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1. 

   edmondd said, 4 months ago

   ROLF! at first

   LOL once reality started to seep in.

   : / once I remembered about the stimulus package being given to the ones who less deserved/needed it.

   :( once I saw the future as depicted in this cartoon.

   :D Once I remembered that all is ultimately futile!

   : |

   but G-d rather…

2. 

   mattro53 said, 4 months ago

   Hey, what’s the problem? The rich and powerful are doing just fine after yet another massive transfer of resources from the working and middle classes to the investor class.

3. 

   believecommonsense said, 4 months ago

   mattro, I like that phrase, investor class. Nice comparison to working class.

4. 

   Right_On said, 4 months ago

   I was panel 3, now panel 1, praying to not be panel 2, and hoping to one day be lucky enough to be panel 4 (again).

5. 

   Cpt. Jay said, 4 months ago

   Thank Jove I’m not a civy.

6. 

   Ted Rall said, 4 months ago

   Don’t worry, Jay, the government always fires vets once they’re through using them to fight their wars.

   P.S. What nimrod stole “TedRall” as a username? I want it back!

7. 

   dtroutma said, 4 months ago

   Never exactly felt I was any of the above, though did sorta think I should have been getting paid more for getting shot at. Actually figured most officers WERE getting overpaid, especially those out to make the step to field grade.

8. 

   edmondd said, 4 months ago

   I just flagged your comment Ted!
   just being annoying
   the lolz

   And welcome to your own cartoons’ blog ! That’s some news

9. 

   motivemagus said, 4 months ago

   Ted, you don’t fit into any of these categories, do you?

10. 

    parkersinthehouse said, 4 months ago

    motive!

    such a cool picture!

    edmondd, my friend, where’s yours?

    and hey, cpt., you keep changing - hoookeeee.

    but wait

    “Ted Rall said, about 4 hours ago
    Don’t worry, Jay, the government always fires vets once they’re through using them to fight their wars.
    P.S. What nimrod stole “TedRall” as a username? I want it back!”

    are you the real ted rall? i’m not kidding. what’s going on?

11. 

    edmondd said, 4 months ago

    He is the Real Ted, parkerindahouse, his response goes hand-in-hand with the not-so-subtle irreverence of his cartoons.

    It’s all quite well though; freedom of speech is not a myth anymore once again, or so I hope.

12. 

    M Kitt said, 4 months ago

    Ted, a “cameo” appearance, cool.

    How do any of us know that’s really you?

    Kind of takes away from the whole experience, thanks anyway, whoever you are.

    To the “real” Ted, thanks for the strip & “commentary” contained, don’t always agree but always worth reading.

13. 

    dfunkt said, 4 months ago

    well, that’s what the dude gets for majoring in cultural anthropology. should have studied molecular biology, or computer science…or both.

14. 

    motivemagus said, 4 months ago

    “Bioinformatics,” dfunkt.

15. 

    Ted Rall said, 4 months ago

    Yes, it’s me. How do I prove it?

    Motive: Actually, I did get laid off a few months back. It sucks for my pocketbook but stokes the anger that fuels my work.

16. 

    fritzoid said, 4 months ago

    Hey, Ted! Nice of you to drop in. Count me among the “Don’t always agree with you, but admire your work” camp. If I ever felt you were pulling your punches, I’d be disappointed.

17. 

    parkersinthehouse said, 4 months ago

    oh wow

    all of my disagreements still stand mostly because it seems like your points are solidly, honorably taken and it’s just fun to dance

    but dude it is so wrong if you’re not working

    where’s the freakin’ balance; where’s the justice if you aren’t speaking

    what’s happening here

18. 

    motivemagus said, 4 months ago

    Ted - sorry to hear that, though I suspect it will benefit those of us who admire your work.

19. 

    mattro53 said, 4 months ago

    Hey Ted, I read your strip religiously, and also on the other six days of the week. I cannot remember a strip I did not agree with. BTW Xer, I am a Boomer and I agree with you about my lame generation. Anti-war when there’s a draft and anti-materialism when they didn’t have money, etc, etc.

