Cartoonists and Turkish President Erdogan

Posted on January 4, 2015 by - free speech, human rights, politics

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan doesn’t seem to have much of a sense of humor.  The New York Times has a story about how the Turkish president is trying to limit how he is depicted in drawings by arresting cartoonists and charging them with libel and insulting government officials (which is apparently against the law in Turkey).  The Cartoonists Rights Network International also writes about it here.

My Washington Post cartoon about President Erdogan arresting a 16-year-old because the teenager criticized him received quite a bit of traffic on twitter among Turkish readers. It also ended up on the front page of Cumhuriyet, the oldest Turkish daily newspaper.

12302014CumhuriyetFront12292014ErdoganArrestsTeenager

Rectal feedings, waterboarding, and more

Posted on December 10, 2014 by - free speech, human rights, politics

The Washington Post has some excellent coverage and graphics about the Senate torture report:

Hayden’s testimony vs. the Senate report

The 10 most harrowing excerpts from the CIA interrogation report

Pay special attention to #2.  According to the report, President Bush wasn’t briefed about the enhanced interrogation program until 2006. Doesn’t mention Cheney, though.

102605CheneyTorture

Former DC mayor Marion Barry dies

Posted on November 23, 2014 by - politics

I moved to DC in 1992 so I missed all except the 4th term of Marion Barry (one was enough).  The image which sticks in my head is from the snowstorm of 1996,  when most streets were still not plowed for over a week and Washingtonians struggled to dig out.  While walking through my Capitol Hill neighborhood I saw a sign someone had planted on top of one of the 10-foot snow mounds.  It read “Mount Barry”.

052298BarryBowsOut

Understanding Separation of Church & State

Posted on November 17, 2014 by - free speech, human rights, society

It never ceases to amaze me how short-sighted Americans are when talking about religious freedom.  A county in Florida is revisiting a policy of allowing bibles to be distributed at schools after a group exerted its religious rights by wanting to distribute coloring books featuring cartoon characters performing satanic rituals and drawing pentagrams.

Separation of Church and State protects your religious freedoms, people.

051601AshcroftPrayerMtgs

From the archives

The video that started it all

Posted on October 31, 2014 by - society

Michael_Jackson's_Thriller_title_card

A related story from the early 80’s: I remember sitting in my CalArts design class waiting for our instructor  Bob Winquist to arrive.  After apologizing for being late he mentioned he had been a visitor on the set of a video shoot in LA – the very one- and marveled at what a genius that “young man” was.