Those who have followed me a while know I've gotten in trouble with censors most of my artistic career. Among my biggest controversies:

1) I almost got kicked out of my college newspaper for this comic mocking the Mohammad cartoon controversy [link]
2) I had to change this cartoon mocking SCAD security because the newspaper thought it was offensive to black Americans [link]
3) My "Enlist" piece got marked "mature content" [link]
4) My old avatar featuring Erwin Rommel was taken away, and I was told by one of my watchers that around the same time deviantArt was censoring a lot of WWII German-inspired artwork. This led to me turning my "Desert Fox" piece into my new and current avatar (at the time of this writing).

Well, while I was signing onto my account at work to check for any messages or updates, I found I had a note. I went to my inbox and found this:

Your deviation Middle Eastern Rats was reported for Prohibited Content. The report was reviewed by a member of the Staff and action was taken, marking the report as Resolved. Additionally, the following comment was provided:

A reviewing staff member has determined that this deviation does not meet the current standards in use for defining 'Hate Art'.

Please click here for more information.

This message was generated automatically.

-- deviantART Staff

"Middle Eastern Rats" (found here [link] ) contains caricatures of Mahmoud Abbas and Ehud Olmert, with a masked rat shooting at Olmert from under Abbas's legs.

I can only guess someone assumed that the rat was supposed to be a terrible metaphor for Arabs. This idea, however, is destroyed when the rational mind quickly realizes Mahmoud Abbas is an Arab, and is portrayed in a friendly light. A person would then decipher, "Oh, he must be comparing terrorists to rats!" Which would be accurate. Those who know me personally know I despise the act of terrorism.

I'm glad deviantArt didn't take it down, and decided it was not hate art. The only person who should be offended by the piece are members of Hamas. And if they don't like it, quite frankly I don't care.

One thing I'm a bit peeved about, however, is that "Middle Eastern Rats" is marked mature. I'm gonna contest that.