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Another one of the mistakes (along with Bill Maher, Rush Limbaugh, Keith Olbermann, Ann Coulter, Michael Moore, Bill O’Reilly, Rachel Maddow, ect.)
So you just hate political commentary of any kind?
No, I just have contempt for the propaganda merchants on the extreme left and right-wing. The best political commentary, in my opinion, comes from John Stossel, Penn Jillette, and Trey Parker & Matt Stone. Make of that what you will.
dang. that is epic
Looks like God’s been hitting the Jäger again…
Ah, the old philosophical quandary…Can an omnipotent God create a Jager so strong that he cannot drink it?
lol “jager”
I wonder what God would drink . . .
as a southern baptist, I see God drinking like some kind of pricey whiskey
Glenn Beck, Ann (please don’t ask about my adam’s apple) Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Bachman, the platypus…
Groan.
It’s always funny to me how whenever right-wing commentators or politicians are lampooned, it is always with a personal insult.
I could give you a laundry list of actual policies and philosophies I don’t agree with when talking about Michael Moore, Nancy Pelosi, or Barack Obama. And I don’t have to get sensational and make up something wild like “They are racist, and want to eat babies.” You never see that in any criticism of Rush Limbaugh, or Glenn Beck, or even Sarah Palin.
I listen to Glenn Beck on occasion. I don’t always agree with him – but he occasionally makes a really good point. Why liberals are afraid to have honest political discussions without stooping to shots like this is beyond me.
All I can conclude is – they are afraid of having their ideas challenged, and really don’t know enough about what they are talking about to actually defend their position.
Sorry Francesco – this is neither smart nor funny. It’s just kind of sad.
As a card carrying dirty librul with a anti-family homosecksual agender all I can say is this: Glenn Beck is such a ridiculous cretin that to rebut his “arguments” is actually detrimental, since that implies that you think his arguments are valid in the first place.
Seriously, he’s a guy who called the President a racist and then, incapable of believing that he might have been wrong, constructed an elaborate fantasy in which the whole world conspires against him from on high. The man tried to demonstrate this conspiracy by pointing out “communist” artwork in Rockefeller plaza… communist artwork in the homebase of one of the largest capitalist entities on earth.
Of course we make fun of him, he’s a cartoon character. Ditto Limbaugh, Coulter, and Hannity. We make fun of them because to do anything else is to validate their beliefs.
First off, I agree with you that this n’t one of Ced’s best; it’s a pretty lazy punchline.
But I have never in my life heard a right-wring critique of Michael Moore that went beyond, “If he loves Cuba so much, why doesn’t he move there?” or “He’s fat!” I don’t conservatives own “taking the high road” when it comes to political pot shots.
Yeah. That’s it. Liberals are afraid of the people who shout their opinions over the top of any rational discussion. Better pick no on that. Find another excuse why “liberals” won’t engage, please.
I like the humor of the piece very much, even if I don’t like vilifying one particular person. In other words, I laughed out loud and then felt very guilty about it. But, every shot doesn’t have to be a bullseye when you shoot out a cartoon every day.
Thanks for doing great work in MediumLarge. I read it every day.
Yeah, I’m sorry, but Glenn Beck is a sensationalist. And like Bryan said, he doesn’t even LET anyone else have an opinion. It’s like trying to tell a 3 year-old kid that you’re out of candy, but all he can do is scream “YOU DON’T LOVE ME ANYMOOOOORRRRRREEEE!!!”
When I read the strip, I was all, “wait for it…….” and then I clicked on the comments, and only had to scroll down to #6.
*sigh*
Ces, it took God about five chapters to say all that in the Book of Job.
And totally dead-on. Glenn Beck is a pathetic ass, a self-described “rodeo clown” – i.e., someone whose job it is to serve as a distraction. I’d love to get a refund from my cable company for any time that he’s occupying the cable bandwidth I’m paying for.
Paul1963: I already listed the right-wing clowns you mentioned, and added some of the left-wing nuts for good measure.
And yes, I disagree with these talking-head propaganda spewers on BOTH sides of the political spectrum, but I don’t hate them, which some of you here seem to.
