Good point. Rick and Joanie always seemed sort of the modern form of The Good Guys. And for a while Jeff just acted like all youth who are the victims of good parenting. I keep expecting him to come around, but as Allie notes, J.J. never has. So maybe not.

Going through the Flashbacks, it's been such a pleasure to watch Boopsie evolve -- and such an amazement to see J.J....not. If there's something in Joanie's DNA, it would be nice to see that it skipped Jeff. I hope that troglodyte can start evolving. Please?

Duke and Jeff are both sociopaths.

Today's News Flash, from the Washington Post: CIA MAKING SECRET PAYMENTS TO MEMBERS OF KARZAI ADMINISTRATION. Note to WaPo: You have been scooped by Garry Trudeau. Doonesbury has been chronicling this for the past few months. Nothing new here.

I would be happy to never see a series about Jeff or Zipper again. GBT has been telling the same joke with these cretins for many years. We get it. They are lazy and thoughtless. Now with the rise of Alex and Toggle, we have characters from the "next generation" that we actually care about. Jeff and Zipper need to go on a hiatus for a decade or so.

Looks like now the young Redfern Rascal has nowhere to go but the Tea Party.

Zonker doesn't have to tool up to Oakland to grow openly. Under Proposition 215, any Californian may legally cultivate up to six plants for personal use, if they have a doctor's recommendation -- and about 10% of Californians do. Zonk could also obtain a license to farm for the medical dispensaries. (Those laws haven't helped California drug-war POWs like Zonker's friend Cornell, however, who were sent to prison before the law passed.) California is even poised to tax, regulate, and depenalize recreational marijuana use by adult residents, if Proposition 19 passes this November...

I am bringing the current Straw Poll to the attention of my college junior, now studying for the LSATs. So many logical fallacies and propaganda techniques so cleverly crammed into so little space. It's truly marvelous. My favorite: Of course a lot of people want to believe this because Obama disturbs their sense of place in our culture, but how could his supposed non-citizenship "explain" his success? I love magical thinking.

Hicks? In the Internet Age I have a level playing field. I work in a small town discount retail store. I inquired of a customer as to what kind of shoes she was wearing (they looked so comfortable) and she looked at me and replied, "These are very expensive shoes!" Ha -- I thought I was in Pretty Woman! (What was she doing in our store, slumming?) I can order any shoe made in the world from my living room. I don't have to fly to NYC or Paris. Hicks? Anyone with internet access now has the world at a click. You cannot believe who works and lives in "hick" towns. I love my "hole in the woods" -- and the Internet World!

Re Duke dissing hicks. As an Okie I took no offense. Duke is the quintessential cynic. He hates everything (except money, Wild Turkey and LSD) and everybody.

As part of festivities celebrating the upcoming 40th anniversary of Doonesbury, AMU (Andrews McMeel Universal) is inviting readers to submit questions for GBT. He'll select 15 to answer. The deadline is Monday, so please check it out asap!

Alex is a jerk. Toggle on the other hand is not. Alex should, as Toggle said, just let the relationship happen and quit the analysis. In this case any wounds on Alex are self-inflected.

Regarding the disembowelment -- which was lovely by the way -- I believe Calvin and Hobbes' creator Bill Watterson offered up a spine-shattering Sunday strip featuring a battle between super-powered genders. I hope young Redfern authors a best seller, much to his father's dismay, and you keep up the great work!

I am impressed with Alex. Moving through being jealous, then embarrassed, then telling on herself for being jealous. Then Toggle gets what she's going through but draws the line on telling her just who is checking her out, and is wise enough to placate/reassure Alex that he is indeed happy about their relationship moving to the next level. Many couples never get what might be possible for their relationship if they could become as vulnerable, and courageous, as these two.

It's simple: I adore Toggle. You've created many, many characters over the years to love, or who frustrate me but redeem themselves. Toggle, though? Toggle is such a wellspring of sound sense, good humor, and, yes, wisdom. It's not even that he's without his flaws: Alex, who I am only coming to love, proves to be a superb balance to Toggle's exaggerated insecurities, humility and emotional scars. Her faith in him is taking him places he might never have attempted before. But strips like today's remind me over and over that Toggle has such honesty and good sense, combined with pragmatism and a sense of humor. Alex is going to be flattered, suspicious, flustered, and amused by this all day -- and is going to know Toggle does understand that fleeting jealousy growing out of fear of loss.

I think I am going to work at developing my own inner Toggle. He's good for what ails us.

I love Alex and Toggle for so many reasons I can't begin to tell you. But for a start, they are fresh, young, honest and the new Doones generation. That means a lot to those of us who were there in the beginning and have stayed on the bus all these years.

Ya probably should have used the term "shitkicker" rather than "hick." More people like the sound of "shitkicker."

Thank you for creating Doonesbury. I have avidly read as much as I can. As a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan I have found Doonesbury very helpful in healing. Keep up the great work!

Duke? An intellectual???

