Bors Blog
Archive for October, 2007
The Wildfires Were An Inside Job!
I’ve been talking about the 9/11 so-called truth movement lately and how they have grown increasingly irritating as time goes on and all their claims have been answered or debunked. (for all my liberal friends reading this who buy into it, please order this issue of skeptic magazine). Hurricane Katrina gave birth to the claim the the levy was blown up so capitalists could build condos in the 9th ward (I guess gentrification wasn’t working) so I figured this would spawn some crapola as well. I was right.
About five minutes after news of the wildfires broke, every political ideologue in the country seemed to have their mind made up about what caused it–Global Warming, environmentalists, Mexicans, and Al Qaeda (as suggested by FOX, naturally.)
The next morning, Randi Rhodes, the top Liberal radio host in the country, went on air with an opening monologue accusing Blackwater of orchestrating the fires so they could build their base in the desert. She offered no proof. I guess she really is our answer to Rush Limbaugh. Is proof needed for anything anymore or is it just the person that more forcefully declares themselves to be true that gets to win?
The character in the comic is a thinly veiled Alex Jones, who has turned into somewhat of a shrill, pudgy messiah over the last few years for the conspiracy left and militia movement right alike.
He’s put together a new “documentary” called Endgame, which basically connects everything that ever was– Darwin, Hitler, Science, The Roman Empire, International Bankers, the UN and god knows what else–into an allegedly coherent expose:
For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world’s population, while enabling the “elites” to live forever with the aid of advanced technology.
Hot Damn! He blew the lid off of a thousand year old conspiracy and wasn’t killed. I guess taking out Jones is more risky than killing JFK or demolishing the towers.
Happy Halloween
I carved a Jack-O-Lantern for the first time in years the other night and it was about the most fun ever. If you come to the house with this out front you will receive a yet to be determined candy.
Cultural Histories
Hopefully you can still enjoy this comic even if you aren’t aware of this horrible publishing trend. Cultural Histories are worthwhile when they address useful topics like the History of African-American Resistance or theater. But recently the trend has jumped the shark–unless you are someone who wants to read a 350 page book on the Cultural History of Salt, Impotence, Farting, Crying, Fear, Popeye, Virgins, and the Penis.
Also, check out Jen Sorensen’s cartoon this week. Being trained in graphic design, I nearly vomited when I saw the anti-terrorism logo the government made. It looks like the secretary at the office drew it on a napkin. Note to the CIA: I will redesign this logo completely free so terrorists do not laugh at us.
Not For Gays
Sean Hannity has a dating service. It’s called Hannidate.
The place where people of like conservative minds can come together to meet… It’s fun, interactive, safe and anonymous – until you decide to take it further.
Sounds steamy. I could only look at one profile before I had to stop.
I aspire to be a good wife to my husband and show my love and respect for the Lord Jesus Christ by sharing His blessings with the wolrd(sic). I want to have nine beautiful babies and a white wedding before I turn 21. I dream that the perfect husband will walk into my life any day now.
It’s just my opinion, but that’s not exactly info you should release before the first date. Wait, do the nine babies come before or after the wedding? How’s your appearance, by the way? Are you hot?
My fellow parishoners tell me that my eyes sparkle from my love of the Lord.
oh.
The Marlboro Journal Of Medicine 3
Dr. Alan Blum and I worked together again to create a comic on Marlboro, this time focusing on their new research facility. We had planned to do three of these from the outset–the previous two are here and here.
It ran last Sunday in the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Opinion section. The text below, written by Blum accompanied the piece.
