Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for December 01, 2012

As in: " It was a dark and stormy night…"

“Dark.”

One of the definitions of “dark” in Urban Dictionary is that “dark” is “Considered good in some circles, with it’s opposite, light having to do with conformity and lack of integrity.”

If this is the meaning intended by the big red-headed guy in the dark blue shirt, then he would be approving the wry or odd or mysterious meaning that the students should be “responsible” in some way for the “aftermath” of W.Bush’s war in Iraq that is “unfolding in real time”. Does the general mean “politically” responsible?

remember when the last combat troops crossed the border into kuwait. msnbc devoted the whole night, fox news committed a sound bite.

Is Paula Broadwell lurking among the students?

As citizens of the US, we all bear the collective responsibility for the acts of the leaders.

Is Colin Powell lurking amid the students as well? The white students wouldn’t know (they all look alike, right?) and the black students wouldn’t care (Collin was/is an UT to them)..

This is an old strip. We’re out of Iraq, right?

I’d heard of Ann Coulter, but don’t recall seeing her views on things till the day after Thanksgiving, when this appeared in a column of hers in the Jacksonville, FL, newspaper:“To the extent Republicans have a problem with their candidates, it’s not that they’re not conservative enough. Where are today’s Nelson Rockefellers, Arlen Specters or George H.W. Bushes? Happily, they have gone the way of leprosy.”Utterly charming.

Is BD auditing the course or just there because it takes that long to come back to pick up his friend later or what? Moral support?

“… racist dog-whistle “dark” is both offensive and unnedessary.”

Oh, and so Shultz’s little beagle Snoopy — he who writes stories starting with, “It was a dark and stormy night ….” — is a racist all the sudden!

You’re coming across as a hit-and-run bomb-throwing verbal terrorist, here, SkepticCal.

“There’s a young woman in my synagogue who is a dead ringer for Ann Coulter.”

You mean she also looks like a preying mantis?

I have to go with John Stewart on the Paula thing. Inher interview she said she was embedded with Patraeus In Iraq and gave the best sh@t eating Cheshire cat grim I have ever seen. It was like she had a neon sign that blinked I am bonking a 4 for star general. Yes, I know they said thedeed didn’t happen until he was out of the service. But, then…

Too-zonked and NightGaunt, thanks for the effort.

I suppose the term gigolo comes to mind but I am not sure that men are all that insulted by it. Gigolo is defined as a male prostitute, not someone who is just loose in terms of sexuality, but rather is actually paid for sex. Still, many women are called all sorts of odd things and they aren’t really technically those things which they are called, so maybe that would do.I never said that Paula didn’t do anything wrong. I know that she was unfaithful to her spouse as well. Yes, it takes two to tango. Still, where is the cute name for Petraeus? Something short and snappy…

Crickets…

“he use of the racist dog-whistle “dark” is both offensive and unnecessary.”I suspect that was irony or something. I don’t have much respect for people who use racial slurs. Only idiots try to excuse it as harmless and deride anyone who calls them on it for being, “PC”. But, saying “dark” as in “dark humor”, pretty clearly has nothing to do with skin tone.

WTF?!?!?! Please explain this comment. It makes absolutely no sense in the context of the strip, or the today’s discussion.

Or Bimbo for HIM. Yes, I believe there are male bimbos too…

For those of us over age 30 (way over, in my case), urbandictionaryDOTcom lists 27 meanings of “dark,” of which two? three? were racial. GT may be in closer touch with student lingo than we are.

Ok. Those work.

All right. I am sure you have never been called anything like that. I haven’t heard those too many times in regard to men. But, I am sure they are said sometimes.

It would be pretty hard for anyone to believably apply any of those terms to me, since I’ve been by-choice celibate for about 12 years. I was a virgin when I married at age 29 (bride a virgin also, age 20), was absolutely faithful to her for the duration of our 18 year marriage with two children, as I believe she was to me. “California divorced” for entirely unrelated reasons (which shall remain unrevealed on the I-net).

In your admirable drive for equality of terminology, montesserri, you perhaps may be forgetting, that I did use a “cute” term to apply to Gen. Betray-Us, and to compliment my use of the term “bimbo” to apply to Paula Broadway. Search above for ….

“weenie”.

As far as I know, this term is never applied to a woman,. It qualifies as much as “bimbo” as a term that is “cute”. And everybody pretty much knows what it means when applied to a man, especially an older man in a high position. How much older than Paula? At least 20 years. And yet by all accounts she was the pursuer and aggressor in that wretched relationship.

He was the one who was in the position of real power in that relationship. He could have and should have turned her down. But, they are adults. He obviously got caught and therefore did what he did. I know she was attractive and younger. So what? Why couldn’t he get a divorce and go to a bar or something if he just wanted a younger woman? There would have been a young woman out there, besides Paula, who would have gone for him. That even happened, apparently, hence it all came undone!Ok, perhaps weenie qualifies as cute.

Yeah, married Paula and married David were / are both adults. I guess that’s why they call it “adultery”.

Don’t get me wrong, I am no admirer of either of them. I saw there was a picture of Paula with Karl Rove a few weeks ago at a GOP fundraiser on twitter. The company you keep… Also, Petraeus was considered as a GOP presidential hopeful just a short time ago…

I don’t know what has happened to the GOP. I never agreed with them in the past but I didn’t know they were all such buffoons,I don’t remember them being as bizarre as they have become in recent years. Paula and Petraeus should fit right in.

Y’know, everybody, I have so much respect for Barack and Michelle Obama — IF it’s true that they’re faithful to each other, and if for no other reason than as examples for those darlings Sasha and Milia. Compare them with Jackie and John Kennedy of Camelot fame! (And I’m a big fan of President JFK.)

Barack is in a horribly vulnerable position with I’m sure young attractive women throwing themselves at him at every turn. Power attracts them. If he were just Mr. Barack Nobody Obama, even if unmarried with no kids, they probably would walk their spiked heels over him just to get by.

I follow a personal code that “people are precious”, which is a mantra that unfailingly helps me negotiate the masses of people everywhere around me. Not everybody is, of course. But I must still treat every person as precious even if s/he isn’t.

JFK did have some personal failings, but he was also in a different time and place. It is hard to compare such a long time ago with 2012. I am no spring chicken, and I am sorry to say that I have no memory of JFK.

In 2012, JFK probably would have had to change his ways, or he would not have been able to stand up to the scrutiny of today’s media. He would not have been protected, they would have wanted the story, not to protect his privacy.

Thomas Jefferson had some personal failings as well, and he lived even longer ago, MUCH longer ago, than even JFK. Yet I admire him still. Also, “Ike” Eisenhower, a gopper. And many others. We’re all imperfect, flawed creatures.

Paula Broadwell and Karl Rove seen together at a gopper fundraiser. Whatta hoot!

Yeah, there was a photo of the 2 of them.

The press tried to protect FDR’s privacy in terms of his being crippled I have heard. They just don’t allow for privacy anymore though.

Petraeus = mimbo (male bimbo, apologies to Seinfeld).

Ha! Good one Kaffeekup.

This is late for me. Hubby had an emergency tonight so I was just waiting up. Bye you guys.

DylanThomas3.14159 said, about 6 hours agoThomas Jefferson had some personal failings as well, and he lived even longer ago

Careful about painting TJ with the same brush as JFK or Petraeus. TJ was a widow before Sally came on the scene. IMHO TJ made as many contibutions to this great contry as the other “W” as in George.