Remembering John McLaughlin

Longtime PBS talking head wrangler John McLaughlin died yesterday at the age of 89. Last weekend, he was missing from his eponymous Group for only the first time in its 34-year run.

The often parodied host of "The McLaughlin Group" made one appearance in my cartoons at the end of 1999. The editors of The Business Journal of Greater Milwaukee told me that the editorial for the week would be some sort of look ahead to 2000 for the region; could I draw something to go with that?

No, these were not regulars on his program.

Parading with Pride

Welcome once again to Swashbuckleback Saturday. June is LGBT Pride Month, so I've dug up one of my cartoons from 1999.

Nowadays, the Religious Right has been seeking Special Rights to avoid having to do business with lesbian and gay consumers, but back at the end of the 20th Century, some Religious Rightwingers had hit upon the idea that LGBT Pride Parades should be forced to allow them and their antigay bullhorns to participate.

They were reacting in part to LGBT groups that had agitated to be allowed to march in St. Patrick's Day parades. That agitation, however, had already resulted in the Supreme Court ruling in favor of the right of parade organizers to exclude groups they disagreed with. Justice David Souter, writing for a unanimous court in Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian, & Bisexual Group of Boston (1995), said, "One important manifestation of the principle of free speech is that one who chooses to speak may also decide what not to say."

By the way, "MCC" refers to Metropolitan Community Churches, a protestant denomination founded by gay pastor Rev. Troy Perry in 1968.

Breaking Local News!

A propos of nothing in particular, here's a cartoon from my archives -- July of 1999, to be exact -- about TV news coverage of a big local tragedy. The reporters can't tell you much: the firefighters are still trying to put out the fire, the gunshot victims are still on the operating table, police have cordoned off the structural collapse, or authorities aren't letting camera crews anywhere near the plane/train/ship. But the folks at the TV station are staying on the air, determined not to be scooped by the folks at the other TV stations...

The names in this cartoon are of Milwaukee local anchors and reporters at the time, but I'm pretty sure this cartoon could be about local TV stations just about any time, anywhere. I believe that the particular story which inspired this cartoon was the Big Blue crane collapse during the construction of Miller Park, which killed three construction workers.

The long form address of my now defunct Geocities page on this cartoon won't take you anywhere, incidentally. Geocities got bought up and shut down by Yahoo!/SBC Global/AT&T years ago. Oh, and that thing the guy in the cartoon is staring at is what televisions used to look like.