I’m lost… how does taxation link up with the “safety zone” and “nanny state”? What is Wiley trying to say? Can someone explain this strip to me please? :-/(bloody hell, my first ever comment and it makes me look like a moron)
The sign states, “Pedestrians have the right of way in a designated crosswalk”. OK, liberals, close your eyes and walk.Daddy taught me, “Look both ways and cross when YOU determine it’s safe”.I can believe what the government tells me, or I can believe my eyes.
One side of the road is good for the drivers, the other for the pedestrians. Balance is needed, but can’t be acheived with out comprimise on both sides. There are drivers that would never let anyone cross the road without a regulation, and there are pedestrians who would dance all day in the middle of the road and stop traffic just because they can. Great analogy Wiley, love your work!
I agree with nomadicus and Darkeforce:A little ‘give and take’ is better than ‘all take and no give’ or ‘all give and no take.’ . Wiley, you are a genius!
If the “conservative” side of the street is going to be exaggerated in the way it is, then, to be fair, the “liberal” side should have concrete pylons protecting the “safety zone” thus preventing any traffic flow whatsoever in favor of pedestrian safety.Looked at another way, how liberal is it that the “walk” light is lit while there is no red light utilizing the traffic laws to stop vehicle flow allowing pedestrians to safely cross the street? Not very I think – not very conservative either.IMHO, the answer would be a balanced mix of regulations and personal freedoms that allow both vehicle and pedestrian traffic to coexist safely.You know, the way it works now (in reality).
Overlooked is that it is those with wealth, and accepting no personal responsibility for their offspring, or others, who can afford to hire a “nanny”. Hiring a cheap “babysitter” so you can work two jobs and survive in a world the “nanny hirers” run, is another component of that social structure that built the pyramids- with slave labor and spoiled untaxed pharaohs who lived high, and profited from wars.
No crosswalks in the Red Sea should have been a warning?
Yeah, I saw an article the other day where some town made it illegal to throw snowballs in a public place. Ummm. I guess that means that it is illegal there to take my daughter and her cousins to the park for a snowball fight.
Anybody who received a grant to study the sex habits of swamp rats had to submit a grant proposal, saying what they were hoping to discover and why. If you look at a list of government grants it’s easy to pick out things that make you ask “WHY?”, and it’s all the easier if you have no intention of FINDING OUT “why.” Anybody who’s tried to get a research grant from the government can no doubt tell you how difficult (and often fruitless) the approval process is.Research on the sex habits of swamp rats is important if you want to decrease the numbers of swamp rats.Research on the sex habits of sheep is useful if you want to increase the numbers of sheep.Research on the sex habits of ANY non-human species is useful if you want to understand the sex habits of humans, because (A) humans tend to lie when asked about their own sex habits, and (B) there are limits to the experiments that can be conducted on human subjects. Who knows? Perhaps there is something significant about swamp rats that makes their sex habits particularly worthy of study. Studies of the sex habits of mountain voles have been very enlightening, because one species is monogamous while a nearly-identical species is not.Government funding of all sorts of scientific research (including “pure research”) is useful because the private sector only funds research if it expects to turn a buck, not to expand the boundaries of knowledge.
But of course, if you cut all the government funding for scientific research into the sex habits of swamp rats, you can fund military operations in Iraq for another 15 minutes. If you cut the funding of ALL such programs, you can afford to build another jet fighter that the Pentagon doesn’t want.
Actually, I am much more concerned about the government capitulating its mandate to serve the people by pandering to the wealthy and powerful. My neighbor does need help at times and laziness is often a judgment by those have never been unfortunate enough to need help. And learning about the “sex lives of swamp rats” is frequently the way useful (sometimes very useful) knowledge is obtained.
Thanks for explaining! I got the representation of the ‘lawlessness’ vs the ‘nanny state’, but couldn’t make the link with taxation (though I figured that’s what the “Taxing” remark referred to).
That said, I’m not sure I agree – a place like India with reasonably high taxes would still be considered either “lawless” or “common sense based” depending on your point of view. While Singapore, the mother of all nanny states, has reasonably low levels of taxation (income tax at least).
Of course there’s no denying that tax dollars pay for our security (both internal and external) and that zero taxation would inevitably result in zero security (apart from some tax havens like Monaco perhaps), but I don’t think they’re correlated beyond a certain point. High taxes can simply be a sign of an inefficient and corrupt bureaucracy.
