More cultural finds In Dixie, worldwide bastion of freedom science (such as it is)

The funny papers are sometimes a barometer of public sentiment on issues. Some of the strips' creators are clearly real-world citizens who are as concerned about real problems (including the promulgation of fake ones) as you or I.

Was visiting family earlier today and caught some recent comics. "Arlo and Janis" is a strip I'd never noticed as anything special, but its 5/6/11 strip was a bolt out of the clear blue:

http://comics.com/arlo&janis/?DateAfter=2011-05-06&DateBefore=2011-05-07&Order=&PerPage=1&x=9&y=13&Search=

When virtually everything is banality, it's an act of courage to be substantial.

I caught John Stossel's Fox TV show Sunday. It was outstanding -- could it possibly be this way every night? He took on the curse of government welfare to Indians and how it guts Indian life and well-being. Oh, the idiocy that was hurled against him for this, and the great, priceless answers some of his defenders gave. One named Terry Anderson (the crisis hostage of 30+ years ago?) cut a former federal Indian-aid bureaucrat down to size by, among other things, calling himself a native American. He was that, having been born in America -- a dialectical challenge I love to throw up to the politically correct, too! Program guest Ann Coulter simply tore up the farmers who've been on the public dole since FDR -- again, political courage you won't find on many programs in any time slot! (But decreasingly so, it seems -- thank God.)

I ate some popcorn while watching the show and suddenly noticed John 3:16 printed in big type on the back of the bag. 'Twas an "off" brand, Carolina Country Snacks, but that name filled me anew with rapture over the privilege of living here in true civilization -- Dixie. No clue whether it's related to Uncle Ray's brand, which bears the owner's life story in a series of moral vignettes with Scriptural comment.

You may think it's a zero-sum game dressing up chip packages this way in the alleged Bible belt, but it ain't necessarily so. It has to be costing them some business and risking harassment lawsuits.