Click to enlarge
This week in Minneapolis, 3,000 public-health experts will attend the biennial National Conference on Tobacco or Health. Since the release of the landmark 1964 Surgeon General’s report, considerable progress has been made in reducing the prevalence of smoking among adults — from more than 40 percent to 21 percent (20 percent in Minnesota) — through educational campaigns in the mass media and through the passage of clean-indoor-air laws (the first of which was authored by Minnesota state Rep. Phyllis Kahn in 1975). Yet nearly 50 million Americans still smoke, and cigarettes remain the leading preventable cause of lung cancer, heart disease and emphysema. Most worrisome is that the decline in smoking among high-school students has leveled off at 22 percent. One wrenching controversy that attendees at this week’s conference will debate is whether the tobacco industry is indeed on the wane or is still up to its old tricks. Dr. Alan Blum, director of the University of Alabama Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society, teamed up with cartoonist Matt Bors to create this view of one company’s attempt to soften its image.
Human Shields
Funding for the War is coming up again. Republicans will no doubt accuse anyone who opposes it as wanting Al Qaeda to slowly torture a pregnant war widow. It’s one of the simpler comics I’ve done and a response to the endless cartoons like this one I’ve seen repeatedly over the last two weeks.
No Sense Of Irony
The socialist paradise is a tropical gulag.”
George W. Bush speaking about Cuba, an island where he detains and tortures people indefinitely without charge.
Campaign Swag
This is my 300th cartoon. The Obama “got hope?” sticker is real. And Mitt Romney does have a mitt, but it’s a baseball mitt.
Lunatics.
Check out the video of Bill Maher going off on some 9/11 “truthers” that infiltrated his audience and wouldn’t let his show proceed. Apparently yelling shit about building 7 over and over makes you right. Since their views are not founded in reality, they have to do this to get attention in the media (if only real religions were treated like this we’d be in good shape).
I love Maher’s show and have seen him combat these loons a few times–usually members of the panel.
I saw some so-called truthers yesterday when I was out and about in Portland. They were waving signs about 9/11 being an inside job. The most mind-blowing part was that cars were constantly honking to show support. Their misunderstanding of what happened that day has turned into a true religious movement.
When you are shouting and waving a cardboard sign on a street corner–regardless of what you are advocating–it’s time to reevaluate your belief system.
Child Soldiers
Conservatives decried the use of children in the debate over SCHIP and launched a smear campaign against the toddlers. So I wondered if they would oppose the use of child soldiers in ads about ending the use of child soldiers.
I usually don’t react well to politicians using children. But the whole debate over SCHIP is about children. How can we discuss it without mentioning the real life stories of kids who might have died without help?
Quiet Reflection
Overriding the Governor’s veto, the Illinois state legislature has mandated a moment of silence at the beginning of every school day. It will be interesting to see how it plays out since the law doesn’t mention prayer or religion specifically. It’s a “neutral” silence. You can pray of course. Or you can think about girls or Nintendo. They say there is no intention–just silence. They simply love moments of silence.
"Our children deserve . . . a moment of silence," said Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago). She said it would enable students to "listen to the rustling of leaves, to listen to the chirping of a bird, to listen to the tip-tap of a kid walking.”
hmm. If kids are walking with a “tip-tap” down the hall, they aren’t doing a good job of observing a moment of silence. Supporters even seized on recent school shootings to help their cause, claiming kids need more peace of mind.
This isn’t the most egregious transgression of the separation of church and state to ever happen but I find their need to enshrine prayer time into law law dangerous and unconstitutional. Christians with a persecution complex will always claim secularists are trying to take prayer out of schools. They don’t seem to understand that you can pray in schools. Pray before lunch. Pray before class. Pray all day and ignore your work. It’s just not going to be part of the curriculum.
I like this point by Kate Sheppard:
If I were religious, this would probably annoy me even more; mandating observance of your faith seems pretty contrary to the idea of faith. Shouldn’t it be a personal choice, made by individuals or families, practiced on your own time? And if you feel that you need to observe your religion in school, you can go to a religious school. But I guess I’m forgetting just what sort of religious person would want to pass this law in the first place.
Exactly. Why the need for Big Mommy Government to tell you it’s time to talk with Jesus. Can’t individuals decide this on their own without some nanny state bureaucrat mandating it by law?
