I confess this cartoon is a tad formulaic in its presentation, but I couldn’t for the life of me think of a better way to present my point. I’m sure I could have metaphored up or done something with labeled animals or something, but not on a Monday at 4:45PM.

I wasn’t planning to do a cartoon on the Roman Polanski case, but the voices defending him have been so intellectually shabby that I felt an obligation to weigh in. Of the pieces I read, one in particular gave me pause. Professor Thaddeus Russell of Barnard college wrote a piece on The Daily Beast about the case re-igniting the debate on the age of consent. While it is a worthy discussion (and I happen to agree with his premise that American society is curiously bipolar and relatively dishonest in regards to matters of sexuality), this particular case has no place being intertwined with a dialogue on the age of consent. Polanski’s case has absolutely nothing to do with consent. The famous 43 year old director plied a thirteen year old girl with alcohol, gave her a Quaalude and then had sex with her, while she protested. Anybody defending him on the grounds that he has atoned by dint of the brilliance of the work he has given to humanity in the subsequent three decades he was on the lam is being selectively naive. He raped a young girl – pled guilty to it – and then ran away. I am a fan of Polanski’s work. I think he is a brilliant director. But I am a bigger fan of a fair legal system.

When I saw that the eminently likeable, yet breathtakingly unpopular Governor Paterson had shaved off his mustache – a fabulous and defining caricaturing device – I was crestfallen. I thought to myself, how am I going to draw him now?? Than, I had an idea…

I always loathed these stupid machines at the amusement arcade.

I didn’t bat an eye when I first heard the “newsflash” that a gaudy, controversial, egomaniacal billionaire would be residing at the Trump estate in Bedford. Then I saw it wasn’t its usual occupant, but Moammar Gadhafi who is in town for a big UN Conference, and of course I just HAD to draw about that. The latest news is that Bedford town officials have issued a stop work order on his tent, which was being put up in the back yard, as no permits were applied for. I’ll bet Moammar has never been up against a formidable government force as ruthless and intimidating as the Bedford Zoning board.