Why It Hurts To Laugh

New Yorker cover by Barry Blitt

I first heard this weeks controversial New Yorker cover described on the radio and thought to myself, "Oh Dear". When I actually saw it I laughed out loud. Clearly cartoonist Barry Blitt is making fun of the absurdity of audacious rumours like Fox News anchor E.D. Hill calling the Obama's victory "fist bump" a "terrorist fist jab". As soon as I laughed at the cartoon I said to myself again, "Oh Dear". The New Yorker is a literary magazine aimed at educated intelligent people who understand satire. What makes some of us nervous is knowing from sad experience that many of the American voting public are, if not entirely racist and ignorant at least stupid. They elected George W. Bush...twice. They think Obama is a Muslim even as they criticize his Christian pastor. How can we expect people who take the bible so literally they will deny scientific evidence to grasp the subtleties of satire?

Actually I shouldn't say that they elected George W. Bush twice. I have not forgotten that Al Gore actually won in 2000 but that election was stolen from him by a stacked supreme court and a state where Jeb Bush, George's brother, was Governor. Then in 2004 with all the hanky-panky in Ohio again George W. Bush was not a clear winner and yet he took that election and called it his "mandate". Obama does not just need to win. He needs a landslide to secure a victory.

In times like these not only our country and our constitution are at stake. Life on Earth is itself at risk. So please, if we are not laughing, forgive us our wounded sense of humor.