Bush's Fleurs du Mal

(Note from Ted: I don't usually repost entire articles by other people, often I'll include a portion with a link to the original, but this time, I just thought it was SO good, that I had to share it in it's entirety.)

Bush's Fleurs du Mal
By Maureen Dowd
The New York Times
Sunday 27 May 2007

For me, the saddest spot in Washington is the inverted V of the black granite Vietnam wall, jutting up with the names of young men dying in a war that their leaders already knew could not be won.

So many died because of ego and deceit - because L.B.J. and Robert McNamara wanted to save face or because Henry Kissinger wanted to protect Nixon's re-election chances.

Now the Bush administration finds itself at that same hour of shame. It knows the surge is not working. Iraq is in a civil war, with a gruesome bonus of terrorists mixed in. April was the worst month this year for the American military, with 104 soldiers killed, and there have been about 90 killed thus far in May. The democracy's not jelling, as Iraqi lawmakers get ready to slouch off for a two-month vacation, leaving our kids to be blown up.

The top-flight counterinsurgency team that President Bush sent in after long years of pretending that we'd "turned the corner" doesn't believe there's a military solution. General Petraeus is reduced to writing an open letter to the Iraqi public, pleading with them to reject sectarianism and violence, even as the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr slinks back from four months in Iran, rallying his fans by crying: "No, no, no to Satan! No, no, no to America! No, no, no to occupation! No, no, no to Israel!"

W. thinks he can save face if he keeps taunting Democrats as the party of surrender - just as Nixon did - and dumps the Frankenstate he's created on his successor.

"The enemy in Vietnam had neither the intent nor the capability to strike our homeland," he told Coast Guard Academy graduates. "The enemy in Iraq does. Nine-eleven taught us that to protect the American people we must fight the terrorists where they live so that we don't have to fight them where we live."

The president said an intelligence report (which turned out to be two years old) showed that Osama had been trying to send Qaeda terrorists in Iraq to attack America. So clearly, Osama is capable of multitasking: Order the killers in Iraq to go after American soldiers there and American civilians here. There AND here. Get it, W.?

The president is on a continuous loop of sophistry: We have to push on in Iraq because Al Qaeda is there, even though Al Qaeda is there because we pushed into Iraq. Our troops have to keep dying there because our troops have been dying there. We have to stay so the enemy doesn't know we're leaving. Osama hasn't been found because he's hiding.

The terrorists moved into George Bush's Iraq, not Saddam Hussein's. W.'s ranting about Al Qaeda there is like planting fleurs du mal and then complaining your garden is toxic.

The president looked as if he wanted to smack David Gregory when the NBC reporter asked him at the news conference Thursday if he could still be "a credible messenger on the war" given all the mistakes and all the disillusioned Republicans.

"I'm credible because I read the intelligence, David," he replied sharply.

But he isn't and he doesn't. Otherwise he might have read "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." in August 2001, and might have read the prewar intelligence reports the Senate just released that presciently forecast the horrors in store for naïve presidents who race to war because they want to be seen as hard, not soft.

Intelligence analysts may have muffed the W.M.D. issue, but they accurately predicted that implanting democracy in Iraq would be an "alien" idea that could lead to turbulence and violence; that Al Qaeda would hook up with Saddam loyalists and "angry young recruits" to militant Islam to "wage guerrilla warfare" on American forces, and that Iran and Al Qaeda would be the winners if the Bushies botched the occupation.

W. repeated last week that he would never retreat, but his advisers are working on ways to retreat. After the surge, in lieu of strategy, come the "concepts."

Condi Rice, Bob Gates and generals at the Pentagon are talking about long-range "concepts" for reducing forces in Iraq, The Times reported yesterday, as a way to tamp down criticism, including from Republicans; it is also an acknowledgment that they can't sustain the current force level there much longer. The article said that officials were starting to think about how to halve the 20 American combat brigades in Iraq, sometime in the second half of 2008.

As the Hollywood screenwriter said in "Annie Hall": "Right now it's only a notion, but I think I can get money to make it into a concept and later turn it into an idea."

More from the Department of Injustice

More on the Department of Injustice
Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper — Schleswig Leader, Thursday, May, 31, 2007 – Page 3 by Ted Mallory http://tmal.multiply.com

“Caging” is a technique that political operatives use to disqualify voters. This is not just another political “Dirty Trick,” (remember those from the Nixon era?) Caging is a way of targeting a group of voters that you suspect will vote for your opponent, and making sure that their vote doesn’t count.

