More on Michael Moore at the Oscars

So I wasn't at all suprised, but I definitely was annoyed, to see some anti-Michael-Moore cartoons this morning. There were of course the usual "well if it weren't for soldiers dying in wars Michael Moore wouldn't have the freedom to speak out so why doesn't he just keep his mouth shut" cartoons. This argument always confuses me, because it (1) sidesteps the issue of whether this particular war is justified; (2) implies that even though people have the right to speak out against the war, it's both cowardly?! and evil?! of them to use it. Most ridiculously of all, Doug Marlette compared Moore to Saddam Hussein. Yes, it all makes sense now: speaking out for peace is the same thing as being a brutal dictator!

And in another ridiculous Marlette cartoon comparison, he draws George W. Bush and Tony Blair as the Twin Towers.

As for the obnoxious Oscars attendees who booed Mr. Moore, my boyfriend Yves had this to say:

it's a really weird and self-indulgent group of people who would boo Michael Moore for what he said about Bush and the war and then give a standing ovation to Roman Polanski when he won the Best Director Oscar (which he couldn't receive in person because he fled to France decades ago to avoid conviction for the drugging and rape of a 13-year-old girl).

Yeah, what he said.

For further reading on the Oscars thing, please see "Michael Moore stars at Academy Awards." And while you're at the InTheseTimes website, check out Kurt Vonnegut's advice column, you'll be glad you did.

For cartoons that aren't stupid, see today's offerings from Carol Lay and Signe Wilkinson (who, incidentally, was the first woman to win the Pulitzer for editorial cartooning, the second, and most recent being Ann Telnaes).