Like the make-believe Gatorade terror plot and “Snakes on a Plane,” the August 22 apocalypse scare fizzled so quickly that it’s hard to even remember the awful panic that gripped the entire world mere hours ago.

Oh wait, the “entire world” couldn’t give a damn. But several fear whores at various “Who do we bomb next?” publications did at least give it the old college try.

It’s time for us to do the same.

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• The administration moves to reclassify sensitive information on the US’s nuclear arsenal, like how many missiles we had in the 1960’s. [WP]

• European nations delay committing peacekeeping troops to Lebanon, play hot potato between giant international bureaucracies. [NYT]
• Only 20 are killed during annual Shiite pilgrimage in Baghdad, leading to praise for “draconian” security measures used to lower the death toll from last year’s 950. [LAT, NYT]
• JonBenet Ramsey suspect John Karr is flown to LA, no snakes aboard plane. [CNN]
• Next week is the anniversary of hurricane Katrina. New Orleans is still screwed, and Houston’s getting pissed. [USAT; LAT]
• As Saddam Hussein’s war crimes trial begins he still refuses to enter a plea or wear a tie. [WP, NYT]

This very special edition of Cartoon Violence is brought to you by Today’s Cartoons and Snakes on a Plane FEVER, which has infected our resident cartoon expert the Comics Curmudgeon — along with, uh, The Descent fever, Floyd Landis fever, and drunk anti-semitism fever. Tragically, the Gawker Contributor health plan does not cover conditions caused by pointless action movie references (nor, we shoud clarify, any other conditions).

After the jump, cartoons tackle pop culture, wrestle it to the ground, and drain it of joy.

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The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, headed by, apparently, Leno’s staff writers and your grandfather, are proving themselves HIP and EDGY and WITH IT with a new website based on popular concept Snakes on a Plane (after, we hear, rejecting a site based on the film adaptation of Charles Bukowski’s Factotum, opening today in limited release). DSCC head Chuck Schumer, wearing a “Vote for Pedro” shirt on which “Pedro” had been crossed out and “Democrats” written beside it in Sharpie, said this half-assed grab for relevance would demonstrate conclusively that Democrats, lacking a basic sense of humor, have the decorum and gravitas necessary to lead the country through the War on Terror. MORE »