So -- finally, their paths cross. Will they share just a chopper ride or will she save him from death at the hands of Karzai's brother? Will he prove the exception to the rule, or just be a another pain? And why do I hear "At Last" playing in the background?

I hope you're just trying to scare us with the Mellisa and Jeff meeting. I shudder at the thought of their getting involved.

As he embarks on his "doomed" mission, it occurs to me that it is a bizarre irony that Jeff Redfern, of all characters, is now wearing the white shirt and black vest formerly characteristic of our hero, Mike Doonesbury. 'Course Mike's shirttail was always neatly tucked in whereas Jeff's isn't, but that's consistent with their personalities.

The pocket protector was a great touch. I work with broadcast engineers...

Thanks for another US-culture gem for this foreigner. I have learned about the cult of the shirt protector from reading US fiction, but had never come across a Hathaway shirt. A Google later and I find the original images of the man with the eye-patch (not always on the same eye) and a whole book devoted to the Hathaway history, not to mention a forum discussing the origin and decline of the brand and musing about advertising in the 1950s. As always, it's an education to follow GBT and Doonesbury!

If you miss GWB, you can get him to direct you somewhere -- although you might not want to actually go there. Here's a synthetic version of him. Enjoy.

At the other end of the spectrum is the recurring nightmare of the GPS voiced by my former boss: all these years later telling me to go here and go there.

Imagine Bobcat Goldthwait telling you how to get to an airport...

Dead-on with the mystique of the pocket protector -- always a popular give-away at trade shows. And the detail of the Hathaway shirt! Wonderful.

Just saying "Thank You" for years of laughs and thought-provoking strips. Yesterday's "it's shiny and new" just cracked me up!!!

aList sounds cool! I want mine with Halle Berry...

Twitter, My Space, Facebook, the GPS navigators, the complex phones, texting, etc., how right you are -- they are all shiny, new toys, and the ones who need them and play with them so desperately are exactly like little children. It doesn't say much for "adulthood" these days. Either real life is too boring for them or they are actually losers who never did manage to have a life!

Re: Bernie's new GPS app -- aList. I continue to be amazed at how topical and creative GBT can be. But imagine, if you would, a GPS voiced by -- Jack Nicholson. The possibilities are boundless!

Last week's Twitter series was more about Facebook and MySpace than it was about Twitter. In any case, the bottom line is: It's not the what, it's the how. The what is 140 characters. The how could be sharing that your drain is clogged (depending on who is following you, that might actually net you a bunch of recommendations as to what to do) or you could share your favorite recent Doonesbury strip, an interesting link to a professional or news article, a question related to your research, etc. Twitter, for some folks, is the The Week magazine: short, pithy bits that help filter the signal from the noise.

Omitting the "none of the above" option is to this poll as omitting the public option is to the health care reform bill. I believe that Twitterers are twits who really ought to, as we used to say, "get a life" or at least better spend the ones they have in more productive enterprises -- such as sending messages to a comic strip's web site.

I'm not a genius, but 55 active Twitterers and 988 not-on-boards suggests to me that a Twitter user is actually a twit, aka, a person with whom we would not want to be associated. Am I missing something? Yes. Thank you!

Oh no, you didn't limit the text in the third panel to 140 characters... That would have been a sweet kernel for those of us who counted :-j

Thank you so much for Sunday's strip! I am a Female Disabled Vet, who served very proudly in the U.S. Air Force as an F-15 Crew Chief. I can relate all too well with Specialist Wheeler! I am not sure what inspired the strip, but I am thankful you shed light on the issues females face, especially in a male-dominated career field. I also want to thank you for Doonesbury in general. It is the first strip I read, and the only one I clip!

I just want to express my appreciation for a very thoughtful and well done topic in Sunday's strip. As the father of an Air Force nurse, I appreciate your support of the men, and espcially the women, who are carrying out the tough work in Afghanistan and Iraq, despite what we may think concerning why they are there. I look forward to the day when all of our brave soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and coasties are home safely.

