Can your country do anything big and important?

Scott Adams is jealous of countries with governments and wishes he had one:

“…the Democrats are poised for a big win during the next election based on their excellent track record of doing nothing for years. Doing nothing might not sound like a good strategy to you, but if you compare it to what happens when the government actually does something, you can make an argument.

A good test of whether you have a government is this: Can your country do anything big and important? For example, could the United States start a new war, or end an existing one, or change its dependence on foreign oil, or provide health care to all citizens? Apparently not.“

I hate it when the cartoonists are the only ones with a clue.

In-flight sex: Urban myth?

Countless people saw the story about actor Ralph Fiennes allegedly having sex with a flight attendant in the bathroom of the plane (The flight attendatnt says there was no sex). But nobody gets more comic air miles from the story than Scott Adams:

“How horny do you have to be before you’ll follow a flight attendant into an airline bathroom, knowing that she actually has to use the bathroom? I mean, does that move ever work? I can barely convince myself that ANYONE has ever had sex in an airline bathroom. And that includes the best-case scenarios where:

1. The couple are already lovers
2. Neither person needs to actually USE the bathroom at that moment
3. Neither person is on an STD awareness tour
4. Both lovers are blind, noseless people with disposable shoes.

Adams/Dilbert fans are sure have have mixed feelings about the news that Chris Columbus (the man who directed Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Rent, Mrs. Doubtfire, Home Alone and a score of others) has picked up the theatrical rights to Dilbert.

Why no new Al Green songs?

Scott Adams wonders why great musicians can’t keep cranking out the hits every years?

“Consider Neal Diamond, for example. He wrote and recorded some of the greatest songs ever. But then the hits stopped coming, despite the fact that his talent probably improved with experience.”

I wondered the same thing a year ago, but Mr. Adams offers a reasonable explanation:

“They can do more of the same sound, and consumers will think it sounds too much like the last album. Or they can try something different, and be unfavorably compared to their own hits. The public won’t be patient while the musician develops the new sound. It’s an almost impossible challenge.”

Do we win by losing?

“Maybe sometimes we need to go pound a country that’s harboring terrorists, for example. But do we need to stay and overthrow the government after the pounding is done? If the U.S. didn’t have troops in Afghanistan, would Osama be any harder to find?

I like to look on the bright side. The U.S. proved that it can destroy any country that it wants. Iraq has shown that no little country can be occupied without unacceptable costs. That seems like a good way to leave things.” — Scott Adams

Have cartoonists always been smarter than politicians, or is it just a W thing?