Candorville: 3/31/08- Scary Black Man
Candorville: 3/31/08- Scary Black Man | Buy Reprint Rights | License Candorville | Get Candorville In Your Paper | Buy Candorville BOOKS
March 31st, 2008

Candorville: 3/31/08- Scary Black Man

Spread the love

Discussion (4)¬

  1. PeaceZGood says:

    Wow. I wonder if MI from Barnhart ever got to sleep that night? M.I. if you are really a concerned citizen, you’d understand that Obama is not against going to war if it is the right place to have the war and the actual perpetrators who are sought. What you are repeating is a fear or scare tactic that you have heard and are repeating without actual knowledge of its veracity. I wonder what the scared people will do with their fears if a Dem is elected? Seems like an awful lot of stress for nothing. Yes, some Dem presidents in the past have seemingly ignored tragedies, but also some Repub presidents have as well. bush went after one aspect of terrorism but not in the right place. And he’s ignoring other genocides which are still taking place. Obama sees other reasons than oil for going to war at the right time and at the right place. He’s able to reach across Repub and Dem lines to unite us in a common goal.

  2. Darrin Bell says:

    This e-mail’s from a reader who takes issue with every single thing today’s strip didn’t say. Whether you agree or disagree with him, you can’t deny that it’s awfully, awfully long:

    “Darrin, Darrin, Darrin…

    I just wish that you guys on the left could demonstrate more than a two-dimensional thinking pattern of horrendously off-scale, drive-by comments and come up with something legitimately sound and reasonable every now and then for my side to respond to. It’s all rhetoric. It’s all heresy and bile so much of the time. This is why people never laugh at liberal “humor,” because liberals mistake inflammatory attacks for humor. Bill Maher: “Too bad they didn’t take out Cheney in that bombing–they were so close.” Um…we’re supposed to…laugh…I guess? The average joe citizen is left there to blink and comment, like Hurley on LOST: “That was mean, dude.” Geez! First I gotta stop my eyes from rolling after you guys pop off, and that takes time. Okay, let’s get into these things, shall we? (Or not. Just hang tight. It’s your emailbox.)

    (First, I get the point of today’s strip, BTW. I can actually agree with that, as I’m tired of the inconsequential Jeremiah Wright thing myself. Very funny.)

    However, all of the things you and the left wring your hands over are things the government can’t do anything about. Things that *no one* can do anything about. We can both agree that the government cannot legislate human nature. Anyway, getting on with it…(just stay calm)…

    “18,000 will die this year for lack of health care.”

    Probably more than that. It’s sad. I agree. What can the government do about it? Provide free health care. There is no such thing as free health care. *Someone* pays for it, and that someone is the working stiff, the middle class. Obama may cut taxes for the middle class–I’ll believe it when I see it–he says, but the middle class will be squeezed to provide health care for those that can’t afford it. This is flat out unethical. It is *not* constitutional (Social Security isn’t either, but that’s another kettle of fish) to attack the working man like that. I hate that people can’t afford health care, but it’s not my fault. Nor is it the government’s responsibility to make sure they can. Health care is not a right. It must be earned. So, who’s to blame? People and cutthroat trial lawyers. The *costs* of health care is the issue, and the costs are too high because of the suits brought against hospitals and doctors by trial lawyers (like John Edwards, and I’m sure there have been Republican trial lawyers as well), who caused the rates to skyrocket over these last 20 years. I agree that a hospital stay in a mere room shouldn’t cost $1200 for one night. I agree. But the health care crisis is an offshoot of the cost factor. It is the debris that’s circling the sinking ship. I am not a selfish person because I don’t want to pay someone else’s health care. But Obama will do what Democrats do if elected–stifle creativity, discourage growth, and punish success. The small business owner will pay for making a go of it in America, because Democrats are against the American dream, plain and simple. If you’re successful in this country then, well, we’ll see what we can do about that! You’ve gotta be brought down to size! We’re already playing out the wazoo in taxes–now you guys want to go and add health insurance to it, too? And not even health insurance we can use? Health insurance for a giant unseen mass called “the poor”? Who are the poor? Show me. (Uh, I’m from Missouri.) If you can’t afford health insurance, guess what, I barely can either. It’s a financial and economic reality, and the government cannot do anything about it unless it gets into the act of stopping frivolous lawsuits, which cause medical costs to rise, which creates a need for padded insurance, which makes “The Poor” mad, which causes people to elect Democrats…who squeeze the middle class to fund earmarks having nothing to do with anything they were elected for.

