Sunday evening toons: Decisions, decisions

Do we focus this week's toon review on the continuing problem with guns in our violent country (in contrast, Nice had a truck problem; will the NRA say this proves everyone at the celebration should have had a truck too?), or do we turn our attention to the circus of D-list celebrities, political neverwozzers, and Trump family members who are filling the stage at the Republican National Convention this week – a scene with its own promise of violence?

At this point, are political cartoonists starting to stockpile shooting-death ideas, just trying to tread water in a world where they've needed three of them since Monday?

An interesting sidelight to both the police and civilian deaths in the last couple of weeks is that several of the civilians shot (or shooting) had carry or concealed carry permits. Apart from the fact that this didn't keep anyone safe (or change the score), police – who've never been fans of concealed carry for everyone – are starting to be more upfront about their opinion that the free-fire zone approach isn't making their jobs easier. It would be interesting to see a cage match between the NRA and the police unions – although I shudder to think how much worse things might have to get before that happens.

Oddly enough, beyond Jesse Springer having some Oregon-themed fun with it (below) there wasn't much in the way of Pokémon Go this week. Are cartoonists too cool for it? Or were they so busy shuffling down the sidewalk, head down over their phones, bumping into things, that there just wasn't time? (And may I say that the arguments about the health benefits of walking around playing Pokémon Go have to be just about the silliest thing I've ever heard.) Steve Breen's in the neighborhood though, with a good one about our (d)evolving idea of how to vacation. (Shorter version: No pix or it didn't happen!)

And while Jeff Danziger got wrong-footed by Trump's screwy VP selection process (if it deserves the term, since it appears that the decision wasn't so much "made" as it was "congealed"), it's a fabulous image so I'm including it.

And by the way, the Notorious RBG was right and she shouldn't have apologized. Jack Ohman (below), Ann Telnaes (below), and John Cole all address that this week, Ohman going for the outrage, and Telnaes and Cole going for the laugh. And I'm working on a piece to go up in the next day or two. But in the meantime, just so we're all clear: apology, wrong.

Oh, and one other thing: Because I held off last Sunday's toon review until Tuesday evening in the naïve belief that we might get a break in all the shooting, it threw off the timing for several regulars around here who publish weekly. They'll be back next week, now that I'm back on schedule. Promise.

Today's toons were selected late last night, mostly on impulse, then I asked my people if I really had to go with them, and they said yes I did, and I said I didn't want to, and they said too bad, so – fine! – here they are, 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 cartoon goodness.

p3 Picks of the week: Mike Luckovich, Antonio Rodriguez, Ted Rall, Chip Bok, John Deering, Walt Handlesman, Steve Kelley, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Best of Show: Rob Rogers.

p3 Legion of Merit: Robert Ariail.

In a bit of a turn-around, this week Gary Varvel gives, rather than receives, the p3 "Mr. Congeniality" Award.

p3 Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium (tie): Jerry Holbert and Matt Weurker.

Ann Telnaes watches in glee as the Notorious RBG gives the vulgar one a trimmin'.

Keith Knight notes America's five-year economic boom, of sorts. Thanks, Obama.

Reuben Bolling wonders: What's wrong with this picture?

Carol Lay tells a beautiful story with an ending that's so her.

The Comic Curmudgeon stumbles on a notion in Hagar the Horrible that is deeply, deeply disturbing.

Comic Strip of the Day hits the Friday comics perfecta, though he just misses the trifecta. But for a good reason.

What a zany! What a knucklehead! What a dope! What a – yipe! A nation that spent the last week walking around staring at their iPhones looking for fictional creatures clearly needs to be reminded of the simpler pleasures, like burlesque and vaudeville. (Did you say Farmville? No! Shush!) "Stage Door Cartoon," directed in 1944 by Fritz Freleng from a story by Michael Maltese, with uncredited voice work by Portland's Own Mel Blanc (Bugs Bunny) and Arthur Q. Lewis (Elmer Fudd), and great musical direction (also uncredited) by Carl Stalling. Watch the expression on Bugs' face at the end of the piano gag. That was when animation was animation. Also watch for an early version of the character who would become Yosimite Sam. Watch "Stage Door Cartoon" at DailyMotion.

The Exalted Oregon Toon Block:

Ex-Oregonian Jack Ohman draws a dark comparison.

Documented Ex-Oregonian Jen Sorensen points to the next public health crisis. But there may be a cure.

Matt Bors wonders exactly what book we're going by here.

Jesse Springer has some pocket monsters you may discover here in the Beaver State:

Test your toon-captioning powers 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.

