What fuel problem?

Guest of honor

Beloved fellow artist Felipe (Feggo) Feggo has sent me this superb cartoon (which first appeared in the Inxart.com site) about the controversy surrounding the Mohammed Cartoons.Well done, Felipe-louder than words ;-)

"Straight Shooter"

From "Brokeback Mountain" to Dick Cheney's "hunting accident", both terms mentioned in the title of this post suffer mortal wounds these days...

(This post is part of the "cheap remarks i just couldn't resist making" book i plan on publishing in case of a severe "writer's block").

Enlightment

Never be Rude to an Arab

Never be rude to an Arab,
An Isreali, or Saudi, or Jew.
Never be rude to an Irishman,
No matter what you do.

Never poke fun at a Nigger,
A Spic, or a Wop, or Kraut.
And never poke fun at at...

KABOOM!!!

(This Monty Python song, written decades ago is quite relevant today, as is everything the talented group written over the years)

Just don't say I didn't warn you!

Yes, I know the whole issue of the Mohammed cartoons is not really about God,it's about a wide range of social/political factors.And that is why it's about God: because no human conflict about God was EVER about God.

Just to set the record straight:I am an agnostic.This means I don't deny the existence of God, neither confirm it.I simply declare myself open to every possibility and get on with my life.
Much to the disappointment of Those Charging themselves Interpreters of the Will of God, I haven't yet killed any significant amount of people (in fact, I miserably failed to kill even one),which rather robes said individuals of their excuse for acquiring power over our lives: that without the moral compass provided by Organized Religion,we would get at each other's throats at no time flat.
In the process of persuading us towards appointing them in that position, any and all of clergy encouraged, applauded or participated in countless bloodshed throughout history, which would rather undermine the whole notion of Moral Guidance to any sane human being, but conveniently they all say that in order to embrace God, one has to abandon sanity and embrace faith, which in turn undermines the Regulator Factor, but this again is an observation based on the use of the accursed Logic.
Now, where was I? Oh,yeah...setting the Record straight:
I am in the same business as God: that of creating. The Clergy, on the other side, is totally inadequate for the position as they never created anything, and the fact that most of them denounce the process of creating Life (up to the point of denying even their deities of being born through that process or any process at all),rather makes them even more inadequate to understand, much more communicate the Wills of someone in the business of creating Life.
The next Logical step is to appoint Me and other creators as regulators of Social interactions and every aspect of your life in general.
Of course, being a sane and logical person, I would instantly refuse the position.
The Faithful, due to their inclination to shut down their logic functions at will, would refuse me this position as well.
And so the world will continue to be in the same mess it already is.

Worlds Apart

This brilliant two-page comic was Frank Miller's response to 9/11. Short,sharp and laying blame where it belongs, and all this amidst the confusion of the moment.
Whatever made him several years and one crusade later to suddenly develop tunnel vision and decide that he should make a "propaganda piece" (his words) where the Batman "kicks Al-Qaida's ass?". We will wait until "Holly Terror,Batman!" is finished and published and see.Meanwhile, we can ponder whether the answer lies within "Dark Knight Returns", his landmark Batman work and just one of suspiciously too many starring a psychotic vigilante hero.

Thankfully, not all talented comic book creators leave you with mixed feelings about their projected ideology.Neil Gaiman, the Dream King, offers a far better take on the "War of Civilizations" back when the term was at its infancy, in his brilliant story "Ramadan", part of the "Fables and Reflections" volume of the "Sandman" series: that of understanding and embracing a foreign culture instead of chosing to become part of the problem:

EXCLUSIVE: Τhe 12 portraits of Freedom of Expression!

Valentine's Day 2006

Hell of a way to start the week

He he he...I've been waiting for this piece for days! Wouldn't you want to read what the woman who wrote after 9/11 "we should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity" had to say about the Mohammed Cartoons case?
Ann Coulter, dear readers, the "reigning diva of the hysterical right, or rather, the hysterical diva of the reigning right" as Al Franken aptly describet her, strikes again

(I should put a permanent link to her page.Love her or hate her, she is a riot-pun intented).

Always look at the bright side of Life!

Who deserves the Credit?