Sunday's strip brought a smile to my face. I could almost hear my Training Instructor from Air Force basic, way back in the spring of '82. Her nickname was "the black widow", and after graduating from her training squadron, I took very, very little grief from the guys I served with during the rest of my enlistment. The lady made all her girls as tough as she could, and wherever she is now, I thank her.

About aircraft mechanic Melissa and the hardcore female NCO; my first reaction was to bombard the female NCOs of the post Vietnam Era as little more than jackbooted thugs. But reviewing the conditions they endured, the leadership skills they practiced with both sexes and the contributions they made to their nation, I turn and thank them all.

I find myself wanting a fourth response to the current Straw Poll -- "Who gives a rat's nose about Twitter?" Twitter is the perfect symbol of our wired-up, instant-gratification, it's-all-about-me, high-speed society where thought and conversation have been reduced to sound-bites, bumper-stickers, and snarky wisecracks. Sure, I guess there are some good things on Twitter. There are some good things in Dumpsters, too, but you have to wade through waist-deep garbage to find them.

I'm afraid that for the first time since I've known about the Doonesbury Straw Poll, I'm going to have to abstain from voting. I cannot imagine why any of the options are in any way inspiring, or how any of the options could ever have been inspiring. Here's an inspired idea -- a delay of at least 24 hours between the initial submission of a tweet and being allowed to distribute that tweet. Bang! People are forced to reflect on the importance, relevance and intelligence of what they actually wrote and expect other people to read. Every tweet should be given the same consideration as a tattoo etched upon your body forever. The larger the 'following', the longer the deliberation period.

Hats off, Mr. Trudeau for today's strip! My wife is active duty in the National Guard and endures a lot of nonsense from her supposed NCOs. (I'm a former Marine, and I notice my dogs have better leadership skills than her current NCOs). She had a good laugh. I follow the strip religiously, and it looks like she will, too.

OMG! One of my "former troops" sent me a copy of this at o'dark in the morning. Asked if it sounded familiar. Thirty years ago a gal had to be as a minimum five times the value of a "guy" to be accepted in the military, and in many fields, it was still "not gonna happen, no matter what the CO or 'shirt' said." Glad to know it's down to twice as good.

I do love these stories about women that are not victims, strong women of character, like Boopsie, Alex and "Wheeler". Great job, GBT. I love it! For those "on the line" -- stand tall. We do care and are proud of you all.

Re today's strip: For active duty women, nothing has changed since I got out in the 60s. She'll work harder and longer and still get abused by her fellow soldiers. When she gets out she'll have to fight for her benefits if she has PTSD as a result of MST (military sexual trauma, AKA sexual assault). She'll have to prove her PTSD. While for males who have combat-related PTSD it is automatic benefits, she will have to fight for years for hers.

I was just looking at the archives from 10 years ago when Boopsie was making a contribution to "former girlfriends for Warren". Two weeks ago, she was slamming Sid for his support for Roman Polanski. I had noted other episodes where she was the voice of good judgment. Boopsie may be the character who has shown the most growth over the years. It's nice to see her good sense and intelligence showing from behind the killer bod.

Now that Toggle is a post-injury coping star, it's very timely to re-run how he got there. One more reminder of all the Toggles still overseas, still moving targets choosing targets for people sitting at home raking in the money.

The whole conversation with Ray is a quintessential management moment. Ray is so chill Toggle gives him straight-up answers even to the point of "this breaks how many regs?" Both are straight with each other re: what Toggle does to work within a grotesque reality. The people making their reality aren't on the scene -- they're defining its grotesqueness in some far-off fantasy land, writing regs and goals for ops they don't join in.

As on-site management, Ray has to be up-to-speed on how his crew makes it work, and on-the-level with his crew as well. It's so American that on-site management is so bustable for allowing the real adjustments the Do-ers make for sanity's sake, while the Script, bending both to its unreality, is written elsewhere by others outside local life's real feedback cycles, who write the Regs the Do-ers will be breaking in order to Do.

