Jules Feiffer has described Tony Auth best, "His perspective is that of a bemused and often angry comic historian. Irony, never a favorite form with Americans, is his meat and potatoes. He is not smug, and though he can be mean, he is never mean-spirited. Auth is a moralist and an optimist. He insists, even in this day and age, that hope is more than the name of a right-wing comedian or the shtick of a reactionary president."
© The Philadelphia Inquirer - All Rights Reserved.
Chuck Asay by Chuck Asay
Clay Bennett by Clay Bennett
Comments (69) (Please sign in to comment)
Gary Williams said, 6 months ago
The NRA should run commericals after each one of these shooting to further advocate the sale of guns followed by a commercial from a gun shop. it would be so American
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D PB said, 6 months ago
Let the trolling begin!
onguard said, 6 months ago
The Second Amendment is as important to the survival of America as is the First Amendment.
majormarj said, 6 months ago
Good to think that more guns will be the answer! Thanks to Ann Coulter, we know that a conceal permit for the 5-year-olds would have prevented their deaths. Thanks to the NRA, the bastions of the 2nd amendment, who are on the record not saying anything, should their power diminish. Thank the good Lord almighty this holiday season that the cities of Newtown and Portland can join the cities of Littleton, Aurora, Austin, U of V, Detroit, etc. etc. in the celebration of the vaulted, powerful, and most-important Second. Okay, so our President is weeping with the rest of the population of the world over the deaths. But honestly, if a plane-load of humans crashed ONCE A WEEK FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR, then maybe some investigations on aviation safety would begin. But after eleven thousand gun-violence deaths EACH AND EVERY YEAR IN AMERICA, nothing has changed.
fritzoid
said, 6 months ago
If It Were Up To Me
Maybe it’s the movies, maybe it’s the books
Maybe it’s the bullets, maybe it’s the real crooks
Maybe it’s the drugs, maybe it’s the parents
Maybe it’s the colors everybody’s wearin
Maybe it’s the President, maybe it’s the last one
Maybe it’s the one before that, what he done
Maybe it’s the high schools, maybe it’s the teachers
Maybe it’s the tattooed children in the bleachers
Maybe it’s the Bible, maybe it’s the lack
Maybe it’s the music, maybe it’s the crack
Maybe it’s the hairdos, maybe it’s the TV
Maybe it’s the cigarettes, maybe it’s the family
Maybe it’s the fast food, maybe it’s the news
Maybe it’s divorce, maybe it’s abuse
Maybe it’s the lawyers, maybe it’s the prisons
Maybe it’s the Senators, maybe it’s the system
Maybe it’s the fathers, maybe it’s the sons
Maybe it’s the sisters, maybe it’s the moms
Maybe it’s the radio, maybe it’s road rage
Maybe El Nino, or UV rays
Maybe it’s the army, maybe it’s the liquor
Maybe it’s the papers, maybe the militia
Maybe it’s the athletes, maybe it’s the ads
Maybe it’s the sports fans, maybe it’s a fad
Maybe it’s the magazines, maybe it’s the internet
Maybe it’s the lottery, maybe it’s the immigrants
Maybe it’s taxes, big business
Maybe it’s the KKK and the skinheads
Maybe it’s the communists, maybe it’s the Catholics
Maybe it’s the hippies, maybe it’s the addicts
Maybe it’s the art, maybe it’s the sex
Maybe it’s the homeless, maybe it’s the banks
Maybe it’s the clearcut, maybe it’s the ozone
Maybe it’s the chemicals, maybe it’s the car phones
Maybe it’s the fertilizer, maybe it’s the nose rings
Maybe it’s the end, but I know one thing.
If it were up to me, I’d take away the guns.
© 1997, Cheryl Wheeler
4my10851cs said, 6 months ago
@Mr. King
you are WRONG read “more guns less crime” by John Lott Jr.
