Ted Rall by Ted Rall

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  1. scottfreitas

    scottfreitasGenius_badge said, 9 days ago

    Lol. Most muslims ARE killed by fellow muslims…

    I’m scared to probe this cartoon’s implications too deeply, though. Not exactly sure what was going through Ted’s head.

    Think if I found out I’d feel… uncomfortable, at minimum. :/

    It’s cool, Ted. “Don’t ask, don’t tell.”

  2. Eric Rahn

    Eric Rahn said, 9 days ago

    Okay, Ted. It’s been fun but I think we’re done here.

  3. toasteroven

    toasteroven said, 9 days ago

    Well, you’re certainly going to offend with this one, I think. Me, I just think it’s stupid. And if you wanted rhythm in that last panel, you would have written it like this: AF - GHAN - IS- TAN! That’s got a nice flow to it.

  4. scottfreitas

    scottfreitasGenius_badge said, 9 days ago

    I dunno. I don’t think Ted was trying to offend. AMERICANS, anyway.

    It’s as if he’s trying to show the difference between our two cultures; drawing a parallel between the US and Afghanistan, depicting a “Fort Hood” massacre which took place in Afghanistan, rather than here.

    Chill a sec. READ. Then re-read. Does this cartoon make muslims, jihadists, Afghanis look GOOD? It sure looks to me like it’s showing them as the warped individuals they ARE. Showing how their worldview, their belief system, is the total polar opposite of ours.

    They embrace death; we embrace life (ignoring abortion for a sec).

    They make heroes out of people who blow themselves up on sidewalks, and leaders–celebrities–out of total loons like Osama and Omar.

    Yeah… I think I MAY be starting to get where Ted’s head was at. And it’s actually a very PRO-American cartoon…

    Ted’s often extremely abstract in making his points, you know.

    That, or I’m totally off-base and Ted is just having a bad Moonbat day…

  5. comYics

    comYics said, 9 days ago

    Well Ted Rall is under some critisism. From my current view, it appears that this is an illustration of what could happen from another view. I hardly think its too much of a mockery of that situation in TX, sorta like , walk in his shoes, scenerio.
    Reading some of the comments posted, I am a little surprised I have a slightly different view. Not unpleased with it either.

  6. churchillwasright

    churchillwasright said, 9 days ago

    Naa, it’s one of Rall’s moral relativism “gags”.

  7. scottfreitas

    scottfreitasGenius_badge said, 9 days ago

    (check’s Ted’s blog for clues)

    Yep. Looks like “churchillwasright”. :/

    Aaaargh.

    Still, Ted’s got a point. They weren’t heroes. What’s heroic about being gunned down while unarmed??

    They were victims.

    Of political correctness, no less.

    The only one close to being a hero at Fort Hood was the chick cop who played Dirty Mary with her .32

    I hope Osama (OUR Osama, the one occupying the White House rather than hiding in a cave) learns something from this…

    Nah.

    He won’t.

    :/

  8. toasteroven

    toasteroven said, 9 days ago

    Yeah, saying that the tributes to deaths at fort hood were cheesy is one thing. Saying that those tributes are equivalent to something that terrorists would promote is another thing entirely.

    Unless I’m still misreading this toon. It’s always a possibility.

  9. comYics

    comYics said, 9 days ago

    Looks as though Im picking up too much information from Ted Ralls toons :)).

  10. mattro53

    mattro53 said, 9 days ago

    One point it makes is that mindless repetition of sound bites and cliches knows no borders. Revising the words and putting them in the mouths of Muslims show how trite they really are.

  11. wmbrainiac

    wmbrainiac said, 9 days ago

    mirror, mirror of the earth
    the toonist’s view reveals our dearth
    of self review
    of relative worth

    brave toonist!!!
    keep it coming.

  12. Ted Rall

    Ted RallGenius_badge said, 9 days ago

    It’s an analogy, not relativism. Although I suppose art assumes its own meanings beyond what the cartoonist originally intended.