Re the Nobel Peace Prize storyline, the recent award of the Prize to Barack Obama has, predictably, been bucketed from some quarters, mostly from the "born-to-rule" right but also from the "all-or-nothing" left. Much of the criticism has been based on the notion that the Prize must always be seen as an award for lifetime achievement. The actual terms of Alfred Nobel's will provide a focus for the Nobel Peace Prize on recognizing current efforts (not necessarily lifetime achievement) toward the promotion of, among other things, "fraternity between nations".

In his short time in office, Mr. Obama has done much to increase the
"fraternity" between the United States and other nations. In contrast, during Mr. Bush's administration, the United States was increasingly resented by much of the rest of the world. Even in countries that are traditional allies of the United States, such as Australia or Britain, there was a strong sense that, to be properly "pro" one's own country, one had to be at least a little bit anti-American. As a US-born Australian, I was personally very conscious of this attitude. Improving the level of "fraternity" between the US and the rest of the world made Mr. Obama an appropriate choice for this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

When a friend told me that Barack Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize, there was a long moment of silence and then I asked, "What for?" I have read this week's series with interest. Thank you for pointing out the absurdity of the award. The Nobel Peace Prize, once a great honor won by people like Albert Schweitzer, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr., and the International Red Cross, has become nothing more than a cheap political statement.

Re: Kissinger's Nobel. Fantastic! Way to go! You are really smokin' hot! And you are a brave, brave man, GBT.

I really appreciate today's strip on Obama. Thank you! The more support you can offer is welcome. Your strip said more in a multivalient manner than many others seem to publicly grasp or express. Thank you again. Keep it coming! Keep the hope alive!

Today's strip is a "Cronkite moment." Brilliant, to make Obama himself (or a reasonable facsimile) the speaker. Thanks, GBT.

For today's strip: Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You've said it all, and finally someone has.

Well we have our answer to the question: "What will Obama's icon be?" And a brilliant answer it is, let's hope that the president reads today's strip and recognizes the wisdom in acting on what he already knows to be true. To borrow a Doonesbury phrasing: Get. Out. Now.

I've appreciated the recent Roman Polanski storyline. There's one particular bit of hypocrisy in the whole tragic, 30-plus-year-old episode. Those who are now rallying behind Polanski would be baying for his blood if he was a priest. Let's have a little bit of consistency, people!

Yesterday's "auteur" strip is great. It went in such a different direction than I was expecting. I just read it again to see what my reaction would be and I guffawed again. It is just so pleasant to be surprised. It doesn't happen often enough.

Actually it's been proven that most people on the list are not "Hollywood elite" but New York and European show-biz people, and that the "big names" can be counted on both hands...People might think it's a moral cesspool "over there," but before we whip ourselves up into a frenzy over a specific group of people located in a specific place, let's take a step back for a moment. And you can bet, especially in this time of economic recession, that show-biz is going to be doing just as well as it did before. People might think "all of Hollywood" or even "all of show-biz" is terrible, but I bet my right arm that the same number of people will actually stop partaking of Hollywood or New York show-biz productions as there were "big names" on the list of Polanski supporters.

I have read you for years, and though we don't see politics the same, I have to thank you for your recent strips on Polanski. If you listen to the "news" and hear all the "Hollywood types" saying this is a witch hunt and he should be released, you would think the world has gone nuts. I can't believe these people would allow their children to be abused and not care, so where does this come from? Anyway, thank you for taking a stand for common sense and morality.

Will you get off the Roman Polanski thing, already? I'm usually very much in sync with your viewpoint, but I think that a) you're way off-base on this one, and b) you're flogging a dead horse to the extreme. Here are the facts:

1. The former girl in question does not want the matter pursued further. Can't you honor her wishes?

2. Polanski served time for this as per an agreement with the judge at the time, and after his release, the judge reneged on the agreement.

