Tasteless Cartoons about the Middle East, Pt. 2

I mentioned several days ago that I was disturbed by the overuse of simplistic suicide bomber imagery in mainstream (and even, yes, liberal) political cartoons. More and more, it seems like cartoonists who don't manage to squeeze at least one suicide bomber "joke" into every panel are soooo last month. Well, it's only gotten worse, as these examples by Daryl Cagle and Wayne Stayskal demonstrate. Both cartoonists play up a contrast between "normal" white American values (represented by Barbie and sports players) and (what they see as) incomprehensibly sick/twisted/inhumane Palestinian values, presumably founded in nothing more than collective Arab psychosis/strangeness. (Please see my previous post on the topic for alternative cartoon explanations). With a few squiggles of ink, they completely sidestep a complex historical and political situation for the sake of an easy "we're normal, they're not" joke.