Folks are upset with GBT for the "hick" comment? Is it not clear that it's intended to reveal a morally corrupt mind-set? Is it not clear that the author of the strip does not hold that sentiment, but is skewering the thought by having it come out of the mouth of the biggest creep his strip? Is it not clear that it's a repudiation of the attitude that all Southern or Western accents (read "not Atlantic or Pacific coast") are for dummies? Duke said it, for crying out loud. Anything Duke says is the polar opposite of real and valuable. You learn from Duke by doing the opposite.

Thanks for the strip. And thanks for Leo and Alex. They're as sweet as can be.

I feel for Jeane Frederic because it's tiresome to be stereotyped. As an expat Texan in the wilds of Central Ohio, I know. I want Jeane and all Jeane's friends and all of my friends, too, to read what Bernard said about Duke: "He is the most venal, amoral character in the Doonesbury cast. All the other characters, for all their faults, have some human, redeeming qualities. Duke has none." He's right. Duke is a dirtbag of the first water and not be taken seriously. He stands for a lot of real-life characters who are routinely taken seriously and given all kinds of undeserved cred by politicos, people in media and everyone else. Duke is Trudeau's modern version of The Emperor's New Clothes.

I didn't think this week's Duke series was very funny, but I didn't think it was about making fun of Southerners or hicks. I thought Duke was representing bigoted intellectuals who look down on Southerners and hicks.

It is interesting how badly some of the strips seem to travel internationally. The whole point of the series of Duke speaking with an (apparently) Southern accent just makes me scratch my head a bit. On the other hand, B.D. escaping his nuptials with Boopsie/Hunk Ra ( featured on the Flashbacks page yesterday), and being asked by the trucker "Where to, son?" is brilliant.

Yes, Sherm, it does bother me that Duke is such a dirtbag. He is the most venal, amoral character in the Doonesbury cast. All the other characters, for all their faults, have some human, redeeming qualities. Duke has none. The less seen of him, the better.

I'm not very happy that you called us "hicks" in the latest comic. A lot of the people in the South and West are probably smarter than you! I hate people that stereotype like you. Thanks to that strip, a lot of people in the South and West are going to stop reading the comic.

I've enjoyed the strip since my early college days in the 70s, and have often found it a beacon and safety valve of humor in grim times. Now I'm in my mid 50s, and also fondly remembering family and friends from those days, many of them no longer around, and I guess this message is on their behalf as well as my own. All of them, my parents and grandparents and theirs (and theirs) were rural people from the southern Appalachians, small farmers almost without exception until my generation. If there are hillbillies, we are hillbillies. I don't claim my old people were perfect, but they were as wise, intelligent, industrious, good humored, and caring as the average members of any other culture I've encountered since.

In several strip series recently, Doonesbury has not been very kind to my folks, or to rural European-Americans in general. In the reenactment series, you couldn't seem to imagine that southerners would want to reenact their ancestors' military service to get closer to their own history, or that they were portraying people who went to war because their homes were invaded by an army that destroyed crops, homes, cities, and noncombatant lives. Nope, it was all about (maybe unwitting) apologists for slavery so dumb that Roland H. could pick them apart with ease.

A few weeks later it got more blunt, when a soldier who was reluctant to shower was cheerfully told "You're such a hillbilly." Honestly, is there any other cultural group you would treat with such offhand disrespect? I'm not sure what's going on with this week with Duke's BP radio spots, except that I can't recall any Southern accent (including "Western" by which I guess Toggle means Texas, not Oregon) being attached to a sympathetic, smart character in the series. Maybe sometime, but we're not among the policy speakers. I don't expect change, frankly. We're not a demographic being much wooed by forward-thinking pundits. We do take showers, though. And think critically about our history and our present. And cherish the way our grandparents spoke. Be well.

I think the August 1st strip from thirty years ago juxtaposes well with that of August 1st this year. Both depict fantasizing Americans in Afghanistan; the only difference is the good guys are now the bad guys.

Congratulations on your prescience. When I heard they were sending Tony Heywood to Siberia and replacing him with Bob Dudley from Hattiesburg, Mississippi I laughed so hard I cried. Of course I cried because Duke used to be out there on the edge and now he's mainstream! Earl is right to be proud of his creator for envisioning the importance of this piece of shallow slapstick.

I just want to correct Duke in cutting a broadcasting spot on the BP spill. Where he says, "Yew wuz tired of furners..." it should correctly be the Southern "Yew wuz tard of..."

I was absolutely stunned by your decision to produce a Doonesbury cartoon in the Sunday Comics featuring a graphic depiction of a character disemboweling a terrorist! The Sunday paper is something families share together and the Comics, or Funnies as we used to call them, ought to be something we can enjoy with our children. I don't mind Doonesbury's political humor but this was just plain gross and inappropriate, something that should not have even been a close call.

I can't recall ever seeing a disembowling in the Sunday funny papers before, though it's possible Hagar the Horrible gave it a try. We need to see more of this.

Great payoff on the Sarah Palin doll story today. Well, well worth the wait. Laughed my a** off.

I was wondering where the "toy story" was leading, but Boopsie's rant in today's strip answered that question. A real hoot.

Love the Sarah Palin stuff. However, I am reminded of the old gag: "The trouble with political jokes is that they get elected."