One way to cage is to send registered mail to a voter’s address. The cager hopes that the mail will be returned as undeliverable, or that the voter will refuse to sign for the letter. When that happens, they can use the failed delivery to call the voter’s home address into question and force them to prove that they can legally vote.

“Caging lists” are simply rosters of people who didn’t respond to the registered mailing. These lists are given to political operatives who volunteer to work at the polls on election day. When someone on the list shows up to vote, the operatives will challenge them. Often voters give up and leave without voting, or cast a provisional ballot which is less likely to be counted.
Caging targets the most vulnerable voters, people who might have the hardest time proving their status. For instance; the elderly, Black veterans or homeless people.

Former liaison to the White House for the Justice Department, Monica Goodling testified to the House Judiciary Committee, last week that Deputy Attorney General McNulty knew that the White House’s pick of interim US Attorney for Eastern Arkansas, Tim Griffin, had been involved in vote caging during the 2004 presidential election. Griffin, a former research director of the Republican National Committee, was behind a plot to disenfranchise 70,000 Florida voters during the 2004 presidential election, according to BBC News.

Hmmm. Sure would be convenient for Republicans to be able to suppress votes in Arkansas come 2008. In the event that the Democratic Presidential candidate were to be, say, the former First Lady of that state, delivering a big win to whatever Republican candidate is running would sure make her look bad.

The most frightening thing about this whole Justice Department mess is that it has turned up proof like this, that there is a ruthless movement among some (not all, mind you) Republicans to establish a one-party system in our country.

I have moderate friends who say, “yeah but we shouldn’t concentrate too much power in the hands of the Democrats either, because neither party should control all three branches of government.

Yeah, okay, except that they’re forgetting that as Will Rogers once said, “I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.”
This caging business is more than enough reason for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to be impeached.

Much of Goodling’s also testimony underscored the inconsistency (dishonesty?) of Attorney General Gonzales’ previous testimony.

And incase you didn’t hear about it from the mainstream media (Larry King was busy talking about Joey Buttafuco and Amy Fischer’s affair- circa 1997!) There’s also the little thing about how Gonzo tried to strong arm his predecessor into violating the Constitution for the President.
You hadn’t heard about that? Oh, well, it seems like former Attorney General John Ashcroft (no great defender of civil rights and civil liberties himself) was on his death bed after an attack of gallbladder pancreatitis.

According to testimony from former Deputy Atty. Gen. James Comey, Gonzales, then the top White House lawyer, and then-White House chief of staff Andrew Card tried to persuade Ashcroft to sign papers reauthorizing President Bush’s controversial warrantless domestic wiretapping program.

Ashcroft, former Solicitor General Theodore Olson and FBI Director Robert Mueller all believed the program to be illegal and were all willing to quit, rather than sign off on it.
Ashcroft reminded the two thugs that he wasn’t even acting Attorney General at the time and that they’s have to ask Comey. The left without even acknowledging Comey was in the hospital room.

That night Card called Comey and demanded that he meet with them in the White house.
Comey refused to meet with them without witnesses. He asked FBI Director Oslon to accompany him. The four men discussed their differences over the program and the next day the White house reauthorized the program without any approval from the Justice Department.

I know that the Democrats will never have the votes to impeach President Bush or Vice President Cheney, but I think that there may be enough Republicans who actually value the rule of law that they could impeach Gonzales. I don’t think that a mere non-binding “no confidence” vote goes far enough.

Please, whether you’re a Republican or Democrat, write your Congressman and tell them that you value justice too much to let Gonzales continue as the top law enforcement officer of the land. Write IA Dist 5 Rep. Steve King Write IA Sen. Tom Harkin Write IA Sen. Chuck Grassley

___________________________________
PS (About the Cartoon) Man, Lieberman burns me! Everyone is angry that the House Dems gave Bush what he wanted on the Iraq Funding bill, but the fact is that part of the pressure they're facing from Republicans is because of this dweeb from Connecticut. If only South Dakota Democrat Tim Johnson would get healed-up and head back to DC.

On the technical side. I spent WAY too much time on this cartoon. ( I SO need to be getting the yearbook done) I'm also afraid that I relied on the "warp" tool in PhotoShop too much, instead of my own caricaturing skills. Be that as it may, I kind of like how it turned out. I think it looks like some REAL professional cartoonist somewhere did it, instead of me.

