Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for August 29, 2010

Good advice, Hobbes!

Calvin my hero, you know cats don’t like water………..

I like all the sound descriptions he uses when the balloons explode. Hobbes always makes me laugh.

I like Hobbes’s cunning tactic. So nonchalant.

I’m pretty sure I was Hobbes in a past life. Also I existed solely on paper.

After all the bragging yesterday, Hobbes is rubbing it in today. Perhaps Calvin is not quite as brilliant as he thought.

Just face it, Calvin. You never win.

Oh, he wins once in a while… which makes revenge an even colder dish when it’s finally served.

This is a not so subtle critique on American-Soviet nuclear war madness. Both counties vie foolishly for being Calvin. It is the fallacy in thinking that sheer numbers counts for anything “safer” in such weapons of ultimate destruction. Watterson has made Calvin a cypher for every US president and Soviet/Russian premier since 1948. Meanwhile, Hobbes represents the rest of us everyday liberal citizens in both countries who are aware of the madness of such thinking. As Sting so gloriously sang, “I hope the Russians love their children too.”

I loved water balloon fights as a kid. It was a great time, and the weather was perfect for it.

Stock up on brains……

Every time I think I’m smarter than a fifth grader, a stuffed animal proves me wrong.

@buildingbridges: As if the Soviet Union wasn’t radically liberal by its very nature (authoritarian-liberal, in fact)!

The problem with the MAD doctrine didn’t lay in its being conservative, moderate or liberal (economically); it lay in its being authoritarian (socially) - which is something different. Stalin and Gandhi were about equally liberal - it takes another dimension to distinguish them, the social one.

I invited you to check out the very helpful The Political Compass (UK) online sometime for a better model of how the world wags than the outmoded left-right, linear paradigm of politics.

(if it were only made of three axes instead of two - justice, mercy and faith, in effect - it would be even better)

Well there goes the superiority.

Good Morning, Marg, Mike & ♠Lonewolf♠

Once again, the relentless onrush of technology has unintended consequences.

super powers: super strength , super xray vision, super speed, super stupid; gotta take the bad with the good

You really should start keeping notes, Calvin. Hobbes is a great teacher!

G’Morning Grog, Marg, Mike & Fran!

I thought Hobbes was just going to take a swipe at Calvin’s balloons with his claws, but he had a simpler method to achieve the same goal.

calvin should really print a teaching diploma for hobbes

authoritarian-liberal is a contradiction in terms. liberalism and socialism are not mutually exclusive, but they are not synonymous either.

Hobbes used a WMD….Weapon of Major Distraction

The comics page sure has been an emptier place without Calvin and Hobbes spreading their unique outlook on the world….

for me, only Ink Pen has come close to “Calvin and Hobbes” or “Bloom County” in detailing the pitfalls (and pratfalls) of our daily existence….

Hobbes can figure out Calvins reaction real good

Hobbes knows that it is better to give than receive.

Good looking and smart …

Hobbes for President!!!!!

Hobbes is a teacher and Calvin needs him!

Hobbes’ kung-fu is better than Calvin’s

I love how Hobbes just walks away whistling while Calvin gets drenched. What a friend…

@olmail, you are correct for the traditional meaning of “liberal” - tolerant (in the old sense), generous, trying to see all sides of an issue. However Johanan was using the sense it has come to mean today, where it is synonymous with socialism. Yeah, I miss the old word too, along with “gay”.

Note that “tolerance” has been redefined also. It used to mean “live and let live”. Now a days, it means “approval”. So that if you, for instance, disapprove of “gay” behaviour and say so, but leave those who practice it alone and don’t bother them, you are “intolerant”, because you failed to approve and reassure.

hi Marg & cleo LX013 the “stock up on brains” quote reminded of a comment hurled at a hockey coach when i was still refereeing. it was suggested he go to the butcher shop and stock up on brains after getting into a particularly foolish argument with a referee (not me, i was always smart enough not to be insulting to people). it was from a parent of one of the chidren on his team; so we all got a good laugh out of it.

Hello yyyguy*, long time no talk to.

spammerflaggen!

liberalism has never been and is not now “tolerant” of authoritarianism. some conservatives do misuse the term that way. the liberal Russians that buildingbridges referred to were absolutely opposed to the authoritarian russian government and often in danger from it. as liberal americans might be if some conservative had their way.

@SWEETBILL An important correction. Domestic cats typically do not like water. Many of the large cats (tigers, especially) have no problem at all with water and will both play and hunt in it.

Calvin the blowhard meets Hobbes the pragmatist. The tiger always wins, I note….

hahahahahahaahahahhahahahaahhahhahahaahahahahaha!