Thursday, February 16, 2006

Chiding the cartoonist

Far be it from me to argue with a JIB-winning cartoonist, but to my regret, the irrepressible ache is rising inside me. I fear I won't be able to keep myself from pointing out that the Dry Bones blog has recently published two rather silly mistakes.

First off, Hitler did not become leader of Germany through an election!!



Though this stupid argument has become the darling of the undemocratic right, it is 100 percent wrong. Hitler became Chancellor, not through an election, but through a series of back-room deals. The very best Hitler did in an honest election was 37 percent.

Next, Mr. Dry Bones tries to beat up former President Clinton using some words and ideas provided by the Super Fun Power Hour.

Unfortunately, all those years hunched over a drawing board appear to have damaged the cartoonist's eyesight. SuperFunPowerHour, you see, attributes the damaging remark to Hillary Clinton, but Mr. Dry Bones puts it in Bill Clinton's mouth. Are Bill and Hillary the same person?

Bones also makes the mistake of assuming that president Clinton personally approved of a particular work of art, simply because a Federal agency helped fund it. That's a little like saying that Bush personally approved of Cheney shooting that poor guy in the face, which is of course absurd. Federal agencies, like vice presidents, have some lattitude and independance: it simply isn't reasonable (unless you have a grudge) to say that the fact that the NEA funded something is proof positive that Clinton liked it.

More on the larger problem with the second post later.