Got another cartoon in the Cutie Island story-line done.
You can read it from the start at my website. I worried that this week’s isn’t funny enough. I think it works well enough though.
Tomorrow I’m putting up new shirts and books to sell. Long overdue…
In the Minimum Security comic from 11/24, Bunnista’s mom wants something to brag about. Click on the fragment below for the full cartoon at comics.com:
In the comic from 11/25, there aren’t enough carrots in the universe:
On 11/26, living in the sky is tempting fate:
On 11/27, bunnies once ruled the Earth:
The cartoon for 11/28, disciplinary aids are flying off the shelves:
* * *
You can see a new Minimum Security comic strip every weekday at comics.com, and also daily but one day later at minimumsecurity.net.
Glenn Greenwald has been on a roll pointing out revisionism and hypocrisy (not to mention complicity) among the big media commentariat on subjects like the War on (t)Error, Iraq, imperialism and torture and detainment. Joe Klein and Tom Friedman have distinguished themselves as happy-talking fools in defense of the most egregious actions of state power and utter disregard for human rights. Greenwald’s posts are long, but worth reading at least for the twists and turns these “hired pens” (as the ultimate statist Lenin once put it) take in their efforts to justify the abuses of the war-mongering powers. All of which lays the foundation for future wars waged with the kind of ahistorical blindness that made the current mess in Iraq conceivable in the first place:
For a short while, it appeared that the one silver lining in the carnage and devastation wreaked by the U.S. attack on Iraq would be a palliative effect on the war-loving pathology among our political establishment. As Vietnam did for some short period of time, Iraq could have re-taught both the evil and stupidity of commencing optional wars against countries that haven’t attacked us and couldn’t do so, and more generally, could have underscored the grave error in viewing the battle against Muslim extremism through the glorious prism of “War.”But with this intense Friedmanesque revisionism well underway — whereby war cheerleaders like Friedman were Right and Good all along and it was only the incompetent Bush and Rumsfeld who ruined everything with their “bumbling” — it seems increasingly likely that the opposite lesson will be learned. Attacking, invading and occupying other countries in order to change their governments to ones we prefer is the smart, wise and just thing to do. Friedman’s term for it today is “collaborating with them to build progressive politics.” Especially if there is another terrorist attack on U.S. soil — but even if there isn’t — the only lesson being drawn from the Iraq debacle in these precincts is that from now on, we just need to plan and execute it better, so that the Good and Just people who cheer these wars on have their noble schemes vindicated a lot sooner and a lot more proficiently.
Glenn Greenwald has been on a roll pointing out revisionism and hypocrisy (not to mention complicity) among the big media commentariat on subjects like the War on (t)Error, Iraq, imperialism and torture and detainment. Joe Klein and Tom Friedman have distinguished themselves as happy-talking fools in defense of the most egregious actions of state power and utter disregard for human rights. Greenwald’s posts are long, but worth reading at least for the twists and turns these “hired pens” (as the ultimate statist Lenin once put it) take in their efforts to justify the abuses of the war-mongering powers. All of which lays the foundation for future wars waged with the kind of ahistorical blindness that made the current mess in Iraq conceivable in the first place:
For a short while, it appeared that the one silver lining in the carnage and devastation wreaked by the U.S. attack on Iraq would be a palliative effect on the war-loving pathology among our political establishment. As Vietnam did for some short period of time, Iraq could have re-taught both the evil and stupidity of commencing optional wars against countries that haven’t attacked us and couldn’t do so, and more generally, could have underscored the grave error in viewing the battle against Muslim extremism through the glorious prism of “War.”
But with this intense Friedmanesque revisionism well underway — whereby war cheerleaders like Friedman were Right and Good all along and it was only the incompetent Bush and Rumsfeld who ruined everything with their “bumbling” — it seems increasingly likely that the opposite lesson will be learned. Attacking, invading and occupying other countries in order to change their governments to ones we prefer is the smart, wise and just thing to do. Friedman’s term for it today is “collaborating with them to build progressive politics.” Especially if there is another terrorist attack on U.S. soil — but even if there isn’t — the only lesson being drawn from the Iraq debacle in these precincts is that from now on, we just need to plan and execute it better, so that the Good and Just people who cheer these wars on have their noble schemes vindicated a lot sooner and a lot more proficiently.
Posted in war, writers Tagged: glenngreenwald, Joe Klein, media, Tom Friedman, war 
I will not be the first nor the last person to observe this: the Black Friday stampede at a Long Island Wal-Mart that killed Jdimytai Damour suggests our culture is sick. It represents just about everything that is wrong with our economy: the big box store, the exploitation of low-paid seasonal hires, hyped-up materialism, desperation and greed for “bargains” and a “tradition” of post-Thanksgiving shopping, disregard for workplace safety standards — as a friend of mine observed before Damour’s identity was known, “the poor guy was probably an undocumented worker.” He wasn’t, but given past practices by Wal-Mart and other global corporations, my friend’s suspicion was not without reason.
