Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson for November 27, 2012

Alice, it certainly is.

third kid: the teacher’s Talking Stick also has a ribbon

Slowly, slowly, the preschoolers will educate poor benighted Miss Bliss….

I put glitter on my tee ball bat…Now you all must listen.

It’s a talking stick worthy of her booming voice.

I think Alice made a yelling stick.

Perhaps it’s only me, but I liked the strip more when it appeared in black and white.

had a grade school coach, who had a talking stick, and would show it to me….Hmmm.

when you start talking to a group of 4 year olds about ‘deference’, i think you need a new career path

Miss Bliss’ talking stick is still the largest. Does that make it the most powerful?

Alice’s talking stick is the loudest. So is Alice! :-D

I see now why my school didn’t have one.

Love the picture of Kevin’s bucket head in the first frame. Didn’t he make his own stick?

On the other hand, maybe he didn’t need to. He sort of looks like a pencil.

I think we all learned a lesson today, though not a good one.

No, what Congress needs is a “talking to!”

Theoretically the filibuster is Congress’s “talking stick”. Under the pre-1993 rules a congresscritter or Senator could get up in front of their respective body and talk as long as they felt was necessary in order to stall a bill and make the case for why a bill shouldn’t be voted on. (Or, if the bill was going to be voted on anyway, why it shouldn’t be passed.)

But the rules were changed so that a) a simple “cloture vote” (vote as to whether or not a filibuster will actually take place) could be invoked and b) a 60 vote super-majority was needed to overrule the cloture. Which brings us to our current mess in which a Republican minority can hold bills, appointments and, in fact, pretty much ALL of the Nation’s business hostage if the Democratic majority can’t muster the necessary votes to overrule the cloture.

(Hopefully the Senate will change the rules next term so that a “standing filibuster” [a filibuster where a member actually has to argue their case on the floor rather than simply invoking cloture] will be required. Then we’ll see if some of these idiots can actually make the case for their shenanigans or, at the very least, we’ll get an entertaining dog-and-pony show…)