Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for November 28, 2014

Hair, along with other things, changes in 7 years.

A little belated, Happy Thanksgiving, from the UK to all my fellow Doonesbury fans.Mike

@Mike31gIt’s a 4 day holiday, so you’re good.

She looks just like Joanie, and she’ll abandon her kid too. Ah, the children of the 60’s have so much to answer for. Free sex and drugs really seems to have worked out for them. I’m sure they all think they were so enlightened, still feel entitled, and taught their kids how you no longer fight The Man, but instead expect free handouts paid for by those rich 1%ers who actually spent time getting the skills to make a living and not living beyond their means.

@rpmurrayActually, children of the 70s. I know it’s hard but try to get the details right.

You really need to make an appointment, and have your dosage adjusted.

Going back to @montessorteacher’s comment yesterday;

a) I never quite worked out the difference in the way you celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas in the US? Being with the extended family and eating a turkey dinner is Christmas day in the UK; do you just do the same thing twice, a month apart…?

b) guns, yes, well. The UK and the US are probably roughly as violent as each other (though statistics are hard to compare); if anything, the UK is probably slightly more violent in general. But the US has a murder rate of 4.7 per 100,000 of population, where the UK rate is 1. Total death rate (deliberate and accidental) for guns in the UK is one person per 100,0000 every four years, in the US it’s 10 a year per 100,000. No-one outside the US can understand why you are so fascinated by them.

Hey guys!!! There is a comic strip here. Let’s get back to Jonie and her daughter..She abandoned her daughter years ago when she was little and her first comment to her was to criticize her hair?

“…….. rich 1%ers who actually spent time getting the skills to make a living and not living beyond their means.”~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I seriously doubt that’ the “rich 1%ers” actually spent time getting the skills to make a living, since they were most likely born into the 1%ers, went to college just for kicks, and have never developed a skill or worked a day in their lives.

She probably would have preferred it be a page boy with a flip at the bottom, to go with her pinafore and white gloves. After all, she should dress like a proper little lady..Astolat: like many things, I think they compensate for an inferiority complex. Nothing like a gun or two, or more, to make you feel like you’re in charge.

I thought the timing of reissuing this strip around Thanksgiving was poignant, since we often see relatives we haven’t seen for some time on that holiday and get ourselves into uncomfortable discussions. Yes, Astolat, the Thanksgiving celebration is a bit similar to Christmas, except of course, Christmas also involves a gift exchange and there is the religious significance. Also, during Thanksgiving, political discussions often occur. This year, many of us are thinking of those who have family members who are victims of gun violence and Doonesbury has also addressed current social issues. The gun culture in the United States is literally killing us. We need to reexamine what is going on with so many people feeling the need to have firearms in the first place. Guns are not the friends that many seem to think they are. The good guy with a gun approach is not working, as I said yesterday. Part of the problem with trigger happy cops is that they know that a lot of folks here have a gun. That is part of the equation and it needs to be addressed. If it is true that people in the UK are more violent than Americans, I am glad that guns are not so accessible over there. It makes it much easier to kill someone while merely standing a distance away and pulling a trigger than many of the other means. As someone who grew up here, went to school here, I don’t remember so many instances of kids having guns at school decades ago. Now, we can hardly go through a week without hearing of another tragedy involving gun violence in our schools and elsewhere.

If the US had “destroyed China”, where would Walmart (and other discount stores) have obtained their cut-rate merchandise? Who knows, it might have saved some industries in the US and elsewhere.

The US burned York (now Toronto) and, I believe, Niagara (the town, not the falls!).

Destruction of China would not have been aa good move.No reason tokill a billion people just because you don’t like their government or because they compete with you productively..

A crowd is headed your way.They are angry about some terrible injustice somewhere else.They respond to this injustice by burning and looting.All you own is endangered, including your family and neighbors.You either have a gun or don’t have a gun.If you don’t, the solution is simple: run from the mob or risk death.If you do have one, your choices are harder. You can still abandon what you’ve worked for a lifetime and hope the rest of your friends and neighbors and children survive.Or you can try to shoot the one throwing Molotov cocktails and risk hitting one of those cheering him on.

@bawanaLet’s not consider the financial and economic cost of destroying cost of destroying China.Let’s not even consider how many Chinese would have died. How many Americans would have died in the process of destroying China?How would have the parents of America reacted to not seeing 50,000 coffins coming back from Asia but 500,000? A million? When you were serving in Vietnam, didn’t you value your life and the lives of your comrades?

I lived for 3 decades in inner cities of the US without a gun. Were there at times dangerous situations? Yes. Did I own a gun? No. Would I ever consider owning a gun? No. We saw plenty of rough situations at school during those years. Never had a gun, never would consider it. There were law enforcement folks around who did have guns as well as batons, mace, etc. Many Americans reject the gun culture which is ruining our country. We don’t all accept it as inevitable that we must own a gun.

