It's Swine Flu! We're All Going To Die!

Not really.

One thing that I find interesting is that the media likes to over exaggerate and over hype happenings that concern the United States, perhaps to gain more viewers for their programs. 

One victim of hype in the past year is the ever-dangerous (implied sarcasm) disease that is Swine Flu. 

Or, as the scientific community calls it, H1N1. 

Put short, Swine Flu is a variant of the flu that crossed over to the US from Mexico.
A flu that was SO overhyped that people were CERTAIN death was imminent for those infected with the virus.

Except, they were wrong. 

There was no Black Plague-esque death scale, there was no need for the United States borders to be closed. Everything continued as normal. 

Why is this, you might ask?

Wasn't the Swine Flu the WORST epidemic ever to hit the US?

Simple: A flu by any other name is still the flu.

The only thing different between the regular Influenza and H1N1 is the name, and the DNA strands. 

Sure, an entirely different vaccine would be required to cure it, but it is no more detrimental to your body than the regular flu is. 

And this is just what the cartoonist is trying to point out to us with their cartoon.
People have over hyped this disease, when the scientific community has been trying to explain that it is not serious as we thought.
The media overshadowed our bright thinkers, apparently, with their "boys that cry 'epidemic!'". 

This is why I say you should never entirely believe the news media on anything, or follow the hype. 

ALWAYS seek the facts, consult experts if possible, do a little research. 

This thing we call the internet has a vast array of sources to check out, some more credible than Fox News or other stations. 

Whatever you do, though, don't give into the hype. 

Remember what happens when you're struggling to swim and you panic?

You drown. 

Airport Security

If you are one who likes to travel fair distances that require commute by airplane, there is without a doubt that you have run into one of these guys. 

Yes, the ever-lovable Transport Security Administration agents. 

One notable thing about them is that their methods to search commuters for questionable materials are... interesting, to say the least.

Interesting in that the methods seem to be enacted unfairly, such as body cavity searches. 

One might say that TSA agents take their work too far or seriously, and their serious nature in regards to this forces them to act in the same manner - being too aggressive or invasive with their searches. 

The cartoonist seems to feel that it is only a matter of time before TSA takes their work too far to the point at which we will have to strip down naked, due to some paranoia because of some underwear bomber or the like. 

While the stripping down to bare skin and bones idea is ludicrous in my opinion, the message of the cartoonist is clear: TSA is taking things way too far. 

After all, if a TSA agent searches someone in such an invasive manner that it could be thought of as sexual harassment, don't you think that's going a bit too far?

The Ecological Time Bomb

As far as how we humans are impacting our environment, I would say that we are living on borrowed time.

Let's face it - pollution, CO₂ emissions, overpopulation, and plenty of other environmental dangers will not ensure our environment's survival. 

The B.P. oil spill crisis is no exception. 

Undoubtedly the spill caused a lot of oceanic damage, killing myriads of fish and making the waters uninhabitable. 

While not an event so catastrophic that it destroys all of Earth's ecosystems, it is a fuse that brings us closer to the one 'big one' that will fulfill that job. 

Such is what the cartoonist is trying to paint.
BP is the fuse for a bomb - representing an environmental catastrophe or perhaps something more gradual - that will destroy the world as we know it.

Either the event that transpires will be a massive one that consumes all of the environment in its wake, or slowly but surely we are approaching the point at which the environment will be destroyed, and BP's spill only increased the speed at which we are approaching such a point.

Regardless of the cartoon's meaning, one thing is clear - we must do more to protect our environment and circumvent her destruction, or we will all die with her. 

Twain's "Huck Finn" Censored

Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is a book that contains a multitude of words that might be thought of as offensive, namely the "N-Word". 

What this cartoonist seems to think is that it's ironic in a way that we are censoring Huck Finn because of the N-Word, when such a word is prevalent in much of our mainstream music. 

Most notably are various rap and hip hop artists that incorporate the word into their songs, or the people that use the word frequently in everyday conversation. 

It's ironic that Huck Finn was chosen to be censored when the word is used on such a larger scale. 

What bothers me, however, is the fact that our dignitaries would even think of censoring books.

Freedom of speech is a constitutional right, and politicians playing culture police is not a way of promoting that right. 

If we want a more fair society, one that doesn't restrict us and upholds our rights, we should stand against this type of behavior because when our rights are challenged in such a way, the only thing we can and should do is fight back and protect them. 

