*pulls out “Aerial Christian” fake ID*
*throws it, shuriken-style, into the crowd*
*pulls out and holds up “Areel Christian” fake ID*
*points out the attached twine*
*slowly drags the “Aerial Christian” fake ID back in*
This the first time that Blaine and Ross have met. Thanks to the miracle of blue panels, it is not the first strip in which they have both been tagged.
It’s not like Carol has to be personally responsible for his pygmy ass now that it’s back on the streets……When this all goes down the septic drain, Ross can hold Blaine responsible for landing him back in Perp-Town…Just like the true-born model of a dependable man-of-the-house that he is…
The even more evil strip will be when Carol doesn’t warn Joyce about what Toedad is about to do next, with the full knowledge of what he is about to do next.
Eventually…..John, Jordan, and Joshlyn might have missed out on what Joyce at least got an inkling of…..Remember Carol is his ‘Mrs. Right’ and he didn’t have to contradict her when he supported Joyce….Safely away from anyone from their church family, unless my memory failed me once again. Stress’ll do that to ya.
I think Hank is an OK-to-Good father to Joyce. He had a problematic start but has grown. He gave her support where it really mattered and when Carol hit the fan he was on her side.
But what makes him daddy of the year for me, and the reason why I’m stuck in complicated custom negotiations attempting to navigate a “Best dad” mug large as a container vessel over the atlantic, is hank as a father to BECKY!
She grew I think Hank is an OK-to-Good father to Joyce. He had a problematic start but has grown. He gave her support where it really mattered and when Carol hit the fan he was on her side. Good job, Hank. Have a silver star.
But what makes him daddy of the year for me, and the reason why I’m stuck in complicated custom negotiations attempting to navigate a “Best dad” mug large as a container vessel over the atlantic, is Hank as a father to BECKY!
She practically grew up in his house under his roof. He knew her almost as well as his own children. He knew enough of her life under ToeDad to worry a bit about her. He saw her mother’s death (and knew how she died) and the effect it had on her.
Then they were off to college – they let Becky tag along to say goodbye to Joyce – and she dropped off his radar until Ross called a few weeks later and with barely controlled rage asked if Becky had contacted Joyce. Then there was the kidnapping and punching and Ross pointed a gun at Joyce and before he knew it, Becky showed up with a cheeky grin almost but not entirely hiding her nervousness and asked if she could tag along home. “Home”, as in the place that had almost been her home her entire childhood.
and Hank said yes.
Then he spent the weekend trying to divert Carol, listening to snide remarks in church and ultimately brought them back to college. Back to the ongoing crises there and watched Becky run straight into what could very well be an ongoing suicide situation on the off chance that she could save someone this time. Joyce impressed him tremendously by doing the right thing at the fountain, and now he saw something similar in Becky.
It would have been so easy for him to leave then. To leave Becky to take care of herself, to wash his hands and say that the kid who grew up under his roof was not his problem, had brought her ill fortunes upon herself, that she should have thought of those things before… before…
But he didn’t.
Hank went out of his way to comfort Becky, to re-establish the link to her childhood that every other worthless adult in La Porte had done their best to sever. Not only was she still her mother’s daughter but her mother was proud of her. Proud of what she had become. What she had become was not a sin, not a mistake, not something to be ashamed of. It was something to be proud of.
that was exactly what Becky needed desperately to hear, when she desperately needed to hear it, and that sort of comfort comes with a commitment. Having said that, there is no going back to the official policy of the church of regarding Becky as someone to be ostrichsized, reviled and forgotten. Hank took Becky in as HIS daughter that day. The joint bank account cemented it. Becky is not a mistake. Becky is not someone else’s problem. Becky is his child.
and that makes him Best Dad. Not his lack of bad actions – he has done several – but him sticking out his neck beyond what anyone could expect.
No other parent in the comic has come close to that level of commitment beyond what is expected for their own children (Dina’s parents have, for example, not to our knowledge done anything to help their daughter’s girlfriend with her living situation). and he did it not because he had to, but because it was the right thing to do.
Bottom line: Hank is best dad because he IS Becky’s dad even when he doesn’t have to be.
How? Would you have magically known and teleported to her when it happened? Would you break into jail after the fact and murder him there?
The macho fantasies don’t usually work out. More often all you can do is support the kids after the fact and that’s generally more important. With a bit of prompting, Hank stepped up pretty well there.
In addition to everything Bagge says, while he did avoid contradicting Carol on panel, taking Joyce and Becky back to school without even mentioning it to her – before church was over – almost certainly led to a confrontation after the fact. Likely he kept it from being one that Joyce had to be part of.
Yeah, Hank’s good. He’s got his issues, much like Joyce did, but he’s actually trying to work through them. If Joyce can be a redemption story, so can he – he’s not as far as she is, but he’s not far behind, either. He recognizes Becky’s humanity, and even if it makes him uncomfortable or if he’s not sure what to do with her newly-found sexuality, he treats her as a human being deserving love.
I am here for the nuance and “redemption” stories, if you wanna think of it like that. I think of it more as a process of learning and growing throughout life. And being open to that. Hank clearly is.
While evil definitely does exist, flawed is not evil. If we are going to condemn evil for their lack of humanity, then we ourselves need to show the same humanity allowing the possibility of redemption to those who are not too far gone.
I mean, they mostly stand around wtih a blank expression and failed to be judgmental about their daughters choice in partners (and spotted them money for a date), but by comparison to most other parents in the comic, that’s a+.
Maybe Sierra’s and Dorothy’s parents rate higher, but that’s about it.
Ross is short and Blaine is tall. Just eyeballing some past strips, Ross is about the same height as Becky, who is about the same height as Amber, and Blaine towers over Amber (at least a foot higher, if not more).
Blaine is around the same height range as Ethan and Jacob. Joe appears to be a bit taller. I’m guessing Blaine’s between 5’10” and 6’2”. Ross, around 5’1” to 5’4”. By United States standards for men, Ross is fairly short and Blaine is an entry level of ‘tall.’ Blaine also has a way of getting deep into the personal space of characters he’s clearly taller than, while giving people within his height range a wide berth….
Eventually due to the sliding timescale, everyone’s injuries will just keep accumulating in till they’re all in wheelchairs and poking each other with sticks
Ross logic: This man says he is a christian, he could be lying, but lying is a sin and therefore if he were lying he would not be a christian, therefore he must be telling the truth as he says he is a christian.
Ross logic: reason of trust 1/ God would punish anyone who is faking being a christian
reason of trust 2/ I am one of the true child of God, so God will actively saves me and anyone doing its job is a tool of God, therefore should be christian to be honoured with the role
Anybody else getting giant ads that block the strip? My ad-blocker is still running, and has informed me it’s blocked 61 since I first opened the page, but I still somehow can’t see what’s going on in the comic because verizon and some insurance company are desperate for my attention… 🙁
I have my ad-blocker off on DOA but have noticed an increase in the size of the ads this year. More tend to be animated too. A large column one to the left, a smaller one under convention appearances, a header at the top and one that pops up at the bottom of the screen that can block the comic a bit. I always close that one.
The ads have also been more targeted which on one hand does make me more likely to click on them.
Pretty sure I also have mine off for this site. If not, either I need a stronger one, or the network that runs TCGPlayer ads is extremely aggressive and powerful. I’m being bombarded with severely tempting pictures of children’s trading cards.
Even worse are the ads that hijack my clicks whenever I press a graphic link on a website, like the navigation buttons for DOA or the red button on SMBC. To be clear, I’m not even clicking the ad — I’m clicking an element on the website, and it opens a new tab to some random website that then REALLY wants me to update Flash Player. (I have Flash turned off precisely due to this sort of bullshit.) This BS usually happens when “infolinks” banners appear at the bottom of the website.
It doesn’t work like that. Blaine already despises Ross, and Ross will have other things on his mind. Whether Blaine’s duplicity even makes it on his radar is dubious.
It was already pretty fucking stupid, and then Joyce punched it out so hard it landed like a meter away. That’s gonna screw up even the least functional brain at least a little.
It’s such a small thing, but Ross saying “You’re Christian” instead of “You’re A Christian” strikes me as both 1) a perfect little snapshot of the way in fundie evangelical circles really talk and 2) deeply, deeply creepy.
It’s basically assuming, that it is a core trait of that person. And from Ross from the contexts we have seen him in, that comes with other assumptions e.g. Christians are good moral people, that they share the same types of bigotry and same views and same values which from what we know of Ross, is not what you wanna hear.
Now it isn’t necessarily wrong to assume religion is a key part of someone’s identity, for some, it is, like Lucy! But for Billie for instance, it is more a sidenote written on sticky notes. And neither of those approaches are necessarily wrong, as religion is personal. But because of what we know about Ross, it has darker undertones that ‘oh, you’re an upright man with the same biases that *I* agree with.’
