Video Vets

These video testimonials from Iraq vets are very moving

VideoVets: Peter Granato

Which VideoVets video should be a TV ad?
Vote at http://pol.moveon.org/videovets

Jessica

Here is a charcoal study of a student in Drawing class.
To see more of my drawings, visit http://tmal.multiply.com/photos/album/18

Gun regulation, anyone?

I recently received an interesting email from a dear friend who gre up Republican. He happens to be a collge professor and has some interesting perspectives in the light of the Virginia Tech shootings;

Ted,

Forgive me for a moment -- I do not write these emails often, but this is a part of my grieving process.

School shootings, notably the 1999 Columbine shootings, have changed K-12 education forever. How K-12 principals and superintendents think about school safety has changed at a fundamental. I imagine that the same will be true for colleges and universities following the shootings at Virginia Tech last week, but what this will look like is yet to be seen. In high schools, the most significant changes have occurred in the forms of securing the high school campus (most city schools are now "caged" -- surrounded by fences with strategically located entry points) and the development of more sophisticated crisis response plans. In higher education, I'm sure that most colleges and universities across the country will take another look at their crisis management plans, but the idea of "caging" colleges and universities is impractical.

Since Columbine, there has also been an increased discussion from some about the role of guns in U.S. society. Unfortunately, the most vocal attack came from the far left in Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. Any impact that this film might have had on public policy was lost when Moore used his oscar acceptance speech to attack the Bush presidency with a rant, thus placing Moore and his work into the societal margins of "leftist" thinking. The culture of guns (and of killing) in the U.S. has not changed; if anything, it continues to get worse. Let me provide one example.

A growing industry in the United States is the "canned hunt" industry. Animals are placed in private, fenced "preserves" where they are easy targets for hunters -- there is literally no escape. The animals, raised in captivity, may not be "tame," but neither are they wild. "Hunters," if they can still claim this title, then pay to kill the animals. In some cases, they are exotic animals (zebras, leopards, tigers, giraffes), but there are also hunting preserves for deer, quail, ducks, etc. The hunters may pay for time or pay per animal. In the most extreme cases, hunters do not even have to come to the preserves -- they can hunt online using remotely powered guns to target their prey.

If the mere existence of these hunting preserves is not statement enough on the culture of guns and killing in the United States, then maybe a word on who has used them and how. Those who have participated include presidents Clinton and Bush, presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Dick Cheney, along with nine friends (and GOP donors) participated in a canned hunt in which the 10 of them killed 417 ring-neck pheasants in a single day, and that was only one part of their "hunt" for the day. Indeed, Cheney himself was "credited" with killing about 70 of the birds.

While I am personally not a hunter, I would not suggest getting rid of all guns in the U.S. Further, I would politically (though maybe not personally) oppose any effort to extend gun control laws to the point that would limit honest hunting efforts. However, I would gladly vote to eliminate anything that turns the sport of hunting into a simple game of killing (even the NRA has condemned the canned hunt industry). But I would gladly go one step further and vote to eliminate the sale of any gun designed to kill humans.

At Virginia Tech, the shooter killed 32 innocent people. What's more, he shot over 170 rounds in 9 minutes -- that's about one shot every 3 seconds without accounting for time to reload or move from classroom to classroom. I'm sorry, but I cannot understand the mind of anyone who would vote to make the kinds of weapons used in this shooting available to the public. The "best" argument is that people who want these guns would simply go underground to get them. That may be true, but limiting their sale would limit the number produced; further, if it takes us 20 years to get these weapons off our streets, then let's start now -- for the sake of our grandchildren.

Lastly, note that this is not a partisan issue -- it does not break down along party lines. So, while I usually think of the current rhetoric of developing a "common sense" approach to public policy as coded language for a "dumbed down approach," I say here that I'll vote for either method, just so long as it gets guns designed to kill humans off the streets and out of our schools.

--
John L. Hoffman, Ph.D.
www.john-hoffman.com


"An education that teaches you to understand something about the world has done only half of the assignment. The other half is to teach you to do something about making the world a better place."
- Johnnetta B. Cole

John,

When I was say 8 years old my Dad took us fishing. We always rented boats and fished from the middle of small mountain lakes. That day none of us, me, my dad or my brother had any luck. I whined and moaned out of disappointment, so to placate me, Dad took us to a hatchery where you could pay to fish. Lemme tell ya, that was some easy fishin'. Not only are those hunting preserves you mentioned perverse and non-sportsmanlike, but so are automatic and semi-automatic weapons. For that matter, what about handguns? They aren't designed for hunting any game animal, their sole prey are human beings.

So often conservatives argue that they want "strict constructionist" jurists who won't over interpret the Constitution. Perhaps we need a strict interpretation of the 2nd Amendment. The first few words are, "a well-regulated militia being necessary..." Well-regulated... wouldn't that be the state and national guard and reserves? Well-regulated...Is it possible that the founding fathers intended that we regulate gun ownership? I don't want to deny hunters or farmers a rifle or shotgun, but I do not see why a 23 year old with a history of potentially violent mental illness should be able to purchase weapons so easily without a waiting period or a background check. How many 23 year olds purchase over $500 in ammunition at one time?

