funny cartoons

During this last year I have had the pleasure of working with a really fun art teacher at my school. Although she is now a high school art teacher, she was formerly an animator for the Simpsons amongst other well-known cartoons. Her husband continues to direct episodes of Family Guy.

In any case, she turned me on to this really cool animator named Don Hertzfeldt. Below is the first Hertzfeldt cartoon that she showed me. Its simple but awesome.

Notes on the Race #7

I was talking with my wife last weekend about why I like Obama's tax plan a lot better than McCain's. In my explanation, I mentioned how often people in the upper tax brackets forget that, although maybe their hard work got them the success that they well deserve, that they need the people below them to fuel that success. In last night's debate, the two candidates got bogged down forever talking about Joe the plumber (who, by the way, is not a licensed plumber). Joe and McCain insisted that Obama's tax plan was going to punish average guys like Joe for being successful. In the actual conversation that Obama had with Joe the (not) Plumber, he said this:

"For folks like me who have worked hard, but frankly also been lucky, I don't mind paying just a little bit more than the waitress that I just met over there who's -- things are slow and she can barely make the rent.

My attitude is that if the economy's good for folks from the bottom up, it's gonna be good for everybody. If you've got a plumbing business, you're going to be better off if you've got a whole bunch of customers who can afford to hire you, and right now everybody's so pinched that business is bad for everybody, and I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."

What a novel fucking idea. Look out for the other guy - not just yourself. In the current "What's in it for me" era, we often forget that there are other people around who need help. PEOPLE. HUMANS. Some need help because they never got it from their parents or family. Why not help them a bit? Some got their by making a few mistakes. Why not give them a second chance? That seems like a big teaching of Christianity. What might come of this help for the other guy? Maybe, just maybe, you'll benefit in turn.

As McCain continues to push for privatization of everything and rails against any kind of government help, let's remember that there are some who don't have the knowledge or experience to handle their own retirement. Let's remember that the government saved our economy in the 1930s (and 2008), which is not a bad thing. Maybe we should look into solving our problems together instead of always going it on our own.

Notes on the Race #6

OK, so it has been a while since I said that I would write more after the debates. Here's my less-than-five-sentence review of the VP debates and the TownHall debate with Obama and McCain: Sarah Palin would be a good debater if she knew what she was talking about. Joe Biden did a good job not looking like a sexist while still showing that he knows way more than her. The TownHall debate, my friends, was boring. I hope Wednesday is better.

On to other matters.

1. A bipartisan legislative panel found that Sarah Palin indeed abused her power as governor when she fired the Alaska Public Safety Commissioner. If you haven't read about it before, she pressured the commissioner to fire a trooper that was her former brother-in-law. She not only violated ethics rules, but she also lied about violating ethics rules.

2. The poll numbers really don't look good for McCain. (Note: I still think that national poll numbers don't really show what will happen on election night.) The numbers that I prefer deal with electoral predictions. Those numbers look worse.

3. How does the saying go? You reap what you sew. McCain is finding out what happens when you fan the flames of fear and hate.

Here are some videos of McCain supporters in line to get into one of his rallies:





And one from a rally where the supporter scolds McCain:




Yesterday McCain finally had to deal with the monster he created:



I give McCain some credit for finally telling his own supporters that they are wrong, but this was only after a week of pushing these ideas on them. Once you decide to turn to fear over issues, you have a problem in your campaign. When the Secret Service has to investigate death threats directed towards your opponent coming from your supporters at one of your rallies - you have a really big problem.

4. Finally, in the scariest story of the day, sharks are reproducing asexually. I was sure that the big animal takeover would be led by monkeys, but my fears may have been misdirected. However, an even bigger fear would be a monkey-shark alliance.