The difference is that fundagelical christians believe that they’re the only true christians out there. Anyone who is not one of them is posing at best and more likely actively working for satan. When a christian expresses support for women’s rights, or environmentalism, or people of color, or climate change activism – they automatically know that they are dealing with an agent of the devil trying to deceive them and they must be fought. In the case where a christian tries to pull back on the culture wars, they know that they’re dealing with a lukewarm christian which is about the worst thing you can be, as the bible says.
The world is a dark and scary place for them, they’re surrounded by literal demons making them heroes in their own minds. They’re not kidding about being ‘soldiers for christ.’ And they use christianese to determine who to hate regardless of the good they do, and who to support regardless the evil they do. That’s how Trump got elected and why they still support him – he told them he’d support them and demonstrated it by attacking their enemies.
Huh, it doesn’t seem that strange to me. I think I usually word it that way when talking to someone one on one, and I am not Christian (see – I did it there, used the adjective to describe what I’m not). One is a noun and the other is an adjective. Applying it to other religions, it seems to depend on the religion as to how smoothly it rolls off the tongue.
For example, I usually say “I’m Pagan” not “I’m a Pagan.” The second one sounds weird to me.
Other examples:
I’m Buddhist vs I’m a Buddhist (2nd one sounds more natural to me)
I’m Jewish vs I am a Jew (this is different from the others because the noun and adjective have a different form)
I’m Muslim or I am a Muslim (1st sounds more natural to me here)
I’m Hindu or I am a Hindu (2nd sounds more natural to me)
I’m picking up on something subtle from these posts – apologies if incorrectly – but it seems to me that the phrasings which sound more strange without an added “a”, that is, identity rather than objective facet of identity, are also the ones that are more commonplace in our culture. I’m not entirely sure why that is but I suspect it is to do with familiarity and dominance. For example if Islam is the dominant religion in your country then you might say “I’m Muslim” more naturally, whereas if it is rare, you would tell people “I am A Muslim”. Buddhism is less often claimed in the West and therefore the ‘a’ prefix highlights the expected otherness and need for clarity and understanding. If I’m not reading too much into this? I’m a Christian myself and I typically use that phrasing because it is both part of my identity and also a choice. I wouldn’t have an issue with either phrasing but I live in an area with a high Christian population. It might be harder to use in, say, Iran.
Judaism being the exception, because it is an ethno-religion (many Jewish people are of Jewish faith and extraction both, and those who aren’t Jewish by descent often refer to themselves as ‘converted’). Calling someone ‘a Jew’ defaults to their ethnicity/nationality before their faith adherence unless it is given a precursor (say, ‘an orthodox Jew’).
Hmm… I guess I’ll chalk it up to dialectical difference?
I’m Buddhist and I default to using the former most of the time when talking about “I’m/they’re/you’re X” vs. “I’m/they’re/you’re a(n) X”… Actually I think I only use the noun when I use the plural. Hmm…
Are you familiar with the distinction between “fewer” and “less”? That is, quantifiable elements versus non-quantifiable elements?
There’s a similar distinction between the usage of [a] and its absence. Without getting into too much detail, you’d use “a” if you’re referring to something like a role or position, and you’d avoid it if you’re referring to a circumstance or belief.
Hence, for everything from vegan/vegetarian to Christian/Buddhist, it’d be correct to use either variation and would be more natural to use the version without an a.
For something like nationality, the lack of an [a] can indicate a subtext, but typically only if the context or tone of the presentation also emphasizes that aspect. For example, “Oh, you’re AMERICAN.” could express relief, contempt, or other emotions. Typically, people won’t use an [a] in such a circumstance, since they’re no longer referring to a role (where ‘a’ would be appropriate) but to a belief or circumstance. Of course, that’s something few are likely actively aware of, but people do tend to subconciously pick up on language rules such as those, in a “that feels right” kind of way.
So, while it’s rather niche, there is some basis for interpreting the lack or presence of an [a] as having a special significance, if normally the alternative presentation is preferred.
Of course, as I noted, with “Christian”, it’s actually appropriate to drop the [a], and that is, by my experience, overwhelmingly the usage utilized by most Christians and non-Christians both, regardless of the scope of their beliefs or temperment.
That all said, I don’t actually believe Far was referring to the underlying language rules or “strange sound” of the sentence in question. Rather, as someone who has also had extensive experience with the sort of mindset in question, I’m fairly sure Far was directly associating how that phrase sounds, when it’s said by individuals such Toedad.
See, zealous Christians no longer hold “Christian” to considerations of role vs belief/circumstance. Rather, they use it as a direct substitute for “Righteous” [in the “pure & worthy” sense, not the surfer “awesome” sense].
Hence, that lack of an a- again, with specific tone and context, just like when it’s dropped for “American”- brings to mind certain associations. In this matter, the circumstance in question is simply having the phrase be presented by someone who has been established to have a mindset in line with the ones we’ve spent our past being threatened by.
Meanwhile, “Oh, you’re a Christian” wouldn’t have that association.
Even if the individuals in question aren’t conciously aware of their subconcious association of “Christian” and “Righteous”, they are still subject to the subconcious trend I noted above, wherein they’re much more inclined to present a belief/circumstance/concept/etc without the [a]. Since the association between “Christian” and “Righteous” further emphasizes that internal connection between “Christian” and belief/etc, it’s only going to be more likely in that circumstance.
Hence, while Far’s implication that “You’re Christian” is inherently creepy just as a phrase doesn’t have much basis, the underlying perspective they’re presenting does have strong basis, both in how we make assumptions based on language use, and by way of habituated familarity with individuals such as the one being presented in the comic.
So, to tl;dr: Generally speaking, the presence or lack of an [a] means nothing at all, but with specific context and presentation, it can indicate solidarity with or contempt towards the listener.
[Your examples are all based in a personal perspective, by the way, which slightly adjusts the context by which they’re interpreted. You should instead be using “You’re” in place of “I’m”, to match to Toedad’s phrasing.]
Toedad: What’s your favorite verse from the Bible?
Blaine: Oh, that’s something very personal. I don’t feel like saying. But the Bible is my favorite book. The Bible means a lot to me. I think it’s just incredible. The whole Bible is just something very special.
Blaine, your lie will cost your life if Toe Dad finds out you are manipulating him and his church. It’s funny when villains try to outsmart each other and end up stabbing each other in the back… and in the face.
Seriously, villain alliances never work! Super hero alliances, political alliances, economic alliances, criminal alliances can work, but villains are too prideful and will end up killing each other once a singles question is asked: “who is going to be the leader?” Evil Con Carne answered that.
Exactly. The american two party system is more an artifact of the process than ideologies or anything else. If they instituted a parliamentary system or some sort of proportional representation then the number of parties would quickly double at a minimum.
The Lord sent me to give you this gun to take out Amazigirl who I didn’t recognize as my own daughter even while she was beating the crap out of me. But be careful. I understand she’s deadly with cell phones.
If the bail is paid directly, the one who put it up gets it back when you show up and get tried. If the bail is paid by a bondsman you are out their fee and don’t get that back.
Ok, but hear me out because I was talking about yesterday’s strip with my brother and. We already know fucking Toedad is going to target Dina’s bday party, yes? (She deceived and bit him and led his daughter astray y’all!)
Robin is going to save the day.
Just picture the headlines! “CANDIDATE DESANTO DEFENDS A GROUP OF LGBT AND BLACK TEENS FROM HOMOPHOBIC ATTACK”. It might even FINALLY clue her in on how at risk minorities truly are. Robin seems to be the kind of person who literally can’t realize shit until she’s looking at it up close, and it can’t get any more personal than an ex-convict trying to abduct and/or kill his daughter who’s her aide in HER OWN APARTMENT.
And you know why I’m dead sure of this? Because REDEMPTION IS A STORY. Except when it’s not. Except when you actually put in the work to prove (over and over if necessary) that you’ll do the right thing even when it comes at a great personal risk.
This is why we’re getting Ruth and Rachel’s backstory now.
Also? As much as I hate it? Toedad was never going to be in prison for long enough Becky could be free without a WORSE incident than last time. He’s a middle class, Christian white male. He threatened people with a shotgun and endangered others in a highway but that was it. He needed to be dealt with in such a way he’d truly be gone for good.
This gonna be a catalyst for a lot of things including the divorce of Joyce’s parents as soon as Hank realizes his wife has been involved in a plot to bail Toedad out with literal Korean mafia money, but Imma stop speculating here :’)
I do think Robin will rise to the occasion, even if it might not be this story. She did already tank, she thought at the time, what was left of her career by refusing to back up Ryan and firing her aides who wanted her to. She didn’t know at the time, naturally, that Becky would end up being the angel on her shoulder, even if Becky was initially trolling her.
