Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for April 21, 2011

Bigger the tires, smaller the brain …

Enough of love your mother…get the cartoon back to where it’s supposed to be…..dysfunctional families.

Big truck, small weenie.

These families aren’t particularly dysfunctional, kreole. The kids are occasionally bratty, and the parents are occasionally pushed close to their limits, but they all love one another and work through their problems. They ain’t exactly the Cleavers, but they ain’t the Bundys either…

(Andy’s from a dysfunctional family, but that certainly isn’t the focus of the strip.)

I miss the funny.

Enough environmentalist campaigning, already!

One more day of earth day. I can’t blame Max for being scared of the big gas guzzling monster.

I think it’s great that Jan is doing these comics this week. It sure is generating a lot of conversation. I’m sure no one will change their opinions on the environment based on some comics, but at least it brings the issues to the forefront. It’s sort of like Sept 11 – we all said “we’ll never forget!”, but who thinks about it anymore (other than when we go through airport security, and not in a good way)? Good for you, Jan!!

Issues, smishues.

I’m sorry. I’m 57 years old and I drive a full-size Bronco with a small lift kit. I have rheumatoid arthritis and I find it extremely difficult to get in and out of a regular car. I am also on disability and can’t afford to get a regular car. And I love my truck.

Since there’s no way that’s street legal in any of the states I’ve lived in. This must be how the guy in the fire suit makes his living. Probably drives a Prius to and from work.

I love all these Earth Day comics, Jan…and that the whole family is involved.

All those people whining about the big trucks are exhibinting nothing but wealth envy. Pure and simple.

And ONE volcano has spewed more Co2 than humans have the entire time they have been on the planet. So “Big Trucks” and SUV’s have done NOTHING to the planet.

This strip series is promoting that stupid global warming HOAX! Get off it and get back to something funny.

So, “gayfatnakedvet”… if we extrapolate your hypothesis….. 40 mpg = ?

Sure seems there is a lot of junk science around these days. Big trucks and SUVs have done something to the planet, along with cows and all their methane from their b*tts. Hummer vs Prius - ? Please! Just the insurance costs alone skew that argument. Yo, griefofdawn, sorry you are on disability, but you can’t afford a regular car vs the full size Bronco? What about the difference in gas costs? I bought an 05 Mercedes E320 for $ 18,000 this past year. Beautiful car and great gas mileage. And there are plenty of other cars for less than that. What kind of “regular” car are you looking at? Get a Mercury Marquis, for goodness sale!

SUUUUMMMHUMMMMMMER

Ok, getting sick of this. This is also Holy Week. Nothing like worshipping nature and distracing us from the One who is truly worthy of worship, Jesus Christ. And I know I’ll get blasted for writing this, because not everyone believes that, but still, she could show a little respect for those of us who put our trust in the Savior and don’t worship the earth.

pinkdryad: AMEN !!!

I also think this is a good series.

It’s inconvenient to some people, but there you go.

Wow, I’ve enjoyed the strips this week. Hadn’t been paying attention to the comments at all. Kinda sorry I did today. Happy almost Earth Day y’all!

Face it, we wouldn’t comment unless we loved the strip the characters and everyone who take this to heart. Happy Earth Day, Easter, Passover, Oestara

@tcayer - nickel is NOT rare. The amount used in batteries is a fraction of what is used in industry (nickel-steel) and in coinage.

@pinkdryad - how can you claim to worship God yet despise and trash the earth God supposedly created?

Thank you, Jan, for the Earth Week strips. A timely and relevant reminder to think about the impact of what we do. Much appreciated.

Environmentalists are idiots. CO2 does NOT cause man-made global warming. Proven. QED, burning more gas does NOT cause man-made global warming. Al Gore’s garbage has been proven wrong. How? The Ice Core scientists themselves showed the facts that the temperature rises BEFORE the CO2 rises. How can the CO2 rise cause something to happen BEFORE the event? That is like a bully hits a kid in the eye and, instead of the next day, the kid gets a black eye TWO WEEKS AGO! What idiots the environmentalists are!

@pinkdryad - since you’re so bible-y and Christ-y, why to you choose a Pagan creature for your name? Shouldn’t you be pinkangel instead?

If you’re ”Not Of This World” then - please - go home and stop #@%&ing-up ours…

YA GOTTA LOVE YOUR MOTHER … MOTHER EARTH, THAT IS!

griefofdawn, I certainly sympathize with you. While I don’t have RA, I too have found it difficult to get in and out of sedans. I drive an Econoline and its easier for me to get in and out of it. No trying to practically crawl out of a sedan.

@JSFMIKE: It’s apparent you don’t live on disability or have RA. The one is fixed income and the other is painful. Just because you can afford to get a nice sedan, doesn’t mean anyone else can. You make do with what you have and if you like what you have, you keep it. Plus, until you have the vehicle paid off, your insurance is going to be pricey.

There are people who need to drive big, heavy, high fuel-consumption trucks. That’s fine. That’s part of the cost of business of being a farmer or a transport driver or whatever. There are people with special needs, and allowances should be (and are) regularly made for them. There are also people who drive their 6 mpg Hummers five blocks to the gym every day (where they take the elevator to get to the Stairmaster), for no reason other than that they want to be seen doing so. It’s vain and wasteful.

Back in WWII, whn fuel rationing was in effect, there were signs posted asking “Is this trip really necessary?” If it’s necessary, then of course it’s necessary.

As far as Holy Week goes, the Secretary of the Interior under Reagan was born-again Christian James Watt, whose attitude towards conservation was “Jesus is coming back soon, and when he gets here he’s going to want to see that we’ve made full use of all the natural resources that God gave to us Americans.” Is that Good Stewardship of the Earth? Anyone who thinks that, once things get bad enough, God is going to come down and fix everything is someone who has no interest in trying to make things better, and has no more business being in a policy-making position than someone who believes that a nuclear war in the Middle East is part of God’s Plan should ever be allowed near the launch codes.

And the best answer I’ve ever heard to the question “What Would Jesus Drive?” was this: He was a carpenter, so he’d drive a pick-up truck.

Some folks stick with the Old-Time Religion of their choice, but Earth-Worship is so much trendier and hipper. Both cases rely on the strange human ability to choose to believe something is true as if that will make it so. I’ve never understood it.

Forget the environment! Get a good mileage car for financial reasons.