That said, I won’t martyrize Damour; he didn’t “die for our sins.” He died because people — the bargain-obsessed shoppers and the big box operators who whipped them into a frenzy — value things over people, “getting ahead” over courtesy. The store owners could not be bothered to provide adequate security; the shoppers could not be bothered to wait another five minutes for opening time or walk casually to make their purchases. Push down the pregnant woman! What do you mean we have to leave? I’ve been waiting since 9 o’clock last night!
In the wake of this awful event, consider the reported response by the Toy Industry Association to a letter-writing campaign launched by parents demanding fewer advertisements aimed at their children:
“If children are not aware of what is new and available, how will they be able to tell their families what their preferences are?” an industry statement said. “While there is certainly greater economic disturbance going on now, families have always faced different levels of economic well-being and have managed to tailor their spending to their means.”
The full AP article deserves reading. It reports a sociologist and a social worker discussing desperate parents straining their budgets to meet the demands of their kids, despite facing unemployment and homelessness.
And while it is all well and good to counsel such parents on the virtues of saying “no” (with practice, I have become pretty good at it; but then, I’m a dick), the working poor have few other outlets for entertainment than television, where the psychological warfare is waged.
Yesterday — to take a random personal example — my four-year-old son vegged out in front of a full day “Sponge Bob Square Pants” marathon on Nickelodeon. How nice of those programmers at Nick to create 12 hours of non-stop Sponge Bob. They must have done it outta the goodness of their hearts, yes? Uh, no. Sponge Bob sells toys.
“I want that,” my son would say on seeing a much hyped toy. Then another commercial. “I want that.” And another commercial. “I want that.” And so on. All day. Of course, we employed the usual parent artillery: uncommitted speculation (”We’ll see….”), disbelief (”You don’t even know what THAT is!”), outright rejection (”Not in my house”) and sarcasm (”Of course you want that, honey. You want everything.”)
Not pleasant, but not unendurable. I take it as part of the challenge of raising children in a crazed consumer culture. I won’t shelter my kids from the ugliness of capitalism; I would rather arm them with it. That said, I cannot endorse the trial-by-fire so casually described by a toy industry consultant:
Gottlieb also contends that it’s good for children to encounter toy ads — even in cases where products later turn out to be disappointments.“It teaches, for very low stakes, how to navigate in our consumer culture,” he said.
“They are going to have to spend the rest of their lives listening to every kind of marketing approach, and childhood is where they will learn to cope with it.”
As for the economic pressure on parents, Gottlieb sounds a fatalistic note.
“Believe me, there are families with much bigger issues on their plates right now then worrying about whether their child will be unhappy because they did not get a particular toy,” Gottlieb wrote in his “Out of the Toy Box” blog. “Delivering disappointment goes with the job of parenting.”
Wow. That’s right. Why change the culture? Why exercise some of that “corporate responsibility” so often given a special bullet point in mission statements? Why look where you’re stepping when rampaging through the store to get that useless crap for 50% off!?
Why listen to parents (who, um, do the purchasing, hell-o!) when they ask you to target ads to them and not their children? Apparently that is too “nanny state” or “paternalistic” for champions of “free enterprise” like Gottlieb. Better to exploit a child’s natural greed and let him or her nag the parent. Corporations don’t want your input, silly consumer; they want your money. Prepare to get trampled.
I will not be the first nor the last person to observe this: the Black Friday stampede at a Long Island Wal-Mart that killed Jdimytai Damour suggests our culture is sick. It represents just about everything that is wrong with our economy: the big box store, the exploitation of low-paid seasonal hires, hyped-up materialism, desperation and greed for “bargains” and a “tradition” of post-Thanksgiving shopping, disregard for workplace safety standards — as a friend of mine observed before Damour’s identity was known, “the poor guy was probably an undocumented worker.” He wasn’t, but given past practices by Wal-Mart and other global corporations, my friend’s suspicion was not without reason.
That said, I won’t martyrize Damour; he didn’t “die for our sins.” He died because people — the bargain-obsessed shoppers and the big box operators who whipped them into a frenzy — value things over people, “getting ahead” over courtesy. The store owners could not be bothered to provide adequate security; the shoppers could not be bothered to wait another five minutes for opening time or walk casually to make their purchases. Push down the pregnant woman! What do you mean we have to leave? I’ve been waiting since 9 o’clock last night!
