While I’m away from the blog, I thought I’d run some cartoons from five years ago. It’s always surprising and instructive to see what was dominating our interest in those days, and how little some issues change.

Remember the old days, when it was considered unpatriotic to doubt the president?

While I’m away from the blog, I thought I’d run some cartoons from five years ago. It’s always surprising and instructive to see what was dominating our interest in those days, and how little some issues change.

Remember the Mark Foley page scandal?

While I’m away from the blog, I thought I’d run some cartoons from five years ago. It’s always surprising and instructive to see what was dominating our interest in those days, and how little some issues change.

Here, Fidel Castro falls seriously ill (for the first time).

While I’m away from the blog, I thought I’d run some cartoons from five years ago. It’s always surprising and instructive to see what was dominating our interest in those days, and how little some issues change.

While I’m away from the blog, I thought I’d run some cartoons from five years ago. It’s always surprising and instructive to see what was dominating our interest in those days, and how little some issues change.

While I'm away from the blog, I'm posting some cartoons I drew exactly five years ago, in the Spring of 2006. They remind us of what we were thinking about back then (and highlight how short our national attention span really is).

They also illustrate that some issues are never resolved; they just linger indefinitely.

I drew this after the passage of the USA Patriot Act and some other legislation that caused some people, generally on the political left, to worry that our constitutional rights were being eroded.

I find it ironic that five years later, it's the ultra-conservative Tea Party movement that is most worried about government's encroachment on constitutional rights.

While I'm away from the blog, I'm posting some cartoons I drew exactly five years ago, in the Spring of 2006. They remind us of what we were thinking about back then (and highlight how short our national attention span really is).

Katrina was one of the biggest disasters for George W. Bush's presidency, because while he had already managed to alienate a large segment of the American public (which didn't really matter; most of them were Democrats), it finally began to dawn on his supporters as well that he was incompetent.

While I'm away from the blog, I'm posting some cartoons I drew exactly five years ago, in the Spring of 2006. They remind us of what we were thinking about back then (and highlight how short our national attention span really is).

Dick Cheney's shooting of a friend in the head during a controlled pheasant "hunt" was one of the many tragicomic events that occurred during the Bush Administration.

Another one was the "Mission Accomplished" fiasco, but sadly that happened more than five years ago.

While I'm away from the blog, I'm posting some cartoons I drew exactly five years ago, in the Spring of 2006. They remind us of what we were thinking about back then (and highlight how short our national attention span really is).

They also illustrate that some issues are never resolved; they just linger indefinitely.

We don't really know if the world would be better off, or more stable, if Saddam were still alive. The sad thing is that, after all that's happened, we don't really know.

While I'm away from the blog, I'm posting some cartoons I drew exactly five years ago, in the Spring of 2006. They remind us of what we were thinking about back then (and highlight how short our national attention span really is). .

Hard to believe it's been five years since Rush had his brush with the law. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to have harmed his career.

While I’m away from the blog, I’m posting some cartoons I drew exactly five years ago, in the Spring of 2006. They remind us of what we were thinking about back then (and highlight how short our national attention span really is).

They also illustrate that some issues are never resolved; they just linger indefinitely.

This cartoon, for example, will be just as current next spring as it was back in 2006. Remember that we were facing an off-year election that November, and it's standard Republican practice to stoke all the hot-button issues (immigration, abortion, gay marriage, Second Amendment, etc.) in the Spring to scare the base into turning out to the polls in order to rescue the Republic from certain ruin.

While I’m away from the blog for a few days, I’ve pulled a few cartoons from five years ago for your enjoyment and edification.

Happy New Year to all my readers!

Chan

While I’m away from the blog for a few days, I’ve pulled a few cartoons from five years ago for your enjoyment and edification.

Happy New Year to all my readers!

Chan

While I’m away from the blog for a few days, I’ve pulled a few cartoons from five years ago for your enjoyment and edification.

Happy New Year to all my readers!

Chan

While I’m away from the blog for a few days, I’ve pulled a few cartoons from five years ago for your enjoyment and edification.

Happy New Year to all my readers!

Chan

While I’m taking a break from the blog, I’m posting some cartoons that I drew for the Sun Sentinel’s editorial page exactly five years ago, to remind you what was occupying our thoughts back in those days.

Enjoy!

While I’m taking a break from the blog, I’m posting some cartoons that I drew for the Sun Sentinel’s editorial page exactly five years ago, to remind you what was occupying our thoughts back in those days.

Enjoy!

While I’m taking a break from the blog, I’m posting some cartoons that I drew for the Sun Sentinel’s editorial page exactly five years ago, to remind you what was occupying our thoughts back in those days.

Enjoy!

While I’m taking a break from the blog, I’m posting some cartoons that I drew for the Sun Sentinel’s editorial page exactly five years ago, to remind you what was occupying our thoughts back in those days.

Enjoy!

While I’m taking a break from the blog, I’m posting some cartoons that I drew for the Sun Sentinel’s editorial page exactly five years ago, to remind you what was occupying our thoughts back in those days.

Enjoy!

While I’m taking a break from the blog, I’m posting some cartoons that I drew for the Sun Sentinel’s editorial page exactly five years ago, to remind you what was occupying our thoughts back in those days.

Enjoy!

While I’m taking a break from the blog, I’m posting some cartoons that I drew for the Sun Sentinel’s editorial page exactly five years ago, to remind you what was occupying our thoughts back in those days.