Either way, guess we’ll see what she’s made of, and hopefully not literally like Ryan.
Remember, the most important thing in any discussion of crimes committed with guns is to get the type of gun right. Any mistake made there invalidates whatever you’re trying to say or at least must be corrected as the most important thing.
Yes, they were wrong about what type of gun it was. They mis-remembered a detail from years ago. A detail that’s completely irrelevant to the point they were making, but it’s vitally important that it be corrected. Just like it was yesterday.
In that case, Roiss used a modified AR-29 with a revolver grip, slam stock, zucchini clip, and attached grenade loincher. This nightmare submachine gun was, naturally, held horizontally to ensure the cleanest and most accurate shot.
It’s pretty unlikely they’ll target the birthday party. Certainly not intentionally, since there’s no real way they could know about it.
This plan’s been building for awhile and I expect it to keep building in the background a bit longer, rather than all play out in one day. It may well play out in some way involving Robin and helping her both win her election and potentially get some redemption, but that doesn’t have to be at today’s party.
As for Ross’s crimes, they go well beyond threatening people with a gun and endangering others in a highway. Kidnapping and attempted murder get you put away for much longer than this comic is going to last – Christian white male or not. Serious felonies and serious time. (Attempted murder was trying to shoot AG on the roof – no self defense claim since he was in the middle of felony kidnapping at the time.) And he’s not an ex-con, since he hasn’t been convicted. He’s out on bail, pre-trial. Bail which was set beyond what he could pay, even with his church’s support. Only with Blaine’s mob intervention did he make bail. That shows the courts were treating it appropriately seriously.
Blaine doesn’t deserve any kind of sympathy, but Toedad’s response in panel 2 is so bizarrely ungrateful that I have trouble feeling any kind of schadenfreude.
Not to over-analyze, but I think that might be an expression of shame more than anything else. You don’t wanna be the guy that people have to bail out of jail, and Toedad had issues with his self-image as family patriarch and provider as it was.
So next DoA plot will be about evil parents trying to rape/electrocute/kidnap/kill or whataver other thing to Becky, maybe Dina, or maybe Robin, maybe Leslie, Amber, and few other characters can be in danger.
Just great…
I think that I’ve mentioned Ross’s very obvious low intelligence before.
I suspect that Blaine’s biggest headache going forwards will be making sure Ross thinks that divine intervention has pointed him in the direction Blaine wants him to run in.
The part I dread most about the trajectory of this arc is that given the horrible people involved (see strip above and their respective past actions) there is a very good chance someone is going to end up dead (or best case life changing injury). Blaine’s “supposed” objective being quite simply to dick over his daughter, Ross on the other hand is almost certainly willing to kill in order to “save” his. I see Blaine being too busy being an a-hole to realize he just set a potential murderer loose till Ross is already pulling the trigger…if Blaine will even care, assuming it’s not what he wants to happen in the first place.
You know if you really believed in God, you’d see His will at work in Becky as well. The secret to religion I guess is to decide you know just where the infinite infallible ends and the stuff you can feel like you’re better than begins.
Man, when all this shit hits the fan, Asher’s dad (organized crime boss) is going to be pissed at Blaine (goon who is creating too much media attention and drama).
As an aside, I appreciate the jokes continue even in this evil setup comic. “Are you a Christian?” “Of course.” Couldn’t stop chuckling manically at that one.
Am I missing something about the US justice system? How is it actually possible considering what Toedad did that he could get out on bail? Wouldn’t he be considered a threat to public safety???
Recently the US president had some trouble grasping the “can’t buy yourself free from justice” clause in the Swedish juridical system in the Asap Rocky case.
Then again, the current US president has trouble grasping just about everything except his own arsehole so we are not exactly exclusive there.
In the US system, a person is considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law — or at least, that’s the theory. Bail is there solely to ensure that the accused shows up in court — or at least, that’s the theory.
In practice, the US bail system generally means that non-wealthy people stay in jail until their trials, while wealthy people get to stay free until their trials. This is true pretty much regardless of the severity of the crimes they are accused of.
Welp.
I’m officially not going to be reading the comics for a few months.
I wonder how this will play out. Ross has already done the attempted shooting thing, so, for lack of a better phrase, that scenario has been played out.
Blaine’s eyebrows are usually some shade of angry, but sometimes they just disappear when he’s putting on a good face … that somehow feels even creepier to me.
So much shudder in just one panel.
The automatic, easy manipulation and abusiveness.
The willingness to accept anyone regardless of intent or ethics because they claim siblinghood. (As a Christian myself, I’m leery of being swayed by bad actors claiming good faith, and it’s awful to see when others are taken in.)
The shared self-righteousness and entitlement of both.
And Blaine clearly doesn’t need to be so uppity about his daughter’s ‘college tuition costs’ if he’s happy to post bail to get rid of her. (That or he sees it as a sunk cost, I suppose.)
UURGH
As someone pointed out in a previous strip, Blaine’s problem with Amber’s tuition costs is that it’s something he doesn’t want, so it’s automatically too expensive. This, however, is something he wants, and is therefore automatically a good use of money.
I don’t really feel like Ross is going to be manipulated into doing anything too out of character for himself, he just needs to check off the right code words to do things he already believes in.
I was so sure that we were at least rid of Ross, and now Blaine’s pulled him back in. 🙁
It’s really worrying — Ross was already at the “I will die for you” (read “for you” as “in order to control you”) stage last time, and if he’s not even put off by the thought of being killed in the process, I fear for Becky’s life.
I mean, I am decently confident that Willis will *not* let a member of the main cast die (I cannot even contemplate that thought), but still.
Panels 2-3 is Blaine realising exactly what type of moron he’s dealing with and recalibrating approach. I’m pretty sure panel 3 is him loading the appropriate manipulating program, “religious rube”.
Blaine has a college kid, who wants nothing to do with, with the leverage to back that up, and a middle-aged man, who got his ass handed to him, by an 18 year old girl, with a black belt in ass kicking. Great crew you have there.
It makes me spitefully pleased to get Danny’s bisexual awakening banner above this strip, knowing how much at least one member of this group would hate being framed by that.
It’s hard to generalise. My moustache is blonde, my side-whiskers are ginger, and my chin-whiskers (until they went white) were darker than my head-hair.
Just…how does O’Malley expect this to help him? Does he suspect Ambers Amazi-Girl and hopes to catch her in the act of vigilantism? (Assuming the college won’t expel her for that, I doubt that’ll.clear him of having to pay her tuition) or is he seriously expecting Toedad to like, SHOOT his daughter? Would he do that? “Saving” Becky from her “life of sin” is different from doing another man’s dirty work/assasination.
Random thought : Blaine pretend it’s about the money, about how Amber’s tuition costing him a lot of whatsnot, but he just paid for Toedad’s bond. Bond that the butts at Joyce’s church wanted to crowdfund but had troubld to… it’s no small lump.
It never actually was about Amber’s tuition, was it ? He just want to ‘make her suffer. That guy need a hobby, like macrame, or building sandcastles on highways.
You’re not wrong about it clearly being mainly about making Amber suffer, but if Ross shows up for his trial, Blaine will get that money back.
I’m not sure what will happen to it if he’s arrested, but I’m sure Blaine will be withdrawing his offer to act as Ross’s surety before he pulls the trigger on whatever he’s got planned.
He can’t really withdraw whatever money he’s put up. It’s gone. Until and unless Ross shows up to trial.
If Ross gets arrested while out on bail, the bail is forfeit. (I assume, possibly wrongly, that it has to be a good bust. They can’t just run him in on something bogus so they keep the money and then drop the charges. That won’t be a concern in this case though.)
Not clear either whether Blaine paid cash bail or just got enough to pay a bondsman. If he went through a bondsman, the money’s already gone.
Ross is sure enough about being in the right that he is not going to skip bail. He might add a few offenses to the list he is going to get convicted for, though.
He knows he’s in the right, but he may well see the secular authorities as minions of Satan opposing his rightful control over his possession. In which case, he may well not believe that he should submit himself to their authority again.
It’s all sort of moot, because he will go after Becky again and he will get busted for it, forfeiting his bail anyway.
Which raises an interesting legal question for anyone familiar with Indiana law: A judge must set bail for any crime less than murder, but does that still apply to someone who’s already jumped bail once? Or who is arrested for another crime while out on bail? Do they have to let him go again?
From a few minutes looking at law websites (not a lawyer, don’t @ me) it looks like they can deny bail if it can be proven that they’re a flight risk or a repeat offender.
“you’re christian?”