The “news media” just does not tell you how many times people save themselves with guns
4my10851cs said, 6 months ago
@majormarj
how many of those were killed by citizens defending them selves. I worked at a police department over 18 years so knock off the crap
4my10851cs said, 6 months ago
@fritzoid
and look what happened when they did that in Austrila
omQ R said, 6 months ago
@4my10851cs
I have no idea; what happened in Austrila?
“I worked at a police department over 18 years so knock off the crap”
Couldn’t have said it better myself! Except I have no idea what that is you just said. I was a policeman’s grandson all of my life, so cut out the crap. I have no idea what relevance my statement has but I think it carries about the same weight as your statement (in support of what exactly?).
omQ R said, 6 months ago
@4my10851cs
I actually read on a forum elsewhere a poster asking if this could have happened if any of the teachers had had a gun. I wasn’t able to tell if the person was being serious or sarcastic.
The one time I saw a teacher brandish a gun was in my final year of high school. We had inter-school sports rivalry before a big athletics meet and we had heard that a rival school was going to daub graffiti on our school’s walls. So a few of us stayed over night at our school to protect it. Some time later that night, as rumours swept back and forth, our principal showed up. A little worse for wear from a Friday night braai (bbq), he drove up to the gates and got out holding his 9mm. He encouraged us to stand fast to protect the school’s honour and that if the rival school dared show up, and, holding his handgun up high, said he’d drive them back.
The US has no nothing on South Africa in terms of violence and high crime rate, especially gun crime, but you’re getting there; well done, it’s a worthy goal I’m sure.
Doughfoot said, 6 months ago
Guns are just hunks of metal. They are neither evil nor good. They are, however, undoubtedly dangerous: like knives, explosives, and automobiles.
The majority of gun deaths are not perpetrated by criminals, if you define a criminal as someone who is known to have broken the law before. Most gun deaths are suicides or accidents. A large portion of the rest are murders committed by people without criminal records, and most often against people they know or are related to.
Guns sometimes prevent trouble, sometime provoke it. Everyone has a right to defend himself. No one has a right to kill or injure someone else except in self-defense, and then only in proportion to the threat. (I can’t shoot you for shaking your fist at me.)
The fact is, that all policies regarding fire arms, including who should be able to own what, from pocket knives to rocket launchers, and where they should be allowed to take them, and under what conditions, should be decided as questions of public safety, based on actual data, and not on romantic fantasies or emotional distress.
I doubt anyone sane wants flamethrowers to be sold over the counter at Walmart. I doubt anyone sane thinks that no one should be allowed to own an axe or a kitchen knife.
Something is wrong, obviously. But there may be something that can be done to prevent the constant recurrence of these massacres. Why is our society so much more murderous than many others? Why are we so much more in love with violence and so enamored of being armed, whether we live in a safe neighborhood or not? Unfortunately we are so all so blinded by our ideologies, that we seem unwilling to actually seek answers. Everyone thinks he already has all the answers he needs.
I know a woman who would not be able to sleep at night if she did not have her gun under her pillow. I know another person who would not be able to sleep at night knowing there was a loaded gun in the house. I know a few less guns in the country will not make any difference, nor a few more. We should not be thinking of ways to take away people’s guns, we should be thinking of ways to build a society where fewer people think of murder as the proper outlet for their frustrations and rage.
ruff
said, 6 months ago
If we taught the young how to shoot, and equipped them all with Glocks and full clips , this would never have happened. They would have known how to defend themselves.
DrCanuck said, 6 months ago
^ Yup, time to extend open-carry rights to five-year-olds.
ARodney said, 6 months ago
@4my10851cs
Because people almost NEVER save themselves with guns. It happens. Rarely. Less often than they shoot themselves or other people with guns. One wacko conservative has already said that if there were guns in the classroom, that would have helped. A loaded gun in every kindergarten classroom. What could possibly go wrong?
dtroutma
said, 6 months ago
Guns don’t kill people, bullets do. The more bullets in the gun, and the fewer restrictions on who can buy these large capacity magazine weapons, the more people die. Period.
Lott’s book is, by the way, a crock of disinformation and twisted “logic”.