Wow! Poor Rick. It is my understanding that if Jeff was in the Forces he would be up for court martial. As CIA, does he have immunity? And now unfortunately Rick has info that he needs to pass on: his son the total-screw-up, is considering some independent action, likely to result in further trouble. I wonder if Rick will contact Langley, Havoc directly, or leak the info through other means. I have always loved the strip!

As he peruses the latest batch of Blowback submissions posted by his stalwart Town Hall duty officer, the well-known cartoonist clicks his iPod over to Carley Simon's "Anticipation" while reading Bob from Neerim South's plea for mercy and mutters... "Wait for it!"

It would be nice if there were at least one intelligent young male character in the strip. It seems like since all the original characters were brought up to date some years back, the only young male characters added have been idiots

You know opposites attract. Jeff will, I predict, "go rouge" in such a way that his CIA boss will be carted away to the CIA version of the funny farm. Mel and Jeff will help each other to progress. Meanwhile, back at MIT, I wonder what's happening between Toggle and Alex, and when Toggle and B.D. will meet again. I can see Alex and Boopsie sharing what they've learned about living with and loving military guys.

I don't know if GBT has gone all out on Jeff just yet. Is it unprecedented for someone in the CIA to be stripped of their citizenship, proclaimed an enemy combatant, sent to Guantanamo, and tortured under interrogation? (And if it were precedented, would the average citizen even be able to know?)

We know the Redfern parents are rather emotionally hidebound, but are they really so dysfunctional that they could possibly have produced a creature such as Jeff? Singularly aggressive, yet oblivious to his surroundings, utterly narcissistic, entirely without moral compass? That the CIA would twice hire such a beast, I could not question.

Rick and Jeff are having the conversation that usually happens when the kid's about, oh... 17. (Unless you're going to tell me my three are precocious.) Can we really believe Jeff could make it this far in the CIA and be that clueless? That Rick really only cared about the high school time Jeff spent in his video games? Please get closer to reality so I can suspend disbelief and get back to enjoying the story!

OK, we all know what will eventually happen. Melissa will find Jeff to be a bloke who will enable her to laugh again. Jeff will find Melissa to be a woman who will enable him, finally, to enter the world of the grown-ups. It's going to be very awkward on all sides, particularly that of the innocent reader. Stop torturing us, GBT, bring it on!

The February 21st and February 28th Sunday strips that pilloried the morally spineless fat cat bankers were free speech at its very finest. GBT, I can't say enough. Dude, thank you!

With Nancy Gibbs' essay on page 60 of the March 8, 2010 issue, Time Magazine has caught up with GBT. How long since we first saw Mel -- two years?

Oh, my goodness -- the understated pokerfaced dry humor of Melissa and her fellow "Wrench-Wench" would not fly well with many helicopter pilots. The mechanics would discover that something had happened to their lives and their careers. How 'bout referring to the warrant officer pilot as "Pitch Bitch?"

Is it me, or does Trudeau really hate Jeff Redfern? He's really gone all out on this poor kid.

It is also possible that Melissa can live a successful life without any significant other, much less Jeff. It is also possible that it is more suitable to use the name "Melissa." After all, life ain't easy for a girl named "Mel."

Maybe Crisis is giving veiled encouragement to Mel to be kind to those "rack recon" animals.

I am reminded that the main rotor nut was jocularly referred to as the "Jesus nut," because you could be meeting him if it failed, and you hoped and prayed to him that it didn't.

Go Mel Go! I worked on B-52s, and had to get in the "cherry picker" more than once, but I never had to be lowered from a hovering helo like that. Awesome!

The banker strip on Sunday was poignant and timely. I will keep a copy of that one for a long time. Congratulations on the high quality of your work!

I loved this! If I knew any Wall Street types, I'd send 'em each ten copies. Not that they'd get it.

The first two panels of yesterday's strip gave the story a poignancy that might not have been readily apparent in those papers that leave them out, like the Washington Post.

The moral of the story is, "Don't let J-Fo Redfern anywhere near boomtoys of any size or description. There will be trouble." His youth as an excuse wouldn't go over well in real life. He's well past the staledate where heedlessly stupid is cute.

It would be nice if he doesn't go the GuyTM comedy film routine of needing a good, serious woman, said role to be filled by Mel, to frogprince-kiss his smart-ergo-he-doesn't-need-to-grow-up ass. I don't think it would do either of the characters a favor.

That said, a dark part of me wants Mel to represent the armed forces and deliver a large wrench upside his unused brain cells for wrecking her chopper. Given where she's been mentally though, that's petty. Maybe she'll just make him hoof it back to base pulling a donkey cart full of the USO cargo.

I understand the comparison between young Boopsie and Jeff, as both are/were a tad oblivious to reality, but the main difference is in the eyes. I mean, Boopsie's were, and still are, always wide open and innocent looking. But Jeff's are half-closed just like most other characters. The eyes are really important with Doonesbury. I've always thought wide eyes in this strip signified a vulnerable, open moment for that character. Boopsie's eyes, always wide; Sam's, always wide; Mike's occasionally, in moments of panic, wide, etc. So Jeff is really just a bit of an idiot. Mel would never even look at him.

Jeff comes across as a bright fool. If he can survive long enough to connect the dots that most connect in late grade school or high school, I think Mel will find him of interest. Perhaps a mishap of circumstance will get Jeff off the hook, and put his CIA on it. I'm sure there are some skeletons in the closet that those above him have left...