20. 

    dfunkt said, 4 months ago

    @motivemagus: yes, i am fully aware of the field of bioinformatics, but it is only offered as a graduate program as far as i am aware (edit: oops!…i stupidly missed the “masters degree” detail in the original strip. :-/ ). as an undergrad, one usually needs to study something less-specialized, like molecular biology or computer science. actually, i studied psychology as an undergrad in the early ’90s, but quickly saw the writing on the wall and decided to learn something more technical (and marketable) and so taught myself java and pursued a second bachelors in biology.

    @ted rall: i am very sorry to hear that. getting laid off sucks bigtime, and i have been in that wretched boat myself. good luck, i have loved your comics work for many years and no doubt your intelligence will continue to serve you well in whatever you pursue…

21. 

    IrishEddieOHara said, 4 months ago

    Excuse me, but of what possible practical use is a master’s degree in cultural anthropology???

    It doesn’t grow anything we can eat.

    It doesn’t build anything we can use.

    It doesn’t make anything that inspires us like great music.

    This is the problem with our “edjeecation system”. It teaches worthless nonsense to brain dead kids who don’t know the reality of life.

    And ultimately, this will be the destruction of our country. When we as a people can no longer create that which is truly useful, we are doomed.

22. 

    motivemagus said, 4 months ago

    Well, Irish, dfunkt, I have a doctorate in personality psychology. It helps me make in the mid-six-figures as a management consultant.
    Cultural anthropology has been used in business for years as a tool to look at corporate cultures, which is quite important when looking at mergers, for example. (Ernst & Young found that only 45% of mergers actually exceeded performance standards after they merged – in other words, they lost ground through merging.)
    Cultural anthropology also helps us understand how cultures can interact positively – something you might think about when looking at the Middle East.

23. 

    fritzoid said, 4 months ago

    I take exception to the idea that a university degree (in ANY field) should be considered nothing more than preparing a person to make money. The whole idea of a liberal education (sorry, but that’s what it’s called) is to create well-rounded individuals. A $200k/yr engineer who can’t understand a newspaper story (let alone a novel or a poem) is as useless to the world as a Russian Literature major who doesn’t understand basic physics or an MBA who thinks Austria has kangaroos (or a Senator who thinks the universe is only 6,000 years old).

    When I was in college (Big Ten university), people in the engineering programs nonetheless had humanities requirements. Likewise, as an LAS major, I had math and science requirements. Formal education (at ANY level) is as much about learning how to THINK as learning a particular field.

    I have a well-paying job now (I’m a “productive member of society”) that frankly has nothing to do with any subject that I studied in school…EXCEPT that taking a broad-based approach to learning made me fairly adaptable, and the different types of thinking that are called for in sciences, the arts, and even philosophy are tools in my tool-kit that I know how to apply when needed.

    (As an added benefit, I can carry on a conversation with just about ANYBODY that I run into at a party!)

24. 

    Cpt. Jay said, 4 months ago

    Ted, some men serve, whereas others merely pay the mortgage (the Yuppie Nuremberg defense); some men find their niche in history, yet some fail (what Nietzsche called the “botched and bungled”, those that fail in achieving the role of ubermensch), while others end up as footnotes in the annals of The Nation or Time magazine, if not T.V. Guide. When are you going to put out something of worth comparable to “2024”? By the way, I enjoyed your most recent Obama is a Bush of a different color blog from June.

25. 

    dfunkt said, 4 months ago

    @motivemagus: i congratulate you for having the talent and wherewithal to go so far as you have in your field, and also on your relative financial success for having done so.

    my chief complaint about studying the humanities in college is not that it is without value, but that it is pursued as a default because it is easy. most americans are too lazy to study science and technology, and would rather spend their college years partying and loafing as opposed to working hard preparing for a career. that is fine i suppose, but then they should also be prepared to not make much money and be constantly worrying about the job market. speaking from experience, my b.a. in psychology enabled me to walk into any mcdonalds in the country and immediately qualify as an assistant manager.

    interestingly, i have found that of my friends and acquaintances, the most well-read and knowledgeable in the arts and humanities were in fact scientists and engineers, not my fellow liberal arts graduates. they were in-effect masters of many disciplines, and this was reflective of their general intellectual curiosity and work-ethic. just my $0.02…

26. 

    Gladius said, 4 months ago

    Unfortunately there is some truth in this. I was looking at the GRE averages the other day and was appalled at the low scores of intended education grad students.

27. 

