Pat Oliphant for July 22, 2009

The Political Abyss embraces you - you little elephant lemmings

The trouble is, Republicans won’t see any Republicans in the picture.

It’s the power of ideas. Independent thinking has led them to the only conclusion possible.

I’m with Will Rogers. I’m not a member of an organized political party. I’m a Democrat.

It’s much harder to herd Democrats into a success, or a calamity.

Notice the comment in the lower left corner though?

humphries, are you saying that republicans are really tribbles?

I just commented yesterday on another strip that Obama is leading Americans just like lemmings – over the edge! (It’s no longer a party issue – the Dems are getting wiser!).

Read this column from the NYT- right on point

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/opinion/21brooks.html?_r=1

Reminds me of what Treebeard said of the Ents… the moderates are not altogether on anyone’s side, because nobody is altogether on our side. I have concluded that trusting any politician is proof of mental incapacity and should be grounds for denial of the right to vote.

Organ player:

Good point.

:-D

Yes, why should the Democratic Party and Administration have all the fun in leading the Booboisie over the ledge?

Humans have always proved the thesis that lemmings are more independent, and smarter, after reaching “critical mass”.

Well! ok! I guess we’re doomed.

Being an art teacher, I always say there are no mistakes we can’t fix, but… individual greed and corruption are hard monitor and the results hard to fix.

Truth about the misunderstood lemming, from Wikipedia: “While many people believe that lemmings commit mass suicide when they migrate, this is not the case. Driven by strong biological urges, they will migrate in large groupings when population density becomes too great. Lemmings can and do swim and may choose to cross a body of water in search of a new habitat.[7] On occasion, and particularly in the case of the Norway lemmings in Scandinavia, large migrating groups will reach a cliff overlooking the ocean. They will stop until the urge to press on causes them to jump off the cliff and start swimming, sometimes to exhaustion and death. Lemmings are also often pushed into the sea as more and more lemmings arrive at the shore.[8] The myth of lemming mass suicide is long-standing and has been popularized by a number of factors. In 1955, Carl Barks drew an Uncle Scrooge adventure comic with the title “The Lemming with the Locket”. This comic, which was inspired by a 1954 National Geographic Society article, showed massive numbers of lemmings jumping over Norwegian cliffs.[9] Even more influential was the 1958 Disney film White Wilderness, which won an Academy Award for Documentary Feature, in which footage was shown that seems to show the mass suicide of lemmings.[10] A Canadian Broadcasting Corporation documentary, Cruel Camera, found that the lemmings used for White Wilderness were flown from Hudson Bay to Calgary, Alberta, Canada, where they did not jump off the cliff, but in fact were launched off the cliff using a turntable.[11]” Lemmings were pushed!

As a biologist, I knew the myth of lemmings. I also know that humans DO self-destruct, whole societies, rather than progress, or evade disaster. Now, gnus will mass at the river, jump in, despite the crocodiles, but they’re all shouting, “Eat FRED! Eat FRED!”

Wiki is Ok for a jumping off point but you need to find a corroborating, reputable source. Was anyone watching the Colbert episode where he was talking about Wiki? He was saying anyone could post anything, example African Elephant population had doubled(#?) in the past year. I got right up and checked the site. Someone had already made the change. They wound up locking the entry. (I can’t remember if it was doubled, tripled or higher)

This is the pennacle of ignorance.

The lemmings are We The People.

We’re being pushed right along by our government too.

Are we going to push back before its too late?

Folks, I used wiki as a convenient source of text, not knowledge. I already knew the truth about the lemming. Wiki has it right this time.

Thanks motivemagus you beat me to the lemmings myth.

I think sheep is a better analogy. Hard core loyalists from both parties are willingly and easily herded by their party masters. The Republicans have perfected their herding techneques thanks to the work of Gingrich, Limbaugh, Fox “News,” and the like. The Democrats have repeatedly stumbled in their ability to herd their flock over the couple of decades.

Republican loyalists, especially the rabid extremists are perfectly content being herded to the slaughter house. For the most part, the Democrats seem to just mill about the pasture whining about the Republican shepherds without getting much accomplished.

I wasn’t stating that Wiki got it wrong this time. I was just venting a pet peeve. My students keep thinking it counts as a credible source.

HOWGOZIT - takes one to know one, I guess.

Republicans and Democrats both. There is no diferrence between them now. Stay with Liberty.

Really, tjanus? Communism? Communism in this country was never more than a giant red herring conjured up by the Republican party to scare gullible people like you into voting for them. The Berlin wall fell 20 years ago and the Republicans have since stopped using it as their boogie man. You’re supposed to be afraid of the big bad Muslim terrorist now and equate Obama with that.

If can’t be bothered to think for yourself, you should at least stay current with what your Republican overlords tell you to think.

No, no, it is communism now. Muslim was in vogue when Obama was running for president. Dictator sympathizer was the thing to call him before the health care debate got serious.

Personally, I doubt Obama is to the left of, say, Ike - but that doesn’t mean he can’t be called all the names under the heaven by the Conservative media. Welcome to partisanship.

If one jumps over the cliff, the others will follow.

Dictator sympathizer? I must be behind the times myself. I don’t watch all that one sided political hackery that passes for news channels these days. I stand corrected.

I don’t mind partisan opinions. I’m just sick of people parroting talking points without ever bothering to understand what they just said. Just once, I’d like to read an anti-Obama opinion that was well thought out and based on actual fact instead of more right-wing talking points spoon feed to the mindless masses via Fox “News.”

^ Indeed. My dear retired parents (and sadly, their TV doesn’t stray from Fox News) are all in a tither about this alleged “Duty to Die” legislation hidden in the healthcare proposal. I’m like, “who’s feeding you this slop, Glenn Blecch??!”

Oliphant and the syndicate that publishes these great cartoons should consider re-running this one again, today.. in light of yesterday’s Finance Committee vote on health care reform AND MOST ESPECIALLY in light of the GOP’s en-bloc no vote on Franken’s Amendment that chastises KBR and other military contractors for their sexual abuses of US military members. Oh those GOPers must be so proud? And every female Republican should… change her voter registration.