make up your own damn joke

pro-gay, pro-alien, and why aren't I laughing?

Hey, you know what? I was going to try writing something oh-so-clever about the "Buster promotes gays" flap. I was going to go after the so-called "Christian" right wing (who are no more Christian than bin Ladin is Muslim) for their continued attacks on cartoon characters. I was going to link to this recipe on Buster's website for peanut butter and pickle sandwiches. It's part of his "postcard" from Roswell, New Mexico. Buster says "if it's good enough for aliens, it's good enough for me," so I was going to come up with something about how they don't mind that he's promoting a pro-alien agenda, thereby encouraging our future enslavement to the Andromedans, it's just the gay thing that bothers them. It's pretty good material - almost writes itself.

But then I started to feel really, really sad. Like crying-sad. You know why? Because these people will desecrate anything - anything - to promote their agenda, including the innocent fun of children. I don't know if "Postcards for Buster" is a good show or a bad one. I don't know if very many kids love it or learn from it. But I know that some do, and I know that some of them have heard about this whole ginned-up "controversy." And it's made them feel pretty bad. Kids need safe places, and they just lost another one.

(Click on "Permalink Page" to continue)

Demagogues use whatever's at hand to promote themselves. Sure it's infuriating, and of course it's ridiculous too. But it's also very cruel, and very sad. The innocence of childhood is just another propaganda tool for them. "They'd shit on the morning star if they could reach it," said the poet Robinson Jeffers. It's a form of child abuse, and I wish someone would come along and make them stop. But that's just the kid in me talking, looking for a "good adult" to make the bad ones stop.

The trouble with kids is they just don't understand irony. You tell them something and they believe you. So somebody else have fun with this one. Take this graphic, too. It says "Can you find me?" Make an "outing" joke with it or something. Buster's all yours.