“of-course. Christian, Muslim, Atheist, Buddhist, zoroastrian, at this particular moment in time I am whatever I need to be for you to do what I want.”
The lord got me out of here.
That pisses me off beyond anything else. It gives me irrational anger the way these deluded people will go off about the lord being responsible for things other humans have done. Nothing is ever on your head, the Lord did it.
Pisses me off.
The fact that our criminal justice system absolutely *would* let Toe-by out of prison, despite the fact that he’s 100% going to try to kidnap Becky again, pisses me off.
Damn you Willis for your accurate portrayal of how flawed the bail system is in this country!
Hurting Becky hurts Amber, indirectly, is probably the logic. And Blaine may be counting on Toedad having beef with Amazigirl over her involvement with the kidnapping.
He may also think it’ll help him look good to various authority figures to have a bunch of middle class white christians vouch for what a great, standup guy he is.
I’m a day late, but I just wanted to say what a great strip this is. With only a little bit of context, you could tell just from the facial expressions and the dialog what kind of people these two are. That’s some good cartoonin’.
Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, “Don’t do it!” He said, “Nobody loves me.” I said, “God loves you. Do you believe in God?”
He said, “Yes.” I said, “Are you a Christian or a Jew?” He said, “A Christian.” I said, “Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?” He said, “Protestant.” I said, “Me, too! What franchise?” He said, “Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?” He said, “Northern Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?”
He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?” He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region.” I said, “Me, too!”
Northern Conservative†Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?” He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912.” I said, “Die, heretic!” And I pushed him over.
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*pulls out “Christian D. Goodman” fake ID*
*pulls out “Ariel Christian” fake ID*
*slips “Mike spent the night with my mom and all I got was this fake ID and a nickel.” fake ID into Ana’s fake ID pouch*
*pulls out “Aerial Christian” fake ID*
*throws it, shuriken-style, into the crowd*
*pulls out and holds up “Areel Christian” fake ID*
*points out the attached twine*
*slowly drags the “Aerial Christian” fake ID back in*
*pulls out an “Irule E. Goodtime” fake ID*
( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°)
The E stands for Echristian, of course.
Ah, you must know Ima Goodlady from the Powerpuff Girls.
CURSED IMAGE
EXACTLY
THIS
Well, we now have exactly two strips tagged with both Blaine and Ross in them.
What’s the second one?
I believe he is saying this is the second one.
Not saying I agree.
This the first time that Blaine and Ross have met. Thanks to the miracle of blue panels, it is not the first strip in which they have both been tagged.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/tag/blaine+ross/
If this strip had any more dicks or assholes in it, it’d be Slipshine exclusive.
If I could upvote this comment, I would.
This is the evilest comic in DoA history
Eh, still not as bad as finding out that Carol wanted Ross bailed out
It’s not like Carol has to be personally responsible for his pygmy ass now that it’s back on the streets……When this all goes down the septic drain, Ross can hold Blaine responsible for landing him back in Perp-Town…Just like the true-born model of a dependable man-of-the-house that he is…
The even more evil strip will be when Carol doesn’t warn Joyce about what Toedad is about to do next, with the full knowledge of what he is about to do next.
give it time. somehow they’re gonna get that one douche whistle rapist dude (who’s name escapes me at the moment) in on their little cabal of evil too
Yeah, this is full “Joker meets Penguin” stuff.
I hope they destroy each other and take a few of the other parents with them.
Word your wishes carefully, we don’t wanna lose Hank.
Yeah we do. He’s not on the same level as Carol/Toe/Ross, but that doesn’t make him good.
Hank may not be ‘pure as the driven snow’ good, but when compared to these two he is definitely a keeper.
Eventually…..John, Jordan, and Joshlyn might have missed out on what Joyce at least got an inkling of…..Remember Carol is his ‘Mrs. Right’ and he didn’t have to contradict her when he supported Joyce….Safely away from anyone from their church family, unless my memory failed me once again. Stress’ll do that to ya.
I think Hank is an OK-to-Good father to Joyce. He had a problematic start but has grown. He gave her support where it really mattered and when Carol hit the fan he was on her side.
But what makes him daddy of the year for me, and the reason why I’m stuck in complicated custom negotiations attempting to navigate a “Best dad” mug large as a container vessel over the atlantic, is hank as a father to BECKY!
She grew I think Hank is an OK-to-Good father to Joyce. He had a problematic start but has grown. He gave her support where it really mattered and when Carol hit the fan he was on her side. Good job, Hank. Have a silver star.
But what makes him daddy of the year for me, and the reason why I’m stuck in complicated custom negotiations attempting to navigate a “Best dad” mug large as a container vessel over the atlantic, is Hank as a father to BECKY!
She practically grew up in his house under his roof. He knew her almost as well as his own children. He knew enough of her life under ToeDad to worry a bit about her. He saw her mother’s death (and knew how she died) and the effect it had on her.
Then they were off to college – they let Becky tag along to say goodbye to Joyce – and she dropped off his radar until Ross called a few weeks later and with barely controlled rage asked if Becky had contacted Joyce. Then there was the kidnapping and punching and Ross pointed a gun at Joyce and before he knew it, Becky showed up with a cheeky grin almost but not entirely hiding her nervousness and asked if she could tag along home. “Home”, as in the place that had almost been her home her entire childhood.
and Hank said yes.
Then he spent the weekend trying to divert Carol, listening to snide remarks in church and ultimately brought them back to college. Back to the ongoing crises there and watched Becky run straight into what could very well be an ongoing suicide situation on the off chance that she could save someone this time. Joyce impressed him tremendously by doing the right thing at the fountain, and now he saw something similar in Becky.
It would have been so easy for him to leave then. To leave Becky to take care of herself, to wash his hands and say that the kid who grew up under his roof was not his problem, had brought her ill fortunes upon herself, that she should have thought of those things before… before…
But he didn’t.
Hank went out of his way to comfort Becky, to re-establish the link to her childhood that every other worthless adult in La Porte had done their best to sever. Not only was she still her mother’s daughter but her mother was proud of her. Proud of what she had become. What she had become was not a sin, not a mistake, not something to be ashamed of. It was something to be proud of.
that was exactly what Becky needed desperately to hear, when she desperately needed to hear it, and that sort of comfort comes with a commitment. Having said that, there is no going back to the official policy of the church of regarding Becky as someone to be ostrichsized, reviled and forgotten. Hank took Becky in as HIS daughter that day. The joint bank account cemented it. Becky is not a mistake. Becky is not someone else’s problem. Becky is his child.
and that makes him Best Dad. Not his lack of bad actions – he has done several – but him sticking out his neck beyond what anyone could expect.
No other parent in the comic has come close to that level of commitment beyond what is expected for their own children (Dina’s parents have, for example, not to our knowledge done anything to help their daughter’s girlfriend with her living situation). and he did it not because he had to, but because it was the right thing to do.
Bottom line: Hank is best dad because he IS Becky’s dad even when he doesn’t have to be.
ToeDad, meanwhile, hunted Becky with a gun and blamed her for her mother’s death. Stellar parenting there, asshole.
andother comparison is “sir” who took Ruth and Howard in when their parents died… and what a great job HE did.
Hank is the parental figure Becky never thought she could have. “Sir” is the parental figure Ruth and Howard wish they never would have.
“…and Ross pointed a gun at Joyce…”
If I were Joyce’s dad, this story would have ended quite abruptly and very differently for Ross.
Joyce mom and John both seem pretty cool with that whole “pointing-gun-at-daughter/sister”-thing.
They are pretty shitty family.
How? Would you have magically known and teleported to her when it happened? Would you break into jail after the fact and murder him there?
The macho fantasies don’t usually work out. More often all you can do is support the kids after the fact and that’s generally more important. With a bit of prompting, Hank stepped up pretty well there.
Well shit didn’t expect a doa comic to bring me to tears
Becky/Hank-interaction has a tendency to do that.
Case in point
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/04-it-all-returns/deserves/
In addition to everything Bagge says, while he did avoid contradicting Carol on panel, taking Joyce and Becky back to school without even mentioning it to her – before church was over – almost certainly led to a confrontation after the fact. Likely he kept it from being one that Joyce had to be part of.
Hank is good though.
Yeah, Hank’s good. He’s got his issues, much like Joyce did, but he’s actually trying to work through them. If Joyce can be a redemption story, so can he – he’s not as far as she is, but he’s not far behind, either. He recognizes Becky’s humanity, and even if it makes him uncomfortable or if he’s not sure what to do with her newly-found sexuality, he treats her as a human being deserving love.
I am here for the nuance and “redemption” stories, if you wanna think of it like that. I think of it more as a process of learning and growing throughout life. And being open to that. Hank clearly is.