Oh please! Like right wing humorists never insult liberals. They’re as pure as the driven snow?
Please. And to be brutally honest, Beck isn’t a commentator or a pundit and doesn’t deserve to be called one – he’s a moron. And a deliberate one! He knows what he’s doing, and I’m pretty sure he enjoys it. He’s just a media whore.
Good one, Ces.
I was recently subjected to this guy’s show (while in the waiting room of the cardiologist, of all places) and I agree with you one hundred percent.
To the guy complaining about personal insults: yeah. Cause the conservatives never insult the liberals in any way, shape, or form. They only engage in rational debate about the issues. Guess what? This is the art of one particular person, and he uses this strip and his art to state his point of view. If you haven’t realized that he’s not particularly in favor of Fox News and conservative talk show hosts, you know now. And he’s allowed to post whatever he wants on his own website in his own strip. Don’t like? Don’t read. No one’s forcing you.
I’m not saying that people on both sides of the aisle aren’t crazy. I’m saying they are. So don’t claim one group is saner than the other.
Whoa – look at all the sheep bray! I must have struck a nerve.
I can see that it is pointless in getting into a real discussion here – every single person who rattled a sword against Beck here did so with a pretty baseless personal attack. Not once did I see a single substantial criticism of his point of view.
You are 100% correct. This is a forum for Francesco’s work, and never once did I say that he shouldn’t be able to use it to post his opinions. However, he chose to have a comment system for feedback, and I chose to use it to express a negative opinion.
And to his credit – he chose to allow the comment to be posted.
I am sorry you are uncomfortable with someone who prefers to discuss important issues that affect all of us without resorting to calling those in opposition “doody-heads,” but your responses to me just re-enforce my original point.
Trying to shout me down doesn’t change that.
I’m not even a Republican! I find it hilarious how whenever ANYONE who supports either of the two major parties has one of their people criticised, they immediately point the finger at the other party. “Well, they do it too!!!” As if that excuses it LOL.
How about people stop looking at politics as a friggen football game, and instead actually talk about what is happening? It actually is possible to believe that a limited Federal Government is a good thing without wanting to eat babies…
So you chose to respond in a “one side calls the other side names” thread by calling people “braying sheep.”
As someone mentioned above, based on his work, Ces seems to fall towards the left end of the political spectrum, so it follows that a good portion of his audience would be as well. So if you post a comment that is designed (intentionally or not) to get their dander up, why would you expect a different response? What you’ve done here is the equivalent of going onto a Yankees fan board, finding a comment thread where someone says the Red Sox suck, and then replying that Red Sox fans always engage in level-headed debate and would never say something like that about the Yankees, then act surprised when the Yankees fans pile on.
Let’s be clear: both sides use below-the-belt techniques. For anyone to claim different is foolish, naive or sheltered. The comment that Palin, Limbaugh, et. al. don’t resort to such tactics is foolhardy – one need simply look at the birther movement, or the claims that Obama is a Muslim, or “death panels” to see that the voices on the right are just as guilty as those on the left.
If you truly think that one side or the other is incapable of engaging in rational, intelligent debate, what that means is all you know of that side is what you get from the media. There are millions of liberals and conservatives (including, I would guess, the posters here) that would love to sit down with you and talk tax reform, or health care, or the war, or whatever. But for a lot of people (to paraphrase Will Rogers), “all I know is what I watch on television/hear on the radio/read on the internet.” For liberals, that means all they know of conservatives is Beck/Limbaugh/etc., and for conservatives, that means all they know of liberals is Olberman/Maddow/etc. None of those people are a truly fair and accurate representation of their supposed ideology.
But most importantly, this is, after all, a comic strip. Laugh or don’t laugh. Move on. You are welcome, nay, encouraged, to have the necessary political discussions in a forum that was designed for that purpose.
Oh yes – calling people sheep is reasonable. A totally logical argument! In the Fox News world …
You want a direction accusation? Okay, here it is : it’s a proven fact that Glenn Beck has lied deliberately several times, and represented it as the truth.
