Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for July 12, 2012

Hang tight, Leo. You’ll get through this.

Snerk! That’s the way I’ve felt on some of my cross-country sojourns.

Flyover country.

During a cross-country trip The Lone Ranger bought my wife and me breakfast at a Waffle House in Missouri… well he was DRESSED as the Lone Ranger – advertising a Country & Western station!

Poor Leo. I hope Alex can hang tough.

“I don’t want to go anywhere. There are many places I would like to visit, many places I would like to be, it’s the ‘going’ part I don’t like.” -- a old friend used to sat this.

They should have gone Amtrak

I drive for a living, so to me if you aren’t lying on a beach somewhere, it really isn’t a vacation.

We’ll get there when we get there.

It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.

Actually, driving across the U.S. is awesome, if you’re not in a hurry, and can afford it. The second part is more of an issue these days, with the price of gas.

will Leo have the courage to tell Alex it’s not going well for him, that he’s unnerved by what just happened, the limbo between present reality & flashback? or will he be afraid to “ruin the honeymoon”….amtrak & airplanes are enclosed spaces…..PTSR survivors don’t like that much….tunnels & bridges are stressful…..

for me, Leo’s eye reminds me of the saying: in the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is King. he is a very Kingly dude, seeing through to the truth of things. in the new and degraded America.

Seems some want to subvert each strip to their political agenda while a whole a lot of others respond literally like it is real.It is a cartoon strip. Get over it.

As is so ofteh the case, at this point in the sequence I have to marvel at GT’s ability to create a story arc. None of us really have any idea where this is going, but we all realize we will have poignant insights along the way.

Have I missed something? Is Leo getting any therapy for his PTSD? Other than a visit to the vet center, I’ve seen nothing about therapy, anti-anxiety medication, or anything else. After the strain of getting married, he should be doubling down on that.

Cross-country travel in a motor vehicle with one’s significant other is a true test of your relationship. I know. I’ve had that “delightful” experience several times. No comment as to how those trips worked out. Let’s just say I sympathize with Leo on a lot of levels.

Being of the online generation I wonder if they are using Yelp and trip advisor for reviews before they stop?

And note that Leo’s aphasia does not affect his internal dialogue. He thinks loud and clear. It’s only when he tries to get it out his mouth that there’s a problem. This is very real.

Apropos of nothing but a random thought: I wonder if GT is going to send his lordship, Zonker, to England for the Olympics, so he can watch Mitt’s horse prance and dance in the dressage competition ?

It’s my spousal unit that doesn’t like driving, I’ve made several cross country trips by car, just taking it as it came, most fun. Today, spousal likes to fly, I have to take pills to get through TSA, but the flying is still “all good”. I don’t do “tunnels” though, and bridges used to freak me out, going over, not under them. My son, after Iraq, has problems with overpasses, and “fire plugs”, neither of which we had in ‘Nam. World’s change!!

Like I said yesterday, more sense from a bag of hammers. (I know, don’ t feed the trolls. This will be the last time.)

I don’t get all this anxiety expressed about Leo. The fact is that he’s a tower of strength. He doesn’t suppress, he lets things out; that’s half the battle. A hero who rose to the occasion. Just like his old tank commander, the lieutenant, who after being a jerk for much of his life, rose to the occasion and became a man.

Garry, please get Leo on medical marijuana before he strangles Alex in her sleep.

The St. Louis fire is a VA scam. They have other copies on what was supposedly lost. It is that they are too lazy to look for the records. They hope you will buy the fib and just go away.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Where in the name of heaven to you get your misinformation ? All of the personal records, including medical ones, of certain individuals serving from the late ‘50s through the "60s were completely destroyed in that floor fire.How do I know ? I have all the court transcripts from 1976 when I had to sue the Federal Government, the Department of Defense and the Army because my records ( including medical ) were amongst those missing. After almost a year and $30,000 in legal fees ( for which I was reimbursed ) the Army still had no records on me, save my date of entry into the service, my ETS and honorable discharge an proof ( by way of a speeding ticket and an Article 15 for being late for a formation – neither should be in permanent record ) that I’d been on a couple of post.Want to subscribe to a conspiracy theory ? Here’s one. Almost everyone connected with certain TS operations during the period of time mentioned lost their records in that fire.