Today's strip is perfect. I wonder how many bankers will get it? We never "see ourselves as others see us"!

I like Jeff. He is bright enough, just silly, needs to learn more about how things work. He needs more real life. His shooting off the gun was a following of a local tradition (goodness only knows why one would want to fire firearms at a wedding but I am sure there are many traditions that seem silly to those outside those cultures). He has a sense of humor, and through him we have seen revealed "CIA torture classes" and other inanities. He seems unfazed by being in Afghanistan (I lived there as a little girl); not everyone could do that, so good on him. Personally I think a romance between him and Mel would not necessarily be a bad thing. He would certainly not mistreat her. On the contrary he would probably treat her well (and be appalled at what she has been through), and she would be able to teach him more about real life, help him grow up (see above). I would think Joanie and Rick would like her as well. My two cents worth!

A Banker's Progress is the best political satire you have written in months. You hit the nail on the head on the cause of this country's and the world's economic decline. Made me feel good just to read it.

Small Sparrow, from one sis to another, thanks for telling it like it is.

Considering where his mom began, her dreams, persistence, all she delivered in varied directions while building her second family, Jeff seems a harsh fate. I hope central casting is sending Joanie flowers of appreciation or apology for Jeff's employment.

I'm actually a little surprised Redfern has survived this long -- but after shooting down one of our own choppers I look for his demise under suspicious circumstances.

Jeff was born during Lamaze class, so a baby switcheroo unfortunately isn't likely.

So who do we expect to be sent out to repair that helicopter? I think we might see the start of a relationship we all hoped would be avoided.

In Doonesbury's history there have been a number of foolish or annoying characters. Until Jeff, they all have some endearing or redemptive qualities. So far as I can see, Jeff's sole endearing quality, if there is one, is youth. Being heedless is only cute when one is young.

I don't care for any of the three choices on the downhill Straw Poll; I gave up skiing downhill because it was cold, expensive, ecologically costly and dangerous, and took up cross country skiing. I'd rather do stuff than watch other people do it. I'd rather ski uphill and get a workout. Why let a machine have all the fun of getting me up there, when I could be doing it myself? "Labor-saving" is heart-destroying.

Oh dear. Jeff not only shot down a U.S. helicopter, but he disrupted the wedding of a powerful Afghan warlord's daughter. I suspect that Jeff and Havoc are about to get in waaaay over their heads.

Too bad for Joanie that both her kids have turned out to be such irresponsible flakes. I don't know what she did to deserve those kids.

How in the hell did Joanie and Rick, two intelligent, successful people, end up with a kid like Jeff? Maybe we'll find out that there was a mix up in the maternity ward. Dear lord, if he makes it out of there in one piece I will be very surprised.

Give the kid a break. I think Jeff has more going on that meets the eye. How many people in their early 20s can hang out in Afgani parking lots, talking trash with other drivers in Pashto? He reminds me of some of my old Peace Corps buddies: hotheaded hotshots who piss off the higher-ups but end up deeply admired and respected by the locals. Jeff's got great potential, if he can but stay alive.

Thank you again so very much for Mel. I cheered strongly for her as she headed back to the desert. As a female flight surgeon I spent months deployed eating alone: can't eat with the enlisted women or it's fraternizing, can't eat with the male officers or they or someone else will assume sex is involved. I still get a sick feeling in my stomach when I think about how it felt to walk into the DFAC and feel everyone watch me find a place to sit: praying for a table with lots of open seats so I would be clearly sitting alone, eating as quickly as I could so I could leave before anyone else sat near me. Wearing sweats running in the desert heat, and thanking a God I no longer believed in for how baggy flight suits are.

Some TDYs* I was the only female officer; those were the longest, and like Mel I had to face those TDYs after my trauma. I couldn't sleep in the dark, still can't, so I pulled my sleeping bag over my head and flashlight so my tent-mates wouldn't know. There is nothing fun about being a TDY-10.

For the guy who asked about hand-to-hand, the military teaches a variation of BJJ, which like all arts except Aikido depends on body size and strength for victory when both opponents are trained: two military-trained hand-to-hand opponents, one male, one female, and odds are the male even dumb and drunk will win. As for being armed, while I had 9mm and knives available I'd never used them on another person except to protect my patients (and certainly not another service member) but they were comforting, knowing if I were attacked again I could use them on myself.

For those who think this means women shouldn't deploy or serve because men just can't learn to control themselves, that attitude is contemptuous of the men who can behave themselves and act like men. All it takes is for our leadership to also act like men, and stop believing and accepting that men must act like boys, or animals. At one time in our history it was felt our white servicemen could never serve alongside minorities, that that wasn't natural either. All we need is for leadership to mature and it will bring the boys in the ranks along with it.

* TDY: Temporary Duty

Jeff's kind of taking Boopsie's place in Doonesbury as the "holy fool" as she grows out of it, but he's one for a more cynical age. Boopsie was childlike in her innocence, but Jeff is more childish than childlike, although he is also facing the more dangerous consequences.

Why isn't Jeff dead yet? Seriously. When's that boy going to grow up? He makes twenty-something Boopsie look like she's an astrophysicist.

With "The Oinkers" you are at last back on track. Timely, biting, funny -- easily understood by rednecks like me! It is a classic. Keep it up. I asked the whole family to read that great comic strip.

