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Saturday, August 28, 2010

Those damned Monopolies

What's Mallard Fillmore raving about today?

Monopolies, teachers.

Mallard Fillmore favors monopolies. And yet, he does not understand the meaning of the word.

Yet more proof that Mallard Fillmore may be the most stupid waterfowl on the planet.

14 comments:

GeoX, one of the GeoX boys. said...

So the teacher is an anti-capitalist who REALLY, REALLY hates monopolies because they unfairly restrict the free market, of which, like all anti-capitalists, she is a big fan. So basically, by showing that this teacher--who is supposed to represent evil antiamerican blahdy blahness--isn't opposed to capitalism at ALL, Tinsley is admitting here that wingers like him are pretty much completely full of shit when they accuse people of being "socialists" and whatnot. Nice!

Alternatively, he is critiquing the false consciousness that a totalizing system like multinational capitalism can inflict on even its most ardent opponents, causing them to implicitly accept the terms of debate offered by said system.

I just can't decide!

Michael Foley said...

Bruce Tinsley doesn't know how economics work, nor how schools work. Shocker.

Tog said...

Show of hands: Who had a teacher in grade school who discussed monopolies, beyond describing their detrimental effects in a free market? Anybody? Did anyone have a teacher use the word "evil" to describe them? ...No?

And where the hell does Batshit come up with suggestion that monopolies are somehow an exclusive and necessary part of capitalism? That makes no sense at all, even for a Mallard Fillmore strip.

As for the topic of the "monopoly" of public schools: If people have alternatives, it's not a monopoly, Batshit. If you'd paid attention in school, you'd know that.

What we have is not a monopoly but nationalized standards, and while you bitch incessantly about such things, oil companies and egg farms have recently demonstrated what happens when such standards aren't present and enforced.

I think Batshit just wanted to loudly crap his pants over teacher unions, and lost focus (for the nth time).

Marion Delgado said...

Here's MY favorite (public) high school story:

I was an anarchist in high school, which our Bruce Tinsleyesque history teacher decided meant I was a Red Communist who luved Russia.

So when he brought up some Bircher point about the USSR, he said "Now what do you think about your friends in the Soviet Union, Mr. Delgado?"

From the back of the room, I said "Well, Mr. H, I think that right now some teacher in a Soviet high school is probably singling out a dissident student for attention and abuse. What do you think?"

I actually stopped him from phucking with me with that.

I have the same response to this fantasy about the strawman teachers allegedly brainwashing the youth. Not very likely.

Teachers unions are fighting to get more "capital" to their members, not to get the right to start a Young Octobrists or Red Guard chapter. American history in particular is a lot more jingoistic and sanitized than history in Europe, and fairly close to the way it's taught in Japan.

Neo Tuxedo said...

TOGGG! skrev:

"I think Batshit just wanted to loudly crap his pants over teacher unions, and lost focus (for the nth time)."

Sounds about right to me. (WV: sphintal.)

Marion Delgado:

From the back of the room, I said "Well, Mr. H, I think that right now some teacher in a Soviet high school is probably singling out a dissident student for attention and abuse. What do you think?"

I actually stopped him from phucking with me with that.


...were there Internets when you were in high school? Because if so, it's a shame nobody awarded you one. You may, indeed, have won the world.

American history in particular is a lot more jingoistic and sanitized than history in Europe, and fairly close to the way it's taught in Japan.

One actual island nation and another so isolated from the rest of the world that it might as well be. At least Japan has some vague sense, post-Perry, that it needs to keep up with what the rest of the world is doing. What will it take, I wonder, to drum that lesson into the collective head of America, assuming such education is possible?

Kip W said...

Whatever is said with crossed eyes is untrue. Mallard hates maloccludo-Americans, especially after around 6 pm, when there are suddenly two of each of them.

Ducky is Right said...

@Marion; he equated anarchy with communism? Wow, he must have been a fantastic civics teacher.

This would be the point where any other cartoonist would be replaced with reruns of Wizard of Id, or Mark Trail. I have nothing else to say regarding the strip this week.

Frank Stone said...

So, wait -- Ernest-Borgnine-in-a-wig is teaching economics now?? Just how much time has elapsed since he/she was refusing to teach mathematics?

(Oh, yeah -- about as much time as it took for Brucie to wake up from his latest "research" all-nighter and forget what he scribbled the day before.)

Steve-O said...

Everyone has it wrong, Brucie is referring to the board game "Monopoly" in which Tinsley plays until passing out in a drunken stupor. He is saying that the teacher is against alcoholism which,in Tinsley's mind,is the ultimate sin.

Beef Wellington said...

What's not seen in todays pannel is that the teacher is infact talking to an empty classroom long after the students have filed out.

Meanwhile teacher tinz continues to rant,rave and preech to empty chairs and perhaps an unwitting janitor who passed by, truly the only audience he has left.

rewinn said...

This teacher teaches math, American history and economics ... maybe more subjects I didn't catch ... and Tinshley thinks that instead of an education degree, she should have a substantive degree in the subjects she teaches.

Well, that's fine with me but it's not gonna come cheap. How much are you willing to pay someone with three-to-seven degrees?

Marion Delgado said...

That teacher is doing way better than most educators made out of straw. Most of them have all they can do to wave gently in the breeze scaring the crows away. And bear in mind that being made of straw around someone who clutches as many as Mallard does deserves hazard pay.

rewinn said...

BTW:

"Well, Mr. H, I think that right now some teacher in a Soviet high school is probably singling out a dissident student for attention and abuse. What do you think?"

FTW!

Rootbeer said...

No fair equating the anthropomorphic cartoon character Mallard Fillmore, with the pea-brained waterfowl of real life.

I mean, all the latter know how to do is make annoying quacking noises and spread shit all over... wait a sec...