Recent Comments

1. 17 minutes ago on Pearls Before Swine

   A person engaged in a conversation on a hand-held phone has their attention diverted/sublimated/reduced to more than the same degree as if they had a blood alcohol level (BAL) of >0.08%, which is DUI in EVERY state. That effect always has been true. Driver talking on a hands-free phone, ~= to 0.06% (IE: legally intoxicated to the point of being seriously impaired). Hands free with a headset (mic and earphone) is the about the same as for a handheld phone.

   Talking with another person in the vehicle (attention being diverted): 0.03%. Listening to someone talking on the radio: 0.01%.

   It’s the carrying on of a conversation (engagement of speech centers + concentration on formulating a response) that is the danger. Holding the phone requires diversion of additional attention, plus removing one hand from controlling the vehicle. “Tucking” the phone on the shoulder is about the same as holding it with a hand.

2. about 1 hour ago on Pearls Before Swine

   “If it was good history, …”

   But it isn’t.

3. about 1 hour ago on Pearls Before Swine

   HIS manifest, about HIS destiny.

4. about 1 hour ago on Pearls Before Swine

   “People compared Trump to Hitler during his first term, …"

   Rightfully so.

   “… but I guess I missed all of the concentration camps, gas chambers, and slave trading posts.”

   Did you now? You missed all his adamant attempts and his campaigning about rounding up ALL the immigrants (legal or not) and putting them in holding camps (pens)? At least until he could find a way to bypass the SC and Congress to swindle enough of the Federal budget to afford (using taxpayer’s money, certainly not his own) to hire airline flights to send those folks out of the US borders? You missed all his rhetoric about capital punishment for any who returned? You missed his rhetoric that those held in the holding camps should be kept busy doing “something useful” for the economy? Like hiring them through Trump Org to pad HIS personal bank accounts, without ANY compensation (IE: slavery).

   You missed all that? Or did you just ignore it?

   How about his buying of the RNC, similar in political effect to Hitler’s Night of the Long Knives (June 30 to July 2, 1934), a purge where Adolf Hitler ordered the assassination of leaders of the SA (Sturmabteilung) and other political opponents to consolidate his power? How about his consistent use of Nazi comments and tactics all during his first administration, the 4 years of Biden’s term, and now since his re-election? Accusations, smear tactics, outright lies, projective propaganda, etc, just as Hitler’s Josef Goebbels proposed it and used it in the 1930s?

   Or are you missing all that, too?

5. about 1 hour ago on Pearls Before Swine

   “Present-day irony: the party claiming to be all about freedom and small government is proposing all kinds of new laws that restrict freedoms. And they really want to limit the number of people who can vote too.”

   Please don’t lose sight of the main purpose of Trump’s presidential fiat that created DOGE, or of his appointment of Musk to lead DOGE: It is to remove ALL parts of the government that can challenge Trump’s will and rule.

6. 1 day ago on Pearls Before Swine

   “And yet they (at least Trump and DOGE) are trying to reduce the size of the federal government. Reconcile that.”

   It’s easy to reconcile that. Trump and DOGE do not care one whit about “trying to reduce the size of the federal government”. What they care about is creating so much contention and confusion that the average citizen does not notice the real fact that Trump and DOGE are removing (unlawfully) all the checks and balances from the government systems, leaving more and more power in Trump’s hands. In return for Musk’s help in accomplishing this, so far Trump has been willing to grant Musk whatever he asks for, using presidential edicts to circumvent Congress and the Supreme Court.

7. 1 day ago on Pearls Before Swine

   “The majority of Americans disagreed with you in November and even more do now.”

   Lie. The majority of those who voted appear to have disagreed. I say that because there seems to be some question as to whether non-MAGA votes were thrown out in batch quantities in 2024. Regardless of true answer to that, less than 50% of the registered voters “agreed” with the MAGAts. In fact, less than 50% of those who voted did so.

   As far as current views, Trump’s star is crashing. The more he pursues economic penalties against other countries (IE: tariffs), and his policies of alienating our allies, and his insistent advocacy of Fascist political beliefs and praise of dictatorial tactics, the more people desert from his political base.

   “Grow up and suck it up.”

   Grow up and admit that Trump is not now and never has been the “God-appointed” savior of the US.

   “You lost.”

   The day Trump was inaugurated for his first term, we all lost. The day he was inaugurated for his second term, we just repeated that mistake.

   I can hardly wait for the first time Trump’s policies touch your life in a personal manner. I already can hear the precognizant bellows of your outrage as you scream “But it wasn’t supposed to affect ME !!”

8. 1 day ago on Pearls Before Swine

   “You lost.”

   So did you.

9. 3 days ago on Rose is Rose

   Partially true. Domesticated turkeys were bred for production of meat. However, that is not really the reason why they can not fly.

   I hate to introduce an unpleasant topic in a light cartoon discussion, but the sad fact is that domesticated turkeys can fly, at least for very short distances, if allowed to develop that way.

   However, all turkeys have rather unpleasant personalities. They go aggressive with claws and peck at people who try to handle or “herd” them. Getting them down from elevated positions therefore is both difficult and likely to lead to injury. Since most domesticated turkeys are raised in job lot turkey “ranches”, this presents issues for having large numbers of large fowl that can injure a person.

   To completely eliminate this issue, most turkey farmers disable the birds as poults (immature young chicks) before they acquire the ability to fly. They do so by trapping one wing against the flat surface of a wood table or block, and striking it with a ball-pean hammer. This breaks a main bone in one wing. The bone is not reset, and is allowed to heal either crooked or not joined at all. In either case, the bird can not fly because it can not achieve the required balanced lift with both wings.

   The poultry farming industry has created the mystique that flying has been “selectively bred out” of their domesticated fowl. This is to avoid public repudiation of the cruelty of deliberately smashing a bone in the creature’s wing. The fact is that if they can’t fly, they also do not get the same amount of exercise as ones that can, and more quickly become much larger and fatter.

   BTW, chicken farmers and egg producers also use this technique to keep their fowl flightless. That is why a roasted store-bought whole chicken has the second bone out from the shoulder broken in one (usually the right) wing.

10. 3 days ago on Rose is Rose

    the Family circus? I bet Billy will like that. Mommy and Dolly not so much …