Bors Blog

Kill Us To Save Us

2009-07-01T14:03:00.004-04:00

MailBag

2009-07-01T11:00:00.001-04:00

Maria does not like my comic about PETA's dead fly outrage:

You know, before you go passing undue judgment towards a rather large organization, you should probably read what was actually said. I don't really care if the strip wasn't supposed to be offensive, I'm tired of people portraying Peta members as whiny pussies. I may be sensitive towards animals, but that doesn't mean any jackass with a tired ass joke and an internet outlet can generalize me and not get a mouthful. Here is Peta's actual statement. Fact check next time? =]

I admire Maria standing up for herself and I have to own up here: I completely distorted PETA's response. They did not refer to the fly as "Morty Druckler." I made that name up along with all of his background information. I'm sorry if anyone was misled.

I think we all have a thing or two to learn about human/fly relations. We should start by following the advice of Peta blog commenter "Alyse":

I luv Obama. U can't always be conscious about everything all the time. He had a lapse in judgement. I myself ask flies to leave me alone. If 1 lands on me I ask it "Hey can u find another place to perch Mr. or Ms. Fly?"but I'm a lovey dovey15 yr old.He was in the middle of an ineterview. It must be hard to go from "Mr.Prez mode" to "I luv you fly mode"

Let's all try to spend more time in "I luv you fly mode".

July 4th

2009-07-01T01:00:00.001-04:00

Off To Seattle

2009-06-30T12:56:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow I leave for Seattle to attend the AAEC convention. I'll be moderating a panel on alt-weekly cartoons, participating in a panel on the future of syndication and drinking copious amounts of alcohol with my ink-slinging colleagues as we talk about the future of our dying profession. Gathering with cartoonists that are better than me is always inspiring. But given the moribund state of the industry, it has the potential to be downright depressing. It'll be a trick to stay positive while speaking frankly about the State Of Things on my panels. Nevertheless, I look forward to getting out of my cartoon laboratory for a few days to interact with other humans.

In my spare time I'll try to blog any good news or discussion that comes out of the panels.

If you are in the area, be sure come to the Cartoonapalooza event with Mike Peters, Ted Rall, David Horsey, Signe Wilkinson, Mark Fiore, myself and others.

The Quad Obit Bandwagon

2009-06-30T10:41:00.000-04:00

I was ahead of the curve.

(click here to view)

MStreeter
Savannah Morning News
Jun 30, 2009

EditorialCartoonists.com

(click here to view)

David Donar
Donklephant.com
Jun 30, 2009

EditorialCartoonists.com

Phoning It In

2009-06-29T14:25:00.003-04:00

Here's my insights into the week's news events. Hope no other cartoonists beat me to it.

I should add that this is historic. I don't think anyone in history has ever done a Quadruple Obit cartoon before.

Comments

2009-06-29T03:39:00.003-04:00

I've opened comments for everyone, including anonymous users, but I will approve them before they go up to avoid spam and the odd crazy person. We'll see how it works.

Minutemen

2009-06-29T03:19:00.003-04:00

We're having a Founding Fathers Fest here this week. Both cartoons ended up being patriot themed for some reason.

Democrats have a habit of ceding things to the other side before they even sit down to discuss them. I'm glad they weren't around during the Revolution--they would have wanted to take it off the table.

Very Inconsistent

2009-06-27T18:54:00.006-04:00

Jesse Jackson, who once said Obama wasn't black enough and should have his nuts cut off, flew in to LA today to hang out at the mansion of a pedophile with bleached skin.

Bad, Dangerous, Smooth Criminal and other Michael Jackson references that fit

2009-06-26T22:31:00.005-04:00

With the King of Pop's frightening visage blaring from every cable station, website and newspaper in the land, what better time for news to break that Obama is preparing to assert radical executive powers:

The Obama administration, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, is drafting an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations.

Might as well post this...