Sunday evening toons: First turns, Pepsi versus Coke, and thirty days left on the doomsday clock

Perhaps it's because my father died over forty years ago, and my mother only a few years later, that I don't really zero in on Fathers Day and Mothers Day cartoons much. Although I have a number of friends – and a nephew! – who are celebrating the day, and I wish them well.

That being said, the clock continues to tick down: Will the Slo-Mo Exploding Citrus get the nomination he so richly (and I choose my words with care) deserves? Or will the hapless GOP establishment make their situation worse by finding some way in the next thirty days to hamstring him at the convention – only to make their options for the general election even uglier in the process? I mean, you know what I'm rooting for: seats in the first turn at the Indy 500. Not proud of it, but there we are.

And I find it ridiculous to see gun enthusiasts arguing that the difference between an actual by-god AR-15 and a Sig Sauer whatever matters. It's like arguing about the difference between Death by Coke and Death by Pepsi.

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: Mike Luckovich, Rob Rogers, Gary Varvel, Signe Wilkinson, John Deering, Darrin Bell, Clay Jones, Tim Eagan, Stuart Carlson, Nick Anderson, Matt Weurker, (see CSotD, below, for the back-story of Weurker's toon), and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Best of Show: Matt Davies.

p3 Legion of Merit: Jeff Danziger.

p3 "High Ground Of Language" Medal: Tom Toles.

p3 Animal Hero First Class Class: Jim Morin.

p3 Level D Hazmat Suit Award: Robert Arial.

Ann Telnaes follows the trail – and indirectly reminds us why Anthony Kennedy is a sad joke of a Supreme Court Justice.

Mark Fiore figures correctly: the day we decided the Sandy Hook shooting was bearable, subsequent mass shootings would just be a matter of quibbling over details.

Tom Tomorrow answers a question I raised – in an internet vacuum – about six months ago.

Keith Knight finds the pot o' gold a bit overrated.

Reuben Bolling salutes a superhero with two powers – only one of which he gives a shit about.

Red Meat's Johnny Lemonhead is slow on the pick-up.

The Comic Curmudgeon acknowledges a venerable tradition.

It's a Comic Strip of the Day twofer: First, as a former Boy Scout who had the flag-raising duty at my local school, I share his dismay at the degradation of flag etiquette until it's the equivalent of standing ovations for every stage production (extra points for writing "leaves open the question" instead of this). Second, speaking of blasts from my personal past, I salute his invocation of NIGYYSOB.

Organization – that's the ticket! Directed in 1953 by Jack Kinney, "Father's Day Off" features uncredited voice work by Pinto Colvig (who also voiced Bluto for several years) and Alan Reed (who voiced Fred Flintstone). Roger Rabbit was right – Goofy is a GEEN-ius!

The Right-Sized Oregon Toon Block:

Ex-Oregonian Jack Ohman gets behind the lines. I have political reasons why I don't want Warren to run as Clinton's VP, but I get his point.

Documented Ex-Oregonian Jen Sorensen describes one of her least-favorite parts of being a political cartoonist.

Matt Bors makes it more of a women's issue thing than I'd like, but my contempt for "thoughts and prayers" at a time like this is already on the record.

Jesse Springer takes notice of the Pacific Northwest's latest boom.

Test your toon-captioning superpowers with 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.

Monday evening Sunday toons: Chickens, meet roost

America is nearly bursting at the seams with those uncommonly angry minds that Richard Hofstadter wrote about over half a century ago.

When I commented to a friend a couple of days that I was tired of having every third post on my Facebook feed being a picture of Clinton, Sanders, or Trump, accompanied by some predictable, finger-pointing, pot-stirring prose, I simply meant I wished the Democratic convention would be over. It didn't occur to me that I would get my wish when one of the deadliest mass shootings in US history (certainly the deadliest in recent history, but the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890, with around 300 deaths, is still in first place, and isn't it fun to argue this like fantasy league stats?) would bump all that out of the news cycle.

I was running late with this post Sunday evening anyway, and finally decided to take advantage of coverage of last night's mass murder at the gay nightclub in Orlando to note that multiple FBI investigations for terrorist-related activities plus a record of homophobic utterances and wife-beating didn't stop the shooter from buying a particularly nasty type of gun legally or obtaining a concealed-carry permit. And that's if "advantage" is the word I'm looking for – it certainly is the word that the short-fingered vulgarian was looking for.

Of course, deadline cartooning about an emotional topic doesn't always bring out the best work, but it was worth it to wait until this evening, giving artists time to get beyond weeping Statues of Liberty and such.

And let me point out the obvious once again, we are way, way past the point where "thoughts and prayers" are going to get you into heaven after armed lunatics in our violent country act out again. (Props: Mike Luckovich, below.) Hell, it's not even safe to be minding your own business in a zoo cage anymore. (Props: Joel Pett, below.)

