Fox News reports that NBC Severs Ties With Journalist Peter Arnett. "It was wrong for Mr. Arnett to grant an interview to state-controlled Iraqi TV, especially at a time of war," NBC spokeswoman Allison Gollust said.
In the interview, Mr. Arnett brags that his footage of civilian causalities is helpful to those who oppose the war. It's difficult to think of anything that would create more civilian causalities than Mr. Arnett's praise of Iraqi "resistance" and "discipline" and his assertion that the Coalition forces have "failed." (Here is the interview transcript, via LGF.)
UPDATE: Fox News reports that Britain's Daily Mirror Paper Hires Peter Arnett. The article describes the publication as "vehemently opposed to the war."
UPDATE: To further illustrate the atrociousness of Arnett's collaboration with Iraq's Tyranny TV, check out examples of the leaflets dropped on Iraq (from GlobalSecurity.org via The Command Post). The leaflets are designed to encourage Iraqi soldiers to surrender, thereby minimizing causalities both of Iraqis and Coalition forces. Arnett's comments have the opposite affect by encouraging futile Iraqi resistance.
UPDATE April 5: AP reports that Peter Arnett Now Reporting for Arab TV. (From The Command Post)
In honor of Coalition soldiers who have lost their lives during Operation Iraqi Freedom (From CNN). The Department of Defense has a list of Fallen Warriors, American military personnel who have died during the entire War on Terrorism, as well as a separate list for the Pentagon Victims of the September 11 terrorist attack.
Our thoughts are also with those who are listed as Prisoners of War/Missing in Action in Iraq (From CNN).
The DoD lists ways to Support Our Troops. And Fox News also has a list.
UPDATE: What if we had fought this war sooner? Bill Whittle eloquently puts soldiering and the war in Iraq into historical context: HISTORY.
This cartoon was created soon after the opening shots into Baghdad designed to decapitate the Iraqi regime. The strike was at least partially successful, but Fox News is reporting that U.S. government officials have all but concluded that Saddam Hussein is in control of his military and issuing orders.
At least some of the volunteer human shields have been "shocked back to reality." After escaping Iraq, a group of “anti-war” Americans reported that some Iraqis they interview said “they would commit suicide if American bombing didn't start. They were willing to see their homes demolished to gain their freedom from Saddam's bloody tyranny.” (Hat tip LFG)
UPDATE: An "anti-war" activist witnesses Saddam's brutal tyranny first-hand and admits, "I Was Wrong." (Via Capitalism Magazine).
Another great editorial by TIA’s Robert Tracinski: Don't Defy the United Nations—End It.
Comments-wise things are dead at the moment, but it's been an unusually busy 48 hours. I'm sure our volume of comments is low compared to many blogs, but it’s still more than we have time to monitor.
As we stated in our opening entry about three weeks ago, this blog's primary purpose is to show more of our work and publicize our self-published book. The comments section was a secondary feature. While dissenting opinions and criticism are welcome (we don’t expect everyone to agree with us), argumentative trolls are another matter. We're not here to provide them a soap box at our expense. They’re free to start their own blogs or frequent other forums. But if we’re to continue creating more cartoons and holding our regular jobs, our comments section has to close. We don’t have the extra time to police a 24-hour open debate forum.
We’re grateful for the compliments we have received, both publicly and privately. We’re even glad critics have chimed in. But we’re especially thankful to those posters who have taken the time and effort to the defend the American ideals we try to get across in our cartoons.
We hope you’ll stay tuned for more of our work. And we can still be reached by e-mail.
Read John Fund’s editorial about Mr. Moore at WSJ: Unmoored From Reality: An ideological con artist is the favorite for an Oscar. (Via Hollywood Halfwits)
Yahoo News reports that Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien is suddenly concerned about Canadian anti-Americanism. (Thanks to zulubaby at LGF)
UPDATE: At his blog, Right On!, Tim G. has excerpts from Canadian editorials critical of Mr. Chretien’s "anti-war" stance.
UPDATE: Mark Steyn writes of Canada: Our War, Too.
UPDATE: Majority of Canadians want Canada to back U.S., survey says; and Now Ottawa backs U.S.'s war with Iraq. (Hat tip Bill de Haan)
UPDATE: Canadian Friends of America. (Hat tip wickens.ca)
As America continues its war of self-defense in Iraq, this tribute by Ayn Rand is worth remembering: To America’s Armed Forces. Also still relevant is this Sept. 2001 op-ed by Onkar Ghate: War, Nuclear Weapons and “Innocents”. And Fox News recently reported on the Marxists behind the "anti-war" protests.
