Buy Danish!

[cj001f]

the Economist

 

like getting a weekly subscription to copy machine maintenance manuals.

Perhaps if you read it your evil plans would succeed just once!

[Cobra_Commander]

Unlikely. They'd never get off the ground because I'd be reading all the time. Seriously can anyone keep up with this publication before the next one arrives? I think it's an old-growth timber laundering operation for Boise Cascade.

[sexual_chocolate]

If understanding is your goal, there's a great front-page article in today's WSJ concerning the precise context in which this situation occured. It doesn't stretch back to Hulagu's decimation of Babylonia, or the implosion of trading routes after the Euros found a sea-route to the far-East, the Moors'ejection from Spain courtesy of the battle of Grenada, the Ottoman's the battle of Vienna, and other key-milestones o' stagnation and decline that paved the way for colonization by some of their former subjects - so it may not be complete enough for your tastes, but it does quite a bit to explain the time lag between the cartoon's original publication and the Islamist pep-rallies that we're witnessing now.

 

I'm saddened that my subscription to WSJ ran out, but the high endorsement will send me to the nearest news-stand, since it's actually a rag I enjoy reading from time to time.

 

And I'm sure that by using what's your bro's name Occam's(!) razor to decide which factors are more important: Something that happened a couple of generations ago at most and is still actively in violation of law and Resolution, or centuries ago and rather abstruse for most, one will not need to refer to the ol' Absurdio Reductum, but thanks for putting it into play! (did you see El Randle throw that TD pass to what's-his-name? Unexpected!)

 

That's one of the interesting things about all of the reading that I did on the Middle East/Islam is that both Western and non-western authors suggested that the these events still plays a significant role in their collective memory.

 

Maybe that's why hamas or some other such outfit has exhumed the reconquest of Andelusia as a theme in their elementary-school offerings.

 

Related article below:

 

http://www.slate.com/id/1008411/

 

But does this fact override the idea that indeed active injustices are addressable, and other injustices can and perhaps should be talked about, without political recourse per se?

 

Perhaps you see Hamas as a reincarnation of Hitlerite dreams of conquest; I haven't seen evidence of this myself.

If Palestine was given Justice (Israeli compliance with UN Resolutions ie. statehood, pre-'67 borders, end of settlements and occupation, and the BIGGIE: UN Resolution 194) and then engaged in non-defensive violent measures, I'd be singing a different tune.

[tomtom]

Unlikely. They'd never get off the ground because I'd be reading all the time. Seriously can anyone keep up with this publication before the next one arrives? I think it's an old-growth timber laundering operation for Boise Cascade.

 

Pretty high content-to-fluff ratio. Great for trans-Atlantic flights.

[Dru]

Seriously can anyone keep up with this publication before the next one arrives?.

 

i usually have a 3 day breather between issues

[Cobra_Commander]

i usually have a 3 day breather between issues

 

Does this correlate with a 30 year breather between girlfriends?

[cj001f]

 

Pretty high content-to-fluff ratio. Great for trans-Atlantic flights.

 

I can usually polish it off PDX-SJC or the like. Except for the yearend issue, that's a 3rd world airport special.

[cj001f]

P.S. I can scan that WSJ article and e-mail it to you if you can't bear the thought of granting your patronage to the capitalist overlords.

I realize that you like the feel of newsprint gently baked by the butler so the ink doesn't soil your hands, but there is this thingy called the intraweb and the WSJ is on it!

 

PS - isn't it about time you post the Americans & leisure time article from the Economist?

 

That was a good one. Maybe you can share the good news yourself.

 

I think part of the answer to the conundrum raised by the article is the fact that most people take a great deal of pride in the extent of their overwork, and overburdening, and tend to inflate their own numbers when reporting them.

 

Protestantism, salvation by works, look what ye have wrought...

 

http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=5476124

 

I was going to explain it via the billable hours phenomena (the mental startup/shutdown for work in my experience ~1hr) and the changing nature of domestic work - it is no longer a social activity.

[Peter_Puget]

linky

[JayB]

linky

 

Huge negative score in the "Reflexive Western Self-Loathing Sweepstakes" to whoever's been printing these things and posting them on Capitol Hill.

 

[imag]http://www.thestranger.com/blog/archives/freespeech.jpg[/img]

 

Looks like someone out there's rubbing their eyes and realizing that not everyone who despises GW is an ideal ally. "Hey, maybe they're *not* actually fighting for anything like freedom after all....[scratching head]...wait a second...now that I think about it..."

 

Maybe there's hope after all.

[foraker]

Do they still get the negative score if they realize that not everyone who loves GW and the NeoCons is the ideal patriot? Or does that just affect their IQ?

