Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for August 12, 2009

Ha! An eight-strip set-up for one punchline!

Why do I continue to click on this ‘comic’.

I don’t know; why do you?

Me, I don’t go to the trouble of reading comics (or much of anything else, come to that) that I don’t like.

cogmod wrote: ” I didn’t know Margret Sanger was a birther. Birther = racist Anything against Obama = racist Hitler uses Sanger’s idea on the Jews = racist Logical conclusion: Margret Sanger was a seer. ”

WOWSER!!!!! This post has to be the most ignorant and illogical thing I’ve yet to read on the comics message boards. And the clown shoe actually wrote “logical conclusion” in it.

J A D wrote: “They want an exact copy of the original “Birth Certificate” that is on file ”

What they WANT to find a way to throw out ANY election in which a reactionary does not win.

They have declared that if they cannot get it at the ballot box, they will get it at the “bullet box”.

They don’t care about a BC. They were taking about finding a way to oust Obama before anyone started mentioned the stunningly ridiculous business of Obama not having a birth certificate, a mother, grandparents, great grandparents, great great grandparents born in the Continental US, two newspaper clippings from local papers announcing Obama’s birth.

They want to throw out the election of ANY Pro-American president, black, white, blue, whatever.

“Ha! An eight-strip set-up for one punchline!” Yup, and totally worth it.

The birther law would plainly be unconstitutional. It would exclude from service as president any natural born citizen who, for whatever reason, could not access a copy of his or her birth certificate. The constitution allows any natural born citizen over the age of 35, and 14 years a resident of the US, to be president. It plainly does not require that the person have a valid birth certificate.

What part of the Constitution would the “birther” bill violate?

If there’s more than one form of legal proof of citizenship - and there is, like Obama’s Certificate of Live Birth - then any one should serve as sufficient documentation for candidates for office.

No, I didn’t answer my own question; “unconstitutional” and “bad” aren’t synonymous.

(Actually, we need to work harder to ensure that voters are citizens. Ditch “motor voter.”)

On another note, some might view H.R. 1503 as the Birth Certificate Conspiracy Theory Prevention Bill.

A family Bible is sufficient “proof of birth” for military recruiters.

plus4 – this series proves that sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, because GT isn’t making up the part about Jesus and Hitler both being heroes of “The Family” in real life. Investigative author Jeff Sharlet lived at The Family’s C Street house in 2002 and learned first hand about “a group that regularly invokes as leadership models Hitler, Stalin and Mao, whom (Family leader) Doug Coe said are three men who understood the New Testament best in the 20th century.” Mr Coe’s son, David, even likes to refer to The Family as “the Christian Mafia”.

Check out this Las Vegas Sun interview with Mr. Sharlet for more: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/jul/19/behind-closed-doors-c-street/

But, but, but… so what is the difference between a birth certificate and a certificate of live birth, anyway?

@plus4, I agree wholeheartedly, “This series is not one of GT’s finer moments.” It doesn’t FEEL like something he wrote. I think he must have had trouble coming up with ideas for it.

@artsyguy65, this is a perfect example of a situation in which I think GT is exaggerating and then I discover he’s not.

I will be very happy when we go on to another topic. I keep reading day by day in hopes of this.

“But, but, but… so what is the difference between a birth certificate and a certificate of live birth, anyway?”

The “birth certificate” the birthers rave about is the one that his doctor filled out shortly after he was born. They hinge all their hopes and dreams and bigotries on seeing it, claiming the certificate of live birth could be based on a false filing by his mother to avoid INS issues relative to Barack’s “actual” place of birth. This is of course nonsense of the first caliber. But so are the birthers’ complaints.

@ Joe Allen Doty: Don’t forget staging his little impromptu and illegal street theater protesting the money-changers in the Temple! Anti-Capitalism! Anti-Free Trade! Gasp! Matthew 21:12&13.

@ Artsy Guy: Egads, another shiver-inducing link. Thanks. Arrgh.

@ Rina: Honestly, I don’t think Trudeau is striving for knee-slapping yoks here. I think this is more along the lines of “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere”: “A cry of defiance, and not of fear!” This is his medium, so this is what he uses. Probably can’t ride a horse. ;-)

I guess levity is beyond your grasp misterwhite Even your name is racist.

The moneychangers were profiting off the temple tax, aka the census tax (Ex. 30:11-16). The tax rate was a half shekel. The Law was interpreted quite literally - a half shekel, not a half-shekel’s worth of some commodity. Nor a half-shekel’s worth of foreign currency, which Jewish pilgrims from other lands had on their persons.

The moneychangers were taking advantage of the tax to set up an oligopoly on state property (the Temple was the center of that Roman vassal state’s government), and to charge exorbitant exchange rates. Not exactly a chapter in free-market capitalism.

If Jesus is divine as the Bible claims, the “street theater” was anything but illegal. (Interesting that Jesus didn’t get arrested for it…)

Not exactly a chapter in free-market capitalism? Sure looks like real-life capitalism though!

Some people need to stop overthinking this-I think it is a great example of GT’s finely honed sense of the ridiculous when it comes to the mental gymnastics of the conspiracy theorists among us who cannot accept that they didn’t get their way last year!

There was also that whole “Render unto Caesar…” thing, so Jesus apparently was okay with taxes. Then there was that bit about treating people with compassion and tolerance (healing lepers, having ‘strumpets’ among his followers..)

I don’t think He would see anything He had in common with the right-wing bible thumpers of today.

Cogent Modality: Whaa–? There’s no hint of racism in Mr. White’s post that I can discern. Please sharpen your reading comprehension skills.