Now you have done it. Soon Sarah will be offended and you will be on Fox News.

As a conservative I have laughed, sometimes grudgingly, at Doonesbury. But these attacks on Sarah Palin are ugly. To even pretend that any adult would toy with the idea of killing a child is not acceptable. I would find it just as unacceptable if you had put Barack Obama in the strip replacing Palin. This is not funny.

These "Sarah" strips are right on! You're a genius!!

Your strips concerning Sarah Palin are mean and vicious. I never thought you would have to stoop so low. After all, you're a genius.

Actually, in the July 27 strip the Sarah Palin toy refers to Sam as "Big Sister," and therefore the Janet Napolitano of toyland. Instead of being wrong, GBT is more clever than the reader from Anchorage realized.

I can't read the Sarah Palin strips because it's almost as bad as listening to her. I have to wait until the subject is changed -- it's just an awful experience to peek at the strip and see her there. It's probably your usual great writing and insights, but I hope she is out of there soon!

Your strips of yesterday and today about the Palin doll's rabble-rousing efforts to kill Sam may not be the best metaphor for Palin's public efforts to gather support against the Democrat administration and Congress. These strips remind me of her decision to keep and raise her mentally disabled son Trig. I suspect that many of your followers have also noticed this inconsistency. Whatever may be said against Palin, I would say that she has clean hands on the particular point of killing children.

For the first time ever, I was offended by today's strip. A child choking on a toy is not a punchline.

Doonesbury's toy version of Sarah Palin is much less amusing than most other gambits. The character and her actions are so crude that I think the strip has failed to reach the level of political satire here.

In the July 27th strip a character refers to Sarah Palin as "Big Sister" -- as the feminine version of "Big Brother" in Orwell's 1984. this is not correct. According to the Drudge Report, "Big Sister" is not Sarah Palin, but the Director of Homeland Security: Janet Napolitano. And rightly so.

Your strips about Palin are excellent! Please keep it coming!

Garry Trudeau is simply a genius of comic literature who provides us both with fun and a deep understanding of the issues of the day. I have only one disappointment with his strips. That is when he has grotesque animals or feathers talking. Actual people are always much better.

There is a strange yet satisfying resonance that those Tea Party toys be caricatured so, particularly as in someone's dream time. How surreal can it get? One has to think back almost to Bush and Cheney, Dancer and Prancer.

Last Sunday's strip was great. I printed it out and told my grandchildren to put it on their refrigerator for their parents to see.

I find your strips to be entertaining, informed, and totally relevant. As one of the few liberal inhabitants of the very conservative Wasilla, Alaska, I find pokes at our "Dear Sarah" to be extremely hilarious, but the reference to exploding meth labs in yesterday's strip made me very uncomfortable. Not everyone in our small city is uneducated or a drug manufacturer. I am very fond of our area of Alaska, even if I am a member of a political minority, and would not like to give people in other states or countries the wrong impression. The people here are kind, generous and always ready to help a neighbor in need. Even a "bleeding-heart Obama lover." Go after Sarah with everything you have; she puts herself out there and makes herself a target. But please remember that a swipe at our town hits all of us.

Thank you so much for reaffirming my image of God. I have for many years thought of her as a black lady too busy knitting to bother with us mere mortals. Thanks to your recent strip I can now incorporate doing her nails into the image. Thank you also for many years of helping cope with the daily news.

I'm a gun owner, Bible thumper, red neck; a retired blue collar worker from the Midwest. I'm probably not your biggest fan. However, today's strip, with Zonker speaking to kids, was Right On. It seems strange to say something supportive about a Doonesbury strip. Equally strange to use the word "Right" in the remark. Mr. Trudeau, you might be okay after all. I was going to say, "You might be All Right," but that would have been too weird.

Sorry, but there are no nighthawks in mainland Alaska. It's a rare visitor to southeastern Alaska, but that's a long way from Wasilla. Of course, it would be just like Roland to get a bird ID wrong...

I was reading some of the BLOWBACK comments about using the Gulf disaster as a source for a comic strip. I believe that it is important to keep the attention on this mess or it will be swept under the rug way too quick. Humor is a good thing, especially when things are bad. It helps to keep us sane.

I have been with you since the early 60s. You have always treated each new disaster with compassion and humor. Sad to say, but you are a whole lot more interesting to get news from than CNN. I recently found some of my old collections of comics from the late 60s and early 70s, and it's depressing that you could run the same comics today and just change the location of the war. I ended up joining the Air Force because of you. Grew up and actually have some good memories of my time spent serving. Thank you.

OMG I thought it was just me who was horrified by this form of child neglect. I've seen way too many times when a child can't get a parent's attention because they are too self-centered to put away the tech device. One wonders why these people have children if they aren't willing to be parents to them. As a teacher, I worry how children are going to grow and learn to communicate with others in the outside world if they never learn at their parents' knee.

Are you actually showing sympathy for Sarah Palin and her treatment by the news media? That's it. A sure sign of the end times. I expect to see the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse riding down Pennsylvania Avenue any minute now.

