Stats, truth, justice and the American way

Today's Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal is kind of self-explanatory. As a gag, it works. As a social message, yes, we should teach our kids how to interpret the things they're told.

When you see one of those articles about how researchers have discovered something, you need to click the links and the first thing to check out is sample size.

So do that. It will prevent you from believing things that aren't true. And lower your risk of looking foolish.

Thank you. I have nothing more to add.

In an Islamic state of mind

The only flaw in today's La Cucaracha is that it's not just Rushbo and the gang. Commentators of all sorts seem disappointed that we're doing something or that we're not doing something or that we're not doing enough or that we're doing too much.

I suppose I probably like Alcaraz's take by default.

I have taken a reasonably large sample and can report that he's apparently the only cartoonist who didn't get the memo on coming up with a hy-larious gag about how "boots on the ground" doesn't count if the soldiers aren't wearing actual boots or their boots aren't actually touching the ground.

Here's the deal: Powell wasn't telling the truth about the WMDs.

But he certainly told the truth about the Pottery Barn Rule, of which he later said,

The famous expression, if you break it you own it — which is not a Pottery Barn expression, by the way — was a simple statement of the fact that when you take out a regime and you bring down a government, you become the government. On the day that the statue came down and Saddam Hussein’s regime ended, the United States was the occupying power.

Anyway, between the chicken hawks and/or anti-Islamic bigots who want to just jump in and kill'em all and maybe a few thousand more of our young people besides, and the soft-liners who want to put their hands in their pockets and whistle and look around and pretend we have no responsibility at all for what's going on, we're hurting for reasonable commentary on this topic.

This was reasonable.

Real life indeed

A Real Life Adventure indeed.

I know, because I was behind him in line, trying to pick up a few things and get out of the store in time to meet someone.

He was disguised as a woman, but I know it was him because he kept staring at the machine as if he'd never seen such a contraption in his life, nor, at the end, did he seem to have been prepared for the idea that it was going to want some money or aware that debit cards require you to enter a PIN.

Fortunately, there were two scanners and the person using the other one, who was apparently stocking up to feed the entire world for the rest of the year, mostly on junk food, eventually finished scanning, paid and got out.

I'm kind of tempted to go back to the store this morning and see if he's still there.

You have come a long way and I know you're not babies

So on Tuesday, Hilary Price quietly broke new ground with a Rhymes With Orange cartoon in which romantic interest on the funny pages was not expressed in heterosexual terms, but in which that wasn't the point of the cartoon.

I say "quietly" mostly because I haven't picked up on any outrage and the cartoon is so matter-of-fact that it may have flown below Mrs. Grundy's radar.

But also because it's perfectly in keeping with the established themes and tone of the strip, with the exception that she usually puts dating/romance commentary into a male/female context.

And likely will continue to do so, except when she doesn't.

I mean, she's a dog owner and she seems to do more strips about dogs than she does about cats, but she does strips about cats, too, so I guess we'll see.

It was also a funny gag. Let's not overlook that.

And then yesterday, Alison Bechdel, in whose work sexual orientation is very much a central motif, was awarded a MacArthur grant, which is to say that she's got $625,000 with which to do whatever the hell she wants.

I'm hoping that what she's more or less already been doing is whatever the hell she wants to do, because I have been a fan for years.

Here's what she told Michael Cavna about it.

Here's what I wrote when she came to town this past spring.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that these two related developments are evidence that the world is becoming a more mellow, accepting and civilized place, but it's good to see a little evidence that the situation isn't hopeless.

I had been thinking, in fact, that perhaps it was.

Yes, I've used this before. I'd like to use it more often.