@SCAATY; thank you. Sure wish I could talk like that.@ FishStix; good morning. I have several neighbors who are definitely NOT “lazy”, just lost their jobs. It would be very nice for you folks that keep yelling “get a job” to tell the unemployed where those jobs are. Thanks
When the government becomes competent enough to not wait for a fatality to put in a controlled crosswalk or just a bloody street light or stop sign, then count me in, otherwise forget it!
When the number of living-wage jobs looking for people is larger than the number of people looking for living-wage jobs, then I’ll start listening to complaints about those who are “too lazy” to work. Until then, it’s just hot air.
It is funny to read comments from what appear to be folks who are not in tune with liberal thinking. Now, I am about as liberal a person you will ever see, meet, or hear about. The problem with you dimwits is that you seem to think it is only a liberal trait to not look both ways at crosswalks with crosshatch markings because some state law tells people they should stop for pedestrians who are approaching such things. Every day I cross at one of those and every day I look both ways and then proceed when it is safe. Now, it seems that only dimbulb conservatives had parents who told them to look both ways before proceeding. I remember those days well and now sixty or so years later, I still honor the wisdom of those words.
What I do not do is cast everything in a liberal thought pattern vs a conservative thought pattern because that would imply there is actually a conservative thought pattern. The direction this thread goes is evidence there is none. The only thing in plentitude here is more stupid ranting by a bunch of complete idiots who think anything emanating from local, state, or federal government is a bad thing.
For those of you who are like that (Lewreader, for one) the world is not even close to your implication. You ought to find better things to do than complain about the obvious and go join your friend Mallard the duck or whatever it is. Your negative nonsense is simply childish and tiresome.
^what Fish Stix fails to see (or say) is that “lazy neighbor” is code for “black person”. There are people who take advantage of safety net programs, and they should be prosecuted for doing so, but social programs mainly help protect the elderly, young and unlucky (as so well said by scaaty above) and it’s the mark of a civilized society that they do so. The selfish, narrow, small minded Randians are pushing for a society that will be very ugly and can only result in some really nasty increases in crime rates.
neeeurothrush, if you can’t see CERTAIN things in black and white, your basic zebra-crossing is going to be beyond your capabilities in the first place.
FishStix, governmental limits are what voters are for. Now lets be honest here. If you don’t have an active, analytical, critical, involved and Voting public, it really doesn’t matter which kind of government or no government you have, because neither one will work well. And yup, Wiley out did himself this time :)
^Disagree. Yes, government, like business, can and does often lose control or go off on tangents. To call it a cancer is to proclaim anarchy to be an ideal. Given our form of government, which is not perfect but certainly better than many, there are checks and balances which do give an approximation of order. On the other hand, without regulation, private corporations have historically screwed people in every way possible and with abandon, and still do whenever they can get away with it. By the way, our taxes are lower than they have been in generations – and much lower than many other countries.
True. The people need to do that, and in our system they get a chance every couple of years. But on the other hand, the most basic responsibility of a government is to govern, and if it can’t or won’t do that, it truly is useless.
Am I the only person who thought the comment “taxing” could just as easily have been written as: burdensome, demanding, difficult, disturbing, sapping, stressful, tedious, tiring, tough, troublesome, trying, wearing, wearisome, etc.?
It’s the same feeling I have when reading any comments by FishStix or Lewreader. I always get the feeling that these two would take the Dead Kennedys song “Kill the Poor” as literal rather than ironic.
Yes, of course, those impenetrable white crosswalk lines keep you safe!I’d stick with Lewreader’s advice and look both ways. You socialists feel free to get run over by bad drivers like my sister.
Too late in the day…Nothing 2 say…Too late 2 the fight…Who’s wrong?, who’s right?…At the end of the day…This much I will say…Polite discourse is fine…As long as it’s mine…4 fools only see…What their small minds will be…When all the fighting is done…And like opinions, they r one…
Does that mean, then, that in a non-socialist, non-welfare, non-nanny state that things are actually moving forward, busy and productive… however dangerous at times? But where the nanny state is then you don’t have to worry about fighting through traffic since the market dies?That’s one heavy implication in a very short toon. Impressive.