I’m confused, are they both named Joanie??

@reedkomicksJoanie, Sr. and Joanie, Jr.

Somebody missed the cute Jr. reference the other day. Not very many folks tend to pass down the female names, which is ok by me. We have a lot of one particular male name in our family, which always used to confuse people.

I was there in 70-71, Vietnam was never winnable and in fact Russia was Vietnams ally, not China. Fact, Vietnam has fought 2 border wars against China since we left.

My husband is a surgeon who has had to repair many a patient with a gunshot wound. It doesn’t make up the bulk of his practice, but when he is on ER call, it isn’t unusual to have to deal with it. After all, somebody has to. I can’t say that he is a major fan of guns either. So, we aren’t all trigger happy here in America.

There are plenty of people who already have guns, both good and bad. Guns have become extremely common and they are also in the hands of many kids who should not have them at all.

@timbob2313Why are you boring bawana with these things called “facts”?

How can we get rid of the bad guys? We are already the only democratic country in the free world which uses capital punishment and we have the highest rate of incarceration in the free world. Should we model ourselves after some place in the Middle East? Amputation of hands after stealing? Execution for robbery? We would be rid of the bad guys and they would never do it again… Or should we shoot them in the streets, one by one? That doesn’t seem to be working either…

Perhaps cops won’t be able to protect me. I am still not interested in shooting another person under any circumstances. We live in a nation of laws. I hold myself to a higher standard than someone who might do me harm. I was also raised to turn the other cheek.

Guess which side I’m on.

Well, I am not a gun owner. I will not be a gun owner since I do not wish to shoot anyone. I suppose it comes as a shock to some who live in the US, but we are not all gun owners. Guns are not the solution in my opinion. In fact, the extreme availability of guns in the US is destroying us. Perhaps I will be a crime victim. However, statistically, we are at far greater risk by having a weapon in the home due to accidental outcomes than we are of becoming a crime victim. There was a Harvard study about this cited by a would be surgeon general who testified recently. His nomination did not go through, thanks to the gun lobby.

Has it occurred to anyone to be thankful for what we do have in life. Gratitude is good for your health.

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

“That’s the way a Republic would think, unfortunately too many in and out of govt are thinking like an empire”.The obligations of the nobility, noblesse oblige?.Remember when the USSR fell apart and commentators were talking our new responsibilities due to being the only superpower left?.We fixed that by our politicians advising them how to NOT set up separation of powers like we have, thus setting the stage for Putin..China fixed that problem by reconsidering their economic system and coming part way out of the darkness. They aren’t acting imperialistic so far, though..To our credit, none in power decided to opt for genocide even though the nutjobs still do. People in general are better than some think even as some are worse than most can imagine.

LIFE IS GOODYOU ARE GOODI’M STILL TRYING(never give up)

@LoboGrandeSomething I haven’t enjoyed in over 30 years but some other people are still fortunate enough to experience.

@Illegal Seagull@goweeder’I take it you’re not referring to the 1%ers who actually created and built their own wealth.".You know good and we’ll he is when he says:“I seriously doubt that’ the “rich 1%ers” actually spent time getting the skills to make a living, since they were most likely born into the 1%ers, went to college just for kicks, and have never developed a skill or worked a day in their lives.”.Based on his prejudice rather than read things like:http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/business/the-1-percent-paint-a-more-nuanced-portrait-of-the-rich.html?pagewanted=all.“Most 1 percenters were born with socioeconomic advantages, which helps explain why the 1 percent is more likely than other Americans to have jobs, according to census data. They work longer hours, being three times more likely than the 99 percent to work more than 50 hours a week, and are more likely to be self-employed. Married 1 percenters are just as likely as other couples to have two incomes, but men are the big breadwinners, earning 75 percent of the money, compared with 64 percent of the income in other households.”. Most were born to wealth and work long and hard.

(And dictating in Hong Kong is still internal)

“even when the steel boot of the 1% come down on us. They cause the selective depression we are in and have been reaping 95% of the recovery.”.This is the problem with prejudice. It picks an identifiable group and blames every member of it with the misdeeds of any member of it.It blames all blacks for the crimes of any blacks.It blames all cops for the sins of any cops.It blames all Jews for the crimes — real or imagined — of any Jew.It blames all Muslims for the atrocities of any Muslims.It blames all 1%ers for the misdeeds of any one percenter, even though the group includes Barack Obama, Katie Couric, Jon Stewart, NFL players, Michael Jordan, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Keaton, Michael Moore, the head of The Red Cross, the CEOs for Mattel, AT&T, Walgreen, Toys R Us, Barnes and Noble, most physicians and a host of others who has nothing to do with causing a worldwide recession.

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