If you can be torn apart by the women on The View, for crap’s sake, you’re not so much a liar as a horrible liar. I’d expect better lying abilities from a Fox news “pundit”. Do they set the bar that low?
deadpool809: I know where you’re coming from. I’m a libertarian, and I’ve gotten some crap here as well for pointing out problems that the left has in addition to problems with the right. A lot of these posters are just stuck in that “anyone who doesn’t think exactly as we do is evil/stupid” mindframe.
andy: Democrats AND Republicans, at least the majority of them, ARE sheep.
andy-
“You want a direction accusation? Okay, here it is : it’s a proven fact that Glenn Beck has lied deliberately several times, and represented it as the truth. ”
This is kind of what I am talking about. You just called him a liar.
WHAT did he specifically lie about? You don’t detail that at all, (I know what you are speaking about, BTW) you just call him a liar and leave it at that.
But let’s take that a step further. You spit vile at Glenn Beck for an alleged lie. Are you willing to hold Hillary Clinton to the same standard? After all, she lied about “Dodging Sniper Fire in Bosnia,” and more recently flat out lied about staying at the Europa Hotel when it was still “devastated from a bomb” – but she didn’t actually go there until 2 years later.
Are you willing to hold Hillary Clinton to the same standard of Glenn Beck? If he is a lying sack of crap, isn’t she as well?
And what about your digs at Fox News? Truth is – their commentators are mostly right-wing, but their news is fairly impartial. But for the sake of argument, let’s say they are HORRIBLY Right-wing biased.
Are you willing to call MSNBC on their blatant and disgusting left-wing bias? CNN’s even pretty bad, but nowhere near as bad as NBC.
Pot calling the kettle black, is all I have to say. I can’t respect anyone who spits so much vile at right-wing pundits when there own are just as bad or worse.
If Hillary Clinton isn’t a lying sack of crap, then neither is Glenn Beck.
And Jim – fellow Libertarian here. A frustrated one. As you called them – the sheep on both sides – they aren’t interested in actually debating what is going on, they just want their team to win.
I don’t care what you think about Universal Health Care, or how much power the Federal Government should have. NO ONE should support a 1200 page monstrosity of a bill that no one has even read. What kind of country do we live in where you can pass laws without knowing what you are voting on??
Even worse, to admit you have a problem with that, you MUST be an evil racist baby-eating Republican.
Sure – this is a left-leaning strip. Once upon a time, political cartoonists were actually able to lampoon someone for their position without just calling them names. Show me a sophisticated, mature strip that lampoons Glenn Beck, and I’ll laugh along with you.
This strip was just hateful.
So don’t watch the news. Go on the internet and make up your own mind.
I vote Democrat, and I’m readily willing to admit Hilary lied, though lying about being under sniper fire to make herself look better is far less of a sin than, say, our former VP allowing an undercover agent to be exposed simply to be an ass. Glenn Beck also doesn’t just lie; he’s just nuts in general. Even if he were a liberal I’d think he was two bananas short of a fruit salad. Crying on TV because he loves his country so much and socialism is going to destroy it now? Give me a fucking break. Obama isn’t a socialist, and if you really think he is, you have no idea what socialism is.
Plus, Fox News? Is admittedly barely news. The owner of the network even said their actual “news” is restricted to a few hours of daily TV. All the big name commentators we know? Are not on during those hours. They are flat-out noisemakers who stir up shit.
And if you want to read the health care bill, fucking Google it. Don’t sit and piss over “well, no one reads it.” What was the last bill you’ve read? How many have you read? Don’t sit and whine about it when you likely wouldn’t take the time to do it either.
Be a Libertarian all you want, but use your head first.
Plus, whining about political cartoonists being sophisticated tells me you haven’t read too many of them. Shit slinging has existed since political cartoons existed. Neither side is clean of being underhanded.
Oh, and since you insist on showing our work:
Fox News admits to not being mostly “news”
You can watch it all, or jump immediately to 3:46 and go on from there.
Glenn Beck cries
2:22.
[...] Friday, November 6, 2009November 6, 2009 – That only partially explains it. [...]
@Deadpool809: Every lampooning of Michael Moore I’ve seen was about his weight.
God created Glenn Beck. Now it’s all so clear, why the gov’t that declares war on Christmas has now attacked Glenn’s appendix! The lines are there!