Oh, and here's a reminder on a related topic: Sen. David Perdue, currently in the news defending himself for offering a prayer for the death of President Obama, is the cousin of former Georgia governor Sonny Perdue, and holds the Senate seat previously held by Saxby Chambliss, who rose to national attention in the 2002 campaign (when national security was also all the rage, so to speak) by attacking the patriotism of incumbent Sen. Max Cleland, who had lost three limbs during his service in Vietnam, during a war that Chambliss sat out. Sen. Purdue is now resorting to "Don't you people know when I'm joking?" which is the third-to-last refuge of the scoundrel – "You took me out of context!" being second-to-last, and, well, I imagine you all know Number One. The point is that David Perdue is not misunderstood, and he's not a fluke or a one-off; he's a latest-generation product of Georgia Republican politics. (Props to Mark Streeter, below.)

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: Mike Luckovich, Clay Jones, Joel Pett, Angel Boligan, Nick Anderson, Signe Wilkinson, Matt Weurker, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Best of Show: Mike Luckovich.

p3 Legion of Merit: Mark Streeter.

Ann Telnaes recognizes the logical conclusion of the Orlando mass shooting.

And speaking of logical conclusions, Mark Fiore posted this before Trump added the Washington Post to the list of media outlets no longer credentialed for his campaign, but he anticipated a line of thought that's making the rounds today.

Tom Tomorrow dropped this eerily prescient cartoon a full six days before the Orlando shooting.

Keith Knight gets in the last word on the Cincinnati Zoo killing with the latest word on the GOP convention.

Reuben Bolling watches as Trump hedges his claims about fairness in America. (Heh. See what I did there?)

Red Meat's Bug-Eyed Earl comes out for truth in packaging.

The Comic Curmudgeon places Snuffy Smith, of all cartoons, in the running for a p3 Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium.

Comic Strip of the Day looks at many more Orlando-themed cartoons, notes that "Extra!" was once something more than a brand of sugarless gum, and reminds us again why Bill Mauldin was little short of a cartooning god.

I'm simply furious! By request: "The Scarlet Pumpernickel," directed by Chuck Jones in 1950 from a story by Michael Maltese, comes near the beginning of Chuck Jones's transformation of Daffy Duck from woo-hooing madcap zany to a more complicated character, struggling to get the better of Bugs Bunny, or Porky Pig, or Marvin the Martian, or (sometimes, it seemed) just life. It's awfully sketchy with its history, as well as its literary descent: The Scarlet Pimpernel (it's a flower, not a bread) was written in 1905 by Baroness Emma Orczy, also known for her Golden Age mystery stories featuring The Old Man in the Corner and other characters. Other than the sword play, "Pumpernickel" has nothing to do with either the French Terror, the setting for Orczy's novel, or Alexander Dumas or the Three Musketeers, despite the gag on the cover page of Daffy's script. So there. Watch "The Scarlet Pumpernickel: at DailyMotion.

The Right-Sized Oregon Toon Block:

Ex-Oregonian Jack Ohman acknowledges Donald Trump's gradual adaptation to technology. Can't blame Trump, I suppose – the first time I ever saw a speaker with a teleprompter, I concluded it was absolutely the worst design and installation of bullet-proof shields I could imagine.

Documented Ex-Oregonian Jen Sorensen presents The Cleric and the Slo-Mo Exploding Citrus. Reminder: The cleric is the one on the left.

Matt Bors looks at America's hope for the future. First "building a better mousetrap" got replaced by "winning the lottery" as the American Dream. Now this.

Jesse Springer has his doubts about Oregon's priorities when it comes to testing in our schools.

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.

Sunday evening toons: Un-scary bathrooms now, un-scary bathrooms tomorrow, un-scary bathrooms forever!

Stuart Carlson rises above even the p3 Pick of the Week or Best of Show to capture the the George Wallace-style, historically-retarded, standing-in-the-schoolhouse-door, business that's currently in operation in the once-temporarily-evolved-but-not-since-Art-Pope-brought-out-his-checkbook state of North Carolina. I confess: I was slow to get the extent to which the war on gay marriage in 2004 and 2006 was encouraged – if not initiatied – at the highest levels of the Republican party (*cough!* *cough!* *Turdblossom!*) less on the merits of the case, such as they were, but for the cynical purpose of getting out the Christian conservative vote. I'm older and arguably wiser now, and I have no illusions about the sudden outbreak of "bathroom bills" during this electoral season. No illusions. None.

On other matters, there's a worthless little turd who made news this week by planning to auction off the gun that made him famous. Nothing about him today, no matter how good your toon was, because.

And here's a free joke for the Monday late-night monologue writers: Trump's new campaign hats say "Make America Budweiser Again." You're welcome.

