The big decision: Same-sex marriage in Massachusetts
And other odds and ends

From the AP ("High Court in Massachusetts Rules Gays Have Right to Marry"):

BOSTON -- Massachusetts' highest court ruled Tuesday that same-sex couples are legally entitled to wed under the state constitution, but stopped short of allowing marriage licenses to be issued to the couples who challenged the law. The Supreme Judicial Court's 4-3 ruling ordered the Legislature to come up with a solution within 180 days

I can't wait to see the conservative reaction to this...

On a totally different topic, an article about Diebold voting machines (and Diebold's ties to the Bush campaign)...

Oh, and I've been cartooning but not posting individual cartoons here, just see the cartoons page.

Newspapers finally report all U.S. military deaths in Iraq...

...not just combat-related deaths. The number was 379 as of Monday but has since risen. Editor and Publisher has the scoop.

Editorial cartoonist Kirk Anderson has a website...

... so visit it already.

Cartoon fun with racist stereotypes in space
...and gender stereotypes on the ground

First, I just want to say: way too many of the cartoonists who chose to draw on the topic of China's recent space launch saw it as nothing more than an occasion to make stupid jokes about aliens ordering Chinese takeout or even more ridiculously, "space junks". Way to go for THINKING BEYOND RACIAL STEREOTYPES, people...

And speaking of tired old jokes, here's another one: oh look, that lady in the dress has hairy legs and an Adam's apple. Isn't that funny, kids? Ha ha ha.

Yeah, so while we're talking about stereotypes, I'm not sure what this "Girly-men Dems" cartoon is supposed to mean, but regardless, I'm annoyed by it. Update: Philip P. hypothesizes that the cartoon is actually mocking the idea that Bush is the tough one, since Kerry is the one who actually went to Vietnam. But that doesn't explain the Modern Hairdo & Allure magazines or the addition of the other candidates. Anyway, I hate it when the insinuation of femininity is used as an insult...

...as much as I hate it when the insinuation of masculinity is used as an insult. Back in the day, a lot of people thought it was really funny to make fun of Janet Reno by joking that she was "really a man." Not because she did a lot of stupid things, but because she wasn't stereotypically pretty or feminine. Anyway, one of my absolute favorite cartoonists (yeah, you know who) recently made a series of stupid "Ann Coulter is a man" jokes that then turned into a series of "transgendered people are weird" jokes. Yes, Ann Coulter is evil. Yes, Ann Coulter is frightening (whatever addled-brain reporters might say about her supposed "blond bombshell" looks). But that has nothing to do with whether she has an Adam's apple or not, thank-you-very-much. As reader Chloe L. put it to me in an email:

What is mcgruder DOING?!?!? Frigid Condi Rice just needs a man? Ann Coulter is really a man? Today's strip (10/23) is particularly grotesque!

Sigh... well, if you need a break from jokes about how real women don't have Adam's apples... I kindly direct your attention to some cartoonists whose REAL women characters were born with Adam's apples, and get into funny situations--but situations that are funny because you sympathize WITH the women, not because you're laughing AT them: Erin Lindsey just published her first comic-book format collection of Venus Envy (a strip about the trials and tribulations of a loveable redheaded teenage transgendered girl). Gina Kamentsky recently published her second semi-autobiographical collection of T-Gina comics ("the tale of a fabulous Transgendered gal and her search for validation and a decent cup of coffee").

Sigh...

Six Months since Bush's Top Gun photo op...
...it's bring em on, and on, and on...

The NYTimes has put together a depressing graphic showing American military casualties over time (most during the occupation, despite that "Mission Accomplished" banner). The toll of 357 in the graphic doesn't include the latest deaths, however.

There's no similarly accurate count available of Iraqi civilian deaths, although Iraq Body Count estimates at least seven to nine thousand media-reported deaths so far (this includes those killed both by U.S. bombs and gunfire and by the recent car bomb attacks, etc...)