Deadpool: I’ll give you $100 if you can give me even one example of Glenn Beck “making a really good point.”
It’s always funny to me how whenever right-wing commentators or politicians are lampooned, it is always with a personal insult.
Yes, NO ONE has ever called Ted Kennedy a drunk, Michael Moore fat, or said that John Kerry looks like a haunted tree (which was actually pretty funny.)
I listen to Glenn Beck on occasion. I don’t always agree with him – but he occasionally makes a really good point.
No, not yet that I’ve seen. He’s a huge hypocrite, he supported the bailouts right up until it was clear that McCain had lost and immediately flip-flopped, calling them Obama’s bailouts. Now, I opposed those bailouts right from the start, but the utter hypocrisy of the “conservative” news on this and similar issues is completely unforgivable. He is 100% partisan and 0% based in political philosophy or logic.
Glenn Beck SHOULD be criticized personally, because he injects his personal opinions into everything and gets personal with other people. (“I’m not saying Barack Obama hates white people, I’m just afraid he does.“) These guys are playing identity politics, and the pseudo-identities they employ are therefore fair game for criticism.
I myself am pretty philosophically conservative and have never had much love for the Democratic party. But I AM anti-crazy and anti-hypocrite, and until the Republicans get their act straight and quit acting like lunatics, they won’t get any more of my votes. They deserve every criticism they’ve received lately, plus some.
Are you willing to call MSNBC on their blatant and disgusting left-wing bias? CNN’s even pretty bad, but nowhere near as bad as NBC.
CNN is left-wing?
You don’t know much about what left-wingers actually think, do you? Spend some time on liberal politics blogs, they HATE CNN.
When the left-wing calls you conservative and the right-wing calls you liberal, you’re probably doing all right w.r.t. objectivity. So, go on wit yr bad self, CNN!
One thing I hope we can all agree on: News reporting in America was/is/can be better when it’s about telling you what actually happened in the world, instead of an endless parade of jackasses who are so overeager to set you straight on what it all means that they rarely give you a proper (clear and provably correct, that is) explanation of what happened in the first place. The cable news channels need to relearn the basics.
I bet Ces never anticipated this kind of response to one of his strips. Wonder what he thinks of it all.
The reason why people this crazy on the left aren’t lampooned is because those people are clearly insane cranks. As such, they hold no real influence, and are widely ignored, because they are insane cranks.
You know, I really have only the vaguest idea of who Glenn Beck is. The name, initially, meant nothing to me. I’m not American, and I don’t tend to spend a great deal of brain space worrying about American politics. I do not find this particular comic funny, for the simple reason that it tends to go over my head. Lampooning kind of misses the point when you have to go look up the object of the lampooning to make any sense of it. It is a mean-spirited comic, sure. Medium Large is, in general, mean-spirited.
That said, I’m also not about rant and rave against Ces because how dare he make a comic that does not cater to and support my specific non-American world view, nor am I about to start insulting the people who don’t share my particular world view when they call me on my sense of entitlement.
The only thing that surprises me in the comments is the fact that Glenn Beck’s current status as recovering from a wheelchair, I mean burst appendix, hasn’t been brought up in the name of tact.
I think it’s funny that God gets so defensive over creating Glenn Beck.
Sheep bleat. Asses bray. Sorry–just needed to get that off my chest.
I think Deadpool might have been hitting the ether, that’ll make you see and hear all sort of nonsensical things.
The afformentioned “sheep” all happen to be “asses” (or donkeys, in this context) if you think about it dimestore…
What Glenn Beck followers don’t realize is that Glenn is an actor hired to up the ratings on FOX NEWS by being overdramatic and purposely lying and spinning stories to create that drama. So it’s kind of ironic for this retard to be calling us “sheep”.
What bothers me about this isn’t so much that’s it’s political, but instead that it’s lazy and unimaginative — especially when compared to Monday’s comics, which display the creative and intelligent humor of which ML is capable. This sort of comic is very much like making yet another “Bush is dumb” or “Clinton likes women” joke: it’s easy and it’ll probably get a laugh from half the nation, but it’s the same thing everybody else is doing.