Today's toons were selected by a bunch of nameless white guys in a smoke-filled room 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: Henry Payne, Steve Sack, Joel Pett, Lalo Alcaraz, Tom Toles, Signe Wilkinson, Brian McFadden, Matt Weurker, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Best of Show: Jeff Danziger.

p3 Legion of Merit: Darrin Bell.

p3 Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium: Mike Luckovich.

Ann Telnaes creates an image that I wish I could un-see, but I can't.

Mark Fiore imagines what was unthinkable only a year ago.

Tom Tomorrow returns us to the continuing adventures of the reality TV star who was saturated by gamma radiation.

Keith Knight pays tribute to the fauna of his newly adopted state.

Reuben Bolling brings the latest installment of the gradual transformation of the GOP into something from the 1930s-1940s era Universal Studios. (Spoiler: It may be time to take the pitchforks and torches away from the villagers.)

Red Meat's Ted Johnson and Milkman Dan share a home-cooked meal.

The Comic Curmudgeon uncovers a new and disturbing variation on the "If Pluto is a dog, then what is Goofy?" puzzle.

Comic Strip of the Day gets a two-fer: First comes the whaling on the Cult of the Meaningless Statistic in sports coverage. Totally deserved, by the way; it's hard to believe that the companies that supply those pointless numbers, and the sports producers who feature them, have found a way to make televised baseball more boring than it already was, but they have. I have a part-time gig that involves staring at Sports Center over and over again for a few hours (and no, I don't want to talk about it), and so I recently saw and resaw this tidbit: Both the Cubs and the Sox had started their 2016 seasons with 20-game winning streak, something that apparently last happened in 1917. My question is: If it only happens once a century, is it really worth knowing about? And second, no exceptions for cartoonists.

"Ah, 'abba-dabba' yourself!" "The Hyp-Nut-Tist," directed by Dave Fleischer in 1935, was the 21st of the Fleischer Studios Popeye cartoons, and the first outing by Gus Wickie voicing Bluto (uncredited, same as Billy Costello and Mae Questel as Popeye and The Slender One, respectively, and musical director Sammy Timberg). I always wondered: Where did Olive wander off to while Popeye and Bluto were beating the crap out of each other, and why was it that the only way you could come out of the hypnotic spell was to have Bluto land on you (Popeye), or fall out of a prop tree (Bluto), or get slugged by Popeye (Olive)? Couldn't someone just snap their fingers or something?

The Right-Sized Oregon Toon Block:

Ex-Oregonian Jack Ohman wants to believe.

Documented Ex-Oregonian Jen Sorensen sympathizes with those who want to stop the madness.

Matt Bors explores the Goldilocks Theory of center-left politics.

Jesse Springer has some fun with the first rule you learn when you move to my adopted home state. (The second is that it's the "coast," not the "beach.")

Test your command of the toon-captioning Force 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.

Gun safety versus safety through guns: A literary perspective

The story of Little Red Riding Hood, according to this NPR piece from a few years ago, first made its appearance in a French collection of children's stories in 1697. Since then it's been told and retold, worked and reworked, depending on the point of the storyteller, and invariably blood gets spilled – Red's, or the grandmother's, or the wolf's, often all three.

Until now.

Somewhat unexpectedly, the National Rifle Association made its entry into this literary tradition earlier this year with "Little Red Riding Hood (Has a Gun)," the first of two repurposing of classic stories for children (the other being "Hansel and Gretle (Have a Gun)" written by Amelia Harrison in collaboratioin with the NRA. In these two stories, disaster is averted and violence prevented by the presence of a gun in the hands of someone trained to use it safely (in the grandmother's case, it's a shotgun).

So, a couple of things. Three, really.

First, if the NRA really cared about safe hunting and gun handling they'd have stuck with gun safety training and not become the lobby of gun manufacturers and the front for a hysterical reading of the Second Amendment. I took their safe hunter training when I was a Boy Scout. How safe was it? Twice during the course, we were ordered to put our rifles down while the instructors chased away deer who had begun calmly grazing directly behind the targets.

Second, it's not so much that the NRA is preaching gun safety with these stories, it's that they're perpetuating the perception that guns should be everywhere and we'd be safer (and, some also suggest, more polite) if they were. (Presumably, that's not counting homes with domestic violence, of course, or homes with someone having suicidal thoughs, or most of the state of Florida.)

