Editorial Explanations

Who's That Tripping Over My Bridge?

2012-02-28T10:00:00.002-05:00

If I was sure which kind of "education reform" Englehart meant -- the kind that means giving all the money to poor districts and their teachers, since they're so poor and downtrodden and oppressed, on the one hand, or the kind that means giving all the money to Catholic and private schools to buy conservative votes, on the other -- I'd be able to figure out how exactly their bus's tripping over that bridge was going to provoke Mr. Nasty Old Poverty Troll there.

Since I don't, I can't really speculate -- but isn't "Poverty" usually a reason to have "education reform," rather than a vicious goat-eating monster?

Hands On

2012-02-28T08:00:00.002-05:00

Henry Payne, 2/27/12:

Forget about that! What we really want to know is who do that third set of hands belong to?

Ann Cleaves Confuses Me Once Again

2012-02-27T16:00:00.000-05:00

Ann Cleaves, 2/24/12:

Rick Santorum is a cart full of cloud-like objects, which were possibly mined somewhere recently.

Huh!? If this is some kind of comment on fracking -- which is both common and controversial in Santorum's native Pennsylvania -- I have to say I don't get it. Or is he going to hell in a handbasket?

The Food Is Horrible! And Such Small Portions!

2012-02-27T14:00:00.000-05:00

Ed Stein, 2/24/12:

I want to thank Stein from saving me a lot of work: at least a dozen of his compatriots have executed almost exactly these four panels -- generally as separate cartoons -- and it would have been tiresome and time-consuming to track them all down.

Or, in short: what he said.

Solving the Wrong Problem

2012-02-27T12:01:00.000-05:00

Adam Zyglis, 2/25/12:

Bulk-mail volume and profits are up, actually, and the consumer-sent stuff was always more of a hassle than it was worth.

The USPS has been forced to pre-pay its pension obligations for the next few decades, though -- unlike any other private or public entity in the world -- and so may be forced to close facilities and lay off people to get under that Congressionally-mandated demand.

But keep trying, Zyglis! You'll get it right eventually.

Explosion at the Zappos Warehouse!

2012-02-27T10:00:00.001-05:00

Lisa Benson, 2/25/12:

Yes, in the state where it's been essentially impossible to raise taxes for a couple of decades now, every level of government has resorted to dumb accounting tricks to pretend to be fulfilling their responsibilities -- and now it's all falling apart.

No one could have ever predicted that!

Where's Fonzie When You Need Him?

2012-02-27T09:00:00.001-05:00

Jeff Danziger, 2/26/12:

Of course! How could I not have seen the Republican presidential nomination process as a kind of log-rolling competition taking place on a strange-looking shark in the middle of the ocean!

It's all so clear now....

The Mullah's Missing Because He Had to Make Wee-Wee

2012-02-27T08:00:00.000-05:00

Terry Wise, 2/26/12:

Yes, those nasty Muslim fanatics say "make potty." Want to make fun of 'em for it?

Also, if you burn and desecrate Bibles, people like Wise are totally OK with it!

Socialists! Kenyans! Somebody Please Listen to Her Screaming!

2012-02-26T12:01:00.003-05:00

Lisa Benson, 2/24/12:

Benson apparently believes the lion's share of government spending goes to children rather than to old folks -- perhaps because she's so firmly against the existence of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

Still, I've got this great bridge in Brooklyn that I'm sure she'd love to buy.

Pac-ing Up the Flag

2012-02-24T10:00:00.002-05:00

Paul Szep, 2/23/12:

The USA is being destroyed by our addiction to thirty-five-year-old video games.

If you've got a better explanation, I'd love to hear it....

You Could Be Driving Two Cadillacs At the Same Time

2012-02-24T08:00:00.001-05:00

Jake Fuller, 2/23/12:

As we all know from dozens of previous editorial cartoons, Obama's energy policy consists of forcing Americans -- probably at gunpoint! -- to embrace "green" energy sources, and this is a horrible thing because gas will continue to be plentiful and cheap because we really, really want it to be.

So now I'm confused.

Are we complaining that Obama didn't push hard enough on his green-energy intitatives?

White Folks in Minivans: America's Secret Horror

2012-02-23T12:01:00.003-05:00

Cal Grondahl, 2/22/12:

America: the family-friendly, happy oppressive security regime!

(I hope this is a reference to some specific story in Grondahl's native Utah, because otherwise it's just creepy.)

