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Cartoonist Johnny Hart's B.C. comic strip, published daily in the San Antonio Express-News, was pulled from the Dec. 7 comic pages because editors deemed the strip "inappropriate."
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I don't even get it. I understand that it's some kind of shot at people who are mad at the Japanese over Pearl Harbor, yet drive Japanese cars, but it really wasn't funny at all. Offense aside, if I were the comic page editor I would pull 9/10 of all the strips every day, simply because they suck.
-------------------- "For me, religion is like a rhinoceros: I don't have one, and I'd really prefer not to be trampled by yours. But it is impressive, and even beautiful, and, to be honest, the world would be slightly worse off if there weren't any." -Silas Sparkhammer Posts: 3239 | From: Ontario, Canada | Registered: Sep 2003
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Although I don't really find the strip described "offensive," I don't really find too many things offensive. Really, I just find it stupid and pointless, unless I'm missing something.
The point of this banned strip is, basically, "how quickly we forget," or something. Actually, I really don't get it. The Japanese people who run/own Toyota have absolutely nothing to do with the people responsible for the Pearl Harbor bombings except being from the same plot of land. Personally, I think one of the better foreign policy moves made by this country was not holding a grudge against Germany and Japan after WWII. If only our country could return to such an intelligent foreign policy instead of what we do now...
Posts: 1048 | From: Brunswick, Maine | Registered: Oct 2005
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-------------------- "When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty."--George Bernard Shaw Posts: 19266 | From: Nashville, TN | Registered: Jun 2002
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quote:Originally posted by AnglsWeHvHrdOnHiRdr: Like all other BC strips, it was unfunny.
Aw, not all. He has his moments, even now. Give the devil his due; the bloke can still turn a witty pun now and then.
He was brilliant once. He should, alas, have paid more attention to Al Capp's introduction to his very first paperback collection of strips. (Don't substitute slickness for substance.)
In any case, I don't see any reason to have pulled this strip. Let's wait to see what he pulls for Christmas, eh?
Silas
Posts: 16801 | From: San Diego, CA | Registered: Sep 2000
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San Antonio has a huge Toyota truck plant, built this year (not sure if it fully operational). We can't piss off our big moneymaker, now can we?
Posts: 239 | From: Tennessee | Registered: Nov 2005
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Joe Bentley
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
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quote:Originally posted by 00-Saleen: San Antonio has a huge Toyota truck plant, built this year (not sure if it fully operational).
The factory was completed in November and recently started production of the 2007 Toyota Tundra.
-------------------- "Existence has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it for too long." - Rorschach, The Watchmen Posts: 8929 | From: Norfolk, Virginia | Registered: Jun 2002
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That joke would have been funny about 15 or 20 years ago.
-------------------- "I wanna bite the hand that feeds me. I wanna bite that hand so badly. I wanna make them wish they'd never seen me." - Elvis Costello Posts: 2291 | From: The Banks of the Merrimack, MA | Registered: Jul 2004
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quote:Originally posted by AnglsWeHvHrdOnHiRdr: Like all other BC strips, it was unfunny.
Aw, not all. He has his moments, even now. Give the devil his due; the bloke can still turn a witty pun now and then.
Cite, please.
Just kidding, but it's been years since I found any BC comic funny.
quote:He was brilliant once.
Agreed. I do remember funny BC strips.
quote:He should, alas, have paid more attention to Al Capp's introduction to his very first paperback collection of strips. (Don't substitute slickness for substance.)
IMO, Hart is not slick. He's bigoted and narrowminded.
quote:Let's wait to see what he pulls for Christmas, eh?
Yes, Xtian holidays do bring out the worst in him.
-------------------- How homophobic do you have to be to have penguin gaydar? - Lewis Black Posts: 8322 | From: Columbus, OH | Registered: Aug 2005
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In any case it wasn't Toyota models that did the deed at Pearl Harbor. If you're going to blame a Japanese car company for Pearl Harbor, blame Mitsubishi. Better yet, blame the Japanese government that was responsible for it. Don't blame a company that was producing trucks for the Army for an aerial raid.
