Yeah, boy howdy, what is it with females and baby-lust? I’ve never been able to figure that one. But I’ve had several women tell me that they figure they must be in love when they find themselves wondering about what “his” baby would be like. And a remarkable number of women turn on heel and walk away, and sometimes get very angry, when they find out I took care decades ago to see to it that I fire blanks. Every now and then, however, there is an appreciative exception, and bless them.
Alexander has the right idea.
Overpopulation is the underlying cause of a large majority of the world’s problems. The entire world aspires to achieve the standard of living enjoyed by the United States. If China, Japan, and India join us at that level, it will require the resources of the entire planet Earth to sustain just the four of them.
If you are concerned about greenhouse gasses, deforestation, water shortages and all the other ecological problems, turn your attention to population growth.
Great idea, let’s reduce the population in our developed countries while the underdeveloped world population soars. That will be really good for the planet.
Well Alex, if you want your children to have eye patches, just keep buying into what the politicians - Republican AND Democrat - tell you via the military/industrial complex.
And if they don’t end up with those, I am sure they’ll have some really swanky prosthetics just like B.D.
See, Alex, every kid - yours and others - who comes home wounded from these endless wars helps feed our rapacious Health Care Industry(tm). Take comfort in knowing your son or daughter will need doctors and prescriptions for the rest of his or her natural life. You can be proud to know that even after your kid’s military service, he or she will be supporting millionaire insurance executive and health care professional lifestyles, as well as Creating Jobs(tm).
So you’re wise to plan in advance for the crushing burdens your children will present to you as they are fed into the American military/industrial complex’s meatgrinder, Alex. Not that many people think that far ahead.
quite the opposite; the tea baggers LOVE those wars and the military industrial complex’s cool weapons to show what badasses we are to the rest of the world
$FH: I didn’t vote Tea Party. Rather the opposite.
I didn’t get what I voted for.
The Tea Party might as well be already running this country for what I did get. I don’t have to like it just because of who it’s coming from, and I don’t have to be quiet about it.
Yeah, boy howdy there Puddle, I suppose that’s about right, give or take an eon or two. I’ve always held that were it not for the fact that women are crazy our species would fail to reproduce itself. Likewise, if men weren’t crazy we wouldn’t have all those lovely nuclear bombs. Go figure.
2nd, Women are not “crazy,” they belong to a different species.
3rd, “Planned Parenthood” is an oxymoron. ZPG (Zero Population Growth) should be the norm, and NO kids at all would be (my) ideal. Got three of them before I figured out that I really do not like kids. Perpetuated the species at a great emotional cost to all of us.
Anything more than two kids per couple is a huge mistake. On this, my older brother and sister are in complete agreement with me.
On a tangential note, I’m surprised that Kim has never confronted Mike with a ticking biological clock. To the best of my recollection, the issue (of issue) has never even been raised. She’s got to be pushing 40 by now, or close to it (she was a Vietnamese orphan brought to the US after the fall of Saigon).
Technically, Jeff Redfern is J.J.’s half-brother (making him Alex’s uncle), but it’s surprising how few brothers or sisters are ever mentioned in this strip (and, so far as I know, J.J. and Jeff have never met, except perhaps when he was an infant; Jeff’s birth was the last event before Trudeau’s first haitus, and I think the entire cast of the strip at that point had gathered for it). Mike’s brother Ben hasn’t been seen for years; Zonker presumably has a brother or sister (since Zipper is his nephew) but s/he has never been shown. B.D. and Boopsie only have one child, who seems to have NO aunts or uncles. Toggle has a mom but no siblings; Mel has a dad but (so far) no siblings. The common (but by no means universal) experience of brothers and sisters seems to be entirely absent in this strip.
By the way, it was once observed (I forget by whom; it might have been Vonnegut) that, under China’s one-child policy, the terms “brother” and “sister”, as well as “aunt” and “uncle”, would eventually become archaic (or metaphoric).
Apart from some of the dark/creepy comments today, one simple logical conclusion is: if you don’t have kids, you remove your genes from the gene pool, and your values from any future discussions. As they say, the decisions are made by the ones who show up.
If thoughtful, enlightened folks (all of us, of course) don’t have kids – and BTW, if you honestly don’t like kids, then you probably shouldn’t have them for their sake – then who does have them, and what happens over time? Anybody see the movie Idiocracy?