FYI, Ms. Palin is not the Governor of Alaska, as referred to in the strip today. She is the ex-Governor, and not even a full term one at that. Many refer to her as a half-term quitter, and are extremely thankful she abdicated. That being said, I can't wait for what is in store for Roland in Wasilla.

It's good to have Honey back with us. We had been missing her!

Yeah! Honey is back!

Try running today's strip again next Sunday, but in the last frame have the girl say, "You're working for the Obama Administration, aren't you?" Check out the response. Might surprise ya.

It's good to see Ray Hightower back. It would be even better to see him in civilian life (in one piece, please!) hanging with his buds (or mates, as we call them Down Under) B.D. and Toggle.

Your current storyline about the ability of the Iraq government to take over the defense of Iraq supports my view that shortly after the USA pulls out of Iraq, Al-Qaeda, the Taliban or some other military force will overthrow the current Iraqi government, and all the American money and blood will have been spent for naught. Both Obama and Bush can share responsibility for this debacle.

Bravo! As a 30-year veteran of the U.S. Army, I am happy to see the way you portray the career noncommissioned officers in today's Army. You show them as hard-working professionals, not dummies who had no other choice but to join the service. I have worked with people like Mel, Ray and even a Toggle or two. Keep up the good work!

I've been reading Doonesbury since 1977, when, as a seven year old, I came across my father's large format Doonesbury collection. I read a lot of them, understood a select few, but began a lifelong love of your work, wit and characters. I just want to say thank you for bringing these wonderful, thoughtful, imaginative characters to life, and for entertaining me for essentially my entire life.

Seriously, dude. Grease-smudged, sweat-streaked irreverent Roz & Mel could be the great-granddaughters of Bill Mauldin's Willy & Joe.

I wonder how long Mike has had the "love handles" I noticed today.

Perhaps the mailbag question raised in today's strip is a burning question. According to the lead article in the Boston Globe's Money & Careers section today -- "A Standout in Camo" -- the answer is Duro Textiles of Fall River, MA.

I suffered a TBI injury at the age of 11 in 1975, before there was any real form of rehab. My stepfather bought me several different books of your strip to read while I recovered, and I have been an avid fan ever since. Thank you for taking up the subject that so many wish to avoid.

I have to say, your strips with Melissa, Toggle and B.D. are some of the most sensitively drawn portraits of the wounded warrior that I have seen. Amusing and touching, all at once. Good stuff. Keep it up.

Mel enters the world of "command." Congrats, B-- ...oops,I mean Sergeant! Hard-earned and deserved. No one knows when they're going through hell that they're growing themselves into a role model. Mel's her pal's hero; not that long ago Mel was calling herself a screwup. Now she's minimizing her accomplishment -- but stepping into her authority.

I'm so happy for Melissa. Pinning on Sergeant rank is a huge day for any Soldier, but for a woman all the better! GBT is spot on. I know. I got my stripes in 1976!

I love Sunday's strip about Obama. I bet he loved it too!

Re Sunday's strip: It amuses me that so many seem to blame the President for the enduring failure of BP to cap off the gusher, and the military forces' (the past Generals') lack of progress in the Sandbox. These nay-sayers fail to realize that the President is mostly an administrative figurehead for public consumption and not an engineer or military expert. He (mostly) cannot sit in the Oval Office like the Queen of Hearts and just order things to happen and have them magically come to be. He's a politician, folks, and getting a politician to accomplish anything is a political process. And we all know how that works!

If Sunday's "Scenes from the White House Family Life" strip isn't clipped and posted on the Obamas' refrigerator, it should be. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. Congratulations!

Was glad to see your July 4 strip. We must wake up to the fact that Obama (and government) can't fix all the problems that we have, especially the economy, or that he might not even care (your comment). We must observe and take note of not what Obama says, but what he does.

Yesss! Congratulations to Sergeant Mel! I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes -- the challenges of leadership, and how she deals with them.

As for the idea that the BP oil spill is not an appropriate subject for satire, respectfully, and with consideration, if you are personally affected, I have to ask what serious subject is? I've followed Doonesbury since Vietnam, through Watergate, bad governance, questionable elections, economic catastrophes, all the other scandals, wars, perpetrations along the way. Weren't there "real people" seriously (even fatally) hurt then as well? The whole point is to treat important, current, and difficult subjects, even when they are tragic.

I was happy to note Mel's new posture, expression, and attitude of authority today in contrast to the previous strip.

Outstanding strip today.The Doonesbury of old! I'm happy to see that you can actually deride the current administration. I never thought that it would happen.

I am really enjoying your cartoons on the BP oil leak. As I live on the Gulf of Mexico I am all too aware of the horrendous damage that is being done to our environment. Your humor about the seafood being served is very funny but alas may have the ring of truth. Thanks a lot.

The Gulf Coast has suffered enough without your gratuitous seafood cartoon. You're usually right on point but this is mean and completely inaccurate.

Once again Mr. Trudeau has proven to be prescient.

