someguywithawebsite.com will return in 2013. No, really.

In my adult life I have never come across any other piece of jargon that more masterfully embodies the concept of "I don't understand something, but this sounds good, so I'm for it."

We are a nation of idiots, by choice. This is a thing we are just going to have to accept and encourage our children to deal with and work around at an early age.

Here are some facts for you that 99% of news outlets felt weren't worth pointing out:
The workers went on strike because Hostess declared that 18,000 workers would need to take an 8% paycut... AND have their cost of company healthcare benefits increased by 30%. When the workers striked, Hostess declared that they'd rather liquidate the company than give in to the union demands to, umm, not fuck the workers over.

Huh, that's funny, since.... oh, hey look at this: Hostess lost $143 million in 2011. In fact, for almost ten years the company's been keeping itself afloat through unsustainable injections of private equity. According to the Chicago Tribune, Hostess is already down more than $800 MILLION in this equity that they can never recover. How do they avoid paying that? By declaring bankruptcy. WHAT A COINCIDENCE.

The company was ALREADY going bankrupt. They decided that this would be a great way to liquidate and blame the union instead of their own terrible business practices over the last few years. Hostess planned to, let me quote some news articles here, "end an American tradition" and "watch another part of your childhood fade away" BEFORE THE STRIKE EVEN STARTED. They just realized that holding out this long gets them a better deal in bankruptcy liquidation AAAAAND they get to blame the union now.

And you know what pisses me off the MOST about this? Do any of you REALLY lament the lack of, specifically, a Twinkie? Because there aren't a HUNDRED competitor equivalents on the shelves? As if you don't buy the cheaper store brand "creme filled snack cakes" when they're on sale already? Why the love for Hostess? Oh, right, it's a brand loyalty. It's because Americans care about that name and that product tradition... one that was maintained by.... oh, that's right.... A STRONG LABOR FORCE MAKING THE GODDAMN THINGS.

By the way, can I take a moment to ask all of you attacking the unions a quick question: so you believe that the company's going bankrupt because of those "greedy, greedy unions." In other words, you are suggesting that the very existence of a major national corporation, one that makes and sells millions of products a year, hinges on a financial precipice solely balanced by employees taking a pay cut. You believe this? And that this action of a company being willing to actually dissove itself completely is in no way a larger sign of an already-existing financial disaster of its own making, far beyond the actions of its employees? You are saying you believe all that, correct? Okay, so if yes, here is my follow-up question: are you truly this fucking stupid?

But please, keep pretending that this will be "the end of Twinkies" because hey, THAT'S what's important- continuing to fill your children with saturated fat with sugar-flavored oil injected inside of it. It's so nice to see Americans all getting together and blaming this once again on a handful of middle class workers instead of the CEOs who already ran the company into the ground.

Horseshit. Across the country we defeated right-wing lunatics, put the first openly gay Senator into office and defeated amendments to strip people of their human rights.

It amazes me that in this day and age I have to say this, but my greatest hope for Obama isn't some revolutionary march of liberalism or world-changing action, but merely getting 50% of the government that spent the last four years acting like children to give a fuck about human beings again.

Last night Republicans didn't lose. Assholes did. And that's the greatest news I've heard in four years.

There used to be responsible, trustworthy people who pointed out when liars are liars. The Republican ticket is Harold Hill from The Music Man and no one cares because everyone on the teevee this weekend is talking about how lovely Paul Ryan's singing voice is.

(Thanks to Skippy I think technically I can claim I've had fanart made of my work.)

That said, my journey to making this documentary happens to coincide with my growing frustration with the vituperative nature of political discourse in America. I don't like Fox News, but I don't like MSNBC either. Nor Pacifica Radio; or AirAmerica; or Rush Limbaugh; or any other agenda driven "news" outlet. I'm of the opinion that one enters personal or public dialogue in one of two ways: to seek the truth or win the argument. The news programs mentioned are, for the most part, in the latter category. They have become ratings driven entertainment and, more often-than-not, they are mean-spirited and disingenuous. Current events are difficult enough to understand without being purposely mislead by news organizations unconstrained by the truth.

The quote is from actor/filmmaker John DeLancie, best known as "Q" from Star Trek, who is talking about negative comments he recieved in the media. Not about Obama, or the election, or even politics in general, but about a documentary he is currently making about... adult fans of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

Because, apparently, people actually involved in politics and news media were all too busy to point this out.

The entire history of opposition to progressive change in America is based on thinking that someone who isn't you is having their life improved. And I'm sure it goes without saying that the history of opposition to progressive change just happens to go hand in hand with said progressive change being related to improving the lives of people who aren't white, aren't male and aren't rich, or at the very least in elite social circles.

America has the most dysfunctional sense of reward ever. We idolize the rich, regardless of how they earned their riches and in many cases in spite of it. We'll watch a TV show about useless idiots or a rich asshole firing people or a random person becoming a millionaire because they are good at spinning a wheel or remembering aspects of pop culture. But we'll turn around and be furious that we might all have to start contributing to a system that betters another person's ability to take care of themselves when they're sick because that's not "fair." We have a very long way to go in getting over the latest elitism and racism that permeates America's bitterness toward "others."

The health care debate seemed to be a perfect storm for the right-wing classes because it let them rage against those alleged undeserving while also fulfilling their other passions of pissing off liberals and hurting people for their own amusement. The remainder--the ones who are tweeting things like "this is the death of our noble Constitution" and didn't have to ignore graduating college to plausibly write that and actually believe this are simply crazy and/or stupid. Bobby Jindal and other Republican governors are now claiming they want to "defend their states' rights" by simply refusing to implement their state exchanges, which means that they are flat out saying they plan to let the Federal Government take control of their state's health care, in the name of state's rights. America is now a bunch of semi-smart people pretending to be stupid to convince even stupider people that helping people is an awful idea.