I don’t wish to add any more fuel to the fire, but this strip does bring to mind a pithy quote by Penn Jillette:
“Democrats are the party of hate; Republicans are the party of fear.”
When I see stuff like this, it reinforces the validity of the claim.
Jim, Penn is an ignorant selfish brat, as are all losertarians. Your belief is the belief of teenagers who have never done any kind of living outside of their parents’ circle of influence and money.
Thanks for reinforcing the validity of Penn’s claim, my hostile, hateful friend.
And Libertarians are the Party of “Mine”
Glenn Beck (just over a year ago) was in hospital for a botch anus surgery that apparently almost killed his former alcoholic self. While recovering he lamented the lack of a broad caring standard of care in the “broken” health care system of America.
He is now standing firm on the side of “any health care reform is wrong”
If that is not a firm check mark in the “Cretinous Hypocrite” category, I know of no other, document evidence of radically opposite opinions held by the same person.
Perhaps not, opinions can shift, but one wonders how his opinions will shift during yet another trip through HMO heaven.
Penn and Teller host their wonderful bullshit show but often stack the deck of their “experts” with cretins on the side they disagree with and credible, rational experts on the side they agree with. Look no further than the manipulative use of a disabled woman who could not build her house on federally protected land for evidence of their base manipulation of facts for their own ends.
When their “forestry expert” looked at the camera and said “there are more trees in North American than ever” when even the Department Of the Interior under Bush was lamenting the loss of viable forests in the US, their credibility dropped to null.
Penn Jillette is a wealthy man who lives in the Desert in a compound who is no better than Glenn Beck save that he is not prone to crying jags on national television, nor does he hold wrapt a nation of credulous drones who would (apparently) run headlong into the guns of the national guard at his word if Mr. Beck was to declare them unamerican.
Kevin -
Wrong, wrong, wrong. That is exactly the kind of garbage that holds the political dialogue in this country back.
#1 – The Libertarians are the party of “Freedom.” They believe that freedom can be best achieved with the smallest possible Federal Government. It isn’t “Mine,” it is OURS. Your freedom and mine.
#2 – No one – Beck or anyone else, are on the side of “any health care reform is wrong.” Most of the opponents of the Obama/Pelosi plan don’t believe the federal government should be that entangled in the process. Tort reform seems a great place to start, and this plan doesn’t seem to want to touch that.
Is it not possible to have a political disagreement with someone without flat out lying about what they believe in? And why is it that people can’t have a political disagreement with someone without instantly jumping to tear them down personally?
I still can’t understand why people think this health care system is so bad that you need to hand it over to the DMV of all things to make better. Why are all the critics of the system accepted without question, but the people who point out the good things villified and mocked?
Its that kind of blind devotion to one party that causes just about every problem we have in this country. We have the left who will blindly follow Pelosi off a cliff – even when she drops a 1200 page steamer on the floor of the house, and a right wing who will criticise everything coming out of the left, while at the same time voting for it on the sly.
#1 – The Libertarians are the party of “Freedom.” They believe that freedom can be best achieved with the smallest possible Federal Government. It isn’t “Mine,” it is OURS. Your freedom and mine.
Nice, saying two opposing things then saying they are somehow equivalent. I’m going to try and parse what you have said while simultaneously preventing you from saying that I have stated something that is my opinion of what you have said, and not “what you have said”.
1. The Libertarians are the party of “Freedom.” This is incorrect, Libertarians are the party of small government and stronger individual ownership rules. They espouse states rights over federal and support privatizing nationa services like the FAA. None of these things have to do with the concept of “freedom” which is simply a concept, however the stance of stronger individual ownership is easily translated as the “mine” concept as what is more “Mine” than a stance that places the individual over the state?
2. “They believe that freedom can be best achieved with the smallest possible Federal Government” No, they believe that prosperity can be best achieved without the Federal government regulating any more than it has to. This is not freedom. Freedom is a concept, prosperity is a measurable goal.
This is the actual platform statement:
“Libertarians believe the answer to America’s political problems is the same commitment to freedom that earned America its greatness: a free-market economy and the abundance and prosperity it brings; a dedication to civil liberties and personal freedom that marks this country above all others; and a foreign policy of non-intervention, peace, and free trade as prescribed by America’s founders.”