I have to show an ID at the pharmacist's window to purchase one box of decongestant. I have to wait a set amount of time before I'll be permitted to buy more. If we can regulate sales of Sudafed to discourage meth production, why can't we regulate arms sales? Why is that so unreasonable? Is the NRA really that powerful of a lobby that no lawmakers in either party has the political courage to propose any kind of limits or restrictions whatsoever?

Good writing. I hope you submit it to some publications, newspapers, or journals. Would you permit me to post it on my personal blog (giving credit, not pretending I wrote it obviously)? Will you at least post it on your own website?

Omaha Central HS was closed yesterday after bomb threats.

Hope your family is all well.
_______________________________
Pirate Prayers at:
http://malloryprayer.blogspot.com

Ted's cartoons, artworks, photos, and commentary at:
http://tmal.multiply.com

"The gospel is meant to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." ~Garrison Keillor

George Orwell was just a few years off

It is scary, and maybe you'll think I'm some kind of a crank or a conspiracy theorist, but this is real and it is within the realm of possibility.

“When facism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”
~ Sinclair Lewis

Fascist America, in 10 easy steps

From Hitler to Pinochet and beyond, history shows there are certain steps that any would-be dictator must take to destroy constitutional freedoms. And, argues Naomi Wolf, George Bush and his administration seem to be taking them all

Naomi Wolf
Tuesday April 24, 2007
The Guardian

...As difficult as this is to contemplate, it is clear, if you are willing to look, that each of these 10 steps has already been initiated today in the United States by the Bush administration.

Because Americans like me were born in freedom, we have a hard time even considering that it is possible for us to become as unfree - domestically - as many other nations. Because we no longer learn much about our rights or our system of government - the task of being aware of the constitution has been outsourced from citizens' ownership to being the domain of professionals such as lawyers and professors - we scarcely recognise the checks and balances that the founders put in place, even as they are being systematically dismantled. Because we don't learn much about European history, the setting up of a department of "homeland" security - remember who else was keen on the word "homeland" - didn't raise the alarm bells it might have.

It is my argument that, beneath our very noses, George Bush and his administration are using time-tested tactics to close down an open society. It is time for us to be willing to think the unthinkable - as the author and political journalist Joe Conason, has put it, that it can happen here. And that we are further along than we realise...

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
2. Create a gulag
3. Develop a thug caste
4. Set up an internal surveillance system
5. Harass citizens' groups
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release
7. Target key individuals
8. Control the press
9. Dissent equals treason
10. Suspend the rule of law

We need to look at history and face the "what ifs". For if we keep going down this road, the "end of America" could come for each of us in a different way, at a different moment; each of us might have a different moment when we feel forced to look back and think: that is how it was before - and this is the way it is now.

"The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands ... is the definition of tyranny," wrote James Madison. We still have the choice to stop going down this road; we can stand our ground and fight for our nation, and take up the banner the founders asked us to carry.

PLEASE Click here to read the entire article in it's original context

Naomi Wolf's The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot will be published by Chelsea Green in September.

Two views

The Liberal perspective:

~OR~

The NeoConservative viewpoint:

You decide.

One of the most difficult issues is back

I don't know if I'm what you'd call a pro-life Democrat, but I'm definitely not pro-choice. I'm okay with discouraging partial birth abortion or making less convenient to get abortions quick and easy as if it were a form of birth control. However, I have grave concerns about the health and safety of women. This cartoon, and the article below by Christian progressive leader Jim Wallis make clear that it's not as simple and easy as allowing all abortions or criminalizing all abortions...

Jim Wallis: Abortion - From Symbol to Substance
It’s time for concrete action that would actually and seriously reduce the number of abortions in America. A better approach than the symbolic legal battle would be to gather new energy for a commitment to advancing real solutions. A constructive dialogue should include how best to prevent unwanted pregnancies, support pregnant women who find themselves in an unexpected situation, and effectively reduce the abortion rate. ... It’s time that both pro-life and pro-choice supporters come together and support these measures, and actually do something serious and substantial in reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies and dramatically reducing the abortion rate. Who could be against that? Let’s indeed save unborn lives. It’s time to move from symbols to substance.

Video Vets

This website has an amazing collection of testimonials from veterans and their families.

VideoVets: Kevin Denton

Which VideoVets video should be a TV ad?
Vote at http://pol.moveon.org/videovets

white charcoal on construction paper

TV Turn off Week...or What is WRONG with us?

NBC ‘massacres’ a delicate story

Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper — Schleswig Leader, Thursday, April 26, 2007 – Page 3

I’m kind of a journalistic purist who believes that newspapers should provide information that readers can use toward sound judgements essential to the healthy functioning of a democracy. I want to train kids to be better communicators for the common well being of the community and to be more savvy consumers of the media, equipped to be discriminating. Call me a hopeless idealist, but that’s what happens when you’ve been teaching journalism for over a decade.