    Anyway, yes, the shooting victims were not “all heroes,” as Obama claimed. They were victims. Of what, we don’t know yet: derangement? terrorism? politics? gun violence? all of the above?

    What I’m trying to showcase here is the cheesy memorial services that follow such tragedies, not to mention Americans’ seemingly limitless ability not to get a clue about ourselves or anyone else. For Obama to express shock that this sort of thing shouldn’t happen here in the States–while his drone planes are raining death on Pakistanis–is obscene. And “they” hate us for it.

  13. rikoshayrabbit

    rikoshayrabbit said, 9 days ago

    The parallel between our country and theirs is inescapable. Every war we’ve been involved in for 100 years was about the money. We don’t visit places like Rawanda or Dafur because there’s no profit. How do you keep an unending supply of soldiers… cannon fodder… ever-available? Lower the education levels, allow illiteracy to climb, give citizens fewer and fewer choices, and keep calling them HEROES! Our idiot American “heroes” think that a Christian god will reward their sacrifice with a golden throne by His side for eternity. The Afghans tell their own idiots that they will reside with Allah for eternity if they are killed in the process of erasing the infidel Christians. The arms dealers and the corporations who profit from war are loving every minute of it.

  14. killbillvs007

    killbillvs007 said, 9 days ago

    Bleepy holy Bleep, the art is itself worth the price of admission, and this is a good one. But watching scott try to wriggle his internal consistency around to keep Ted in the “Critical of Obama Commentary” box he has been recently commenting from is through the looking glass.

    Its like watching a six year old solve a mystery, “so the only explanation left would be aliens used laser rays to knock out the dog, and then stole the cookies off the plate on the floor taking them back to their planet…” … your arguments/thoughts are infantile.

    Troll out.

  15. Ripit

    Ripit said, 9 days ago

    Bwahahahaaa 10/10

  16. jaredmoore

    jaredmooreGenius_badge said, 9 days ago

    Excellent comic.

  17. Jim

    Jim said, 9 days ago

    Meh .

  18. darust

    darust said, 9 days ago

    Rall has hit it on the head. Knee-jerk reactionists won’t get it at all. This particular piece shows the propagandist view of the current ‘Merkan Tradegy’ (and yes, I know how to spell tragedy). TURN OFF THE TV. STOP BUYING NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES.

  19. nemesis-of-empire

    nemesis-of-empire said, 9 days ago

    The War of Terror needs martyrs. It doesn’t matter how.

    An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, until the world is blind and oozing blood.

    Rock on, terrorists.

  20. aeogia

    aeogia said, 9 days ago

    Confused resolve is right.

    Violence begets violence; that’s the real lesson of Ft. Hood.

    When will we ever learn?

    A corker, Ted.

  21. Corosive Frog

    Corosive Frog said, 8 days ago

    scotty’s prayers have been answered; somebody compares Obama to Osama.

  22. audieholland

    audieholland said, 8 days ago

    “You expect to lose guys in a foreign hell hole like Afghanistan, not here in the best, most peace-loving nation ever.”

    “USA USA USA”

    “As expected, President Obama rocks the nationally televised memorial service.”

    “Some were seasoned veterans. Others were green recruits and interrogation experts. They were dads, sons, etc. All were innocent. All were heroes!”

  23. citynights

    citynightsGenius_badge said, 8 days ago

    Obama’s having more meetings- no danger of self righteous anger or any kind of anger from our commander in Chief - no action either just more meetings

  24. person918

    person918 said, 8 days ago

    I think that what Mr. Rall fails to realize is that the US is the only country in the world with real people in it. And if you aren’t white, it’s debatable as well.

  25. edmondd

    edmondd said, 8 days ago

    People should know when they’re conquered.

  26. zeeshan71

    zeeshan71 said, 8 days ago

    I think this cartoon captures my feelings about the episode better than anything I’ve seen in print or any other media till now.
    People who join a military or militia are doing so for the purpose of taking part in armed combat. As far as I understand it, all forms of military training are designed to foster blind obedience and faith in the correctness of ones commanding officers’ orders to kill people, with a minimum of questioning who those people are and why they should be killed.
    Military/militia life is fundamentally dehumanizing for the above reason. Is it any surprise that some of these people will turn on their own kind?
    I think Einstein said it best in the poster I had on my wall throughout high school:

    “He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice. This disgrace to civilisation should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.”

