Sunday morning toons: Be vewwy vewwy quiet!

If you did a toon about taking down the Confederate battle flag near the South Carolina capitol without knowing why it's still up, or you did a piece of the nine Charleston victims showing up to meet St. Peter at the Pearly Gates, you probably didn't make the cut today. Ditto if you didn't get farther than a "this is really awful" cartoon. I appreciate that cartooning on deadline is a difficult situation. Sorry. For more on that specific problem – and the benefit that a day or two of perspective can give a political cartoonist – see Comic Strip of the Day, below.

(I have a post in the works that invokes Nothstine's Law in a contrarian and yet not-even-remotely sympathetic defense of leaving the Confederate flag out there. Stay tuned for that.)

You were more likely to make the cut this morning if you pointed out that this week's encyclical from Pope Francis (who, for his several positions I disagree with, has a MS in chemistry and therefore totally owns the "I'm no scientist" GOP leadership that wishes he'd kept quiet) was a huge leap forward on the climate change conversation.

And if you managed to avoid a comb-over joke about Donald Trump's possible jump into the 2016 presidential race (he has only produced a ridiculous announcement ceremony; there are still forms to be filed) and still come up with something amusing, you probably made it in, because here at p3 we love making fun of the man who, a quarter century ago, was pegged by Spy Magazine as "the short-fingered vulgarian."

Today's toons were selected from the week's offerings at McClatchy DC, Cartoon Movement, Go Comics, Politico's Cartoon Gallery, Daryl Cagle's Political Cartoons, About.com, and other fine sources of toony goodness.

p3 Picks of the week: Matt Davies, Rebecca Hendin, Clay Jones, Drew Sheneman, Jeff Stahler, Lisa Benson, Gary McCoy, Patrick Bagley, Matt Wuerker, John Darkow, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Best of Show: Jeff Danziger.

p3 Legion of Merit: Chan Lowe.

p3 Croix de Guerre: Darrin Bell.

p3 Certificate of Harmonic Toon Convergence (Part 1): Clay Jones and Mike Luckovich.

p3 Certificate of Harmonic Toon Convergence (Part 2): Tom Toles, Dave Granlund, and Marshall Ramsey.

p3 Certificate of Harmonic Toon Convergence (Part 3): Jeff Darcy and Nate Beeler.

p3 World Toon Review: Paresh Nath (India), Ingrid Rice (Canada), Osvaldo Gutierrez Gomez (Cuba, although that's the Russian flag), and Amorim (Brazil).

Ann Telnaes notes Jeb(!) Bush's fast and loose play with the separation of church and state. (For an annotated history leading up to his lame-ass double-backing, go here.)

Mark Fiore reminds us: There was Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and that other one.

Tom Tomorrow identifies the one thing they can agree upon.

Keith Knight explains how it was all about what we learned in health class in the fifth grade. Nothing to see here.

Reuben Bolling, in a golden oldie from 2013, outlines everything you'll need for a news week like this one. The man's a by-god psychic.

Red Meat's Milkman Dan completely blows away the grandfather paradox.

The Comic Strip Curmudgeon rediscovers that New Testament classic: Where I spit, fig trees never grow again. Or something like that.

Comic Strip of the Day reflects upon what a difference a day makes!

Well, what did you expect in an opera? A happy ending? This afternoon's edition of The Score, the All Classical Portland weekly program featuring movie soundtrack music, mixed an interview with Portland's own Mel Blanc about his Warner Bros voice work with music and voice work from some of Blanc's greatest work. As fun as the conversation was, even more fun was the soundtrack music, mostly by WB musical director Carl Stalling, of the p3 pantheon of gods, and his arranger Milt Franklyn – who took over director duties shortly before this gem, which was ranked first of the 50 Animated Cartoons as ranked by 1,000 Animation Professionals. Elmer Fudd – "Kill the wabbit!" – was voiced by Arthur Q. Bryan. Watch "What's Opera, Doc?" on Daily Motion.

The Big, And Getting Even Bigger Since We Welcomed Back The Departed, Oregon Toon Block:

Ex-Oregonian Jack Ohman looks at the summer's big blockbuster. Warning: Objects in mirror have less chance of getting elected than they appear.

Ex-Oregonian Jen Sorensen gives the verdict: Mobility is so 1990s.

Matt Bors gives us the lines right before "Okay, let's leave it there."

Jesse Springer looks at the supermajority duel in the Oregon legislature between the transportation infrastructure and the gas tax hike.

Test your toon captioning kung fu at The New Yorker's weekly caption-the-cartoon contest. (Rules here.) And you can browse The New Yorker's cartoon gallery here.

The p3 Sunday Comics Read-Along: Pearls Before Swine, Doonesbury, Rhymes with Orange, Zits, Adam @ Home, Mutts, Over the Hedge, Get Fuzzy, Prince Valiant, Blondie, Bizarro, Mother Goose & Grimm, Rose is Rose, Luann, Hagar the Horrible, Pickles, Rubes, Grand Avenue, Freshly Squeezed, The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee, and Jumble.