    As far as 18,000 dying, triple that, and you have somewhere around the number of people who will die in car wrecks this year, more or less, innocent people. Could be me or you. That’s sad, too.

    “More than 4000 troops are dead in Iraq.”

    Yep. People who *chose* to go and serve. You think the cause isn’t right or just. So? You’ve given your opinion. Fine. They think it is. They’re still going. They’re still signing up. For many it’s a calling. It’s not for me to say how they choose to fulfill their lives. Also, *most* of them *do* come home okay, and most serve multiple tours. I have three cousins serving, all have served multiple tours. Yes, I worry that I’ll get bad news. Sure. But they’re doing what they want to do.

    So, let’s run the numbers. Times the number of troops who have died in Iraq over the last *five* years (remember, that’s five Christmases, five Fourth of Julys) by 12, and you, again, have about the number of innocent people that will die this year on America’s roads. Could be me or you next. Our loved ones. Children. I find this way more shocking and disturbing, and trust me, no one on the right or the left will do anything about it. I say ban the dang car. But I’m not a politician. While we’ve been wringing our hands over a soldier who *might* die doing what he wants to do, my aunt and uncle were killed last summer (on 7-7-07) when a driver on some sort of dope crossed the median and hit them head-on going 70 mph. Meanwhile my cousins have come and gone from Iraq at will. I had another aunt who died in a car wreck in 1995. My sister’s best friend died in a car wreck in 1991 at the age of 14. I knew a 12-year-old boy on my street growing up who was hit and killed by a drunk driver. We all have these sorts of stories. You have these sorts of stories. I grieve for them all, for their lives are far more *unrequited* and *unfulfilled*. They died for nothing. On the way to school or to the store. Trying to take a long-saved-for, long-needed vacation. The VondeHaar family from Illinois was wiped out in one fell swoop in July of 2000 while trying to visit Six Flags, St. Louis. A farming family, it was the only time they had together, and their minivan was pulverized by a semi at the I-44 Six Flags exit in Eureka, MO.

    These stories bother me far more than the fate of soldiers in Iraq. If there was a draft situation, well then guess what, Matt’s marching in the street alongside Darrin Bell brothers in arms, because it’s wrong to draft people into a war that is not a last resort. If the nation is getting invaded, that’s one thing. This is another. I have no problems with keeping the fight against Islamic extremism overseas. The Muslims have just topped, what is is, 1.25 billion? That’s sort of scary to me. That’s not a racist comment. Islam is full of dark teachings, and we all know this, that’s what’s scary.

    There are also things worse than war. Yep, you heard me. The US roadway for one. 50,000 dead per year, every year, decade after decade. The entire death toll of Vietnam every year…again…and these aren’t soldiers that are dying. They can be our loved ones (and they *were* my loved ones on 7-7-07), or they can be *us*.

    Something else worse than war, and an atrocity our age will be judged for by future historians:

    Abortion.

    And there’s more than a hundred thousand of those per year, yeah buddy! Let’s keep the genocide going! Who-hooooooo! And the left is totally for the right to kill the unborn. You wonder why the conservatives fight so vehemently against the left? It’s not just over issues like this. It’s over the fickle nature of what the left chooses to support. War, bad. War, bad. War, bad. Okay, we get it. But *everything else*, okay! Abortion? Okay! Sex before marriage? Okay! F-words in every movie? Okay! War–bad, bad, bad, bad! I wish you guys would turn against something else other than war; at least build a complete platform.

    Abortion is the greatest atrocity of the age. This is something that humans *didn’t* engage in until modern times, within the last 200 years. And then in 1973 one angry woman made abortions the law of the land! Wooo-buddy! Kill ’em! Kill ’em, all! Yeeeeee-haaaaah!