Enjoy!

While I’m taking a break from the blog, I’m posting some cartoons that I drew for the Sun Sentinel’s editorial page exactly five years ago, to remind you what was occupying our thoughts back in those days.

Enjoy!

While the Lowe-Down is using up the last of his vacation days for the year, here is a selection of cartoons from December 2004 to keep you busy.

MEANWHILE, GEAR UP FOR AN EXCITING LOWE-DOWN YEAR-OPENER CAPTION CONTEST, LAUNCHING ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2010! Win prizes, be famous!

More information to follow shortly.

While the Lowe-Down is using up the last of his vacation days for the year, here is a selection of cartoons from December 2004 to keep you busy.

MEANWHILE, GEAR UP FOR AN EXCITING LOWE-DOWN YEAR-OPENER CAPTION CONTEST, LAUNCHING ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2010! Win prizes, be famous!

More information to follow shortly.

While the Lowe-Down is using up the last of his vacation days for the year, here is a selection of cartoons from December 2004 to keep you busy.

MEANWHILE, GEAR UP FOR AN EXCITING LOWE-DOWN YEAR-OPENER CAPTION CONTEST, LAUNCHING ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2010! Win prizes, be famous!

More information to follow shortly.

While the Lowe-Down is using up the last of his vacation days for the year, here is a selection of cartoons from December 2004 to keep you busy.

MEANWHILE, GEAR UP FOR AN EXCITING LOWE-DOWN YEAR-OPENER CAPTION CONTEST, LAUNCHING ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2010! Win prizes, be famous!

More information to follow shortly.

While the Lowe-Down is using up the last of his vacation days for the year, here is a selection of cartoons from December 2004 to keep you busy.

MEANWHILE, GEAR UP FOR AN EXCITING LOWE-DOWN YEAR-OPENER CAPTION CONTEST, LAUNCHING ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2010! Win prizes, be famous!

More information to follow shortly.

This is another cartoon from October of 2005. Again, it is amazing how issues never really change. They just keep going around in cycles.

While I'm away from the blog, here's another cartoon from five years ago.

As you can see, some things never change. If Benjamin Franklin were to utter his famous aphorism about death and taxes today, he'd be sure to include our favorite utility on the list.

While I'm away from the blog this week, I'm posting some cartoons I drew exactly five years ago, when the Iraq war was in its infancy, so you can see how the world has changed or not changed in the meantime. I thought the exercise in armchair quarterbacking might be informative.

This cartoon made me saddest of all when I dug it up. Since the war began, we have been appalled that a nation as great as ours could treat its returning warriors so shabbily, and that our priorities could be so misplaced.

When it was first published, I got some angry comments from vets who felt the VA was doing its job beautifully, and how dare I cast any aspersions upon it. But that was five years ago.

It seemed appropriate to run again on Memorial Day.

While I'm away from the blog this week, I'm posting some cartoons I drew exactly five years ago, when the Iraq war was in its infancy, so you can see how the world has changed or not changed in the meantime. I thought the exercise in armchair quarterbacking might be informative.

This was drawn back when a majority of Americans still felt we had done the right thing to invade. Bush still had stratospheric approval ratings, but we were beginning to wonder what happened to the stated excuse for the war, that being the weapons of mass destruction.

While I'm away from the blog this week, I'm posting some cartoons I drew exactly five years ago, when the Iraq war was in its infancy, so you can see how the world has changed or not changed in the meantime. I thought the exercise in armchair quarterbacking might be informative.

We used to have a symphony orchestra here, the Florida Philharmonic. It died of slow financial strangulation. Here's the reason why: lack of creative marketing.

While I'm away from the blog this week, I'm posting some cartoons I drew exactly five years ago, when the Iraq war was in its infancy, so you can see how the world has changed or not changed in the meantime. I thought the exercise in armchair quarterbacking might be informative.

Remember SARS? Here's one that will really date you: Remember SWINE FLU?

While I'm away from the blog this week, I'm posting some cartoons I drew exactly five years ago, when the Iraq war was in its infancy, so you can see how the world has changed or not changed in the meantime. I thought the exercise in armchair quarterbacking might be informative.

Occasionally, when an editorial about the Middle East is called for, someone on the editorial board half-jokingly (and somewhat sadly) suggests that we simply pull out an old editorial, dust it off, and re-run it, because nothing ever seems to change. This cartoon could have run last week and still have been current.

While I'm away from the blog this week, I'm posting some cartoons I drew exactly five years ago, when the Iraq war was in its infancy, so you can see how the world has changed or not changed in the meantime. I thought the exercise in armchair quarterbacking might be informative.

Remember when we thought the war was being fought for oil, or at least that the Iraqis could repay the costs of the conflict and reconstruction with oil revenues? Now that we're pushing four-dollar-a-gallon gas, all I can say is, "Boy, were WE wrong!"

This ran March 23, 2003, four days after Operation Iraqi Freedom began. It seemed like a nutty policy then to pass a tax cut with a war just starting. It appears even nuttier now that we know the actual cost after five years. But since the whole thing is being conducted off the books, why worry?

We ran this cartoon on March 23, 2003, four days after the invasion of Iraq began. Stock prices soared in a patriotic wave of irrational exuberance...many felt the war would be short and sweet. "Mission Accomplished" was yet to come.