Nov 20 2008
Webcomic 25: He Saved The Union… With His Machete of Freedom!
This is dedicated to anyone who’s ever watched West Wing and wondered why DC landmarks are always in the background. It’s like they’re hunting the characters… OK, maybe not.
WEBCOMIC INDEX — FIRST COMIC — PREVIOUS COMIC — NEXT COMIC
WEBCOMIC INDEX — FIRST COMIC — PREVIOUS COMIC — NEXT COMIC
If you’re a fan of American history or just a resident of the Washington area, you might have noticed that we took a few liberties with frames 2 and 4.
Incidentally, I learned a few amusing Lincoln stories at a Lincoln Day dinner last year. Lincoln was the first President to be photographed at his inauguration… and John Wilkes Booth can be seen in the picture. Also, JWB’s brother once saved the life of one of Lincoln’s sons. Finally, there was great concern that Confederate sympathizers would steal Lincoln’s body, so a secret society was formed to protect his tomb.
Where’s JWB in the picture? I have no idea what he looks like.
Have you seen this? It’s the single stupidest mistake that a comic book artist could make and for an editor to miss:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2097/2143743934_543415890f.jpg
I laughed my butt off.
At first I was like “What?” then I got it. Hilarious
“Captain America, I command you to.. Wank!!”
I think these two are JWB and Lincoln. I’m less sure about JWB.
P is going on a school trip to Washington D.C. next week, so he’ll be able to investigate the Washington Monument being a giant laser….
He also plans to find out if the statue of Abe Lincoln is a giant robot. Go figure, huh?
- Wings
On my seventh grade trip to DC, we were in one of the White House security rooms getting scanned and x-rayed. One of my classmates saw a sign that said “NO BOMBS, GUNS, KNIVES OR STUN GUNS.” She said to a friend “good thing I left my stun gun at home today!” Within two seconds, a security officer burst out of a hidden door in the wall, grabbed her and disappeared into the wall with her. This was not merely something that agents had trained for, it was something that agents were waiting for.
The girl was on the next flight out of DC.
Hopefully this won’t age me too much, but that was before the September 11 attacks. I would imagine that security has since tightened. So don’t do anything stupid!
One of my Dad’s friends gets delayed for at least four hours every time he enters the US for business trips, several times a year, because his last name is Hussein, which is a fairly common Muslim name.
Security services, especially airport security, do extremely stupid things: http://www.cracked.com/article_16849_7-dumbest-things-ever-done-by-airport-security.html
A few years ago, a congressman was nearly kept off his flight because he had a prosthetic limb from military service. I’m trying to remember who it was.
Yeah. Lucky P is going on the trip, my parents didn’t think I was old enough to “appreciate” D.C. Curse them….
- Wings
Having lived in DC for about four months, I can assure you that it’s a tourist trap with serially annoyed regulars. Ask your parents if they will give you a pizza party or something similar instead; it will probably be more enjoyable and considerably less expensive. To be honest, the only thing I remember about my trip to DC was that a Secret Service agent burst out of a wall.
Put it this way: My parents don’t trust me outside of the house, let alone outside of the state. To say that they’re overprotective and old-fashioned is a major understatement. I’m *supposed* to be banned right now and even I don’t know why.
Evidence One: I didn’t know what a video game was until I was 11, three years ago.
Evidence Two: I can’t remember the last time I watched television (Of course, they watch TV all the time).
Evidence Three: Anything we consider *fun* is their idea of “bad things”. (Be it manga, video games, or even me using the computer, they WILL hate it).
And so much more….
-Wings
Hmm… this makes me wonder about all sorts of different landmarks… What if Big Ben, The Eiffle Tower and the Washington Monument are *all* giant lasers, in case a huge war ever breaks out? How defensible are the Kremlin, Buckingham Palace, Versailles and the White House against zombies? These are important questions, dang it!
I was just thinking, and I came to a conclusion. I got a bit discouraged because, looking back at my older writing, I REALLY sucked.
But then I though, if I can tell that I sucked back then, I MUST be better now, right?
And then I gained 300 confidence points.
I can tell you how defensive MY city would be against zombies. In the case of a large scale zombie invasion, my city would be the first to fall.
Wings: My parents are pretty protective too. XD Never mind that I’m nearly 18, I’m not allowed out after six. At least they don’t check my computer or anything, though.
Speaking of national monuments as doomsday devices, during the Cold War, U.S. military intelligence was convinced the Soviets were hiding ballistic missiles in a war memorial’s obelisk. Heh heh.
@Whovian The veritable Russian nesting doll of partental controls is indeed difficult to navigate safely. Therefore, the school media center is the alternate option.
I can’t be the only one who sees the Lincoln memorial as the answer to the Gundams of Japan. Can you say, “epic giant robot duel”?
- Wings
This may be dating myself a bit, but I used AOL For Kids way back when. Its parental controls were, umm, restrictive. The most mature website it allowed me to use was the Ty website for Beanie Baby
speculatorscollectors, which taught me everything I know about economics. It is perhaps the only example of a website where Comic Sans actually fit the target audience.PS: One of my economics teachers drove up to Canada, smuggled ~500 Maples into the U.S., and sold each for a $50 markup. $25,000 is not bad for a weekend’s worth of work, but I’d prefer doing so without committing several felonies in the process (tax evasion, false customs report, etc). Moral of the story: Beanie Babies will make you a felon.
It definitely says something when the controls on my home computer are more restrictive than those at a high school.
…It’s tried blocking Google Docs multiple times, and it sees Google Image Search as a threat, making it very difficult to find images for my science projects.
- Wings
I remember Aol Kids. Couldn’t even use my address book- my contacts had to be approved. I could add contacts, I could see contacts, but I couldn’t automatically add them to the to section. I had to copy and paste them. Can you say failed security measure.
Eventually I just created a yahoo mail account and used that and no one said anything. My parents just checked the history pages.
And I feel bad for you Wings. It’s a little similar to my situation: couldn’t watch TV until I was in jr. high (and I mean any TV) and couldn’t play video games at home until I was seventeen. Plus I was stuck with AOL Kids/Teens (blocks all the same sites except AOL music and maybe news) until high school. But now that I’m 18 I can pretty much watch anything wherever and have total access to my own computer. Here’s hoping you’ll experience similar freedom.
I think my family got our first air conditioning unit and cable television when I was around 12. We got our first home computer when I was in ~high school and I think I got my first cell phone while in college.