3. It was almost half a century ago, and Polanski has had this as a thorn in his butt since.

I have no particular opinions about Polanski, one way or the other, but there's just a limit. What's going on represents obsession, not justice. There are, believe it or not, more important things in the world now.

Checking some facts, I see that Soon-Yi Previn was 21 or 22 when her relationship with Woody Allen came out. I'll go with creepy (35 year age difference), but he had never actually acted as a step-father to her, and, Mia Farrow's unproven (in a court of law) allegations aside, to conflate his situation with Roman Polanski's is not just wrong, it minimizes Roman Polanski's crime.

You err in equating Woody Allen with Roman Polanski. Mr. Polanski gave a drug to, then forced himself upon, a resistant 13 year-old girl. This was rape. He does not deny it, so we know that this happened. He is, apparently, unrepentant, and has acted in a distressingly self-pitying manner in regards to the entire matter.

Mr. Allen had consensual sex with a young woman who had attained the age of consent (tautology noted). He stayed with this woman, married her, and had children with her. Yes, Mrs. Allen was, at the time her relationship with Mr. Allen began, the adopted daughter of Allen's girlfriend. This is certainly unsavory to many, but not even close to rape. Mr. and Mrs. Allen have now been together for 17 years. It is an insult to her to put her husband into the same moral quarantine as Polanski so richly deserves. It is true that Mia Farrow accused Mr. Allen of awful things during their nasty litigation, but none of it was ever close to being proven. Allen also made a film in which his 42-year-old character repeatedly had consensual sex with a 17-year-old woman. Still not close to real-world, drug-aided rape.

Thanks for bringing this subject to the surface and including Woody in the fray, per this November, 1992 article from Vanity Fair.

Thank you for reminding people that Woody Allen is also guilty. I've missed his movies but will no longer support him. What doesn't Hollywood get? Marrying her does not wipe away the fact that he molested his underage stepdaughter.

Three cheers for GBT and Boopsie for taking on the Roman Polanski situation for what it is, and calling out his celebrity supporters. It's a sad state of affairs when I have to momentarily hold my breath when I see someone I respect addressing the Roman Polanski issue -- thank goodness I was able to heave a huge sigh of relief in this case!

Brava Boopsie! Bravo GBT! Great that a cartoon character gets what Polanski did was wrong. Shameful that a real-life Slate columnist (William Saletan) does not.

Thank you for doing what you do. Just thank you. And don't stop.

Thanks for taking on Polanski and his supporters. Actually, thanks for everything you do. I've been reading Doonesbury since I was a kid in the 70s. I can honestly say that together with my wonderful parents, Doonesbury helped form the adult that I am today. I feel so lucky to have grown up in the time of Doonesbury.

Hurrah Boopsie! Today's strip shows your brains, guts and integrity. Nothing like telling off a sleazeball and hanging up on him. WTG GBT. Thank you for summing up this, and so many issues, so well.

Yeah, Boopsie! Totally in character -- give Sid for what he's worth! I still remember the time when B.D. was in Desert Storm and Boopsie moved against sexual harassment in football. Nice to see that she is a girl of integrity.

Boopsie is the bomb! I am loving her!

Bless your heart for Boopsie's courage, and yours. Speaking right against the prevailing wisdom of the entertainment industry is brave. I don't always agree with your characters, but this one is very good.

The character Sid provides the blind eye willingly turned upon sexual crime, when it threatens obstruction to fiscal profit. His argument "straw-mans" Boopsie in the last frame. The measure of cultural goodness is the way that it treats its very vulnerable old and young. Scorcese, you're my age, recant, I'm begging you!

Go Boopsie!. There is a reason why "grit" is in the word integrity; sometimes it really does feel like you are being ground down. Be the rock in the gears of the "status quo." There comes a time to take a stand that is "counter" to the prevailing culture. And, as if we never noticed before, Sid is a slimeball.

Re the missile app in Sunday's strip: Nice feature -- just levels a whole building. Where can I get one of those? LOL! But seriously, I wonder why we are losing. Very good points brought out here.

