Just when the constant barrage of war, corruption, human rights abuses, environmental destruction, constitutional crises, economic problems of families, and incompetence dulls your sense of outrage through overuse, something relatively minor comes along to revive those feelings of outrage, seemingly all out of proportion.  For me, it was an illustration of how security fears can squelch what is beautiful, joyful, and special in our lives.

In my travels around the Pacific NorthWet, I have enjoyed a celtic harpist who, for 17 years now, has been giving free concerts of music like this [mp3] on the Washington State Ferry route between Port Townsend and Whidbey Island.  But now he is being forced to stop by enforcement of  rules put in place for homeland security.   I can't believe how much it has upset me.  I suppose this kind of small loss is probably happening every day in every community across the nation.  Follow me on board for the story.

Earlier this summer, the Union of Concerned Scientists announced a contest to generate editorial cartoons on the topic of scientific integrity. 12 cartoons by amateur cartoonists have been selected from the hundreds of entries submitted by a distinguished team of judges. They cover topics from global warming to government censorship of science. These 12 will appear in the UCS 2007 Defending Science calendar.

Here's something fun for you to do:
You can view the 12 selected cartoons and vote on which one is your favorite. The winner will be featured on the cover of the calendar (and the winning cartoonist will get various prizes). But just participating in this vote automatically enters you in a drawing to win one of the calendars. The voting is open between now and September 30 at 11:59p.m.

Enjoy the cartoons and vote!

Today arktan posted a diary about EPA libraries shutting down, with links to previous postings on the topic given in the comments. This is just yet another example of how the Bush administration deals with science - a pervasive theme that inspired me to draw this cartoon.

There have been calls for more political cartoons lately, so here's my first such contribution.

The cartoon above is licensed by Milly Watt under a Creative Commons License.

An alert arrived today from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) saying that action is needed right away to stop Diebold from trying to cripple North Carolina's voting law.