SCAATY: “[O]ne simple logical conclusion is: if you don’t have kids, you remove your genes from the gene pool, and your values from any future discussions.”
I (respectfully) disagree with the second part of your conclusion. One’s values may be transmitted through means other than procreation, and there’s no guarantee that perpetuating your genes will mean perpetuating your values anyway. Our gene pool has not significantly improved or deteriorated over the last, say, 5,000 years, but let’s hope that our values have.
In 100 years: ALL NEW PEOPLE. None of us will be around in the flesh to either suffer or enjoy what the next century brings, and that goes for those who’ve procreated just as much as those who haven’t. Neither, of course, does that mean that those who will have no direct descendants walking the earth in 2110 have a lesser interest in making the future a good one.
In fact, were I given the choice of having EITHER my genes OR my values represented in future generations, I’d choose my values. Perhaps that sounds egotistical, but no more so than were I to assume that my genes are of such excellence that I must preserve them for posterity. My genes are simply accident of birth, after all, while my values are what I possess by choice.
I’ve seen Idiocracy and, while perhaps it’s true that the educated (as opposed to the “intelligent”) are having fewer children than the uneducated (as opposed to “stupid”), surely the proper response is not simply that the educated must procreate more and faster to keep up. Neither is it called for (at this point) to put strict limits on the fecundity of the “lower orders.” Why not expend our efforts towards raising the level of education of the lower end of the scale? Genetically, they’re as capable of achievement as those born into privilege, and if it turns out that those who rise above their “idiotic” beginnings likewise reproduce in lesser numbers, that at least keeps room for the next generation to likewise rise.
My comment above, by the way, is also my argument why people with no children must nonetheless support public schools through their taxes. You don’t plant an acorn so you can sit in its shade, you plant it so OTHERS may sit in the shade in the future.
The Marching Morons by C.M.Kornbluth (available on line). Written in 1951 and works on the premise that the more intelligent and/or educated you are the fewer children you have. As cautionary tales go it’s a winner.
The vast majority of all the bees and ants that have ever lived have left no direct descendants. Within your person this is also true of your cells. Multiplication without constraint is for cancer cells. Richard Dawkins may claim in fact that it is the hive that is the entity that produces other hives as progeny.
On a sideline, the maternal instinct may include a simple desire to hold a baby - any baby. This helps the species to survive even after the adults concerned are sterile. Maybe the paternal instinct is a myth. All males have travelling salesmen in their ancestry.
If one’s aim is to curb overpopulation, simply outlaw pesticides worldwide in the name of environmentalism. 2 Billion people would starve in less than 2 years if organic farming was the only method permitted.
Isn’t Planned Parenthood misnamed? It should be called Planned Childhood. I wonder why they don’t call it that?
And nighthawks, get your right-wing bigotry aligned correctly, please. It’s the NeoCons (mostly gone) who love war and the military industrial complex. The Tea Partiers don’t want to spend all that money. They’re very different political animals.
Orion-13 almost 14 years ago
Children? Someone’s planning ahead!
Orion
palos almost 14 years ago
How cruel.
pouncingtiger almost 14 years ago
Alex, you might like eye patches, but I hope you don’t like the reason why Leo wears it.
aardvarkseyes almost 14 years ago
They’d be a big hit on Talk Like a Pirate Day!
wmbrainiac almost 14 years ago
love is stupid, but sweet
Alexander the Good Enough almost 14 years ago
Yeah, boy howdy, what is it with females and baby-lust? I’ve never been able to figure that one. But I’ve had several women tell me that they figure they must be in love when they find themselves wondering about what “his” baby would be like. And a remarkable number of women turn on heel and walk away, and sometimes get very angry, when they find out I took care decades ago to see to it that I fire blanks. Every now and then, however, there is an appreciative exception, and bless them.
Sandfan almost 14 years ago
Alexander has the right idea. Overpopulation is the underlying cause of a large majority of the world’s problems. The entire world aspires to achieve the standard of living enjoyed by the United States. If China, Japan, and India join us at that level, it will require the resources of the entire planet Earth to sustain just the four of them.
If you are concerned about greenhouse gasses, deforestation, water shortages and all the other ecological problems, turn your attention to population growth.