Fox News reports: France, Russia, Germany Issue Anti-War Statement. This cartoon originally appeared at The Intellectual Activist.
We know, we know ... Mr. Penn’s Baghdad trip is old news, but with "anti-war" celebrities crawling out of the woodwork lately, it gives us an excuse to post this cartoon. At least a couple of Web sites are keeping tabs on "Hollywood Halfwits" and "Dumb Celebs". And according to The Hollywood Reporter, some Web users are protesting celeb activism. (Latter story via Views on the News)
This cartoon originally appeared at The Intellectual Activist.
A belated salute to the Pakistani and American operatives who captured Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the Al Qaeda planner allegedly responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attack and other atrocities. The arrest is apparently leading authorities to other Al Qaeda members, from Osama bin Laden himself to suspects in eight American cities. (Latter story via LGF)
This past weekend, ex-President Jimmy Carter unilaterally attacked President Bush’s Iraq policy. We couldn't help but be reminded of the outcome of Mr. Carter's North Korea policy. His basic operating principle seems to be that socialist tyrannies of every stripe are more trustworthy than America.
Editorial cartoons tend to be critical by nature, so whenever we feature President Bush, it is usually to criticize a particular policy stance of his, e.g., expanding domestic socialism, advocating a Palestinian state (see here), showing deference to the U.N., etc. But this cartoon shows what we admire about him -- his willingness to use force to protect America from its enemies. Now if he'd just stop playing the diplomacy game...
UPDATE: Here’s an excellent editorial on the European vs. the American view of cowboys by Andrew Bernstein: In Defense of the Cowboy. (Thanks to Martin Lindeskog).
Welcome to the Grand Opening of the Cox & Forkum weblog. The purpose of this blog is two-fold: 1) to have an outlet for showing more of our cartoons; and 2) to publicize our book, Black & White World.
Every other day or so we will be posting a new cartoon for you blog readers. If we manage to make you a regular visitor, we hope that at some point you'll click on our book ad (upper right-hand corner) and consider making a purchase. If you like these cartoons, you'll like the book (which is also portable and requires no batteries).
We want to acknowledge a few people who have been helpful in our leap into cyberspace. First and foremost is Robert and Sherri Tracinski at The Intellectual Activist, who have been publishing our work since the dark days of 2001, both on the Web and in their magazine. We have been a subscriber to TIA for many years and highly recommend it as the place to turn for a rational, philosophical analysis of current events, from Architecture to Zimbabwe.
We'd also like to tip our hat to a few bloggers. We're thankful to Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs who has generously posted many of our cartoons. But the reason to go to LFG is for Charles' insightful commentary on the battle between Western Civilization and Islamism. There's no better blog for news from the front lines.
Bill Whittle at Eject! Eject! Eject!, Emperor Misha I at The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler, and Martin Lindeskog at EGO have all kindly reviewed our work for their readers, and for that we are grateful. Bill's blog offers thoughtful, touching, well-written essays on such topics as War, Courage and Honor (cynics will feel out of place there). Misha skewers idiotarians the world over, daily, relentlessly and without mercy. And Martin keeps an Objectivist eye on the world from Europe.
Finally, thanks to Rachel Lucas at RachelLucas.com, who--though on hiatus from her own excellent, gun-toting, capitalist blog--graciously held our hand through the labyrinth of HTML coding. You wouldn't be reading this blog if it wasn't for her.
Our aim is to create hard-hitting cartoons from an individualist perspective. We hope you come back for more.
Sincerely,
John Cox & Allen Forkum
P.S. A special salute to Tom Minchin in Australia ... Onya, Tom!
In addition to illustrating Cox & Forkum editorial cartoons, John Cox is also an accomplished caricature artist. Below is an alphabetical catalogue of his weekly series.
Below are Cox & Forkum editorial cartoons related to Iran. The Iranian theocracy is the world's biggest state sponsor of terrorism and a direct threat to America. We advocate regime change in Iran, specifically the establishment of a secular government that protects individual rights. For the latest news and opinions on Iran, visit Iran Va Jahan, 'Free Iran' News and Iran Press News. (Click here to view our main page.)