There are these things called the elements of news-worthiness, that you’re supposed to consider when deciding whether or not to cover something, such as timeliness, proximity, prominence, consequence, conflict, and human interest. All of these ought to be weighed against the news agency’s concept of what they see as the public’s well being.

Before releasing the contents of a package sent to them by mass murderer Seung Hui Cho, NBC failed to consider anyone’s well being. All they seemed to have cared about was ratings and “scooping” everybody else.

But that’s not the only problem with how this story has been handled.
I was appalled by the media’s coverage of the tragedy at Virginia Tech last week.
I overheard a variety of responses in the faculty lounge. Most were disgusted by how TV news has been milking it for everything it’s worth and disappointed by how emotional and melodramatic coverage has been. Perhaps more restraint and stoicism would’ve actually been more respectful.

Others were concerned that there was SO much speculation and reporting before there had been any information even collected by, let alone released by law enforcement.

A couple of people said that they can’t stand to pay attention to the news because everything is so negative. Others find it ironic that 2-3 times as many people die each day, everyday in Iraq, but that doesn’t receive near as much coverage or as much sensationalism.

I know I was surprised that on Tuesday nigh TV reporters interviewed a number of VT students who said that they didn’t think that the college could have done anything better to protect them- but the next morning’s paper featured a headline about how frustrated students were that the college didn’t do more.

This afternoon on National Public Radio, they interviewed a college official who was frustrated that pro-gun activists were using the tragedy to argue that all students should’ve been allowed to carry concealed weapons to protect themselves. Certainly there are those on the Left who have already been blaming the shooting on Virginia’s lack of regulations of firearms. Should it be a starting point for debate?

I have to tell you, I was certainly tempted to write a column about gun control. But I decided that it would be taking advantage of a heinous incident to make a political point, so I decided not to.

How about all of the samples of the killer’s poems, stories and plays that are popping up on the web? Should the media make such a heinous killer famous posthumously?

I was absolutely sickened by the things that TV news programs aired from Cho’s now infamous package to NBC. By showing his video diatribes over and over again, not only did they give him the fame and attention which he hoped for, but I believe that they compounded the pain and damage to the families of the victims and to the communities of Virginia Tech and Blacksburg, Virginia. It was like coming in behind him with more guns, shooting people once they were already down.

NBC should’ve handed the entire package over to the FBI or at least asked experts to analyze the materials and report on them without presenting the original material, over and over again ad nauseam as they did. Who would it have hurt for them to at least have held the materials for several weeks before releasing them?

Certainly this tragedy, like others before it at high schools reveal a disconnected, unsympathetic and violent society. Certainly, like the September 11 attacks or Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, it reveals how painfully unprepared our institutions are to handle crises. And certainly it reveals that we need to consider regulations and procedures in both gun availability and in the field of mental health treatment. But most of all, it revealed what a salacious, sensational, insensitive and irresponsible media we have.

Ted Mallory lives in Charter Oak and teaches at Boyer Valley Schools in Dunlap. ‘Ted’s Column’ has appeared weekly in the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper since 2002. If you’d like to see any of Ted’s editorial cartoons bigger and brighter, you can visit http://tmal.multiply.com/photos/album/2 Ted has started a new blog that focuses on Journalism and the media at http://thepresscorps.blogspot.com

God's Politics; a way out of Iraq

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Tony Campolo: Religious Leaders Propose a Way Out of Iraq

Charles De Gaulle once said that politics is far too serious to be left in the hands of politicians. I agree!

The politicians in Washington are painfully divided over what should be done about the war in Iraq. The Republicans talk about “staying the course,” which our nation can ill afford. The Democrats, on the other hand, propose a “cut and run” policy, and everyone knows that this would leave a vacuum to be filled with the chaos of all-out civil war. But some of us in the religious community propose a third option, which we believe could get America out of Iraq without leaving a total mess behind. Our plan has three parts.

First, we propose that American and British troops be replaced by an international police force composed of those who better understand the Iraqi culture. Leaders in Saudi Arabia proposed such a solution almost three years ago. Americans and Brits are not only devoid of any grasp of the language and the religion of the Iraqi people, but are defined by many Muslims as a Christian army that has invaded a sacred Islamic land. Our army’s presence is perceived by many in the Muslim world as a rebirth of the medieval crusades.

Second, we propose that the United States appropriate $50 billion to rebuild the towns and cities that the invasion of Iraq has left in shambles. This would be a small price to pay, considering the $2 billion we are presently spending every week in order to keep this war going.