Eyes of a Madman

The man in the picture is Jared Loughner, the assailant in Tuscon, AZ that gunned down over 19 people, killing 6 in the process. Among those shot was Representative Gabby Giffords. 

What I like about the picture is the mood it sets, and the message it relays. 

It puts you in front of the barrel of a gun of a crazed gunman, insinuating that one day, you might be next.

The text, "A disturbed mind behind the gun = the inevitable" is stating that with the way things are - and by things I mean gun regulations/laws - rampages from mentally insane individuals who have or have gained access to firearms is inevitable.

It is saying that another Tuscon is possible, and it has been for years prior. 

The Virginia Tech Massacre, the Columbine High School massacre, the Fort Hood shooting, and many others in past and future like them are inevitable if we keep our gun regulation laws the same.

Now, I'm one that supports our constitutional rights, but sometimes we have to step aside just a little bit (changing gun regulation laws) to prevent things like this for the good of all Americans.

Wiki-Leaks

The internet, as many people in the Information Age know, is a rapid and vast sea of information. 

There are millions upon billions (and potentially more) of web pages froth with information about a wide array of topics. 

One topic in particular, and one that's been in the news often, is the story with Wikileaks, and its publishing of confidential documentation of illicit activities and evidence of corruption of the United States' war on Afghanistan and Iraq. 

The man behind the site that published these documents, Julian Assange, has been on trial in Britain on various claims, such as rape and theft. 

Moving on to the meat of this post, the cartoonist seems to be likening the wiki leaks situation to an oil pipeline breaking, or something similar. 

In the cartoon, president Obama is struggling desperately to stop the leak flow of the Wikileaks pipeline, but if you notice, documents pertaining to very sensitive subjects have already escaped his grasp, to flow into the ocean of information. 

The cartoonist seems to be saying that you can't stop something like this from happening, and that the situation is already far beyond control. 

What I get from this cartoon is that even if you try desperately to hide illicit information, if it isn't well hid enough, it will find its way to the internet and thanks to the nature of the internet, and its fast transfer of information, it is only a matter of hours or days before the information you didn't want to be spread is. 

Charlie Sheen Goes Nuts

If one's been paying attention at all to media of any kind in the past year, they could easily note that one celebrity in particular (because of his antics on interviews, among other things) has been making headlines and turning heads. 

This celebrity/actor is Charlie Sheen, one who coined various terms from his interview antics. 

("Winning!", for example. )

I think what the cartoonist is trying to point out is that we care more about the ludicrous antics of a celebrity

over more serious things like the wars in the Middle East. 

This too is something I've been wondering - just why DO we care so much more about celebrities? 

While funny and pretty to look at (which is probably the answer to my above question...), I say that they aren't important enough to be prioritized over our nation's problems, or wars or anything else that concerns 

the United States population. 

Maybe more people would get out and vote, and get involved and shed their apathy if they stopped caring about celebrities, or if the media would stop shoving every detail of these actors and singers' lives down our throats. 

The Fog of Obama's War

With the conflict in Libya intensifying, it's now on the UN's and NATO's shoulders whether or not to get involved.

President Obama labeled the war in Libya a humanitarian crisis, and made plans to get the US Military involved in the conflict in the rebels' favor. 

This political cartoon details how one artist seems to view Obama's decisions in regards to intervention in Libya.
As shown in the picture, the board displaying Obama's plans is mostly obscured in a fog, showing that the artist feels that Obama's plans for the country and its revolution are pretty vague or hard to decipher.

In another interpretation, it could be that Obama is purposely not revealing his plans for Libya to others, or that he himself does not entirely know what the best course of action would be in regards to intervention.

Regardless of Obama's decision, I feel that he should act for the sake of the Libyan people, and their fight for freedom against their dictator.

Hello World!

This blog is dedicated to posting political cartoon analyses.
I'm a student from Central High School in Philadelphia, call me Steven. (If you actually care.)

This specific post, however, serves no purpose other than introducing myself and this blog.
So, yes, I agree with you in thinking that this is totally pointless.

Rest assured (well, I can't assure you this...) that future posts will be more interesting than this one, featuring my take on various political cartoons that I find funny.

I won't waste your time any further, however.
Instead, I'll just leave you with this semi-appropriate picture of code of the C programming language.
Enjoy.