For more Iran-related cartoons, see Iran Politics Club cartoons
"State of War" August 9, 2007: The price we pay for ignoring Iran
"Rock the Casbah" August 6, 2007: Iran clamps down on "satanic" rock concert
"Drums of War" July 19, 2007: Bush's lack of response to Iranian agression
"Benchmarks" July 12, 2007: Failure of political leadership
"Security Measures" June 28, 2007: Iran vs. illegal immigration
"Benighted" June 21, 2007: Salman Rushdie's latest fatwa
"Colossal Evasion" June 7, 2007: Leftists ignore Iran's tryanny
"Grave Indifference" May 28, 2007: Disgraceful diplomacy with Iran
"Slave to Fashion" May 22, 2007: Crackdown on western dress in Iran
"Bureau of Disinformation" April 12, 2007: Peaceful war-making
"From Iran With Love" April 5, 2007: Ahmadinejad sends a gift to Blair
"Shock & Awe" April 1, 2007: Putting Ahmadinejad to the test
"Tea & Sophistry" March 29, 2007: The taking of British hostages
"Misfire" March 25, 2007: U.N. sanctions vs. war
"The Iraq Talks" March 8, 2007: Bush continues to pursue dialogue with the enemy
"Runaway" February 25, 2007: Ahmadinejad admits Iran's nuke program a "train without brakes"
"Throw Down" February 20, 2007: Ahmadinejad expects us to drop our weapons first
"Crossroads" February 18, 2007: Democrats don't want to confront Iran either
"Limited Engagement" February 15, 2007: Bush stops at the Iranian border
"Funny Valentine" February 11, 2007: Ahmadinejad vainly America
"Who Goes There" February 8, 2007: Iranian influence in Lebanon
"Unresponsive" February 4, 2007: Bush responds to Iran's "meddling" in Iraq
"Dead Ball" January 16, 2007: Bush's losing strategy
"The 800-Pound Guerrilla" January 11, 2007: Bush ingores Iran threat in Iraq
"Saber Rattling" January 7, 2007: Israel vs. Iran
"Genocidal Logic" December 17, 2006: Ahmadinejad's math lesson on Israel
"2006 Weblog Awards" December 11, 2006: Ayatollah Khamenei as a woman
"Then & Now" December 7, 2006: WWII vs. The War on Terror
"Casino Fatale" December 5, 2006: Bush bets on Shiites
"Stalker" November 30, 2006: "Ahmy" sends another letter to Americans
"Snow Gray" November 14, 2006: Bush tempted by "Iraq Stability" offered by Iran
"Flashback" November 14, 2006: Blair makes peace with Ahmadinejad
"Savoir-Farce" October 19, 2006: UN, US, EU war of words
"The Ahmadinejad Code" October 8, 2006: Entry for Iran's Holocaust cartoon contest
"Beast of Burden" October 3, 2006: Strange bedfellows for Democrats
"Bailing Out" September 29, 2006: Bush and Democrats missing Iran threat
"Security Breach" September 19, 2006: Ahmadinejad back at the U.N.
"Tunnel Vision" September 12, 2006: Democrats vs. then enemies
"Charm Offensive" September 7, 2006: Khatami at Harvard
"Purging 101" September 5, 2006: Ahmadinejad vs. secularism in universities
"Mohammad Khatami" September 4, 2006: Newsmaker Caricature
"Five Minutes to Midnight" August 30, 2006: Iran and the Doomsday Clock
"Carrot & Stick" August 22, 2006: Ahmadinejad drives the West
"Changement de Rythme" August 3, 2006: Ahmadinejad's war vs. Bush's diplomacy
"Rock'em Sock'em" July 15, 2006: Iran's proxy Hezbolllah vs. Israel
"Unrequited War" June 29, 2006: Iran has wanted war for decades
"Forked Tongue" June 18, 2006: Nuclear offspring
"Step By Step" May 30, 2006: Cockroaches and ethnic unrest
"EU-Bonz" May 21, 2006: Ahmadinejad's letter to Bush
"From Iran With Hate" May 9, 2006: Ahmadinejad throws a bone to the EU
"Dicey" May 2, 2006: Rice plays the UN diplomacy game
"Crasher" April 16, 2006: Nuclear Club gate crasher