Oh, by the way- check out his tie! Cool huh?

Go see a lot more of my cartoons at http://tmal.multiply.com/photos/album/2

Big oil profits vampire

Editorial Cartoon for the May 31, 2007 Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper and Schleswig Leader.

So I'm a little anxious about how much my family vacation is going to cost me- there's still no excuse for the record profits that the oil companies are sucking from us, especially here in the heartland- farmers, truckers, people just driving to work. It is absolutely heinous and I could think of no iconic figure more evil that this one.

Remeber the Fallen

What Heroes Gave
by Roger Robicheau

Each donned their uniform to be
Defenders of our liberty

Their mission sure, their spirits bright
Guard freedom’s home, be brave to fight

One final day each faced their call
Each gave their best enduring all

We’ll never know what they went through
But know they loved this country true

Deep down inside we should all feel
What heroes gave, their cost so real

We must stay thankful, grateful of
The gift of freedom through their love

Their loved ones bore the gravest pain
What we can’t know, some now sustain

To God I pray their pain will cease
And each will find long-lasting peace

Remember this from year to year
What heroes gave – shan’t disappear

We’ll never let their special day
Their time for honor slip away

These brave fought for a nation free
If not for them, where would we be?

Richardson's Resume

Click here to see the BEST Campaign commercial so far.

I think that his resume really says it all. Of course it is STILL to early to bet on any horse in this race, but I guess Edward's expensive haircut really lost him credibility with me and I keep wishing that Obama will show the same kind of passion and guts that Edwards does. I never was a big Hillary fan. Now, I have a friend who works for a national lab that complained about how Richardson ran the Dept. of Energy, but from all the speeches I've heard and the policy statements I've read- I don't know what's not to like.

It's all in his commercial, but for the sake of review:

• Taught Government at a Santa Fe Community College
• Congressman
• Diplomat/special envoy who's negotiated with Iraq, Iran, and North Korea
• Ambassador to the UN
• Director of Dept. of Energy
• Governor

I don't know, seems like Bush, Bolton, Rice and Wolfowitz have loused up our stature in the world pretty good, so an experienced diplomat might be helpful.

With the price of gas what it is, maybe someone with experience in alternative forms of energy might be useful.

Sure, there's been lots of talk about the firts African-American, and the first woman, even the first Mormon, but what with all that's going on with the immigration bill, maybe having someone who's mother is from Mexico, who's governed a border state, who's genuinely bi-lingual (not semi-illiterate in English and Spanglish like Bush) might just be helpful. Hispanics constitute 14% of the U.S. population since the 2005 census (Blacks only make up 12.8 %).

I'm not making any kind of an endorsement, there's still a lot to like about all the Democrats, and we can always keep hoping that either Al Gore or Lee Iaccoca will run, but I definitely think that Richardson deserves a look.

In New Hampshire, “An eye popping jump for Richardson," in a new Zogby poll, according to Chris Bowers from MyDD.

Hillary Clinton 28% (29%)
Barack Obama 26% (23%)
John Edwards 15% (23%)
Bill Richardson 10% (2%)
Dennis Kucinich 4% (1%)
Joe Biden 1% (2%)

Learn more about him from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Richardson

Visit his new Iowa blog:
http://iowa.richardsonforpresident.com/communities/iowa

Honor them, bring them home, send Bush to Iraq instead

Yum, cookies!

This is a terrific animated cartoon from one of the founders of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream that explains a lot about what's wrong with our Federal budget!

This weekend

Dear Ted,

On Monday, our nation will observe Memorial Day -- a day which is incredibly solemn and sacred, especially to those of us who served our nation with military service.

For one day, WesPAC and our friends at VoteVets.org and the National Security Network will put politics completely aside, and stand in solidarity with the rest of our nation to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice for the United States. Whether you are a Democrat, Republican, or of another party or no party at all, we are all still Americans, and on this day, we should solely be focused on honoring those who died in service. We're also asking that people not protest at Memorial Day events; we have 364 other days to argue policy and politics, but this day belongs to the fallen and their memories.

Today, please consider making a donation to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund (http://www.fallenheroesfund.org), which is dedicated to helping the families of those who died in service. The Intrepid Fund has already provided $60 million in aid to families, but can only continue to do so with your support.

