Dear Wow,
You've got to realize that this is satire.
I didn't put this comic together, but I think what Joel is trying to address is the peculiar relationship that exists amongst corporations which have all the rights of real "people," but none of the responsibility.
An analogous situation would exist, in my opinion, if Joel started selling soda down in Old Town and wrote the name "MIELKE" on all the bottles. When some jackass drank his bottles of MIELKE soda and left them on your doorstep, you'd call Joel to bitch.
And Joel would pick up the phone...because he's a real person. McDonald's however, wouldn't...you'd just get some employee, who wouldn't take responsibility for anything that had occurred. Joel, on the other hand, would pledge to do something...because he has the human capacity to care.
I think that's the joke...and I hope 1) that I'm right, and 2) that you get it.
Mr. Grunbaum, please consider that if all you had ever known of driving an automobile were from the words in a book, or if all you knew of flying in an airplane came from articles in a magazine, or if all your experience of making love were from countless videos...that your understanding of these experiences and their effects on others would only ever be at an elementary level.
I agree with Mr. Knipper; if you take issue with the machine in our government which sends our soldiers off to die, then have at it. Vote. Get involved. Make a difference.
If you fail to see why soldiers have reacted so violently in such distant places, and if you have nowhere in your heart to thank them for serving the very government that protects you, well then I ask you to travel somewhere the US government is not--like Somalia, for example--and then please write the NC Journal to let us know how it feels, how you handle the stress, and how your integrity holds up when you are faced with death on a somewhat frequent basis.
Our soldiers are not infallible, instead they are human and make countless mistakes. Yet, many of them have an appreciation for life that you will only barely began to understand, after having read about it in Time magazine. Maybe you should thank them, if not for their service, than for their participation in a PBS documentary that you will self-righteously criticize as an armchair quarterback...from the vantage point of thousands of miles away.
Re: “No Love for Eureka”
We're in good company: we've got Vegas with us, and we know people fall in love there all the time!