Recent Comments

1. over 2 years ago on Pearls Before Swine

   Well, the old gray mare, she ain’t what she used to be; ain’t what she used to be.ain’t what she used to be.The old gray mare, she ain’t what she used to be; Many long years ago.

2. almost 3 years ago on Cul de Sac

   See paragraph 2 of the Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_quantification

3. almost 3 years ago on Pearls Before Swine

   When Michigan and Ohio were trying to get admitted as states, they fought over who would get Toledo. The compromise was: Ohio got Toledo, and Michigan was given the U.P. But if you want to know where the U.P. really belongs, just ask a few residents if they’re fans of the Detroit Lions, or the Green Bay Packers.

4. about 3 years ago on Non Sequitur

   It’s pretty standard in the comics that “children” are stand-ins for adults.

5. over 3 years ago on For Better or For Worse

   I’ve talked to a local farmer who grows seedless watermelons. He says that 1 in 12 watermelons have to be “seeded” ones in order to fertilize the seedless ones. But he can’t sell the seeded ones anymore. So he usually donates the seeded ones to a local food pantry. Now, to give my grandchildren the true experience, I just have to remember to put in a request for a seeded watermelon ahead of a visit from the little ones.

6. almost 5 years ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   It’s “The Little Prince”!

7. almost 14 years ago on Doonesbury

   sandfan writes:

   Sex is a biological imperative. In order for species to persist, they must by definition reproduce to ensure the continuation of their species. Without reproduction the species ceases to exist.

   But of course there is only a need for some members of the species to reproduce. There are many examples where specific members of a species do not reproduce, but may be necessary to the survival of their species in other ways. (See, for example, the biological literature on the roots of altruism.)

   So how are homosexuals reproducing? Is there a recessive gene, like blue eyes, that pops up a certain percentage of the time?

   That is one of the biological conjectures, yes. The other primary one is that everyone has biological options of being sexually attracted in either way, and that some type of “switch” at an early stage decides which biological aspect is switched on at what point. That hypothesis doesn’t seem to me to be particularly consistent with the twin studies that showed the biological roots of homosexuality in the first place, but it is still an option. (It might also account for the some of the wide variety of the spectrum of sexuality identites.)