Two New Cartoons
Gay Science, Mascots, etc.

Also, if you used to get my cartoons by email and wonder why you haven't heard from me lately: my ISP had a major breakdown and data loss, so I'm afraid you'll have to add yourself again by sending a blank message to newtoons-subscribe@mikhaela.net. Sorry about that!

Monday morning cartoons

Jen Sorensen explains how to Leave Your Child Behind, Ted Rall compares torture then and now, and Tom Tomorrow explains why the Bush administration doesn't sanction torture

And in the Boondocks, Angelina Jolie gets some new babies... speaking of which, mark your calendars, the Boondocks TV series will begin airing on the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim Oct. 2, I hear.

Lowered Expectations

From the Washington Post ("U.S. Lowers Sights On What Can Be Achieved in Iraq: Administration Is Shedding 'Unreality' That Dominated Invasion, Official Says"):

The Bush administration is significantly lowering expectations of what can be achieved in Iraq, recognizing that the United States will have to settle for far less progress than originally envisioned during the transition due to end in four months, according to U.S. officials in Washington and Baghdad.

The United States no longer expects to see a model new democracy, a self-supporting oil industry or a society in which the majority of people are free from serious security or economic challenges, U.S. officials say.

"What we expected to achieve was never realistic given the timetable or what unfolded on the ground," said a senior official involved in policy since the 2003 invasion. "We are in a process of absorbing the factors of the situation we're in and shedding the unreality that dominated at the beginning."

But don't worry, they're not about to join the "reality-based" community yet:

Administration officials still emphasize how much they have achieved despite the chaos that followed the invasion and the escalating insurgency. "Iraqis are taking control of their country, building a free nation that can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself. And we're helping Iraqis succeed," President Bush said yesterday in his radio address.

Anyway, read the whole thing.

More awesome email

More awesome email

Apparently there is a vast, left-wing conspiracy to make me feel happy about being a cartoonist. Greg writes in response to the below post:

Hey, kiddo!

I enjoyed Thomas A.'s letter so much, it inspired me to compose my own.

I've written you before, to tell you you're one of the best satirists out there. Maybe "satirist" is the wrong term ... reality these days is already satire.

I find that what you do is to put things in sort of an emotional perspective -- does that make sense? Rather than try to inform us or even persuade us how to think about the continuous daily rape that's being done to us, your work seems to let us know how you *feel* about it. My heart always does a little flutter when I realize, "yeah, that's exactly how I feel, too." I gotta say, that's a powerful thing to be able to do.

Thanks again so much for your dedication, and keep it up!

Your pal,
Greg P.
Manitowoc, WI
(34-year-old piano teacher, husband, father of two ... er, I mean, radical leftist wacko)

Thanks, Greg! Seriously folks, it's letters like this that keep the cartoons coming... And Greg is right on target to say that my approach to cartooning is emotional. I know that word gets tossed around by less-well-meaning people as an insult to women who have something legitimate to say or who are angry ("don't get so emotional"), but I think it's a positive thing to have an emotional connection to your work. Because I only draw one cartoon a week, I mostly draw about things I really care about or have deep, strong feelings about--I don't see the point in just commenting about a story that I don't have a real, solid opinion about just because it's Big News or makes an easy gag.

From the email bag

I don't have time today for the cartoon roundup I was talking about earlier, but here's a nice letter I received recently, from Thomas A.:

Dear Mikhaela,
Thank you sincerely for your wonderful humor and satire. You often cheer me up on a shitty day, and these days, we hell-bound liberals need cheering more often than not. Keep up your excellent work. I will be reading, laughing, sometime grinding my teeth (but not because of YOU!!), and bitching to anyone who will listen about the criminals who are bent on destroying our great country through their greed and inhumanity. I just wanted to take this moment to write you and provide an encouraging word.

Thanks, Tom!

Thursday morning cartoons

I'm planning to do a big post and cartoon roundup about the NCAA and the Indian mascots controversy (see if you can guess which side I'm on!) ... but until then:

• Kirk Anderson depicts the "Busheviks Great Leap Forward", and he's selling awesome propaganda posters.
• Scott Bateman is getting ready to launch a crazy daily animation project, check out the trailer.
• Ward Sutton is "Feelin' Pretty Psyched."
• Along similar lines, Ted Rall depicts the exciting "Life of a Democrat".
• August imagines the equivalent of teaching intelligent design in history class.

