So I guess Harper Lee's version of "reclusive" is different than J.D. Salinger's version of "reclusive," because she's releasing a novel she wrote before "To Kill a Mockingbird," which was found in a safe deposit box. I'm not sure I buy that story, but I'll probably buy the book.
"To Kill a Mockingbird" is not just assigned in schools but is often the choice for "Community Reads," the main reason being that it readily sparks conversation without sparking any real arguments: You cannot possibly miss the moral of the story, and yet she doesn't beat you over the head with it.
And decent human beings cannot possibly disagree with that clear moral, which brings us to ...
... Pat Bagley's observation that, well, here we are anyway.
And the moral of that is that you don't have to disagree with a universal moral principle in order to ignore it.
I mean, "Love thy neighbor" is hardly the only thing Jesus said that professed Christians agree with but don't actually do.
And, despite all the people who have named either their daughters or their dogs "Scout," I've never driven past the "First Church of Harper Lee" or "Foursquare Atticus Congregation."
If people can blow off the teachings of someone they declare to be God, why would they pay any heed to the teachings of some lady in Mississippi?
Meanwhile, in a related cartoon, Keith Knight discusses the issue of "rights," which is something else we're all in favor of.
Rights for everyone! As long as we don't have to follow through with any heavy thinking, much less any heavy lifting.
(Two CSotDs in a row wins Keef a link to his Patreon site!)
However, I don't know if the juxtaposition should be between Keef's cartoon and Bagley's on the topic of racial inequality and violence or ...
... between Keefe's take and Joel Pett's take on when you have the "right" to endanger the lives of other people.
Pett's ridicule of the jaw-dropping, much-reviled Nationwide Super Bowl spot is right-on, by the way, particularly since there have actually been a few declarations from libertarians of "Well, so what if a few kids get measles?"
They are but collateral damage in the fight for freedom.
Some Congressional clown is now getting the horse laff for having said that he'd be okay with the government backing off restaurant owners and not forcing them to make employees wash their hands after using the bathroom, as long as they posted notices stating their lack of hygeine.
A parallel which makes sense in a world where the privatizers have shut down all the public schools and parents simply have to check the disclaimers before they send their kid to a private school.
In this world, he's simply a freaking sociopathic moron.
Who got elected to the Senate of the United States of America.
And there ain't no vaccine to prevent that.
(Though you can try an application of shoe leather, voter registration drives and nomination petitions, but that's one of those ideas that everybody agrees with in principle but doesn't actually do.)
Comments