Pearl Harbor is very much in the minds of some people today. I have a friend who absolutely will not buy any product manufactured by Mitsubishi.
posted
I can think of several BC strips that were more offensive than that one. Which doesn't mean I like this one, just that it's often offensive and it really shouldn't be such a surprise that he's done it again.
-------------------- Another lifetime I'd have fallen in love with you Swept away by my feelings, ashamed and confused But just now it's enough to be walking with you Let the mystery play as it will! -Lui Collins Posts: 2669 | From: Jouy en Josas, France | Registered: May 2005
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quote:Originally posted by glisp42: In any case it wasn't Toyota models that did the deed at Pearl Harbor. If you're going to blame a Japanese car company for Pearl Harbor, blame Mitsubishi. Better yet, blame the Japanese government that was responsible for it.
I thought we were supposed to blame the U.S. Government for interfering with Japanese affairs and placing a trade embargo on them...
-------------------- "My neighbor asked why anyone would need a car that can go 190 mph. If the answer isn't obvious, and explaination won't help." - Csabe Csere Posts: 1225 | From: Wichita, Kansas | Registered: Nov 2003
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quote:Originally posted by glisp42: In any case it wasn't Toyota models that did the deed at Pearl Harbor. If you're going to blame a Japanese car company for Pearl Harbor, blame Mitsubishi. Better yet, blame the Japanese government that was responsible for it.
I thought we were supposed to blame the U.S. Government for interfering with Japanese affairs and placing a trade embargo on them...
Yewah?
(Or "What are you talking about?" for those who don't speak... err, BTNish).
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(Or "What are you talking about?" for those who don't speak... err, BTNish).
Well, there are people who suggest the U.S. deserved to be attacked on 12/7 because of U.S. policies in the Far East, that Japan justified in attacking us. Therefore the blame must lie with the evil U.S. government rather than the peace-loving people of Japan...
-------------------- "My neighbor asked why anyone would need a car that can go 190 mph. If the answer isn't obvious, and explaination won't help." - Csabe Csere Posts: 1225 | From: Wichita, Kansas | Registered: Nov 2003
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posted
I have honestly never heard that before, Delta-V. Can you point us toward anyone who makes such claims?
-------------------- There are people who drive really nice cars who feel that [those] cars won't be as special if other people drive them too. Where I come from, we call those people "selfish self-satisfied gits." -Chloe Posts: 6995 | From: New Mexico | Registered: Oct 2004
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quote:Originally posted by TurquoiseGirl: I have honestly never heard that before, Delta-V. Can you point us toward anyone who makes such claims?
Lib'ruls who hate America.
Pogue
-------------------- Let's drink to the causes in your life: Your family, your friends, the union, your wife. Posts: 11325 | From: Kentucky | Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
I was kind of wondering if it was a veiled analogy between Pearl Harbor and 9-11, personally.
-------------------- There are people who drive really nice cars who feel that [those] cars won't be as special if other people drive them too. Where I come from, we call those people "selfish self-satisfied gits." -Chloe Posts: 6995 | From: New Mexico | Registered: Oct 2004
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hrm, maybe the theory comes from people who think that countries go to war for rational real-politik reasons, not because they are EVIL. Its not about saying the US is evil, or 'your' granfather killed at Pearl Harbor had it coming. But doesn't it say something about the American psyche that half a century later there is such an emotional reaction to a simple analysis of why a country might go to war with us?
I say let go the 'infamy'. It was a military target, they had chosen to go to war with us, they hit it. In the scope of true war atrocities (including those by the japanese later in the war), the timing was a lapse of manners.
Posts: 96 | From: Attleboro, MA | Registered: Nov 2006
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posted
I do have a question. Did this strip get pulled from any other newspapers? I don't care much one way or the other about th comic strip in question. But asking us to believe it was pulled in the name of sensitivity if no other paper that runs the comic pulled it is a bit much.
