Fun with captions (updated)

By editor's note

Tom Gross of the National Review Media Blog makes an excellent point about an over-the-top editorial masquerading as a photo caption, put out on the wire to the world's media by AP. The photo shows a little boy on a donkey, and is accompanied by the following astonishing caption:

A Palestinian boy tries to control his donkey in the village of Jabel Mukaber in east Jerusalem, Wednesday, May 9, 2007. The Palestinian economy can't recover unless Israel dismantles a network of obstacles that has carved up the West Bank into a dozen enclaves and restricted Palestinian access to more than half the territory, the World Bank said in an exceptionally harsh report Wednesday. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Gross notes that the photographer, Spaniard Emilio Morenatti, was kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists last October, and may be suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. Or maybe he is just in fear of a repetition.

Or it could be that the caption writer (who is probably not the photographer) has an agenda.

But we have a much less serious point to make: this could be fun! Imagine the possibilities for creative captioning on our side.

From Thomas Lifson:

"A Nebraska boy plays Little League baseball in Lincoln. His parents will not be able to replace their badly rusted 1994 Oldsmobile unless Congress makes permanent the ten year tax cuts enacted by the Republican Congress scheduled to expire in a few years." Or

"The Jones family moves into a homeless shelter, after being unable to afford the latest rent increase on their San Francisco area apartment. After being forced to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on making the building handicapped-accessible, the landlord raised rents, and environmental restrictions have prevented new low cost housing being built to increase the housing supply."

From Ed Lasky:

"A little boy sits alone in a field. He wishes he could play softball as he used to do in the leagues with all his friends. He mourns that lawsuits have caused an exodus of volunteer coaches from the leagues and have caused them to disband." Or:

"A little boy looks at an empty field. He wishes a skateboard and playground could be built in one of the few lots left in the area he lives in. But a tiny ant that is on an endangered species list has caused a barrage of lawsuits to prevent the area from being developed. Now all that lies there is a bunch of weeds that cause him hay fever."

From Richard Baehr:

"A little boy looks at an empty field. He remembers when grass was growing, before global warming created a dustbowl. He thinks wistfully of Al Gore's promise to build a new domed stadium for his team with proceeds from his book and movie, but remembers that he spent the money on his electric bills at his mansion in Tennessee and buying carbon credits."

Update - Vel Nirtist adds:

Inspired by Mickey Mouse' conversion to Islam on Palestinian TV, a Palestinian boy urges his donkey to go jihading, but the intelligent animal refuses citing the World Bank's report that "the Palestinian economy can't recover unless Israel dismantles a network of obstacles," which cannot happen until jihad comes to an end, and expressing preference for good hay in this world to any number of the posthumous virgins.