Bob Row's thread. Updated pg.15: 20 years in 3 minutes

[waheednasir]

very well done!

[Bob Row]

Alexandra, Coops: thank you for your kind words.
Caesar: Those who neglect their past are jeopardizing their future. Thank you for the link to that beauty! I saw it once in the local public channel, but it's a treasure to know it's in YouTube too.
Waheed: Thank you, master!

[pat1940]

Hi Bob, checking out your wonderful art again, just love to see them, always a delight to view, fantastic

[Bob Row]

Perhaps he would better doing this instead of speaking so many contradictions. The "birthers" doubt of his Hawaiian birth. To me, he acts just as any other American president does when in need of a rise in the pools: killing people and posing as an hero (Mission Accomplished!)

[Caesar]

Dear Bob, this is another impressive and caustic vignette out of Your fertile mind and the execution was highly professionally made.

Actually, to be honest, it looks like that Sarkozy too acts not much differently under similar situations .... I was glad anyway to know that Obama a couple of days later correctly told that there's never a reason for jubilating on a death,(curiously like the Vatican spokesman, who's not my preferred priest though, did say that immediately). This is always a golden rule no matter how much the victim deserved it. Moreover Obama didn't show the picture of Bin Laden's corpse, which is another right decision in my view against an unnecessary morbidity, no matter if he may have taken this decision also on other ground.
So, in my view, Obama eventually made at least that right statement as a civilized guy and the US nation and democrachy President and not just an internal popularity chaser exploiting the worst negative human attitudes. This means he's possibly going to become a great President; he doesn't fear contingent unpopularity or adversities, like in the case of his battle for a public, solidaristic health assurance any other civilized country has since longtime.
To be clear Bin Laden did widely deserve this end, most likely for sure, should we put the weight of the deaths, violence, curses, barbarian evolution, impious fanatism he caused (or was symbol of at least) on the other plate of the balance, but no such a trial was formally made.
For him eventually happened what Someone, who clearly wasn't after a personal and mundane power, warned all of us on, that "Who wounds by means of a sword dies by means of a sword". In other words, violence tend to raise violence.
But no civilization or religion should ever behave stating to be enpowered to do so on behalf of God and His justice or any other supernatural entity, as Osama himself did, and so many go on doing; the human life, rights and dignity of any individual has to be considered a supreme value on this Earth. That's the best lesson we should give to guys and crowds thinking and acting like Bin Laden and al Qaeda or any other similar criminal or fanatic organization.
So, whatever we may understand about the reasons for killing him, if that of Bin Laden was a cool mind killing while he was defenceless, it was an unjustifiable deed in my opinion.
He should have rather been taken in front of a tribunal having jurisdiction, even better the International Court of Justice for crimes against mankind US unfortunately didn't subscribe.
I realize it would have been a most hard and risky way to proceed, it would have required much courage, but it would have been a far more credible way to oppose justice to sheer and mad violence and deadly, devilish ideologies also symbolically ...
Anyway the treatment of Assange, of the American guy who helped him and all the illegalities possibly set up following Wikileaks news are as much worrysome to me as US wrong decisions, especially when US and we all claim to be democrachy and human right teacher to countries like China, or Iran or dozens of others in the Arabian Gulf and elsewhere, who still would deserve to be seriously pressed on this matter.

Well, time to shut up. As You can see I'm not afraid to say my thoughts and to take the part of what I believe right against what is wrong and not just diplomatically stick on one side or the other, maybe the most comfortable one, worse change my mind according to what is more favourable at any specific moment ...

[Bob Row]

Caesar: I'm glad you take so much time to reply so passionate about Obama. I don't feel capable to match your detailed argument. I'll just express my displeasure with all the dancing and rejoicing on the Ground Zero. I was surpraised too with the successive versions of Osama's death. It's clear to me, they didn't want him in a trial, telling of his old ties with the CIA. I expected a little more decency from Obama than from Bush. But he's afraid of suffering the fate of JFK. I can understand that, but I feel sorry for all those young people who worked for the hope of a renewal in American politics. Today I read a piece by Michael Moore which is quite moving:
http://blog.cagle.com/2011/05/some-f...ama-bin-laden/
My best

[D Akey]

I guess it's the obligation of the fourth estate to rattle the mighty. In that context this is a clever spin on the situation.

A bit simplistic, but one needs to be simplistic from having distilled down a large concept into it's essential form, with a clever wit when possible. It carries a punch. And you hit your target as it says what you yourself wanted to say, Bob.

I think the danger that the editorial cartoonist faces is going for a clever image with lots of impact over the thoughtful consideration of a situation. The political cartoon is like a bubble rising into the open and popping like a loud release of gas. Sometimes one wonders what the heck they ate.

Don't get me wrong. I love political cartoons. I also like spicy food. But cartoons of this kind serve as a very quick handle of a large subject for people to grab onto. Works like a gentleman playing a love song to his girl because it sums it up. . . only in your case with a little less love, hahaha.

