Re. AMUSED: There's a big problem with parting an evil dictator (or his kids) from a couple of million dollars. It never belonged to him in the first place! The money Khadafi's evil issue paid to Beyonce and other entertainers for their services was stolen from the Libyan people.

I'm not sure the reader who compared jeff to the McCarthyite ideologues of the 50s really "gets" him. Jeff is utterly non-ideological. (To have an ideology, one must actually believe in something.) His espionage career, first with the CIA and then with Overkill, does not flow from any ideological commitment, but from a growing sense of himself as being The Red Rascal -- the Scarlet Pimpernel of the 21st century: heavy on the derring-do, light on any conviction behind it. The $90 ransom sums up his involvement. (I hope that's $90 in greenbacks, rather than in the slightly more valuable Aussie dollar.) Who would have thought that Jeff would become such a complex character?

The resolution to Jeff's capture was perfect: Once again, the American gets away with it without learning a single lesson or paying any significant price (moral or otherwise). I really wish Trudeau would try to recapture the sense of outrage he used to put into the strip. Everyone likes (or tolerates) Jeff, but he's morally reprehensible, a "kinder, gentler" equivalent of the wingnuts from the 1950s who saw Communists in every corner.

Ninety bucks? This brings to mind O. Henry's famous tale The Ransom of Red Chief.

I'm sure the $90 was to cover the cost of all the texting the Red Rascal did using their cell phones.

I'm a little disappointed. I hoped the Red Rascal was going to end up running something in that benighted piece of the planet. Of course, he's not home yet...

Sunday's strip about the $90 ransom was plain awesome, dude. What a great ending to all the inflated mythology of the Red Rascal. I hope we eventually get to see some story flashbacks of how this came to pass.

Love the series of expressions on Joanie's face. Priceless!

Yes!!! Only GBT could end the Jeff saga so perfectly. A true chuckle grenade. Thanks.

He's alive! He's alive! Best ninety bucks ever. Probably.

The CIA should have asked the Taliban to pay them for taking Jeff Back. Apparently the Taliban didn't keep him long enough to suffer the mind-destroying side-effects of his company.

Yes, we should all feel sorry for the artists, because we all know you can't play music unless you show up in your own Lear jet. Music piracy is one thing. This is greed.

I'm glad to see Jimmy Thudpucker back. Now I'm living in hope of Wah-Wah Graydon reappearing for a jam...

While I have been very much amused by Mr. Thudpucker these last couple of days, I question whether there is really something wrong with spending an evening parting an evil dictator from a couple of million dollars.

When I'm cranky or upset for any or all of the various conditions going on in the world or to me personally, I read a couple days' worth of the strip and it never fails to put that bemused look on my face -- the one Mike gets when he's watching the news. Thanks!

Like so many Straw Polls, the current one leaves me wishing for a fourth option -- in this case "Depressed Resignation." Just like barbed wire and legal documents ended the American frontier, the on-line frontier is slowy being hemmed in by those who have figured out how to make us pay for content. It was inevitable that human greed and an available market would eventually end the days of free information. When today's kids are old enough to be nostalgic, the days of wide-open free content is one of the things they will tell their grandchildren about.

Lighten up on Thudpucker. Where is it written that popular musicians are supposed to be beacons of enlightenment or anything but entertainers? I didn't take my politics or my morals from guitar players 40+ years ago, when that was the fashion, and I don't see why anyone should now...

The best part of the Odd Couple storyline is how much Earl is clearly enjoying not being there. But goats? Really, President Trff?

The current Straw Poll about the Gray Lady is well timed! I was waffling between trying to squeeze by on 20 articles/month or ponying up, and Doonesbury made the difference. Real journalism must survive. My monthly NPR donation puts the $15 to the Times in the shade -- why was I even hesitating? Of course, if they'd thrown the Crossword Puzzle into the price of the subscription, I wouldn't have. The WaPo puzzle page is still free.

Supreme, exalted, unrealistic President for Life Bmzklfrpz must be Scott Walker's role model.