FORKUM: If you mean "rigid" in the moral sense, Objectivists are rigid. That is, we take an uncompromising stance on absolute moral principles. Objectivism is steel compared to today's rubbery moral relativism.

But if by "rigid" you mean "humorless," that hasn't been my experience. I have noticed that, because of Objectivism's emphasis on logic and reason, many people assume that it shuns emotions all together, as if the goal is to be Mr. Spock. Some Objectivists may even mistake it in such a way. But the philosophy is about rationally pursuing one's own happiness and having the moral right to do so. That requires passionate values and a love of life, which is what characterizes the Objectivists I know.

Q: A large number of self-described objectivists and libertarians firmly opposed the war in Iraq. Yet you have been generally supportive of the Bush administration's war policies. Why the disconnect, do you think?

FORKUM: The disconnect is that Objectivists aren't libertarians, not if they follow Ayn Rand's ideas consistently. She explicitly rejected libertarianism as anarchism years ago, and today it's even clearer why she did. Prominent libertarian organizations opposed the war with Iraq as meddlesome government intervention, as if all government action is inherently wrong.

Objectivism, however, holds that government is essential to a just society but must be limited to protecting individual rights. Such protection sometimes involves foreign intervention, such as waging wars against hostile enemies. If anything, it was a lack of intervention — from the Iranian hostage crisis to the USS Cole bombing — that emboldened the Islamist murderers of 9/11. Objectivists might disagree about military priorities, such as whether Iraq should have come before Iran, but none that I know were against war in principle. I recommend that people read the op-eds at the Ayn Rand Institute for more information.

Q: You seem to pick on Democrats more than Republicans. Why is that?

COX: I can't draw elephants.

Actually, the leftists among Democrats are just hysterical to me. Their over-ripe sincerity must be lampooned.

FORKUM: Recently, a couple of the Democratic presidential candidates were bragging about spending time in jail, as if we're still in the '60s. It's a real challenge to top that with a cartoon. But we do criticize both parties, mostly for their socialistic expansion of the government. It's just that Democrats are generally worse about that than Republicans — though lately Bush seems to be trying to out left the left. And we've been critical of Bush on other issues, such as his push for a Palestinian state and his multilateralist tendencies.