inkbluesky

red gloves. Maybe a psychiatrist could explain the mental pathway. I know I can’t, but this photo/wallpaper reminded me of Tom Robbins Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.

Dr. Seuss gave me a literal headache sometimes when I was a kid. By the time I was in second grade adults made it pretty clear that it was important to talk and write properly - ie a plain prose style. Then they would take us to the library and read Dr. Seuss out loud. As I remember it was one my first realizations that adults frequently gave contradictory impressions about the world. This site might burst a few delusions about Dr. Seuss or maybe not. He was after all a man of his time and not immune to the influence of the culture around him,

Some of these characters, such as a Sneetch-type creature and a prototype of Yertle the Turtle, made their first appearance not in Dr. Seuss’s children’s books, but in the some 400 political cartoons he drew for PM, a left-wing daily newspaper published in New York from 1940 to 1948. Dr. Seuss worked as an editorial cartoonist for the paper from 1941 to 1943, drawing cartoons that lambasted isolationism, racism, anti-Semitism, Hitler, Mussolini, the Japanese, and the conservative forces in American politics. (right: “Listen maestro…if you want to get real harmony, use the black keys as well as the white!” Political cartoon by Dr. Seuss, from the newspaper PM, June 29, 1942)

The site points out that his Japanese caricatures in particular were racist. A blemish on what was otherwise a good man. I’m not a Seuss scholar, but since he lived until 1967 one hopes that that was long enough after WW II that he realized his error in judgment, particularly about Japanese Americans. There are copies of some of his editorial cartoons at the link.
Another Big GOP Supporter Funding Terrorists?

Banana company Chiquita Brands International said Wednesday it has agreed to a $25 million fine after admitting it paid a Colombian terrorist group for protection in a volatile farming region.

The settlement resolves a lengthy Justice Department investigation into the company’s financial dealings with terrorist organizations in Colombia.

In court documents filed Wednesday, federal prosecutors said several unnamed high-ranking corporate officers at the Cincinnati-based company paid about $1.7 million between 1997 and 2004 to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, known as AUC for its Spanish initials.

The issue isn’t that money was funneled by a GOP donor. Any screwball can contribute to any politician’s campaign. The problem is that Carl Lindner is not just some average Joe that sent in a check or two over the years, but a major Republican player who was also involved in the smear attacks on Senator Kerry.

Update: Ed from Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub left this heads up,

There’s no link to the Seuss cartoons in your post.

Also, those “racist” cartoons of Japanese were just before and during World War II. His caricatures of Germans and Italians might also be described as racist. But then, most depictions of enemy soldiers and leaders were. Were they more racist than current depictions of Osama bin Laden, or Saddam Hussein?

Thanks Ed I’ve inserted a link. My apologies to all. As to the content and Dr. Seuss I don’t think that I judged him too harshly. It wasn’t my intention to. Probably more then anything I was using the good Dr. as an example of avoiding idolatry of public and historical figures. I grade on a curve as it were. Dr. Seuss deserves credit for his anti-Nazism, anti-imperialism and his general humanity, but just got a little carried away - again I mention that he was a creature of his time and culture. Might be a good idea for anyone that wants to see what I’m getting at to read the article at the link and note the difference between his cartoons about the Germans and the Japanese.