Author: DOuG pRATt

A Bob Clam-pett CartooooOOOOON!

Bob Clampett made so many outstanding, outrageous cartoons during his tenure at Warner Brothers, that picking a favorite isn’t easy. There’s Draftee Daffy and Book Revue, not to mention the unmentionable Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarfs. Only during the relaxed censorship of wartime could such a thing have been created! But if I were forced to choose, I would say it’s this cartoon that strikes my fancy the most.

The Great Piggy Bank Robbery, a Warner Brothers Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Robert “Bob” Clampett, released July 20, 1946.

Note: The snippet of music heard over the opening title is “Mysterious Mose.” Carl Stalling made generous use of Raymond Scott’s “Powerhouse” throughout.

Unhand Her, Dan Backslide!

The Dover Boys at Pimento University, a Leon Schlesinger Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Charles M. “Chuck” Jones, released September 19, 1942.

With America fully engulfed in the Second World War, Chuck Jones looked back forty years to make this whimsical parody of the Rover Boys series of books for boys. And yet the stripped-down and highly stylized design of the cartoon provided a glimpse into the future, by influencing John Hubley, one of the founders of the UPA animation studio. Even the way the letters “P” and “U” are animated at the beginning of the cartoon was years ahead of its time.

Federal Bureau of Integrity

We’ve been hearing a lot lately about the need for the FBI to protect its informants. The FBI originally had an integrity problem under J. Edgar Hoover, who was a closeted gay man that favored blackmail as a pressure tactic. I used to think that the agency’s internal controls improved after Hoover died in 1972, but only a few years later the FBI recruited the Boston Irish gangster Whitey Bulger as an informant against the Italian mob.

James “Whitey” Bulger

Even after Bulger was on the run in 1995, the FBI continued to hide the fact he had been an informant, until the truth finally came out. Over a period of 15 years the FBI seemed incapable of capturing Bulger, and eventually the U.S. Marshals Service was brought into the manhunt. Bulger was caught nine months later.

Carry Me Back, To Old Cartoony

Uncle Tom’s Cabaña, An MGM Cartoon directed by Fred “Tex” Avery, released July 19, 1947. That was 80 years after the Civil War, and it’s been 70 years since then! Politically correct this cartoon is not. Little Eva, played by Red Hot Riding Hood, was animated by Preston Blair.

This post’s alternate title is, “Trump the Real Estate Mogul.” 😉

Who’s Responsible?

After the latest school shooting that has so far left ten people dead, saying “responsible gun owner” is no longer acceptable. Saying “law-abiding gun owner” is okay, if no federal or local laws have been broken, but don’t say “responsible.” Who defines what is considered acting responsibly?

The NRA’s definition of a responsible gun owner would undoubtedly include making sure that a teenage son has access to, and knows how to handle, the weapons that are in the house. In this case it’s a teenage son who was rejected by a girl he likes in school, which was apparently at least one of the triggers for the tragedy in Texas.

At the end of the 10th grade I was rejected rather cruelly by a girl I was crazy about. I felt extremely humiliated — her friends laughed at me — and I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Or at least stay in bed for the rest of my life. At no time did I consider committing any sort of act of violence, but what about a kid who does experience that compulsion? A kid like that should not have access to guns. A responsible father would realize that his son has adjustment problems, and take reasonable measures to prevent him from getting hold of a weapon.

In the context of a mass school shooting, are a teenage boy’s feelings of loneliness and rejection going to be categorized as a mental illness? If you’re a boy, and you aren’t a good-looking jock — especially in a place like Texas — you’re going to have trouble fitting in, let alone being at all popular. Adults likewise experience personal failures — job loss, for example — and they get drunk, etc., and do stupid things, one of them being picking up a gun. There are any number of reasons why someone who is otherwise considered normal, and who has easy access to a gun, might use it.

The NRA’s argument that “the more guns the better” is simply ludicrous. More guns = more shooting. Duh.

An oversupply of guns, and easy access to them — helped by a lack of meaningful regulation — is the problem. The only way the NRA will agree to compromising its position is if it sees a serious possibility of gun ownership becoming a privilege, rather than a right. And why should we be listening to the NRA anyway? It’s not a government agency, it’s a lobbying group.