    So, remember, when the troops come home (and they will at some point), and the war in Iraq is over (we’ll just have to go straight back, the Middle East is a powderkeg threatening the planet and the survival of the human race whether we have learned to accept that or not, doesn’t matter if we have a presence there), when *no* US soldier is dying in Iraq, there will still be more than 100,000 abortions per year and 50,000 car wreck deaths per year here in the USA. That’s three Vietnams right there, and that’s just this year alone. Remember that. The death toll will continue. At least soldiers have a chance. You and I, going to and from our jobs on the roads, do not. Babies in the womb do not.

    “Millions may lose their homes.”

    First of all, the key word there is “may.” I must remember, optimism doesn’t come easy for liberals. They *may* lose their homes. They *may* not. Yet again it is not the government’s responsibility to bail out people who have tried to live beyond their means. Who got us into the housing crisis in the first place? That one comes down on you guys’ plates. The Democrats. “You can’t deny this couple a loan! You racist! You bigot! You white rich banker guy!” The Banker: “Uh…they only make $20,000 per year. That’s our criteria.” The Democrat blinks twice, not comprehending as always. “You will give them a loan, you hear me, or so help me…” And legislation was passed, lenders shrugged and went, “okay,” and five years later the housing market has collapsed under sub-prime lending and Democrats are wringing their hands: the government must bail them out! And you’re writing comic strips to the same effect. And I’m sitting here, arms crossed, rolling my eyes.

    Just as the government cannot legislate responsible conduct, say, sexual habits and such (as an example–I’d love it if the government would punish people who have kids out of wedlock, but then, again, I’m not a politician), it cannot legislate fiscal responsibility, and you know that, too. People always try to live beyond their means, no matter how much money they have. This is why you hear about pro-sports figures filing for bankruptcy. Everyone tries to live beyond their means. *I* tried to live beyond my means. I ran up huge credit card debt in the ’90s, lived on plastic as a twenty-something, like so many today. I’m paying for it. I filed bankruptcy in 2003. I’m just about out. I won’t use credit cards again or any time soon. I have learned my lesson. I’ve paid my dues. I didn’t go crying to the government. I didn’t ask for a bailout.

    Yes, it’s sad people will lose their homes just as it’s sad that people don’t have health care and will (possibly–again, optimism, look it up in the dictionary, it’s not in the Great Book of Liberal Codes, although there’s a whole chapter on negativism in there) die from being unable to afford adequate care. That’s sad. Guess what, we’re all working against it, trying to save people. The American Cancer Society, for example. Donate away. I do. There is nothing wrong with elective charity. Charity is good. Believe in people, not government. Trust the *people* to do what’s right, Darrin, and they will. (If they have the pocketbooks for it–nobody can do a darn thing if our paychecks are taken by the government.) Who gives more to charity every year than any other groups? The corporations. Hate ’em all you want. I am not saying I’m for some of the practices of corporations myself. But it’s they who fund most of all the major charities. These big donations they make, etc. Believe in people, Darrin, not government. I’ll say it again and again and again. Believe in people, not government.

    Also, funds are cool. I have no problem with funds. They are elective. Let me have control of my money, and I will donate accordingly. Take from my paycheck at will, and I’m going to get mad.

    Actually, conservatives will probably be better off if Obama wins. Why? The Democrats will be sated for a while. Their seething rage and hatred will crust over a bit. Then, the media will stop trying to talk us into a recession (because it desperately needs one to get Democrats elected in November), and will, miraculously, as it did from 1993 to 2001, totally forget about the economy. Also, state legislatures may chill on this movement to do away with the Electoral College. Wyoming will still be able to count in elections, for example. New York and California won’t elect Democrats forever, in other words. Also, congress will quit threatening to bring back the Fairness Doctrine, which requires any thought on air to have an equal and opposite thought to be broadcast as well, sort of like those annoying State of the Union rebuttals which I’d gladly see dispelled even if it meant my side didn’t get to have the last word either when it was in power.