Commentator almost 14 years ago
Great idea, let’s reduce the population in our developed countries while the underdeveloped world population soars. That will be really good for the planet.
randgrithr almost 14 years ago
Well Alex, if you want your children to have eye patches, just keep buying into what the politicians - Republican AND Democrat - tell you via the military/industrial complex.
And if they don’t end up with those, I am sure they’ll have some really swanky prosthetics just like B.D.
See, Alex, every kid - yours and others - who comes home wounded from these endless wars helps feed our rapacious Health Care Industry(tm). Take comfort in knowing your son or daughter will need doctors and prescriptions for the rest of his or her natural life. You can be proud to know that even after your kid’s military service, he or she will be supporting millionaire insurance executive and health care professional lifestyles, as well as Creating Jobs(tm).
So you’re wise to plan in advance for the crushing burdens your children will present to you as they are fed into the American military/industrial complex’s meatgrinder, Alex. Not that many people think that far ahead.
freeholder1 almost 14 years ago
LIke Alex should ever reproduce….
freeholder1 almost 14 years ago
Commentator; You noticed how our Catholic illegal visitors are become the majority, too, I see.
freeholder1 almost 14 years ago
Rand: with your sunny outlook, you must have voted Tea party this year.
asa4ever almost 14 years ago
Ain’t it great to be cannon fodder to fuel the economy.
Nighthawks Premium Member almost 14 years ago
just gouge one of their little eyes out as soon as they shoot out the birth canal
Nighthawks Premium Member almost 14 years ago
quite the opposite; the tea baggers LOVE those wars and the military industrial complex’s cool weapons to show what badasses we are to the rest of the world
Alexander the Good Enough almost 14 years ago
sandfan: Hear! Hear! The one organization I always donate to is Planned Parenthood. They are without doubt the “greenest” outfit around.
And for all, a perusal of Nicholas Kristof’s very germane column in the NYT is much to be recommended: http://preview.tinyurl.com/322ywzt
phdtogo almost 14 years ago
Sandfan, if population were a problem, then Singapore and Hong Kong would be the poorest places on earth.
randgrithr almost 14 years ago
$FH: I didn’t vote Tea Party. Rather the opposite.
I didn’t get what I voted for.
The Tea Party might as well be already running this country for what I did get. I don’t have to like it just because of who it’s coming from, and I don’t have to be quiet about it.
Coyoty Premium Member almost 14 years ago
sandfan, I think you overestimate the standard of living in the U.S. as compared to much of the rest of the world.
puddleglum1066 almost 14 years ago
AlexanderTheGoodEnough said, about one Octomom ago: “Yeah, boy howdy, what is it with females and baby-lust?”
Oh, about a billion years of evolution…
Alexander the Good Enough almost 14 years ago
Yeah, boy howdy there Puddle, I suppose that’s about right, give or take an eon or two. I’ve always held that were it not for the fact that women are crazy our species would fail to reproduce itself. Likewise, if men weren’t crazy we wouldn’t have all those lovely nuclear bombs. Go figure.
yuggib almost 14 years ago
AlexanderTheGoodEnough:
1st, I LOVE your “handle!”
2nd, Women are not “crazy,” they belong to a different species.
3rd, “Planned Parenthood” is an oxymoron. ZPG (Zero Population Growth) should be the norm, and NO kids at all would be (my) ideal. Got three of them before I figured out that I really do not like kids. Perpetuated the species at a great emotional cost to all of us.
fritzoid Premium Member almost 14 years ago
Anything more than two kids per couple is a huge mistake. On this, my older brother and sister are in complete agreement with me.
On a tangential note, I’m surprised that Kim has never confronted Mike with a ticking biological clock. To the best of my recollection, the issue (of issue) has never even been raised. She’s got to be pushing 40 by now, or close to it (she was a Vietnamese orphan brought to the US after the fall of Saigon).
Technically, Jeff Redfern is J.J.’s half-brother (making him Alex’s uncle), but it’s surprising how few brothers or sisters are ever mentioned in this strip (and, so far as I know, J.J. and Jeff have never met, except perhaps when he was an infant; Jeff’s birth was the last event before Trudeau’s first haitus, and I think the entire cast of the strip at that point had gathered for it). Mike’s brother Ben hasn’t been seen for years; Zonker presumably has a brother or sister (since Zipper is his nephew) but s/he has never been shown. B.D. and Boopsie only have one child, who seems to have NO aunts or uncles. Toggle has a mom but no siblings; Mel has a dad but (so far) no siblings. The common (but by no means universal) experience of brothers and sisters seems to be entirely absent in this strip.