-------------------- There is no interpersonal problem so big that it can't be solved with a suitably large amount of high explosives. ~ Bufungla Posts: 3562 | From: South Texas | Registered: Oct 2001
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quote:Originally posted by TurquoiseGirl: I have honestly never heard that before, Delta-V. Can you point us toward anyone who makes such claims?
Obviously the Japanese government of 1941 felt that way. Some modern Japanese apparently agree.
As far as westerners are concerned, Here and Here are some examples. Also reference Stinnett's 'Day of Deceit'. It's all part of the 'big conspiracy' to bring the US in to WWII, irregardless of the fact that Japanese expansion in the Pacific was going to run into US territories anyway (the Japanese were already sparing with US Marines in Shanghai).
quote:Originally posted by Pogue Ma-humbug:
quote:Originally posted by TurquoiseGirl: I have honestly never heard that before, Delta-V. Can you point us toward anyone who makes such claims?
Lib'ruls who hate America.
Naw, it's dem pinko commies...
FYI, my original comment was to make fun of those who think there's a conspiracy to rewrite history, not that there's a real serious movement to do so...
-------------------- "My neighbor asked why anyone would need a car that can go 190 mph. If the answer isn't obvious, and explaination won't help." - Csabe Csere Posts: 1225 | From: Wichita, Kansas | Registered: Nov 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Delta-V: Well, there are people who suggest the U.S. deserved to be attacked on 12/7 because of U.S. policies in the Far East, that Japan justified in attacking us. Therefore the blame must lie with the evil U.S. government rather than the peace-loving people of Japan...
Hmmm. The links you gave don't lend themselves to what you posted above....
-------------------- So many spankings! It feels so good! But at the same time, I don't care about meeting your family! - I'mNotDedalus: Posts: 3216 | From: Denver, CO | Registered: Dec 2005
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Hmmm. It was always my impression that Pearl Harbor was attacked as a strategic part of Japan's expansion in the Pacific. As one of the leftier of the lefties, I never heard anyone say (until now) that it was FDR's fault.
I dismiss the Japanese Government claim. That was their equivalent of the "But they have weapons of mass destruction" thing. I am sure they were equally able to justify their incursion into China. Wartime propaganda, does not somehow, support your argument.
This whole flap reminds me actually of something that happened here a few years ago. One of the relocation camps for Japanese Americans was near Santa Fe and there was a move to put a memorial there. It was opposed. By people who survived the Butaan Death March. Evidently what they went through made it impossible for anyone to bring up what the US government did to some of its citizens, just because they happened to be of Japanese descent.
The war was over 60 years ago. Yes, the events were tragic and indelibly marked on their observers. But I don't see why it should effect what car I do or do not buy today.
-------------------- There are people who drive really nice cars who feel that [those] cars won't be as special if other people drive them too. Where I come from, we call those people "selfish self-satisfied gits." -Chloe Posts: 6995 | From: New Mexico | Registered: Oct 2004
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quote:Originally posted by TurquoiseGirl: The war was over 60 years ago. Yes, the events were tragic and indelibly marked on their observers. But I don't see why it should effect what car I do or do not buy today.
Exactly. Can we expect an anti-Benz or Volkswagon strip on Hitler's birthday? BC is another one of those comics that should just quietly, gracefully disappear off the face of the earth forever.
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I know that that means little without a cite, but I remember reading an article in the New York Times recently about Japanese companies refusing to compensate surviving Chinese people who had been slave laborers in Japan during World War II.
-------------------- Fools! You've over-estimated me! Posts: 3745 | From: New York City | Registered: Jan 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Troodon: I know that that means little without a cite, but I remember reading an article in the New York Times recently about Japanese companies refusing to compensate surviving Chinese people who had been slave laborers in Japan during World War II.
Sorta back to the original topic...I was just thinking that, while all three of our cars are 'Made in the USA', one's a Japanese design, one's a German design, and one's about as All-American as a car gets, and Dad's got an Australian design. Guess I need to buy Swedish next...
