New Cartoon: "It's My Religion!"

Inspired by a story about a boy who wore a "I will not accept what God has condemned: Homosexuality is Shameful" shirt to school following the Day of Silence. The school refused to allow him to attend class, so he sued (with the backing of the Family Research Council) claiming that the school was violating his religious freedom. Thankfully he lost, but even the judge who supported him admitted that it would not be appropriate in school for a student to wear a Nazi T-shirt, for example.

Incensed by the ruling, the Family Research Council was particularly angry that a judge cited Brokeback Mountain and a Matthew Shephard documentary as evidence of the dangers of anti-gay hate, and called them "two works of fiction."

Now, of course Brokeback Mountain is a fictionalized story (although based firmly in reality), but Matthew Shephard's torture and death at the hands of anti-gay bigots was all too real, and just one example of the harassment and violence faced by many gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people face all-too-often.

Also, I couldn't resist making another dig at jerkbag pharmacists who lecture women about emergency contraception and/or outright refuse to dispense it.

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The Four R's

Check out Reading, 'Riting, 'Rithmetic and Resegregation, a new cartoon by Masheka Wood... here's a tiny preview:

New Cartoon: Separate but "Equal": The Sequel

See my previous cartoon on the testing epidemic here, "The Lesson Plan"...

And no, I'm not making this up, Omaha really is officially resegregating its schools.

And I promise I will have more goodies and blogging for you folks soon now that I've filed my taxes, including a response to a letter about my immigration cartoon.

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New Cartoon: "Harvey Mansfield's Manliness Manual"

Blogger is being all funny on me, so just read the cartoon here.

As a Harvard alum, I've loathed conservative government professor Harvey "Women have no courage and men shouldn't have to do housework" Mansfield for a long time. But I never had the occasion to comment about the man until talk radio hosts and TV shows started pretending his completely worthless new book Manliness was a work of serious scholarship. Here's a scary NPR interview in which Katha Pollitt valiantly tries to get him to admit he's crazy and sexist for insisting women have no courage and are naturally inferior to men. And here's a great piece by Ruth Marcus from the Washington Post, Man Overboard.

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Can't make a decision, ladies? Call Bill Napoli
Plus, Soul Man II

I know I've been infrequently posting, dear readers, but that's because I haven't done laundry or my taxes and I'm getting ready to host a party and go on yet another trip. I'll have a new cartoon for you tomorrow about Harvey Mansfield...

But until then you can read my interview with Stephanie McMillan about her "Call Bill Napoli" toon. Or you can check out Masheka Wood's new cartoon, Soul Man II, about minority scholarships being opened to whites due to fears of "reverse discrimination" lawsuits. (A whole other twist on that nastiness can be found in the recent NY Times piece about white students paying for DNA tests right before college on the off chance a little bit of Native American blood might land them a scholarship).

New Cartoons: "Bush vs. My Cat" and Citizens Against Earned Citizenship

No time for commentary, I'm totally swamped having just returned from Budapest. But please do not be alarmed by the kitty cartoon--I don't really think my cat is as dumb as Bush, Riley would never start an illegitimate war for oil. It's an April Fool's joke, and you can see more April Fool's toons (including Masheka's) in this roundup.

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