Recent Comments

1. about 5 hours ago on Doonesbury

   The philosopher Hegel said, “D@mn! / I’ve just inferred that I am / A thing that moves / In determinate grooves / Not even a bus, just a tram!!”

2. about 5 hours ago on Doonesbury

   Do you really expect Zonker to know all of that?

   Do you really think Zonker reads my posts? I wasn’t talking to him.

   Do I think that’s a good answer? Well, do I, punk?

3. about 5 hours ago on Doonesbury

   ..the fuss about at the Battles of Lexington and Concord..

   A frank and amiable exchange of views, a model of the Special Relationship to come.

4. about 5 hours ago on Doonesbury

   “Off with his head!”

5. about 5 hours ago on Doonesbury

   ..the House of Lords is..

   One of the shadowy self-perpetuating elites that safeguard our liberty at our expense, dude.

   Our great constitutional scholar, Walter Bagehot, said,

   A severe though not unfriendly critic of our institutions said that the cure for admiring the House of Lords was to go and look at it.

6. about 6 hours ago on Doonesbury

   Beefeaters are the Yeoman Warders and Yeoman Guard Extraordinary, based in the Tower of London, miles downstream of Westminster; they have no standing in the Houses of Parliament (HoP).

   Armed and unarmed Metropolitan Police officers provide security around Parliament in partnership with the Parliamentary Security Department; the doorkeepers of the HoP keep the doors and “receive training in restraining and removing people” (according to WikiP).

   If a noble lord had to be restrained or removed, the Lord Chancellor would, I think, instruct the lord’s ostler or sedan-chair carriers to reason with them. After that they’d get a jolly good talking-to from Nanny.

   Don’t ask about Black Rod’s disciplinary role, puhleeeze!

7. about 6 hours ago on Doonesbury

   ..we banned handguns after one mass school shooting..

   There are, ayk, some (very limited) exceptions to the law in UK regarding handgun ownership.

   Most US gun advocates would, I think, say that by comparison with USA the UK laws effectively prohibit private gun ownership.

8. about 6 hours ago on Doonesbury

   And we have mechanisms to kick out unpopular/incompetent leaders

   In UK (as you know, Robert), we elect representatives to the House of Commons, which is one house of our bicameral Parliament. We have no electoral participation in the membership of the second house, the House of Lords (Zonker’s London club).

   The House of Lords comprises A] hereditary members; B] political appointees (known as life peers); C] bishops and archbishops of the Church of England (CEO and proprietor: the Sovereign), who are appointed by the monarch and who sit in Parliament ex officio.

   We the people (WTP) do not directly elect or depose our prime ministers.

   WTP have (very) limited voting rights (not enshrined in law) in the selection and election of political party leaders, from whom the prime minister is chosen by constrained elections.

   WTP do not elect or constitutionally depose our monarchs. We arbitrarily deposed King Charles I, in 1649 by publicly beheading him in Whitehall. His son, Charles II, restored the monarchy in 1660. Our current monarch is Charles III (no relation), who is emphatically not telling us anything by his choice of regnal name.

   So, UK is a bit democratic and a bit constitutional — but not too much of either.

9. 1 day ago on Doonesbury

   Hello, East Orange.

10. 1 day ago on Doonesbury

    his goatee will get wrinkled — What kind of hideous sports injury is that?? Run away, Zip!! For pity’s sake, Dude, amscray!!!