Kind of like being claustrophobic and honeymooning on a submarine.

I’m making plans to someday cross the US on my motorcycle.

Linguist: my records were purged BEFORE going to St. Louis, of all medical treatment for malaria, hearing loss, several surgeries, nerve damage, and several other “items” from combat duty. Only my shot record and treatment in Basic for hemmorrhoids was in the “medical” file. There were about 15 pages of junk when I cleared supply!

Water damage was the main result from the “fire”, and NO records from Viet Nam era were actually damaged beyond recovery. The MILITARY did “mess with records”, it wasn’t actually VA. The new records system IS much better, but anyone NOT keeping their own record WILL get screwed by THE MILITARY, not VA!!

My son just got several records from his last command that confirmed just showed up that refutes the claim of the navy in denying his appeal. Hopefully, that record will allow him to re-file and get the compensation he deserves, FROM THE NAVY!

Best of luck to ALL vets, including Leo!

Looks like Leo’s learned the first important lesson as a husband: Keep your mouth shut and She will be pleased.

I know better Susan. But that particular bit of idiocy touched a raw nerve. Talk about flashbacks! It was a very difficult time for me and others like me.

You really think the democrats are that far left? The right wing in England, Canada, France, Germany, Australia and many other countries are to the left of the democrats!! Same England with the Tories. Strangely, those two countries and Canada all seem to be travelling OK even though they:A: have decent safety nets for people who get sick.B: Have a safety net so that people on lower incomes manage a half way decent standard of living and can continue to get the Dole.C: Allow abortion.D: etc, etc, etc.

The only thing the Democrats are guilty of is not taking reforms far enough, but then that’s not really their fault, is it?

Guess I better brace myself for the tirade of abuse I am about to receive for bringing home a few truths.

Your right my friend. It was the Military, not the VA that screwed with the records and I can only assume that there were records on that floor at all . That was the story presented by the government ( BTW NOT the Army ) in court. Those were naive times and we were unaware of all the underlying machinations going on behind the scenes.I learned from my experience that persistence pays off, but the system is designed to beat you down.I hope that your son can get the compensation he deserves.

I whole heartily agree, Sharuniboy. It is a matter of “Freedom of Speech” and everyone is entitled to express themselves and their opinions. If you don’t want to debate, don’t take the bait !The only thing I do find offensive and worthy of chastisement either by peers or by the host site, is the disrespect, bordering on hate mongering and racism sometimes espoused by certain individuals. There is no place is civil discourse and debate for these types of epithets directed at the President and Commander in Chief, or for that matter, at his opponent.Name calling is a poor excuse for an inability to be coherent and logical.

“Enough flags, and his lies will be deleted.”

Susan, I share your frustration with Sarge’s lies, but there should be a higher threshold for a flag, something like a threat or an obscenity. The problem with flagging is it’s like a first strike nuclear attack, that invites retaliation and it makes the flagger look like an authoritarian control freak. The best way to handle an inferior post is to ignore it (everyone has a scroll button) and engage only if you want to. I’d like to remind you of the Stanford study that showed when people are given power over the lives of others there is a risk of them abusing it. I’ve been flagged for a Jane Rowe (Norma McCorvy) link and recently for a Sundance link, none of which had anything to do with lies, threats or obscenities. There is no screening for the flags, comments just disappear a la Stalin. People should be able to embrace diversity without embracing the opinions/bs expressed.

Another way to look at it, as a wobbly Obama supporter whenever I read Sarge’s delusions, I encounter clarity and am motivated to break his woodle heart.

Yeah, I knew a guy who loved to work as a cross-country driver…have made it cross country a few times, and every way and everywhere I go…it’s a beautiful land.

And how dear and wonderful the people…strong, gentle, caring, and very very smart…

ANYWAY.When I was a kid we used to spend several weeks in the summer driving ’round the West. I still remember building a snowman near Denver on the 4th of July. Plus I always had the coolest things for show and tell… like the chunk of lava rock from I broke off from the fields of it that stretched to the horizion on either side of the road. And the bottle of black sand that reacted to magnets. And the pinecone the size of my head.