Third, sorry to the author Hamilton and her partners at the NRA, but this theme was handled – and handled better – almost 80 years ago, by James Thurber as one of his Fables for Our Times:

The Little Girl and the Wolf

One afternoon a big wolf waited in a dark forest for a little girl to come along carrying a basket of food to her grandmother. Finally a little girl did come along and she was carrying a basket of food. "Are you carrying that basket to your grandmother?" asked the wolf. The little girl said yes, she was. So the wolf asked her where her grandmother lived and the little girl told him and he disappeared into the wood. When the little girl opened the door of her grandmother's house she saw that there was somebody in bed with a nightcap and nightgown on. She had approached no nearer than twenty-five feet from the bed when she saw that it was not her grandmother but the wolf, for even in a nightcap a wolf does not look any more like your grandmother than the Metro-Goldwyn lion looks like Calvin Coolidge. So the little girl took an automatic out of her basket and shot the wolf dead.

(Moral: It is not so easy to fool little girls nowadays as it used to be.)

I can't resist noting that the NPR commentator linked to above describes Thurber's story as displaying "a more feminist bent," making me suspect either that he has a limited familiarity with Thurber's work (which is characterized by a lot of what I'd call casual misogyny, such as these, especially "man and house;" note also the recurring theme of the woman with a gun), or that he has limited familiarity with feminism (or is willing to pretend same to get a laugh).

A quantum of umbrage: What part of "shall make no law" is too complicated for you?

The Second Amendment may be a grammatical dog's breakfast, but the First Amendment couldn't be clearer if it was a buttonhook in the well water.

Which is what is so irritating about this:

The Post and Courier of Charleston reported Tuesday afternoon that state Rep. Mike Pitts (R) had introduced a bill called the “South Carolina Responsible Journalism Registry Law.” Reporter Gavin Jackson posted a summary of the bill — which includes “fines and criminal penalties for violation of the chapter” — on Twitter, but wrote that the full text was not yet available.

Naturally, if Rep. Pitts wanted to register only <airquotes> responsible </airquotes> gun owners, his political career would be over in a New York minute, so to speak.

Once again: Even First Amendment purists like me accept certain reasonable restrictions: Time, place, and manner; libel, slander, and perjury; false advertising; clear and present danger (once again, you Tom Clancy fanboys, a First Amendment trigger, not a Second). The First Amendment brought down Nixon. What has the Second Amendment done for us lately, except makes Starbucks and federal bird sanctuaries a safe haven for gun-totin', Constitution-misquotin'. self-deludin', snack-beggin' yahoos?

Meanwhile, back in the state that fired first on Fort Sumter, they're worrying that unregistered journalists are the existential threat to our nation, not the seditionists who are illegally bunked in at a federal bird sanctuary in Oregon -- and no one will make the latter face justice because they're armed to the teeth.

Coincidence? I think not.

I cite the p3 motto: May the First Amendment always triumph over the Second Amendment.

Sunday morning toons: It may be time to put ridicule back in the toolbox for a bit

(Update: Apparently I had a "squirrel!" moment in the middle of the Ann Telnaes bit, below. It's fixed now.)

Two stories dominated the news, and the toons, this week (sorry, Donald! too bad for you, Saudi Arabia and Iraq! tough noogies, North Korea! count your blessings, Bill Cosby! lucky break, China! just go away, Roy Moore!): The bizarre attempt by the Bundy brothers and their followers to take over, and get snacks, in Burns, Oregon, and the Obama initiative to bring about widely popular and incredibly modest gun safety (we're still a long, long way from anything that could remotely be called "gun control") measures by executive order.

You'll see different angles on the Burns occupation. Some ridicule the militia guys, a group who could hardly have come less well-prepared if they were arriving at their first bar mitzvah.

Some went the obvious track of imagining how long and how peaceful the standoff would (not) have been if the occupiers had been black or Muslim. I don't find the point as compelling as some people do. If you're looking for a parallel, in which a town was occupied in defiance of the federal government and it did not turn out well, there's not much need for hypotheticals. Plus that easy argument misses the essential problem caused by the militia/posse commitatus movement of the last few decades, now on display in Burns: This is not about the overreach (or underreach) of law enforcement officials; the government's soft-hands reponse is shaped far more by Waco and Ruby Ridge than anything about Sanford, Ferguson, or Baltimore. Nor is it about the semantics of the "terrorism" label; we already have an adequate legal definition for what's going on there. This is about a cult of sedition, and a movement that's made little secret since its inception that its aim is to break the fundamental bonds that hold our system of government together. So, to get in under the wire here you had to bring something more to the discussion than just the obvious.

And, of course, some cartoonists looked forward to the wrath of the birders. And can you blame them?

As I'm writing this, the arrival of truckloads of armed reinforcements from Idaho have complicated the situation for the local authorities and the residents, and upped the danger factor considerably, which is probably going to make ridiculing the Bundys a less appropriate response in the days to come.

