The future beckons.

I fear this will happen with me and Buddy some day. And, to tell you the truth, my haircuts couldn't get any worse and I would really like one-a them bandannas.

I don't know who the old lady is, though.

Original cartoon here.

My life and welcome to it.

That bad leg of mine which I thought was taken care of has proven to be immune to pain management treatments it seems, so I can identify with this. And still laugh. Sorta.

The original is here.

This is not quite the way Buddy and I go for a walk, but it's close.

See the original here.

Way too many websites are designed by guys like this.

See the original here, click to enlarge.

I just have one thing I need to say.

Original is here.

The truth may set you free. Or depress you.

See the original here.

Blondie gets it right.

Blondie is a comic strip that is rarely relevant these days, but today's entry strikes me as being so. You can see the original here and will need to go visit or click on the art below to have the strip  large enough  to be able to read.

This made me laugh (I detest brussel sprouts)

See the original here.

The Great Disconnect.

Alert visitors to this site (they're the ones walking around the room and talking and not slumped against the wall texting) will notice that I have added a feed/link to my latest web adventure, The Great Disconnect, in the column at the right.

I am moving the bulk of my political commentary over there, effective immediately (the site sort launched itself while I was getting prepare to do so). I'm sure there will be some crossover and the bit of snark here that I just can't hold back, but the idea is to do what I said I was going to do several times in the past, make Mermaids an "everything else" site (with the exception, of course, of beer, which I devote my attention to at Jack Curtin's Liquid Diet).

Just below the Great Disconnect link is one to Outside Looking In, the cartoon website done by artist Rob Davis and me. That too will be mostly political and updated with a new cartoon several times a month. You can access the latest cartoon by clicking on the date shown in the link or the entire page by clicking on the link title.

More to come. Those "changes coming next week" that I promised at the Curtin's Corner site way back in August will actually happen in November.

I hope.

The flatout funniest cartoon of the political (and Halloween) season.

The actual cartoon is here.

"An awfully low threshold." A follow-up...

To this...

...and the Comments thereon.

From today's Ombudsman column in the Washington Post:

Yes, Miller was trying to be provocative. But "Non Sequitur" followers expect that. And there's a difference between provoking anger and provoking readers to think.

Surely some may be displeased by "Where's Muhammad?" But unlike with the Danish cartoons, it's hard to imagine it would incite protests. Miller intentionally did not depict Muhammad, and the cartoon is not a blasphemous attack on the prophet. If anything, it's a powerful and witty endorsement of freedom of expression.

Post editors believe their decision was prudent, given the past cartoon controversies and heightened sensitivities surrounding Islam. But it also can be seen as timid. And it sets an awfully low threshold for decisions on whether to withhold words or images that might offend.

Go read it all.

Wow! This guy is asking for wingnut trouble.

Original is here.

Non Sequitur indeed.

This is the Non Sequitur cartoon which was supposed to be run in the full-color weekend comics sections of U.S. newspapers today...

The original is here.

Many papers, including the Philadelphia Inquirer refused to run it and ran an older strip in its place. This is what cartoonist Doug Wiley has to say about that:

Yours along with many other papers across the country were afraid to run this cartoon. In doing so, it is rife with irony, as it is obviously satirizing the paralyzing fear in media of anything regarding Islam. Cowards indeed.

For those of you whose paper ran the alternate edition, I strongly suggest you contact the editor and voice your opinion on the matter. They are the ones who need to hear it, as they are the ones who made the decision.

I urge others to join me in doing just that.

Oliphant Nails it in a single panel.

The original is here.

The people will decide (I can hardly wait).

the original is here.

Other foot, meet shoe.

The original is here.

Sing a song of yesteryear.

I was just going through some of the pages at The Dubya Chronicles, the website that Rob Davis and I did for eight years, 20 January 2001 to 20 January 2009, capturing the foibles and crimes of the Bush Administration in weekly cartoon form.

There's a lot there that still makes me laugh (and sometimes want to cry)and I thought our four-cartoon series for February 2008, just as the presidential campaign was getting underway, was one of our better stretches. The focus was mostly on John McCain, which is a nice coincidence (you'll have to wait a bit to find out why).

Check it out.

NOTE: all the cartoons are animated and you might have to refresh the page once or two to see each one from the start.

Cartoonery: Green Jackets and Pink Panties

(Click on image twice to see full-size)

Cartoonery: A guy can dream, can't he?

Cartoonery: Bart gets schooled.