I have read it in many blogs, and not just from Republican supporters.  The PUMAs out there bleat it as well.  President Obama is just not that smart.  He is an affirmative action candidate.  He wouldn’t be where he was if he weren’t black.  Yeah, thanks, Geraldine Ferraro for that early primer on how to be a racist when campaigning against Obama.  In fact, the virulent racism from the Clinton camp is what ultimately tipped me over to Obama’s side.  Yes, there was much sexism on the webs against Clinton, but I didn’t see Obama’s people engage as much in that kind of vile rhetoric.  Clinton’s posse, on the other hand, pushed the lucky black man crap as much as they dared.  Then, they got indignant when called on it and said Obama was playing the race card.

I am fucking sick and tired of racists being indignant for being called racists.  Here is Ta-Nehisi Coates on his take of this subject.  I’m not sure if it’s in that thread, but I really like one of his commenters saying that if people keep calling you a racist, maybe you should examine your behavior to see if it really is racist.  In other words, the more times you’re called a racist, the more likely it is that you’re acting in a racist way.

Anyway, back to our prez.  It would crack me up if it weren’t so appalling to read people write that clearly, the president isn’t very smart.  In whose world would this be true?  Believe me, I know from smart, and this man is smart.  It’s even more appalling because the people who usually write that Obama isn’t smart can’t even properly conjugate a verb.  It’s really hard to tell someone what racism looks like, but it’s incredibly easy to know it when you see it.  If anyone says the president isn’t smart, that’s racism.

You can argue with his credentials.  You can argue with his policies, his beliefs, his programs, and his rhetoric.  You cannot argue that he isn’t smart.  It’s especially egregious to hear after just suffering through the most idiotic president in my lifetime.  Really, after W. ran roughshod through the White House for the last eight years, you want to claim that Obama isn’t very smart?  In my not-so-humble opinion, that tactic is not very smart.

The reason this is particularly bugging me right now is because Justice David Souter is retiring after this session.  He was appointed to the Supreme Court by George Bush the Elder, and it was assumed he would be a rabid conservative.  This did not pan out, and he (Souter) was a pleasant surprise to embattled Democrats.  Now that he is stepping down, the GOP and the Village are falling all over themselves to paint the white man as the poor, hapless victim.  

Before Obama even has a chance to formulate a list, the Villagers are out with their pitchforks decrying the possibility that Obama will not choose a white man.  In fact, Mark Halperin’s article in Time is entitled, White Men Need Not Apply–or something equally incendiary.  I’m already fuming, so I’m not going to verify it or link to it.  You will have to find all links yourself for once.  Tweety has been bleating about a Latina being the cookie cutter choice.  So, because of all this crap, Sonia Sotomayor, is being considered a forerunner in the field.  Remember, this is despite the fact that Obama hasn’t said boo about his choice yet.

So, now that all this focus is on Judge Sotomayor, two inevitable memes have emerged from the rabble.  One is that she is not tempermentally-suited to be SCOTUS.  This is an accusation that is often leveled at ‘excitable’ Latinos and Latinas.  In addition, women are often accused of being emotional.  This is par the course.  The second meme is that she is an intellectual lightweight, not suited for the Supreme Court.  Yes, she graduated summa cum laude from Princeton in 1976, and yes, she graduated from Yale Law School and was editor of the Yale Law Journal, and yes she was nominated to the US District Court for the Southern District of New York by George Bush the Elder, then promoted to the appeals court by President Clinton.  None of that matters, you see, because it was all affirmative action-based and nothing else.  It’s the same with President Obama, don’t you know.

The worst, though, is the piece by Jeffrey Rosen in The New Republic, an ostensibly-liberal-leaning online mag in search of, well, a new republic.  He wrote a piece entitled, The Case Against Sonia Sotomayor.  Again, I’m not linking to it.  Instead, I’m linking to Glenn Greenwald’s dismantling of said piece.  In a nutshell, Rosen interviewed a bunch of people who anonymously said that Judge Sotomayor is too intemperate for the bench, and she is not smart enough.  Even one of the positives he notes, that she is single with no kids, is twisted into making her seem weird.  He concludes by saying that he hasn’t read enough of her opinions to know if she’s intellectual enough for the bench, but hell, that’s not going to get in the way of a good smear campaign, now is it?