Third, we propose that our president go before the United Nations and ask the world to forgive America for what we have done to Iraq, and how we have set back efforts for world peace. He should point out that he is asking forgiveness on behalf of almost all Americans – because we overwhelmingly lent support to the invasion of Iraq some four years ago. He should further point out that our original intentions were good! We Americans were told that we were invading in order to remove the threat of what we thought were Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
Repentance of this kind is necessary because we need to re-establish our moral standing in the world, and confessing wrongdoing is a start for doing that. It is not weakness to admit that we did wrong, especially when the whole world knows that we did. Now is the time for us to live out that verse from 2 Chronicles 7:14, which reads:

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

If you are willing to support this proposal, go to www.tikkun.org/iraqpeace. You will find an expanded version of this proposal there, along with an opportunity to sign on with us. Do it now, because time is short and the days are filled with evil (Ephesians 5:16).

Tony Campolo is founder of the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education (EAPE) and Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Eastern University.

Rush's "Magic Negro" Routine

Rush's "Magic Negro" Routine

Posted 04/25/2007 @ 12:09pm

The Nation; Rush's "Magic Negro" Routine

Adam Howard

Rush Limbaugh has obviously learned nothing from the outrage and anger unleashed by Don Imus' unfortunate "nappy headed ho's" remark. Never one to shy away from unfunny "humor", Limbaugh recently played a song parody on his radio show in which an Al Sharpton impersonator (played with stereotypical gusto) sings a song filled with idiotic assumptions about black people and dripping with ignorance called "Barack the Magic Negro".

Perhaps this kind of garbage (set to the tune of "Puff the Magic Dragon") is someone's cup of tea. Limbaugh does have millions of listeners and they do adore of much of what the man says. Whether he's lampooning former President Clinton's daughter or suggesting Michael J. Fox is exaggerating the effects of his Parkinson's disease. So I don't expect his listeners to desert him over this. What does surprise me is that Vice President Dick Cheney among other major conservatives is still a regular guest on Limbaugh's show and I don't anticipate the kind of repudiations that Don Imus received over his transgression from him or anyone else on the right with regards to Limbaugh.

It is true that Imus was chided because he was on a national cable news network and was perhaps less associated with being a provocateur than Limbaugh. But I still think Cheney and his ilk should refuse to appear on Limbaugh's show from now on. I wonder, will there be any outcry? Are people becoming so desensitized to this now that they just don't care about the inevitable phony apology and/or Al Sharpton protest. I'd like to see calls for Limbaugh's removal not just from the black community but from the supporters of the president and vice-president who are not racist, who don't find "jokes" like "Barack The Magic Negro" funny.

Beware of 'NeoCon' facism

I think that this is very important that a Goldwater, Arizona Republican is speaking out this way. What a shame that it's in a Brittish newspaper and not the American press...

Dictatorship is the danger
A Reagan-appointed supreme court justice voices her fears over attacks on US democracy

Jonathan Raban
Monday March 13, 2006
The Guardian
...recent attacks on the American judiciary were putting the democratic fabric in jeopardy and were the first steps down the treacherous path to dictatorship.

Sandra Day O'Connor, who retired a few weeks ago from the supreme court. O'Connor is a Republican and a Reagan nominee. Regarded as the "swing vote" on the court, she swung the presidential election to George Bush in 2000.

Equally surprising is that O'Connor's speech to an audience of lawyers at Georgetown University was attended by just one reporter, the diligent legal correspondent for National Public Radio, Nina Totenberg. No transcript or recording of the speech has been made available, so we have only Totenberg's notes to go on. But - assuming they are accurate - the notes are political dynamite.

O'Connor's voice was "dripping with sarcasm", according to Totenberg, as she "took aim at former House GOP [Republican] leader Tom DeLay. She didn't name him, but she quoted his attacks on the courts at a meeting of the conservative Christian group Justice Sunday last year when DeLay took out after the courts for rulings on abortions, prayer and the Terri Schiavo case.

"It gets worse, she said, noting that death threats against judges are increasing. It doesn't help, she said, when a high-profile senator suggests there may be a connection between violence against judges and decisions that the senator disagrees with."

Click here to read the whole article in it's original context

Watercolor self portraits

April 2007

Why didn't I think of this sooner?

Why didn't I think of this sooner?

Congressional oversight

Actually, I personally believe he's both. This is my cartoon for the April 26 Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper

What do you do with your spare time?

These came in one of those emails that go all around the world. Seems this guy in Venice, Italy has a real talent for making things with wood!

Talk radio reveals a lot of hate

I was tempted to draw something about Don Imus, but that's like shooting fish in a barrel. Besides, with all the attention he's getting, the U.S. Attorney hearings has been allowed to fall under most people's radar- just what Bush, Rove, and Gonzales want, I'm sure. Plus, since he's out of office and long dead, how many opportunities will I get to draw Nixon? Actually, I think the Rove I drew a couple of weeks ago as a Humpty Dumpty egg was better, but he does kind of lend himself to caricature, doesn't he?

Interested in seeing some of the process of how this cartoon was made?
Just visit http://malloryart.blogspot.com/2007/04/more-cartoon-magic-demystified.html

Want to see over 100 more of my cartoons? Political and otherwise?
Just visit http://tmal.multiply.com/photos/album/2

Talk radio reveals a lot of hate
Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper — Schleswig Leader, Thursday, April 19, 2007 – Page 3

I’m almost as sick of hearing about Don Imus as I am about Anna Nicole Smith. That’s why I couldn’t bring myself to draw a cartoon about him- that and that it would be like shooting fish in a barrel.