-------------------- "My neighbor asked why anyone would need a car that can go 190 mph. If the answer isn't obvious, and explaination won't help." - Csabe Csere Posts: 1225 | From: Wichita, Kansas | Registered: Nov 2003
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I'd buy Mitsubishi products BASED on their excellent military equipment in WWII. The Mitsubishi Zero was one of the finest fighter planes of the war, and well ahead of it's time. The US had nothing that could compete performance-wise until the F6F Hellcat and P-51D Mustang.
Cannon"Good luck and good hunting"Fodder
-------------------- "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die." Posts: 2776 | From: LSA Anaconda, Iraq | Registered: Feb 2004
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quote:Originally posted by CannonFodder Global Trotter: I'd buy Mitsubishi products BASED on their excellent military equipment in WWII. The Mitsubishi Zero was one of the finest fighter planes of the war, and well ahead of it's time.
Alas, corporate standards and quality-assurance practices vary with time; an awful lot of companies have gone from producing high-quality goods to utter-trash over the last half-century...and vice-versa...and sometimes have flopped and flipped back and forth several times.
Think about Ford: there have been times it was at the top of the list for quality...and times when it was at the bottom. (I own an '05 Focus: nice machine! My papa owned a '75 Galaxy 500: an utter piece of crap!)
It does seem that Japanese industry has flipped and flopped a bit less than American industry....
Silas
Posts: 16801 | From: San Diego, CA | Registered: Sep 2000
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quote:Originally posted by CannonFodder Global Trotter: I'd buy Mitsubishi products BASED on their excellent military equipment in WWII. The Mitsubishi Zero was one of the finest fighter planes of the war, and well ahead of it's time. The US had nothing that could compete performance-wise until the F6F Hellcat and P-51D Mustang. ...
The P-38 Lightning was faster and had a higher ceiling and better climb and dive speed than the Zero. Whereas it was less agile than the Zero and could not match it in a dogfight, if used with tactics to match its strengths it was a fierce competitor. Of course, it was not a carrier plane, either.
Nick
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quote:Originally posted by CannonFodder Global Trotter: I'd buy Mitsubishi products BASED on their excellent military equipment in WWII. The Mitsubishi Zero was one of the finest fighter planes of the war, and well ahead of it's time. The US had nothing that could compete performance-wise until the F6F Hellcat and P-51D Mustang. ...
The P-38 Lightning was faster and had a higher ceiling and better climb and dive speed than the Zero. Whereas it was less agile than the Zero and could not match it in a dogfight, if used with tactics to match its strengths it was a fierce competitor. Of course, it was not a carrier plane, either.
The P-38 was certainly the best thing we had in the Pacific from mid-1942 until February of '43 when the Corsairs arrived. The Corsair was comparable to the Hellcat, quite a bit faster and arrived seven months earlier. Of course, it took the British to show us how to land the beast on a carrier... The Corsair's only disadvantage to the Zero was in turn, and even then the Corsair didn't scrub speed as badly. Plus, the Corsair was flying when the best of the Japanese pilots were still alive.
One of my cars is a 'Chrysler-bishi'. It certainly is fast and maneuverable.
-------------------- "My neighbor asked why anyone would need a car that can go 190 mph. If the answer isn't obvious, and explaination won't help." - Csabe Csere Posts: 1225 | From: Wichita, Kansas | Registered: Nov 2003
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Before you go and accuse me of Mitsubishi bashing, we own two Eclipses, both fine cars.
The zero was somewhat dated by the time Pearl Harbor was attacked. It was fast indeed, but at speed much above 300 mph, the controls felt like they were set in cement, according to American test pilots, due to the lightweight construction of the fighter. Whle that light weight gave it its speed and manouverability, it also made it easy to shoot down once an allied pilot drew a good bead, as there was no armor, and no self sealing fuel tanks. Both features found in American planes. Once American intelligence figured out the weaknesses from a mostly undamaged example found in Alaska, the tide quickly turned, and the Zero's days were numbered.
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