The "Roman Polanski Extradition Fund"? Not "Defense" or "Freedom" fund? Ooouuuu, I can't wait to see how this plays out!

So Sid's jumped on the "Free Roman Polanski" bandwagon, I see. Given that Boopsie's got a daughter (and I'm pretty sure Sam's 13), I wonder how she'll feel about that.

Poor Alex. Poor, poor Alex. And poor Drew.

For more than 35 years I've wondered what happened to the character Sam Smooth. Maybe he's Drew's father!

Zonker's talking to plants again?! Heeewack-Far Out! Perhaps rough economic times will find Mark bartending again to make ends meet. Stranger things have happened. Bush/Cheney for example.

Re the girltalk in today's strip: Possibly Dru has been through a lot more men than has Alex; Alex is still freshly in the glow of their night moves; Dru sees reality resting on them when alas, the hook has already been set.

My wife reads those plant catalogs the way most people read giant novels. I always wondered why. Thanks for sparing me the trouble of reading them myself to answer that question.

The bulb conversation reminds me of Georgia O'Keeffe and her works. So I will get out her biography and re-read it, and get on the net and see her pictures. Flowers' sexuality expressed by a great artist! Thanks for changing the subject of the strip for a few days -- the politics gets to be 24/7 in all media! We all need to dig in the real dirt and grow some real beauties. Good therapy.

Why do bulbs keep coming up in Doonesbury? It's because of the bull, of course. All gardeners know that!

Great pictures, just make sure that "Safe Search" is set to "Off"!

The judging of, and the subsequent writing of, an award description for an orchid sometimes requires true restraint against "the lurid". Just take a look at Cattleya dormaniana!

Has GBT devoted an entire week's worth of strips to shrubs in order to win a bet, or what?

Nice to see Zonker spending quality time with Sam. Alex obviously thrived with Zonker for a nanny -- there's hope for Sam yet!

It's easy to forget that flowers are plants' genitals. Clearly the catalog writer has not done so.

The Victoria's Secret of plant catalogs -- I love that! My family has been referring to my glossy full-color plant and seed catalogs as "garden porn" for years. As in: Hubby to sons: "Where's your mom?" Ten-year-old: "She just got the mail, and she's reading her garden porn." I've considered Zonker to be a kindred spirit for decades.

I love LOVE when Zonker talks with plants. I remember years ago when he had the plant which wanted the really big pot... Anyway, I'm very happy to see Z and the plants chatting.

Hmmm...talking plants. Does this mean that Zonker is toking up again? Perhaps even starting his own dispensary?

Ooo! Zonker is talking to plants again! I am so happy.

Thank you for today's strip of Zonker planting talking bulbs. Especially after Sunday's Hitler one, too much on my mind. We need spirit. I'm about to send off a care package to a freshman (woman) in college and in it I'm including today's New York Times Op-Ed piece about global warming. I really do think the spirit of plants is a part of us, and a part of our future. You captured it all for me in the last panel. I hope you keep it up: people need now to be reminded that this is our last chance. I see it all around me in Worthington -- a second coming of young people returning to the earth to plant things. Thank you -- this strip hit my heart. And I've been reading Doonesbury since I was a child.

Thank you for the "Obama is not Hitler" cartoon yesterday. Well done. I ignore many remarks from my conservative father for the sake of family peace, but cannot abide his calling Obama "Hitler". I naively thought it was just him until I heard the dogmatic hullabaloo on Fox Noise. Hopefully yesterday's cartoon elicited independent thought from some of those who really need to use it.

I've been enjoying the Blowback comments on Sunday's Hitler-Obama strip. For much more on this subject, check out Obama Is Literally Hitler.

I loved today's strip, but wonder if it won't fly way over the heads of those who need to get it most. Thanks. I think one of the things I like the most about the Doonesbury mob is that they don't live their lives in fear like too many Americans today.