    Ted Rall said, 4 months ago

    @Cpt. Jay: I’m glad you liked “2024.” It’s the most Ted Rall of my books, yet it sold very poorly. I still like it, though.

    I’m working on a new graphic novel for release this fall. It’s called “The Year of Loving Dangerously,” and it’s more autobiographical than anything else. I hope you check it out!

28. 

    edmondd said, 4 months ago

    An autobiography is as much a celebration of victories and regrets, as it is a score settling artifact with a vengeance. It can also be profitable.

29. 

    IrishEddieOHara said, 4 months ago

    Hey Motive – when the economic cookies hit the fan and you can’t find anyone who needs a psychologist because they are too busy trying to find enough to eat for the next day – do you know how to kill, skin, and gut an animal for barbecue? Can you plant vegetables, care for them, and harvest at the right time?

    I’m not against education, even though it sounds like it. I am against it being treated as the most important thing and the basic human arts being treated as “flyover country”.

30. 

    DrCanuck said, 4 months ago

    The worse the economy becomes, the greater the demand for motive’s services. I predict he’ll leave his consulting job and go back to private practice.

31. 

    motivemagus said, 4 months ago

    I actually didn’t give my true view of humanities education: Liberal arts education is not designed to get you a job. It is designed to teach you to think. Specifically, to process complex information, to form concepts, and to be able to make comparisons and contrasts from any information. The evidence is quite clear that four-year liberal arts educations do this better than two-year or technical education. This enables you to get perspective on things, which is rather helpful when organizing and managing complex situations. Did you know MIT (certainly a top school in the technical area!) restructured its undergraduate education because its students weren’t getting promoted past supervisor levels? It’s true.
    I have nothing against technical or job-based education; if you know what you want and you’ve got the raw talent, it’s become very efficient to get mastery of a technical field. But technical mastery is not the same as liberal arts education, though both are critically important.
    And IrishEddie, I was a Boy Scout. I’m not claiming one is superior. I am complaining that there are a large number of people who seem to think liberal arts education is a bad thing, and despite your disclaimer, that’s what it sounds like you are saying, too.

32. 

    fritzoid said, 4 months ago

    And as I’ve said elsewhere, if all the Humanities majors DID go into engineering, would there in fact be enough engineering jobs to employ them? If the historians and anthropologists and psychologists instead became carpenters and farmers, is there enough demand (and resources) for the (supposed) increase in product that they would make a living?

    In an earlier post, IrishEddie, you grouped music-making together with production of food and useful goods, so I imagine you do have SOME appreciation for culture-makers as well as utilitarian producers. Or do you think that culture is utilitarian, in that the purpose of the Arts is to keep the population “inspired” and “entertained” and “productive”? Do you make a distinction between “inspirational” art and (shall we call it) “degenerate” art? What about art that challenges “traditional” values? What about books that challenge “traditional” values? What about behaviors that challenge “traditional” values? What about IDEAS that challenge “traditional” values?

33. 

    IrishEddieOHara said, 4 months ago

    To make music, art, writings, etc. is to produce something of value and worth. To have a major in “Advanced Civil War Economics” is to be made a fool of. There is little call for that and certainly it produces nothing that is of any value to the country.

    I cannot tell you how many college degrees I have heard of that make me go “What the ….????” Useless nonsense. That is what I am against.

    I am not utilitarian in any sense of the word. I think I am a realist and find that things that are produced must have a value. Obviously, the degree owned by the kid in the above cartoon is pretty worthless.

    I told my kids when they were going through high schol that they should learn service work because as long as things need to be fixed, there will need to be technicians. But the technical arts are looked down upon by most white collar folks while hold degrees in “Cultural Anthropology”. After all, it’s the brainy folks who get degrees and respect, while we technicians just keep everything running

34. 

    M Henri Day said, 3 months ago

    The real irony here is that the present Administration is, despite an opportunity to do otherwise, following in its predecessor’s footsteps and trying to flog a flagging and bankrupt horse into maintaining an empire abroad (if you find the metaphor mixed, consider the fact that, according to Suetonius (who is not always reliable), Caligula planned to appoint his horse consul). The inevitable result of Empire - corruption (and unemployment) at home, vicious wars of aggression abroad…

    Henri

35. 

    taustin660 said, 3 months ago

    200k a year as an engineer? on what planet?