I always like Michael Ramirez’s political cartoons.  I often love Michael Ramirez’s political cartoons.  But what’s the word for how one feels about a political cartoon that so perfectly summarizes a complex issue that no further words are needed?  This is one of the best of the best.

I’m not usually a Peggy Noonan fan (I find her a bit vapid, the right’s Maureen Dowd), but I think this is one of her better columns.

Generally speaking, I am not a fan of the Disney Channel.  Parents think the teen-oriented shows are innocuous, because they are free of references to sex and drugs.  That’s true, but what they have in bushel-loads is attitude, bad attitude.  Whether you’re watching Hannah Montana (mercifully out of production), the Suite Life of Zach and Cody (or the Suite Life on Deck, its sequel), or Pair of Kings, or the Wizards of Waverly Place (another show that is defunct), you be assured of a few things:  inept, absent parents; humor that’s premised on one-liner insults; appallingly bad acting, with the teen stars pausing after every woodenly delivered one-liner to give the laugh track a chance to kick in; plots and camera work that cater to one-minute attention spans; and relentless Disney product promotion, since the shows are really just extended commercials for the teen stars Disney grinds out at its studios.

Put more succinctly, the shows are frenzied in pace and mean-spirited in tone.  If your tween or young teen is giving you attitude, you don’t have to look further than the Disney channel (or its evil twin, Nickelodeon) to figure out where your child learned those techniques.  It’s small wonder that so many former Disney stars have crossed to the dark side.  Aside from living in the artificial, sycophantic world of Hollywood, stars such as Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears, and Demi Lovato, all of whom have had drug or mental health issues, have also been carefully taught on the Disney lot that adults are idiots, that the only people who matter are their peers, and that morality is defined by feelings, with every person’s own navel being the ultimate moral arbiter.

Even Selena Gomez, who has just slipped free of the Disney studio, seems to be moving towards the dark side, as her costumes become sleazier and sleazier.  Sleazy costumes were pretty much the canary in the coal mine for other troubled Disney stars.  In other words, breast- and thigh-baring were the first outward manifestations of the actress’s imminent physical or moral collapse.

And yet, in this darkness, there is a little bit of light:  Phineas and Ferb.  The only thing that Phineas and Ferb has in common with the other Disney shows is that the parents are absent and clueless.  I forgive the show, though, for that conceit, because it allows the main characters’ lights to shine so brilliantly.  In a TV world defined by jaded, sarcastic, bored, trouble-making youth characters, Phineas, Ferb, and their friends are distinguished by boundless enthusiasm for and interest in the world around them, and a complete absence of cynicism.

The premise is simple.  Phineas and Ferb are stepbrothers who have the perfect bond in their shared genius and their intellectual curiosity.  Their friends admire their brilliance, and enthusiastically participate in their ideas.  The ineffectual counterweight to their manic genius is their shrill older sister Candace, who talks on the phone endlessly with her best friend, and spends most of her energy trying to attract Jeremy, the laid-back teen dude who is unselfconscious, kind, and clueless about Candace’s crush.  In every episode, Candace tries desperately, and without success, to make her parents aware of Phineas’ and Ferb’s escapades.  The show also has a subplot with an evil genius and a platypus, but I pretty much ignore that part, which is just silly.

The show’s introductory song pretty much sets the tone.  It describes an exciting world, with endless interesting things to see, do and learn.  It urges children to participate wholeheartedly in life:

Click here to view the embedded video.

That theme song reminds me of another nice thing about Phineas and Ferb, which is the music.  Every show has a song.  Musically, the songs range from tolerably bland to surprisingly sophisticated.  Take for example the song from “Ferb Latin.”  Although the lyrics are nonsensical, it is a remarkably sophisticated example of counterpoint, a technique that takes two apparently incompatible songs and weaves them together into a single, successful melody:

Click here to view the embedded video.

It’s been done before, of course (see here and here for nice examples), but one really doesn’t expect it, even a minute and thirty seconds of it, in a half hour Disney children’s show.