Last week's USO tour storyline didn't generate much comment, but I enjoyed it. I have fond memories of the USO tours when I was stationed in Korea. It wasn't Bob Hope; the groups were no one we had ever heard of. But the language was English, the girls were round-eyed, the beer was cold, and the air conditioning was on. In Korea, that was as close to heaven as it got. So a tip of the hat in thanks to the USO for their entertainment tours.

Hey, leave pigs alone!

Of the Sunday strip I can only say "Oink, that was oinkin' funny!"

Today's strip suggests that someone besides me thinks the country is becoming a human Animal Farm. George Orwell should be a must read for everyone.

We can "render the pigs" on Wall Street! I just "made lard" out of a few: I paid off a credit card that had high interest, and will pay off another this year. Both had 29.9% interest. I am doing without anything that is not necessary to my personal comfort. No more luxuries until I get these "pigs" off my back. Let them do without for a change! Come on, we can do this ourselves. We as in We the People!

Today's strip about the bank bonus pigs was exceptional. I look forward to the same hard-hitting treatment on the TV anchor network news paycheck pigs like Tom Brokaw, Dianne Sawyer, and Katie Couric. Ms. Couric gets $14 million per year for leading her network to last place.

Re. today's strip: The banks shouldn't have gotten the money to begin with, and the "stimulus money" did nothing more than "save" 2 million state government union jobs. Who was it that said capitalism will only last until the people realize they can vote themselves other people's money? We all can't work for the government, and we all can't receive aid from the government. There has to be a larger pool of people paying taxes than receiving tax money.

To answer U.D.'s question: Yes, the Army teaches excellent hand-to-hand combat in the form of Brazilian jujitsu. During my time in the Army (70s and 80s) hand-to-hand combat was unknown after basic training, but these days, Brazilian jujitsu is part of the Army's regular physical training.

"...And the old dude is Jimmy Thudpucker." Old? Old? Oy vey! Off to buy senior silver vitamins and hair color.

How sad to see the comments here re: women in the military -- the same old Queen Bee, Boys Will Be Boys, Blame the Victim and Male Apologia. Is it really hopeless that women will ever be seen as human?

I respectfully apologize to the retired First Sergeant and anyone else who has served. By "remorseless" (in my post below: RE "NO CHANCE") I meant an in-the-moment remorselessness about discharging weapons. I have a young cousin who is exactly the sort of nice kid who had to be trained to kill, and I wanted to convey that I appreciate, to the extent a civilian can, what it takes to survive in combat conditions. If you stay your usual, decent, kind self, who stops to think about what it means to pull a trigger, you may not come home alive. The First Sergeant is absolutely right -- there is remorse, and much of it is over the conflict between who you thought you were, and who you had to become. Kudos to GBT for reminding us all that a soldier's war does not stop when he or she returns home.

Yes, Mel's back in the sandbox, being leered at. Being leered at was not her problem; getting raped was. Now she's going through the growth process of dealing with leering idiots and determining how best to respond to them. (I'm pretty sure the guy she wanted to ask to lunch isn't a rapist.) I look forward to seeing how she works this out. Just sign me "been there, done that."

Along with the "desert rose" theme, you might want to think of the "burn barrel" theme. On every base they have a burn barrel for documents that need to be destroyed; local nationals are notorious for what, in computer hacking, is called "trashing" -- going through the trash looking for information that can be used or sold. At the FOB I was on the burn barrel became a place for the guys who had been dumped by their wives and girlfriends to go and smoke cigars for company, tell stories, give and get some empathy etc. I earned my spot when my fiance sent me an email telling me she "needed more space." I called her on the phone and said, "I'm in Baghdad, you're in Baltimore. The only way to put more space between us is for me to jump in the air." Breaking up is hard to do even when you're on the other side of the planet, so I joined the small group down at the burn barrel. It was a very common experience. The guys down there were quite immune to the "desert roses" and we often had a few of the gals who did not want to be a "desert rose" stop by and burn a few cigars with us.

Love your "desert rose" series! I served ten years in Air Force "AMMO" and experienced first hand how an average girl could be a queen. I personally felt more comfortable around "my guys" than I did around women, because I always knew what guys were thinking. Women, who knows?

Despite all the years of daily sexual innuendos, I only felt harassed twice. Once I was purposely abandoned alone with a man, and somehow didnt get raped. And I had an idiot that kept wondering aloud what position I like to do it in with my husband. I finally, with a straight face, told him we believed that we shouldn't have sex until we were ready to have children, and so we hadn't yet. The confusion on his face was beautiful!

Although men never change, the times sure have. When I first joined, AMMO guys felt free to shout "AMMO sucks...tits, clits, and beercans! Yeah!!" By the time I left, that saying was long gone.

Congrats to GBT for getting it exactly right on Melissa's latest deployment! As a member of the first class of women at West Point and a career Army officer, I have lived this for years. I wonder where he got such wonderful insight? We are loving it out here!

In her post RE 'NO CHANCE' Kay wrote, "Yet the military turns decent, patriotic young men, who could never imagine murdering anyone, into remorseless killers." I have to assume she missed the storyline when B.D. finally revealed his anguish and remorse to Elias about accidentally running over civilians when his solders were attacked.

