According to Mike Huckabee, his recent surge in the polls is due to divine intervention. But now we know Huckabee himself is divine, because the bookcase dressed to look like a cross floats right behind his head. I guess they thought stringing christmas lights around his forehead as if they were a crown of thorns would’ve been a little over the top.

It takes a certain kind of person to read today’s Candorville strip and conclude I’m joking about rape. It takes the kind of person who can read Candorville for any length of time and still conclude that its author would find something like rape funny. It takes the kind of person who thinks the words “rape” and “pillage” are interchangeable (if they were, the usual phrase describing the horrors of war wouldn’t be “rape AND pillage”).It takes this kind of person:

Hey.Funny strip most the time. Racial commentary and all that.But todays strip (12-20-07) appalled me. Unless I am reading that wrong, it seems to be a blatant and casual reference to rape. Who calls that humor? Rape is not something that should be include in anything labeled as “comic”.I’m sure you are aware of racist issues. Try to be aware of sexist issues. They are not that far apart.JW

I can’t believe anyone who’s read Candorville for any length of time would even entertain the notion that its author would find rape funny. If any other readers out there jumped to that same outlandishly offensive conclusion, please don’t bother me with it. I spend hours each week going back and forth with irate or confused readers about the topics I raise in Candorville, and I do it gladly. I love that part of this job. But this misinterpretation is just way too insulting to comment on any further.

Visit Candorville!

An amused reader sent me an e-mail about a conservative blogger who took issue with a recent Candorville strip (and, though he didn’t mention it, he probably wasn’t too happy with the previous day either). From Town Hall:

The liberals hate Fox News with a passion because it is fast proving that Americans prefer not to be lied to [*ironic-licious link added -D. Bell*]. Fox brings both sides of political issues and probably have more liberal commentators on staff than do most other news services. Thus, they do not bring us only the liberal side. The liberals just can’t stand that and try to trivialize them as often as they can. More evidence that politics should be kept out of comics is “Candorville’s” Dec. 7 comic strip, which attempts to trivialize Fox News because it has many “foxes” on its staff who wear short skirts and show much cleavage, and they think that’s the reason why Fox is “whipping up on” all the other Cable stations and networks. As if all of them don’t have many foxes with short skirts and cleavage. Does this artist (and other liberals) really think we are so ignorant as to not be aware of this? Notice they also refer to it with three xes, as if the whole network is “triple-x.” Subtle. Too bad. When he stays away from politics, I actually enjoy this strip. (Candorville, 12/7/07)

All I have to say to that is…

Oh, and this…

Oh yeah, there’s also this…

(I probably should’ve warned you I was posting clips from Foxxx, they could probably get you fired if you watched them at work. Seriously.)

Yes, I’m sure just like Lemont, all those people who somehow think we found WMD in Iraq watch Fox News for the accuracy of their reporting. I don’t know how I and “the liberals” could have been so wrong.

In fact, that’s enough blogging, I have some accuracy to go watch…

I’m taking a break from e-mail & the Web until Wednesday, but in the meantime, enjoy this Christmas song.
Merry War-on-Christmas!
-Darrin