"Blixatron" April 4, 2006: Iran's ultimate stealth weapon
"Chaos Theory" March 30, 2006: Ahmadinejad and the 13th Imam
"Worse" March 19, 2006: "Anti-war" protesters and Iran
"Udder Madness" March 14, 2006: Mad cows, U.N. and Iranian missiles
"Made in Iran" March 7, 2006: Iran's war against U.S. in Iraq
"Undeniable" February 8, 2006: Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denial
"Idle Worship" February 2, 2006: IAEA whorships U.N. diplomacy in face of threat
"Huff and Puff" January 22, 2006: Three Little Pigs
"Brokeback Diplomacy" January 19, 2006: Russia, China, and Iran cozy up
"Fallout" January 10, 2006: ElBaradei losing patience
"Naked Agression" December 13, 2005: Ahmadinejad bares all
"Mullahs In Space" December 4, 2005: Iran pursues space technology
"As Plain As..." November 27, 2005: Iran nuclear intentions
"Ahmadinejad's Final Solution" October 13, 2005: Iraq's constitution and Iran
"Outside Influence" October 27, 2005: Regarding his "wipe Israel off the map" statement
"En Garde" October 11, 2005: ElBaradei's Nobel Peace Prize and Iran
"UNrehearsed" September 19, 2005: Ahmadinejad's U.N. speech
"Confronting Terrorism VI" September 8, 2005: Presidents Bush and Ahmadinejad
"Table for None" August 9, 2005: Nuclear diplomacy
"Akbar Ganji" July 19, 2005: Jailed Iranian dissident
"Hostage" June 30, 2005: Iran's terrorist president
"Knock the Vote" June 21, 2005: Boycotting the elections
"Guided Tours" June 12, 2005: Sean Penn visits Iran
"Ali Khamenei" May 30, 2005: Caricature of the Ayatollah
"Blame Games" May 10, 2005: Nuclear moral equivalence
"Nuke-Go-Round" May 4, 2005: EU and the Mullahs
"Black Wedding" February 17, 2005: Iran and Syria openly admit their relationship
"St. George and the Dragon" February 3, 2005: Bush fighting some, but not all, Middle East dragons
"Mullah Pet" December 14, 2004: ElBaradei, the Nuclear Lap Dog
"Captive Audience" December 6, 2004: Khatami's inability to pass reform
"Nuclear Tools" November 21, 2004: Great Britian, Russia and France
"High Stakes" September 23, 2004: Bush arms Israel
"UNthreatening" September 19, 2004: The U.N. makes more empty threats about Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons
"Mullah Justice" August 24, 2004: Mullahs have 16-year-old girl hanged for "sharp tongue"
"Detour of Duty" July 30, 2004: Kerry and the Iranian threat
"Iranian Export" July 19, 2004: Iranian regime connected to 9/11 terrorists
"18 Tir" July 7, 2004: The mullahs again censor student movement
"Dog Daze" June 14, 2004: U.N. nuclear watchdog vs. Iran
"Baby Got Burqa" June 11, 2004: Hip-Hop, Islamofascist Style
"Strange Bedfellows" May 23, 2004: Iraq's Chalabi and the Iranian regime
"Iran's Proxy War" Apr. 6, 2004: Al-Sadr's Iranian connection
"Bonfire of the Mullahs" Mar. 18, 2004: The Festival of Fire anti-regime demonstrations
"Veiled Threats" Feb. 26, 2004: It's a matter of priorities, again
"Hardliner Cafe" Feb. 25, 2004: Khamenei's election sham
"Ballot Initiative" Feb. 20, 2004: Iranians boycott "elections"
"Iranian Terror Caucus" Feb. 12, 2004: John Kerry and Iran
"Weapons of Mass Distraction" Feb. 06, 2004: Iraq's WMD vs Iran's WMD
"Iranian 'Democracy'" Feb. 16, 2004: The "Reformists" vs. "Conservatives" Farce
"Earthquake Diplomacy" Jan. 06, 2004: Mullahs vs. earthquake victims
"Next!" Dec. 21, 2003: Who comes after Libya?
"Weapons Grade" Oct. 23, 2003: U.N. and Iranian nukes
"New Iraq" Oct. 02, 2003: Iran and Syria vs. New Iraq
"Nuclear Ends" Sep. 22, 2003: Nuclear electricity?
