Well, I can't say that I endorse young Max's outburst above (although I appreciate hearing some unmitigated spleen from the usually spacey navel-gazer), but Eli, fer chrissake, basing a whole comic on a Melanie Phillips fever dream?

For those unaware of her pedigree, Ms. Phillips is a trafficker in the hoariest effusions of bullshit this side of Bush fils. Besides her pathological anti-Arabism, she frowns on gay marriage, pooh-poohs the evidence for global warming, is not at all comfortable with the theory of evolution and endorses the teaching of creationism in Brit schools, and so on. If someone on Jewcy approvingly cited an imam who was similarly encumbered with such medievalisms, they would be pilloried instantly.

So I am very skeptical of Ms. Phillips uncited references purporting to demonstrate the high incidence of anti-Semitism in England.

More troubling, though, is the sneaky way she segues from the disgusting assault on an innocent kid by a band of thugs to the "obsessive" criticism of Israeli policy, which she locates as merely the latest incarnation of European anti-Semitism. This shameful sleight-of-hand is, of course, designed to render suspicious the remarks of anyone with a strong sympathy for the Palestinians.

My point is this: Eli, I look forward to your comix and your brief, quirky written pieces as well. But for stuff to be funny, it has to be parodying something with at least a nodding acquaintance with reality. Just as paranoid right-wing scribblings about a future America under the thumb of unshaven lesbians and feral Africans makes sense only to those who subscribe to survivalist fictions, so too a comic which takes off from the ravings of a lunatic like Phillips has limited appeal to those in the reality-based community.

Well, OK, maybe the unshaven lesbians are a little scary.....