For years (more than I like to think about) your strip has been one of the great joys of newspaper reading: a nugget of clear and delightful insight, humor, irony, and intellectual provocation in what is frequently a desert of miserable news. I just wanted to say thank you for all the years of excellent political and social commentary that you have steadfastly provided to readers like myself, who value, enjoy, and depend upon their daily fix of Doonesbury.

Today's strip was one of those that makes me want to go skulking about the streets at night plastering copies of it onto every imaginable surface, just to make sure that the world at large gets a good look. I suppose I'll have to make do with posting it on my office door.

Thanks for the years of cathartic belly-laughs as well as the funny-frightening moments of recognition of a world often gone mad. May your humor and insight grace our papers for years to come.

Great strip today. However, I'd like to mention that the Soviets made the Germans look like pikers when it came to exterminating people.

Garry, I have been reading your strip since college (the best seven years of my life...). You make a great point in today's strip, but why didn't you make the exact same point when the left was calling Bush a Nazi and Cheney Darth Vader? You of all people know that in any argument, the first person to mention Hitler loses.

A big God Bless You for your Hitler-Obama strip. I have to believe that it will make a dent in the minds of at least some small percentage of those who are vulnerable to the ravings of the Right.

Today's strip sets up a convenient straw man by noting the absurdity of those who would equate the current Democratic administration to the Nazi party of Germany at the height of their atrocities. However, if one were to compare the actions of the Nazis (which stands for National Socialist German Workers' Party) prior to WWII with the current actions of the Democratic administration and Congress, there are many parallels.

The Nazis confiscated guns, limited free speech, and nationalized many industries prior to their more extreme actions. The current US government would restrict gun rights, limit the speech of their opponents, and have already nationalized banks, financial institutions, and some unionized manufacturing firms that were not viable on their own. And we need to keep in mind that these kinds of actions can serve as stepping stones that totalitarian-minded people use to achieve their goals. This doesn't mean that Obama or the Democrats have this as a plan, but they are warning signs or indicators of such a plan.

It is amazing the reaction to today's cartoon. The Obama haters are seeing it as likening Obama to Hitler. For others it reads as a subtle reflection that the inaction of the Democratic Party against the Republican Party is like the inaction of the masses during Hitler's rise to power. For those of us struggling under a massive monthly insurance cost, neither interpretation helps those who will die for lack of health care in this non-third-world country. Thank you for keeping the apathy -- aka inaction -- of the elected in the forefront.

After years of watching the Doonesbury strip bash Bush, it was a pleasant surprise to see the strip critical of Obama and paralleling his rise to that of Hitler. My friends told me I was imagining it all, but apparently I am not alone in that impression. Congratulations to Trudeau for seeing the light.

Both my wife and I were completely offended by this morning's strip comparing the U.S. to Nazi Germany and the President to Hitler. It will be a long time before either of us read Doonesbury again.

The current Mudline and Sunday's strip make an interesting juxtaposition. How delicious that the very same folks who like to compare President Obama to Hitler are ridiculing him for being weak and naive at the UN when he talks about working for a world without nukes.

Today's strip was one of your best. The "Obama's like Hitler!" warnings from people like Rush Limbaugh have been alarming, not to mention the insane stuff you see when you Google "Obama Hitler" or "Obama is like Hitler." I've been ticked off that people are not offended by the comparison. Thank you for holding it up to public ridicule.

I had to read today's strip a few times to be sure, but what you're saying is that current comparisons between the Obama administration and Nazi Germany are bogus. The message may not be immediately obvious if the paper, like the Washington Post, does not print the first two panels. Now that I've got straight what you are saying, I'd like to point out that the left compared the Bush administration to the Nazis, with nary a peep of protest from Doonesbury. I predict this strip will bring out the psycho flamers in force.

Yes! Thank you for today's strip. People can disagree with Obama all they want, but comparing him to Hitler (which I hear distressingly often) is just absurd illogical hype. Thanks to Bill O'Reilly and the rest of the Fox Crew for creating an atmosphere of hysteria and baseless accusation.