I would like to suggest the following correction to the quote posted in A THOUGHT: "Ladies, when you catch a fellow admiring you, and resent it, blame the Creator or nature -- one of those planted the urge in his DNA and he never learned to overcome it and behave politely." We are all born rude. In spite of the poor beginning, some people manage to become polite.

I'm not sure where this storyline about Mel is going, but it's uncomfortable having been there. I doubt most will understand how far this goes. Having served 20 years in the Army, both as enlisted and then an officer, I can't tell you how many showers I've taken with a loaded Beretta in the soap dish, and it wasn't for the enemy. This type of thing -- leering and objectifying your fellow soldier -- has real consequences. I don't go around staring at my male colleagues' privates or leering around every corner. The attitude creates a climate that can turn nasty in a heartbeat. Professionalism is just that, and it's high time that all soldiers were held to the same standard.

I have to take a little offense at yesterday's reference to "Rack Recon." Ever since the Army went and stuck rank insignia square on the chest of every Army Combat Uniform, those of us who have spent years learning to keep our eyes above collar insignia have no choice but to give a hard look between the breasts to determine what rank we're meeting. Besides, ACUs are so shapeless you can't tell what's under them anyway (sigh).

Is the Army even bothering to teach hand-to-hand combat any more? Didn't Mel get the same training as B.D. and Toggle? Aren't drunks at a disadvantage against someone who keeps their head and knows what they're doing? Way to go, running a strip insinuating that Mel, a rape victim, is somehow stronger than B.D., a four-war vet who has had to "suck it up" and only now been able to have an environment where it's not considered weak for men to get help, in an era where women pour their feelings out all over the place in talk shows, columns, and prime time.

I have Melissa's post-rape counseling posted on my wall, and you have her back in the sandbox being leered at. I'm a little anxious about where this is going. I read you all the time and I know that you're usually sensitive to issues, but this one hits a little close to home for me. Thanks for listening.

I see where this is going. Mel's not interested in being leered at, which it seems like most of the men would do. The (seemingly) only other woman is very busy already. Mel's going to find a gay guy to hang out with!

I'm enjoying your current "desert rose" series, which vividly reminds me of my own deployment experiences. Fortunately, time is a great healer and commedienne. Laughing it off 10 years later is a pleasure, not to mention a marvelous source for party conversation. I only wish I'd had your strip then. Sir, I salute you.

Re: your female soldier in Iraq disturbed by the constant 'rack recon' she's receiving from the guys, the following is a thought from my book Correct Me If I'm Wrong: "Ladies, when you catch a fellow admiring you, and resent it, blame the Creator or nature -- one of those planted the urge in his DNA." I enjoy the strip every day.

I like your current series on the military "desert rose" effect. I have seen it get quite a few in trouble on tour. We had one Colonel who got in a lot of trouble over it. On the liberty flight home at the end of the tour he made a "magic wand" out of some pipe cleaners and some aluminum foil. Halfway across the Atlantic after we had departed Shannon, Ireland, he skipped and tippy-toed around the cabin with his wand, and pointing it at the female soldiers as he twinkle-toed past he would say "Ugly again," "Ugly again," "Ugly again." When we were outprocessing he was brought up on charges and he does not have to worry about being redeployed as a member of the Army ever again.

Ralph writes: "There is literally no chance that any military leadership will be able to stop guys from being guys." Yet the military turns decent, patriotic young men, who could never imagine murdering anyone, into remorseless killers. The military has no choice, nor do the recruits, since their innate empathy might get them and their fellow soldiers killed. Perhaps if they realized the stakes were equally high when they demoralized their female colleagues -- and thus risked inhibiting their readiness, as Melissa says -- then they would stop being "guys" and start being military men.

Nice recap on Kim, but I wish you had included her sloganeering. My brother and I occasionally still pull out the old comment she made, "Issues, tissues, wissues, bissues." And her quoting commercials was hilarious. But this is not a complaint, it's not like you held the pickles and held the sauce...

This is the same argument used to keep women out of traditionally male jobs for years. I work in a male-dominated industry, and early in my career I saw/put up with a lot of crap that you would never see today. No you can't control every person, but you can address the overall hostile work environment and let people know that such behavior has consequences and will not be tolerated.

I want to express my appreciation for the Melissa ("Mel") story arc. I've done so publicly, on my blog, and wanted to do so directly, as well. Thanks, Doonesbury, for consistently having the courage to address important and even painful topics with nuance and compassion.

It seems to me that the current storyline makes an argument for male-only deployments. There is literally no chance that any military leadership will be able to stop guys from being guys.

Kudos for your continued work with Melissa's storyline. Her perspective is one that needs to be highlighted, even for those of us who don't serve in the military. Getting people to stop and think about their words and actions in a new light is one of the most valuable contributions the strip can make.

To expand the discussion into related territory: I can't help but think this may be one more benefit to allowing gays to (openly) serve. At the least, it would reduce the number of ogling eyes, and it could even provide a buffering effect. I've also often thought that the example of women serving so well was an effective counter to the "unit cohesion" argument. I'm not sure now whether stories like Melissa's make the point more or less valid.

FOX stifling Roland's tweets is a tragedy of Shakespearean scope. (Hamlet: "There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow.") Roland, we hardly knew ye...

Thank you so much for the Melissa storyline. Harrassment sounds like such a minor non-issue, and people tell you to just ignore it or develop a thicker skin. That sounds great until you are the one putting up with it day after day. I have a huge amount of respect for anyone who volunteers for the military, but even more for the people who continue to serve in these situations.