Gerald Ford once said, a government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have. However, this is why the founding fathers set it up to be “by the people.”As it currently stands, there were more votes cast for this year’s American Idol than there have ever been in a general election. This is why our leaders’ decisions are constantly so baffling and frustrating. Our government is lacking its true source of power – the participation of its own citizens.I pray for the day that the people of this nation become educated and active in the political process, making it truly democratic. If we can ever accomplish that, then it won’t matter how “big” government gets, because it will serve our ACTUAL will.Sadly, commenting here is mostly preaching to the choir. However diverse our opinions may be, those of us who comment are the type who actually think about things and carefully analyze other viewpoints on an issue. The real challenge is to spread this kind of discourse – even when it’s about a simple comic strip (no offense, Wiley) – and get the rest of our society to start thinking this way.
comicgos almost 13 years ago
Too political!
rayannina almost 13 years ago
Take that, Ayn Rand!
Nebulous Premium Member almost 13 years ago
@Darkeforce. And then there’s the difference between Citizens and Residents.
mayankag almost 13 years ago
I’m lost… how does taxation link up with the “safety zone” and “nanny state”? What is Wiley trying to say? Can someone explain this strip to me please? :-/(bloody hell, my first ever comment and it makes me look like a moron)
Lyons Group, Inc. almost 13 years ago
Panel 4 sound like something Danae would write.
roctor almost 13 years ago
To see a world without any regulation or intervention. One must only travel to Pidgeon Forge Tennessee.
thirdguy almost 13 years ago
I don’t know Wiley. This may be to subtle for them.
DesultoryPhillipic almost 13 years ago
There’s hope for you yet Wiley. :-)
steverinoCT almost 13 years ago
@mayankag—
Taxes pay for regulation and safety zone. No taxes==you’re on your own.
lewisbower almost 13 years ago
The sign states, “Pedestrians have the right of way in a designated crosswalk”. OK, liberals, close your eyes and walk.Daddy taught me, “Look both ways and cross when YOU determine it’s safe”.I can believe what the government tells me, or I can believe my eyes.
chihug almost 13 years ago
I’ll take my chances, too. I like it in Pigeon Forge.
Biltil Premium Member almost 13 years ago
One side of the road is good for the drivers, the other for the pedestrians. Balance is needed, but can’t be acheived with out comprimise on both sides. There are drivers that would never let anyone cross the road without a regulation, and there are pedestrians who would dance all day in the middle of the road and stop traffic just because they can. Great analogy Wiley, love your work!
stevetalley7497 almost 13 years ago
wow! An intelligently crafted cartoon with intelligently crafted comments about it.
EDinWAState almost 13 years ago
I agree with nomadicus and Darkeforce:A little ‘give and take’ is better than ‘all take and no give’ or ‘all give and no take.’ . Wiley, you are a genius!
ilsapadu almost 13 years ago
Well I’m gonna blow that observation nomadicus because I don’t have a clue what Nanny State is. Might google it, might be happier not knowing.
JoeRaisin almost 13 years ago
If the “conservative” side of the street is going to be exaggerated in the way it is, then, to be fair, the “liberal” side should have concrete pylons protecting the “safety zone” thus preventing any traffic flow whatsoever in favor of pedestrian safety.Looked at another way, how liberal is it that the “walk” light is lit while there is no red light utilizing the traffic laws to stop vehicle flow allowing pedestrians to safely cross the street? Not very I think – not very conservative either.IMHO, the answer would be a balanced mix of regulations and personal freedoms that allow both vehicle and pedestrian traffic to coexist safely.You know, the way it works now (in reality).
Dtroutma almost 13 years ago
Overlooked is that it is those with wealth, and accepting no personal responsibility for their offspring, or others, who can afford to hire a “nanny”. Hiring a cheap “babysitter” so you can work two jobs and survive in a world the “nanny hirers” run, is another component of that social structure that built the pyramids- with slave labor and spoiled untaxed pharaohs who lived high, and profited from wars.
No crosswalks in the Red Sea should have been a warning?
gfredrickson85 almost 13 years ago
Yeah, I saw an article the other day where some town made it illegal to throw snowballs in a public place. Ummm. I guess that means that it is illegal there to take my daughter and her cousins to the park for a snowball fight.