"Do Not Read This" July 16, 2003: Mullahs vs. free speech
"Priorities" July 10, 2003: Media ignores dissident's plight
"Wizard of Iran" July 09, 2003: Theocrats vs. Iranians
"Strike!" July 08, 2003: Students vs. Theocracy
"Lighting The Way" June 19, 2003: Students vs. Khamenei
"Terrorists?" May 22, 2003: Iran hiding terrorist
"Power Source" May 20, 2003: Bush picking wrong target
"Your Attention Please" April 17, 2003: Saddam's fall and The Axis of Evil
"Rotten To The Core" March 25, 2003: United Nations
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Please do not take a lack of response from us as a lack of interest in your e-mail. We deeply appreciate all the feedback we receive -- both praise and criticism. We will try to respond to you, but due to time constraints and the volume of mail, we cannot respond to every e-mail. We are also using a junkmail filter that may inadvertently catch some legitimate reader mail. We're sorry if this happens to you, but we're overwhelmed by junkmail and have to control it in some way.
Cartoon Idea Submissions
We do not solicit ideas from readers, but if you really want to send us one, feel free to do so. We probably won't be able to respond to your idea, but if we can use it in some way, we'll be sure to let you know (and we cannot compensate you other than by publicly acknowledging your contribution).
Thanks.
UPDATED FEB. 2005
Cox & Forkum is John Cox and Allen Forkum. Generally speaking, Forkum (that's me in the middle) writes the cartoons and Cox illustrates them. John and I have first met in art school in the early '80s. We started creating gag cartoons in 1990 (sample below) and in August 2001 decided to try our hands at editorial cartoons.
We have since self-published two books: Black & White World and Black & White World II. We launched this blog in March 2003 to promote our cartoons, books and other products. We are not syndicated, but Cox & Forkum editorial cartoons can be seen regularly in Investor's Business Daily, The Detroit News and other publications and Web sites. (You can even spot a few in the documentary FahrenHYPE 9/11.)
If your publication is interested in featuring our cartoons, e-mail us at contact -- at -- coxandforkum.com.
We ask regular visitors to our site to consider buying our merchandise to help keep the site going. We hope you enjoy the site!
ON POLITICS
Because an editorial cartoon usually offers only a narrow slice of a cartoonist's political views, some readers naturally make assumptions about our politics, such as that we're conservatives or libertarians, particularly because we often criticize leftists. However, we are neither of those.
Most of the cartoons come from my perspective as an Objectivist, which is the philosophy of Ayn Rand. In the introduction to our first book, Robert W. Tracinski described the political perspective of his magazine, The Intellectual Activist, and in doing so summed up our perspective as well:
"TIA's outlook is not 'conservative'; we do not look backward and attempt to preserve traditional values for their own sake. TIA advocates basic principles -- reason, individualism, secularism, individual rights and capitalism -- that are still radical, unorthodox and 'politically incorrect' today. Those principles obviously put us at odds with the subjectivism and socialism of the left; but they also put us at odds with the religious and pragmatist tendencies of the right."
On the occasion of the Ayn Rand centenary, ARI released an op-ed that concisely summarized Objectivism:
[Ayn Rand's] philosophy -- Objectivism -- upholds objective reality (as opposed to supernaturalism), reason as man's only means of knowledge (as opposed to faith or skepticism), free will (as opposed to determinism -- by biology or environment), and an ethics of rational self-interest (as opposed to the sacrifice of oneself to others or others to self). The only moral political system, she maintained, is laissez-faire capitalism (as opposed to the collectivism of socialism, fascism, or the welfare state), because it recognizes the inalienable right of an individual to act on the judgment of his own mind. Your life, she held, belongs to you and not to your country, God or your neighbors.Ayn Rand understood that to defend the individual she must penetrate to the root: his need to use reason to survive. "I am not primarily an advocate of capitalism," she wrote in 1971, "but of egoism; and I am not primarily an advocate of egoism, but of reason. If one recognizes the supremacy of reason and applies it consistently, all the rest follows." This radical view put her at odds with conservatives, whom she vilified for their attempts to base capitalism on faith and altruism. Advocating a government to protect the individual's right to his property, she was not a liberal (or an anarchist). Advocating the indispensability of philosophy, she was not a libertarian.
Our cartoons are not intended to represent Objectivism; Ayn Rand did that in her many fiction and non-fiction books, which we highly recommend.
COX & FORKUM INTERVIEWS
"Dean's World" interview -- July 2003
"Eye On The Left" interview -- October 2003 (renamed "Blogs of War")
"EGO" interview -- December 2003
OTHER C&F INFORMATION
Contacting Us & Submitting Ideas
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Free Iran: Death to Theocracy
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LFG Lizardoids in London
LGF Fiskie Award '02
LGF Fiskie Award '03
LGF Fiskie Award '04
LGF Trolls vs. Facts
TIA cover "Dead-Enders"
