Wow, what is going on in this world? Cartoons are causing riots. Cartoons. I don't know what to make of all this. Some members of a religion are upset about this so they protest and riot. A group of European newspapers are irritated by this so they antagonize the religious folk by printing the cartoons on purpose. The US condemns the free speech folks (go figure). I have to confess that most of the information I've seen on this whole thing has been from web based news sources. I haven't seen the cartoons so I don't know how inflammatory they are, but really, does that matter? There are very few instances where something like this should cause the kind of chaos it's causing Christians are mad because NBC has The Book of Daniel and Britney Spears is on Will and Grace in an episode that apparently hasn't been written yet. But no one is surrounding the Tonight Show studios with automatic weapons (although come to think about it maybe they should). Where is the line drawn between free speech and self-constraint? Some newspapers are printing the cartoons just because Muslims are issuing death threats and rioting. Is it defending free speech or just antagonizing?
It seems to be growing out of control. I've just read that the Danish and Norwegian embassies have been torched in Damascus. Right now it seems to be small groups (relatively speaking) here and there, although Iran is threatening to stop dealing with countries that publish the cartoons.
It always makes me wonder if this will lead to something bigger or if it will be lost to history by the end of the decade. Will it turn in to our version of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand or just a punchline for John Stewart?
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