Please consider giving the Gulf spill a rest. Political satire is great 'cause you only piss off about half your readers, more or less, and please the rest, depending on who the particular target du jour is. You're brilliant at it. But...there is nothing remotely humorous about this spill mess, because the anger, frustration, fear of the unknown, long-term consequences, etc, etc. have virtually everybody pissed off. This debacle is historic in its scope. So please parody something else. I wouldn't mind if you started back in on Bush! And I voted for him.

Your stories about the military men and women have been nothing short of inspiring. I think I can give you another. My nephew looked just like the young man in your latest Sunday strip. Paul is in his mid 20s, and until early this year he was bored, bitter, working nights as a security guard and eating himself into an early grave.

He went to a Marine recruiting office and probably gave the recruiter exactly the same moment your comic strip recruiter had. The recruiter politely, bluntly, told him, "You're way overweight, and you smoke. Shape up and try again." Then he added, "You know, we all meet every morning at the track to work out. Why don't you join us?"

Paul showed up, and the workouts nearly killed him. On his third day there, staggering around the track, he felt a hand laid between his shoulders, and a Marine said in his ear, "You can do this. Keep going." The hand started to propel him forward. "We're all with you."

So Paul kept at it. Asked about how he was losing all the weight, he said, "They just said to lose it." No comments, complaints or excuses. He stands in awe of the recruiters. He goes for basic in October.

I've been a reader of your strips since Day 1, but I have to say that I find the strips and story line this week offensive and insensitive. There are real people here in the seafood industry in this area who are suffering, who may lose their boats and homes, whose livelihoods and way of life are at risk. They are my neighbors and friends. To use their misfortune as your punch line is detestable and reprehensible. You owe them an apology.

GBT's admirable artistic skills render Duke more visually repulsive with each passing disaster. Keep it up! Cut it out!

A message to Sam. Yes, newspapers do cost money. It's because they are made by people who are so good at what they are doing that they get paid for what they are doing. By professionals. Not by facelesss bored egocentric twentysomethings on their search for their 15 seconds of fame on Twitter.

Yes, the content is old. It's because it is investigated, checked, lectured, rewritten. People took their time to write why something happened instead of just repeating what some other person was repeating about what quite obviously has just happened to somebody else.

Yes, it has no links. It's because the makers of this thing expected you to be intelligent enough to gather further information about an interesting storyline whithout being led step by step with hyperlinked text like a little child is led by its mother's hand through a strange city.

And yes, it is heavy and has to be read page by page. It's because it demands your attention. It demands you to take some care and spare some time for the important things it wants to tell you. You can not and shall not use it in some fake-multitasking attempt at the same time as you are watching puking students on Youtube and telling your friends about the not-happenings of this day on Facebook.

Today's strip says it all: We still get a local newspaper for social meeting schedules, but they removed Doonesbury for Republican reasons some years ago, so there went their last link to comic telling conscientious reality, and here I am on the web.

This old newspaperman is getting a big ol' I-told-you-so horse laugh out of this week's story arc. People have predicted the death of newspapers ever since the advent of radio, but here they are in the 21st century, still going strong. Thank you for introducing a new generation (Samantha) to the lightest, most user-friendly and data-dense information interface yet invented. And you never run out of batteries, band-width, or connectivity.

Well, Uncle Duke gets it right again! Here's a quote from AOL news regarding replacing BP's CEO as their media point of contact:

One expert said Dudley is a better choice for BP than the British Hayward. "He's not only a good ol' boy, but he's from Mississippi, and he doesn't have a British accent," Fadel Gheit, a senior oil analyst at Oppenheimer & Co., told The New York Times. "The media will take it a lot easier on him. He will fit in the landscape better than Tony Hayward."

Duke is absolutely prescient. "Start by losing the fancy accent..." he told Tony. Finger on the pulse of the situation, eh? Cutting the Gordian knot, what! Spot on, mate! Hear, Hear! Good-oh!

I'm so excited to see the newspaper as a new character. My husband and I have recently gone back to the future as well and got a year's subscription to the New York Time. What an amazing paper! Unfortunately, I have to go to the internet to read the funnies...

"It looks like a limp iPad." LOL! That's like asking "Do the numbers 33 1/3, 45, and 78 mean anything to you?"

Re the accent: I see BP took your advice and lost the British accent by appointing an American spokesperson the day after the hearings.

As a Limey from way back, I would like to point out that Tony Hayward does not have a "posh" accent. In fact, the chap is decidedly lower middle class, poor fellow.

I, on the other hand, find the current series on the BP disaster to be some of GBT's finest work. Far from trivializing the victims -- both those who lost their lives and those who are losing their livelihoods -- he does them the honor of taking their loss seriously.

I would like to comment on the inappropriateness of this week's series on BP. A disaster has struck a whole underwater ecosystem with incalculable repercussions for the world we live in as a whole. In addition, lives have been lost and livelihoods destroyed. To attempt to reduce that to just another chuckle or two is in very poor taste.

"Everyone loves Ringo" ? Wait what, are you telling us that Duke actually remembers the 60s? I'd be amazed if he remembers the early 00s...

