Happy Birthday, Alfred E Neuman

[MajGenl.Meade]

Alf says: "How come we choose from just two people for President, and fifty for Miss America?"

[Big RR]

What me worry? It's been years since i looked at one, but I'm glad to see it's still in print.

[Sue U]

Zapiro is awesome.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Yeah Sue! Have you been following the story? Zuma's been suing Zapiro for a couple of years now and avoiding going to court over and over until..... he ran out of excuses, withdrew his final pathetic offer to accept R100,000 and an apology and said "I'm doing this for the good of freedom of speech". Zuma just could not face the prospect of being asked about the validity of the 'rape of Lady Justice" cartoon which would force him to explain way too much about the manner in which court cases against him have "vanished". Mr. Shapiro is a brave man.

Mind you, the mind-numbling undemocratic and freedom suppressiong Information act is back in Parliament with all the previously agreed protections removed. Dark times are ahead if this one goes through. Bloemfontein gears itself up for the December ANC congress amidst ever-increasing rumours of gunfire and disruption.

Meade

[Sue U]

It is truly tragic that the SA/ANC leadership has not lived up to its potential in meeting both the challenges and the opportunities of government. (On behalf of the people, I mean; they seem to have taken significant opportunities for themselves.) However, I cut the ANC (although not Zuma, obviously, nor Mbeki, whose stunning failures outweigh his moderate successes) some considerable slack given the massive cultural, economic, political and social difficulties in transitioning from apartheid. It could have gone a lot worse (see, e.g. Zimbabwe). SA is still a very young democracy experiencing a lot of growing pains, but it obviously has great potential.

[TPFKA@W]

Mad purchased by my brother and ultimately passed on to me.

I think that I shall never see
a poem as lovely as a tree.
I'd hoped of course that there would be
a tree still left for me to see.
Some lumber firm from out of town
has chopped the whole darned forrest down.
But I'll show up those dirty skunks:
I'll go and write a poem called trunks.

Remembered from Mad in the '60s.