Geist readers who take in the Globe and Mail will have seen a sobering feature not long ago reporting the jailing, flogging and even murdering of cartoonists who dare to satirize the governments of various countries, official religions, prominent citizens, etc. The cartoons in question were so gentle as to seem innocuous to North Americans who assume that making fun of public figures is not only a right, but a necessary check on those with power. And we can't help thinking that these things don't happen here, eh? The last two issues of The Comics Journal, an American trade publication, covers the story of Michael Diana, a comics artist-writer who publishes some of his own stuff. Last March, the State of Florida found Diana guilty on three counts of publishing, distributing and advertising obscene material. He got three years' probation and a $3000 fine. He was also ordered "to undergo psychological evaluation within thirty days of sentencing, maintain full-time employment, serve eight hours of community service per week, have no contact with children under eighteen years of age, take a course in journalism ethics [at his own expense], and create no new obscene material throughout the probation for public or personal use." If Florida (the state that gave us Anita Bryant) doesn't like what the psych exam says, they can order Diana to move at least one mile away from any schools attended by minors. And any time Florida wants to make sure Diana isn't creating any new obscene material, they can search his place, and he has to let them. Murder, cannibalism, bestiality, dismemberment and sexual violence figure strongly in Michael Diana's work, and even though he says he means to shock people, so that they will have to see how terrifying and ugly some of our social practices and attitudes are, it's not easy to like his work. But—submit to periodic searches? Stay away from children? And who among us could "pass" a court-ordered psychological evaluation?