Being Jim Davis

Today's strip

Today's strip

Today's strip

Who the fuck bakes a pie the weekend immediately AFTER Thanksgiving?? Let alone an intricate lattice crust job like this one, amiright? A goddamned psychopath, that's who. I mean, look, I'm not saying it's one-hundred percent certain that Jon Arbuckle was about to have sex with pie, but, come on, we both know Jon Arbuckle was definitely about to have sex with that pie.Anyway, if you've managed to avoid hearing this Chuck Berry number thus far in your life, I highly recommend not clicking on that link so you can continue doing so. Just a really dreadful number.   Today's stripBillboard top 100 for 1972

Hey, what if Russell's Teapot entered Searle's Chinese Room? Like, would that be interesting? Would it, huh!?!?!Today's stripMake America Kittens Again

This one's highly unremarkable, so we talked about vampires instead. Enjoy!Today's strip

  Because this is 1978, we don't have a fascist monster for our president. In celebration of that fact, we talked a lot about Jimmy Carter in this episode, and it reminded me of this clip mentioned in a recent episode of the Talking Simpsons podcast. Shout out to the Talking Simpsons podcast I guess!Then, because this is the show that it is, we argue about various definitions of irony for far too long. You know, now that I think about it, I was definitely being verbally ironic when I said I "didn't understand verbal irony."Today's strip@2point8million on TwitterThat one Oatmeal comic about the different types of irony

Today on our program, we make some jokes and laugh at them, and then argue about various methods of preparing coffee. It's pretty much a normal BJD day.Oh, and let's not forget: Our country is currently being run by literal white supremacists.Today's strip

Y'all reading Mel Gurtov's excellent foreign affairs blog, In the Human Interest? I know I am. Anyway, here's some Garfield or whatever.I was going to give you guys a picture of Fred Astaire here, but that isn't working right now because Squarespace is apparently shit.Today's strip

    “Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revo

White people were, and are, astounded by the holocaust in Germany. They did not know that they could act that way. But I very much doubt whether black people were astounded—at least, in the same way. For my part, the fate of the Jews, and the world’s indifference to it, frightened me very much. I could not but feel, in those sorrowful years, that this human indifference, concerning which I knew so much already, would be my portion on the day that the United States decided to murder its Negroes systematically instead of little by little and catch-as-catch-can. I was, of course, authoritatively assured that what had happened to the Jews in Germany could not happen to the Negroes in America, but I thought, bleakly, that the German Jews had probably believed similar counsellors, and, again, I could not share the white man’s vision of himself for the very good reason that white men in America do not behave toward black men the way they behave toward each other. When a white man faces a black man, especially if the

The person who distrusts himself has no touchstone for reality—for this touchstone can be only oneself. Such a person interposes between himself and reality nothing less than a labyrinth of attitudes. And these attitudes, furthermore, though the person is usually unaware of it (is unaware of so much!), are historical and public attitudes. They do not relate to the present any more than they relate to the person. Therefore, whatever white people do not know about Negroes reveals, precisely and inexorably, what they do not know about themselves.James Baldwin, "Letter from a Region in My Mind," 1962Today's strip

There appears to be a vast amount of confusion on this point, but I do not know many Negroes who are eager to be “accepted” by white people, still less to be loved by them; they, the blacks, simply don’t wish to be beaten over the head by the whites every instant of our brief passage on this planet. White people in this country will have quite enough to do in learning how to accept and love themselves and each other, and when they have achieved this—which will not be tomorrow and may very well be never—the Negro problem will no longer exist, for it will no longer be needed.James Baldwin, "Letter from a Region in My Mind," 1962.Today's strip

Go search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.Frederick Douglass, July 4, 1852Hey, while you're listening, why not visit the website for Mullis Creative?Today's strip

What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mock; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy - a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation of the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.Frederick Douglass, July 4, 1852Today's strip

At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Oh! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation's ear, I would today pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against Nicolas Cage and man must be denounced.Frederick Douglass, July 4, 1852.Today's strip

Today, for the first time in Being Jim Davis history, we welcome a third co-host to join us on a standard, non-supplemental episode. Who could it be? Metallica lead singer James Hetfield? Argentinian man of letters Jorge Luis Borges? Perhaps even Jim Davis himself?Or maybe it's just a some guy we grew up with.Today's strip

Today's strip isn't that remarkable, but did you know that American composer Howard Swanson died on this day in 1978? He's pretty good. Here, check this out.   Pretty great, right? Or how about this one?   Yeah, pretty great. Anyway, here's some Garfield or whatever.Today's strip

In Garfield the poppies blowBetween the crosses, row on row,That mark our place; and in the skyThe larks, still bravely singing, flyScarce heard amid the guns below.We are the Dead. Short days agoWe lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,Loved and were loved, and now we lieIn Garfield.Take up our quarrel with the foe:To you from failing hands we throwThe torch; be yours to hold it high.If ye break faith with us who dieWe shall not sleep, though poppies growIn Garfield.Today's strip

    Y'all read Matthew Tobin Anderson's excellent piece in Slate this week examining the parallels between Stalinist Russia and the incoming American regime? It was a thoughtful appraisal of just how bad things can get, but did you notice @realdonaldtrump looks remarkably like a muppet in the photo they used? No, YOU'RE the muppet!!!Anyway, if y'all like Garfield, great cuz that's what we talk about in today's podcast.Today's strip