But as sick of all the hubbub as I am, I’m not above writing about it. Not so much because I side with the politically correct folks who are gleefully gloating about his getting fired or because I side with the die hard defenders of the First Amendment who think he shouldn’t have been raked over the coals at all- but just because I’ve had in mind to write something about talk radio for a long time anyway. By the time this gets printed, the Imus scandal will have died down and the dust settled. Of course, MSNBC will probably fill his time slot with a show exclusively about Anna Nicole Smith, but, whatchya gonna do?

Also, because I already started writing about it on my blog and decided to go ahead and run with it. (Scroll down, you're bound to find it).

I don’t know if I’m just too old to rock and roll or if I’m just such a product of TV and radio that I can’t stand to be alone in a quiet room, but I am much more likely to listen to talk radio than to music.

But I get so tired of yelling and malice that I prefer to listen to 640 WOI AM. It’s the NPR station out of Ames. Half the time they have people call in to ask questions from the Iowa State University Extension’s climatologist. I’m not a farmer and know nothing about gardening, so it’s pretty dry stuff, but between it and the market reports, which I also don’t understand, I somehow feel connected to the world.

As you might expect, I listen to Air America Radio on the internet quite a bit. But the thing with Air America is, there are experts like Rachel Maddow and Tom Hartman who are all policy talk and no humor, or loud mouths like Ed Schulz and Randi Rhodes who are just as angry and loud as the right-wingers like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh.

Once upon a time, they boasted Al Frankin, the political author, USO entertainer and former Saturday Night live writer did what almost no other talk radio host has, he combined intelligence, idealism, and humor, without belittling or bullying anybody. But alas, the expert satirist and left-wing intellectual has retired from radio in order to run for the Senate in Minnesota.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit to once being a regular Imus in the Morning listener. He used to be on 620 AM, I think it’s a sports station from either Omaha or Sioux City. I enjoyed listening whenever John McCain or Terry Bradshaw. But eventually it dawned on me that Imus was just another adolescent drive time D.J., only with no teenage pop music and high-end guests. I kicked the habit about a year ago.

Let’s face it, Imus was known for being a sexist, racist jerk- that’s his schtick, that’s why people tune in, so while yes, he deserves what he got, we shouldn’t all be so PC and hypersensitive to sexist, racist, jerks when after all, that’s their schtick anyway.

We should also recognize that there is a huge double standard because right-wing hate mongers like Mike Savage and Bill Bennett are constantly saying things that are as bad or worse (forget about Howard Stern). Remember Bennett suggested that crime rates would go down if Black babies were aborted? How about when Rush Limbaugh was making fun of Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s tremors? Rush has also called Halle Berry and Barack Obama “Half-rican-Americans.”

Glenn Beck referred to the survivors of Hurricane Katrina as “scum bags.”
Now, I’m no Rosie O’Donnell fan, but Glenn Beck actually talked on his radio show about how many oil lamps we could keep burning off of her fat? But he’s so sweet and middle-of-the-road on his TV show on CNN.

And how about that Ann Colter? Oh yeah, I forgot, she’s a writer who’s a frequent guest on talk radio and TV.

The other thing people seem to have forgotten is that there are people making OBSCENE amounts of money selling 11-22 year old white kids music by “Gangstas” that really, REALLY perpetuates negative racial stereotypes and sexist attitudes. Now I’m a white, male, middle-class, Midwesterner, so I realize that it may not be my place to preach to the African American community, but I think that before we throw a fit about an old shock jock who made it big like Imus, we should listen to what Doctor Bill Cosby has been saying for years. If I were Black, I think I’d be way more offended by most of rap and hip hop music than one crotchety old cowboy who raises a lot of money for kids with cancer- even though what Imus said was flagrantly outrageous and even cruel to the Rutgers women’s basketball players.

Finally, Imus is a jerk and he’ll probably say things like this again if he ever gets back on the air, but he has apologized more clearly, succinctly, more earnestly, more directly and more often then Mel Gibson, Michael Richards, Trent Lot, Joe Biden, Rush Limbaugh, Bill Clinton or any other public figure in recent memory. That ought to be worth something.

Ted Mallory lives in Charter Oak and teaches at Boyer Valley Schools in Dunlap. ‘Ted’s Column’ has appeared weekly in the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper since 2002. If you’d like to see any of Ted’s editorial cartoons bigger and brighter, you can visit http://tmal.multiply.com/photos/album/2

yearbook, news, & pr

yearbook, news, & pr: "thepresscorps.blogspot
I hope this doesn't become a blog about blogging, that might be like the coffee table book about coffee table books on the old Sienfeld show. What it is about is journalism, photography, and graphic design. I am a high school yearbook adviser who writes a column, draws cartoons, and contributes to a small-town newspaper in Iowa. This blog is a place to post things for my students AND to comment on what's going on in the media."

yearbook, news, & pr

yearbook, news, & pr: "I hope this doesn't become a blog about blogging, that might be like the coffee table book about coffee table books on the old Sienfeld show. What it is about is journalism, photography, and graphic design. I am a high school yearbook adviser who writes a column, draws cartoons, and contributes to a small-town newspaper in Iowa. This blog is a place to post things for my students AND to comment on what's going on in the media."