[Gary_Yngve]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/02/07/cartoon.protests/index.html

 

interesting idea in Iran...

[sexual_chocolate]

If understanding is your goal, there's a great front-page article in today's WSJ concerning the precise context in which this situation occured. It doesn't stretch back to Hulagu's decimation of Babylonia, or the implosion of trading routes after the Euros found a sea-route to the far-East, the Moors'ejection from Spain courtesy of the battle of Grenada, the Ottoman's the battle of Vienna, and other key-milestones o' stagnation and decline that paved the way for colonization by some of their former subjects - so it may not be complete enough for your tastes, but it does quite a bit to explain the time lag between the cartoon's original publication and the Islamist pep-rallies that we're witnessing now.

 

 

I read the above article, but was a little disappointed not so much with its omission of any reference to Hulagu but with your claim about its contextualized explanation regarding the riots:

 

1. A candle cannot burn once the wax is consumed; nor can it burn if the wick is removed.

 

2. When one sees the moon and not the finger pointing towards it, one will see neither.

 

Thank you for the heads-up regarding the article though.

[JayB]

Seems like it covered the recent chronology and the social climate reasonably well. What were you hoping for more emphasis on?

[JayB]

From the Big Pharoah:

 

"To all my American friends, congratulations!!! Haven't you noticed it?? These days your country is not our villain anymore. Denmark is having its share of our flag burning parades. Sorry my Danish friends, but give these poor Americans a rest and take their place for a moment. I know you're generous.

 

America, this is the time to celebrate."

 

"Update: This post got some of the funniest comments I ever read. Here are just a few of the ones I liked:

 

I don't know, BP. We're used to being #1. It took the work of many generations to put the "great" in Great Satan. It doesn't seem fair the Danes should just saunter in and take all that away from us with a few measly cartoons.But I suppose this must sound petty. Perhaps the Danes are entitled to enjoy their day in the sun. (JohnL)

 

Well, we Danes have always joked about the lack of world wide knowledge about our country.But 12 small cartoons certainly changed all that.Sorry to all you Americans for working so hard all these years to stay on top of the Most Hated list. (Marianne)

 

we're not number 1 anymore?? C'mon US.. we're gonna have to work harder!! Look out, Denmark, the we'll get our title back from you yet!! (jw)

 

Enjoy your time in the spotlight Denmark, I can assure you, we are probably only one step away from pissing off the world again. (t)

 

I'm really frustrated. I was praying Holland would for once be the Great Satan, but we are as usual being ignored. (Infidel)

 

Hey, you've goot to admit the "death to the U.S.A" chant was getting old. "Death to Denmark" however is as fresh as can be, not to mention absurd and utterly pathetic. It really does sound like something out of a monthy python sketch. (Einherjar )

 

Hold it!You mean America in no longer NUMBER ONE???!!!Oh, how the mighty Satan has fallen!Pushed aside in the Great Infidel Smack-down by TINY DENMARK!Gosh, the SHAME I fell as a patriotic American! (Jeffery)

 

lol.It's an American day of rest! Enjoy it, my fellow countrymen, because tomorrow, we will surely have to get back on that horse. (C MAR II)

 

We invaded somebody and somebody took the top spot with a fricken cartoon? Is it my imagination or are there always people in the middle east burning flags? (Mike)

 

We are happy to have some relief. It is hard work being the Great Satan of the World for 26 years straight! (Original Jeff)

 

YEAAAAAA!!!! How long do we get? A week? WOW, we've never had a vacation before. (Tina)

 

if the U.S. just wanted to be hated, why couldn't we have published cartoons, rather than send in troops? It would have been sooo much cheaper! (Solomon2)"

[foraker]

If we can send a man to the moon, why can't we publish politically incorrect cartoons?

[Dechristo]

[mattp]

Condi Rice said:

Iran and Syria have gone out of their way to inflame sentiment and to use this to their own purposes, ...

 

And the world ought to call them on it...

 

And Bush?

We reject violence as a way to express discontent over what is printed in the free press ... With freedom comes the responsibility to be thoughtful about others...

I 100% agree with both statements, but how can they feign indignation with a straight face?

[sobo]

AT LAST! I finally get to see the horrid cartoons in question! Thanks, DeC!

 

Now, watch your back...

[Dechristo]

It's not like I wrote The Satanic Verses.

[JayB]

From The Economist:

 

Free speech should override religious sensitivities. And it is not just the property of the West

 

AFP“I DISAGREE with what you say and even if you are threatened with death I will not defend very strongly your right to say it.” That, with apologies to Voltaire, seems to have been the initial pathetic response of some western governments to the republication by many European newspapers of several cartoons of Muhammad first published in a Danish newspaper in September. When the republished cartoons stirred Muslim violence across the world, Britain and America took fright. It was “unacceptable” to incite religious hatred by publishing such pictures, said America's State Department. Jack Straw, Britain's foreign secretary, called their publication unnecessary, insensitive, disrespectful and wrong.