By comparison, the range of cartoon responses to Obama's gun safety seemed pretty constricted. Gun nuts and knee-jerk Obama contrarians. . . well, they hate it. Duh. And the executive orders themselves have just enough moving parts that many cartoonists, like many of the rest of us, found it easier to focus instead on Obama's leadership or the support of John Smith of Anytown, USA, or at most, the the gap in scale between Obama's gun safety measures and the epidemic of gun violence (to which the Burns occupation not unconnected) in the US.

Let's press ahead.

Today's toons were selected by a Committee on Toon Safety 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 cartoon goodness.

p3 Picks of the week: Mike Luckovich, Ted Rall, Clay Bennett, Chip Bok, Steve Breen, Chan Lowe, Tom Toles, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Best of Show: Jeff Danziger.

p3 Legion of Merit (with feathers): Robert Ariail.

p3 Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium: Matt Wuerker.

p3 Certificate of Harmonic Toon Convergence: Jerry Holbert, David Fitzsimmons, and Walt Handlesman.

Ann Telnaes looks back at the Charlie Hebdo shootings a year ago, and regrets that we haven't learned the most important lesson.

Mark Fiore celebrates the Patriots' Magna Carta. Some assembly required.

Tom Tomorrow looks forward to the future. From the past. Just go read it. You'll see. (Anachronism watch: A desktop computer like that wouldn't have been available yet in 1978. Has Dr. von Philbert already polluted the timeline?)

Keith Knight knows what's wrong with Tennessee.

Reuben Bolling says: Know your caliphates!

Red Meat's Ted Johnson and Mister Wally may have put Uber out of business.

The Comic Strip Curmudgeon marks the weekend of highly structured gender roles. Except for that last one, which creeped me out enough when I first read it, but thanks to the Curmudgeon it now creeps me out a little bit more.

Comic Strip of the Day salutes the paranoid and the uneducated.

Not even a mouse! As promised: "Million Dollar Cat," directed in 1944 by Joseph Hanna and William Barbera, is the MGM version of a similar story from Warner Bros in 1942 featuring an early Bugs and Elmer, which we featured here last week. (By comparison, this is the 14th Tom and Jerry short, and Tom's early look was mainly settled: he was Russian Blue of distinctly catlike appearance and movement. True, he was mostly walking upright on two feet by this point, but he hadn't become as heavily anthropomorphized as he would be under Hanna and Barbera's direction over the the next decade. Uncredited voice work by Harry E. Lang as Tom. (Lang isn't that well known today, but he did voice work for both MGM and Warner Bros animations in the 1940s, and of course true Langophiles remember his 1953 performance as the French waiter in "Abbot and Costello Go to Mars" – also, alas, uncredited. You can look it up.) Watch "Million Dollar Cat" on Vimeo.

The Right-Sized Oregon Toon Block:

Ex-Oregonian Jack Ohman gives the best lines to the deer – probably because it's the smaht one.

Possibly Ex-Oregonian Jen Sorensen got to this punchline first, and with the hashtag that should have dominated Twitter.

Matt Bors works the Whose Lives Matter? trope, and it's probably the best example of the genre this week.

If there's an honor higher than the p3 Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium, then Jesse Springer just walked off with it.

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

And for extra added fun, check out the continuing struggles of the world's worst New Yorker cartoon caption writer.

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.

A very special edition of Sunday afternoon toons: What a resume.

(Updated with the missing Ann Telnaes toon!)

A couple of nights ago, I passed two couples talking on the sidewalk outside a local watering hole. One of the men got as far as "I'd like to have an AK-47, but the problem is–" before I had moved out of eavesdropping range, so I was left to wonder: What is the problem for him? The fact that he has no earthly need for one? The worry that someone, somewhere, might at that very moment be buying something even bigger? The disappointing thought that, the next time he goes deer hunting, he'd have to bring his kill home in a quart-sized Ziploc baggie? That frozen look of polite consternation on the face of the woman with whom he was sharing this date-night chit-chat?

I suppose that, in America, there's really only one topic this week, isn't there? Well, okay, there's more than one if you count all the spinoffs – what do the candidates think about gun violence? how about that symbolic Senate vote about gun violence? what incendiary thing did the Short-Fingered Vulgarian say today about gun violence? what do the Sunday morning talking heads have to say about gun violence? why aren't our thoughts and prayers and Facebook Likes having more of an influence on gun violence? how much deader are the victims of gun violence depending on whether you approve or disapprove of the people the shooter was listening to in the days or weeks or months before pulling the trigger? et bloody cetera – but as you can surmise, we're not  feeling 100% committed to fine distinctions on this topic around here today.