The comments on all of these blog entries discussing this issue have been enlightening, hopeful, and infuriating at the same time.  To the conservatives, Judge Sotomayor is only being considered because she’s a Latina.  That’s affirmative action, they decry.  Yet, Thomas was picked clearly for the same reason (conservative black man, take that, Dems!), and no one said peep.  In fact, if you want to talk intellectual heft on the bench, you have to find a way around Thomas in order to do so.  In addition, Roberts and Stevens were chosen because they were (and are) rampant conservatives.  So why is it that only the Dems are excoriated on the activist judge issue?

Focus, Minna, focus.  Ok.  Here’s the thrust of the matter, as it were.  So many of the people decrying affirmative action says it’s fulfilling a quota system or taking the job away from a deserving white person, usually a man.  This presumes that the default position is one of the white male and that anything that deviates from this is because of affirmative action.  In most of the online discussions about Judge Sotomayor, the term affirmative action is flung around.  Yet, if you were to look at her creds without knowing her name or background, you most likely would be impressed.

There is another problem with racism/sexism, etc.  Most people think that they are not racist/sexist.  ”I never called a woman a bitch, so I can’t be sexist.”  ”I never shot at a black man, so I can’t be racist.  Hell, I don’t even own a white hood.”  These are only really, really overt forms of racism, and the easy ones to spot.  However, the subtle forms are much more insiduous and much harder to notice.  That’s why it can be so frustrating as a minority because you are trying to point something out that the majority truly cannot see.  They believe they have gotten everything they have on their own merits–conversely, if you haven’t succeded, it must be because of your own flaws.  

Here’s a little story that I love.  Orchestras have been traditionally overwhelmingly-male.  Women were deemed too tempermental, too small, too whatever to be in them.  This was ‘fact’ in the minds of many orchestra people.  Then, there was a study in which musicians who were auditioning for an orchestra spot did so behind a screen.  Guess what?  More female musicians were chosen after this practice was implemented.  Take a look at this article for more on that study and the effects thereafter.  

Part of the ugly effect of an ism is that the person in the minority has to constantly why she (and I’m using the generic she here) is equal to the majority person.  She has to prove that she is equal to, never mind better than her competition.  She shoulders the burden of proof, and the majority dude gets off scotfree.  No one talked about race or gender when Roberts was up for nomination, for example.  Or Souter.  Or Scalia.  No one questioned whether being married (or not) would help or hurt a man.  No one called Scalia intemperate, though he seems pretty damn excitable to me.  

In addition, they were all treated like individuals whereas someone like Sotomayor is lumped into a group.  She is in consideration because she’s a Latina, the Village people rationalize.  Affirmative action does not automatically get you the job–it just puts you in the playing field.  I got interviews because of affirmative action, maybe, but I was capable of doing any of those jobs.  AA just got my foot in the door–nothing more. 

As for being chosen on merit–please.  Again, why isn’t that asked of any of the current justices?  It’s been said that Scalia is brilliant, but there has been no scrutiny of this.  He gets a pass on it.  If I looked at his c.v., I am sure I could find instances when he wasn’t, ah, brilliant in a decision.  

I know this is a messy jumble.  Forgive me for that.  I am so weary of the tenacity of white male privilege whining that it saps me of my strength sometimes.  I am now going to make a bold declaration that you will rarely hear.  Some people who are against affirmative action ask this hypothetical, “If there are two candidates who are equally qualified and one is a white man and the other is a woman of color, are you saying that the woman of color should automatically get the job?”  It’s usually said in a tone reserved for one questioning whether or not the listener supports torture–no, scratch that.  It’s even more filled with horror than in the latter example.  

My response?  Yes.  If all other things are relatively equal, then the woman of color should be picked.  Why?  Because white men have had enough privilege up until now.  Until THEY can prove they are a little bit better, I will go for diversity every time.  

Last thing, take a look at the picture I posted.  That is the 2006 Supreme Court of the United States.  You tell me, who are the ones being unrepresented in the picture?  Here’s a hint:  It’s not white men.

I am Asian!  Give me back my tea, you scumbags!  Besides, the original BOSTON (not American) Tea Party was in protest of the British taxing the colonists when the colonists had no representation in the Parliament.  In other words, taxation without representation.  In the current invocation of Tea Parties, however, they Teabaggers are protesting, well, um, I’m not exactly sure what they are protesting.