And you can't line the bottom of the budgerigar's cage with a computer screen.

Duke and his son need not worry about their income. The Supreme Court has taken care of their paydays. Insurance companies, many owned by German and Swiss Companies, can now fund elections for the insurance commissioners in 12 states, including Florida and California. Imagine being able to elect your own regulator. Companies can also fund the campaigns of judges in 33 states. Hugo Chavez's Citco can also be expected to be a funder of American elections, and Duke would be just the person to help that effort.

It would be great to see some official Berzerkistan fan items for the 2010 games. I'd love to sport a Berzerkistan XC ski team jacket. Thank you for writing a witty, sardonic, and still relevant commentary on our country and world.

I want to take a moment to thank you for the B.D., Toggle and Mel storylines. I post these outside my office and the vets on my campus seem to enjoy them. More importantly, you're making the soldiers' lives and concerns real to all who read your strip. I'm not a veteran (and I'm quite a critic of our recent wars) but I work with a lot of the young men and women who have served.

Mike is dying his hair? So what? If it's good enough for Paul McCartney...

Re. the fourth panel of today's strip: Where I grew up, it was "Wextree, Wextree!" We love our newsprint, too. Beats a warm laptop.

GBT/MD -- I can't believe you still have print subscriptions. I got rid of all mine almost ten years ago. Back in the 90s I thought I would never be able to do without my newspaper with my morning coffee. But time is of the essence, and I realized everything I read in the print newspapers I already knew from the Internet. Biggest pleasant surprise: no newspapers to have to bundle up for the recyclers. Man, you are so 1990s. I was in Starbucks the other day and saw someone reading a print copy of The New York Times. "How quaint," is what I thought.

Ooh! Ooh! Mike is dyeing his hair! No more white bits over his ears...

I don't know who's funnier, the boomers who keep up with the times or the ones who don't. Luckily it doesn't really matter, we can laugh at both. So cheers to jobs and Jobs!

Hold the presses! Better get back to the 20 friends and tell them that pennini is the plural, and pennino is the singular. At least that's what wiktionary.org says. I wonder what the pannini sandwich has to do with the nib of a pen...

Actually, panini is the plural. Singular: panino.

GBT had better watch out. The iDrones will come for him. They will smug, smarm, cajole, and eye-roll him into the fetal position. They will use subjectivity and browbeating fanaticism until he cries out, "No more! I didn't know the interface was so personal! I'm sorry I didn't consider design to be more important than function! It just works! It just works! It..just...works..." He'll be left a sobbing mess when they're done with him.

I recognize that this is a problem perpetuated by corporate advertising, and that falls right in line with today's strip -- but just so we're all clear, the plural of pennini is pennino. Tell a friend; tell twenty friends. We can make a difference.

Perfect paninis? I'll take it!

I love Leo! He may be a wounded warrior, but he's proud of his regiment. Whether you're Army or Marine, you have to have that pride and know you were the best, or what was the point of being there.

I also love Dr. Shiply. My wife and I took several math classes at Houston Community College on our way to getting into teaching. We found that the instructors were professional, prepared, and interested in their subjects and teaching. Community colleges are the last hope in America for lower class and lower middle class kids to have a chance at an education.

So glad to see Alex hasn't dropped out of MIT to be with Toggle. I'm guessing that Toggle is going to Bunker Hill Community College -- but are there trailer parks in Boston?

Yesterday's strip, in which Leo talks about being lucky, I found particularly moving. Some years ago we celebrated my dad's 70th birthday, and he gave a toast in which he said how lucky he had been. He mentioned two things in particular -- getting together with my mom, and getting out of World War II alive. He was in the Army in Italy and lost the lower part of one leg from a land mine, but what he remembered was how a brave medic had helped him out, and how other people had not been so lucky. I've really enjoyed Doonesbury over the years, for a lot of reasons, but this strip was special.

Thanks for the levity in a week that has been nothing but bad news here and abroad. It's good to laugh.

Thank you for your character Leo. As a fairly conservative Vietnam veteran, I have followed your commentary with bemusement since Day One. Political philosophy aside, I have found your work of late has been very supportive of our military veterans. I am very appreciative of your efforts in this regard. It helps. Good job. Thank you.

I agree with all the other posters. I am really enjoying the evolution of Leo (Toggle) and Alex. I'm a 25-year reader -- faithfully everyday -- and I just can't wait to see what happens with these kids next. Thanks, GBT!

Today's comic: Awwww! I am so loving this.

Okay, it's official, today's panel is without a doubt the best one in the history of Doonesbury. Thanks, GBT!

Ten years into my own TBI, I'm deeply sad that so many thousands of our young troops have closed head Traumatic Brain Injury. It's not near so much fun as Toggle is having these days. Aphasia is not common to the injury; you wouldn't know anything was wrong with me if I didn't tell you. You'd just think I'd been into the wacky tabacky again. TBI's mostly just years of pain, weakness, and diminished capacity. The strip has been so good with vet's issues, wish we could start over with Toggle...

Editor's note: According to the National Institutes of Health web site, "Language and communication problems are common disabilities in TBI patients. Some may experience aphasia, defined as difficulty with understanding and producing spoken and written language. In non-fluent aphasia, also called Broca's aphasia, TBI patients often have trouble recalling words and speaking in complete sentences. They may speak in broken phrases and pause frequently. Most patients are aware of these deficits and may become extremely frustrated."

