CSotD: Deceptions, decisions and choices
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John Cole leads off today because, though this is a national cartoon, the Pennsylvania cartoonist hit with a local cartoon for those of us in New Hampshire.
In case you missed it — and the Washington Post has a lovely editorial on it — Cole nails this utter nitwittery, which is that Kobach is head of a commission to prove that the moon landing was faked there is massive voter fraud, and his first triumph was discovering that, in New Hampshire, several thousand people voted legally under the laws of that state, proving the point he had been commissioned to prove.
The massive voter fraud being that we allow college students to vote here without having to establish permanent residence.
It's a lively topic, by the way, and our Republican-dominated legislature has tried to disenfranchise these young voters, buoyed by the asinine, fraudulent findings of Kommisar Kobach.
The issue of college students voting is lively and I had a good conversation about it with my Millennial grandaughter the other night.
My point was that a kid with an apartment in town, or a job in town, is local, but a kid who lives in the dorms and works at the campus library is still a resident of wherever they came from and should vote absentee in their home district.
She's more politically informed than I am, however, and said there are states that do not allow absentee ballots for people who aren't physically in-state for half the year, which would disenfranchise an 18-year-old full-time college student going somewhere out of state, if the state where they go to school refused to recognize them there.
I don't know how many people that would include, but it's obviously not okay and no decent court could fail to see that.
Meanwhile, upon reflection, my take is that, for young, mobile citizens (college, military or whatever), voting is like planting fruit trees: You may not be around long enough to enjoy the fruit, but the tree you plant will benefit someone else in the future.
So unless your state closes down its colleges, it makes sense to let the students who are there now vote on behalf of the students who will be there in six years.
I'd also point out to Kris Kobach's Krew that, when Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne marched down from Quebec towards Albany, he soon found it expedient to cross the Hudson and stay on the west bank, because when his forces were on the east bank, the New England militias kept showing up to cheerfully kick their asses.
Speaking of students
Mr. Fitz riffs on an issue I've got with my young reporters, most of whom are high-achieving honor students in their schools, but who have to learn the difference between writing for teachers and writing in the real world.
Specifically, I'll tell them that the difference between a book report and a book review is that teachers rarely assign books they don't like, so you should probably be positive about it, too. But in writing a review, we genuinely want to know how you feel about it, and so, though you shouldn't look for reasons to hate a book or be a wiseass about it when you do, tell us what you think, not what you think we want to hear.
Funny thing I also have to tell them: Don't look for messages in books and movies. Teachers expect you to find a message and a moral, but, really, there's not a huge "message" in an action movie or a Wimpy Kid book.
Though we do have a time once a year when we review the books that are up for an award, and, since teachers and librarians make the nominations, you can bet those novels have messages. Big, important messages.
Add that to the catalog of reasons I despise awards.
Juxtaposition of the Day
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(An interesting juxtaposition today, because, while Sorensen is calling out bigoted rightwingers, Davies sends a similar message to entrepreneurs from the sushi and chardonnay sector.
Davies is specifically referencing a Silicon Valley start-up that boasted about replacing convenience stores with vending machines and was promptly slapped down by liberals who objected to the attack on neighborhood stores.
But I can't help but wonder how many of these culturally sensitive hipsters prefer scab drivers to cab drivers? (Even if they're too socially conscious to laugh at jokes about immigrants who drive licensed cabs.)
I'll admit I'm guilty of using the self-check at the grocery store, but I don't want to be lectured by social justice warriors who use their Smartphones to access their bank accounts. Don't bank tellers deserve to keep their jobs, too?
It's not fair to call out others for their choices if you don't own your own.
I'd certainly go along with Sorensen on the value of collective bargaining, but, while I maintain a personal boycott of Wal*Mart — everybody should do something — it's not easy to shop local unless you make a lot more than most workingclass people do, and, even then, good luck finding kindly Mr. Pharmacist to fill your prescriptions and make you a chocolate sundae.
Though the critical factor is that I don't hate immigrants.
Besides, I know I can drive by the apple orchards and I'm gonna see Jamaicans, not Americans, on those ladders.
Though I would have seen Americans, in the 1940s and 1950s, when college kids went out to the orchards by the busload to pick.
Meanwhile, Mainers from Aroostook remember when their schools closed so the kids could go dig potatoes.
Back then, we still had local amusement parks like the Land of Makebelieve, and regional attractions like Ausable Chasm still thrived, because families didn't get on environment-destroying airplanes to go enrich the corporate Disney beast.
Times change, and we all make choices.
But we should be honest, and kind, and thoughtful, about those choices.
Now here's your moment of zen
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
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