Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for July 06, 2011

It’s tough to win with Calvin.

Apparently, when it comes to money, some are corrupted more rapidly than others.

Some excellent comments by bmonk and Alain Harper last night, regarding First-Amendment freedom of speech, as it relates to censorship by GoComics of postings that they consider to be inappropriate.

By the way, each day when you read Calvin and Hobbes, I would encourage everyone to also read the comments from the end of the previous day. There are sometimes some very interesting last-minute postings, but I wonder how many people actually see them.

There is a devil somewhere in that little kid!

Calvin is going to be a politician when/if he grows up.

One of my many favourites.

Oh, no, Dad!!

generally, the end of the day is when i get here.

Yesterday, bmonk mentioned that GoComics is not a democracy, and I would add that neither are US corporations. In order to join GoComics we have to agree to play by their rules, which include some censorship. And in order to work for a US company we have to play by their rules, which do not include democracy in decision-making, or total freedom of speech.

Companies have to be able to set limits on speech by their employees, in order to ensure that their customers are treated in a civil and professional manner, since that is what their customers expect. Similarly, GoComics probably would not survive if they allowed total freedom of speech, because most of their customers come here looking for civil discourse.

Speaking from my own experience as an American, I don’t think most of us realize how often we agree to give up some of our freedoms in order to participate in something that will benefit us. Whether we are working for a company, using Facebook, downloading free software, flying on an airplane, sitting in a theater, or even testifying as a plaintiff in court, we don’t have an equal voice when it comes to setting the rules, and in some cases we are required to restrict our speech.

Nevertheless, even when we agree to participate in a particular system (again speaking from my own experience), it seems that once we are functioning within that system, we may still have a strong tendency to feel that everything should be run democratically and we should have total freedom of speech. It’s as though the desire for freedom is so deep within us, that we can never truly restrict it.

Give Calvin an allowance (an inch) and he’ll take the world (a mile)!

“The LOVE of (lust for) money is the root of all (kinds of) evil:”I Timothy 6:10a

Calvin learns something about the value of money when he ‘tries to buy off’ Moe with his allowance that Moe extorts from him.

Calvin is lucky if he can buy Hobbes a can of tuna with that allowance money.BTW, pouncingtiger was right in ‘tuna’ yesterday with his radio play-on-words..

Love that evil face…lol

Hmmm seems dad forgot to mention to Calvin that he is expected to do some basic chores in order to ‘earn’ his new allowance. Allowances are meant to be ‘earned’…not merely to be a donation.

JoelJ, I hear you and agree the comics are grand and a relief from the demands of our lives. However, it’s fun to see all the reaction stirred up in the readers and reported in the comments also. The only comments tha do not belong are those who are attemping to sell something. All other comments have a right to be made. If they upset you, please do not read them,

IMHO, comics are supposed to be lighthearted and a method to relax from the daily grind of the day; nowhere is it written that standard comics are supposed to be another form of political satire that must conform to the ‘thought of the day’…and to govern our adherence to basic tenets such as PC meanderings.

Since young people may also be reading these cartoons, one should keep the language appropriate and not subject them to adults trying to ‘outshout’ other adults simply to prove petty points of view.

We’ll see how much power & prestige it buys you, Calvin

Good Morning, Marg, Mike & ♠Lonewolf♠!

I swear, Bill Watterson watched me grow up. I too, thought I was a bizillionaire when I first got an allowance, although I did work to earn it!

Think you’d better start the allowance at 1 cent a week and see how he handles it!

Forgive me on a short political foray…what we consider “rights” are often just choices that we have the freedom to make. Calvin demonstrates this daily, and the comments often bring an insight I hadn’t considered. Unless we are privy to the mind of the ingenious Mr. Watterson, what we speculate the comic means is our choice in belief, and I, for one, enjoy the commentary. It’s at least as newsworthy as what is happening now, and twice as interesting.

JoelJ and especially fran650 I totally agree. ” I think the reason the blog doesn’t happpen is because he fears he would be a small fish in a big pond there." Well stated.

Hi Puddleglum2, speaking of the world… it should be a centimeter and a meter. Only in the US do we cling to the archaic rural system of feet hands and stones. We cannot use prefixes or exponents and it is not divisible by 10. On the other hand… is heaven a democracy? Do we all want to get there? :)

@mightaswellbe — simple. You read a commenter once, or twice. If he/she consistantly upsets you, don’t read them anymore. Haven’t thought of a way around the trial period yet, though.

CAlvin shouldn’t rejoice, he’s just gonna get bullied more at school.

I find the comments at the end of the strip of the previous day generally inane.

When my dad first gave me an allowance, he said I had to earn it and ended up mowing 7/8s of an acre with a push mower every week. So much for doing anything on the weekend but mow. And for 75cents.

Okay so I just added C&H about a month ago, so maybe this has been covered already. But could someone please tell me why all of these strips are repeats with a new date on them? I remember these same strips from at least 20 years ago.

