Here's the Pitch!

Here's the Pitch!
Originally uploaded by SoxIn18.

New pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka has made quite an impact on the Boston Red Sox thus far. Last Tuesday, although he took the loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, he was nevertheless impressive.
Thanks to my friend Taro Matsuoka for his help with this cartoon. Any errors in translation are mine alone.
Oh, and I hear Sunday night's game was pretty interesting, too (wink, wink). I should have another cartoon about it soon ...

News on friends' art ventures

A couple of friends have art-related news I'd like to share:

First, Cambridge artist Bren Bataclan discusses his upcoming projects on YouTube. Check it out!

Second, Georgia Bellas, who had an exhibition at the Holyoke Center last year, now has work on display (digital mixed media on canvas) at the Cambridge Common restaurant until March 27. That gives me a reason to stop by Porter Square...

News on friends' art ventures

A couple of friends have art-related news I'd like to share:

First, Cambridge artist Bren Bataclan discusses his upcoming projects on YouTube. Check it out!

Second, Georgia Bellas, who had an exhibition at the Holyoke Center last year, now has work on display (digital mixed media on canvas) at the Cambridge Common restaurant until March 27. That gives me a reason to stop by Porter Square...

Hello, Red-State America!

I visited Ohio for a week at the start of this month. This Bay Stater enjoyed touring red-state America. Until this month, I'd mostly visited blue-state destinations (New York City, San Francisco, and Washington, DC).

Among the highlights: Getting addicted to Tim Hortons bagels and Skyline chili. Touring art museums in Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati. Walking across the bridge into Kentucky. And getting an up-close look at the religious right.

I'd like to do it all again!

Tough talk from Israel?

An Israeli defense official says his country could attack Iran to prevent that nation from developing nuclear weapons.

Someone should tell President Bush to rein in Ehud Olmert ... and someone should tell Vladimir Putin to rein in Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.

Israel and the 2006 elections

Last night I heard a representative from AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying group, discuss (among other things) the impact of the 2006 elections on Israel. He didn't seem worried about any changes in US policy, although some Israelis are. I suppose that, given the absence of a Cynthia McKinney this campaign season, there won't be any such changes next year when the Democrats reclaim Congress.

He discussed the current situation in Israel. One big item in the news is the Israeli artillery barrage in the Gaza Strip that left 18 Palestinians dead. Seems like this is the first big story from the region since the Israel-Hezbollah war this summer.

What concerned him most? I would say Iran. He brought up Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments about eliminating the Zionist state.

Is Ahmadinejad as big a threat to the Jews as Adolf Hitler was? For all the Iranian leader's braggadocio, I don't think he (or the real power broker in his country, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei) would dare to attack Israel. The reasons are twofold: An American response, and a risk of creating Palestinian casualties.

There are objections to this second item. After all, Iran fought a war with other Muslims, namely those in Iraq, for eight years. And how much identification would the Persians of Iran feel toward the Sunnis of Ramallah, East Jerusalem, and Gaza?

The Palestinians, though, have become a cause celebre in the Islamic world, and a key part of the Muslim ummah. Their proximity to Israel may ironically prove to be a sort of protection for the Jewish state from the greater threat of a nuclear Iran.

Saddam sentenced

Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has received a death sentence. What are the charges against him?

The principal one, for this trial, seems to be his reprisal against Shiite Muslims in Dujail for a 1982 assassination attempt. According to the Chicago Tribune, "entire families from Dujail were detained. Death sentences against many were issued after perfunctory one-day trials. Nearly four dozen victims died in captivity--often during interrogation." The death count: 148.

While the sentence seems final, it may not be. "There are appeals and more trials," the Tribune wrote. Hussein is scheduled for another trial for charges of genocide. The basis: killing around 180,000 Kurds in 1987-88. The Tribune: "All told, Hussein's regime is believed to have killed at least 300,000 Iraqis."

Some Sunnis have reacted violently to the death sentence. Even after his sentencing, it seems, the dictator can still cause trouble in Iraq.

Christopher Hitchens on I.F. Stone

Finished reading Christopher Hitchens' piece on I.F. Stone in Vanity Fair. It's a review of Myra MacPherson's biography All Governments Lie! The Life and Times of Rebel Journalist I. F. Stone.

Hitchens deserves praise for a balanced assessment of Stone, applauding the man for defying McCarthy and criticizing him for supporting Communism (among other transgressions). "But in point of fact and interpretation," Hitchens writes, "he was naïve about the Soviet Union for most of his life (dying just as it was about to do so itself, in 1989), mistaken about the Korean War, simplistic about both sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and unable to see the diminishing returns of the New Deal tradition."

Hitchens finds broader significance in Stone's style. "Even the slightest piece written by Izzy was composed with a decent respect for the King's English and usually contained at least one apt allusion to the literature and poetry and history that undergirded it: an allusion that he would expect his readers to recognize," Hitchens writes.

Also, I've begun writing (and drawing) for the AOL Elections 2006 blog. Check it out!