fritzoid Premium Member almost 13 years ago
Anybody who received a grant to study the sex habits of swamp rats had to submit a grant proposal, saying what they were hoping to discover and why. If you look at a list of government grants it’s easy to pick out things that make you ask “WHY?”, and it’s all the easier if you have no intention of FINDING OUT “why.” Anybody who’s tried to get a research grant from the government can no doubt tell you how difficult (and often fruitless) the approval process is.Research on the sex habits of swamp rats is important if you want to decrease the numbers of swamp rats.Research on the sex habits of sheep is useful if you want to increase the numbers of sheep.Research on the sex habits of ANY non-human species is useful if you want to understand the sex habits of humans, because (A) humans tend to lie when asked about their own sex habits, and (B) there are limits to the experiments that can be conducted on human subjects. Who knows? Perhaps there is something significant about swamp rats that makes their sex habits particularly worthy of study. Studies of the sex habits of mountain voles have been very enlightening, because one species is monogamous while a nearly-identical species is not.Government funding of all sorts of scientific research (including “pure research”) is useful because the private sector only funds research if it expects to turn a buck, not to expand the boundaries of knowledge.
fritzoid Premium Member almost 13 years ago
But of course, if you cut all the government funding for scientific research into the sex habits of swamp rats, you can fund military operations in Iraq for another 15 minutes. If you cut the funding of ALL such programs, you can afford to build another jet fighter that the Pentagon doesn’t want.
QuiteDragon almost 13 years ago
Actually, I am much more concerned about the government capitulating its mandate to serve the people by pandering to the wealthy and powerful. My neighbor does need help at times and laziness is often a judgment by those have never been unfortunate enough to need help. And learning about the “sex lives of swamp rats” is frequently the way useful (sometimes very useful) knowledge is obtained.
mayankag almost 13 years ago
and @steverino
Thanks for explaining! I got the representation of the ‘lawlessness’ vs the ‘nanny state’, but couldn’t make the link with taxation (though I figured that’s what the “Taxing” remark referred to).
That said, I’m not sure I agree – a place like India with reasonably high taxes would still be considered either “lawless” or “common sense based” depending on your point of view. While Singapore, the mother of all nanny states, has reasonably low levels of taxation (income tax at least).
Of course there’s no denying that tax dollars pay for our security (both internal and external) and that zero taxation would inevitably result in zero security (apart from some tax havens like Monaco perhaps), but I don’t think they’re correlated beyond a certain point. High taxes can simply be a sign of an inefficient and corrupt bureaucracy.
1OldDude almost 13 years ago
@SCAATY; thank you. Sure wish I could talk like that.@ FishStix; good morning. I have several neighbors who are definitely NOT “lazy”, just lost their jobs. It would be very nice for you folks that keep yelling “get a job” to tell the unemployed where those jobs are. Thanks
d_chall almost 13 years ago
Note the complete lack of traffic (commerce) on the on “safe” side.
gclewis666 almost 13 years ago
When the government becomes competent enough to not wait for a fatality to put in a controlled crosswalk or just a bloody street light or stop sign, then count me in, otherwise forget it!
fritzoid Premium Member almost 13 years ago
When the number of living-wage jobs looking for people is larger than the number of people looking for living-wage jobs, then I’ll start listening to complaints about those who are “too lazy” to work. Until then, it’s just hot air.
T Gabriel Premium Member almost 13 years ago
It is funny to read comments from what appear to be folks who are not in tune with liberal thinking. Now, I am about as liberal a person you will ever see, meet, or hear about. The problem with you dimwits is that you seem to think it is only a liberal trait to not look both ways at crosswalks with crosshatch markings because some state law tells people they should stop for pedestrians who are approaching such things. Every day I cross at one of those and every day I look both ways and then proceed when it is safe. Now, it seems that only dimbulb conservatives had parents who told them to look both ways before proceeding. I remember those days well and now sixty or so years later, I still honor the wisdom of those words.
What I do not do is cast everything in a liberal thought pattern vs a conservative thought pattern because that would imply there is actually a conservative thought pattern. The direction this thread goes is evidence there is none. The only thing in plentitude here is more stupid ranting by a bunch of complete idiots who think anything emanating from local, state, or federal government is a bad thing.
For those of you who are like that (Lewreader, for one) the world is not even close to your implication. You ought to find better things to do than complain about the obvious and go join your friend Mallard the duck or whatever it is. Your negative nonsense is simply childish and tiresome.
neeeurothrush almost 13 years ago
shades of gray
tcolkett almost 13 years ago
^what Fish Stix fails to see (or say) is that “lazy neighbor” is code for “black person”. There are people who take advantage of safety net programs, and they should be prosecuted for doing so, but social programs mainly help protect the elderly, young and unlucky (as so well said by scaaty above) and it’s the mark of a civilized society that they do so. The selfish, narrow, small minded Randians are pushing for a society that will be very ugly and can only result in some really nasty increases in crime rates.
fritzoid Premium Member almost 13 years ago
neeeurothrush, if you can’t see CERTAIN things in black and white, your basic zebra-crossing is going to be beyond your capabilities in the first place.
wesleym81 Premium Member almost 13 years ago
I was never very good at Frogger.