President Obama’s higher tax rates!  Except, he cut taxes for 95% of Americans.  In addition, he did not raise taxes on the other 5%, he merely let the Bush taxcuts expire.  Now, that particular tax rate is the same as it was under Clinton.  In addition, it is 10% lower than it was under that great Communist leader, Ronald Reagan.  So, we can dismiss higher tax rates as a legitimate concern.

President Obama is bailing out the banks with OUR money!  Except, the bailout was passed under the LAST president.  Obama has nothing to do with the current bailout.  

President Obama is ripping off our children and grandchildren!  Except, the massive deficit/debt/negative money flow started under Bush (the Younger).  It skyrocketed when Bush decided to invade Iraq to protect our oil interests.  However, he never put the military spending of the two wars into the yearly budget, so now, it looks as if Obama is spending way more than Bush (and yes, ‘way more’ is a technical term) because Obama included the monies spent in Iraq and Afghanistan as part of the budget.

Am I worried about our deficit?  Hell, yeah.  It’s not comfortable seeing a number in the trillions and knowing that it’s only going to climb.  However, it is more than a little disingenious for the Teabaggers to be protesting the deficit now when none of them did so under Bush.  Worse, the left was basically told to support the president or shut the fuck up.  It was considered almost treasonous to disagree with Bush, and yet, today, we have the governor of Texas talking about secession.  Seriously.  The governor of Texas advocates for secession.  No, no, he doesn’t.  His people might, but he doesn’t.  But he’s going to keep mentioning it.    He was against the stimulus.  Until it became excruciatingly clear how idiotic that was.  Then he was for it, but only if he could use it to pay for things that would have had to have been paid for, anyway.  WTF?   Then, he evokes the Tenth Amendment because he believes the federal government has overstepped its boundaries.  Oh, but he just asked the feds for troops to patrol the border.  

Washington Monthly helpfully points out another blogger who explains that the Teabaggers are protesting an indeterminate tax hike some time in the indeterminate future.   Read the section entitled, “With an Eye on the Future”.  This, too, is a bunch of bollocks.

May I politely speak to the Teabaggers for a moment?  Dudes, you lost.  What we have now is taxation WITH representation, and most of you likely benefit from the new tax brackets.  Did you pay less taxes this year than last?  Did you get a refund?  Did you get your stimulus money?  If so, then I suggest you STFU or return the money.  What a bunch of fucking hypocrites.  Y’all stood by and watch Bush decimate the laws and the economy of this country.  He sank us so far into debt, I am not sure we will be out of it by the time I die.  

In addition, it would behoove you to actually have a message other than you hate Obama and black people and brown people and yellow people and the gayz and the feminazis and anyone else who doesn’t agree with you.  You have to get used to the fact that your leaders betrayed you and that you are no longer in the majority with your way of thinking.  

For god’s sake, people!  Obama has been in office for three months, and you’re already losing it.  What a bunch of wusses you are.  I lived for eight fucking years under that asswipe Bush, and that even bigger asswipe Cheney, and I didn’t get to this point until well into the second ter–no, I take that back.  I was never as crazed and incoherent as you.  

Let me tell you a little personal story.  My dad is a fierce believer in an independent Taiwan. After moving to MN to obtain his Ph.D. in economics, he really threw himself into the movement.  I remember marching the streets of Minneapolis when I was a kid, holding up signs proclaiming independence for Taiwan.  My dad was interviewed, and I remember seeing him on the teevee.  

As a result, he was blacklisted from Taiwan for over twenty years.  If he had returned, he would have been thrown into jail or killed in an ‘accident’.  He missed the funerals of both his parents because he couldn’t go back.  

Once he was allowed to return, he threw himself into the independence movement there.  He helped found the Democratic Progressive Party, and eight years ago, they elected a DPP president for the first time ever.  Unfortunately, he was a bad president, and the KMT (think GOP on steroids) reclaimed the presidency (and most of the congress) this past year.  They started throwing all the DPP leaders in jail for doing things (yes, bad things) that they themselves do ten times worse.  Sound familiar?

So.  Did my dad whine about how unfair it was after the election?  No.  Did he complain that his lifetime of work had gone down the drain?  No.  He sucked it up and moved on.  Most likely, Taiwan will be absorbed by China, maybe in his lifetime.  It must be incredibly painful to him to have to deal with all this, but he acknowledges that the KMT was democratically elected by the people.  Why?  Beause he’s a fucking patriot, man–the real kind.  

