10. I hear it's a pretty cheesy story.

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11. Did I mention that summer arrived yesterday at 10:51?

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12. Leftovers

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The Wrong Question

This morning, I found the June 16, 2014 issue of Time in the waiting room of my ophthalmologist's office. I looked at the cover, and immediately thought that the folks at Time needed to see an ophthalmologist more than I did.

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WAS HE WORTH IT? The cost of bringing Sgt. Bergdahl home is simply the wrong question for any American except one with severely impaired vision to be asking at the end of America's longest war. 

Perhaps asking that specific question about the value of a single American soldier's life speaks to the myopia and extreme tunnel vision which currently affilicts a sizable segment of our country.

Better that we should ask:

Was it worth it to hand the reins of government to a group of neoconservative warmongers whose imperialist agenda was spelled out back in 1997 in a document released by the think tank Project for the New American Century?

Were the multi-millions of dollars amassed by the signatories of that document via the wars they started worth the thousands of American lives lost?

How stupid would Americans have to be to return full control of Congress to that same group of self-serving ideologues in November?

In addition to the cover of Time, I came across a group of editorial cartoons, whose creators appear to have much better vision than the folks at Time. They have weighed in on the history and current status of the Middle-East mess handed to Barack Obama in 2009, and they also examine the the chronically impaired vision of those who created it.

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Finally, today's the Wizard of Id comic strip serendipitously illustrates just how out of touch with reality are those who count themselves among the privileged in America and hope to  reinstitute their lucrative, warmongering agenda.

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Sunday Funnies 140615

The Sunday Funnies word of the week is Happy Fathers Day!

All fathers are hereby entitled to sit back and enjoy this week's conic collection. (Now, isn't that better than mowing the lawn?)

1. 5 days to the beginning of Summer. Eh?

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2. That's not the smell of summer in the air. It's just more elephant dung.

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3. Did I ever mention that I love sarcasm?

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4. Perhaps he'll to make a whirlwind tour.

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5. Meanwhile, this couple heard that the Pope was in Kansas.

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6. Brothers under the label: Right-wing Extremists and The Taliban

What's in a name? That which we call a thug by any other name would smell as bad.  (with apologies to William Shakespeare)

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7. It's about time!

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8. Is It Canned Laughter or Music for Folks with Tin Ears?

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9. A Revisionist Historian Sings The Same Old Song

An elephant never forgets. This elephant, however, has no problem forgetting what actually transpired and lip synching to a "report" scripted by FOX "News."

See the previous item to learn the inspiration behind his music.

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10. Question: What exactly is the problem with this scenario?

Answer: She puts them on one leg at a time just like the old, white guys in the other party, and they resent it because they don't have a fly.

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11. The 1% is being served tea under the awning.

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12. The first six are deliberately satiric; the last one is real ... unfortunately.

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Let there be light!

My wife and I have enjoyed the first season of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. Last evening we watched the season's final episode, Unafraid of the Dark, which I believe is a must see for anyone who is capable of thought in today's America.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is a scientist, who revels in the rush that comes from learning something new. In the Cosmos series, he explores the wonder and majesty of what science has revealed to humans about the workings of the universe and how our understanding of the size and nature of that universe has changed.

A major theme in the series explores the tendency for human beings to reject newly discovered facts about the universe when those facts contradict cherished and long-held beliefs. Tyson does not exempt the scientific community from this tendency. In fact, he discusses instances where famous scientists dismissed or thwarted the acceptance of new discoveries which they feared would undermine their reputations.

Tyson's describes science as "a way to keep from fooling ourselves and each other;" and, in the final episode, he offers the single, most-important assessment of the very real danger we face if we allow science to be trumped by political ideology, misguided religious fervor, and greed.

Can you say, "Denying what we've known for over a century about rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide can lead to the earth becoming uninhabitable?"

I knew you could.

With that in mind, I posted the following to my Facebook page.

Two comments and a link:

1. If you have not watched the new Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey series with Neil deGrasse Tyson, shame on you.
2. If I could make every American watch only one of the episodes, it would be the season finale.

Click the link below to watch it.

Unafraid of the Dark

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It appears as if today is a day to discuss matters of universal important; for shortly thereafter, I discovered that a friend had shared this image on his Facebook page:

The result was a thread of comments between me and a friend, Mark, who happens to be a minister:

Me: Could it be that we're not quite as important as we like to think we are?

Mark: Right on, George! And a closer study of the Bible would show that Christians believe that as well. According the Bible, the universe was created for His pleasure, not ours. Just saying...

Me: And the pleasure to which we are entitled for being part of that universe comes from exercising the freedom to learn everything we can about it.

(at this point I copy/pasted the introduction to today's blog post)

Mark: I've been putting them on DVR. Trying to find the time to sit and watch. My only first impression from the little bit that I've seen is that deGrasse seems to be more focused on pitching the "there's no god" philiosophy than Sagan was. I understand that Sagan was a vehement atheist but when I watched the show he hosted I didn't see that. I saw his simple fascination with the universe and how it works. That doesn't really require a theological position to enjoy. I'm looking forward to catching up with the rest of the new show!

Me: I think you'll like it. Your assessment of Sagan's fascination with the workings of the universe is accurate.

I think that you will find that Tyson's presentation is also based on that same fascination, but it also responds to an anti-science political element in today's America, which is cynically misusing religion to undermine the pursuit of any scientific knowledge which contradicts its ideology.

The following, transcribed from the program, sums up this point:

"It's OK not to know all the answers. It's better to admit our ignorance than to believe answers that might be wrong. Pretending to know everything closes the door to finding out what's really there."

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Oh! Did I mention this?

1. If you have not watched the new Cosmos: A Spacetime Oddyssey series with Neil deGrasse Tyson, shame on you.

2. If I could make every American watch only one of the episodes, it would be the season finale.

Click the link below to watch it.

http://www.cosmosontv.com/watch/273943107839