Month: February 2006

In matters of idolatry (and, I suppose “graven images,”) is it the image that counts, or the label assigned to the image? The concept is bothering me, and I hope my readers will forgive me if I attempt to use this blog to figure it out. Let me see if I can get this straight.…

The “first they came for” premise of this video from Michelle Malkin is absolutely correct. Here’s Roger L. Simon, last summer: I have written frequently on here about the curious silence of my Hollywood colleagues about the assassination (for his art) of their fellow filmmaker Theo Van Gogh by an Islamist psychokiller. I’m not sure…

I don’t know why (perhaps it’s riot fatigue), but I’m fascinated by the controversy over Al “Grandpa” Lewis’s date of birth. I’m very sad to see that the actor who played Grandpa Munster in the 1964-1966 TV series has died, but what really surprised me was to read that he was only 82. He played…

A commenter on these pages has given me some food for thought… It is such a simple matter, really. It was rude. It was in bad taste. It was intentionally hurtful and designed to spit on a culture’s sacred icon. Someone may have “a right” to write and publish cartoons that insult a billion people.…

(I know, it’s a bit crass to echo Justin’s title. But hey, this is a thought, not an echo…. A ripple, actually.) Salman Rushdie (still unsilenced despite the many calls for his death by cultural NeoLuddites like Cat Stevens) thinks that fear of women’s sexuality is a major cause of Islamic extremism: BERLIN: British author…

I’m sitting in a coffee shop, trying to crank out a post, and the management has put on an old Cat Stevens album. At this very second, I’m enduring “Peace Train”. The irony.

I’m probably missing something, but I just discovered (via WND, which discusses the Danish cartoons here) that an episode of “South Park” depicted Muhammad, and has been shown — for years — without complaint. An episode of South Park, the controversial American cartoon show, which featured a visual portrayal of the prophet Mohammed, has been…

Speaking of rules, I’ve pretty much ignored whatever rules for commenters I might normally tend to uphold in the case of this post. The comments just keep piling on, and I haven’t deleted any of them, even though as I said in one comment, a lot of them belong in a museum of some sort.…

Jeff at Beautiful Atrocities had a wonderful post last summer called “IN THE FUTURE, EVERYONE WILL BE HITLER FOR 15 MINUTES” in which he catalogued 40 or so notable Hitler comparisons (as Jeff noted, the Bush = Hitler meme is so vast that this entire gallery had to be devoted to it.) As it happens,…

Rick Moran has written the best serious essay about the cartoon issue that I’ve seen so far. Excerpt: The hysteria being whipped up by Muslim religious leaders against the west (and shamelessly exploited by Islamic political leaders) is a glimpse into the soul of Islam itself and how it is a cultural imperative for the…

Now that Arianna Huffington (link via InstaPundit) has joined in the attacks against Chris Matthews, I feel obligated to defend the guy. (Not on all counts; I’m sticking with one smudgy, particularly fudgy, smear.) Whether you like Matthews or not, he’s always spoken his mind, and because of his background, he shares inside insights into…

In Europe and America, there’s a growing feeling of hysteria. Conditioned to respond to every threat, In the terrorist speeches on the internet. Zarqawi says “We will behead you.” I don’t subscribe to this point of view. It would be such an impolite thing to do. If the Muslims looooove their children too. How can…

Amidst the huge collection of pictures taken during yesterday’s “INTERNATIONAL DAY OF OUTRAGE” was this one: “Denmark dogs”? Hey, that’s what the sign says. And in light of her previously announced support for Denmark, Coco’s now thinking along the lines of an “INTERNATIONAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH DENMARK DOGS.” And one dog at a time,…

Craig Ceely, author of The Anger of Compassion sent me a link to a wonderful piece in the New Yorker about pit bulls and profiling. I don’t agree with everything the author says, but as gems go, this one’s unbeatable: It can even be argued that the same traits that make the pit bull so…

In light of the recent arrest of a Connecticut Taco Bell patron on a charge Drudge calls “ridicule on account of race, creed or color,” I wanted to know whether the state law says that. Apparently, it does. According to Yale Daily News, the law prohibits more than race-based ridicule: Connecticut defines a hate crime…

Glenn Reynolds links to Daniel Henninger’s thought-provoking piece in the Opinion Journal, the thesis of which is best expressed in the subtitle: “Today’s voters crave ideology.“ Actually, I think the following title would be more accurate: “Today’s “base” voters crave partisan ideology.” While Mr. Henninger’s piece is well thought out, I think it’s a bit…

What is bias? What is racism? What is bigotry? No matter who they are or what their background, most people have a general idea what these things are, and they don’t want to be accused of them. I can’t speak for everyone, but whether or not I am being fair to a person involves whether…

I still really, really miss Steven Malcolm Anderson. Every once in a great while someone comes along who always gets it, without any need for me to explain anything. Steven was that and more. Not long after he died, I had a very strange dream directing me to investigate the hitherto-unknown (to me) phenomenon of…

The worldwide uproar over cartoon depictions of the Prophet Muhammad raises a point which shouldn’t be lost. Free speech includes offensive speech. Right now, a storm is brewing over a cartoon many Americans find offensive: The Toles cartoon shows a soldier, a quadruple amputee, in a hospital, being visited by a Dr. Rumsfeld who is…

According to Aljazeera, the uproar over the cartoons has turned into an international showdown: Armed groups in the Palestinian territories have threatened to attack Danish, French and Norwegian nationals after cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad appeared in European newspapers. Two militants groups released a joint statement on Thursday that said: “All nationals and those who…