Today's flashback comic is great. It reminds me of a conversation I had with a medic in Baghdad, 2007. The poor kid was 18, a replacement, and had been in country less than a week. "You've been hit by six IED's? This tour? SGT, I don't know if I have room on this form for that." Great medic once he settled down a bit.

This Sunday strip captured perfectly the conundrum I've lived with in my ten years of being a grandparent.

As the mother of twins, now grown and gone, I welcomed my mom's help after the babies were born. Never had to have a "talk." She was one of those awesome grandmas who understood that the babies were mine but I was hers. She's gone now and missed by the whole family.

Today's strip brought back memories of the birth of my oldest son. My mother-in-law had come up from Florida to "help out for a couple of weeks" and ended up staying for over a month and actually almost taking away our responsibility for our own child. I would come home from work and find that the tension in the house was such that it was affecting the little guy's psyche. We had to have "the talk" with my mother-in-law (who I actually got on okay with) about putting a cap on her visit. Very painful, I'm afraid, but once she left the change in the baby was remarkable. But it took several months.

Just about any young mom with a PhD who has great things to do and prospects ahead of her that require a lot of time away from the nursery would be thrilled to have lovely grandfolks like these around to take up the slack; better than hiring strangers.

Ahh... If Mike & Kim can just hang around and never intervene in Alex & Toggle's "private lives"  -- no matter how loud the discussions become (barring the need for physical rescue, of course) -- they stand a good chance of becoming part of the twins' daily landscape, and that will definitely be a good thing!

Today's strip is just great. I love it. Believe me, a lot of young moms can relate.

How did GBT nail a regal function mob scene so well? When I was living in the UK in the 1970s, I attended one of the Queen's garden parties. It was OK, but 10,000 Brits who were trying to get a glimpse of the Queen were being herded around by Beefeaters with long pikes. Police tape would not have been out of place.

Wow! I can't wait for GBT's "Alpha House" to debut. Wanda Sykes was on the Ellen Show today talking about it. As expected, gonna be good!

I just want to thank you for the Sunday strip on North Carolina. So often you say what I'm thinking, only much better. The NC state legislature needs to be slammed for what it is doing to our state. Thank you for taking them to task nationally.

Your cartoon on the state of things in North Carolina is a typical elitist Northeasterner's take on something that you don't need to experience or understand. Stay where you are. We are happy here. We would not be happy living where you live, but I will not try to tell you how you should live or think.

I just want you to know how much we miss your incisiveness during this time.

"If you do." That's an expected response. Due to the fact that Duke's done enough drugs to rival Keith Richards, his grip on reality's got to be a little slippery.

"If you do." Best Doonesbury punchline ever.

I never find The Donald funny, even in Doonesbury, but today's rerun reminded me: Donald Trump and Sarah Palin together -- funny.

I was stunned by what I read about North Carolina in Sunday's strip. Although I rarely read your strip, I happened to glance at it and kept reading. I truly had no idea that NC had all those rules in place and I appreciate you putting all that out in print for people like me to read. I have a brother in NC that I wish would move to TX. After reading your strip, I wondered if that's why he won't leave NC. I would love to live there if what you printed about that state is really true. I will keep NC in mind if I ever decide to leave TX.

I wrote this poem inspired by Sunday's strip:

NORTH CAROLINA 

For young folks here, we can’t allow
Their vote preregistrations.
They’re just too immature to know
Our voting expectations.
And teachers in our public schools
Already have it good.
Our funds will help academies
That teach the way they should.
The unemployed don’t need our help.
We want to make it clear
Their benefits are just too great.
No loafers welcome here.
And women say they know what’s best.
They think we men are cynics.
But we will pass restrictions that
Will close abortion clinics.
Minorities should not have rights.
We’re not their wants promoting.
So we’ll impose restrictions on
Sunday and early voting.
To college students, we’ll set out
Some new and needed rules
That make it hard for them to vote
While at their chosen schools.
And law enforcement has it wrong.
They’re missing all their marks.
We think that guns should be allowed
In playgrounds, bars, and parks.
Those scientists of climate change
Who write of warming thaw
Can’t put it in reports, or they’ll
Be punished. It’s the law.
So come on down and visit,
where Our “NO” is much preferred.
North Carolina’s epigram:
Progress – a dirty word.

Well, it's now official. North Carolina is the new South Carolina. For the moment, at least, and until some other unfortunate state takes the title, we're the nation's joke state. For anyone who wondered what life would be if Republicans ruled the world, here's your lab experiment. Not pretty is it? Our spineless GOP governor's PAC is now running in-state PR ads in an attempt, I imagine, to diffuse some of the anger. In the ads he says, "We've stepped on the toes of both the left and the right." The right? Who in the state is so far to the right their toes were injured -- secessionists? If anyone asks, I'm originally from Canada.

Tons of thanks for Sunday's cartoon about the NC legislature. I sure hope you are planning a series; there is so much more. It's eerie to live here and watch it all unravel right in front of our eyes. Maybe your attention will curb their enthusiasm for ruining a perfectly good state.

The Party of No: If the California Highway Patrol is called CHiPs, is the North Carolina Highway Patrol called No CHiPs?