That’s a recap of my honeymoon too — all we wanted to do was fly home, but we were stuck with the car (VW bug) in Calif and no way to get it back to Michigan.

This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is My Land — Woody’s Centennial on Saturday.

Wow, you know nothing about the American Constitution or history. The rights that are guaranteed in the US, and other democratic countries, all come from the same place: Experience.

Freedom of Press- look up Peter ZengerFreedom of Religion and no Established State Religion- Conflict between the Baptists and Anglicans in Virginia, where the Anglican Church was the established church until the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom was passed.Right to Bear Arms (the only Bill of Right with defined purpose, maintaining militias)- the desire not to have a standing army. For this one also recommend you read the English Bill of Rights of 1689.

The idea of a Bill of Rights was originally proposed at the Constitutional Convention but rejected. Many states only ratified the Constitution (Virginia, New York e.g.) with the stipulation that a Bill of Rights will be added in the future.The Bill of Rights also has its roots in the Magna Carta, English Bill of Rights, and Common Law. They were not handed down from above.

RisR said “Let’s say tomorrow a Euro government decides they are going to limit health care to the Euro equivalent of 200,000 US dollars per person per life. Do you think the average EU citizen has any recourse?”

Don’t know which Euro you are thinking of, but in the European country I live (and vote in), the UK, if the current government enacts any policy that the populace doesn’t approve of, we vote that government out in the next election, just like all the other European democracies (and the US). With minor variations pretty much exactly what would happen in the US!

Actually, I won’t say the Commerce Clause. John Roberts had it right when he pointed out that goverment has the right to tax. The same argument was used to establish the constitutionality of Social Security, see Helvering vs. Davis.As for health care and education, read the preamble of the Constitution, the part about promoting the general welfare (see Steward Machine Company vs. Davis).

Oh, I did address what you were discussing. You were pontificating about how we in the US believe that rights come from God or Nature, as if the Bill of Rights were handed down like the Ten Commandments.I pointed out that you were wrong, and the Bill of Rights has its roots in both American and English history.

Um, that is the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution and definitely not the Bill of Rights. The Declaration of Independence provided the reason for Colonies declaring their independence, but it did not guarantee individual rights.God is only mentioned once in the Constitution, and that has more to do with style than acknowledging a higher power. It is in reference to the date the Constitution was signed.God is not even included in the Presidential oath.Please stop confusing your documents. If the writers of the Constitution were transferring the Declaration of Independce to the Constitution, the first thing they would of done was end slavery.

If you have an issue with the Constitutionality of Social Security or Unemployment Insurance, the problem isn’t FDR’s threat to pack the Court; the problem is the 16th Amendmen. As for the Madison quote, I am pretty sure he did not anticipate Marbury vs Madison, where the Court gave itself the power to decide the Constitutionality of laws.

It was actually a conservative, Harlan Stone, that told Labor Secretary Frances Perkins to use the power to tax as the Constitutional basis for Social Security. This was in 1934, more than 2 years before FDR’s court packing scheme.

In their small talk, the justice inquired as to how her work was going. The secretary freely admitted they were stuck on the administration’s new Social Security bill, and were uncertain on what basis the new program should be founded. Upon hearing this, the justice looked around to see if anyone was listening, leaned over to her, and putting his hand up to his mouth, whispered: ‘The taxing power of the federal government, my dear; the taxing power is sufficient for everything you want and need.’ The secretary excitedly returned to her staff and announced she had made up her mind. They would base the new program on the government’s power to tax.

I cannot either prove or disprove that Madison anticipated the power grab you to which you refer. I do know that Thomas Jefferson, who was president at the time of Marbury vs Madison, was not happy with what he saw as the usurpation of power.I do agree with you that the 3 documents- specifically the Bill of Rights- are negative documents. They tell what powers the government doesn’t have.As for the creation of these documents being a miracle, I disagree but that is a personal opinion, and I can neither criticize or judge it.I personally consider all 3 as great documents but natural and predictable creations out of the circumstances from which they came.