In the end, with all its flaws--and don't get me wrong, there are many--that is really the purpose of the health care bill. Yes, it's a tax or a mandate or a penalty or whatever the hell you choose to call it. The point is, yes, it disrupts America's gross selfishness and irresponsibility by forcing Americans to actually be responsible for itself. The reason this was done, despite glowing libertarian rhetoric to the contrary, is because America has proven over the last few decades that it is utterly incapable of doing this voluntarily. We deserve to pay. We've been assholes about this.

They can be any combination of racist, selfish, and/or stupid, but the point is these people--the friends, Facebook acquaintances, family members, civic leaders, libertarian halves of comic magician duos-- who are now explaining that it's a gross disservice to them to have to be forced to contribute to the collective bettering of America--and when I say "bettering" I am not talking of Communist platitudes but am referring to making it easier to not die, possibly painfully, likely losing every cent you have in the process-- these people are all assholes. And if the end result of the health care bill is that they have to pay a fine because they were assholes who couldn't find a better way to not be assholes, then I have no problems whatsoever if I have to pay a little more to implement this process. Hell, I'll throw in an extra twenty.

It's... going to be like that until November, isn't it? It is. Really. Great.

So long. And thanks
March 11, 1952 - May 11, 2001

On the dust jacket of his new book, "The Tyranny of Clichés: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas," best-selling conservative author and commentator Jonah Goldberg is described as having "twice been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize."

In fact, as Goldberg acknowledged on Tuesday, he has never been a Pulitzer nominee, but merely one of thousands of entrants.

When this bit of résumé inflation was pointed out by a reporter for msnbc.com, Goldberg said he hadn't meant to mislead anyone and removed the Pulitzer claim from his bio at National Review Online ... And he added, "I never put it in the bio in the first place."

His publisher, Penguin Group (USA), said the error was unintentional and it would remove the Pulitzer word from his book jacket when it's time for the first reprint, "just like any other innocent mistake brought to our attention."

Look, folks, give the guy a break. I for one understand that one could totally accidentally include a piece of deceptive resume-padding bullshit on both the dust jacket of a book I wrote myself as well as my own biography on the website I'm the editor of. Let's not declare war on ideas here.

As of today "Some Guy With a Website" is going on an indeterminate hiatus. Does it mean the comic is gone for good? No. At least, not yet. That's another decision I'm going to have to make down the line. But the reality is, I'm at a point right now where I need to take a break. There are a lot of other projects I want to try right now, both on and off this site. Hell, I haven't even redone this site in over four years.

There may not be any new comics for a while. They may be one or two. My production cycle has gone from "self-enforced Monday deadline" to "if and when I feel like it." I realize that this is the most unprofessional way to handle comic making, but... well, that's just it. Part of this is the realization that the comic as it current exists is not a profit-making model, and if I neither make money off it or enjoy drawing it... what's the point? Things need to change for me, and part of that means I need to give myself back the five or six hours I use each week to make a comic that, frankly, has been feeling more like a chore than a leisure activity. Let's not even get into what the net financial loss is at this point.

I want to say this to make sure everyone's 100% clear: this is not a fundraising pitch. I am not asking for money or setting up a KickStarter or anything like that. This is in no way some kind of "give August money to make comics again" thing.

The long and short of it is: for a while now I've had major doubts about how much longer I can/want to keep doing this. And I don't think there's any way to know if I'd even miss making the comic without, well, not making it for a little bit.

I also just want to say that I hope you all understand this was an insanely difficult decision. As some friends can attest, I've been dwelling on this for months. There were points when I was ready to just say "that's it, the comics's over" and so hopefully this half-assed, non-committal stance on production appears slightly better in comparison. But more importantly, I realize this also affects a lot of you, who have been readers for a really long time, have sent money for books, prints, and other things. Regardless of what happens in the future, I want to repeat once more that you guys really were the ones who kept me going this entire time and for all of that I am incredibly lucky and thankful.

With that, no, I'm not disappearing off the face of the earth. I'm doing this because I want to try different things. Maybe I can write more. Maybe I'll draw more. Maybe having free time on Sundays will just make me a happier person and I'll be inspired to do something. So... stay tuned. Which I think is a much better thing to interpret from this than thinking I'm saying goodbye. I'm not. Promise.

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Rick Santorum won both of the primaries last night in deep Southern states, including one where more than half the Republican voting base believes that Barack Obama is a Muslim. Which of course, wouldn't actually be bad if A. it simply wasn't true and B. they didn't say this merely because "Barack Obama is a Muslim" is just a way to address him without using words I would have to replace the "I" in between the "N" and the "G" with an asterisk with while typing.

When we look back on the 2012 primary season, we're going to vaguely remember an early period when "the crazy one" was merely the guy who liked to stockpile gold.

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Additionally, if the President's embrace of Bell was unimportant, why did Buzzfeed choose not to pay the hundred bucks to license those seconds? If it wasn't a big deal, why cut it?

I... if they...

Christ.

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Goodness, that's a downright slanderous accusation. Good thing I'm not talking about anyone specific up there.

In completely unrelated matters, here's my pet theory about Rush Limbaugh: I think right-wingers get off on the blatant hypocrisy of his existence. As you know, the prime directive of the right is "does this piss off liberals?" and if they think it does, they go with it. It is my genuine belief that conservatives actually love what a hypocritical, philandering, immoral schmuck Limbaugh is while making millions pretending that he's actually a better person than other people.

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