    (Gawd, I hate those. The President has just addressed the nation, and now…here with an opposing view… How stupid is that? No party will ever unite the country with that sort of two-headed policy. “The President has just said this, but no, no, let’s undermine him now, stab him in the back, put America’s greater insterests aside, and consider these other things that our party wants more…” Wait till the tables have turned, dude, wait till they’ve turned. It’s highly unpleasant. Then again, our side’s nicer, so you’ll probably get even more free passes and get-out-of-jail-free cards at that point…sigh…)

    Because…if Obama doesn’t win…there will be hell to pay for conservatives. (And I’m not McCain supporter. I, honestly, don’t have a guy this year. It’s once again a vote to try to stop somebody else who’s far worse, for me.) Imagine the wake of an Obama loss. Every white person in America, especially white males like me, is suddenly a racist. The Democrats go into high gear to do away with the Electoral College so that they can win forever. The Fairness Doctrine roars into life, Howard Dean riding it like a Spanish bull in the ring. The punishments go out. Liberals forget their favorite Mother of All Values, Freedom of Speech, and use the Fairness Doctrine to silence anyone they don’t agree with. So, in a way, I hope Obama wins. It means four to eight years of socialism, and mark my words, at some people even you, Darrin, will look up from drawing your strip and say, “What? Obama did what? But I was counting on that money! No vacation for Mr. Bell this year….” Then, after the nation has learned its lesson, again, and come to its senses, again, we elect another Reagan. Or just clone him, which we’ll probably have the power to do by then. It may take a Clinton to clean up after a Bush, but it also takes a Reagan to clean up after a Carter, remember.

    Then all will be well. Unfortunately, for me, it means 8 years of hell. To continue to pay for Social Security congress will simply up the rate, from 12% to 18%. Oh golly, gee, thank you so much, Big Brother, for taking care of me. Thank you, FDR, for trashing the Constitution and inducting us all into the government forever! I’ll get a raise, but the amount I’ll owe liberals wanting to get abortions for their health care insurance expense will cancel it out. Great 8 years for me, man!

    There is nothing wrong with Obama as a person. I just wish he was a conservative. That’s all. I’ll try to beat him (hey, give my side credit, we gotta try, we can’t just bend over and grab our ankles for you) at the polls, and if I can’t, I’ll accept him as my president as I accepted Bill Clinton into the office. I just know he’s on the wrong side, on the wrong team. Obama is actually against *you*, Darrin, because Democrats are the machines that run the Matrix. You and I are merely a battery in their plans. Republicans have their problems, they are politicians–but they let us keep our money and they let us keep a few of our rights. In another age I’d be fighting *them* because I’m a moralist before I’m a conservative. And remember that originally Republicans were the liberals. The parties switched during World War I when Wilson (rightly so) chose to enter America into the fray and Republicans fought him tooth and nail, as obstructionists and Ron Paul-like xenophobes. Right now, for me, the Democrats are far worse as a threat to this nation. The Iraq War will go as it will, and remember that the hardest lesson you’re going to have to learn will come when Bush is long out of office–and that’s the next attack. A terrorist attack during a Democrat administration will finally unite this nation against its true threat once and for all, because finally–at long last–people will come to understand that the war on terror is not a Republican issue. Believe me, if Obama is president in 2011 and we get suddenly and fiendishly attacked again, if Chicago is nuked or L.A. or Denver, all of us our going to be clamoring at his feet, “What do we do, Mr. Obama, what do we do?” And with sweat on his brow he will have to act, and do the right thing. He’ll become what *you* hate, a George Bush, doing the right thing at his juncture of history. But you’ll accept that because…he’s a Democrat.

    Thanks dude, keep drawing the comic strip. I love comic strips. You have every right to say and write what you want, and in that light I’d stand with you if anyone tried to ban your strip from the paper. (Remember, conservatives aren’t all bad. We are merely concerned citizens.)

    Benjamin Linus on LOST: “We’re the good guys.”

    Creepy, yet I had to throw it in for good humor.

    Thank you,
    M.I.
    Barnhart, MO”

  3. Darrin Bell says:

    Lemont’s been trying to read that same book for over four years, but he’s constantly interrupted. As you can see though, he finally finished in panel three and had time to start a new one between panels three and four.

  4. Ken says:

    Exactly!

    This story lives on because it fits many viewers’ expectations (black=scary) and the video of Reverend Wright is too tempting while health care policy is way too subtle and requires thoughtful, in-depth analysis. Once the media start getting footage of people getting kicked out of their homes we may see a little coverage. Remember all the coverage small farmers used to get when their farms were foreclosed and auctioned? Hopefully, Americans will be as concerned about people losing their family homes as they were about people losing the family farms.

    By the way, does Lamont have a problem with reading? He’s been reading that same book for months. I read my copy of Culture Clash in an afternoon.