Who could this be?

Who could this be?
Originally uploaded by Jodi3425.

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Comments

[rodkong]

Jodi,

I'm surprised that there hasn't been any discussion on this blog about this cartoon fiasco. Given that the rest of the blogosphere is consumed by this issue, your avoidence is understandable. Is free speech a natural right? Should the government place limits on our right to free speech? According to the head of Hezbollah, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Europe should pass laws that prohibit insulting the prophet. He said "there would be no compromise before Denmark apologizes and the European Parliament and individual assemblies in Europe pass laws that prohibit insulting the Prophet." Wow..what next, Burkas?

[Edie]

The cartoons are clearly a provocation. Free speech of the basest kind, like a concentration camp-era rat-Jew. It represents the growing militarism in Europe, backing the US-led war in the Middle East.

[pebird]

Free speech may be a natural right - but that means we have to put up with stupid speech.

[Amish Lovelock]

Do you think if you had gone upstairs the political allegences of I Cite would have been any different in an Upstairs/Downstairs kind of way?

[rodkong]

edie,

...but these cartoons are tame compared to the anti-semetic cartoons that are regularly printed in muslim news papers. How does depicting Muhammed (got bless his name, or whatever bullshit I have to say) reflect the growing militarism of Europe?

Compare the following? Can you pick out stupid free speech?

http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/ArabCartoons.htm

http://cagle.msnbc.msn.com/news/blog/bloggifs/Mohammed-cartoons.jpg
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/004448.htm

[pebird]

I didn't need to click through - my bet would be on Michelle.

[rwilson]

Kind of like how I don't need to read your responses. I look at the name and know it going to be unintelligent.

[pebird]

Sounds like you read it.

[rodkong]

pebird,

so free speech is a privilege only reserved for opinions akin to your political persuasion? sounds like facism to me...maybe i should have put a disclaimer before posting pictures from malkin's site...but she didn't take those pictures (it's not an article), they're from the associated press. What's more offensive, the pictures of muslims calling for another 9/11 or Michelle Malkin?

[pebird]

rodkong:

free speech is a right. You have absolute freedom to state what you wish.

Be aware, however, that so do I - I can categorize your speech however I wish - whether I am accurate or not.

With regard to the cartoon controversy - this is about anything but free speech - there is absolutely no possibility of Denmark closing down their newspapers or restricting speech in any way.

But, if people want to protest Denmark and call for apologies - they have a right to speak out and if you think their speech is stupid or offensive, you've made it clear, just I thought the cartoonists were stupid.

With regard to "reserved for opinions akin to your political persuasion...sounds like facism (sic) to me"

Were you there protecting free speech when a museum director was indicted in Cincinnati because Christians were offended?

http://www.glbtq.com/arts/censorship_in_arts,3.html

Were you protecting free speech when the Smithsonian was forced to cancel their Enola Gay exhibit due to protests?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0387947973/102-4168082-6016905?v=glance&n=283155

Maybe Denmark could learn about free speech from America?

[rwilson]

You think the cartoonists were stupid, but not the protestors? I am just trying to get a grasp on this. How about reporter Jill Carrol? She went over to Iraq to report news frist hand and now she is being held hostage. Was she in the wrong for trying to publish free speech that went against the readings of Muhammed?

[pebird]

rwilson - your problem is that you make the same error as those you criticize.

Do all Americans want to destroy the Middle East? No. Well, do all Islamic people want to destroy the United States? I think not.

You are confusing those who are protesting peacefully (which is the vast majority of Islamic protestors) with those who are exploting the situation for violence.

If you want to criticize the government of Iran - we will probably be on the same page. But the government of Iran is not the people of Iran (just like here in the good ol' US of A).

Why you want to include the protestors along with kidnappers and terrorists is beyond me - unless you actually believe all 1.5 billion Islamic people are our enemies.

[pebird]

rwilson, BTW - I just read some of Jill Wilson's work in the US News and World report and the Christian Science Monitor.

You should not typify her work as going "against the readings of Muhammed" as: 1) it is inaccurate, and 2) irresponsible as it may put her at risk.

You should apologize for such a reckless - and I should say stupid - statement, although I support your right to make it.

[rwilson]

Jill Carrol or Jill Wilson? I haven't read any of her work I was merely making a point. I love how this has become a post of who's stupider its very reminiscent of debates in poli sci classes at HWS.

[Charles R]

Sometimes, rwilson, we get what we want. If you did not want it to be an argument of stupidity, you should have wanted something else.

As for "this" being about free speech, why are we not discussing how, once again, concerted actions by a group of people show that true power and recognition is to be gained by, as MLKing called it, 'the power of economic withdrawal'? While the news reports describe in detail the violence perpetrated, and while we try to mitigate that potency by saying "These are just a few, not the whole," we miss out on what economists saw from the beginning: the boycott of Danish goods has already noticeably impacted the Danish economy, destroying in a few days the trade between Europe and the Near East the market took decades to build. Arlo is the major distributer, so I understand from the articles I've read, of European-grown foods to the Near East, and Arlo is based in Denmark. For Arlo to be boycotted so that all of its products are removed from shelves is to hurt, transitively, European agriculture and economy.

Perhaps the silence of the Left should not be left to the criticisms made by conservatives who want to make everything stated and unstated about the Left's (so-called) moral failings. Rather, those on the Left who still believe in the power of solidarity should take note of what happened more than violence and murder, and take note that economic withdrawal, for whatever reasons, demonstrated a real wrath that got people worried.

Afterall, someone in a far off country getting murdered by a localized mob strikes fear only into the hearts of people obsessed with "savagery". But when the economic relationships that exist virtually are upset by collective actions physically removed from one's own locale, there is no place short of outside the economy where one can hide in comfort and security.