Frazz by Jef Mallett for July 04, 2011

AshburnStadiium said (in part): “As a tribute to the main cause of the Revolution and their current lack of voting representation in Congress, license plates in Washington, DC carry the legend “TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION” to this day.”Not sure the ‘representation’ would do them much more good than it does the rest of us. The ‘representatives’ frequently seem to suffer a sort of quick-acting “DC Amnesia”… forgetting who they are supposed to work for, and are supposed to represent.Happy 4th, anyway. It is STILL a good country… mostly.

Yup. While I don’t support nationalism or imperialism, and don’t always agree with what my government does in “my” name, without asking me or listening to me, I DO love my country. You HAVE to love a country where a kid can play Frisbee golf on a summer day, instead of sewing tennis shoes for 14 hours, or learning to use an assault rifle.Where he can express his own opinions and go to bed with a full stomach.I know there are other countries where those things are also true, but to most of the world, America still best represents that ideal.

Because providing air support for a UN mission is EXACTLY The same as a unilateral ground invasion.

Ever think the Americas were just one of many “colonies” the British “lost” in that time. They didn’t waste much effort or troops trying to keep us. Never sent the greatest Navy on earth. They stationed ore troops in India than here. Remember the look of relief on Victoria’s face ever time a colony revolted and broke from the Crown?I think the British learned before us that empires cannot be governed.

I’m getting a little tired of the snotty, elitist, PC ramblings of this kid.BTW do his parents know he spends so much time with the school janitor?

me too

I can’t believe Mallett would get so much wrong in such a short strip. July 4, 1776 is neither the day the war started, nor the day the Declaration of Independence was signed. Also, the signing of the Declaration of Independence did not start the war; the war was already ongoing by then.

RE: ponycar and nortntrix: Easy fix, go read Asay or Jones’s political cartoons. Nothing to challenge your preformed opinions there.

How many people turn to a COMIC strip for a history lesson. There is a reason it is called a COMIC strip could it have something to do with comedy?

Oh caufield u wacky unappreciated genius. How I laugh at you.

This strip isn’t funny though. Mallet is trying to lecture us on celebrating the beginning of a war. Usually I don’t mind Caulfield’s supercilious rants, but this is condescending to any American. I’ll be celebrating my independence today, thanks very much, no matter what snotty iconoclasts tell me to do.

I think this is is last day I read Frazz.

Comics are supposed to be funny. They don’t have to be completely accurate, because it doesn’t matter. I am sick of people who comment about how horrible a comic is and then keep reading it just to make negative comments. If you don’t like it, don’t read it. You don’t have to tell the rest of us how horrible you think the strip is.

Caulfield is supposed to be a know-it-all. It’s interesting to see him trying to make a clever point based on an incorrect understanding of the facts.

I’m in line with what jhned said. It’s pretty insulting, and I don’t need to visit this PC pulpit any more.

Asburn, you are so right. Canada is just as free as we are, (if not more..) and they did it peacefully. Study the circumstances of Fort Necessity…

One reason other colonies didn’t have to fight is that we already had. Britain had learned that sometimes discretion really is the better part of valor. Ashburn-Stadium, glad you know your history and shared it. And is Frazz agreeing with Caulfield’s error, or thinking of the effort of trying to sort it out?

Maybe Jeff Mallett will read these comments and next time have Frazz make a more insightful and humorous response to set Caulfield straight? But then, he’s only got 4 panels, and we’ve got oodles of comment space. Thanks to all who gave history lessons. I listened to the Declaration of Independence being read out loud on NPR’s Morning Edition today and noted the parts about the already-ongoing attacks on the colonists.It’s good to have a reminder.

For whatever reason, July 4 has traditionally been considered the “effective date” of the Declaration of Independence, whether it was signed on that date or not. As far as it marking the beginning of the war or not, well, it’s arguable. Shots were fired before that date. Had a final decision to break from the mother country been made anywhere near the 18th of April in ‘75?

The philosophical argument behind the Declaration of Independence was that we were independent because we said we were. If we had to get England’s approval for splitting off, it would have undercut the whole point. There’s a reason they didn’t call the document the Application for Independence.

I would have expected better of Caulfield. Typically, I’d tend to think he’d read the document, since it answers his question in the first paragraph: “When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and Equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect for the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to this separation.”Revolution happened by war in those days. Today, it happens by internet. Those are historical differences, and they are facts, and you cannot change them. Yes, it would be nice if no one had to die for anything someone believed in. But it would not be here, and it still wouldn’t be yet. I suppose this proves that even though he’s a clever child, he has a LOT of learning to do.

