Ad Astra Per Hudson Bay

Randy Bish, 7/10/11:

Of course, one has to remember that there is no Northwest Passage -- it was something that a lot of people really, really wanted to find, since it would be very convenient and profitable for them, but, sadly, just wanting something doesn't make it happen.

The application of this analogy to manned spaceflight is left to the reader.

Sweet Georgia Brown!

Taylor Jones, 7/7/11
The US is handing over all responsibility for the entire rest of the world -- which, of course, it had up to now -- to China.

That is, unless the fact that Obama is dressed in a Harlem Globetrotters uniform means anything!

House! You Were Lucky to Live in a House!

August J. Pollak, 7/7/11:

It's true: pro-choicers are only in favor of abortion as long as they don't need the fetuses for other Modest Proposals.

I'm Emotionally Co-Dependent With New York

Ted Rall, 7/6/11:

Yay! Now gay men can have loveless marriages filled with bickering and emotional warfare, just like straights!

But "the Lockhorns" would never countenance divorce: that would let the other person free, and possibly allow for happiness!

Never Pass Up the Opportunity to Draw a Giant Firecracker

Rick McKee, 7/5/11:

Remember: there's one party in the debt ceiling negotiations that has been putting out new proposals regularly since February, and steadily moving farther and farther from its original position as the other side remains intransigent and unwilling to compromise.

And, if you listen to McKee, you'd think that was the congressional GOP.

Is the Woman's Shirt a Thatcher Reference?

Terry Wise, 7/5/11:

Right. Because Michael Ramirez is such a flaming liberal.

(And he's only the most recent and most obvious example.)

One might also note that plenty of women in politics get respect -- there are a couple of dozen currently serving as representatives, senators, or governors that only get picked on by their hometown papers as much as their male compatriots do -- but one suspects that Wise is thinking of a particular few women who don't get respect...and we each can have our opinions as to why that is.

ACME Catalog Special

Paul Fell, 7/4/11:

If those damned tree-huggers had just let us clear-cut a few thousand more acres, the economy would be chugging along and our biggest economic problems would be a slight altitude issue and a killer wedgie.

Is The Ice Cream Relevant?

Don Wright, 7/1/11:

You know, I'm not entirely sure, but I think Wright just might be making a crack here about Christie's size.

It's subtle, I know.

(And, more importantly, I can't quite decide if this is for or against Christie!)

The Signal

Dick Locher, 7/2/11:

Surely Locher knows that Batman's parents are dead?

Get Me Some Brilliant Pebbles!

Lisa Benson, 7/1/11:

It might come as a surprise to you to learn that Iran has ICBMs capable of striking the USA.

I'm more surprised that Benson is such a Cold War stalwart that she's still shilling for Reagan's Star Wars plan, after more than two decades of failures.

Unplanned

Joel Pett, 6/30/11:

Having a government entity not give you money that you've come to expect is exactly like being raped.

Niagara Falls!?

Charlie Daniel, 6/28/11:

Isn't the point of the joke that the "slowly I turned" guy is so muscular and powerful that he overwhelms any obstacles?

And doesn't that really badly fit our actual experience in Afghanistan?

Suicide Is Painless

Clay Jones, 6/27/11:

As all God-fearing Amurricans know, the only possible reason to want to end a war is if you're a pinko sissy skirt-wearing wimp. Right?

Fasten Your Seat Belts, It's Going to Be a Bumpy Night

Henry Payne, 6/27/11:

So the car represents...what, exactly? The tyrannical federal government? The evil forces preventing oil drilling off the coast of Virginia?

Presumably, the "bumps in the road" are for the US on the road to renewed prosperity, so does this mean that Obama is driving us over our own economy?

(And can anyone believe that Mr. Detroit, the car-happy Payne, is showing a vehicle as a weapon?)

When It's Over, Over There

Dick Locher, 6/27/11:

Locher thinks it would be wiser to keep the soldiers over in Afghanistan, at least for a while, since their Anger Management is much larger and more obviously phallic there.

He Doesn't Have To Shoot Me Now

Bob Gorrell, 6/27/11:

Sovereign debt is a random thing, with unexpected but occasionally fatal outcomes. Just look at all of the countries that had debt troubles and then immediately died!

(Oh, and China only owns 7.5% of US debt, too, so this cartoon is either badly informed or racist.)

Aussie Drive-Thru

Paul Zanetti, 6/24/11:

"Welcome to Zanetti's, may I take your order?"

"Yes, I'd like a large order of All Those People Look Alike, with a side of Why Are They In My Country and a tall If They Can't Assimilate, to go."

Mind Your Own Beeswax

Ann Cleaves, 6/24/11:

This is either a comment on the use of unmanned drones in the we're-not-calling-it-a-war over Libya, or on the recent massive disappearances of bees being called Colony Collapse Disorder.

Or, perhaps, in some bizarre way, it's both: bees are disappearing because they're turning into drones! 

Newspaper Roulette

Paul Fell, 6/23/11:

So the News-papers are trying to kill themselves, and causing job cuts as a side effect?

Or did Fell mean to draw the opposite, and somehow it ended up this way?

It Seemed That the Land Would Be Torn by War

Steve Kelley, 6/23/11:

Obama is the young farmhand Wart, of seemingly humble birth [1] and skills [2] and no power [3], but if he can pull the magical sword Polls from the stone of Economy, then he will be acclaimed as rightful King of Pennsylvania Avenue.

Notice, also, how deeply cynical this cartoon is: Obama isn't trying to grasp Prosperity, or Peace, or even Slight Bump in the Housing Market, but simply the illusion of popularity.


[1] Insert birth certificate joke here.

[2] Insert teleprompter joke here.

[3] Wry commentary on the rabidly Republican House here.

Convoy!

Joel Pett, 6/23/11:

Saudi women are protesting their country's restriction on female drivers, and Wal-Mart just won a big Supreme Court decision in their fight against a class-action lawsuit on behalf of their female employers.

Think those two things have nothing to do with each other? Ha! You've forgotten that Any Two Things Make a Cartoon!

Having Two Famous Women Named "Callista" Is Too Confusing

Sandy Huffaker, 6/23/11:

Newt Gingrich is a Nibelung out of legend, obsessed with gold and jewels, and his wife Callista is some sort of bird princess. He cursed his staff to turn into blackbirds if they betrayed him, but they fled his demesne anyway.

In the next opera, he'll battle Wotan for his spear and magic helmet.

His Precious

Don Landgren, Jr., 6/23/11:

Why on earth do sports fans think that watching something somehow gives them ownership of it?

I mean, I loved the Lord of the Rings movies, but that doesn't mean I pretend to have personally defeated Sauron. And yet I'm the nerd.

Blowback

Mike Keefe, 6/22/11:

Yes, Virginia, Operation Fast and Furious was real, and it operated pretty much like Keefe's cartoon shows: ATF agents out of the Phoenix office allowed guns into the hands of "straw purchasers" in hopes of tracking them to Mexican drug cartels, until a US Border Patrol agent was killed by one of those guns.


American law enforcement, ladies and gentlemen! Just as competent and smart as the folks where you work.

It's SMILING At Me!

Scott Stantis, 6/20/11:

I'm hoping that...thing...on the left is some new piece of public art in Chicagoland, and, if so, then I think I agree with Stantis.

If not, I'd like to have what he's having.