So, Teabaggers, STFU and do something productive to effect the changes you want.  And, drink some tea while you’re at it.  Chamomille.  Maybe it’ll calm you the fuck down.

In honor of Governor Perry, here is a parody of the NOM’s anti-gay marriage ad, “Gathering Storm”.  

Addendum:  I forgot to add that the Ron Paulites are miffed because apparently, they started the whole tea party thing (in protest of taxes), and they hate that it’s been co-opted by the right cabal in order to promote its (the right cabal’s) political talking points.  So, the Teabaggers are baggin’ each other.

If you are insulted by salty language and such, well then why the fuck are you reading me?  So consider yourself warned. 

I was going to continue my post from yesterday, but something else has cropped up.  There is a website run by a black lesbian called Pam’s House Blend, and I have her on my blogroll as well.  I like her and her cadre of writers and about eighty-five percent of the community.  However, that other fifteen percent really pisses me the fuck off.  This became evident after the passing of Prop. 8 when that minority started spewing racist shit about black people being the reason the measure didn’t pass, and how could they after all “we’ve done for them?”  This is when that stupid meme of “70% of all blacks voted for Prop. 8″, which, even true, is not the reason Prop. 8 passed. 

There was a lot of nasty talk, and I was only reading at the time, so I didn’t add my two-cents’ worth.  I did wonder, however, why no one was mentioning that by that same dubious exit poll, the only group to vote more AGAINST the proposition than FOR it was…Asians.  51% to 49%.  When the real numbers came in, Asians were still the group over all who voted the highest en masse against Prop. 8, more than whites, even.  It surprised the hell out of me that MY group was the least hateful in this matter, but it also burned me that nobody ever mentioned it, despite the fact that there are more Asians in CA than blacks in CA.  In 2007, the percentage of blacks in CA, according to US Census Bureau, was 6.7%  The Asian population in CA during the same year?  12.4%, almost twice as high. 

In other words, the Asian population’s vote can make a difference, too.  So while there was all this recrimination towards blacks for the passing of Prop. 8, despite the fact that whites make up 76.8% of Californians (including Latinos), there was no acknowledgement of a significant proportion of the population–the Asians.  It fits, in a way, with the invisible minority phenomena.  Asians aren’t really seen in America, but that’s not the topic of today’s rant.

The thing that bothered me about this racism in the LGBT community (as it were) is that the people typing were disproportionately white men.  The whole thing reeked of, “What have you done for ME?”  They kept whining about how they had done so much for black people (which I highly doubted), so why didn’t black people do the same for them?

What the fuck?  The LGBT community has not done jack shit to reach out to black people, and they ‘expected’ blacks to do for them?  Really?  Why the fuck should anyone do that?  See, this is the thing when you have had power in many ways.  When you don’t have it in one situation (being gay), then you expect everyone else to give it to you.  Why?  Because you deserve it.  Of course, everyone deserves equality, but no one is going to give it to you. 

I have seen this attitude from white men so fucking often, and it’s doubly-irritating in the LGBT community.  Someone pointed out that the problem with the LGBT community is that we are not a real community.  We are forced together by circumstances that we cannot control, but many of us would not socialize with each other in any other situation.  Indeed, we probably wouldn’t run into each other at all. 

I left the blog for a bit when a transwoman accused all LGBs of discriminating against her and how we were all hateful and the few of us who weren’t didn’t matter and no other discrimination mattered.   I had no idea why she was on the site because she hated us all, but there she was.  She rooted against gay marriage because she saw it as another way her oppressors would gain power over her.  Even though she called herself a lesbian and had a longterm partner. 

I was fed up, and I left.  I recently returned because I missed the rest, and because, quite frankly, I don’t know of any other LBT women of color who write about political issues as well as Pam does.  Plus, like I said, 85% of the community is aces.  Today, however, I lost it again.  I will post the entry in a link here.

See if you can tell why I went apeshit, and see if you can tell what is my username.  Trust me, it’s not that hard.  Read the first asterisked point, and then read the responses. 

So this white male (I figured from other postings that it’s a guy) resents us ‘harping’ on the issue of race because it’s a social construct.  Fuck you!  He said that all of us suffer equally in the LGBT community.  Fuck you!  Only a white person, especially a male, would say that.  I know it’s not easy to confront one’s own privilege (like me and class), but it’s far worse to pretend that it doesn’t exist or to get resentful when other people point it out. 

Ok.  I have nothing else to say about this because I am mad again.  I’m gonna listen to more Margaret Cho to cool down.