In the wake of this awful event, consider the reported response by the Toy Industry Association to a letter-writing campaign launched by parents demanding fewer advertisements aimed at their children:
“If children are not aware of what is new and available, how will they be able to tell their families what their preferences are?” an industry statement said. “While there is certainly greater economic disturbance going on now, families have always faced different levels of economic well-being and have managed to tailor their spending to their means.”
The full AP article deserves reading. It reports a sociologist and a social worker discussing desperate parents straining their budgets to meet the demands of their kids, despite facing unemployment and homelessness.
And while it is all well and good to counsel such parents on the virtues of saying “no” (with practice, I have become pretty good at it; but then, I’m a dick), the working poor have few other outlets for entertainment than television, where the psychological warfare is waged.
Yesterday — to take a random personal example — my four-year-old son vegged out in front of a full day “Sponge Bob Square Pants” marathon on Nickelodeon. How nice of those programmers at Nick to create 12 hours of non-stop Sponge Bob. They must have done it outta the goodness of their hearts, yes? Uh, no. Sponge Bob sells toys.
“I want that,” my son would say on seeing a much hyped toy. Then another commercial. “I want that.” And another commercial. “I want that.” And so on. All day. Of course, we employed the usual parent artillery: uncommitted speculation (”We’ll see….”), disbelief (”You don’t even know what THAT is!”), outright rejection (”Not in my house”) and sarcasm (”Of course you want that, honey. You want everything.”)
Not pleasant, but not unendurable. I take it as part of the challenge of raising children in a crazed consumer culture. I won’t shelter my kids from the ugliness of capitalism; I would rather arm them with it. That said, I cannot endorse the trial-by-fire so casually described by a toy industry consultant:
Gottlieb also contends that it’s good for children to encounter toy ads — even in cases where products later turn out to be disappointments.
“It teaches, for very low stakes, how to navigate in our consumer culture,” he said.
“They are going to have to spend the rest of their lives listening to every kind of marketing approach, and childhood is where they will learn to cope with it.”
As for the economic pressure on parents, Gottlieb sounds a fatalistic note.
“Believe me, there are families with much bigger issues on their plates right now then worrying about whether their child will be unhappy because they did not get a particular toy,” Gottlieb wrote in his “Out of the Toy Box” blog. “Delivering disappointment goes with the job of parenting.”
Wow. That’s right. Why change the culture? Why exercise some of that “corporate responsibility” so often given a special bullet point in mission statements? Why look where you’re stepping when rampaging through the store to get that useless crap for 50% off!?
Why listen to parents (who, um, do the purchasing, hell-o!) when they ask you to target ads to them and not their children? Apparently that is too “nanny state” or “paternalistic” for champions of “free enterprise” like Gottlieb. Better to exploit a child’s natural greed and let him or her nag the parent. Corporations don’t want your input, silly consumer; they want your money. Prepare to get trampled.
Posted in capitalism Tagged: capitalism, consumerculture 
K Chronicles by Keith Knight
(th)ink cartoon by Keith Knight
*I’M LATE GETTING STRIPS UP THIS WEEK…
..Cuz I was cramming to get lots of strips done before I took off for Vegas for the holiday.
It’s the first road trip for the “Fetus Formerly Known As Lil Gravy” and he was quite the trooper. Meeting his grandpappy and great unks for the first time. Four generations of Knight men on the streets of Sin City.
*SIGNING TODAY (BLACK FRIDAY) AT ALTERNATE REALITY COMICS IN VEGAS..
Thanks to the very kind Ralph and Kate, I will be signing at L.V.’s finest comix shop from 4pm-6pm. I’ll be signing Complete K Chronicles books and the latest self-published I Left My Arse in San Francisco. How appropriate for this Black Friday. The address:
4800 S. Maryland Pkwy. ste. D Las Vegas, NV 89119
phone:(702)736-3673.
*CONTROVERSIAL COMIC STRIP WRAP-UP: ARIZONA..
The University of Arizona brought me out to Tucson to address the students about my controversial comic strip (the K Chronicles: Stories from the Campaign Trail). The strip was mistakenly run the day after the election (world’s worst timing).
My favorite part was doing a roundtable with a group of black students earlier in the day. They voiced their frustration which seemed more about the timing of the strip, than the strip itself. What I learned from them made it clearer to me why the strip caused such a ruckus. Besides their being .1% black students on a campus of 30,000, U of A is also one of the campuses where the white fraternities had “blackface” parties on Martin Luther King Day. And the paper that ran my strip, had previously run some questionable comics in the past (albeit with another editor and staff).
I was disappointed with the turnout for the slideshow itself. But from what I heard from some black students, whites were saying “What’re you complaining for? The cartoonist is black.” (which is crap, by the way. If you have a problem with the strip, it doesn’t matter what color I am).