Rista almost 13 years ago
FishStix, governmental limits are what voters are for. Now lets be honest here. If you don’t have an active, analytical, critical, involved and Voting public, it really doesn’t matter which kind of government or no government you have, because neither one will work well. And yup, Wiley out did himself this time :)
cdward almost 13 years ago
^Disagree. Yes, government, like business, can and does often lose control or go off on tangents. To call it a cancer is to proclaim anarchy to be an ideal. Given our form of government, which is not perfect but certainly better than many, there are checks and balances which do give an approximation of order. On the other hand, without regulation, private corporations have historically screwed people in every way possible and with abandon, and still do whenever they can get away with it. By the way, our taxes are lower than they have been in generations – and much lower than many other countries.
peter0423 almost 13 years ago
True. The people need to do that, and in our system they get a chance every couple of years. But on the other hand, the most basic responsibility of a government is to govern, and if it can’t or won’t do that, it truly is useless.
Varnes almost 13 years ago
I hear the research on swamp rats has confirmed that they taste a lot like chicken…
Allan CB Premium Member almost 13 years ago
Lew… I’m shocked … you had your meds today, and Thom didn’t throw any heads into the mix!!! Very eloquent and well spoken! :D
Justice22 almost 13 years ago
Substitute Regulation for Government and I agree!
RonBerg13 Premium Member almost 13 years ago
mayankag, make you “look” like a moron? Ha…
Now a confession – I’m confused too, and want an explanation, so this makes me look like a moron, and I take back what i said.
fritzoid Premium Member almost 13 years ago
Varnes, I’ve heard that sewer rat tastes like pumpkin pie.But I’ll never know it, ‘cause I won’t eat the m&%*$#%@!er…
ishannon5289 almost 13 years ago
@SCAAATY_423 (clapping) Bravo good sir, bravo. You summed it all up perfectly.
weasel_monkey almost 13 years ago
Am I the only person who thought the comment “taxing” could just as easily have been written as: burdensome, demanding, difficult, disturbing, sapping, stressful, tedious, tiring, tough, troublesome, trying, wearing, wearisome, etc.?
It’s the same feeling I have when reading any comments by FishStix or Lewreader. I always get the feeling that these two would take the Dead Kennedys song “Kill the Poor” as literal rather than ironic.
sleepeeg3 almost 13 years ago
Yes, of course, those impenetrable white crosswalk lines keep you safe!I’d stick with Lewreader’s advice and look both ways. You socialists feel free to get run over by bad drivers like my sister.
Joseph Krois almost 13 years ago
Too late in the day…Nothing 2 say…Too late 2 the fight…Who’s wrong?, who’s right?…At the end of the day…This much I will say…Polite discourse is fine…As long as it’s mine…4 fools only see…What their small minds will be…When all the fighting is done…And like opinions, they r one…
DJGravityX almost 13 years ago
Does that mean, then, that in a non-socialist, non-welfare, non-nanny state that things are actually moving forward, busy and productive… however dangerous at times? But where the nanny state is then you don’t have to worry about fighting through traffic since the market dies?That’s one heavy implication in a very short toon. Impressive.
Seeker149 Premium Member almost 13 years ago
Gerald Ford once said, a government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have. However, this is why the founding fathers set it up to be “by the people.”As it currently stands, there were more votes cast for this year’s American Idol than there have ever been in a general election. This is why our leaders’ decisions are constantly so baffling and frustrating. Our government is lacking its true source of power – the participation of its own citizens.I pray for the day that the people of this nation become educated and active in the political process, making it truly democratic. If we can ever accomplish that, then it won’t matter how “big” government gets, because it will serve our ACTUAL will.Sadly, commenting here is mostly preaching to the choir. However diverse our opinions may be, those of us who comment are the type who actually think about things and carefully analyze other viewpoints on an issue. The real challenge is to spread this kind of discourse – even when it’s about a simple comic strip (no offense, Wiley) – and get the rest of our society to start thinking this way.