                                                                                                                                         6:31 p.m.   1/7/05

What’s this I feel coming on? Is it a rant? No, it’s a rave! How novel. How unexpected! I actually have something good to say about something for a change. What is it, you may ask? What has me feeling inspired and hopeful? Why, only the best political commentator, bar none. Who would that be, you’re asking yourself. George Will? Please. Al Franken? Ah, a favorite to be sure, but no, not him. Michael Moore? No, the angry one is not the target of my love this time. What about the oh-so-sexy Jon Stewart? Hm. Let me pause and reflect on the magnificent Mr. Stewart for a minute before reluctantly admitting that it’s not him, either. It’s Huey Freeman, a young African American boy who speaks the truth as he sees it. True, he is paranoid, grumpy, outraged at the world and self-righteous, but hey, so am I, and I’m three times his age.

Who is Huey Freeman, you ask? The star of his very own comic, The Boondocks, written brilliantly by the very talented Aaron McGruder. With his sidekick, Michael Caesar-Brooklyn, fool!-who provides much needed hilarity and his little brother, Riley, who aspires to be the biggest, baddest thug in Woodcrest-not a difficult thing in a milquetoast suburb-Huey takes on political issues with the fearlessness of Jet Li taking down the baddies in a Hong Kong action flick. He is rocking the ‘fro as he tells the truth as he sees it, and he doesn’t back down from confrontation, no matter how ridiculous or inane. In a world of bland, inoffensive comics, Huey–along with his creator, Aaron–is a breath of much-needed fresh air.

The Boondocks is one of those comics you either love or hate. Some people think there’s no room for political satire in a comic, but what a perfect venue to express controversial ideas. I don’t know who keeps perpetuating the idea that comics are only for children, but they need to stop. Comics are a great place to flesh out adult themes and messages because of the vivid images that can be provided through such a medium. Don’t believe me? Read a graphic novel or watch an adult cartoon. There is nothing fluffy or comforting about something like Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series, but it’s a joy to read, nonetheless.

Back to Huey and the gang. I remember when I read this comic for the first time in one of the two major Twin Cities’ papers. I laughed out loud and wanted to know who would dare write such a comic. I couldn’t wait to read The Boondocks every day, and it’s the only comic that provided me with consistent amusement. In fact, in all the time I’ve been reading it, I’d say I didn’t laugh out loud at it perhaps a handful of times. It’s the only comic which constantly tickles my admittedly macabre funny bone, and it’s the only comic which I feel ‘gets it’ over a long period of time. It’s also one of the only, if not the only comic to be yanked from one of the aforementioned local papers for being too controversial. White readers wrote in saying they thought it was racially divisive. This was after the strip about Riley being proud of making a white woman pull her daughter to the other side of the street when she saw him coming. The complainers wrote that it just perpetuated negative stereotypes, quite missing the point. I was seriously pissed when the paper punked out and canceled the comic.

Luckily, I have ucomics.com (now gocomics.com) which features The Boondocks daily. I also have all the books out so far, and I’m now reading A Right to be Hostile. Even though I’ve read all the comics before, I still find them astonishingly funny. See, that’s the most important thing about this strip. It’s damned funny. It’s edgy and strident and angry, which makes for good comedy. There is no placating nature to it. There is no underlying apology for being primarily about black people with few white people in it. The white people who are present are pretty minimal and mostly racist, but to varying degrees. The reason it works, however, is that it’s true to life. Racism exists in every form, and there isn’t a false step in any of the characters.

The reason that some black people don’t like it is because McGruder doesn’t let anybody off, including black people. He calls the shots as he sees them, including taking on a cultural icon such as BET. Yes, the station of the jiggling butts and the bling-bling. McGruder won’t let anyone get away with anything, not even Huey, his little revolutionary. Huey is not this perfect little kid who just wants to do good in the world. He is an angry, hostile, smart little kid who sees nothing wrong with breaking laws that don’t make sense to him. He’s self-righteous and enjoys being a downer. He has a hard time looking at anything positive, and he oozes disdain. Sometimes, even his best friend, Caesar, doesn’t know what to do with him.