Is Mike's mother your mother? This is my favorite subject of all -- Mike's Mom -- as I am the "parent" of an aging parent and you get this so well. Thank you for making me laugh through it.

With GT addressing the whole "tea party" farce this week, can I hope against hope we'll be seeing Glenn Beck's very public nervous breakdown of a downward spiral addressed soon? I'd love to see Roland Hedley Twittering about how Glenn Beck's madness has driven Fox News into chaos out of fear that Beck might harm himself on air, and how Roland's trying to organize an intervention for the poor dude.

I've always liked the Widow Doonesbury, because she's a disruptive force who shakes up the occasional liberal smugness we know and love. But I'm a bit bothered by a sense that the Grey Anger/Medicare story is turning into Mad Old Women Get Laughed At By Superior Younger Men. There were some old blokes in the first demontration frame, I know, but now that we've had two strips where old women are being satirized (gently, affectionately, yes, yes), I'd like to see some cross old men articulating the same cause too. By using the phrase 'bra-burning' GBT consciously aligned this story with feminist struggle, so he'd better follow through!

Sounds like Mike's mom is getting all her news from a certain "Fair-And-Balanced" network, to be acting this way. I caught my dad at times watching it as well -- most recently "Lonesome Rhodes" Beck -- but at least he's not going to tea-bagger parties or burning his Medicare card.

Okay, back when Toggle was talking to B.D. and Boopsie about the Walden tour, and mentioned how thrown off he was by the slacker mentality of the 'tour guide' to the college, both B.D. and Boopsie said "Zipper." Now that they know who it was, please please please send B.D. -- or at least Boopsie -- over there to confront Zipper. He does not deserve to get away with the derogatory comments he made to Toggle, even if they were made out of ignorance. Ignorance is no excuse, not even for a professional student who seems to have gained very little knowledge during all his time at college. As a veteran myself, I felt very insulted for a fictional bro who doesn't even really exist. Go figure that one out, lol.

Alex in Toggle's Army t-shirt? That's just showing they're together. Women/girls think that's cute, borrowing the guy's clothes in bed. I can't read that as being supportive of the military. More likely it's ironic -- she's a sophisticated young woman, after all. It's like going around in Army surplus doesn't mean you are a warmonger, just poor and maybe making a fashion statement too.

The biggest surprise in today's strip was seeing Alex wearing an Army T-shirt. After growing up in the 1960s and serving in the Army in the 1970s, it's nice to see liberal young people learning that the Army is not the Great Satan, and soldiers are not Minions of Evil. I wonder if we will get to see Boopsie, the savvy Army wife with an injured husband, sharing her experience and wisdom with Alex, the young newcomer.

I really did not find today's Doonesbury strip to be funny. Elmont seems to drive a point home how the homeless yuppies have taken over not only all branches of society but the streets too. I have been following the series since I signed up for MSNDialup 10 years ago, and I find the it very informing. Yet oh how I long for Dick Tracy.

I have been a fan since 1985. I have always found Elmont the least funny of your creations, and the recent Flashback strips regarding "Tarpville" are some of the least amusing of all. I fail to see what is funny about indulging the fantasies of a disturbed homeless man, as Mark is doing.

I think Toggle should go to a neighbor/sister college of Walden, which of course would allow for some classes to be taken at Walden via a partnership. This should cover the best of both worlds and open a slew of possibilities. Why didn't anyone know about this sister school? Who would publicly admit to it? Keep writing. I've been a reader since around 1976.

Thank you for many years of chuckles and pointed social commentary. I have always enjoyed your strip, but last Sunday's disturbed me enough to write. Using your lingo, I would consider myself a "reasonist" and definitely subscribe to "rationalism." For that very reason, I question how it was possible for two airplanes to cause the controlled demolition of three NYC buildings on 9/11. I certainly don't know who was responsible, but no rational person who lives in an "evidence based world" can accept the official explanation.