Above all, take a day to learn more about someone who died in defense of America. If you're at a parade or prayer service and you see a veteran or military family member, ask him or her who they are honoring. Learn more about that hero, so their memory can endure. Too often, we talk about the fallen in terms of numbers. We forget, each of those numbers were real people, with real lives, and real families. The names on the thousands of memorials across America are more than letters etched in stone -- they are lives lost with honor. The best way we can honor those who sacrificed their lives is to ensure that the memory of who they were as human beings is never forgotten. Please, on Memorial Day, do your part to ensure their memory lives on.

Thank you for your support of our troops and veterans.

Sincerely,

Wes Clark
Jon Soltz, Iraq War Veteran, VoteVets.org
Rand Beers, USMC (ret.), National Security Network

Visit SecuringAmerica.com

One Party System; one way or another

So... Tom Delay's gerrymandering in Texas, the Voting Machine company's CEO promising to deliver Ohio in 2004, and his daddy's appointed Supreme Court stopping the vote recount in Florida in 2002 wasn't enough. Even having Attorney General Gonzales fire all those U.S. Attorneys to replace them with politically loyal cronies who will accuse Democrats of vote tampering to guarantee a GOP win in 2008 wasn't enough... Now they're making sure that they can burn down the Reichstag so Bush can activate his version of Hitler's Enabling Act! He says that it is to "ensure constitutional government," but how often has he already violated, ignored, or circumvented the Constitution already?

I'm telling you- call me a nut or a crank if you want to, but what if more people like me would've spoke up in 1930's Germany? PLEASE, Republicans and Democrats alike- don't let this slip by. Write your Senators and Congressmen. Write your newspapers.

When fascism comes to America,
it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.

~Sinclair Lewis

"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."

~George. W. Bush (Dec. 18, 2000)

May 22, 2007 12:50pm The National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive, signed on May 9, 2007 declares that in the event of a “catastrophic event”, George W. Bush can become what is best described as "a dictator":

"The President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for ensuring constitutional government."

This directive, completely unnoticed by the media, and given no scrutiny by Congress, literally gives the White House unprecedented dictatorial power over the government and the country, bypassing the US Congress and obliterating the separation of powers. The directive also placed the Secretary of Homeland Security in charge of domestic “security”. Read Article

Meanwhile, Congress capitulates to Bush and offers to fund the war after all, U.S. amasses naval fleet in the Persian Gulf, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that if Israel repeats the mistakes made last summer in Lebanon, the region's nations will eradicate her.

I want to say "Come, Lord Jesus," but that's actually what some (heretical) right-wing Christian's think that the Bush foreign policy is intended to do- bring about Armageddon. As if you could force the hand of God! Will someone PLEASE impeach this imbecile!

The Connecticut Yankee in King George's Court

Editorial Cartoon for the May 31, 2007 Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper and Schleswig Leader.

Man, this guy burns me! Everyone is angry that the House Dems gave Bush what he wanted on the Iraq Funding bill, but the fact is that part of the pressure they're facing from Republicans is because of this dweeb from Connecticut. If only South Dakota Democrat Tim Johnson would get healed-up and head back to DC.

On the technical side. I spent WAY too much time on this cartoon. ( I SO need to be getting the yearbook done) I'm also afraid that I relied on the "warp" tool in PhotoShop too much, instead of my own caricaturing skills. Be that as it may, I kind of like how it turned out. I think it looks like some REAL professional cartoonist somewhere did it, instead of me.

Oh, by the way- check out his tie! Cool huh?

Go see a lot more of my cartoons at http://tmal.multiply.com/photos/album/2

Some of other people's cartoons

BAM!- that's MY problem with the new immigration bill.

This one goes out to everyone I know over 65- God bless ya

That is exactly what I said when I spotted that article in the paper.

My own Memorial Day Address

My own Memorial Day Address
Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper — Schleswig Leader, Thursday, May, 24, 2007 – Page 3 by Ted Mallory http://tmal.multiply.com

Eleven score and eleven years ago our ancestors brought forth on this continent, a new nation, supposably conceived in Liberty (that is the freedom to determine our own fates), and dedicated to the proposition everyone is equal.

Now we are entangled in a messy, sectarian civil war in another country that we invaded four years ago unilaterally and pre-emptively. We were told that they had weapons of mass destruction that posed an imminent threat to us. They didn’t.