I enjoy Doonesbury because I relate to it and the characters personally. I don't know what that says about me, but yeah I do really have a life. I am a 60-year-old teacher in Savannah, Georgia, where Doonesbury is so controversial it is located on the editorial page of our local "newspaper." Last weekend, in the Sunday version, Alex was graduating and Leo's words moved me to tears. Thank you for always calling a spade a spade, for telling it like it is.

I have read and loved the comic for years and am always quoting it to someone. Sunday's comic with Alex graduating was beyond fantastic. It made me cry when I thought of it all day long. Also, my nephew just returned from the military last month. After hearing his thoughts on women and women in the military, I realized how 'spot on' the strips about how women are treated in the Armed Forces are. I couldn't believe what I was hearing from him, but then remembered that is exactly how GBT had been portraying it. Keep the strip going please. It is usually the highlight of my day!

Re "BRITISH PETROLEUM": B.P. acquired Amoco (formerly Standard Oil of Indiana) a few years after it acquired SOHIO (formerly Standard Oil of Ohio). Amoco shares are no longer traded openly, having been replaced by something called "depository shares." Americans who own those pay UK taxes. The board of directors includes people who were Amoco employees but they now work for BP, not Amoco. BP is as British as the Queen.

Thank you, thank you! I am so glad that Jim Andrews and Duke are wading into the muck in the Gulf. That answers your Straw Poll question: the only bright side is seeing what GBT will do with this.

I'm sorry, but I can't find an "upside" to the monumental tragedy that has occurred/is occurring in the Gulf, and I find the current Straw Poll in extremely poor taste considering the massive loss of life and livlihood for all involved. Particularly since the scope of this disaster is not only unknown but unimaginable. It won't be so funny when the few manatees left disappear forever because of this "spill."

Wow, I can't believe Alex has been at MIT four years already! Sigh... They grow up so fast. Oh, wait, does that make me sound old?

Thank you for the strip today. It totally explained the front page of the Times Picayune. The widow of one of the BP employees killed is testifying about BP's urgency to get the well running, and another story is about how BP is going to pull jobs from the Gulf. What a spin!

Sunday's strip with Toggle at Alex's graduation gave me goosebumps and put tears in my eyes. Wonderful!

BP deserves everything you can give 'em, and I know you can give 'em what they deserve. As Harry Truman once said, "I didn't give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell." Bravo!

Thanks very much for addressing Deep Horizon. I'm from New Orleans originally, and most of my friends back home are pretty damn furious about this. Furious and terrified and frustrated beyond measure. Anything you can do to pound on BP (and, come to think of it, the federal and state officials) is just fine by me. They're gonna skate, BP is. They'll pay a billion or two, chump change for them, maybe a week's profits. And they'll never make it right. This oil is going all the way to New England.

As a Brit I'd like to point out that BP has not been "British Petroleum" since 1998 -- quite a while -- when it merged with Amoco (yes, that's the American Oil Company). It's CEO may be British, and he may be an irritating man, but BP is a multinational corporation, not a British firm.

I have loved Doonesbury for years. I'm just a little perturbed that you had a little dig at "British" today.

Today's strip is some of your best work. Thanks. It's great that BP is named so we don't have to see the word "Petroleum."

Thanks for the Gulf/BP storyline. Perhaps the new symbol for BP could be an oil-covered Brown Pelican with a slash mark through it. They wouldn't even have to change the initials for the company.

Not surprised that you started a storyline re: the oil spill in the Gulf and BP's seemingly incompetent attempts at cleaning it up. Also not surprised to see Duke is involved as well. Will keep an eye on both and see where this goes.

Garry, I can't believe you did it -- I just saw today's strip, and...I, like, teared up! OMG, I am a person who cries maybe once every two years, and that's only if someone I know actually dies. You sure know how to do a love story, dude. Cheers, and thanks for letting me know my heart's not quite as steel-reinforced as I think it is!

You've touched a nerve and triggered an overdue discussion about the price being paid by our caregivers. Well done. Now if you can just arrange for Alex and Leo to live happily ever after...

Nice job on the Chaplain character. I just hope the "...doing Her nails." snipe falls away. It might be that Gawd is letting her run on her own resources. Letting her stretch out a little, maybe. So, humanly, she shirks the issue, plays the straw man, and blames Gawd for not undoing the physical harm done to her troops. Short circuit.

I like it. Not like I like it, but, as in, that's real enough for me. I learned to accept doubts as Gawd's invitation to remove ignorance about Him/Her. But hey, even griping to Gawd is a form of pagan prayer.

"Be not deceived, God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." (Galatians 6:7, KJV)

I totally disliked Sunday's Doonesbury strip. I think the comment about God was totally uncalled for, and will no longer be reading your cartoon.

Thank you for the thoughtful, touching, powerful chaplain strip. Even in the middle of angst, it helps to have humor. And the angst appears to visit all of us at times.