Although there is a distinction to be noted, and it's provided by Charlie Pierce:

Even if I grant you the idea that a bunch of Americans with AK-47s and steel plates bolted on their SUVs could somehow overthrow a military endowed with drones, battalions, an Air Force, and a Navy, the reality is that the intent of the Second Amendment has been acted upon only once since this nation came into being. Only once has an organized militia been deemed necessary to secure the rights of a free state. Only once has the citizenry formally armed themselves to wet the roots of Jefferson's tree. The tyranny they rallied to try and defeat?

The abolition of slavery.

What a resume.

(And that, of course, brings to mind this Tom Toles classic which, unfortunately, has been an evergreen since it first appeared in 2010.)

I'm sad to say that I can't find much of a way around the conclusion that Booman draws:

The problem really isn’t that people can legally buy guns (regardless of type) in stores or special shows. Not anymore. The county has enough guns already to arm anyone anytime and anywhere with anything they might want to use to kill one or ten or a hundred and fifty people.

There's your American exceptionalism: Even if we ended all manufacture and sales and importation of every kind of gun tomorrow morning, we've already got so many, uncounted, to say nothing of unregistered, firearms floating around in a toxic stew of authoritarianism, nativism, paranoia, fear, anger, low-information-voting, nearly-limitless campaign spending, white-supremicism, both-sider-ism, stand-your-ground-ism, castle-doctrine-ism, blood-of-tyrants-ism – and, worst of all, a GOP presidential primary season drizzled over the top of it all like an accelerant – that sensible measures like registration and background checks and closing some loopholes or banning extended clips can only hope to help a little around the margins. What other nation can put that on their resume?

So, while the majority of the world's political and editorial cartoonists were talking about carbon footprints this week, today's special edition of the p3 Sunday toon review is devoted to those uniquely-American little watering cans for the tree of liberty.

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, and other fine sources of toony goodness.

p3 Picks of the week: Mike Luckovich, Clay Jones, John Darkow, Lalo Alcaraz, Mike Lester, Daryl Cagle, Phil Hands, Nick Anderson, Steve Benson, Darrin Bell, Rob Rogers, Chris Blitt, Paul Szep, Nate Beeler, Gary Varvel, Adam Zyglis (1), Adam Zyglis (2), Signe Wilkinson, J. D. Crowe, Matt Wuerker, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Best of Show: Clay Bennett.

p3 Legion of Merit: John Deering.

p3 Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium: Pat Bagley. (Compare.)

p3 Strategic Ambiguity Award: I'm singling out this toon by Walt Handlesman about America's tradition of poor risk assessment for special mention because it's not clear to me what we're to make of the oddly-shaped head of the menacing silhouette at left. Is that the bill of a Tom Clancy-style cap? Or is it the fold of a keffiyeh? Or – scarcely less terrifying – is it a hoodie? Or – darkest possibility of all! – is that the bill of a penguin? Have they finally armed themselves?

p3 World Toon Review: Rod Emmerson (New Zealand). (Like I said, most international cartoonists I keep an eye on had bigger fish to fry than America's love affair with killing one another because.)

Ann Telnaes gives credit where credit is due: The man can play America like a banjo.

Mark Fiore explains why he can't wait until the blood dries.

Tom Tomorrow just makes the cut for this week's special edition by showing Santa packing.

Reuben Bolling asks: Who will think of the snowflakes?

Comic Strip of the Day says, with good cause, it's time to ask the Marvin Gaye question.

You're gonna hoit someone with that old shotgun! And that, my friends, is how you shoehorn classic animation into a very special edition of Sunday afternoon toons. "What's Up Doc?", directed by Robert McKimson from a story by Warren Foster, was created to celebrate the heckling hare's 10th anniversary on the big screen. It's one of several Bugs Bunny toons based around him telling his life story to a reporter. (It's also the second time we see Bugs playing Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody #2" on the piano.) This one has the distinction of introducing the song that would be Bug's theme. As you can probably guess, Life with Father – a Warner Bros/First National film from three years earlier – had indeed been a hit. That's one insider joke; the other is the idea of Bing Crosby, Eddie Cantor, Jack Benney, and Al Jolson sharing the same park bench with out-of-work Bugs. Portland's own Mel Blanc did the voice work for Bugs, Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, and the director. Arthur Q. Bryan voiced Elmer, and Richard Bickenbach voiced Bing Crosby (both uncredited).

Watch "What's Up, Doc?" on Vimeo.

The Extended-Clip Oregon Toon Block:

It's an Ex-Oregonian Jack Ohman two-fer: Overreacting, and keeping the paperwork moving.

Lamentably Ex-Oregonian Jen Sorensen actually felt (probably with some justification) that she should append something along the lines of a danger of small pieces/choking hazard warning to this one. Tricky business, satire.

Matt Bors gives us a glimpse inside deadline cartooning.