It was insinuated that they were in league with the religious fanatic group that had used terrorist tactics to attack us a year and a half before. They weren’t.

We are divided as a nation over whether we should continue investing the lives of our men and women and obscene amounts of money to try to impose our will on this country, or to begin bringing them home and redeploying them and begin trying to find diplomatic and political solutions to the problems that resulted from our invasion.

Fortunately, this time we are united in our concern for and pride in those men and women who have been placed in harm’s way, in principle- fighting for our security and freedom, no doubt, as in any war, fighting every day for each other’s security and survival.

We also continue to be divided on social, legal, and political issues. Whether it’s better to preserve our rule of law that was designed to protect our liberty or all but abandon those protections in order to extract revenge on those who have or would attack us and hopefully prevent them from doing it again.

Whether it is better to preserve our rule of law that was designed to protect the liberties, equality and justice afforded to all people in our society, or deny many of those rights and privileges to those who some of us fear would represent too much change in our society.

Whether it is better to tolerate the dynamic tensions, conflicting interests, and frustrating bureaucracy that is part of the balanced system that our forefathers established, or disregard it in favor of an authoritarian political ideology that considers individual and other societal interests inferior to the needs of the state, and seeks to forge a type of national unity based on religious, cultural, and business interests.

These conflicts are all testing whether this nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.

This weekend, many of us will meet in community buildings, churches, Legion halls, and cemeteries. Others will probably head for the lake, a ball game, or a barbecue.
We set aside this weekend to remember those who here gave their lives that our nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

Wherever they shed their blood, is now sacred ground- whether at Lexington and Concord, Gettysburg and Anteitam, the Argone Forest, Omaha Beach and Iwo Jima, Inchon and Kapyong, Dong Ap Bia and Tet, Kandahar and Kabul, or Basrah and Fallujah.

You probably won’t clip and save this column, you’ll forget it by next week, But even if you never try to memorize Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, please never forget the people who gave their all for our country.

Even if you never attend a Memorial Day ceremony and just treat it like any other three day weekend, please remember what Memorial Day is for. Say a prayer for the families and loved ones of soldiers and guardsmen who are overseas. Find out how you can send a care package or help with toys or meals.

After all, it really is for us the living, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be dedicated to the great task remaining before us --

That from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain.

Even if we vehemently disagree with or disapprove of the policies and decisions made by political leaders of either party.

-- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Stay informed, know your rights, participate in Caucuses, and let your self be heard- don’t be apathetic or complacent. We owe it to them.


Ted Mallory lives in Charter Oak and teaches at Boyer Valley Schools in Dunlap. ‘Ted’s Column’ has appeared weekly in the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper since 2002. If you’d like to see any of Ted’s editorial cartoons bigger and brighter, you can visit http://tmal.multiply.com/photos/album/2

What’s Cooking

Cheeseburgers in Paradise

8 pineapple slices
3/4 cup teriyaki sauce
1 pound ground beef
1 large sweet onion -- sliced
1 Tablespoon butter or margarine
4 lettuce leaves
4 onion or sesame seed buns, split and toasted
4 slices Swiss cheese
4 bacon strips -- cooked

Drain pineapple juice into a small bowl; add teriyaki sauce. Place 3 Tablespoon in a resealable plastic bag. Add pineapple and rotate to coat; set aside. Shape beef into four patties; place in a 8” square baking dish. Pour the remaining teriyaki sauce mixture over patties; marinate for 5-10 minutes, turning once. In a skillet, saut onion in butter until tender, about 5 minutes. Grill or broil burgers until no long pink. Place pineapple on grill or under broiler to heat through. Layer lettuce and onion on bottom of buns. Top with burgers, cheese, pineapple and bacon
Replace tops; serve immediately.

Key West Sweet Potato Fries

6 sweet potatoes, cut into French fries
2 tablespoons canola oil
3 tablespoons taco seasoning mix
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
In a plastic bag, combine the sweet potatoes, canola oil, taco seasoning, and cayenne pepper. Close and shake the bag until the fries are evenly coated. Spread the fries out in a single layer on two large baking sheets.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until crispy and brown on one side. Turn the fries over using a spatula, and cook for another 30 minutes, or until they are all crispy on the outside and tender inside. Thinner fries may not take as long.

Serve with Heintz 57 sauce and large dill pickle on the side.