Although I am not a military chaplain, I am a chaplain at a Level I Trauma center. My entire theology has needed to be deconstructed and reconstructed in the midst of the suffering I have witnessed. I have ministered to people whose experiences cause them to deeply question God and God's goodness. I have struggled myself with the question of theodicy. I want to say I have resonated deeply with the chaplain's pastoral care in the midst of military suffering and with her own struggles of theodicy. When I read Sunday's strip and came to the last comment, "God, supposedly. But she just sits around doing her nails." I wept, deeply. The suffering that resides in my soul was stirred up. I get it, I do. Thank you for your deep insight, your explicit introduction of theology, theodicy, war, suffering, questioning, love, call and all those other things involved in ministry. You have done it well.

Thank you for portraying military chaplains so unstereotypically. This is the first time I remember seeing the clergy presented in such a positive light, doing their work of caring for people despite their own religious doubts. I've saved all the cartoons to use as possible sermon illustrations.

You may get some static for the Chaplain's tag line on God, but it sums up perfectly how many feel. I think S/He's big enough to take it. S/He was big enough to grant humanity Free Will, knowing what were capable of -- both Good and Bad.

I think your getting details wrong helped set the mood of 'not right' that people feel when they're down. In the real world -- which includes the military -- sometimes it's all we can do to get through the day without a meltdown or a screaming fit.

In many faiths, including both Christianity and Judaism, there is a strong tradition in which a person of faith perceives God to be inactive, indifferent, or absent in the face of tragedy. This brings forth a response known as lament, an important part of spirituality in many faiths. This tradition of lament is usually a far more honest religious response to tragedy than the pious platitudes of unreflective fundamentalism. It seems to me that the chaplain in yesterday's strip was participating in this venerable spiritual tradition when she commented about God "doing her nails".

I thought the chaplain in today's strip started off by showing a very human side of the war. However, I am saddened that it moved to a low blow, referring to God as a woman painting her nails. I feel that it was in poor taste to belittle a faith that many in this country (including soldiers) hold dear, especially on the Sunday before Memorial day. I hope that you can be more respectful in the future.

Who's got her back? We do. Adopt-a-chaplain: "Supporting our troops through the chaplains who serve them."

The urge to comment for the first time to one of your strips was triggered by the flippant references to God. It might be a representatve portrayal of a war-weary chaplain who doubts at times, but nevertheless, God will not be mocked. Read "Revelation."

A true Chaplain would never speak ill of God or cast stones, especially in a public fashion. C'mon. The strip depicts an atheist puppet dressed as a chaplain.

"God, supposedly. But she just sits around doing her nails." Wow. And I say, wonderful! Took some nerve to publish this, Trudeau, and I expect you will get trashed for it -- big time. But I, and scores of thousands of others, say "Bravo!"

I was offended by today's strip and its slam on God. I believe in the right to publish one's views, even to the extent of using bad judgment in poking fun at other racial groups, but to belittle our Creator is a step too far. Are there no boundaries? Because of this last installment of questionable satire, I will now remove Doonesbury from my list of pleasurable reading.

There are few people who can make me cry and laugh at the same time, but once again you managed that exquisite level of bitter-sweet irony in today's selection. Thank you so much for sharing your talents with us.

Your Memorial Day Weekend comic strip of 30 May is in very poor taste and reeks of unbiblical doctrine. As a serving US Army Chaplain in time of war I found your reference to war, injury, and God distasteful! Poor attention to detail (long hair, incorrect attitude, poor diction, improper salutations, disregard for the wounded, incorrect patches, and a complete misperception of God). We have enough to concentrate on without ill-informed civilians adding their liberal agenda.

Prophetic as poets often are, Cynthia Rylant saw today's strip coming; her poem "God Went to Beauty School" says "He got into nails, / of course, because He'd always loved / hands--"

As an Army veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, I have long appreciated your portrayals of American service members in combat. Your latest thread following a US Army chaplain is first rate, perfectly demonstrating the vital role that chaplains fulfill in the armed forces. I was both amused and moved by today's strip, where the chaplain admits to her own fatigue and sense of loss. This aspect of the chaplain's job is rarely visible to those of us who have relied upon chaplains for guidance and strength. We forget sometimes that they are human too, and that their vocation doesn't somehow provide them with a direct line of comfort from the divine.

James Joyce alert! In today's strip the good chaplain is riffing off Stephen Dedalus in Portrait: "The artist, like the God of the creation, remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his fingernails."

Hey Garry, haven't you heard that your creative years are supposed to be well behind you by the time you hit your '60s? Instead, your most recent crop of characters and story lines -- including Alex, Leo, Melissa and my newest fave, the Chaplain -- is some of your most brilliant work ever. Thanks.

In the strip you ran today Zipper comments "Who remembers their graduation speaker?" Well, I do. Mr. Trudeau you were my graduation speaker at Muhlenberg College in 2007, and I want to belatedly thank you for coming out.

In regards to the comment that GBT is glorifying war and the US military, how do four characters with life-altering injuries glorify anything? We have an amputee, a surviver of PTSD, a rape victim, and a young man close to being given last rites. If anything, GBT is commenting on the struggles of the many individuals involved in the insanity of war. I read GBT's military strips as a tribute to the individual's struggle for survival after the shooting stops.

