Entries from February 2005 ↓

It’s one thing to recognize David Fitzsimmons’ cartoon below as the work of a ham-fisted hack. Or, as Dawn Eden said so well:

What I want to know is, where did the cartoonist go to school to learn how to draw pervert parents? His abusive father looks like Richard M. Nixon reimagined as a vinyl-record store clerk.

Heh heh. But it’s quite another to accurately name the goggles that gives this cartoonist such weird visions. And as I struggled to describe the myopia that afflicts that cartoonist, a comment on another post on this very blog helped me tremendously:

Evolution may technically be a “theory,” but it sure does seem to fit the data. On the other hand, every single thing in the Bible has been scientifically proven to be absolutely factual, so evolution theory MUST be wrong! Whew, I’m glad I reasoned that out.

But what does creationism have to do with a cartoon about abusive homeschoolers? Why would the commenter lump these seemingly disparate subjects together?

The answer is simply: It’s the same subject: Christendom.

The scariest army to the ungodly isn’t North Korean or Russian or even the faceless hatred of al Qaida.

It’s an army of faithful Christians, uncontrolled and unseen by the authorities and marching beneath the same awesome banner.

They fight because we advance.

The Arizona Daily Star’s editorial cartoonist, David Fitzsimmons, is not a man happy that homeschooling is spreading like a virus in his fine state.

Here is his cartoon-y reason, published on Feb. 14, for wanting to stop the contagion:

Now, we homeschoolers could get mad, and I’m sure the Daily Press was already showered with a few too many spittle-sprinkled angry letters. But the cartoonist’s clumsy argument to tighten government control over law-abiding citizens is laughable. Would he think people operating under the First Amendment need the same oversight?

So, let’s make fun of it!

Here is the same cartoon, but satire-fortified:

And of course, the cartoonist will defend this as a parody protected by the Constitution.

Editorial cartoons like this one don’t deserve serious comment:

But they do deserve some serious ridicule.

Any suggestions to edit this cartoon? Leave a comment.

I’ll post my own edited version of this cartoon later today or tomorrow.

Here’s the link to the web page on azstarnet.com