Virgin Frozen Fruit “Boat Drink”

2 oranges
2 lemons
1 cup sugar
1 16 oz can crushed pineapple
2 cup ginger ale
3 bananas -- mashed

Grate the rinds of one of the oranges and one of the lemons. Squeeze juice from both lemons and oranges. Combine juice and grated rind with sugar, pineapple, ginger ale and bananas. Pour into a 6 cup mold and freeze. Remove from mold and thaw 20 to 30 minutes before serving. Serves 6 to 8.

There's more at the Ricketts Website

I keep adding to the website of everybody's favorite hometown that is SO nice, they named it after a vitamin deficiency-

Please check it out. The more hits it gets, the more likely search engines like Google are to list it.

http://rickettsiowa.blogspot.com/

 

If you have any stories or pictures to add, please email them to me!
And if you know anyone else in or from Ricketts and the area who might get a kick out of it, please forward it to them. While you're at it, feel free to link to it from your own website too.

 

Thanks, (sorry to "spam" you like this)

_____________________________
Pirate Prayers at:
http://malloryprayer.blogspot.com

Ted's cartoons, artworks, photos, and commentary at:
http://tmal.multiply.com

"The gospel is meant to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." ~Garrison Keillor

Proof that this column is printed

Just wanted to give you scanned-into-the computer proof that this column appears in print. Small-town, small circulation print, but print never the less...

the old "Bill-and-chain"

Editorial Cartoon for the May 24, 2007 Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper and Schleswig Leader.

I'm not a huge Hillary fan, but there is a bizarre affectionate place in my heart for 'ol Bill, so I hope you Republican friends appreciate this one- it wasn't easy for me.

Go Obama, Go Edwards, Draft Gore!

Read this my May 24 column too at http://tedscolumn.blogspot.com

Commence Addressing

Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper — Schleswig Leader, Thursday, May 17, 2007 – Page 3

Here’s a sensitive subject that I’d like to address, commencement.

Commencement is supposed to be a ceremony after which people who have just become former high school seniors commence with the rest of their lives, sometimes known as adulthood.

Really, it’s a ceremony after which these adolescents who are convinced that they are no longer children, have to be coerced by their mammas to commence addressing a stack of thank-yous for all the cards and money and stuff that people gave them as a reward for somehow surviving high school.

Commencement remains a rite of passage for young people in a time when rites of passage pass sooner then they used to because kids think that they somehow have a right to their rites of passage earlier.

Kids these days start drinking and smoking and “experimenting” with sex and drugs in junior high. Remember when kids used to “experiment” with smoking in junior high and drinking in high school and “discovered” sex in college? Remember when people who used drugs generally dropped out of college, and “discovered” that life was pretty hard when you couldn’t hold down a decent job?

Some of us “experimented” with smoking and “discovered” drinking in college. We’re the same squares who experimented with cussing in junior high and keep hoping to rediscover sex after years of marriage. Today, kids are cussing and fighting, dating, and threatening laws suits, in early elementary school.

Which begs some questions; when does adolescence commence, and when does it end? When does adulthood commence? With so few rites of passage left to pass through at the end of what we used to quaintly consider childhood, what exactly does it mean to be an adult anyway?
What got me thinking about this is that Ellen, my five year old up and asked me one day, “Daddy, inside your brain, do you sometimes think you’re still a kid? Like, are you the same person inside your brain as you were you were when you were a little kid, like MY age?”

Honestly? I didn’t want to tell her that inside I wish I didn’t have work and responsibility and bills and all the pressure and expectations that we adults all have. All I want to have to do is watch Saturday morning cartoons and eat breakfast cereal. But I didn’t tell her that. I don’t really know what I told her, some grown-uppy thing about how you’re always the same person inside, you just grow and get smarter and more mature and blah blah blah.

One of the ways to know you’re an adult is if you recognize that the behavior of other adults is hopelessly adolescent. Like politicians, musicians, professional athletes, celebrities of both the big and small screens calling people names, lying, cheating, stealing, gossiping, arguing, flaunting their toys and clothes, throwing tantrums when they don’t get their own way or paying hundreds of dollars for a haircut.

But you REALLY know you’re an adult when you feel it’s important (even if it’s nearly impossible) to try to explain to your children WHY the things those supposed adults are doing are so inappropriate, hurtful, self-destructive, or just plain immature.

I know that in some ways the class of 2007 is a lot more worldly and road-worn than most that have gone before them. The September 11 attacks happened when they were in seventh grade, we invaded Iraq when they were in eighth grade. But let’s hope that the rest of they’re life lessons don’t have to be so hard-learned.
Let the commencements commence!

