Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Artists Beware

Regular readers may be disappointed to find me dwelling on a political/religious issue, that is, these Danish cartoons and the Muslim reaction to them. But I must admit that it really makes my blood boil. Why is that? Maybe because I used to publish a comics anthology myself, and one of the reasons I started that was because of a young Florida chappy called Mike Diana who drew comics and he got hauled in by the Feds who, because of the nature of his comics, they thought that he might be a serial killer. He got dragged to court, and the jury was made of old women whose idea of art was needlepoint, so he was thrown in jail because of his nasty drawings, which were only drawings, and he was not really a serial killer at all. He had all sorts of insane restrictions placed on him, like he couldn't go within 500 metres of anybody under 18 years of age, and he had to see a shrink every week at $2000 a pop, at his own expense.
I found this disgusting, just as I find this attack on these Danish cartoons and the people who publish them disgusting.
It's very disturbing and disgusting to know that, in these supposedly enlightened times, that by simply drawing a picture you can be dragged to court and put on trial as though you were a murderer, or draw a cartoon of a religious figure and have people calling for your head to be removed from your shoulders.

2 comments:

Ca... said...

There have always been excesses. Like Phillip Nolan in 1807. He was an officer of the Naval military when he, in a frustrated rage, stated, " "Damn the United States! I wish I may never hear of the United States again!"

He was taken in secret to a ship off shore and kept at sea for 56 years, transfered from ship to ship and never allowed to hear the words, "United States", again and never allowed to see the continent again until he died. He was know as, "The Man Without a Country". It is a black mark on the conscience of the United States.

Anonymous said...

Die, infidel! Die at the hands of Allah! Die! Die ! Aiiieeeeeeeeeee!