Now, I know it’s just a comic strip, but goddammit, I’m sick of people bitching about the ACLU and implying or saying outright that the ACLU is somehow anti-Christian. That’sbullshit . They’re in favor of removing “God” from the Pledge of Allegiance because they interpret it as a government endorsement of religious faith (especially in public schools). And now this asshole draws a strip implying (and yes, I realize it’s meant as a “joke”) that members of the ACLU are all going to hell! Mother of fuck, doesn’t this man have any sense of decency at all!?
Yes, Hart uses his strip to push his ninny-brained, god-squad agenda - but he’s got freedom of speech, same as anyone.
Hey Hart. Did you know there’s a group that continues to defend your right to say such things in the public arena? Which group is that, would you say? (Just off the top of your head, like.)
Non perspiri mini excreta Dont sweat the small shit.
We already had this fight, way back. Doonesbury got all sorts of folk’s knickers in a knot, defiling the purity of Mary Worth and Family Circle. The Rightarded went into total conniption fit mode, demanding the strip be moved to the editorial page or somewhere equally obscure. For the most part, it didn’t work, and I’m glad. But you gotta take the shit with the sugar, fair’s fair.
It always saddens me to see somebody fling themselves into a kindergarten kind of spirituality, trying to armor themselves against doubt with iron-clad dogma. But the ACLU has faced this crap a thousand times, and still standing. If they’re going to Hell, hope they save me a nice seat by the Lake of Fire, as I will for them if my estimation of longevity prove too optimistic.
As Tom DeLay (R, Undead) once said: “Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a thousand schools of thought contend.”
All in all it is remarkable how few of today’s comic strips are worth reading. When was the last time anyone ever clipped a BC for the fridge door?
What ever happened to Frank Cho’s Liberty Meadows? Funny with a pretty girl. Remember The World of Lilly Wong in the Hong Kong papers? The Chinese closed that one down.
Well, while i think the cartoon is stupid, and it also displays an obviously-religious agenda, i don’t think that he was suggesting that the ACLU is anti-Christian.
In fact, the cartoon says pretty much exactly what you said: that the ACLU wants to remove the reference to God in the Pledge of Allegiance. From the cartoon:
Isn’t that exactly what the ACLU does, in fact, want? And i fully support them in this fight.
Actually, I believe it ended when the ex-pat that wrote it left Hong Kong. Maybw it went on after that, but I seem to remember that being the ultimate end.
B.C. continues to run in the papers pretty much from momentum. People expect it to be there because it’s always been there and the funnies wouldn’t be the funnies if B.C. wasn’t there right?
What’s sad is B.C. was once cutting-edge knock-down drag-out hilarious. If you ever run across the reaaaallllly old B.C. collections in a used-book store sometime (i.e., from the 1950’s) you’ll be surprised how funny they are. Throughout the 60’s he continued to put out funny stuff. But sometime in the 70’s he went from hilarious to occasional-chuckle, and then somewhere in the 80’s came the his religious conversion and his continued downhill run to mediocrity and beyond.
Well, I’m off to re-read “B.C. One More Time!” to remind myself what caveman humor really was.
The very fact that religious people are up in arms at the suggestion of removing Under God just goes to show how religiously significant the phrase is, and thus how unconstitutional it is to promote in public schools.
I’ve read the early stuff (my parents had a couple of the early collections) and yes, they were REALLY funny. I’m always saddened when one of my favorite cartoonists decides to get out of the business, either temporarily or for good. But in a way I’m relieved, too. I would hate to see the rotting corpse of Calvin and Hobbes in the newspaper every day, for instance. I still read Garfield, but I remember when the strip was actually FUNNY.
Johnny Hart is apparently making a lot of money, and getting his message out to a lot of people. I think that he still thinks he’s a great cartoonist. In my opinion, he’s not (really, the two females in B. C. are still known as Cute Chick and Fat Broad!), and he hasn’t had a really interesting new idea in years. Decades, maybe. And it’s a pity that so many people will only judge him by his recent stuff, and will never know how good he was in his prime.
I can only recommend three: The Boondocks, Non Sequitor, and Doonesbury out of momentum. The rest of them might be good for a chuckle, but are otherwise forgettable.