Anyhoo..There was a ton of T.V. news people there. and i turned down interviews from Fox , NBC and someone else. (I felt bad for the local FOX guy, since they don’t have much to do with the evil national FOX news, yet they are forever stigmatized). Everyone did a reasonably good job in reporting it. Here are a coupla links:
http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2008/11/20/News/No.Laughing.Matter-3554705.shtml
http://www.fox11az.com/news/topstories/stories/KMSB_20081119_dc_jh_cartoon.1cd01dc27.html
http://www.kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=9383508&nav=HMO6HMaW
After the slideshow, I sat on a panel about the n-word and Hate Speech, signed books, and met the managing editor who effed up. He and the editor both were very sincere when apologizing about the mix-up.
Thanks to Seema and Zeke for bringing me out to the campus. I hope Montclair in New Jersey does the same thing.
*LETTERS/EMAILS OF THE WEEK….
Hi Keith,
I’ve written you before to thank you for the Chronicles, but have to do it again. This
one is brilliant!
I read two newspapers a day, but had not heard that Toyota continued to pay workers to do
community service during a downturn. That’s enlightened management. Why can’t we
Americans do that?
I’ve believed in the value of a passenger rail network for years, although the size of
this country compared to Europe makes the question more complex.
In any case, you’re insightful as well as funny. Keep it up!
Thanks,
J.
——–
Subject: 11/26 in Salon
Dude, that sh*t was on effin’ FIRE. Great comic. Thanks.
And the daily. I make a point of reading it online every day.
Take care,
–A.
—–
Hi,
I don’t know if you can make this work in two panels, but here goes.
I’ve been a fan of “K Chronicles” for many years and have written
five articles myself for “Funny Times” during these years,
meaning I have some concept of what makes humor works,
but when all is said and done, I don’t know sh*t.
So here goes:
I drive my wife’s truck to a garage for repairs. A guy in a fancy
Lexus pulls in the bay next to mine. While I’m waiting in the room
disdainfully leafing through old issues of “People Magazine,” there’s a big commotion
from the garage.
Incredibly, the guy in the Lexus had driven across Denver at 70 mph
with a tiny, black kitten trapped in his engine compartment under the radiator.
Miraculously, she was oily, greasy and traumatized but unhurt.
The mechanics talked about taking her to the “Dumb Friends League,”
but I figured this little girl had been through enough and I offered
to take her home.
(They did make me promise to name her “Lexus.”)
So I arrived at home with this 4-5 week old kitten the size of a teacup.
We cleaned her off, she fired down twice her body weight in cat food
and then declared herself the queen of the household. Lexus is
vibrant, vivacious, whimsical, entertaining.
I showed up at a garage with nothing in mind other then
my credit card balance and I arrived at home with
the kitten of everyone’s dreams. Sometimes the universe
purrs.
By the way, my favorite “K” story of all time is #1222.
Please keep the laughs and nurturing chronicles coming.
Love and aloha,
J.
—–
Life’s Little Victories..
…like, having all 6 Obama yard signs on your road stolen the same night and seeing all
of them replaced the next day, most of them by a variety of hand-made, but perfectly
legible facsimiles. Yes, we can.
I see your work in Funny Times. I love it, keep it up!
G.
——-
Right, so I actually have a bunch of scripts written for cartoons. But the trick is to translate those scribbled words into polished drawings. And that requires a precious commodity we call “time”, of which I currently have a negative account balance, thanks to children home from school and this national past time of consuming giant portions of food in honor of treaties broken by European invaders of the North American continent.
So it looks like cartoons will appear in full force next week. Plenty of ‘em! Shaking righteous fists of fury at the machine! Deconstructing our bourgeois constructs of normality! Lobbing gobs of epatiér at the dominant paradigm! And probably making snarky comments about shit that pisses me off. Ya know, the uszh.
BTW - “paradigm” should always be pronounced “para-diggum.” At least if you want to be taken seriously in polite company.
Right, so I actually have a bunch of scripts written for cartoons. But the trick is to translate those scribbled words into polished drawings. And that requires a precious commodity we call “time”, of which I currently have a negative account balance, thanks to children home from school and this national past time of consuming giant portions of food in honor of treaties broken by European invaders of the North American continent.
So it looks like cartoons will appear in full force next week. Plenty of ‘em! Shaking righteous fists of fury at the machine! Deconstructing our bourgeois constructs of normality! Lobbing gobs of epatiér at the dominant paradigm! And probably making snarky comments about shit that pisses me off. Ya know, the uszh.
BTW - “paradigm” should always be pronounced “para-diggum.” At least if you want to be taken seriously in polite company.
Posted in cartoons Tagged: cartoons, in contempt, wanderlost 
