Recent Comments

1. about 1 hour ago on The Born Loser

   and still don’t have any fish ;-)

2. about 1 hour ago on Luann

   The biggest impediment to the current generation(s) are education and lack of ambition.

   They know little and what little they do know isn’t practical knowledge. They can’t make change, they don’t know how to compare credit card and loan terms and they know little about history or STEM or manual labor.

   They want what they want and they want it NOW and with no effort on their part. They’re “ENTITLED” and throw hissy fits when denied or contradicted.

   I think the middle class is shrinking because our definition of middle class has changed. The broad picture has stayed the same. House, car(s), etc. The details have changed. In the 60’s a “middle class house” was around 1,200 to 1,500 square feet, now it’s closer to, or above, 2,500 square feet (all while family size is shrinking). Few drive cars anymore, they HAVE to have an SUV (usually 2, or more) or a 4 wheel drive phallic symbol (both usually leased and can’t be older than 4 years old) and both needing built in entertainment centers and GPS etc. Put many people under, say 40 or so, in a 1975 car and they couldn’t and wouldn’t drive it. No ABS, no collision avoidance, probably a manual transmission, often no A/C. They would actually have to pay attention to their driving.

   They don’t realize that a Toyota Camry is cheaper to buy (and keep for years), plate, insure, drive and repair than their (leased) Ford Expidition or GMC 2500 and that with the savings that could go a long way to a house payment, especially after the car is paid off and they no longer have a car payment.

3. about 2 hours ago on Luann

   I guess that depends on how a person defines “good”. Yes, this culture is different than previous ones, but previous ones (say the Greatest Generation) were different from ones previous to that.

   While pensions date back to ancient Rome, until 1875 they were only available to soldiers, even in the U.S. In 1875 American Express introduced the first pension system in the U.S. and in 1926 the U.S. had around 200 private pension plans.

   Boomers and previous generations didn’t have wide access to IRA’s or 401k’s, we relied on the pension system and as we’re finding out some of those were mismanaged or raided. Many of those dumped on the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation at less than full value. Often times pensions locked us into jobs we hated for years.

   Current generations have ready access to IRA’s (and 401k’s) if we can get them to take advantage of them. Both are in the employees name and the employer can’t raid them like the could (and did) pensions. I have grandkids who are entering adulthood, and I’m trying to get them to set up both an IRA and a Roth IRA and start investing now, even if $50 per month

   My kids are, in many ways, doing better than I did.

4. about 2 hours ago on Luann

   The art is very good, just not Luann art. In another strip it would good. This is like one of those TV shows where an actor or actress leaves the show and they bring a new one in to play the same character. It just doesn’t work.

   I read a comment about this arc on another site, it makes a bit more sense if it’s read with the thought that it’s portraying, through Toni, many first time parents (or pending first time) thoughts that their children are going to be perfect with no discipline or effort on their part

   I do wish the authors would stop these silly side trips and dream sequences though. There are science fiction and alternate reality and voodoo/magical comic strips that I can read, those are not what Luann used to be about.

5. about 2 hours ago on Arlo and Janis

   The correct phrasology would be “Mrs. Larson, I have to pee, would you like me to do it here or in the bathroom?”

6. about 24 hours ago on Luann

   They were less biased, less partisan, than I expected, though I did notice they still injected some liberal talking points in their questions.

   I agree, Trump was below average, I didn’ t like that he refused to answer some of the questions posed to him, wandering back to a previous question.

7. about 24 hours ago on Luann

   I’ve just read some “analysis” and commentaries (MarketWatch, The Hill) and the cover up is beginning, or attempted.

   Bashing CNN for not “fact checking” Trump (no mention of fact checking Biden).

   I particulary love how liberal talking heads always ask Republicans if they’ll accept the results of the election, reject a reply of “If it’s a fair, open and verifiable election I will” (calling it election denialism), yet nobody asks Democrats, the party that has refused to accept the results of every election they’ve lost since at least 2000, the same question. They even celebrated “The Resistance” when Trump won.

8. 1 day ago on Luann

   It was cringeworthy, I almost felt sorry for Biden. The only thing that saved it from being elder abuse is Trump is almost as old as Biden (though more physically and mentally sharp)

   Yesterday I had very low expectations for the debate and it fell to levels even I couldn’t anticipate.

   From the moderators to both candidates, it’s a sad commentary that this is what American politics has devolved to.

   Slow moving train wreck is how one commentator described it. Jon Stewart (a comedian) said Biden had “Resting 25th Amendment face”

9. 1 day ago on Luann

   I’ve had the morning news shows on for over an hour now (local affiliates of national networks), not a word about the debate, no attempts to tell us what to think of it, not even crickets chirping about it.

   It’s almost like the over-lords are trying to deny it happened, hoping we’ll forget it happened. Though I supposed they could be using AI to create some deep (or, according to a spokeswoman, cheap) fakes about it.

10. 1 day ago on Luann

    The only classics I read were The Grapes of Wrath and Last of the Mohicians, those turned me off to the classics, the second one more so than the first.