Laugh Break

This week has been filled with bad news all the way around, from a governor selling workers down the river (Wisconsin) to a country's leader murdering those who would challenge his corrupt regime (Libya), to an island nation being crippled by a devastating earthquake (Japan). Media coverage of all three debacles has been spotty, but, I suppose, adequate enough for the savvy reader to do a little digging, although I still find my blood pressure rising every time some inkstained boob insists on speculating what effect the latest tragedy will have on the price of oil.

I needed a break, and the Los Angeles Times actually gave me that break in a most delightful manner.

All my friends know that I really love editorial cartoons, even those drafted by folks whose politics I disagree with. That's why I feature my favorite cartoon every Sunday morning. It isn't Sunday, and this post is not going to supplant tomorrow's offering, but it is intended to take the edge off the other dreary news.

It's an opinion blog, authored this week by Joel Pett, who is himself a fine editorial cartoonist. Here's what he had to say:

Political wannabes and has-beens constantly test the winds and dip their toes in the water. Then they weather the inevitable storm of criticism from home-state cartoonists who knew them when. To Atlanta's Mike Luckovich, Newt Gingrich is no peach -- a candidate with legs, maybe, but twice-divorced from reality. Jersey boy Jimmy Margulies fired off a dismissal of The Donald's presidential casting call, panning the Palin reality show in the process. And Steve Sack saw only the lighter side of Minnesota's favorite son, refusing to toot the horn of (groan) Pawlenty.

And then Pett includes the cartoons so nimbly referenced. Click on the link to see those three cartoons, but be prepared to laugh, at least a little, at each of them.

Me, I laughed explosively at all three.

You're welcome.