I rarely cut out comic strips, but I had to for yesterday's Doonesbury with Dallas Braden in the punchline. It had many levels to it, but what affected me most was Trudeau's knowledge of the hardships that Dallas Braden has endured and how special his Mother's Day perfect game was. Only a true baseball fan would know the background of his story and how special and inspiring that moment was. My hat is off to you, Garry.

Like the USA itself, Doonesbury has become obsessed with the American military. And again like the USA, Doonesbury seems determined to depict the American military and the violence it perpetrates in a glowing light. You were a lot closer to the mark back in the Vietnam days.

I am loving the Chaplain -- especially today! Her views on craziness are absolutely, 100% sane. Although I have struggled with issues of faith all of my life and my conversations with people who represent organized religion have resulted in frustration and disappointment, I would love to have coffee with GBT's chaplain and explore her views on God and faith. Maybe she could convince this atheist that there is something or someone out there.

Your strips featuring the chaplain are fantastic. I serve a church here in Louisburg and am often miffed at the portrayal of clergy in media. But your chaplain is a champ. If there isn't anyone advising you, your imagination is right on the mark. Thank you for such a caring, realistic, quirky-good character.

As a lifelong Doonesbury reader and an A's fan who bleeds green and gold, I'd like to think that today's strip about the perfect game was written expressively for me. And if it wasn't, I don't wanna know. It's for me, that's my story, I'm sticking to it.

Today's strip is beautifully done. I cried. I laughed. One of your all-time best, I'd say. Thank you.

As a card-carrying, second-generation, never-been-baptised devout atheist, I feel I must comment on the current series of strips focusing on the role of a chaplain in military service. It rocks! That's all.

I spent almost 20 years as an Army chaplain. You have done some excellent research -- your new chaplain is a winner. It is sometimes amazing how much good can be done if we do not need the credit.

Political satire is quite effective when it is based on actual events or facts. For some time now, I have questioned whether this strip is based on reality or fantasy. Today, my question was answered. Unless you're attempting to portray history of over 100 years ago with your current theme, you are propagating misinformation. Mormons have not practiced polygamy for over 100 years. I don't think your soldier is from the Civil War, so his "Mormon" father would not have multiple wives.

As a non-Mormon, I experienced nothing in the Mormon-polygamy joke in today's strip that led me to develop any bigoted attitudes towards Mormons. It was merely a reference to something that Mormons used to do, and which a tiny number of breakaway Mormon groups still do. It was a mild joke. Contrast this with the vicious levels of abuse to which Jews, Catholics, and Muslims are regularly subjected in the media (and in the community) on a daily basis. (I'm not a Jew, a Catholic, or a Muslim either.)

I have loved Doonesbury for a long time, even though it is a bit edgy. Today I risk being called a humorless prig by lodging a complaint. In today's strip you imply that Mormons are polygamists. The punchline was funny, but the implication is fallacious. Mormons are not polygamists and have not practiced polygamy since the 1890s. There are many break-off groups, particularly the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which do practice polygamy but are not called Mormons. I realize that "Mormons" holds more clout in a small space than "FLDS," which no one would get, but please -- how about a little respect? It would be nice.

It's too soon for the new Straw Poll on the "upside" of the Gulf oil disaster. It's too fresh and horrifying to joke about it. Maybe in six months. Maybe never.

I have been enjoying the Chaplain storyline, until today. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (yes, a "Mormon"), I am unhappy with Doonesbury repeating and refreshing the old (over 100 years old) untrue stereotype about polygamy. The LDS Church will and does excommunicate members who practice polygamy, and has outlawed the practice since the 1890s. We have enough problems, with people associating membership in the church with the likes of Glenn Beck, with almost 1/5 of the population saying they wouldn't vote for a Mormon under any circumstance, and with persistant misunderstandings about our faith. Shame on Doonesbury for perpetuating them.

GBT is really up on things; I found this on AllExperts.com :

"Interestingly, with the shortage of Roman Catholic priests, US military chaplains are often Protestant ministers, but many soldiers are Catholics. In recent conflicts in Iraq, many Protestant chaplains are often called upon to give wounded or dying soldiers Last Rites on the battle field or in field hospitals. Almost all do so since no priest is available and charity demands that the minister offer comfort to these persons in a form that is customary to them. Some Protestant chaplains carry the Roman Rite version of the Last Rites with them for this purpose."

Very interesting, did not know that, and I'm a military retiree. Thank you, GBT!

As a conservative I enjoy this strip with its biting humor against some of our idiocies. I also have enjoyed reading the experiences of Toggle, the Chaplain, and Melissa. I don't agree, however, with using inaccuracies to produce a laugh. The best humor comes from truth. I'm sure the inaccuracy wasn't intentional, but I feel the need to offer clarification. My concern is with today's strip in which "Mormons" are portrayed as polygamous, or having multiple wives.

The Mormon church (the official name is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or LDS church) abandoned the practice in 1890. It is true that some splinter groups from the original Mormon church have continued to practice polygamy. They are in the minority, as the Mormon church's 13 million members do not practice polygamy. If a member of the Mormon church is practicing polygamy, he/she is removed from the membership of the Church. There's more information on this subject here and here.