While evil definitely does exist, flawed is not evil. If we are going to condemn evil for their lack of humanity, then we ourselves need to show the same humanity allowing the possibility of redemption to those who are not too far gone.
Sorry, Hank is #Cancelled.
Amen! Or as we day on the internet, this.
Or Dina’s parents, who have been pretty awesome.
I mean, they mostly stand around wtih a blank expression and failed to be judgmental about their daughters choice in partners (and spotted them money for a date), but by comparison to most other parents in the comic, that’s a+.
Maybe Sierra’s and Dorothy’s parents rate higher, but that’s about it.
Failing to be judgmental is a rare, underrated achievement for parents, IRL too.
When did we meet Dina’s parents?
Here
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/adopt/
and by phone, here
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-6/01-to-those-whod-ground-me/credited/
They did fail to listen to their daughter about who is and is not allowed in her home, which was not their home.
But they did apologize for it! Parents willing to apologize for their mistakes are also rare.
I knew it.
. . . . Is Ross like. . . .5 foot? I swear that he used to look taller then this right? Or is Blaine just like. . .6’5?
Joyce knocked a foot off the Toe when she hit him.
Wait, how many feet did the toe have? Usually it’s one foot with five toes… So is he…
(Mumbles, then types into a calculator.)
1/5 of a foot tall? So, like 2.4 inches tall? That can’t be right…
(Goes back to typing on calculator, brow furrowed).
Heh!
Ross is short and Blaine is tall. Just eyeballing some past strips, Ross is about the same height as Becky, who is about the same height as Amber, and Blaine towers over Amber (at least a foot higher, if not more).
Blaine is around the same height range as Ethan and Jacob. Joe appears to be a bit taller. I’m guessing Blaine’s between 5’10” and 6’2”. Ross, around 5’1” to 5’4”. By United States standards for men, Ross is fairly short and Blaine is an entry level of ‘tall.’ Blaine also has a way of getting deep into the personal space of characters he’s clearly taller than, while giving people within his height range a wide berth….
Ross is Sal’s height, so 5’7 or thereabouts.
…waitasec. Did Toedad get a shave in between today’s strip and yesterday’s?
It looks like it right? It’s a shame too because he actually looked less like a toe with a full beard.
Probably when he changed out of prison orange and into civilian clothes.
But how did he shave with that brace around his implied neck?
Eventually due to the sliding timescale, everyone’s injuries will just keep accumulating in till they’re all in wheelchairs and poking each other with sticks
This team-up will have the same ending as Death Becomes Her!
It’s the cross-over I knew I never wanted!
…. absolutely nothing can go wrong with this… and I unreservedly… uh… unreservedly endor-…
…..
Nope! Can’t do it! Nope! Nope nope nope nope NOPE NOPE NOPE!
Ross logic: This man says he is a christian, he could be lying, but lying is a sin and therefore if he were lying he would not be a christian, therefore he must be telling the truth as he says he is a christian.
I took it to mean that Blaine decided his alias for this operation might as well be “Christian” since it’s funny how he came by it.
Ross logic: reason of trust 1/ God would punish anyone who is faking being a christian
reason of trust 2/ I am one of the true child of God, so God will actively saves me and anyone doing its job is a tool of God, therefore should be christian to be honoured with the role
I hope this fucker gets his legs crippled for real this time around.
*the Zentraedi theme concludes and is replaced with the Spanish Inquisition number from The History of the World Part I*
“Oh, a bullshit artist, huh?”
Did you try to bullshit last week?
“The Evil Dads (What a show!)
The Evil Dads (Here we go!)
We know you’re wishing that we go away
But the Evil Dads are here and we’re here to stay!”
*claps slowly
Cursed strip, cursed strip, cursed strip.
*David Willis appears*
Anybody else getting giant ads that block the strip? My ad-blocker is still running, and has informed me it’s blocked 61 since I first opened the page, but I still somehow can’t see what’s going on in the comic because verizon and some insurance company are desperate for my attention… 🙁
Report it to hiveworks support, they’re pretty good about getting rid of disruptive ads.
I have my ad-blocker off on DOA but have noticed an increase in the size of the ads this year. More tend to be animated too. A large column one to the left, a smaller one under convention appearances, a header at the top and one that pops up at the bottom of the screen that can block the comic a bit. I always close that one.
The ads have also been more targeted which on one hand does make me more likely to click on them.
Pretty sure I also have mine off for this site. If not, either I need a stronger one, or the network that runs TCGPlayer ads is extremely aggressive and powerful. I’m being bombarded with severely tempting pictures of children’s trading cards.
Even worse are the ads that hijack my clicks whenever I press a graphic link on a website, like the navigation buttons for DOA or the red button on SMBC. To be clear, I’m not even clicking the ad — I’m clicking an element on the website, and it opens a new tab to some random website that then REALLY wants me to update Flash Player. (I have Flash turned off precisely due to this sort of bullshit.) This BS usually happens when “infolinks” banners appear at the bottom of the website.
Okay I sent an email to Hiveworks. Should have done that a while ago.
I had to manually block the element with AdBlock Plus in order to read the strip.
nooooOOOOO–
Blaine and suffering.
I’m sure Blaine beat up someone named Christian at some point. Or someone named Jesus.
Thanks I hate it.
The Evil Dad Club
Dads. Why is it always dads.
Carol’s not so good either.
Plenty of evil moms too, but at least amazi-girl has not had to deal with them directly. Yet.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-6/01-to-those-whod-ground-me/mine-2/
Oh man. They’re gonna hate each other at the end of this.
Small comfort, still a comfort.
It doesn’t work like that. Blaine already despises Ross, and Ross will have other things on his mind. Whether Blaine’s duplicity even makes it on his radar is dubious.
Where’s the kaboom?
There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering kaboom.
Oh, right. Joyce’s Mom said she took out the bomb when you were in prison.
They’re standing together, the perfect time for a meteor strike is now
C’mon
Huh. Maybe Toedad won’t gun Blaine’s slimy ass down for being a stooge of the Korean mob after all.
He’ll do it because Blaine lied about being a Christian.
how were all those comments about the evil dadvengers actually real
Because those comments were based on events that had already started playing out?
Well, this is Cursed Content
blaine’s lack of evil eyebrows is unsettling
If that’s what it takes!
Luckily for Blaine Ross is a fucking idiot, he probably can tell him HE’S Jesus and the moron will believe him.
It was already pretty fucking stupid, and then Joyce punched it out so hard it landed like a meter away. That’s gonna screw up even the least functional brain at least a little.
It’s such a small thing, but Ross saying “You’re Christian” instead of “You’re A Christian” strikes me as both 1) a perfect little snapshot of the way in fundie evangelical circles really talk and 2) deeply, deeply creepy.
I don’t get the difference, can you explain it to me?
(I’ve never been Christian, nor has anyone in my nuclear family, so.)
It’s basically assuming, that it is a core trait of that person. And from Ross from the contexts we have seen him in, that comes with other assumptions e.g. Christians are good moral people, that they share the same types of bigotry and same views and same values which from what we know of Ross, is not what you wanna hear.
Now it isn’t necessarily wrong to assume religion is a key part of someone’s identity, for some, it is, like Lucy! But for Billie for instance, it is more a sidenote written on sticky notes. And neither of those approaches are necessarily wrong, as religion is personal. But because of what we know about Ross, it has darker undertones that ‘oh, you’re an upright man with the same biases that *I* agree with.’
The difference is that fundagelical christians believe that they’re the only true christians out there. Anyone who is not one of them is posing at best and more likely actively working for satan. When a christian expresses support for women’s rights, or environmentalism, or people of color, or climate change activism – they automatically know that they are dealing with an agent of the devil trying to deceive them and they must be fought. In the case where a christian tries to pull back on the culture wars, they know that they’re dealing with a lukewarm christian which is about the worst thing you can be, as the bible says.
The world is a dark and scary place for them, they’re surrounded by literal demons making them heroes in their own minds. They’re not kidding about being ‘soldiers for christ.’ And they use christianese to determine who to hate regardless of the good they do, and who to support regardless the evil they do. That’s how Trump got elected and why they still support him – he told them he’d support them and demonstrated it by attacking their enemies.
Us vs. Them is not complicated. Clear?
Huh, it doesn’t seem that strange to me. I think I usually word it that way when talking to someone one on one, and I am not Christian (see – I did it there, used the adjective to describe what I’m not). One is a noun and the other is an adjective. Applying it to other religions, it seems to depend on the religion as to how smoothly it rolls off the tongue.
For example, I usually say “I’m Pagan” not “I’m a Pagan.” The second one sounds weird to me.
