"Cartoon violence" takes on a new meaning

When the Mandarin and his generation (and perhaps yours as well) were growing up, cartoon violence meant something like the eternal struggle of Wile E. Coyote to catch the Roadrunner. (I wonder if he would have known what to do with a roadrunner had he ever caught one.)

Now, watching recent news headlines like "Four Die in Cartoon Violence," the whole coyote roadrunner thing seems kind of quaint.

No matter how open we are to diversity of thought and religion, sharing the planet with people who will try to kill us over a tasteless editorial cartoon published in a free press in a free country is something Miss Jaggers never prepared the Mandarin for in 12th-grade Civics class back in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Toto, we're not in Kansas any more, either.

Neither is cartoonist M.E. Cohen (click here and scroll to 7 Feb 06), who drew it better than the Mandarin said it.