Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for July 19, 2011

Jeff’s famous!

Republican philosophy

Welcome back, Vista Bill! Been missing you and your upbeat observations. Great avatar too. Reminds me of some vintage TV western hero’s sidekick. Gabby Hayes? Pat Buttram? Come on, help me out here. Who’s pic is that?

snerk!

Guess the caller’s country . . . .

• First, rule out Iran. Though it Islamic, it’s not Arabic.• Next, Afghanistan is also eliminated at the outset due to the fact that we’re already over there trying to force tax breaks and loopholes for a wealthy corrupt plutocracy (e.g., Karzai and his late brother) eventually to be paid for by the ever-bending backs of an unwilling population of “hearts and minds” how hate us more each time one of our bombs targeted to a questionable “terrorist” goes awry and blows up a wedding or a funeral.• Egypt is questionable since their “spring” is already turning into “autumn”.• Libya is a strong possibility.

Any other guesstimates?

@Vista Bill…Isn’t that the real McCoy?

G.Mart, nevah, no neveh evah, undah-estimate Sorkh Razil!

It might be another fictional country like Berzerkistan. Maybe North Amok.

This is a rerun, right?

What happen to freedom and flag?

Tax breaks and loopholes. Darned ingrates. Let wipe out mortgage interest deductions, education, child care, personal, spouse, and child credits, Capital gains exemption on primary residence, and medical deductions. Let those people know what 25% really is on the top line of their 1040. Loopholes!

Could it be the voice of Bezeristan calling out for Freedom, Fairplay and Fast food for their fair country?

The VistaBill picture made me think of Dan Blocker as Hoss

Everyone make a note to check back after these Arab “freedom movements” effect regime change and see what sort of government is installed. I would be very pleasantly surprised if any of them are secular or democratic.

@DylanThomas3.14159 I belive VistaBill’s avatar is Walter Brennan

Red Rascal should tell them thats only if you’re republican and rich.

There are always guns of autumn. Everyone wants to establish the best vantage to settle in before it gets cold. By now, Bmfzl’s people are being cruelly oppressed by those they formerly cruelly oppressed, & are willing to believe the Rascal rescued the rightful ruler when the usurpers took the palace. Overkill is still waiting for his 50Mil & it’s time for a reinsertion. Jeff’s the only one stupid enough to take the job.

To take from Patton, we have a LOT of folks willing to let OTHERS die to preserve THEIR tax breaks. Maybe the call is just from Texas.

Yes. And we in the sates are eager to kiss the behinds of rich oil tyrants if you can believe our last election and our gas pumps… See. we have much in common.

Israel’s “democracy” is not completely democratic. • It’s a quasi-theocracy (God ruled). • It has a racial core (people of Palestinian descent living within its borders are second-class citizens, like blacks used to be in this country, who could not take over government even if they were a vast majority). • It’s Zionist tendencies (hegemonic in theory from the Nile to the Euphrates) cause untold suffering such as the theft of Palestinian lands by the illegal “settlements” and the displacement and fencing off of Palestinians outside its borders.

Israel may be MORE democratic than Saudi Arabia, e.g., but it’s not fully and truly democratic either.

That’s NOT “the thing about democracy”, surfstuff55. Democracy is majority rule WITH minority rights, not without.

In a true democracy like ours, the majority never tyrannizes over the minority. Our Congressional parties seem to have lost sight of what the people as a whole want (government by compromise)

In the budget debate, Democrats and Republicans alike betray our democracy by insisting on “my way or the highway.” Obama is gradually teaching Americans how our democracy works.

I doubt Jeff Redfern understands our democracy or can teach an autocrat (the King of Bahrain perhaps?) to understand it.

“Arab Autumn?” I guess they’re hoping to have their troops home for Christmas…

Trudeau teaches us all that you have to do your thinking and laughing on the sly; any overt thinking can get you killed or at least make you very unpopular. No matter where you are in the world. Viva Sorkh Razil! ;-)

I’m getting suspicious, and I wonder if anyone is thinking what I’m thinking? JAD has been gone a long time, do you think he may have re-emerged with a different GoComic user name? I think I know how to find out.

Sooo Doty er Dylan, how’s the weather in Tulsa?

Ah, Dylan, so young, so foolish,so ill-informed about whose land that rightfully is. It was a total wasteland when the Pals had it and they were given land in Trans Jordan at the time of legal partition. They should call up Jordan and let their cousins welcome them. They already ruined Lebannon and should never have been given even a toehold in Israel. The land ceased during the six day war was the fruit of victory over a defeated enemy that sneak attacked on a Jewish Sabbath. God and the UN gave it to them and you will not see it lost to them until they sign a treaty with a very shady gentleman.

Apparently “loopholes” and “tax breaks” spell “freedom” to some folks.

@PiJoe Allen Doty, bless his heart, was never able to come to the point—a sure mark of the uneducated posters who throng this forum. No one who pays attention to what you say would put you among THEM.

It’s interesting that freeholder (who’s likewise among the educated) calls you “young” and “ill-informed” because you accept the Palestinian narrative of the Nakbah. You’ve told us you’re 71, and I know you don’t dismiss out of hand the Augustinian doctrine of "a just war (anathema tto liberals ever since Thomas More and Erasmus).

So what are your thoughts on freeholder’s plausible suggestion that Israel holds by right of conquest the land it seized in 1967 (as well as 1973)? Of course, the right of conquest does not safeguard you from invasion by another conqueror. With Augustine and Hobbes, Israel believes the normal human condition is a state of war.

Sorry, I meant not Dan Blocker