Other examples:
I’m Buddhist vs I’m a Buddhist (2nd one sounds more natural to me)
I’m Jewish vs I am a Jew (this is different from the others because the noun and adjective have a different form)
I’m Muslim or I am a Muslim (1st sounds more natural to me here)
I’m Hindu or I am a Hindu (2nd sounds more natural to me)
My mom’s Hindu and she says “I’m Hindu,” and not “I’m a Hindu”. My friend’s MIL is Buddhist and also doesn’t say an A before it.
I’m picking up on something subtle from these posts – apologies if incorrectly – but it seems to me that the phrasings which sound more strange without an added “a”, that is, identity rather than objective facet of identity, are also the ones that are more commonplace in our culture. I’m not entirely sure why that is but I suspect it is to do with familiarity and dominance. For example if Islam is the dominant religion in your country then you might say “I’m Muslim” more naturally, whereas if it is rare, you would tell people “I am A Muslim”. Buddhism is less often claimed in the West and therefore the ‘a’ prefix highlights the expected otherness and need for clarity and understanding. If I’m not reading too much into this? I’m a Christian myself and I typically use that phrasing because it is both part of my identity and also a choice. I wouldn’t have an issue with either phrasing but I live in an area with a high Christian population. It might be harder to use in, say, Iran.
Judaism being the exception, because it is an ethno-religion (many Jewish people are of Jewish faith and extraction both, and those who aren’t Jewish by descent often refer to themselves as ‘converted’). Calling someone ‘a Jew’ defaults to their ethnicity/nationality before their faith adherence unless it is given a precursor (say, ‘an orthodox Jew’).
Hmm… I guess I’ll chalk it up to dialectical difference?
I’m Buddhist and I default to using the former most of the time when talking about “I’m/they’re/you’re X” vs. “I’m/they’re/you’re a(n) X”… Actually I think I only use the noun when I use the plural. Hmm…
Are you familiar with the distinction between “fewer” and “less”? That is, quantifiable elements versus non-quantifiable elements?
There’s a similar distinction between the usage of [a] and its absence. Without getting into too much detail, you’d use “a” if you’re referring to something like a role or position, and you’d avoid it if you’re referring to a circumstance or belief.
Hence, for everything from vegan/vegetarian to Christian/Buddhist, it’d be correct to use either variation and would be more natural to use the version without an a.
For something like nationality, the lack of an [a] can indicate a subtext, but typically only if the context or tone of the presentation also emphasizes that aspect. For example, “Oh, you’re AMERICAN.” could express relief, contempt, or other emotions. Typically, people won’t use an [a] in such a circumstance, since they’re no longer referring to a role (where ‘a’ would be appropriate) but to a belief or circumstance. Of course, that’s something few are likely actively aware of, but people do tend to subconciously pick up on language rules such as those, in a “that feels right” kind of way.
So, while it’s rather niche, there is some basis for interpreting the lack or presence of an [a] as having a special significance, if normally the alternative presentation is preferred.
Of course, as I noted, with “Christian”, it’s actually appropriate to drop the [a], and that is, by my experience, overwhelmingly the usage utilized by most Christians and non-Christians both, regardless of the scope of their beliefs or temperment.
That all said, I don’t actually believe Far was referring to the underlying language rules or “strange sound” of the sentence in question. Rather, as someone who has also had extensive experience with the sort of mindset in question, I’m fairly sure Far was directly associating how that phrase sounds, when it’s said by individuals such Toedad.
See, zealous Christians no longer hold “Christian” to considerations of role vs belief/circumstance. Rather, they use it as a direct substitute for “Righteous” [in the “pure & worthy” sense, not the surfer “awesome” sense].
Hence, that lack of an a- again, with specific tone and context, just like when it’s dropped for “American”- brings to mind certain associations. In this matter, the circumstance in question is simply having the phrase be presented by someone who has been established to have a mindset in line with the ones we’ve spent our past being threatened by.
Meanwhile, “Oh, you’re a Christian” wouldn’t have that association.
Even if the individuals in question aren’t conciously aware of their subconcious association of “Christian” and “Righteous”, they are still subject to the subconcious trend I noted above, wherein they’re much more inclined to present a belief/circumstance/concept/etc without the [a]. Since the association between “Christian” and “Righteous” further emphasizes that internal connection between “Christian” and belief/etc, it’s only going to be more likely in that circumstance.
Hence, while Far’s implication that “You’re Christian” is inherently creepy just as a phrase doesn’t have much basis, the underlying perspective they’re presenting does have strong basis, both in how we make assumptions based on language use, and by way of habituated familarity with individuals such as the one being presented in the comic.
So, to tl;dr: Generally speaking, the presence or lack of an [a] means nothing at all, but with specific context and presentation, it can indicate solidarity with or contempt towards the listener.
[Your examples are all based in a personal perspective, by the way, which slightly adjusts the context by which they’re interpreted. You should instead be using “You’re” in place of “I’m”, to match to Toedad’s phrasing.]
Both of these “people” are inherently worthless, and nobody would be worse off if they both spontaneously dissolved into red paste.
The prison janitor?
I’m sure they’ve seen worse.
Hey, I’m only saying they’d probably argue for spontaneous heart attacks over the spontaneous red paste.
Toedad: So you belong to my exact specific denomination as no other churches qualify and are all damned to hell?
Blaine: Is it the church that looks like a Burger King?
Toedad: Wow…you are saved!
It would actually be amazing if this entire thing collapsed because Blaine never actually bothered learning what denomination everyone belongs to.
Toedad: So what type of Christian are you?
Blaine: …Catholic?
Toedad: What’s your favorite verse from the Bible?
Blaine: Oh, that’s something very personal. I don’t feel like saying. But the Bible is my favorite book. The Bible means a lot to me. I think it’s just incredible. The whole Bible is just something very special.
I can just imagine Blaine being very familiar in some way with this version of Christianity, because it turns out some family member was involved.
Blaine likely is nominally Catholic. Raised as such, though he obviously missed most of the better side of the teachings. We know Amber is Catholic.
I need to upvote this so hard 🙂
Oh, dammit!
You head for higher ground, I’ll warn the women and children!
Blaine, your lie will cost your life if Toe Dad finds out you are manipulating him and his church. It’s funny when villains try to outsmart each other and end up stabbing each other in the back… and in the face.
Seriously, villain alliances never work! Super hero alliances, political alliances, economic alliances, criminal alliances can work, but villains are too prideful and will end up killing each other once a singles question is asked: “who is going to be the leader?” Evil Con Carne answered that.
I dunno, both the Republican and Democratic parties manage to persist.
Blame first-past-the-post voting for that. A two-party system is inevitable when the voting is that simplistic.
Exactly. The american two party system is more an artifact of the process than ideologies or anything else. If they instituted a parliamentary system or some sort of proportional representation then the number of parties would quickly double at a minimum.
The Lord sent me to give you this gun to take out Amazigirl who I didn’t recognize as my own daughter even while she was beating the crap out of me. But be careful. I understand she’s deadly with cell phones.
Whatever comes of this, I hope he doesn’t get his bail back.
You don’t get bail money back, though? Once it’s paid, it’s gone for good, I thought.
You get most, if not all, of it back at the trial. Not if you skip your court date though and I’m not sure about what happens if you reoffend.
If you pay a bondsman, it’s gone, but it isn’t the full amount.
If/ when you show up, the bail is returned to whoever paid it.
If the bail is paid directly, the one who put it up gets it back when you show up and get tried. If the bail is paid by a bondsman you are out their fee and don’t get that back.
That would make the bail system basically useless.
If you don’t get the money back, it’s basically a fee to escape, rather than a way of guaranteeing compliance.
Unless they take the money and use it to pay someone to bring you in to trial.
*Reads alt text* So at what point is Willis officially trolling the Comments section? Are we there yet?
Oh! Avatar switcheroo!
oh? i wonder if i’ve swapped as well…
nope. hm, perhaps you just capitalized your email or something.
The answer to the question, “Is Willis trolling the Comments section?” should always be assumed to be, “probably.”
After all, turnabout is fair play.
Speaking of Christian stuff, I feel like a heavenly smiting is in order for these two.
Ok, but hear me out because I was talking about yesterday’s strip with my brother and. We already know fucking Toedad is going to target Dina’s bday party, yes? (She deceived and bit him and led his daughter astray y’all!)
Robin is going to save the day.
Just picture the headlines! “CANDIDATE DESANTO DEFENDS A GROUP OF LGBT AND BLACK TEENS FROM HOMOPHOBIC ATTACK”. It might even FINALLY clue her in on how at risk minorities truly are. Robin seems to be the kind of person who literally can’t realize shit until she’s looking at it up close, and it can’t get any more personal than an ex-convict trying to abduct and/or kill his daughter who’s her aide in HER OWN APARTMENT.