Then there’s Riley. Ah, Riley. What to say about the little thug-wannabe. Some say that Riley is just a stereotype, but it’s not true. He’s a little boy who sees the rappers getting theirs, and he rightfully concludes that he should be getting paid, too. He likes to listen to Lauren Hill, however, though he won’t admit it. And he watches Oprah, though he will deny that as well. He’s a thug, yes, but he’s also a confused boy who has taken the capitalist message to heart, even if he does twist it up a bit. The series where he’s enamored with the NRA is a scream, but there’s also a kernel of truth to it. That, my friends, is another reason I like this strip so much. McGruder tackles real issues, not made-up ones. After 9/11, he was one of the only comics to even address the issue. While all the others were rah-rahing as were most of the media and people in general, Huey was keeping it real, doing what he does best-hating on Bush.

The thing is, everything he rails about is something I’ve railed about in my own time. When he makes comparisons between Bush and Hitler-saying the comparison isn’t fair because Hitler was elected. This was before the last election, obviously-I had to admire the audacity to actually put that in print. It’s something I would have thought but wouldn’t have the nerve to say it. Not only does McGruder say it, he prints it for millions to see. That’s courage of conviction, my friends, an admirable trait indeed. He continues to say these things even though people want him to shut the fuck up. The fact that he can say it with a sense of humor only makes it more admirable. Rarely does the humor turn bitter, which I consider amazing.

Then there’s the narcissistic factor in my liking this comic strip. Huey reminds me a lot of myself-except for the ‘fro, of course. He does things I’ve done or wish to do, and he thinks of the things I think about. The current series depicts him handing out coupons to friends and family members for a free one-hour lecture of his choice. When Caesar points out that Huey gave him a James Brown t-shirt, Huey remarks, ‘That’s because I like you.’ Then, the strip where Huey is about to lecture Tom about how he personally ruined the Democratic Party had me rolling on the floor-it is that funny. The point is that I’d do something like that. Hell, I send those kind of e-mails to friends all the time. Not because I don’t like my friends, but because I get so damn frustrated. Take the recent moral value shtick which got President Bush elected. I don’t know how many e-mails and essays I wrote in decrying that one, just like Huey would have done.

Then, there’s the fact that Huey and his gang give me respite from the world. Yes, it’s political and it tackles current issues which are sometimes difficult to talk about. However, it’s first and foremost a comic strip which means it’s primary focus is to make me laugh. That’s it, that’s all, and it does its job admirably. When my mind is filled with heavy thoughts, I turn to The Boondocks to cheer me up. There is nothing like a laugh to make things seem a little less dreary, something Huey would do well to learn. However, I wouldn’t want him to cheer up because much of the humor in the strip has to do with Huey’s discontent.

Another reason I love this comic strip is because I learn new things when I read it. More than once, I’ve had to Google something-usually a name-I either didn’t know or vaguely recognized. I am not one of those people who want to passively be fed pabulum while I sit with my mouth agape. I enjoy learning new things, and I think it’s refreshing to have to bust out the social dictionary while reading a comic strip. It makes me feel erudite when I do catch the obscure references. Also, I like the fact that the comic doesn’t talk down to its audience. It assumes that the reader can hang with a little highbrow culture thrown into the mix. I’d much rather have to look things up than to roll my eyes because of the juvenile language in a comic strip. I like to be challenged, and McGruder is the exemplary at pulling this off without seeming condescending about it.

Finally, I take issue with people who say McGruder is promoting racial stereotypes. He is not! He is using them to cleverly subvert the reader’s own biases. Anyone too stupid to see that ought not be reading it, anyway. Besides, ever get a look at Beetle Bailey? Besides being criminally unfunny, it’s got some of the worst racial stereotyping I’ve ever seen. The obsequious slanty-eyed Asian guy who kisses butt to make it up the ranks. The thick-lipped, bug-eyed black man who…I’m not sure what he does, but the visual representation is offensive enough. The buxom secretary who has to fend off the old geezer’s passes. That’s not racial stereotyping? That’s not offensive? And yet, I don’t recall anyone clamoring for…who writes the damn thing, anyway? Mort Walker? Is that his name? That strip’s been around forever. Anyway, I don’t see anyone clamoring for him to turn in the towel.

In conclusion, I urge everybody to read this comic strip with an open mind. Get beyond the surface and see the brilliance that is The Boondocks. This is one of the three best comics ever, and I will not discuss this point. Go meet Huey, Riley, their grandfather, Jazmine and her parents, Caesar, the hysterical Cindy, and the rest of the characters who represent Woodcrest, word. It’ll be the best present you give yourself, fresh for ’05, sucker!