The Independent really "gets it"

This article really explains what's happening with Obama, Heathcare and the "crazy Republicans".

Johann Hari: Republicans, religion and the triumph of unreason

"The Democrats have moved to the right, and the Republicans have moved to a mental hospital."

The article covers a lot of the thoughts I've been having lately. Worth the read.

Charlie Brown, you radical!

www.peanuts.com is replaying all the original Peanuts comic strips, in order, one per day. They are up to August 25, 1962.

I loved reading Peanuts when I was little. My older brothers and sisters had some "big books" of Peanuts cartoons and I would read them when I was too young to understand half the words. Reading them on Peanuts.com I find many are familiar and many I recognize as ones that I didn't understand at the time!

This week 2 strips stood out:

Charlie Brown recognizes that the erosion of responsibility is hurting us all:


Snoopy worries about the world's big problems.

The term "atmospheric testing" refers to the nuclear arms race. In 1962 Charles Schultz is reflecting our society's worries about big issues. On the funnies pages. Something children read.

Contrast this to Family Circus where the biggest problem we expose children to is, um, the doggie is hungry.

When I read that cartoon my immediate thought was: What would happen today if a strip like that came out but mentioned 'terrorist attacks' instead? Would parents be outraged? Would the Radical Right Wing demand that the strip be cancelled because it was too left-wing? Would O'Reilly label Schultz unamerican?

Is the fact that we don't demand more from newspapers an erosion of responsibility that is hurting us all?