The drawing is outstanding. And your message you have chosen to show is provocative. You had the luxury here to say in words what you were after. You may have needed to explain for us foreigners. Maybe not.

[Bob Row]

D Akey: As we gather in this forum to show the ways we employ AR, I try no to let my political views to bother those of others. Regrettably, I don't paint landscapes.
This time I tried to post the picture without words, but the interface asked me to write at least ten words....and I couldn't help it.
Usually, my editor at the newspaper section (which is called "Debates" or "Arguments") makes me a phone call to tell me the leading article he needs to become illustrated and then I suggest some graphic metaphor for him to approve. This time, though, he asked me for this scene right on: Obama dancing with the head of Bin Laden as "maracas". I was impressed, knowing he's rather a conservative in his political views.

But, let me tell you, this time, Obama lost any credibility in the eyes of any slightly informed person here. His recent trip through the region, showed him speaking lackluster formal discourses.
But now he got embarrassed with a contradictory set of versions of the Seals action and the dispose of Bin Laden's corpse. Just to justify the murder of an unarmed man who new too much. Yes, Bin Laden was a "mad dog" probably guilt of a lot of horrendous crimes. But a a "mad dog" who was hired and trained by the USA to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan and could tell uncomfortable facts if brought into a public trial. So, he simply went "suppressed" in a mob-like solution for the "problem".

It smell nasty because there was a nasty story behind. No naivety, no accident here. Not even the big conservative media in Argentina tried to deny this view. Now you know how the non-American public view this episode. Sorry if it hurts.

[Bob Row]

Another corpse story, but less prickly for most in the forum. Six months after the sudden death (from a known artery condition) of Nestor Kirchner (former president of Argentina, husband of the current one and the central personality for the last 8 years), a handful of books on him went to the bookshops. Some critical, some warming testimonial.
The subject cried for a version of the Anatomy lesson by Rembrandt. As the page design forces me to render the illustration in a vertical format, I wondered how to modify the original. Fortunately, I found this brilliant version by the great Edward Sorel for reference:
http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs.../rembrandt.htm
Hope you'll like it even thought you don't know this people.

[D Akey]

No need to apologize. I assure you that your opinion doesn't hurt. That's why I said that the issue is not so simplistic, but political cartoon issues tend to be.

And you were just following orders. I myself was an artistic "hired gun", so I know when one is told to do something you do it if you want to stay employed.

Politicians lie, and sometimes seem to lie when they change their stories, even though the reasons they change may have something to do with the unseen situation changing and it needing a different response. Everybody knows that.

So do journalists change their story occasionally. But they have the luxury if not the duty to explain why. Many journalists are of high standards and always tell their version of the truth, but we all know that the Truth, whatever that is, is conditional based on agendas. So much is interpretation. So one person's Truth can be another person's Lie because agendas come into opposition.

The Press, as a group for checks and balances keeping the powerful from screwing everything up for the rest of us, works best when it works independently of political pressures. It keeps the powers that be a little more honest hopefully. And I was rather horrified when I watched Bush get a stranglehold on the News in the US after 911. One could watch it happening. And thus it changed the nature of the mainstream news here.

I do not need to be reminded of anti-American sentiment. I am not in the least sensitive about it because it is a normal condition of peoples that comes from having separate countries and one being in a powerful position. I'm very aware of it. I've been watching it my whole life.

I'm also aware of the general disposition of other countries' tone that they are notorious for, and how those attitudes came to be. . . in the most simplistic terms of course. But that same polarity shows up not just with nations, but with people. It reflects human nature. And when there are groups of people, the group will reflect the leadership of those individuals with their personal strengths and weaknesses.

So I assure you I do not take it personally. It's business as usual. So knowing things are going to get messy, we have the Press to give us considerations of opposing thought. But the quality and character of the voice of the Press is not sacrosanct either, and it reflects the writers and editors. . . and the owners . . . and the people they are in bed with. Hardly simplistic, with individual agendas every step of the way.

So politics aside, talking again about the broad category of 'political cartoon', it has it's shortcomings in that it is simplistic, even when it illustrates a long editorial article (or bunch of articles) that have an agenda. One may agree or disagree with that agenda. It's 'spin'.

That you used the word 'murder' is very revealing. But who would read your paper if the writers said something less eye catching and charged. They are after all about selling papers. And many journalists of different quality make their bread from blood sacrifice, splitting people open publicly, don't they. I see it over and over.

So therein lies my caution. And that's all I'm saying. The words in the Press, and political cartoons, are written large. So it's important to get the messages balanced if balance is what one is after, and at least complete if one is going after someone. Like a pit bull, one could get so used to going after the same target, one could lose sight of the rest.

I assure you, I admire your work and love seeing it. In this case, my personal opinion is that this illustration is not the best conceptually, but it's provocative and that would get the reader to read the accompanying article, wouldn't it. Visually, it's great. Please keep posting your work. I love watching your process, Bob, and I wish you continued success. You're very good at what you do.