Brotherhood is the answer

It dawned on me this weekend that British science-fiction author Douglas Adams may have snuck a secret message about baseball and integration into his "Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy." According to his book, THE answer to life, the universe and everything?...



THE answer is "42."



Well duh!

Cartoons

Click here to see tons of my cartoons- http://tmal.multiply.com/photos/album/2

Click here to see tons of my cartoons- http://tmal.multiply.com/photos/album/2

Cartoons

Click here to see tons of cartoons- http://tmal.multiply.com/photos/album/2
Not only do I think that the last 5 weeks or so are some of my best political cartoons, but I just added another 5 non-political ones that I did in PhotoShop. There's over 100 cartoons there. It's more than a hobby, it's becoming an obsession. Listen, it's a psychological illness- I NEED for you to look at these cartoons. Fortunately, I don' t need you to laugh or to agree with all of them. I know that this is a lousy spam message, but I can't help myself! If you promise to forward this web address to at least a couple of other people who might like to read cartoons, I think that will bring me psychological well-being so that I'll stop sending spam to you. Seriously. As long as you're there, you can click on one of the other menus on the top of the page, like "home," so that you can see tons of other artwork, paintings, drawings, computer graphics, and photos of Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama. You might even be tempted to bookmark it and visit it every other week to see new cartoons.

Beg, beg, plead

Come view my cartoons

Click here to see tons of cartoons- http://tmal.multiply.com/photos/album/2
Not only do I think that the last 5 weeks or so are some of my best political cartoons, but I just added another 5 non-political ones that I did in PhotoShop. There's over 100 cartoons there. It's more than a hobby, it's becoming an obsession. Listen, it's a psychological illness- I NEED for you to look at these cartoons. Fortunately, I don' t need you to laugh or to agree with all of them. I know that this is a lousy spam message, but I can't help myself! If you promise to forward this web address to at least a couple of other people who might like to read cartoons, I think that will bring me psychological well-being so that I'll stop sending spam to you. Seriously. As long as you're there, you can click on one of the other menus on the top of the page, like "home," so that you can see tons of other artwork, paintings, drawings, computer graphics, and photos of Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama. You might even be tempted to bookmark it and visit it every other week to see new cartoons.

Beg, beg, plead

_______________________________
Pirate Prayers at:
http://malloryprayer.blogspot.com

Ted's cartoons, artworks, photos, and commentary at:
http://tmal.multiply.com

"The gospel is meant to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." ~Garrison Keillor

Surreal web finds

some of these images are pretty creepy- but I couldn't resist this kind of wild surrealism. I found all these at a website called "Certifiably Creative," (http://neodv8.blogspot.com) I guess it belongs to some kind of actor or theater weirdo. You have to admit that these are exciting pictures, whoever is responsible for them

More cartoon magic demystified!

Political Cartoon for April 19, 2007, Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper and Schleswig Leader
Last week, I showed you some of the steps involved in drawing and editing one of my political cartoons. This week, I thought I thought I'd show you some of the "layers" that I use in Adobe PhotoShop.I started with two drawings on 6x9 sketch paper. I scanned them in to PhotoShop and adjusted the levels a little to make the lines just a little bolder.
I flipped the pictures horizontally and cleaned them up a little bit. In hind sight, I wonder about this decision. I think it made Nixon look even more seedy. I think that it made Rove look a lot like James Dobson. I painted the line drawings in with grey screen and even painted a five o'clock shadow on old Dick. A little gradient and some drop shadow give them some dimension.

I scanned in the text. Here's a secret- I mispelled "accidently" for Nixon, so I copied and pasted it from Rove's side and replaced Nixon's. Look close, they're EXACTLY the same.One of PhotoShop's funnest features are the ways you can customize text. Maybe I went overboard. I could've just went with straight text, but I wanted to make sure that they looked a little cartoony as opposed to taking myself so seriously. I've read at least one professional editorial cartoonist & syndication editor gripe about how new cartoonist rely too much on computer fonts. I think the real key is to find the right balance between non-use and abuse. I feel like I'm still learning and developing my style.

The last thing I did was to add another gradient to give the background some dimension. This is another one of those things that I'm learning about by trial and error. Many times it looks good here on the web, but printed in a newspaper at only 150 dpi and only 3.792 inches wide too much shading can get really dark and muddy. Again, what I'm shooting for is that delicate balance between non-use and over-use. I've had people tell me that they like the "digital" look of my cartoons, but there's still that voice in my head that says "you mess things up by going overboard, don't overwork it, less is more, why can't you keep things clean? You're terrible, give it up, you suck! Why are you even trying to do this? You'll never be a success or make any money at it?!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUGH!!!"

