THIS MODERN WORLD

The papers that run the strip are my bread and butter. They provide the bulk of my income, and make it possible for me to continue doing this work. So if your local paper runs TMW, please consider shooting them a quick email and letting them know that you appreciate it. It’s a small thing, but it can make a big difference.

And of course as always, if your local paper doesn’t run it (or alternately, used to run it but doesn’t anymore) — send them a polite note as well, and encourage them to reconsider.

My sincere thanks to those of you who take the time to do any of this. In a very real sense, you keep me going.

An email forward, from someone who teaches at Wisconsin:

THE BATTLE FOR UNIONS IN WISCONSIN

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Folks from outside Wisconsin are contacting me and asking how to help with the battle to save collective bargaining for public employees in Wisconsin. (Additional information on the current status of things here is at the end of this letter.)

YOU CAN PROVIDE FINANCIAL SUPPORT

People of generally modest means, including many college students, are continuing the occupation of the Capitol and the daily picketing in resistance to the Governor’s plans. Most teachers have had to/have chosen to return to their classrooms, but many other union members remain, people from private sector unions and public unions including police and firefighters. There are many private citizens, often seniors. Those remaining in the capitol and on the picket lines need food, water, transportation, housing. The Wisconsin AFL-CIO is coordinating much of that support. No matter how small, financial support is welcome:

ONLINE: The AFL-CIO is accepting donations online through PayPal or any major credit card. Please go to http://wisaflcio.org for the link.

CHECKS can be made payable to the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO Defense Fund, 6333 W. Blue Mound Rd., Milwaukee, WI 53213 (Please indicate the purpose, e.g. “Capitol protests” or “Madison rally”, on your check.)

Continue reading “How you can help the Wisconsin protesters”

Oh how I do enjoy Thomas Friedman’s tortured syntax:

What’s unfolding in the Arab world today is the mother of all wake-up calls. And what the voice on the other end of the line is telling us is clear as a bell:

“America, you have built your house at the foot of a volcano. That volcano is now spewing lava from different cracks and is rumbling like it’s going to blow. Move your house!” In this case, “move your house” means “end your addiction to oil.”

Get it? It’s clear as a bell: it’s a wake up call, and there’s your house, and a volcano, and four different cracks spewing lava, and you have to move your house, and by “move your house” the voice means —

Oh, sure, the voice could have jumped right over all of that and gotten to the point: “end your addiction to oil.” But what fun would that be?

Remember the first rule of holes: “When you’re in one, stop digging. When you’re in three, bring a lot of shovels.”

The war on women.

As part of my ongoing look back at Old Cartoons Which Are Still Extremely Timely or At Least Momentarily Relevant Again, Depending, here’s the cartoon that ran after Ronald Reagan shuffled off this mortal coil, and (in light of the Huffpo/AOL merger), here’s a cartoon from 2009 on the future of journalism.