Several people ask me these days if i feel proud that at last cartooning has been promoted to first page news.
Oh,I'd love to, once i make up my mind whether this uproar would happen even if the cartoons in discussion were "serious", even flattering illustrations.
I think it's a lose/lose scenario.Either the whole thing is orchestrated, in which case the Muslim uprising would be fueled anyway by the fact that "they gave a face to the Unpresentable",
OR
The whole thing can be attributed to the thourougly satiric properties of the cartoons (the 12 originals plus 3 which were added afterwards for extra provocation),in which case the cartooning which made front page news was the WRONG kind of cartooning.(the reasons why i explained in the "drawing the line" post).
Careful navigation is needed in these troubled waters.

And of course, everyone has a secret agenda

Αs is the norm in big events, conspiracy theories begin to circulate. The "cartoon provocation" serves the neocon agenda. The riots are orchestrated rather than spontaneous! Secret funds, sinister agendas, orchestrating hands, insidious masterminds! Groovy!
One thing bothers me: some of these theories are accompanied by "explanations" that stink themselves of biased agendas: how else can i read the "analysis" that the increasing number of immigrants in Europe and elsewhere is orchestrated by the same "masters", so that civilizations will clash since "multiculturism won't and would never work"?

Splendid! Now we have martyrs,too

I will resist the temptation to underline the irony, but I can't help but observe that the side that cries "death to the infidels" is so far the side suffering the only deaths this sad story resulted to.
To balance this observation, I will remind to the Enlightened Western Citizen who will automatically think himself above such barbaric mentality, the numerous times a football event resulted in riots, beatings and the occasional stampede.
Given the correct circumstances,(and always a very wrong reason) every society can alarmingly quickly revert to mob ruling.

Headhunting

It is a much too often proven fact that those in the business of Religious Zealoting accumulate an abundance of wordly riches (all in the name of "promoting the course" of course).To put it in simple words, they have money to spare.That explains why some of them are already announcing a bounty for the heads of the Danish cartoonists. That is a total waste of money.The gentlemen in question certainly used their hands, some quite propably used their hearts, and some nitpickers will observe that a few use their feet to draw.
But it is quite apparent none of them used their heads.

Sharpen your Pencils!

10 more hilarious cartoon subjects that will help "confirm the tolerance of our free society":


-Interior decoration ideas for the homeless
-Same Sex Cannibalism
-Armless Veteran's masturbation
-"what-if" ideas for face transplant
-Democracy-building carpet-bombing
-Japanese solitary suicidal teens
-The poor, sick and elderly (always handy for a good laugh)
-One parent families
-Mentally Institutinalized family members
-Wife beating

"With great power..."

...i know this isn't the time for this cartoon (i explain why in the big post about the subject).But it was an itch i was dying to scratch.

Freedom of Siege

Drawing the Line

The story of the Danish cartoons blew out of proportion. This would be a good thing, in the best tradition of the cartoonist profession (take the subject to the extremes; highlight your subject matter through magnification of its characteristics) if human lives weren't suddenly at stake.
And that's where i draw the line.
Every coin has two sides, and sometimes oversimplification can obscure significant parts of the subject matter.Cartooning at its best is aggresive polemic.And any good general will attest that when fighting a war,things like timing,target picking, battleground chosing and good estimation of the opponent's intentions are the factors that can win or lose a war.And these are things that every artist, in every cartoon should take into consideration, including the Danish colleaques.
But.
This is a discussion for a quieter time and a safer setting. For now,the important thing, the target where i would choose to concetrate my firepower, is protection of the right to free expression.No asterisks, no "yes but" and no neutrality is allowed here.
This right must be protected at all costs.For everyone.This is not as simple as it sounds.It means also the right of someone to print any crazy thing he likes about the Holocaust.It means the right to cartoon pedophile Catholic Priests when the situation needs it.It means my right to schedule my viewing of "the Last Temptation" according to the theater's timetable, not the religious mob's whims.
And it also means that everybody, big or small, in the news business, will see to it that views opposite to ours will be given equal opportunity to challenge our certainties.Are we so sure that we can be subjected to the same acid test we put others trhrough?
We can talk the talk, can we walk the walk?