And you know why I’m dead sure of this? Because REDEMPTION IS A STORY. Except when it’s not. Except when you actually put in the work to prove (over and over if necessary) that you’ll do the right thing even when it comes at a great personal risk.
This is why we’re getting Ruth and Rachel’s backstory now.
Also? As much as I hate it? Toedad was never going to be in prison for long enough Becky could be free without a WORSE incident than last time. He’s a middle class, Christian white male. He threatened people with a shotgun and endangered others in a highway but that was it. He needed to be dealt with in such a way he’d truly be gone for good.
This gonna be a catalyst for a lot of things including the divorce of Joyce’s parents as soon as Hank realizes his wife has been involved in a plot to bail Toedad out with literal Korean mafia money, but Imma stop speculating here :’)
I do think Robin will rise to the occasion, even if it might not be this story. She did already tank, she thought at the time, what was left of her career by refusing to back up Ryan and firing her aides who wanted her to. She didn’t know at the time, naturally, that Becky would end up being the angel on her shoulder, even if Becky was initially trolling her.
Either way, guess we’ll see what she’s made of, and hopefully not literally like Ryan.
It wasn’t a shotgun.
That’s not an especially vital detail.
So stop at “gun”.
Tell them, not me. I don’t have any influence over other people’s comments.
Remember, the most important thing in any discussion of crimes committed with guns is to get the type of gun right. Any mistake made there invalidates whatever you’re trying to say or at least must be corrected as the most important thing.
Yes, they were wrong about what type of gun it was. They mis-remembered a detail from years ago. A detail that’s completely irrelevant to the point they were making, but it’s vitally important that it be corrected. Just like it was yesterday.
In that case, Roiss used a modified AR-29 with a revolver grip, slam stock, zucchini clip, and attached grenade loincher. This nightmare submachine gun was, naturally, held horizontally to ensure the cleanest and most accurate shot.
And he kept it in a rack in his truck.
Willis went to great pains to make it very clear that Ross had not chosen an appropriate gun for a murder spree. I appreciate that.
About the only worse gun he could have used was a broken muzzleloader of some sort.
Robin’s out of town.
It’s pretty unlikely they’ll target the birthday party. Certainly not intentionally, since there’s no real way they could know about it.
This plan’s been building for awhile and I expect it to keep building in the background a bit longer, rather than all play out in one day. It may well play out in some way involving Robin and helping her both win her election and potentially get some redemption, but that doesn’t have to be at today’s party.
As for Ross’s crimes, they go well beyond threatening people with a gun and endangering others in a highway. Kidnapping and attempted murder get you put away for much longer than this comic is going to last – Christian white male or not. Serious felonies and serious time. (Attempted murder was trying to shoot AG on the roof – no self defense claim since he was in the middle of felony kidnapping at the time.) And he’s not an ex-con, since he hasn’t been convicted. He’s out on bail, pre-trial. Bail which was set beyond what he could pay, even with his church’s support. Only with Blaine’s mob intervention did he make bail. That shows the courts were treating it appropriately seriously.
Blaine doesn’t deserve any kind of sympathy, but Toedad’s response in panel 2 is so bizarrely ungrateful that I have trouble feeling any kind of schadenfreude.
Like what weird breed of assholery is this?
It’s a slim comfort, but it’s still a comfort that the two of them will annoy each other endlessly.
Not to over-analyze, but I think that might be an expression of shame more than anything else. You don’t wanna be the guy that people have to bail out of jail, and Toedad had issues with his self-image as family patriarch and provider as it was.
Wow, that’s brilliant! No sarcasm here; your analysis makes perfect sense. He’s willing to be a fellow servant of this guy, but not some beta male.
Schadenfreude — delight over the misery of others — is exactly what we want to feel for these two.
He only wants to answer to God.
FUCKING PIECE OF FUCKING SHITTURDS!!!
*double take* Since when do you swear? That’s not a thing Bagge does. Are you broken? 😛
Seriously though, I could not agree more.
I felt cute little Joyce-swears did not do this situation justice 🙂
I understand entirely. I just about lost my shit too.
“The Swede has sworn, I repeat, the Swede has sworn. DEFCON -50, brace for impact!”
Turtles: Sigh, it’s gonna be the dinosaurs all over again.
Dinosaurs indeed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh_SEkdshks
First the compys came for him, and I said no- actually, I said a lot, mostly variations of “serves the bastard right”.
Can’t read Alt-text .
( Willis it’s So wonky inconsistent on mobile devices for years, I wish you’d consider a button.
“uh oh they’re showing up in the same panel now”
I love panel 3. Blaine just looks so genuinely weirded out, and also just a little bit hurt. Somehow it’s hilarious.
Ross, no, check the tags. He’s Blaine, not Christian.
Maybe Christian is Blaine’s middle name.
I’m disgusted that this is clearly going to WORK because people are really this dumb.
No, you’re not. You’re both sons of Satan.
So next DoA plot will be about evil parents trying to rape/electrocute/kidnap/kill or whataver other thing to Becky, maybe Dina, or maybe Robin, maybe Leslie, Amber, and few other characters can be in danger.
Just great…
People would use religion to get the nefarious things they want?!
So history teaches us!
/s
Some Sinister Six stuff going on up in this biotch!
And the dangerous monster is oh so easily manipulated.
Yup. What he lacks in parenting skills he does not make up for in brains.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/04-walking-with-dina/easiest/
I think that I’ve mentioned Ross’s very obvious low intelligence before.
I suspect that Blaine’s biggest headache going forwards will be making sure Ross thinks that divine intervention has pointed him in the direction Blaine wants him to run in.
I wish Blaine endless frustration before the inevitable crash.
Toedad fell for that like taking candy from a baby. Good job toedad
The baby would at least have the brainpower to realise its candy was taken.
Yep, just as Christian as Trump 🙂
The part I dread most about the trajectory of this arc is that given the horrible people involved (see strip above and their respective past actions) there is a very good chance someone is going to end up dead (or best case life changing injury). Blaine’s “supposed” objective being quite simply to dick over his daughter, Ross on the other hand is almost certainly willing to kill in order to “save” his. I see Blaine being too busy being an a-hole to realize he just set a potential murderer loose till Ross is already pulling the trigger…if Blaine will even care, assuming it’s not what he wants to happen in the first place.
Blaine will care in as much as there are consequences pointed at him.
Where did his extra-rugged toe hair go? I don’t imagine shaving in a neck brace is an easy feat.
Not shaving. Waxing.
“As long as you have absolutely no follow-up questions, yes. Yes, we are. Fully.”
You know if you really believed in God, you’d see His will at work in Becky as well. The secret to religion I guess is to decide you know just where the infinite infallible ends and the stuff you can feel like you’re better than begins.
A lot of people believe in God but then like believing He wants exactly what they want.
A lot of people are fucking stupid.
I’m one of those people.
Which is why I assume the whole Sodom and Gomora thing was about gang rape.
More importantly that He hates whoever they hate.
Man, when all this shit hits the fan, Asher’s dad (organized crime boss) is going to be pissed at Blaine (goon who is creating too much media attention and drama).
As an aside, I appreciate the jokes continue even in this evil setup comic. “Are you a Christian?” “Of course.” Couldn’t stop chuckling manically at that one.
Am I missing something about the US justice system? How is it actually possible considering what Toedad did that he could get out on bail? Wouldn’t he be considered a threat to public safety???
What you’re missing is that “our” justice system is too frequently worthless.
Recently the US president had some trouble grasping the “can’t buy yourself free from justice” clause in the Swedish juridical system in the Asap Rocky case.
Then again, the current US president has trouble grasping just about everything except his own arsehole so we are not exactly exclusive there.
In Indiana, bail can only be denied if murder is the charge.
In the US system, a person is considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law — or at least, that’s the theory. Bail is there solely to ensure that the accused shows up in court — or at least, that’s the theory.
In practice, the US bail system generally means that non-wealthy people stay in jail until their trials, while wealthy people get to stay free until their trials. This is true pretty much regardless of the severity of the crimes they are accused of.
Huh. So Ross is just 100% asshole all the time. Not exactly surprising.
‘Glad to hear that you’re a believer. Anyway, I’m off to go murder my daughter with a shotgun for being gay. Bye!’
CLEARLY I’M A GOOD PERSON WHO GOD LOVES VERY MUCH!!!
GOD WANTS ME TO MURDER MY LESBIAN DAUGHTER. THOU DHALL NOT KILL ONLY APPLIES TO PEOPLE WHO DON’T NEED TO KILL GAYS.
Blaine: That’s exactly the kind of thing I believe in.
They truly ARE the same denomination of christian!
Welp.
