Good luck with that one

Certainly, I'm sympathetic with the idea that we shouldn't be buying so much crap from China, but we've had so many years of policies which have resulted in so much of our manufacturing shipped overseas that it's good luck with that. Throw in a destruction of the oversight of imports under Bush II and not only is it coming from China, but it's hurting us physically as well as economically.

Speaking China, anyone else remember when they were the Bush crew's number one choice for our sparring partner in World War III?

Be a glutton for punishment: Read the strip

Making America safe for poisonous toys

Ignoring the reindeer who looks like the bastard offspring of Rudolph and Ernest Borgnine, how funny, lead in toys makes them heavy. Certainly not dangerous. Because if they were dangerous, Bush and his cronies would have some 'splainin' to do.

What's really interesting is that in some cases, our lax regulatory regime means that there are products exported to the U.S. aren't legal in China. Now that's comedy!

Be a glutton for punishment: Read the strip

You are what you eat

Crazy illogical people will complain because Bruce says that Chinese people eat dogs. Sane logical people will complain because Bruce can't produce anything remotely resembling a citation.

Personally, if you're going to get upset about eating dogs, then you should be even more upset about eating pigs. Hell, you look into it all, and you'd be a vegetarian. I'd be a vegetarian if it weren't for that whole not eating meat thing.

But from Bruce's perspective, the most important thing is not whether it's morally appropriate to eat dogs (or other meat), but to defend himself against claims of being politically incorrect because he wants to say that Chinese people eat dogs. Never mind, that in the cursory research that I did using Bruce's own sources, I found that dog is far more popular in Korea and Vietnam. It's kind of like talking about Cubans eating tacos and enchiladas. Yes, you can find those foods in Cuba, but that's not where they're popular.

No illustration today, I was going to use that scene from Hannibal, but when I found a picture, it started to put me off eating anything.

Added bonus, there's a new little ad box in the upper left corner of the page. Based on the network, you can expect this to be an ad listing from some web cartoon or other. I was going to make a snarky comment about how they were paying good money, as much as nothing per day to appear in that space, but there's apparently already some competition to appear on these pages, so check them out and give them some bang for their buck (they pay to appear, not for the clicks).

Even more added bonus. From the Wichita Eagle:

A reader asked about a new stomach virus going around: "Did God make it, or did it evolve?" Neither. It was caused by President Bush and "Mallard Fillmore."

You know you're in trouble when you're a conservative duck and you've lost Kansas (dot com).

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Freedom is on the march (offer not valid in China)

The rant about childhood obesity in China continues. And I have to admit that Bruce is right that the Chinese almost certainly did import the problem from us. In fact, when I was doing some of the initial research for yesterday's commentary, I found that we've apparently been quite successful in exporting the problem to large portions of the world. Basic rule: The more Americanized a country's food system is, the more obesity becomes a problem. We've even got the French.

But I do think Bruce is wrong on the rest of it. I think the Chinese have settled on American-style democracy and human rights.

Be a glutton for punishment: Read the strip