    Blogged about this in progressiveislam.org

  27. rikoshayrabbit

    rikoshayrabbit said, 8 days ago

    Zeeshan, please type out your Einstein quote in its entirety. I’m sure I’m not the only one who was interested in what you wanted to say.

  28. edmondd

    edmondd said, 7 days ago

    “He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.” -Albert Einstein

  29. scottfreitas

    scottfreitasGenius_badge said, 7 days ago

    Well, the above quote just reminds me again that while Einstein was brilliant at math, he sucked at understanding both human beings and human behavior.

    Einstein was a JEW. Did he forget what happened to Jews in Germany, during Hitler’s rule? Seems hard to believe, since he was in the prime of life during World War 2…

    Tell me, Einstein, what STOPPED the Nazis? What caused all the ovens in Auschwitz to be turned off? What secured the Jews the return of their homeland, stolen from them by a brutal superpower (Rome), then trampled on for over a millenia by a religion that had its origins in killing and enslaving Jews?

    WAR did all that. WAR stopped Hitler, stopped Hirohito, stopped Mussolini, stopped the Arabs.

    The childish idea that in this fallen world, war NEVER is good, NEVER serves any worthwhile or noble purpose, is as stupid and ignorant a notion as anything I’ve ever heard. It was because of the Revolutionary WAR that America came into existance. You children who look down your noses on those brave enough to fight for things worth fighting for can just go to your rooms now, thanks…

  30. TrulyBluely876

    TrulyBluely876 said, 7 days ago

    I think scott is right. Don’t hate soldiers, like we did during Viet Nam! That’s unfair and cruel.Isn’t there enough of that in this world already without the intellegencia (toon lovers) piling it on. War has been useful to humanity. BTW I thought Einstein was refering to the Nazis in that quote of his. They fought under the banner of heroicism, but it was a big and ugly lie.

    Hasan just didn’t want to go to war! He thought he wouldn’t have to, given his specialities. Yes those soldiers killed were victims and innocent. Hasan is a coward. I am sure that those men who fought the Germans in WWII were doing something worthwhile. If they hadn’t, would there be any Jews left in this world now?

    US soldiers are pawns at times, but never terrorists. It is an act of cowardice to kill yourself while killing your enemies. It’s a way of escaping their problems and taking revenge on others at the same time. A real man would face his enemies after the battle, stay alive and subsist on pride in your nation even as a POW.

    Also, I really thought this comic was about the media, about how it’s used by politicians. Why does the media allow it? They deserve your hate, not those guys about to go to Afghanistan housed at Fort Hood. The media let’s themselves be used by terrorists as much as by any posturing president.

    They refuse to take responsibility for their actions, instigating much of the violence done by arabic islamists by giving them a stage. Even murderers don’t get the chance to use the media like that, at least not until they’re sentenced.

  31. edmondd

    edmondd said, 7 days ago

    Of course the men and women who serve are not to be blamed for what their leaders do. In fact the final authority rests on the president and the congress, so they should bear all the blame, or praise, because war may be in fact the only way to peace sometimes when there is no other recourse. But war is nonetheless a failure.

    The men and women who serve deserve our admiration however, because you need balls to be there. And I have no doubt many serve out of conviction, not just self interest. How many people put their lives under risk, for even the greatest of rewards, or the threat of punishment? Neither could ever be greater than the love of life. You need conviction and a sense of duty to put your life on the line.

  32. audieholland

    audieholland said, 6 days ago

    Hey Scott, did you know who started WWII?
    Who invested in the Nazi war industry?

    WALL STREET

    No funding, no GI JOE and no Stormtrooper Heinz
    in the first place.

  33. banned

    banned said, 2 days ago

    War is pretty cool because it kills nazis so that means it un-kills jews. I think this cartoon proves that terrorists are good people just like us