Jesse Springer posted an Oregon-rain-themed piece for this week, but I'm going to go with a rerun of this toon that followed the Umpqua Community College shootings in October:

Test your toon-captioning marksmanship 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.

Because an egg timer can't measure an interval of less than three minutes

Several weeks ago I lamented that a 24-hour clock is no longer adequate to mark the time between mass shootings in America; we needed to start using an egg timer.

Two shootings today (so far - it's not even dark on the west coast yet), and I'm beginning to think that even an egg timer is too crude an instrument.

We're going to need a stopwatch.

At this rate, we'll soon have to use a cesium microwave atomic clock.

Sunday morning toons: Mr. Channing, call your agent

What's in the news today?

Well, adding to Obama's extension of our military involvement in Afghanistan, there's now the promised-he-wouldn't introduction of American advisors (the technical term for first-into-the-war) in Syria, for reasons that aren't terribly clear.

The future of the GOP primary debates appears sketchy.

And the argument against the candidacy of Jeb! Bush appears to hang less and less on objections to American political dynasties, per se, and more on objections to American political dynasties that are plagued with generations of "daddy issues."

But the main topic appears to be the man who, as Randle Patrick McMurphy might have put it, has nosed out The Short-Fingered Vulgarian as the bull goose loony in the Acute ward of the GOP psychiatric hospital. (He's also the one whose face has replaced Trump's as the most nearly omnipresent on my Facebook feed, a situation I'd love to see remedied at the earliest possible moment.) The trouble with Ben "Elmer Gantry" Carson is that he makes parody, satire, even ridicule, nearly pointless. There's little a cartoonist needs to do (or can do) beyond simply quoting the man, accurately and in context. I wonder how many of the Carson demo even know who Elmer Gantry is? Perhaps if we remade the film version (even with Kindle, no one's going to read Sinclair Lewis these days, dahlink), in 3-D, with Tatum Channing in the Burt Lancaster part.

Today's toons were selected after a week of negotiations in a 67-degree Fahrenheit, multi-podium broadcast venue, 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: Mike Luckovich, Jeff Danziger, Tim Eagan, Dan Wasserman, Signe Wilkinson, Nick Anderson, Darrin Bell, Chris Britt, Pat Bagley, J. D. Crowe, Matt Wuerker, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Best of Show: Chan Lowe.

p3 Legion of Merit: Ted Rall.

p3 Award for Best Adaptation From Another Medium (tie): Nick Anderson, Marshall Ramsey, Phil Hands, and Jeff Danziger.

p3 Good News/Bad News Award: Bob Englehardt.

p3 World Toon Review: Patrick Chappatte (Switzerland) and Marian Kamensky (Austria).

Ann Telnaes asks a pretty obvious question about borders made up out of nothing a century ago, although her headline writer has a somewhat odd sense of the word "predictable."

Mark Fiore presents a new kind of debate for a new kind of candidate.

Tom Tomorrow lets us watch as Second Amendment enthusiasts discover that the whole authority thing is trickier than it might appear.

Keith Knight reveals something silly. Or allows something silly to reveal itself as such. Probably the latter.

Reuben Bolling reminds us: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens (numbering no more than perhaps 1% of the country) can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. (Profound apologies to the legacy of Margaret Mead.)

It's a Red Meat twofer: Bug-Eyed Earl is on the job, and Ted Johnson acknowledges some lingering concerns.

The Comic Strip Curmudgeon considers you and I never have: the horrifying opposite of the face of a man engaging in a long-running, well-established B.C. gag.

I joked above about how many Carson supporters do – or don't – know who Elmer Gantry is. Comic Strip of the Day reminds me that they probably don't know who Parson Weems is either.

Hey, shrimp! Get an eyeful of this – here's some real window washing: "The Paneless Window Washer" was directed by Dave Fleischer in 1937, with animation by Willard Bowsky and the magnificently named Orestes Calpini. Uncredited: Jack Mercer (Popeye), Gus Wicke (Bluto), and Mae Questel (The Slender One), musical director Sammy Timberg, and scenic artist Anton Loeb, who created those lush (even in black and white) street fronts and building facades.

The One-Size-Fits-All Oregon Toon Block:

Ex-Oregonian Jack Ohman pretty much aggregates all the Ben Carson jokes out there to be made.

Possibly Ex-Oregonian Jen Sorensen introduces Arizona: the land of No return.

Matt Bors looks forward to the next year.

Jesse Springer looks at the latest scandal at Oregon's multi-platform entertainment complex that is also authorized to function as a nonprofit and award college credits and wonders how the administration could have handled it worse. (Spoiler: There is no way the administration could have handled it worse, starting with tolerating the conditions that let it happen in the first place.)

Test your toon captioning spells 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.