3/7: Ted Rall's "Terror Widows" cartoon

[middlefunger]

I never really get tired of harping this point, but, isn't it great that we get to bitch about this cartoon, and that the cartoon gets to exist at all?

More on topic,
Jeni: yes, its terrible that Daniel Pearl's wife is being badgered specifically. It is a terrible tragedy that his child has to grow up without its natural father. However, his wife (I'm sorry, I don't know her name) chose to put herself in the spotlight of America. With that choice, she has to accept the good and the bad. I personally saw her three times and three different news outlets (admittedly, they are all basically the same channel with different faces on them). If she didn't want the criticism, she should not have gone on national television. Whether the nastiness is good or not, it is a part of the modern American spotlight, and she should know it.

Finally, on the subject of the humorousness of the piece itself. I enjoyed it. Strangely enough, Robert Heinlen had some good words of wisdom regarding this kind of work (I'm pretty sure he lifted it from somewhere else, but, I don't know where):
"We laugh, because we dare not cry."
Terrible things happen to good people all the time. The best way to cope and make ourselves think about tragedy (certainly the easiest, at a minimum) is to make a joke about it. Sure, it might be in poor taste, but, that is how alot of us deal with it.