I Turn Up My Tie to You
Something that a lot of people don’t know about me, is that I am a complete web comic geek. Chances are, if you want to befriend me, and you drop me the URL to a series that you author, you’ve got my support in the bag.
Now, I guess my thing with comics, not the kind with superheroes or any of that (though I’m not hating, considering that one of my closest friends reads those kind), isn’t completely online, per se. My favorite comic strip of all time is Scott Adams’ Dilbert, which has been a mainstay in the predominately syndicated newspaper funnies for years. In fact, it’s quickly become a regular part of my morning routine before I start doing actual work.
It’s For a School Project!
Another much lesser-known comic, which is also a part of my morning routine, is Ryan North’s Dinosaur Comics. The premise is as follows; nearly-daily stories are told through the same six panels, and through the dialogue of a Tyrannosaurus Rex (T-Rex) and his two other pre-historic friends, Dromiceiomimus and Utahraptor. While many, including myself, dig it for its offbeat sense of humor, I also love it for its habitual philosophical and/or cultural ranting. A recent installment illustrates this point beautifully:
Yes, T-Rex is right to some extent. I mean, yes, I whole-heartedly agree that the 1970s, sans Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Monty Python, and the Rocky Horror Picture Show, were some very bleak times in popular culture. I would extend that to most of the 80s, to include everything except for The Cure, Goth Rock, the advents of the Nintendo and the compact disc. However, I wouldn’t agree with T-Rex on his quip over Forrest Gump. These days, it’s a really hard movie for me to watch, but it is a good one nonetheless.
Hint, Hint, Mr. North
T-Rex describes such things he doesn’t care for as “low points in culture.” Unfortunately, the state of our country’s economy just recently hit a low point and is barely starting to recover after being on a decline for so long.
For the last year or so, our nightly news has been littered with stories of banks collapsing, foreclosures skyrocketing, and regular people seeing their 401k’s withering away to nothing and needing payday loans.
But now, elected officials want to not just knock us down from the recovery we’ve started to make, but rather inflict even worse damage on our financial state than ever before. For instance, Ohio governor Ted Strickland wants to put about 6,000 payday loans company employees in his state’s unemployment line. In the end, Strickland is setting his state up for further financial ruin, considering that people will have nowhere to turn in dire straits.
Surely, financial hardship is no laughing matter and some have no choice but to turn to payday loans. But, on November 4, we all can make sure that our economy doesn’t come to that.
If you’re going to bring up the 70s, let’s also remember the unemployment and the never before seen “stagflation” that went with it: a double dose of both negative growth combined with inflation. Oh yeah, and there was also that whole Vietnamese War business. I think if the Governor of Ohio wants to create 6,000+ more unemployed in these times he’s undoubtedly an idiot, and unquestionably on the side of the banking and credit card lobby.