See why I try not to listen to the little voices in my head?

I was tempted to draw something about Don Imus, but that's like shooting fish in a barrell. Besides, with all the attention he's getting, the U.S. Attorney hearings has been allowed to fall under most people's radar- just what Bush, Rove, and Gonzales want, I'm sure. Plus, since he's out of office and long dead, how many opportunities will I get to draw Nixon? Actually, I think the Rove I drew a couple of weeks ago as a Humpty Dumpty egg was better, but he does kind of lend himself to charicature, doesn't he?

Want to see over 100 more of my cartoons? Political and otherwise?
Just visit http://tmal.multiply.com/photos/album/2

Hussein's Prewar Ties To Al-Qaeda Discounted - washingtonpost.com

Hello??? Bush & Cheny LIED to us!
At the end of the Vietnam war, John Kerry challenged Congress "How do you ask a man to be the last to die for a mistake?" The question today is, how do you ask someone to die for a LIE?

Hussein's Prewar Ties To Al-Qaeda Discounted - washingtonpost.com
Pentagon Report Says Contacts Were Limited

R. Jeffrey Smith, Washington Post, 4/6/07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con tent/article/2007/04/05/AR2007040502263. html

Captured Iraqi documents and intelligence interrogations of Saddam Hussein and two former aides "all confirmed" that Hussein's regime was not directly cooperating with al-Qaeda before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, according to a declassified Defense Department report released yesterday.

Imus in the mourning

I'm almost as sick of hearing about Don Imus as I am about Anna Nicole Smith. I don't disagree that he deserves to be shut down, but I also agree with this cartoon.

1) He's known for being a sexist, racist jerk- that's his schtick, that's why people tune in, so while yes, he deserves what he's getting, we shouldn't all be so PC and hypersensitive to sexist, racist, jerks when after all, that's their schtick anyway.

and 2) there is a huge double standard because Mike Savage and Bill Bennett are right-wing talk show hosts who are constantly saying things that are as bad or worse (forget about Rush or Howard Stern) Remember when Rush was making fun of Michael J. Fox's Parkinsons's tremors? Oh, did I mention Ann Colter? Did she ever apologize? No? Hmmm. And Glenn Beck, how about this guy? Now, I'm no Rosie O'Donnell fan, but thie Glenn Beck guy talked on his radio show about how many oil lamps we could keep burning off of her fat?

and 3) as this cartoon points out, there are people making OBSCENE amounts of money selling 11-22 year old white kids music by "Gangstas" that really, REALLY purpetuates negative racial stereotypes and sexist attitudes. Now I'm a white, male, middleclass, college eduacted, Midwesterner, so I realize that I don't have a lot of credibility with African-Americans, but I think that before we throw a fit about a old shock jock who made it big like Imus, we should listen to what Doctor Bill Cosby has been saying (and ridiculed by other African-Americans for) for years. What would MLK say? You're right, I don't have a right to say this, but if I were Black, I think I'd be way more offended by most of rap and hip hop music than one crotchety old cowboy who raises a lot of money for kids with cancer- even though what he said was absolutely outrageous and flagrantly cruel and foolish.

Imus is a jerk and he'll probably say things like this again, but he has apologized more clearly, susinctly, more earnestly, more directly and more often then Mel Gibson, Michael Richards, Trent Lot, Joe Biden, Rush Limbaugh, Bill Clinton or any other public figure in recent memory. That ought to be worth something.

I welcome your comments.

Hot on the 2008 Campaign Trail

This cartoon took WAY too long to create. Want to see the process I went through? Visit http://malloryart.blogspot.com/2007/04/mystic-art-revealed.html

Put me in Coach, I think I'm ready
Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper — Schleswig Leader, Thursday, April 12, 2007 – Page 3

I can’t help it. Other guys fantasize about playing major league baseball. Me? My daydream would be to follow along the campaign trail for the Post or the Tribune. One of the perks to living in Iowa for a political news junkie like me is that every four years the candidates come a courting.

This season, instead of just calling upon voters in their homes and cafes, there are at least a couple of candidates have been given the moniker, “rock-star,” because they draw crowds in the hundreds. I’d seen Sen. John Edwards last time around on someone’s front porch in Dunlap and had mixed feelings. I was impressed with his enthusiasm and passion and his creativity- his willingness to think outside of convention, but like any half-ways level headed, Iowan, I was skeptical of how he planned to accomplish some of his lofty goals. Call me “Blue-Dog Democrat” or a fiscal conservative, but I figure you have to either pay-as-you-go or start smaller and build up the idealistic stuff once you can. I didn’t go out of my way to rearrange my schedule to see him when he held a much bigger gathering at Cronk’s restaurant in Denison.