See ya next year

That's me taking a picture of a painting student's Jackson Pollack-esque abstract expressionist painting. Kind of a cool abstract, reflection shot, huh?

Congratulations Seniors!

Here are three wonderful paintings by Lynzie Malone, graduating this weekend with the class of 2007. Both she and her twin sister Cheri are outstanding artists and both of them are competing at the State Girl's Track Meet for Boyer Valley this week. Congratulations and good luck ladies. Keep making fantastic art.

Painting Students

Ryan and Jessica working on their Finals
The brothers McGinn working on their finals
I think Jessica's oil painting of a poppy is just beautiful. She really gives Georgia O'Keefe a run for her money.

Phoenix

I did this awesome sculpture in iron of a dove way back in college (1992 or 93)
Alas, all I have left of it is a old 35 mm film negative. Fortunately, the school gave the yearbook a new scanner that has a film negative adapter in it! Maybe I should ask my Farmer-in-law if I can borrow his arc welder this summer.

Megan

I think I'm done. 8x10 Acrylic on canvas board. I got some bright, funky colors back, but I had to go with primaries because I never could capture the purples that I wanted. I think it lends a Latino flavor to it. Don't know if that's my Southwestern background coming out or her Hispanic heritage or just coincidence. Students think it looks like her and one of my best students said that they like it so I think it's ready to go.

Scroll down to see how it looked when I first started and while I was working on it.

PhotoShop Fun

Colton here, needed me to take his photo so he could use it for his Drawing final. He wanted to know what kinds of things we could do to him in PhotoShop- And so, I showed him. (place evil, maniacal laugh here). Above, Colton as the Incredible Hulk, below- only his eyes remained natural.

Not sure

I don't know if this is progress or regression. I liked the variety of colors and the bold vibrant colors yesterday. I'm not sure how much it looks like the subject yet. At least I do like that she looks happier and less worried. Either scroll down past the political cartoon, or click here to see what it how it started out.
We'll see, maybe Monday it will finally come together.

'Ol Ronnie is back!

Here's my editorial cartoon for the Charter Oak-Ute and Schleswig papers for Thursday, May 17. Day late and a dollar short, I suppose- I really ought to be drawing about Gonzales having to testify again or the Iraq War spending bill- or who knows what will happen by next week.

As usual, you can see this one bigger and over 120 more cartoons in my cartoon gallery at http://tmal.multiply.com/photos/album/2

Postcard from the middle of nowhere

Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper — Schleswig Leader, Thursday, May 10, 2007 – Page 3

Recently someone asked me about creating a website for a group of friends who try to get together every year and want to be able to keep up on their home town of Ricketts,
I like to think of it a suburb of Charter Oak or Schleswig. It’s a burgeoning metropolis of say 150 people.

So, I tried to do a little research on Ricketts on the internet. Here’s some of what I found:
Dave Ricketts from Pottstown, Pennsylvania was 28 years old when he broke into the big leagues in 1963, with the St.. Louis Cardinals.

Rickett’s career batting average was .249 during his six years with the Cards, His high was .273 which he hit in 1969.

Pretty impressive, but he has nothing to do with Ricketts Iowa.
“Doc” Ed Ricketts was a marine biologist friend of legendary writer John Steinbeck from Monterey California. Doc is one of the heros in Steinbeck’s book, Cannery Row. The two men co-authored a book about a trip they took down along the coast of Baja Mexico.

Did you know that in Monterey, they don’t call it “Monterey Jack Cheese,” They just call it “Jack Cheese?” Not that it matters, because Doc Ricketts has nothing to do with the city of Ricketts either.

Of course, “Rickets” (one T) is a of Vitamin D deficiency. This disease involves softening and weakening of bones. This softening occurs from a loss of the mineral calcium from the skeleton.
The British Navy fought this by feeding their sailors limes, that’s how we got the ethnic slur “Limies.” Or was that Survey? Isn’t that a vitamin C deficiency? Whatever.

This ailment DEFINITELY doesn’t have anything to do with Ricketts, Iowa. AS far as I can tell, Ricketts is mostly a nice, clean, picturesque little town. But I do suggest you take your vitamins.
The USS Ricketts was a destroyer escort launched in May of 1943.