Until fairly late in the game, there was a lot of difference of opinion about how to resolve the colonies’ dispute with the Crown. One option considered was demanding that America be considered one of the semi-autonomous countries within the United Kingdom (although that term wasn’t yet current), still under the Crown but on an equal parliamentary footing with England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. When the colonial representatives met in Philadelphia, Ben Franklin himself was considered “soft” on Independence; he had long been working for local control, but he wanted to maintain some connection with England (and, if possible, to avoid open war). However, by the time the Declaration was drafted, he willingly signed on, not only in order to present a united front, but because he thought that no other solution was possible by that point.

PS: I’ve heard it joked that many Australians are still miffed with England for granting them independence without giving them the chance to fight a decent war for it.

Is Frazz really Calvin 26 years later?

http://www.pantsareoverrated.com/05_10_2011/hobbes-and-bacon

http://www.pantsareoverrated.com/05_12_2011/hobbes-and-bacon-002

So how does he feel about Mexico celebrating Cinco De Mayo???

Ed Rush:

Certificate of Service:I declare, under Penalty of Perjury, that I am over 18 and not a Party to this Action. On the Date set forth below, I depofited the following Documents with a licenfed Carrier for Tranfmiffion of Same to King George III of England during the normal Courfe of Human Events:Notice of Hearing on Plaintiffs’ Ex Parte Application for Independence;Plaintiffs’ Ex Parte Application for Independence;Memorandum of Points and Authorities in Support of Plaintiffs’ Ex Parte Application for Independence;Declaration of Thomas Jefferfon in Support of Plaintiffs’ Ex Parte Application for Independence;Requeft for Judicial Notice in Support of Plaintiffs’ Ex Parte Application for Independence;[Propofed] Order Granting Plaintiffs’ Ex Parte Application for IndependenceBy my own Hand this 4th Day of July, 1776,John Hancock

One day a year. One day a year to look around and say, “Well, this doesn’t suck”. Is that too much to ask?

These countries maybe?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_independence_days

@jhned – yes, Caulfield can be an annoying know-it-all but he’s well. Just remember this is a comic strip; it is much more enjoyable if you don’t take the various comments seriously, including this one. Some people read what they want to into the strips.

“I don’t support nationalism or imperialism”…. it would help if you actually knew what either of those words meant.

Wow…people are taking this comic way to seriously. The last time I checked this wasn’t an editorial/political comic specifically. Lighten up and enjoy the day however you choose.

Spot on Apostle4God

I have to say, nothing irritates me more than people who read comics strips just to make negative comments on the strip. If you don’t like it, don’t read it. And let the rest of us enjoy the comic without your input.

@Aerin – oh bleep you! Kidding, I agree with you. Enjoy the comic for what it is: a funny, intelligently written strip with quirky characters. Happy 4th!

Some of these comments are kind of funny. Our increasingly right wing newspaper, the Denver Post recently dropped a full page of comics, including Doonsbury, Non Sequitur and Frazz, while retaining the onerous Mallard Fillmore, a true right wing whine strip. I’m glad that Go Comics carries them. For those who find that Frazz offends their Fox News sensibilities, don’t read it.

Caulfield is smart and well read for his age, but he can only pick his ideals based on his very few years of life experience i.e. he is smart but not wise. He also seems to have a penchant for anything controversial, or at least ideas that run a little contrary to mainstream viewpoints. Frazz has a gift for offering a more mature viewpoint without blatantly telling Caulfield that he is naive or wrong and he does it in a way that respects Cf’s right to figure out his own opinion, without telling Cf what he should think. That (in my mind) is why the friendship with Frazz is so interesting. It’s obviously just my opinion, but I don’t read Cf as “snotty” because he never seems like he is trying to be mean or nasty. Elitist sometimes, at least while using his idea of wit and/or wordplay to antagonize his teacher but even then he is quick to express subtle or begrudging respect on the few occasions that she is wise to his game or she gets the better of him. It seems like Mallet often uses Caulfield’s character to throw out an idea or opinion, and they’re often what you might expect from someone with good capacity for reasoning but no life experience to establish a framework for it. He seems to use Frazz’s character to look at the idea with more maturity, and probably to tell the reader what he (Mallet) really thinks.

Junior— Some things I DO know:That I did not insult YOU in MY post.The exact definitions of both those words, and more than a few situations in which they’ve been practiced in the last 2 and a half centuries by my own country, comprising many actions of which I am not proud.That no one person on this forum, including you, has all the answers, and that we have agreed, by coming here, to be reasonable and polite.So it would be nice if you would learn good manners. Remember what your mother said.

So the Declaration wasn’t signed on July 4. Jesus wasn’t born on December 25, either. So?

And fwiw, the Declaration of Indedence wasn’t the “start of a way.” England’s response (“No, you don’t!”) started a war, lol.

Actually, that’s a good point. While we may have declared ourselves independent around that date, we didn’t actually gain independence for another 7 years.