Staycation

Caution: visitors must wear helmets. Falling bottle zone.

Hope n' Change is taking a much-needed break this week - a "Summer staycation" in which we're not actually going anywhere but enjoying family time, playing "whiskey bottle fetch" with Penny (the official dog of Hope n' Change), and taking the opportunity to catch up on a growing pile of personal and professional projects.

The comments section will remain open (as always, just click on the page's title - "Staycation" in this case - to go to comments) and we'll be dropping in regularly to chat and help bemoan the state of the world.

Of course, if more feces hit the fan than usual we'll snap back into action. For that matter, if we just get a random cartoon idea we'll tag it onto this page - no promises, but the odds are pretty good that we'll get at least a minor creative itch before 7 days have passed.

We'll return to our usual Monday, Wednesday, Friday publishing schedule as of Monday, June 27. Here's hoping the world can hold together till then!

-Stilton Jarlsberg

PS: In the interim, you can avoid withdrawal symptoms (and enjoy news, humor, and pithy commentary) over at The Daily Gouge.

TUESDAY UPDATE: BY POPULAR REQUEST...

WEDNESDAY UPDATE: LOVE MEANS NEVER HAVING TO SAY ALLAHU AKBAR


“To the LGBT community — we stand with you,” President Obama’s utterly useless attorney general said. “The good in this world far outweighs the evil. Our common humanity transcends our differences, and our most effective response to terror is compassion, it’s unity and it’s love.”


Which confuses us here at HnC. Aren't gay bars like the Pulse filled with people exercising their compassion, unity, and love? Let's make "group hugs" Plan B, and "shooting the shit out of terrorist monsters" Plan A.


THURSDAY UPDATE: RUG RATS

FRIDAY UPDATE: A SAD ANNIVERSARY


While we hate to wrap up the week on a grim note, some things are worth noting. June 24th marks 43 years since 32 men were burned alive, almost certainly deliberately, in a gay club in New Orleans - an event which sadly has special resonance in the wake of the Orlando massacre. The case was never solved because it seemed that so few cared about men who were considered social outcasts.

Happily, that degree of blind hatred and prejudice is rarer now, although there are still shocking throwbacks from some people so vile they could make the Westboro Baptists blush with shame.  Hope n' Change sincerely hopes that the ongoing politicization of the nightmare in Orlando never obscures the fact that the victims were first and foremost human beings with families, friends, and futures which will now go unrealized.

FRIDAY UPDATE TWO: I DID NOT HAVE BREXIT WITH THAT WOMAN