I guess it’s just me and my simplistic view of the world…. I read this strip and thought that Sarcastic Calvin was just making fun of his Dad……

Seriously??!! We are having a First amendment discussion on a comic strip site? For starters, the First Amendment absolutely does NOT say that any idiot can spout off whatever they want, where ever they want. GoComics is a business, and the comments left here reflect on them, so they can decide to delete as they wish. They don’t even have to provide a space for you to comment. If you want to rant about something, build your own website and say it there. That way, you can say what you want without someone deciding if it should be printed.

You sure did Mister.

LOL LOL xxx

You’ve touched on the root issue — trying to get me to say only a few syllables. The blog recommendation has mainly come from 3 posters who want me to leave GoComics. Consequently, I have no reason to be influenced by them. I also will not be putting the time into a personal blog.

I am a nonconformist on this site, but then, so are you. Your humor can be quite funny at times when you aren’t being personal. The world would be a very boring place without nonconformists.

No, it’s good he’s reacting this way. Then later he’ll see how that attitude doesn’t work from experience.

Spoken like a future hedge fund manager!

Off to the casino, Calvin…..

A discussion of “free speech” here might be of great interest to commenters who live in other countries. I find Mr. Hobbes a breath of reason here, and certainly don’t consider his posts a “rant” – just his thoughts on what the strip meant to him, just as all the other commenters are expressing their thoughts (and puns.)

Thanks for the classy reply. :>)

randomdstone has the innate ability to recognize a disagreeable comment before he reads it. Unfortunately, I don’t have that blessing, so I have to rely on the source to decide which ones not to read.

Calvin will have a good career in politics.

MY BOY.. YOU ’RE RICH HAHAHA SHEAR ME TOO O.KAY

And so begins Calvin’s life-long love of money, greed and power! Now look what you’ve started, dad!

Thanks, GretchensMom. Hobbes’s expression in my avatar very often matches my own.

I don’t read comics till late in the day but I check the comments from the day before because many of you are so witty. (That only adds about 4 hours to my computer time! :D)

kfccanada, there is actually a significant body of opinion that an allowance is an entitlement as a family member, as chores are a responsibility as a family member. Thus, tying an allowance directly to chores is not always advised. http://www.todaysparent.com/lifeasparent/article.jsp?content=20070928_145958_6064&page=2 gives an example of the argument for allowance being delinked from chores.

Calvin, when it comes to money, you’re never rich enough. And it can’t buy true friendship.

Oh, Calvin knows the value of money, all right! What he needs to be weaned from is his addiction to power.If he’s sounding like Daffy Duck on steroids here, that isn’t really surprising (to me at least). Both are immature ENFPs. :)

I only skimmed the majority of the comments already posted, so forgive me if someone else has already pointed this out and I realize it’s towards the end of the day so few people will see this, but the general rule of the First Amendment is “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech”. While the interpretation of that has been broadened in some ways, the general sentiment behind it remains that the right to free speech is in regards to Governmental limitations on free speech.GoComics is a private entity and not a law maker. It (and other privately run websites and businesses) is free to censor speech on its site without it infringing on anyone’s Constitutional rights. And Americans have the freedom to choose whether we want to be members of the site or to be customers at a business, etc. where our words might be censored by these private entities. Ain’t freedom grand?

Thanks, Alain. Since the avatars are very small, the sword in yours could also be mistaken for a knife in your back. Perhaps it’s a very versatile avatar that could function as either one, depending on what you have just said to someone. :>)

I’m not even sure why my comments today were labeled as “political,” since they weren’t intended to be. But anything that somehow touches a political nerve with someone, even accidentally, can easily be called a “rant,” since the terms “political” and “rant” are so often used together. Nevertheless, whenever someone dislikes what I have written, it means that they have at least read it. This is a very interesting site, because we all learn a lot about other people, and at least a little bit about ourselves.

“I blew it again, dear!”Yes you did, dad.

Night-Gaunt49: Maybe it’s our own fault, because of our affluence? Perhaps as we the people have become more greedy, companies have begun to look more and more like us? Hmmm……..greed……. just like Calvin in today’s strip. See how neatly everything relates?

Thanks, Gweedo, but fortunately we have censors (or did I already mention that today?) Your avatar makes me think that I would be even happier and luckier if I were in Colorado right now like you. Had two wonderful vacations there in the past. (Let’s see…. both Calvin and Colorado begin with the letter “C”…. yep, still on topic.)

@Poindexter,Heaven is not a democracy in that God is in charge, but since everyone there willingly obeys God and is blissful doing it, in effect, it’s somewhat like a democracy in that respect.Not everyone desires to go to heaven or hell. Many would desire other options, but there are none. Heaven would be unbearable torment for the eternally unrepentant unbeliever (in the presence of a/the holy, righteous God), but hell is torment because we are made for God and should desire Him. “Ay, there’s the rub!”

Agreed :)

I think this comic is a bit sick, but I am including it for completeness.

I know Exactly how Calvin felt, having suffered the same, last time I thought I’d won lotto.

Ooh! What dirty scheme will Calvin think of this time?

I Have Two Dimes So HA!