February 8, 2006

Yes, that's his Majesty Emperor Akihito of Japan. For those of you who may have forgotten, Lord Milligan lives in Japan. In fact, he's the dictator of Japan.

In drawing Akihito, I was a little bummed to see that all the cool royal regallia on his official outfit was way off on his left side. His left side is barely visible. Oh well.

POLITICS:

In response to the offensive Mohammed cartoons, the government of Iran has called for Holocost-themed cartoons to be sent in to them. Their stated goal is to test to see if the West actually practices what they preach when it comes to highly offensive material in publications. I think this is a very interesting response, and proportional as well. I'll be interested to see how that pans out. My guess is a lot of westerners will say "What a bunch of assholes" and that'll be that.

What I would find unacceptable would be an official censorship of holocost cartoons. If you'll accept one highly offensive topic, you've got to accept them all. Freedom of the press applies to people who disgust you, too.

I guess another thing I like about that response is that I'm pretty much in favor of anything that desensitizes people to highly offensive topics. I think "righteous indignation" is the most destructive and malovelent force in human nature.

-ATW