Speaking freely
Anybody else wondering why the world is upside down?
Violent protests over cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed continue in the Middle East where 21st Century mores have run headlong into a 15th Century response. Yesterday Iran — now there’s a peace loving government — joined with Islamic moderates to urge the wild-eyed to go home.
As a sidebar, a portion of blogosphere and a number of writers were white hot, accusing their favorite whipping boy, the mainstream media, of caving into the Islamic radicals because they did not reproduce the cartoons.
I thought it curious that some people here could not believe the response to the cartoons.
Hello? Where have we been? Of course the toons were a stick in the cage. What did we expect? These radicals may chatter on the Internet, but at least some of their leaders live in caves.
Measuring the industrial strength, over the top response from that cultural milieu against our democratic sensibilities and free speech simply states the obvious. Media outlets constantly have to make choices. Most refer to this as editing and not censorship. Of course if you already believe somebody is a piece of spineless vermin, accusing them of caving is a short walk.
Speaking of free speech — or lack thereof — I wonder how the world will see British historian David Irving, who, since the mid-1970s has trafficked in the disgusting universe that denies the Holocaust ever took place. However odious and lacking in fact his thinking, we would say the guy has a right to say it, wouldn’t we? We might even defend his right to say it.
He might need us to. An Austrian court has sentenced Irving to three years in prison for his publicized denial.
Speaking of odious, Fred Phelps, whose crusade against gays and lesbians has been well-documented, has reached a new low, down from evil to a place where words would not do it justice. Phelps and his church followers, mostly family, now regularly picket and protest the funerals of fallen U.S. soldiers. They disrupt ceremonies during a family’s darkest hour.
Phelps claims U.S. deaths in Iraq are God’s vengeance on America because we harbor homosexuals. As I said, odious, but other words surely are better.
Finally, Harry Whittington, shot by Dick Cheney, was released from the hospital Sunday. Before he went home to tend to the buckshot holes in his body, he apologized for causing problems for vice president.
As I said, upside down.