(My most sincere apologies to both Bill Watterson and John W. Allie for the art on this one.)

I’m waffling between an attitude of, “It’s only fair!” to “Wow, um, way to reach for the lowest common denominator, guys.” Your thoughts?

The more I listen to some of the Presidential candidates and their supporters and surrogates, the more I struggle to understand precisely what they’re saying. Not necessarily understanding the words, but understanding how they can be so demonizing to ones they disagree with. It’s not enough to say, “I disagree with the President.” No, instead they must accuse him of a radical agenda in which his ultimate purpose (whether because he’s a secret Muslim or socialist or whatever) is to destroy our very way of life. How can you say that and still claim to want to lead all of the people of our country?

Wow, OK, sorry. Didn’t mean to get all riled up, there. Lemme take a deep breath and go watch some bunnies with pancakes on their heads or cute baby otters or something.

This has been a baffling year for the presidential wanna-bes contenders. I still haven’t quite figured out why most of the GOP seems to be playing, “Who do we like better than Romney this month?”, other than to point out the obvious fact that apparently, they really don’t like Romney. Gingrich’s vow to run a positive campaign lasted all of what, eight seconds? before he started attacking the others. Rick Perry’s collapse in the polls is one thing, but his insistence that he’s still in it to win? Things just keep getting weirder and weirder. Anybody have any insight?

It seems to me that conservative pundits on television are ignoring what the President has actually done over the past two years and merely continue to bang the drum of, “Obama’s a Marx-lovin’, Muslim-huggin’, liberal socialist!” Meanwhile, due to the stubborn idiocy of the Tea Party movement, he’s had to move so far to the right that he’s essentially somewhere in Reagan territory. I’m not upset with the President about this. I’m more upset with the complete and utter lack of work that Congress seems to be doing. It’s been quite frustrating in my view.

Oh, wait. Forgot this was a comic strip and supposed to be funny. How many surrealists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

Fish.

Like Jane, I had the chance to stand in front of a bunch of people the other day and do some public speaking. More than a bit nerve-wracking, and this particular old chestnut (so to speak) came to mind.

Really, how is this supposed to make you feel more comfortable? I mean, it’d be alright if I was about to address a nudist colony, but outside of that, I can’t think of how walking into a room full of mostly-naked people to give a speech would be calming. (I, of course, would be fully clothed. With, additionally, a hooded cloak. And possibly welder’s goggles.)

I suppose it could be worse, though. At least nobody suggests you imagine that they’re all dressed as clowns.

Horrible, horrible clowns.

(shudder)

I made the Eponymous Neaner laugh out loud (yes, for those of you familiar with internet parlance, she did indeed ell-oh-ell. She might have even arr-oh-tee-eff-ell-em-ay-oh’d if I had tripped her sometime during it) with this comic. This strip is also the closest Zoidland has ever come to using foul (no, not with a ‘w’) language.

Coincidence? I think not.

And while last week’s strip referenced Law and Order, it is in reality this week’s strip that is “ripped from the headlines”.

Of my own life.

Yeah, my health insurance (via COBRA) got canceled. Apparently, my old company changed COBRA administrators, meaning that the automatic debit I had set up with the old administrator didn’t carry over. The new folks claim that they mailed me a packet of information about the change.

I never received said packet.

The new folks said I should have noticed that I wasn’t being charged by checking my bank statement. Have you ever tried to look for something that isn’t there? The whole reason we did automatic debit was so that I wouldn’t have to monitor this bill like a hawk.

The only notification I got was a notice stating that my account is two months past due, meaning that not only has my coverage been canceled (retroactively to two months ago), but since I’m outside the 30-day grace period window, there’s no chance of me getting it back.

Hasn’t been the greatest of weeks.

I’m still trying to figure out what Mitch wanted Jane’s “nerdish, yet feminine” opinion on…

If you need a refresher, Cole was first seen in this strip, and this one. Finally gave him a name tonight. He should be thanking me, despite the fact that he really comes off as a jerk in tonight’s strip. Gotta give a little to get a little, Cole.

By the way, Linh’s experience is nothing like my own personal experience. My part-time job is at a church, not a grocery store. Couldn’t be more different. Ahem.

Told you I’d get one up this week.

“…Who? Mr. I.P. Freely? …Hey, Bill, wake up. It’s for you…”