2009-06-26T11:22:00.000-04:00

The only time I touched on MJ in a cartoon.

New Illos

2009-06-26T01:31:00.002-04:00

A little punk ass thieved a laptop out of the back of a parked ambulance.

And a white trash couple was cruising around the OC in whatever kind of car that is, blighting their upscale roads with cigarette butts.

Twitter

2009-06-24T01:00:00.006-04:00

It turns out being useless is only one of the many uses of Twitter. Iranians are definitely using it to organize, but the importance it has been given seems a wee bit overblown. It's not merely because it's one of the few channels for information coming out of Iran--the media simply loves talking about Twitter. They were giving it an excessive amount of attention before these events and this is merely confirmation to Rick Sanchez that it is the greatest invention of all time.

The regime's own technological propaganda efforts are lame. See this Photoshopped crowd? Looks like a project I did in week 1 of "Introduction to the Clone Tool." Try to catch up, guys. And stop treating women like shit.

So Twitter is being used for organizing marches against an unjust government. That is genuinely awesome. But what's this crap about it being a news source? I know there isn't much reporting coming out of the place, but reading (or posting) a bunch of unverifiable tweets is lame. Used to be only government officials had their biased, unverifiable statements uncritically parroted by the media--now everyone is invited to submit them via Twitter.

See my previous cartoon on this time-suck/revolutionary tool. And don't forget to follow me on the Twitter!

Cartoonapalooza!

2009-06-22T18:11:00.002-04:00

Next week I'm headed to Seattle for the annual convention of Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. I'll be participating in Cartoonapalooza, a benefit for the organization.

David Horsey, Mike Peters, Ted Rall, Jack Ohman, Mark Fiore, myself and others will be giving a slide show and discussion of some of our most hilarious cartoons. Tons of other cartoonists will be on hand, chatting and drinking. There will be originals and prints on display and available for purchase. Everything benefits the AAEC.

The event starts at 7:30 at Town Hall in downtown Seattle. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the door.

The Fly

2009-06-22T04:02:00.004-04:00

I wasn't planning on doing another cartoon involving PETA this soon--if ever--but they've forced my hand. I'm sure some gnats are killed every time a predator drone bombs some Afghan civilians. Maybe they could raise a fuss. My previous PETA cartoon is here.

Round-Up

2009-06-19T11:23:00.002-04:00

Some recent comics I like:

Tom Tomorrow launches a Rosetta Stone for conservatives
Big Fat Whale's Father's Day gifts
A Ted Rall cartoon (that I played a small role in)
Cat and Girl on the existence, or non-existence, of Hipsters
BOASAS on wishin'

Wow.

2009-06-18T01:44:00.003-04:00

Obama killed a fly.

The media loved it. Right-wingers howled. And PETA Protested.

PCLD Irreversible In Some

2009-06-18T00:29:00.004-04:00

I got one for you.

Remember when I released my comic Partisan Civil Liberties Disorder and wrote about how Randi Rhodes is a big time sufferer? She can weave any horrible action of Obama into a grand narrative where it is all part of his secret liberal strategy. Well, today takes the cake.

I tuned in to hear her claim that Obama's recent DOMA briefing was a masterful anti-DOMA move in disguise.

According to Randi, the Obama DOJ filed a brief in support of DOMA using deplorable right-wing arguments in order to discredit these ideas, not give them the full weight and support of the Federal Government as it would appear on the surface. Obama has done almost nothing on gay rights according to most sober observers, but to Randi this was evidence of a subtle maneuver (perhaps detectable only to her) that would propel us into a new era of gay rights. Once the courts strike down this obscene briefing, these arguments will suddenly become discredited among anti-gay bigots, who apparently base their hatred of gays on the success or failure of court briefings.

Today, Robert Gibbs wouldn't even distance the White House from the most controversial parts of the briefing. All part of the plan!

You wait. Any moment now Obama's plan will come to fruition. Any moment...