And a reminder: my email list malfunctioned, so if you want weekly email updates, you'll have to sign up again, just send a blank message to newtoons-subscribe@mikhaela.net. Many apologies.

New Toon: Emergency-Contraception Bill Veto Funnies
Try saying that five times fast...

My email was down! (and please resubscribe to my email list!)

Due to a horrible error, my internet service provider lost all of my email and all the addresses on my email mailing list. So if you sent me an email in the past three or four days, chances are I never got it, so please try again, it's cartoons@mikhaela.net. Also, if you were on my mailing list, I'm afraid you'll have to add yourself again by sending a blank message to newtoons-subscribe@mikhaela.net. I am so, so SOOOOO sorry... I didn't think to keep a backup, as my ISP supposedly had it backed up... sigh.

Rick Santorum gets a bit agitated on the Brian Lehrer show

Audio here (found via Crooks and Liars, because today happened to be the one day I didn't tune in to Brian's wonderful show myself).

Friday Morning Cartoons

Jeff Danziger is less than impressed by Gov. Romney and Gov. Pataki's anti-emergency-contraception vetos, Leilah Rampa imagines the results of teaching creationism in med school, and Matt Bors makes it EZ for EVERYONE to draw editorial cartoons.

Racists attack mourning family

From the BBC, ("Racist abuse for bomb loss family"):

A Muslim family that lost a loved one in the London bomb attacks have become victims of racial abuse, police said.

Fiaz Bhatti, 29, of Norwich, lost his fiancee, Italian Benedetta Ciaccia, 30, in one of the 7 July blasts.

His brother has been the target of racist abuse and was accused of being "like one of the bombers" as he walked near his father's shop in Norwich.

And in general, hate crimes (mostly against Muslims) are through the roof in England now...

Mikhaela Toons May Be Hazardous to Your Health
From the emailbox:

Paulette writes:

Do I have time to view 150 cartoons? NO! But you are addictive. Thank you.

No, thank YOU!

Kraklet is less complimentary:

Your cartoons are too absurd to be amusing or be taken seriously, whch one are they supposed to be? They are so insane I can't tell.

Aw jeez, man... and here I thought it was starting an endless war that results in thousands and thousands of deaths for no damn reason at all that was insane, silly me.

And this one wasn't in my email, but was that most wonderful of things, a published letter to the editor, in a daily newspaper, Rochester's Democrat and Chronicle:

Comic prompts thoughtful reflection

I just wanted to say thanks for the Mikhaela Reid comic The Boiling Point in the most recent issue of insider (July 22).

Called "Teaching (In) Tolerance," it suggested other types of intolerance that might be taught in American schools after an anti-gay group successfully sued a Maryland school board for not teaching students that homosexuality is a "treatable disease."

Commentary like this in the form of a cartoon is really food for thought. Thank goodness I live in a tolerant state like New York where homosexuality is so well accepted that gays are free to marry ... oh, never mind.

Matt Schaeffer
Rochester

Thanks Matt! Keep 'em coming folks... send your nice letters to my editors, email me, join my super-special email list (just send a blank message to newtoons-subscribe@mikhaela.net, and of course, leave COMMENTS in this blog. According to my stats counter, I have at least 700 individual readers a day... but most of you seem to be lurking quietly. Oh, and if you have a blog, please feel free to link to any cartoons that strike you... I could always use some new readers!

New Toon: Santorum Knows Best

Enjoy. For more on crazy Ricky, see Santorum Exposed. Oh, and since people keep asking, yes, the last panel is based on a true news story—Santorum's top aide, Robert Traynham, was recently outed as gay (Keith Boykin has more--apparently Traynham is also transphobic and a defender of the Confederate flag, whoo-ee!).

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog. And unfortunately, due to my technical idiocy, all the comments people have left on my blog have magically disappeared. My sincere apologies to all of you nice folks who have left comments in the past--I have no idea how to retrieve them. But rest assured that any future comments will be safe and sound.

Quit it with the calls for racial profiling, already

I saw a lot of "it's stupid to check old white ladies, police should target young Middle Eastern men blah blah blah" comments (and even a cartoon) when I was doing research about the innocent Brazilian man shot and killed by British police. Those kind of idiotic calls are getting louder, and now this stupid Brooklyn (Democratic) assemblyman is asking police to target young Middle Eastern men. TalkLeft explains why this is both racist and ineffective.

Monday cartoons

Ted Rall condemns extremism, Tom Tomorrow faces a brand new day in America (to see the latter, you probably need to get a free one-day pass).