But, at the risk of fulfilling some people’s stereotype of the left-wing journalist, I have to admit to you that I was excited to attend the first Barack Obama town meeting at Denison High School a couple of weeks ago. Of course, it didn’t hurt that one of my former students was a volunteer and called to nag me. I was just curious at first. Plenty of people were more impressed with his speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention than with John Kerry, John Edwards, or any of the other people there. So with all of the media coverage that has been building, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at his book. I read a few pages at the library and then got my own copy.

I will tell you that reading his book, The Audacity of Hope, revealed to me that there are at least four important things that make him the virtual antithesis to President George W.Bush; He’s intelligent, he’s eloquent, he respects and understands the U.S. Constitution, and he places a greater value on the well being of people than of any political party. That would be more than enough to vote for him if he were running against W, but first he has to face off with Hillary and Edwards, and if he wins the nomination, he’ll probably have to go up against Guliani or McCain.

So I wanted to hear more. I’ve had something of a benign fascination with the city of Chicago since high school anyway. (I’m not sure why, The original bob Newhart Show, the band Chicago, the ’84 Bears, the Blues Brothers, columnists Mike Royko & Bob Greene? Who knows?)

So I went. Maybe a little too early for someone who wasn’t volunteering. I figured, this is a major national figure, I should cover it for the newspaper, so I brought a camera and a notepad. When I went to sign in, some guy in a sport coat saw my camera and lead me over to the press table. Rock on, wear a camera around your neck and people assume you’re official. The sport coat guy gave me a quick orientation to where the candidate was going to stand, how long he planned on talking, where the microphones would be for taking questions, yadda yadda yadda. As if I’d never been in gymnasium before and I couldn’t see how the chairs were arranged, where the flag was hung or where the mics were. But it still made me feel kind of important in a pretending to be a heap big reporter when I’m really just some schmo with a blog.

I have to have been to a billion basketball games and concerts and graduations where I stand around and take yearbook pictures, but I never got such a buzz of adrenaline waiting for an event to start before. What was the big deal? I hadn’t even seen Barack yet and I had told myself that as impressed as I was so far, I didn’t want to make up my mind already with a whole year to go. Then some kid was leaning back on his chair on the stage and fell off. That broke the tension. Just so you know, he wasn’t hurt, just embarrassed, but I brought it up because it snapped me out of my building anxiety and because when you see the clips of these candidates on TV you tend to forget that they’re real, not edited.

If I weren’t so shy, I should’ve struck up conversations with the photographer and videographer from the Associated Press. He looked like he knew what he was doing more than the sport coat guy and his digital TV camera looked cutting edge. She looked like she was just out of college. She couldn’t have been more than 5’ 4” and 120 pounds, but she was lugging easily 120 pounds of equipment, including four cameras.

Fortunately, the woman who runs the Spanish newspaper talked to me quite a bit, and so did Denison photo-legend Bruce Binning. I noticed that he used the exact same model of camera that I do, so that made me feel pretty good. If you'd like to see all of the pictures I took, visit http://tmal.multiply.com/photos/album/49

Finally Obama arrived, spoke, answered questions, shook hands and gave autographs. Then the volunteers had to lug hundreds of chairs back to the band room and it was over.
There’s something I can’t explain to you about covering an event rather than just attending it. In some ways you feel like you’re not included because you’re working too hard to get a picture or to jot down notes to be able to just take things in. On the other hand, you’re forced to pay closer attention, so you never have those moments when no matter how much you like the speaker, your attention drifts or you need to stifle a yawn.

What I can tell you it that the impression that I got was much like what I got from his book. He came off as very smart without being too technical or boring. He chooses his words carefully, but in a way that seems deliberate without being too “slick or calculated.” He seems warm and genuine, but not gushy or touchy-feely. I know from his book that he is working very hard, but he doesn’t but he doesn’t sound like he is, like Edwards, Hillary Clinton, and McCain can, but he also doesn’t sound like one of those people who makes it look so easy, like Bill Clinton used to.

Like Bill Clinton, his positions seem to be pretty centrist and intended to help, not just be popular. He didn’t have Al Gore’s sense of humor or John Edward’s exuberance, but at the risk of sounding like I’m endorsing him, I think we could do a lot worse. Come to think of it, he have done a lot worse.

Related stories:
Obama reacts to a religious right-winger
http://malloryprayer.blogspot.com/2007/04/wall-of-separation-blog-archive-matter.html

Obama answers questions on issues
http://tedscolumn.blogspot.com/2007/04/obama-answers-quiestions-on-issues.html

"Straight-news" take on Obama's visit to Denison
http://tedscolumn.blogspot.com/2007/04/obama-brings-hope-to-5th-district.html

Ted's photos of the Obama event in Denison
http://tmal.multiply.com/photos/album/49

Ted Mallory lives in Charter Oak and teaches at Boyer Valley Schools in Dunlap. ‘Ted’s Column’ has appeared weekly in the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper since 2002. If you’d like to see any of Ted’s editorial cartoons bigger and brighter, you can visit http://tmal.multiply.com/photos/album/2