So if you should ever find yourself in a room with a kid who is watching Phineas and Ferb, don’t change the channel or leave the room.  Sit down, instead, and get a very rare glimpse of delightful children’s programming.

Sadie sent me this delightful video, and I now pass it on to you.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Trump has played coy this morning, leaving people with the impression first that he was going to endorse Newt, and then with the fact that he endorsed Mitt.  He still has time to change his mind.

My question for you:  Does Trump’s endorsement matter?  Are there still people out there who look to the man for political guidance?

In the preceding post, I spoke about life sometimes being so ridiculous that it defies art.  In that vein, I found amusing these paired headlines from the online edition of today’s San Francisco Chronicle:

Twenty or more years ago, pulling an all-nighter was fun and/or profitable, since I was either out dancing or in earning money meeting some sort of legal deadline.  The whole all-nighter thing loses its luster when you’re caring for a sick child (migraine, for those interested).  Little Bookworm 1 is better sleeping so, as soon as I get Little Bookworm 2 off to school, I’m heading back to bed myself to see if I can remove some of the sandpaper from my eyeballs.  Blogging will be light this morning.

I am working on another ebook.  Yes, despite the fact that my last effort earned me about $0.05 per hour, I haven’t lost the yen to publish.  This time around, I think I’ve got a better idea for a book that will actually see me making a more reasonable return on effort.  The book is more focused, has a broader potential market, and is shorter.  I’m not going to ill-wish myself by telling you about the book yet (I’m still blocking it out and am riding a lovely wave of ideas), but I’d like your input about one thing: When you’re buying a self-published ebook, what’s your preferred purchase price?

My sense is that, if I price too low, I make it look as if my book is valueless.  However, I learned the hard way with the last effort that, if I price it to high, too few people are going to buy a book from a self-published author.  I would very much appreciate your opinions on this.

I don’t have enough material to offer “notes from all over,” but I do have enough material for notes from here and there.

The re-hash of Newt’s marital woes got ABC to take a journey down memory lane to talk about famous philandering politicians.  Showing just how selective Pravda-esque memory can be, ABC got Thomas Jefferson, whose alleged philandering has always been dubious, and Grover Cleveland, who philandered more than a century ago, but managed to forget both JFK, perhaps because his extramarital activities were hidden from the press, and Bill Clinton, whose escapades meant that millions of American elementary school children were asking Mommy and Daddy pointed questions about oral sex.  (Hat tip:  Earl.)

Oh, England!  England!  She ain’t what she used to be.  I still find staggering the fact that Yorkshire which, when I lived in England was the most quintessentially English of shires, as opposed to the more cosmopolitan southern shires, is now becoming majority Muslim in many cities and towns.  Sigh.  (Hat tip:  Earl)

Yid With Lid is one of the best Jewish/Israel/General Politics bloggers out there.  Today is his anniversary.

Of this story, JKB says “It’s all good, no urination occurred.  Just kidnapping of soldiers and their summary execution.”  It’s good to know that the Western media and its fellow travelers have their priorities straight when it comes to outrage.

An NPR report about the beginning of the end of China’s core communist years goes right to the heart of everything that’s wrong with socialism.

And that’s all.  Between the fact that the Niners lost (I’m a fair weather fan, so I watched today’s game, which almost gave me a million heart attacks), the swarm of children in my house, and my mother’s issues (many, many issues), I’m depleted.  Tomorrow, I’ll have a good work-out in the early morning and, I hope, be mentally revitalized the rest of the day.

The only other thing I’ll add is that Speed, the 1994 movie that introduced me to the wonders of Keanu, is as good as I remembered.  And so was Keanu.  Indeed, it/he was so good that my daughter, who has long considered my appreciation for Keanu to be the deviant behavior of a middle-aged lady, was moved to say “Is that Keanu?  He’s so handsome!”  Hah!

I have a friend who’s looking for a job as C, C++ programmer.  My friend specializes in databases, and can also program in other languages.  He’s also very smart and very nice, which is always an excellent combination.

If you know of any jobs, please send me an email (bookwormroom *at* gmail.com), and I’ll forward the message to my friend.