Monday's strip is so...well, sweet isn't really the right word, but it'll do. It's sweet how Toggle goes from being all slouchy teen to perfect posture, salute ready when reminded that he was in the Army! Aaawww... I love him! (But shouldn't Alex be back at MIT by now?)

Army reject? Not likely. The Army keeps wanting the Marines to dumb down because we take too many of their officer candidates!

It's nice to see Toggle getting support from his prof. He is motivated enough to get through this. BTW, we could use an update on Jeff and his CIA problems.

Regarding today's strip, in which Toggle calls a Marine an "Army reject" -- never in a million years would the U.S. Marines even let an "Army reject" in their Recruiting doors. And as far as being a "real soldier," I will give the Army that, but then there are the Marines, and that is something you will never be! Semper Fi! M.O.M. (for non-Marine people, that's Mom of a Marine)

Thanks for bringing on board Dr. Shiply and community colleges. Dr. Shiply recognizes the challenges faced by many community college students, and he represents the caring faculty that sees to the students' needs beyond the academic issues.

I have been wanting to tell Garry for some time now that Leo and Alex make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside -- a bit of beauty in a harsh world. They are so real, and I love them. Doonesbury is absolutely brilliant, and I've followed it for a gazillion years. You shine a focused light on all the idiocies ("Here's a deer hoof..."), and you "support our troops" brilliantly, by raising questions about the war and the "leadership," by showing the realities on the ground, casualties included, and by depicting the young women and men who are risking life and limb with compassion and understanding. Thank you thank you thank you. And don't stop!!!

Garry Trudeau may be a bleeding heart liberal, but I really like how he treats the military. Today's strip is great -- Leo saying he's sorry that Dr. Shipley was a Marine, because the "Army rejected him." Sounds a lot like something I'd say -- and did. I was asked once if I was a Marine, and I said "No, I'm a real soldier."

I've spent 31 years in the military, 28 as an officer, and have been pretty much suspicious of this strip the entire time (as well as a loyal reader -- go figure). I really like what you're doing with the Leo character. For the first time (for me) I see no political agenda whatsoever in a character, other than an admiration for the young men and women serving our country. As I approach the end of my career, it's good to see bipartisan public support for the young troops coming up. They are, generally, the best this country has to offer. Thanks, and keep up the good work.

Today's exchange between Leo and Dr. Shiply brings to mind my favorite circus punchline. In the movie Murder by Death, Peter Falk's secretary/mistress explains that her uncle stopped taking her to the circus when she reached the age of 26. With expert deadpan, Falk responds, "Yer uncle took you to the circus til you was 26? What the hell kind of circus was it?"

Thank you so much for depicting community colleges as you are doing. They are unsung heroes. Doonesbury stands as a pillar in my quotidian day. Thanks.

"Mesmerized" indeed -- and the fact it is Toggle, whose prior indicators show strong clear BS filters, reinforces the point of the word. All the moreso for those who know Mesmer's career.

I think Leo (Toggle) is one of the best characters you have ever come up with. Intelligent, funny, and a hero. Wow. The perfect foil for Alex. I'd love to see a meeting between him and Jeff Redfern. Whew!!!

Oh this is good! This is very good. Toggle really sees Alex and calls it. I think this is one of the best "love" stories I've read. Very uplifting today. Thank you.

Okay, I take it all back, I thought Toggle was a low-class distraction for Alex in her brilliant career, and I am well and delicately set right. Beautiful. I love this guy!

Oh good for Alex. Even though she's panicking, she says "You're a soldier -- suck it up!" She doesn't cling, she doesn't thrash, and she doesn't whine. She's closer to Boopsie than JJ. Good work, Alex.

Re today's SayWhat? quote:

"You know, well, all of them, because they came collectively together with...so much diversity in terms of belief but collectively they came together to form this union."
-- Sarah Palin, when asked by Glenn Beck to name her favorite founding father

Well she couldn't say "Washington," because he hated factionalism and she's a bewildered faction of one; she couldn't say "Jefferson," because he was pretty much a Democrat; she couldn't say "Hamilton" because he was too intelligent and apparently couldn't well handle pistols -- and besides, by her standards he'd probably be an illegal alien and the Federalist Party sounds too much like big, intelligent government.

I think the Alex and Toggle relationship is one of the most inspired directions Doonesbury has taken. I do like how the two are emerging from the honeymoon period of their relationship and facing some serious challenges. Though I would like to have a bit more focus on Alex and her schoolwork, I'm hoping GBT keeps these two together despite everything -- if for no other reason, just so Toggle can finally meet Alex's dad and his wife.

Two words to Mrs. DeLuca: "Overprotective much?" Really, seriously, she raised Toggle to be a man. That hasn't changed. She needs to get past nearly losing her baby and get back to letting him be the man he is.

Wow, I bow my head to Robert Gibbs of Manchester! I thought I knew the Doonesbury world, but to remember Sherm from those few Jimmy Thudpucker toons 10 1/2 years ago -- that blows me away!

Excellent! Audio comedy in a comic strip! I am a physiatrist, and I have always appreciated your portrayal of us in your amputee series. I just had to write to tell you how much I appreciate your positive portrayal of disability, including traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, and others over the years. This strip, which combines aphasia and hearing impairment, is delightful. Thanks again!

