I thought he meant I was wasting time with my quip about the strip’s artwork, but his attempt to use a big boy word misfired a bit. Dilatory is more deliberate procrastination than idle timewasting. But, hey, Sir Douglas Watts’ time is valuable, so, of course, I was *way* out of line in putting words on the intertoobs that took precious, precious milliseconds from his important life as message board hall monitor.

I’d be fully prepared to tell dead-tree comic pages to go screw off, if it weren’t so difficult for webcomic artists to come up with a viable funding model.

I didn’t care much for Cathy, but when Guisewite retired, she ended it. Period. Unlike Lynn Johnston who seems to be just redrawing her old For Better Or For Worse strips, or the vast Peanuts Empire which is just endless reruns. For pity’s sake, people, go buy the books if you need your stupid Peanuts. Let some new talent have a chance.

Yeah, I read The Comics Curmudgeon blog a lot.

Regarding comics, I’m amazed at the huge amount of talent to be found in webcomics. Obviously some are lousy, but the good stuff does tend to float to the top. I’d be fully prepared to tell dead-tree comic pages to go screw off, if it weren’t so difficult for webcomic artists to come up with a viable funding model. Syndication is still the thing to shoot for, it seems.

So, who would you rather have “attempting to influence policy in our government”? A “communist sympathizer”, or a “young Earth creationist”?

Do I have to choose? How about neither? Both are attempting to impose ideologies that are contrary to our societal values of personal freedom and rational inquiry.

To be clear, I’m not saying that McCarthy was a saint, just that being wrong 95% of the time still gives you a better record then that of Jenny McCarthy

Wow! That was really called for. So sorry I offend your… er… whatever it is in your little mind I offended, Mr. Net Cop, sir.

Martha Says: I always thought The Family Circus was a bit off:

They may be melon headed monstrosities, but my beef with zombie comics like Family Circus is they take space on the comics page away from potential new talent.

For one thing, Joseph McCarthy was right on one count – there were in fact Communists and Communist sympathizers attempting to influence policy in our government. Evidence has since shown that at least a few of those people were on McCarthy’s list – certainly the sympathizers if not a few actual spies.

“Even a stopped clock is correct twice a day.”

Back then, you probably could have torn several pages out of any large city’s phone book and come up with a list with “at least a few of those people” who were “Communist sympathizers”. (And you could probably do that today as well.)

So, who would you rather have “attempting to influence policy in our government”? A “communist sympathizer”, or a “young Earth creationist”?

And, as for global warming, everyone knows it’s due to the drop in the number of pirates. Though perhaps Ms. McCarthy would claim that vaccines cause global warming?

Anyhow, vaccines are a Good Thing, on account of preventing vast amounts of suffering, pain and disability.

@ Patrick: please don’t feed the troll.

Do you mind if I poke him with a pointy stick instead?

In this movie we discover why we didn’t go back after Apollo.

That’s easy. Money and apathy.

Thought experiment: ban China and India from increasing CO2 emissions (i.e. GDP). Assume rising food prices due to AGW.

“To limit warming to about 2K, the reduction in CO2 emissions needed is closer to 90%, IIRC.”

Possible; it’s been several months since I studied the matter, so I may not remember the exact numbers. The point is however that the target level is non-zero. Anyway, if you want to stop at 2K you need a different emission target then if you want to stop at 3K or 4K (or 6K). The problem is that, IMHO, the lower targets are not achievable anyway (barring a nuclear war destroying 90% of industrial capacity), so going after them only prolongs the decision paralysis. And we _are_ running out of time.