All well and fine, but from their platform on “The Enviornment”
“We support a clean and healthy environment and sensible use of our natural resources. Private landowners and conservation groups have a vested interest in maintaining natural resources. Pollution and misuse of resources cause damage to our ecosystem. Governments, unlike private businesses, are unaccountable for such damage done to our environment and have a terrible track record when it comes to environmental protection. Protecting the environment requires a clear definition and enforcement of individual rights in resources like land, water, air, and wildlife. Free markets and property rights stimulate the technological innovations and behavioral changes required to protect our environment and ecosystems. We realize that our planet’s climate is constantly changing, but environmental advocates and social pressure are the most effective means of changing public behavior.”
Notice something here, they are fine with “social pressure” in place of any real mediation on the matter. Apply that same logic to the rest of their platform, (which you read for yourself) and you can see that they would substitute the “Tyranny of the Federal Government” for the “Wisdom of the Masses” Please, explain how “social Pressure” (like the Tea Parties) represent an evolved social response? They have no power beyond their ability to change the minds of the politicians. Imagine a Bhopal without international government sanctions…
#2 – No one – Beck or anyone else, are on the side of “any health care reform is wrong.” Most of the opponents of the Obama/Pelosi plan don’t believe the federal government should be that entangled in the process. Tort reform seems a great place to start, and this plan doesn’t seem to want to touch that.
Please, without spitting hard on my keyboard I could locate examples of successful federal level health care programs around the world, no the real failure of Government Health care in the US would come at the hands of the private organizations that would bid the lowest bid to run it, that just good business right (right Walter Reed Veterns?)
Tort Reform like those in palce in Texas? Where the state puts sick people to death? That kind of tort reform? The kind that limits the ability of individuals to gain respite form those that injure them? The kind that limits the individuals ability to “punish” neglegent corporations or wealth individuals, that kind of reform? That sounds like “Freedom” Libertarian style all over.
“Its that kind of blind devotion to one party that causes just about every problem we have in this country. We have the left who will blindly follow Pelosi off a cliff – even when she drops a 1200 page steamer on the floor of the house, and a right wing who will criticise everything coming out of the left, while at the same time voting for it on the sly.”
Yup, it sucks, so why not go back and demand something better? Why are people rallying around an obvious cretin like Beck who simply blows where the wind tells him to go? He’s not even thoughtful, he’s like a clown who just says whatever is on his mind and then somehow rallies like minded people to it, people who haven’t even considered going back home and reading a book or really understanding all of the options. They would rally to save the profits of groups that they are also forced to be customers of as those same companies have jury-rigged the system to such a point that health care costs have outstripped reason and even inflation.
As for my party politics, you have no idea. When I was a kid, I voted libertarian, it made sense. I’ve never needed social assistance and felt that the social safety net was a waste. Then I spent some time around the poor, the real poor. Some are lazy, some are stupid, some are crazy and some are just unfortunate. The social safety net in Canada (where I live) acts as a kind of barrier between being poor and real poverty, the lack of hardcore poverty in Canada (well, the relative lack of) strongly contributes to the “happier” society that Canada enjoys. Thus, I believe in Universal Health Care, Welfare and a massive Social Safety net, I believe that corporations should be prevented from engaging in political speech/activity (because they are immortal “individuals” of limited liability who may own property, engage in commerce and sue others without any fear of physical retribution through imprisonment, the final acceptable form of punishment all other individuals must face if they break the law). I think you’ll find that there is no “major party” in the US that holds this belief. There is no party “left wing enough” for me.
I believe more strongly in individual rights than any Libetarian, because I believe every individual should have enough to eat, a warm bed to sleep in and the access to education to allow them to become productive. I believe that the government should spend more on care and less on expansion. I believe that every tax dollar that ends up in a corporations pockets is 2 dollars wasted, because those dollars won’t come back as taxes.
So yeah, Libertarians may believe in “Freedom” but they don’t believe in paying for it.
You’ll forgive me if I say that you have no idea what you’re talking about, won’t you?