Folks, Colleagues know that I like to follow the exploits of Twain (or, more accurately, how Twain is used) today, so someone slipped me a cartoon: "Pendex" by McKenzie dated April 23, 2003. Next to three iconic sketches of famous people, the large caption on the left says, "Famous Dead Americans So NO To 'Homeland Security' . . ." and on the right Ben Franklin with the balloon, "Those who would give up an essential liberty for security deserve neither liberty not security!" To his right is Thomas Jefferson with his balloon, "All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for good men and women to do nothing." And furthest to the right is Mark Twain with his balloon, "This is BULL ****!!" Now, I think Twain would be deeply disturbed by repression in the name of preserving democracy, and I feel comfortable with him hanging out with Ben and Tom. However, he would never have used profanity, at least not in print, so I think it's the cartoonist using Twain for his own voice. Also, given the fact that the other two figures have quotes they actually said attached to them, I'm disappointed that the cartoonist couldn't come up with Twain's own words. However, it says something about Twain's contemporary image: he's the man who cuts through pretense to get to the heart of the matter. Take care -- and take cover. Hilton Obenzinger