Re today's strip: Why do I get the impression I just walked into an "Airplane!" routine?

Here's one more you can burn!

Clearly, Zeke torched the silo because he knew some reader had written in identifying him as the mastermind behind the seduction and attempted swindling of Mike's mom. Our heroes' only hope is a massive email campaign which will hopefully come to Mike's attention. So let me be the first to say: "Mike! Zeke is behind that con artist who's been sponging off your mom! He's gonna try to cut you out of the will, Mike!"

Suspects? Me, I think it was GBT himself in the mail silo with the match, getting rid of another timesuck. First the tweets, now the letters. Will Blowback be next? Maggie, haul the pike down from the roofthatch and meet me in the yard.

I'm surprised that people haven't heard the phrase "dead to me" before. And it's appropriate; I've always been under the impression that it's Jewish in origin, as is Mark.

As for today's strip -- Why, Zeke, why? Why?

A while back, a reader from North Carolina mentioned that your website was the first one she goes to each morning. In my time zone, the next day's strip is available at 10PM. So Doonesbury is the last thing I read at night. I get my chuckle and then head off to bed.

Today's Zipper strip is a perfect punctuation to the week of Palin strips -- the same pea in two different pods when it comes to process. Does it come from being raised by a TV? Say and Do are separate realms irrelevant to each other, and Say seems to be the only one that counts. Is there also a Darwinian leverage in its biological efficiency, or only in its utility as eternal camoflauge?

With the frightening potential that Sarah Palin will achieve the highest office based on extremely important behaviors such as timely winks, 'honest' talk and faux-rogueism, I had a flash of the scene at the end of "Samson and Delilah" (1949), which I saw as a child, when the screen hunk, Victor Mature, as the blinded Samson, put his shoulders to the pillars supporting the temple (read USA), while, above him, in the temple, the happily oblivious Palin supporters drank wine amid massive denial of the mess made of our country by not-Walt-Disney's "Leaders of the 21st Century." I don't know a single war Veteran from my small group who 'likes' Palin for anything but keeping a constant vigil on Russia from her property.

I think one of the best recent developments in the strip -- second only to the Alex/Toggle romance -- is Boopsie's growth. Bravo, GBT, for smashing another stereotype and creating such a lovable, admirable character.

Wouldn't the Sarah Palin action doll's batteries be dead by now? It seems unlikely that a lookalike daughter of warm Boopsie and somewhat remote B.D. would still be interested. There are so many more attractive pop figures who don't relate by way of politics -- the sphere that is surely anathema to teenage daughters of anybody but solid right-wing fanatics. And B.D.? Though conservative and a bit thick, surely he is just too smart to fall for Palin. Maybe it's just that he is amused at the phenomenon -- or perversely feels he should defend her against Boopsie's good sense.

Boopsie has always been my favorite "airhead", and in her commments about Palin she shows still more smarts than many.

I'm a professor of English and linguistics, and just wanted to tell you how impressed I am with how you capture and caricature Sarah Palin's speaking style. It has me rolling on the floor every time! Thanks for many smiles and chuckles.

A New Year's strip about Obama -- I love it! Thanks so much, Mr. Trudeau.

Boopsie: "You can't just spend the first 40 years of your life being woefully ignorant of the world and how it works and then suddenly announce you're prepared to become President because someone crammed you with bullet points!" Agreed. All you really need is a teleprompter crammed with bullet points.

Boopsie for president.

You may have picked the wrong cartoon to rerun on January 1st, because it's so good that the strip the rest of the year will find it hard to live up to.

Today's strip may be the best thing you've done since "Bravo for life's little ironies."

The eight Americans killed in Afghanistan were CIA. I hope Jeff's okay.

Interesting take on Sarah Palin in today's script. For a moment, I thought the subject was Obama.

I seem to be reading Mark's tirade differently from everyone else, as I thought it was Mark himself, along with other instant-gratification liberals, who was being pilloried. Most of us know a few people like Mark; all one can do is let them rant. While idealism is a wonderful thing, and we need idealists, they can be a royal pain. Isn't the main point of our system the necessity for compromise, so that no one group's ideals completely dominate? In the recent past we came as close to that as I ever want to come, and I found it scary, to say the least. There's not an idealist on either side who will ever be happy with everything coming out of Washington, no matter who is in power, and it is truly better that way. Let Mark rant.

It seems that some people don't understand that the expression, "So-and-so is dead to me" means that the speaker has lost all affection for that person. Also, re the commentary on "MARK'S REACTION", there are a number of liberals who have become disillusioned with Obama not because he has been too slow to push a liberal agenda, but because they think he never intended to, and that his campaign promises were all empty talk. It may have been only a year, but with a solid majority in Congress, his "blame the mess I inherited" is sounding like a thin excuse.

Doonesbury advocating assassination? No way! First of all, Mark's actual words were, "He is dead to me!" Those aren't the words of a would-be assassin. That's the howl of a disappointed lover who has just spotted the lumps of clay on the ends of his beloved's legs. Second, why assume that Mark (or any other Doonesbury character) is voicing his creator's personal views? When, for instance, Zonker says something typically Zonkerish, I doubt that you, or anybody, thinks he's channeling Trudeau's own thoughts. Trudeau is a cartoonist, doing a cartoonist's job -- part of which is to point out the shortcomings of the people in power, whoever they are.