Uphill Both Ways

2012-02-23T10:00:00.001-05:00

Joel Pett, 2/22/12:

You have no right to complain if anyone, anywhere in the world -- now, or at any time in the past -- has ever had things even slightly worse than you do.

So suck it up, you big babies!

Finally a Jobs Program We Can ALL Recoil In Horror From

2012-02-23T08:00:00.002-05:00

Ted Rall, 2/22/12:

The real problem is that not enough babies have been aborted to bring full employment.

But Rall has a Modest Proposal to solve that!

The More Things Change

2012-02-22T12:01:00.001-05:00

Chuck Asay, 2/17/12:

Yes, the US was founded by a bunch of men with a powerful aversion to paying taxes to cover the cost of a recent war -- the French & Indian Wars, look 'em up -- that protected their homeland.

Nice to know some things never change.

The Rent Is Too Damn High!

2012-02-22T10:00:00.000-05:00

Michael Ramirez, 2/20/12:

...because, with supply stable and demand slightly down, it's probably because those speculators who read papers like Investors Business Daily [1] are bidding up oil futures to make a quick buck off other people's misery.

As usual.

Oh, no, wait: it must be the pipeline that wouldn't be done for ten years. That's got to be it.

[1] For which Ramirez cartoons.

Hose Her Down If She Gets Distressed

2012-02-22T08:00:00.002-05:00

Rob Rogers, 2/21/12:

Now, this is purely misrepresenting Santorum's views on women, and it's really unfair.

Santorum certainly does not think women should be locked into cages on the roofs of cars -- they'd have to be let out of the house to do that!

The Sound of Someone Else NOT Paying Tax

2012-02-21T12:01:00.002-05:00

Mike Lester, 2/18/12:

The only time that's it's legitimate to complain about a corporation paying low taxes is when that corporation has taken government money.

Which is, given how large the government is and how many programs, giveaways, and special tax havens it has, absolutely all of them.

Porky There COULD Stand to Watch His Bacon Intake

2012-02-21T10:00:00.007-05:00

Lisa Benson, 2/17/12:

Yeah! Where does that stupid government get off on telling private insurance companies that they have to pay for cost-effective preventative health measures that most people want!

The point of insurance companies is to take people's money and not provide health care -- we all know that.

And don't get him started on those horrible nutritional information labels! Why, in his day, you ate thousands of bug parts per million and liked it!

It's Fun to Play The Blame Game!

2012-02-21T08:00:00.000-05:00

Nick Anderson, 2/17/12:

Coroner's report? We ain't got no coroner's report! We don't need no coroner's report! I don't have to show you any stinking coroner's report!

We're Making Deals!

2012-02-20T15:00:00.000-05:00

Chip Bok, 2/17/12:

My assumption is that Mr. Killowatt there is the customer, walking away from a sale, but this cartoon is so confused that may be incorrect.

But, if so, Bok is claiming that even the embodiment of electricity itself finds electric cars too expensive.

In other news, watch out for an "It's Obama's fault gas is so expensive" cartoon from Bok tomorrow.

Religion by Democracy?

2012-02-20T13:00:00.005-05:00

Terry Wise, 2/18/12:

So few people really understand what it means to be part of an autocratic religion these days -- why, 98% of Catholic women have even used birth control!

It's H-E-double hockey sticks for the lot of you!

Bipartisanship Is Dangerous to Your Health

2012-02-20T11:00:00.002-05:00

Charlie Daniel, 2/17/12:

Mr. Massive Heart Attack there is so opposed to a payroll tax cut that it just killed him.

(Either that, or he's so shocked that the Dems and GOP actually worked together that it put him over the edge.)

Don't Show This Cartoon in Kansas!

2012-02-17T10:00:00.000-05:00

Chuck Asay, 2/16/12:

I'm flabbergasted that Asay even knows how to spell "evolution," let alone is willing to use it in a cartoon.

So it would probably be gauche of me to point out that his conception here is more like Lysenkoism -- the Communist dogma of the erstwhile Soviet Union -- than actual Darwininan evolution as it is currently understood. Ten points for trying, Chuck!

Completely Full of It

2012-02-17T08:00:00.001-05:00

Ann Cleaves, 2/16/12:

Cleaves's cartoons are always so sweet and open that my first thought -- that this cartoon is deeply, wickedly cynical -- must be wrong.

But then it makes absolutely no sense, particularly since she's neglected to label these civic-minded folks driving to wherever (Washington?) with their truck-loads of money.