 

Really? There is no question that these cartoons are offensive to many Muslims (see article). They offend against a convention in Islam that the Prophet should not be depicted. And they offend because they can be read as equating Islam with terrorism: one cartoon has Muhammad with a bomb for his headgear. It is not a good idea for newspapers to insult people's religious or any other beliefs just for the sake of it. But that is and should be their own decision, not a decision for governments, clerics or other self-appointed arbiters of taste and responsibility. In a free country people should be free to publish whatever they want within the limits set by law.

 

No country permits completely free speech. Typically, it is limited by prohibitions against libel, defamation, obscenity, judicial or parliamentary privilege and what have you. In seven European countries it is illegal to say that Hitler did not murder millions of Jews. Britain still has a pretty dormant blasphemy law (the Christian God only) on its statute books. Drawing the line requires fine judgements by both lawmakers and juries. Britain, for example, has just jailed a notorious imam, Abu Hamza of London's Finsbury Park mosque, for using language a jury construed as solicitation to murder (see article). Last week, however, another British jury acquitted Nick Griffin, a notorious bigot who calls Islam “vicious and wicked”, on charges of stirring racial hatred.

 

Drawing the line

In this newspaper's view, the fewer constraints that are placed on free speech the better. Limits designed to protect people (from libel and murder, for example) are easier to justify than those that aim in some way to control thinking (such as laws on blasphemy, obscenity and Holocaust-denial). Denying the Holocaust should certainly not be outlawed: far better to let those who deny well-documented facts expose themselves to ridicule than pose as martyrs. But the Muhammad cartoons were lawful in all the European countries where they were published. And when western newspapers lawfully publish words or pictures that cause offence—be they ever so unnecessary, insensitive or disrespectful—western governments should think very carefully before denouncing them.

 

Freedom of expression, including the freedom to poke fun at religion, is not just a hard-won human right but the defining freedom of liberal societies. When such a freedom comes under threat of violence, the job of governments should be to defend it without reservation. To their credit, many politicians in continental Europe have done just that. France's interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, said rather magnificently that he preferred “an excess of caricature to an excess of censorship”—though President Jacques Chirac later spoiled the effect by condemning the cartoons as a “manifest provocation”.

 

Shouldn't the right to free speech be tempered by a sense of responsibility? Of course. Most people do not go about insulting their fellows just because they have a right to. The media ought to show special sensitivity when the things they say might stir up hatred or hurt the feelings of vulnerable minorities. But sensitivity cannot always ordain silence. Protecting free expression will often require hurting the feelings of individuals or groups, even if this damages social harmony. The Muhammad cartoons may be such a case.

 

In Britain and America, few newspapers feel that their freedoms are at risk. But on the European mainland, some of the papers that published the cartoons say they did so precisely because their right to publish was being called into question. In the Netherlands two years ago a film maker was murdered for daring to criticise Islam. Danish journalists have received death threats. In a climate in which political correctness has morphed into fear of physical attack, showing solidarity may well be the responsible thing for a free press to do. And the decision, of course, must lie with the press, not governments.

 

It's good to talk

It is no coincidence that the feeblest response to the outpouring of Muslim rage has come from Britain and America. Having sent their armies rampaging into the Muslim heartland, planting their flags in Afghanistan and Iraq and putting Saddam Hussein on trial, George Bush and Tony Blair have some making up to do with Muslims. Long before making a drama out of the Danish cartoons, a great many Muslims had come to equate the war on terrorism with a war against Islam. This is an equation Osama bin Laden and other enemies of the West would like very much to encourage and exploit. In circumstances in which embassies are being torched, isn't denouncing the cartoons the least the West can do to show its respect for Islam, and to stave off a much-feared clash of civilisations?

 

No. There are many things western countries could usefully say and do to ease relations with Islam, but shutting up their own newspapers is not one of them. People who feel that they are not free to give voice to their worries about terrorism, globalisation or the encroachment of new cultures or religions will not love their neighbours any better. If anything, the opposite is the case: people need to let off steam. And freedom of expression, remember, is not just a pillar of western democracy, as sacred in its own way as Muhammad is to pious Muslims. It is also a freedom that millions of Muslims have come to enjoy or to aspire to themselves. Ultimately, spreading and strengthening it may be one of the best hopes for avoiding the incomprehension that can lead civilisations into conflict.

[Off_White]

That's a fair summation of my viewpoint, thanks for posting that one Jay.