Stolen Election

2009-06-16T02:06:00.004-04:00

Here is Wednesday's comic a little early.

Date Night

2009-06-15T01:00:00.000-04:00

There are things about Obama that frustrate me. Date Night isn't one of them.

A Nation of Laws (Some Crappy)

2009-06-14T23:12:00.005-04:00

Last week the Dept. of Justice filed a brief that defended The Defense Of Marriage Act, something Obama said was horrible and promised to repeal while campaigning for office. The DOJ does have to defend current law, but there was some troubling language in it that upset the GLBT community and people who care about advancing gay rights. (See Barry's post for more.)

Naturally, people wanted to know why a supposed "fierce advocate" for gay rights would do this.

So the President sends John Berry, the director of the Office of Personnel Management, to talk to The Advocate about it. This way the information gets to the gay community without Obama having to actually say something himself about gay rights. Anyway, Berry says the following about why the Obama DOJ had to file the brief:

This president took a solemn oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States and he does not get to decide and choose which laws he enforces. He has to enforce the laws that have been enacted appropriately and that he has inherited.

This is great news! Surely Obama is moments away from enforcing the UN Convention Against Torture signed into law by Ronald Reagan, which requires us to prosecute torturers. (See my cartoon.) No picking and choosing for this president--he follows the law to the letter!

See Pam Spaulding for more on the DOMA issue.

New Illos

2009-06-12T01:00:00.001-04:00

A drunken OC girl wishes she could thank the woman who helped her while she was puking all over the place.

A father pushes his child, still in diapers, to learn how to ice skate and play hockey. You're never to young to have parents live vicariously through you.

Intellectual of the Day

2009-06-11T12:15:00.003-04:00

On her blog, conservative commentator Debbie Schlussel attempts to blame the shooting spree of a neo-nazi on...wait for it...Muslims! Not only them, but the liberals who supposedly defend them. You see, nice neo-nazis wouldn't shoot people if they weren't pushed over the brink by jew-hating Muslims:

Mr. Von Brunn has been on this planet for 89 years, and he didn't feel comfortable shooting up a Holocaust museum until now--this new era of "tolerance," in which we must tolerate the most extremist Muslim behaviors and sentiments...

No, it's guys with names like Mohammed and Ahmed on our own American streets who make Mr. Von Brunn far more at ease in 2009 than he was even in 1999 to attack places associated with the Jews. They created the comfort zone for James W. Brunn to engage in today's shooting.

Hmmm. So what's her excuse for Timothy McVeigh? And Hitler? There's more than a few holes in her thesis, but here's the big one: Von Brunn served six years in prison for attempting to kidnap members of the Federal Reserve in 1981. She neglects to inform her audience of this since that crime can't be blamed on "guys with names like Mohammed and Ahmed."

Big Fat Whale

2009-06-11T01:00:00.001-04:00

Brian McFadden has released a 150 page collection of Big Fat Whale comics. I highly recommend hopping over to pick up a copy. If you aren't familiar with his work, Brian is one of the most talented men in the funny strip business. His strip cover politics, TV, pop culture and have a sketch comedy feel to them. He has done particularly good work in pushing fart jokes to a higher level. No turd awards for this guy--I give it my full endorsement.

Bullet Bubble

2009-06-10T02:00:00.005-04:00

The Bullet Bubble is a real phenomenon. Unable to realize that bullets will never cease to be produced or be outlawed in any way, gun owners are driving up the cost by frantically buying up every slug they see, which in turn causes other gun owners to freak out and rush to the store. People are hoarding them in hopes of cashing in--prices will only get higher! In a few years these people are going to wake up with a wildly overvalued arsenal and wonder why the New World Order never made them rich by outlawing bullets. Then they'll come hunting hat in hand to mommy government for a bailout.

I expect a similar bubble to develop around baked beans. Any post-apocalyptic traveler with a substantial amount of bullets and beans could run the show. Stock up.

On another note, we might as well give this guy a TV show.