The Ricketts sailed from New York in February of 1944 on the first of 12 escort voyages to Northern Europe and back. One night, two merchant tankers collided, and both ships were badly damaged and burning. The Ricketts snatched 33 survivors from the sea, which was covered with blazing gasoline. Her commanding officer was awarded the Bronze Star for his part in this daring rescue.

But again, no evidence that this WWII ship had anything, whatsoever to do with Ricketts, Iowa. But they’re very patriotic people there. Lots of Legion members.

Civil War General James B. Ricketts was wounded in the battle of Cedar Creek. In 1849 he became the Regimental Quarter-master. General Ricketts was wounded in the first battle of Bull Run and taken prisoner.

Very noble, but- and I’m sorry to report this, he had pretty much nothing to do with Ricketts, Iowa. The town wasn’t founded until 1899. Of course, I’d like to think that they would’ve stood on the side of the Union if they had beed a town during the Civil War.

There’s a Dave Ricketts who is (or at least was) the parking and transportation director for the University of Iowa. (not to be confused with the Dave Ricketts who played for the Cardinals.)
Guess what? Yep, not from Ricketts. By the way, you’ll find plenty of parking in beautiful downtown Ricketts for your moped, Vespa, Razer scooter, or whatever small two-wheeled vehicle you ride. Of course, they don’t have a biker bar, but maybe if they had some bikers there first... who knows.

Oklahoma University Softball’s Samantha Ricketts was honored by USA Softball as one of 25 finalists around the country selected for the National Player of the Year Award.
On May 23 the list will be cut to three and those final three players will travel to Oklahoma City for the announcement of the winner at the 2007 NCAA Women’s College World Series.

Frankly, I highly doubt Samantha has ever been to Ricketts, but who knows, maybe she’s been to Iowa at least. If I were her, I’d take a road trip to Ricketts, just so she could take some pictures of herself next to Ricketts signs and stuff. That would look pretty cool in a scrapbook, if you ask me.

The Ricketts House is one of the four original fraternity houses at Caltech. Ricketts traditions include fire related activities.

Ricketts House was known for athletics and student government in the 1950s, but in the past few decades Ricketts has been known more for activities which push the motto “Take me as I am” to the limit. They’ve been pushing their school’s administration with increasingly envelope-pushing displays of self-expression.

This real life “Animal House” certainly doesn’t have anything to do with Ricketts, Iowa- It’s a quaint, quiet, picturesque little town. Sure, some of the folks there have probably raised a little Hell once in a while, but most of the time, they’re pretty much, well-behaved law abiding, and God-fearing.

If you grew up in Ricketts, be sure to plan on attending their annual “Ricketts Kids’ Reunion” the third Saturday in July. This year it will be July 21.

While I like to poke fun at it, I appreciate- no, I ADMIRE the affection that folks from Ricketts have for their town, and for each other. You gotta love a town that’s this small and yet SO German, that it has THREE Lutheran churches!

Visit the brand new Ricketts Reunion website: http://rickettsiowa.blogspot.com

If you grew up in Ricketts, be sure to plan on coming to our annual reunion, the third Saturday in July. If you have memories or pictures of Ricketts to share, email them to me, their webmaster: ted.mallory -at- gmail.com

If you have other funny, kitsch, or corny "Not the same Ricketts" ideas, send them too. Help put Ricketts on the map!

What's on my easil right now

I have a student in the hospital, so in lieu of flowers, I thought I'd make small acrylic painting. I used a photo that had already been made "psychedelic" in PhotoShop. I'm kind of going for a loose, free, fun, bold, bright Peter Max sort of thing. I'm already running into some snags and it's only Day 1. Maybe you can see how I need to rework the eye sockets. I also can't seem to match the purples and reds that I want to. We'll see how tomorrow goes- hopefully better.

Driftwood horses

Another teacher recently sent me these pictures in an email. I'm sure it's one of those emails that go around the world. I wish I had a name for the artist or even a location (it sure LOOKS like California to me) All I know is that this is simply AMAZING. "Driftwood Sculptures" have had a bum rap for a long time- sometimes they're kitsch that shows up at craft fairs or tourist curios shops, sometimes they're crafty little things that hobbyists whittle- these horses however- holy WOW! This gives driftwood a good name.

Two corny ones

Happy National Cartoonist's Day

What I probably need

Some days, you just have to do everything you can to keep it together. How I wish this stuff were available over the counter.