By the way, it was once observed (I forget by whom; it might have been Vonnegut) that, under China’s one-child policy, the terms “brother” and “sister”, as well as “aunt” and “uncle”, would eventually become archaic (or metaphoric).
peter0423 almost 14 years ago
Apart from some of the dark/creepy comments today, one simple logical conclusion is: if you don’t have kids, you remove your genes from the gene pool, and your values from any future discussions. As they say, the decisions are made by the ones who show up.
If thoughtful, enlightened folks (all of us, of course) don’t have kids – and BTW, if you honestly don’t like kids, then you probably shouldn’t have them for their sake – then who does have them, and what happens over time? Anybody see the movie Idiocracy?
fritzoid Premium Member almost 14 years ago
SCAATY: “[O]ne simple logical conclusion is: if you don’t have kids, you remove your genes from the gene pool, and your values from any future discussions.”
I (respectfully) disagree with the second part of your conclusion. One’s values may be transmitted through means other than procreation, and there’s no guarantee that perpetuating your genes will mean perpetuating your values anyway. Our gene pool has not significantly improved or deteriorated over the last, say, 5,000 years, but let’s hope that our values have.
In 100 years: ALL NEW PEOPLE. None of us will be around in the flesh to either suffer or enjoy what the next century brings, and that goes for those who’ve procreated just as much as those who haven’t. Neither, of course, does that mean that those who will have no direct descendants walking the earth in 2110 have a lesser interest in making the future a good one.
In fact, were I given the choice of having EITHER my genes OR my values represented in future generations, I’d choose my values. Perhaps that sounds egotistical, but no more so than were I to assume that my genes are of such excellence that I must preserve them for posterity. My genes are simply accident of birth, after all, while my values are what I possess by choice.
I’ve seen Idiocracy and, while perhaps it’s true that the educated (as opposed to the “intelligent”) are having fewer children than the uneducated (as opposed to “stupid”), surely the proper response is not simply that the educated must procreate more and faster to keep up. Neither is it called for (at this point) to put strict limits on the fecundity of the “lower orders.” Why not expend our efforts towards raising the level of education of the lower end of the scale? Genetically, they’re as capable of achievement as those born into privilege, and if it turns out that those who rise above their “idiotic” beginnings likewise reproduce in lesser numbers, that at least keeps room for the next generation to likewise rise.
fritzoid Premium Member almost 14 years ago
My comment above, by the way, is also my argument why people with no children must nonetheless support public schools through their taxes. You don’t plant an acorn so you can sit in its shade, you plant it so OTHERS may sit in the shade in the future.
banderpal almost 14 years ago
The Marching Morons by C.M.Kornbluth (available on line). Written in 1951 and works on the premise that the more intelligent and/or educated you are the fewer children you have. As cautionary tales go it’s a winner.
unk3dee almost 14 years ago
The vast majority of all the bees and ants that have ever lived have left no direct descendants. Within your person this is also true of your cells. Multiplication without constraint is for cancer cells. Richard Dawkins may claim in fact that it is the hive that is the entity that produces other hives as progeny. On a sideline, the maternal instinct may include a simple desire to hold a baby - any baby. This helps the species to survive even after the adults concerned are sterile. Maybe the paternal instinct is a myth. All males have travelling salesmen in their ancestry.
Nemesys almost 14 years ago
If one’s aim is to curb overpopulation, simply outlaw pesticides worldwide in the name of environmentalism. 2 Billion people would starve in less than 2 years if organic farming was the only method permitted.
Isn’t Planned Parenthood misnamed? It should be called Planned Childhood. I wonder why they don’t call it that?
And nighthawks, get your right-wing bigotry aligned correctly, please. It’s the NeoCons (mostly gone) who love war and the military industrial complex. The Tea Partiers don’t want to spend all that money. They’re very different political animals.
S_T_F_U almost 14 years ago
If you can’t feed em, don’t have em.