I’m officially not going to be reading the comics for a few months.
I wonder how this will play out. Ross has already done the attempted shooting thing, so, for lack of a better phrase, that scenario has been played out.
Blaine’s eyebrows are usually some shade of angry, but sometimes they just disappear when he’s putting on a good face … that somehow feels even creepier to me.
ABSOLUTELY! ….Blaine is an evil genius and he will be a disgrace for all.
“Ross MacIntyre, you have great awfulness in your heart. Welcome to the Blaine Corps”.
The lord sent me too Blaine…
Sent me to bust a few caps in your asses and send you two to hell where you belong!
And now they form L.O.A.D.
League of Asshole Dads
They’re a load of something, that’s for sure.
of course.
Here’s hoping for a suprise truck.
So much shudder in just one panel.
The automatic, easy manipulation and abusiveness.
The willingness to accept anyone regardless of intent or ethics because they claim siblinghood. (As a Christian myself, I’m leery of being swayed by bad actors claiming good faith, and it’s awful to see when others are taken in.)
The shared self-righteousness and entitlement of both.
And Blaine clearly doesn’t need to be so uppity about his daughter’s ‘college tuition costs’ if he’s happy to post bail to get rid of her. (That or he sees it as a sunk cost, I suppose.)
UURGH
As someone pointed out in a previous strip, Blaine’s problem with Amber’s tuition costs is that it’s something he doesn’t want, so it’s automatically too expensive. This, however, is something he wants, and is therefore automatically a good use of money.
I don’t think there are words enough to express how big a pile of shit he is.
At some point Blaine decided Amber wasn’t of any more benefit to him. To him doing anything for Amber is throwing good money after bad.
I don’t really feel like Ross is going to be manipulated into doing anything too out of character for himself, he just needs to check off the right code words to do things he already believes in.
I was so sure that we were at least rid of Ross, and now Blaine’s pulled him back in. 🙁
It’s really worrying — Ross was already at the “I will die for you” (read “for you” as “in order to control you”) stage last time, and if he’s not even put off by the thought of being killed in the process, I fear for Becky’s life.
I mean, I am decently confident that Willis will *not* let a member of the main cast die (I cannot even contemplate that thought), but still.
It’s happened in his older comics.
Word of Willis is that no-one’s dying, because if they did the fallout would take weeks of strips.
It’d take weeks IN UNIVERSE, even if it wasn’t a murder. That’d be years of strips.
What a great father’s day strip
Panels 2-3 is Blaine realising exactly what type of moron he’s dealing with and recalibrating approach. I’m pretty sure panel 3 is him loading the appropriate manipulating program, “religious rube”.
This is a cursed image. Too much evil in these panels!
Blaine over here making some League of Extraordinary Shitlemen
Blaine has a college kid, who wants nothing to do with, with the leverage to back that up, and a middle-aged man, who got his ass handed to him, by an 18 year old girl, with a black belt in ass kicking. Great crew you have there.
It makes me spitefully pleased to get Danny’s bisexual awakening banner above this strip, knowing how much at least one member of this group would hate being framed by that.
(Read this in an Irish brogue…)
Just call me “Father O’Malley”, me son. Now sure ‘n let’s get you out of here, God willin’.
The world would be a better place if a meteorite just so happened to smash into that room.
“Yes, friend. The Lord sent me…”
This whole “read the crowd and play to their beliefs and fears” stuff was actually funny in The Music Man.
Just curious — why is Toedad’s mustache black? Shouldn’t it be more brown, in keeping with his hair color?
Facial hair grows in darker than head hair.
Mine never did.
I hate to agree with someone who openly associates with bicycles, but my face fuzz is lighter than the rest of my hair.
It’s hard to generalise. My moustache is blonde, my side-whiskers are ginger, and my chin-whiskers (until they went white) were darker than my head-hair.
Just…how does O’Malley expect this to help him? Does he suspect Ambers Amazi-Girl and hopes to catch her in the act of vigilantism? (Assuming the college won’t expel her for that, I doubt that’ll.clear him of having to pay her tuition) or is he seriously expecting Toedad to like, SHOOT his daughter? Would he do that? “Saving” Becky from her “life of sin” is different from doing another man’s dirty work/assasination.
Yeah, BO’M’s motivation is also not clear to me yet, except that it’s obviously sinister.
I’m guessing one of two things, though there’s probably overlap:
1) He’s using Toedad to torment Becky as a way to get at amber. “Look at what being your friend got that little lesbian girl!”
2) Toedad is muscle for the possible confrontation with Amazi-girl.
Random thought : Blaine pretend it’s about the money, about how Amber’s tuition costing him a lot of whatsnot, but he just paid for Toedad’s bond. Bond that the butts at Joyce’s church wanted to crowdfund but had troubld to… it’s no small lump.
It never actually was about Amber’s tuition, was it ? He just want to ‘make her suffer. That guy need a hobby, like macrame, or building sandcastles on highways.
I mean, it was about paying *for Amber*. He obviously doesn’t mind paying for other things.
You’re not wrong about it clearly being mainly about making Amber suffer, but if Ross shows up for his trial, Blaine will get that money back.
I’m not sure what will happen to it if he’s arrested, but I’m sure Blaine will be withdrawing his offer to act as Ross’s surety before he pulls the trigger on whatever he’s got planned.
He can’t really withdraw whatever money he’s put up. It’s gone. Until and unless Ross shows up to trial.
If Ross gets arrested while out on bail, the bail is forfeit. (I assume, possibly wrongly, that it has to be a good bust. They can’t just run him in on something bogus so they keep the money and then drop the charges. That won’t be a concern in this case though.)
Not clear either whether Blaine paid cash bail or just got enough to pay a bondsman. If he went through a bondsman, the money’s already gone.
Ross is sure enough about being in the right that he is not going to skip bail. He might add a few offenses to the list he is going to get convicted for, though.
He knows he’s in the right, but he may well see the secular authorities as minions of Satan opposing his rightful control over his possession. In which case, he may well not believe that he should submit himself to their authority again.
It’s all sort of moot, because he will go after Becky again and he will get busted for it, forfeiting his bail anyway.
Which raises an interesting legal question for anyone familiar with Indiana law: A judge must set bail for any crime less than murder, but does that still apply to someone who’s already jumped bail once? Or who is arrested for another crime while out on bail? Do they have to let him go again?
From a few minutes looking at law websites (not a lawyer, don’t @ me) it looks like they can deny bail if it can be proven that they’re a flight risk or a repeat offender.
“you’re christian?”
“of-course. Christian, Muslim, Atheist, Buddhist, zoroastrian, at this particular moment in time I am whatever I need to be for you to do what I want.”
“Of course! I’m white, aren’t I?”
“Sure I’m Christian! I love worshiping…”
*looks at smudged writing on hand*
“…Jobus.”
All hail Jobus
Lol, love their exchange. Blaine is smarter than i expected and Toedad is dumber than i thought.
He seriously thinks the Lord posted his bail?
So why did it take so long? Did Jesus misplace his wallet?
The lord got me out of here.
That pisses me off beyond anything else. It gives me irrational anger the way these deluded people will go off about the lord being responsible for things other humans have done. Nothing is ever on your head, the Lord did it.
Pisses me off.
“The Lord works through human hands, unless those human hands do something I don’t agree with like being gay or stopping me from doing what I want.”
The fact that our criminal justice system absolutely *would* let Toe-by out of prison, despite the fact that he’s 100% going to try to kidnap Becky again, pisses me off.
Damn you Willis for your accurate portrayal of how flawed the bail system is in this country!
I still don’t understand what Blaine’s angle is.
Is he trying to use Ross as bait to trap Amazi-Girl so that he can punish her for thumping him?
Hurting Becky hurts Amber, indirectly, is probably the logic. And Blaine may be counting on Toedad having beef with Amazigirl over her involvement with the kidnapping.
He may also think it’ll help him look good to various authority figures to have a bunch of middle class white christians vouch for what a great, standup guy he is.
Or alternatively, he’s a massive abusive shitbag instinctively seeking out the company of similar individuals.
I’m a day late, but I just wanted to say what a great strip this is. With only a little bit of context, you could tell just from the facial expressions and the dialog what kind of people these two are. That’s some good cartoonin’.
Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, “Don’t do it!” He said, “Nobody loves me.” I said, “God loves you. Do you believe in God?”
He said, “Yes.” I said, “Are you a Christian or a Jew?” He said, “A Christian.” I said, “Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?” He said, “Protestant.” I said, “Me, too! What franchise?” He said, “Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?” He said, “Northern Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?”
He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?” He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region.” I said, “Me, too!”
Northern Conservative†Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?” He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912.” I said, “Die, heretic!” And I pushed him over.