Honestly, I can't tell which makes me laugh more, Mark losing it over Obama's lackluster performance or the responses from the people who are mortally offended that you gave Obama the same treatment you've given every other sitting president since the strip began. You've been killing (or at least bruising) sacred cows since 1970. I'd expect no less from you in 2010. Keep it up!

I love the Sarah Palin Action Doll! And now that I've discovered it is not just a figment of Garry's imagination, I plan to get one. But I wonder -- is it anatomically correct? That is, does it have the brass balls?

In the latest series with the SP doll, why doesn't GT let us see Palin's eyes? Palin herself does her best to conceal them behind spectacles that make her look intelligent. Her earlier pictures without glasses, such as those taken when she was in college, show the eyes of a wild animal. Does Trudeau find it too frightening to portray her eyes?

You and Tina Fey have got Palin down pat. You may or may not know that the reason she talks so funny apparently is due to a Minnesota connection. Several decades ago, a number of families from central and northern Minnesota moved to Alaska and homesteaded in the Wasilla area. They had a unique dialect/accent that has its roots in their Scandinavian heritage -- yah sure ya' betcha, oh fer sure, hey donchaknow? A lot of Minnesotans settled in Alaska. In fact, one of the main streets in Anchorage is Minnesota Avenue, right near the airport.

In an earlier cartoon that features an exchange between Mark and the homeless Elmont, you may also have captured the essence of Sarah Palin's fractured syntax. Mark: "Seriously, you've always had that pithy non sequitur thing going on." Elmont: "Along with a robust incoherence and a transcendent vacuity."

Please, please, please stop running strips about Sarah Palin. The fact that she even exists makes me nauseous. We don't need to be reminded of it via Flashbacks. You must have plenty of other good Flashback material you could run instead.

I really enjoyed your artwork and your writing today -- the dialogue between Rick and Joanie, her thinking, the silhouetted frame with the contrasting reality of the kid in Afghanistan following. Nice!

Thank you for posting this. I'm just sick of everyone here in America as well! The Republicans are pretending the last eight years never happened, and that all our woes just warped in with Obama as president. The Democrats are acting like Obama can flick a switch and undo the corrosive damage done by the last eight years of intolerable incompetence. Some commentators are saying how Obama should do what Bush did, for heaven's sake!

Obama should be respected for trying to follow the actual rules our forefathers set up, which were rules designed to keep things from changing too quickly. Has everyone become so accustomed to the Republican abuse and abandonment of those rules that we want Obama to simply follow suit? I respect that Obama is trying desperately to de-polarize the hostility between the left and the right so that Americans can come back to the world of debate and discussion rather than stonewalling and obstruction. Obama should be praised for trying to behave like a President of Americans.

While I agree with Mark that many of the programs and policies of the Bush/Cheney years were appalling, I'm finding the progressive/liberal reaction to President Obama too similar to the purging of the GOP by the ultra-conservatives. If President Obama fails, we all fail, and the progressive/liberal movement will be no more in this country. President Obama was given a country in ruins, economically and morally. He can't change everything overnight, and believe it or not, everyone in the country may not want everything the progressives/liberals want. I am a progressive/liberal and have been my entire political life, but I am slowly moving away from the movement as I see it using the same tactics as the Palin-Limbaugh-Beck wing of the GOP.

Ironically, Alex walked herself back out of a bind very nicely last Sunday and, the next day, Mark...didn't, even when advised to. I wonder what he'll do now.

Witnessing how Mark and other former supporters are turning on President Obama as we face the gravity of the numerous realities with which he must deal, I think back to 1988 when, for a while, it appeared that the Democrats might take back the White House. The economy was in a mess, Ronald Reagan had tripled the deficit that he had inherited from Jimmy Carter, and the Reagan administration was awash in political scandals.

While no big fan of Bush 1, I sympathized with his situation when he tried to clean up some of the Reagan mess by taking some responsible, but politically unpopular, actions. After one term the public turned on him and somehow forgot all about Teflon Ron's role and we got a Bill Clinton with a largely free slate. I am very glad that Barack Obama is our President, but I fear that many Americans, with our very short political memory, will direct our anger and impatience against the wrong target. President Obama needs our energy and support now more than ever.

I wonder what's next for Mark -- hosting Sister Sarah Palin on his show and hawking her "book"? Enrolling in a Focus on the Family, Pray it Straight homosexual cure course? He's stood for strong values all these years, and I'm disappointed that he would cave eleven months into the new administration.

My son who is married to a lovely British lady and lives in the UK brought her here to Vegas for a visit over the Thanksgiving holiday. In the course of his visit, while talking politics, he echoed Kathleen's sentiments almost exactly. The people in the UK and on the Continent recognize the enormity of the problems that President Obama inherited from the previous administration's reign. The folks of Donald Rumsfeld's "Old Europe" are able to understand how hard it has been for Obama to navigate through the two war, economic near disaster, social program initiative and opposition party delay tactic minefields.

They find it hard to believe that instead of the nation getting behind the leadership to help solve our national problems, most people, including some from both political parties, the obnoxious Tea-Partiers, and people who seem to be concerned only with the problems that concern them individually continue to snipe at the President and his efforts to solve everyone's perceived difficulties. They seem to know us better than we know ourselves.