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July 15, 2006
The Curse of Congresswoman McKenna
Let's crank up the Stantis Way Back Machine and venture back to a month ago, circa June 15th, 2006. There we'll find a poll that for some reason didn't get much attention in the mainstream (read: conservative) media. It shows that the rest of the world thinks the United States still being in Iraq is the greatest threat to world peace.
You can read about the month-old poll here, here, and here. Maybe it didn't get much attention on the cable news talking head shows because it reveals that Americans in general are starting to like France again.
So what is Stantis's response to the rest of the world - which was opposed to us attacking Iraq in the first place - thinking our presence there is such a grave threat? Um, because they're all crazy! And they're off their meds! I mean, how insane must you be to think that invading a country and turning it into a virtual terrorist factory is a bad thing? Silly world. Geez, you'd have to be pretty whacky to think that our being in Iraq would lead to anything else worse over there, like oh, I dunno, Israel getting its boner on and finally attacking Lebananon and the Gaza Strip because they know their big brother has their back. Nah - they're all just plain nuts.
What makes this strip priceless - and I mean PRICELESS - is what I call "The Curse of Congresswoman McKenna." Let me explain why with a little story.
Earlier this year an old conservative friend of mine, let's call him Poor Mal, was extremely upset that the small town where he lived was going to be one of the venues for the Gay Games. He was enraged that their mayor would allow the homos (his word, not mine) to come to where he lived and thrust their gayness upon him. After hearing the news he immediately rifled off an email addressed directly to the mayor. It was angry, bitter, venom-filled, and pretty homophobic. But that's what I'd expect from Poor Mal and his fears that seeing a gay person will somehow turn him and his family gay.
Problem. Mel was in such a hurry to vent his anger, to direct his rage at someone, he pounded out this email, ran it through spellcheck, and fired it off. However, if you have any experience with computers, you'll realize that there are some - in fact many - words that have different spellings and versions. His email was riddled with these kinds of mistakes. "How dare you encourage there coming here!" "This is two much!" So while Mel was doing his best to make his argument as to why he was so upset, it was lost in what came across as a badly written, childish, half-assed rant that nobody would take seriously. I think many people would have the natural reaction that he was just another extremist that lives his life based on what the conservatives have told him to believe instead of getting a good education and taking the time to, you know, proofread. Much like Stantis a week ago scrambling to find a punchline to a throwaway strip and misspelling Cynthia McKinney's last name.
Which brings me to today's Prickly City comic strip. Read it closely.
"America is a bigger threat to world peace then nuclear threats from Iran or North Korea!"
"The world ain't listening to it's meds!"
Heck, I could even make an argument for how stupid "listening" sounds in there. Did Stantis mean "taking?" If he had though it would have been, "taking they're meds."
Mind you, this is supposedly a PROFESSIONAL comic strip where Stantis not only gets PAID to do this, other people are also PAID to make sure it's at least spelled correctly. Odds are Charles will point out that the corrections were made before it went out to most papers, but how the heck does it get onto the Saturday website looking like something Poor Mal would whip up in a frenzy? Not only that, it's based on a poll from a month ago! Like I said, priceless.
Oh, and one other thing: while I couldn't find the actual poll results, none of the stories I read mention North Korea's nuclear progam. Maybe that's because the poll was conducted BEFORE North Korea conducted their (not there) tests on the 4th of July. So yeah, not only can Stantis not double check his spelling, he makes shit up to try and bolster his argument. Just another day in Prick City (spelling intentional).
*** UPDATE ***
The Seattle Times' webpage has the corrected version of today's strip where the spelling has been fixed.
But Mark points out something extremely interesting. It looks as though the original purpose of today's strip was to make fun of Jack Murtha (which would explain the arms grabbing Winslow) and something he said at a rally in Miami a few weeks after the poll was released. (I couldn't find a link, but apparently it at least made it into the Rocky Mountain News.) You see Congressman Murtha actually referenced the poll and its results - he's not the one who said that America was the greatest threat. The local newspaper misquoted him, and as soon as it got around it meant red meat for all of the conservative talking heads to pounce on. Not long after the paper corrected their error, but the talking heads kept swiftboating Murtha. You can read more here.
So I think Mark is right: Stantis submitted a correctly spelled attack on Jack Murtha, but an editor actually earning his paycheck somewhere realized that they didn't want another Teddy Kennedy deal on their hands and changed it to the world in general. Either way it's stupid and unfunny, but it's one more example of how Stantis was so quick to believe what he wanted to belive - that Jack Murtha hates America - than actually do some research and, you know, depend on the facts. I guess we still know who puts the "prick" in Prickly City.
Comments
Thanks for the explanation. The corrected version appeared in today's Chicago Tribune (formerly the World's Greatest Newspaper). But even with the fix, today's strip still failed to make any sense. So what else is new?
Posted by: jackmac at July 15, 2006 01:57 PM
Hey, I stumbled upon your site here after googling Prickly City after being dumbfounded by today's comic strip. I wanted to get Stantis' email so I could write to him about the outright buffoonery of the strip. Interestingly, when I found the Prickly City site, today's strip was emblazoned on it. Only it was DIFFERENT from the one in my newspaper (Rocky Mountain News). I only noticed this after I had sent my letter, so I didn't ask him about it. But perhaps it offers a little insight into why the comic makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Here is the text in each box as printed in my newspaper:
Box 1: IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!
Box 2: AMERICA IS A BIGGER THREAT TO WORLD PEACE...
Box 3: ...THAN NUCLEAR THREATS FROM IRAN OR NORTH KOREA!!!!
Box 4: Congressman Murtha's Not Listening To His Meds.
If you notice, the typos you list aren't in this version. Makes me think that the comic that now stands was an poorly conceived and hastily reprinted masking of what was obviously a terrible error on Stantis' part. He likely realized that since the Florida Sun-Sentinel corrected their horrible misquotation of Murtha, and Murtha never said the things Stantis attributed to him in the comic, the strip made him look like a total fool. That's why the badly rewritten comic makes no sense!
-Mark
Posted by: Mark at July 15, 2006 03:03 PM
Here is a quick pic I snapped of the Rocky Mountain News version of the comic:
(I guess in this forum you'll have to cut n' paste)
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i53/fwipsnews/prickly071506.jpg
Any way you cut it, it exposes Stantis as a twerp. The original was flat out wrong, showing the inanity of conservative leaning reactionaries like Stantis. And the amended comic is illiterate and nonsensical.
I wonder what sort of half-assed response this bit of ridiculousness will receive.
Posted by: Mark at July 15, 2006 09:46 PM
Hate to break it to ya bud but you, yes you, used the wrong spelling in your correction of Scooter: it should be "taking their meds," not "taking they're meds." The first is a possessive and the second is a contraction of "they are." Tsk! Tsk! BUT... you're (sic) point was well taken! :)
Posted by: Brian at July 18, 2006 07:15 PM
Actually that was part of the joke - if he didn't get "its" right, he sure wouldn't have gotten "their" right.
Posted by: The Furnace at July 18, 2006 07:58 PM
