Anyone noticed the irony of the Muslim protests throughout Europe over the cartoons?
I mean really! Hello? Anyone home?
You believe you have the right to freedom of speech/expression (protesting) and yet others don't have the same right to comment on your GOD? Hypocrisy!
And keep in mind, that in their "homelands" those same Muslims would likely be tortured and executed for sedition against their government for protesting like this. Oh the irony!
"People": You can't have it both ways! If you want the right to protest, then you have to ensure that others have the right to do the very same thing. That it happens to be a satirical cartoon makes absolutely no difference. It is still a protest. Specifically it points out the stupidity of multiculturalism and the barbarianism of religion (specifically targeted at Islam, but the very same cartoons could easily apply to Judaism, and Christianity), and just because you don't like that doesn't mean that you get to demand that a government censor people.
This is the stupidity of Religion and Socialism. "I want to be free to do whatever I want, but you? You I want to enslave to my ideals." This is specifically what the founding fathers of the United States were working so damn hard to prevent, and what makes Western civilization so much, much, much better than the Mid-East in general. And to be clear, it isn't a matter of being predominantly Christian that has made the Western World so much more evolved. It was that Christianity, through its "turn the other cheek" gave up control because it hamstrung itself to act when rational men decided to take power. It is and was rational thought, logic and science that makes the Western World superior, not arguments about who Abraham sacrificed to God. The sooner people realize that Religion is a force that not only freezes the evolution of man, but turns back the clock, the sooner the world will evolve and we will see peace, and prosperity for all, because moral values based on logic and reason are unassailable, moral values based on religion are contradictory and thus destructive.
Consider someone was to walk up to you and tell you about the RC Church's theory of the solar system circa the 1500s and claimed that it was absolutely true. What would your response be? You'd laugh in their face, because you can easily see the contradictions and exceptions required to make it true (and even then it didn't work). This is why Galileo and Copernicus' model of the solar system set itself apart and no amount of torture, or excommunication could stop the idea.
Now consider the values of the 3 major religions of the world. They are riddled with the same contradictory positions and exceptions (i.e. they would have to be to cause them to create the ridiculous system of motion that they did and nothing has changed since). If one is to rationally investigate the position of the 3 major religions and identify the contradictions, one can easily see the ridiculousness of the proposition and recognize easily, that to follow the value systems of these religions without being a hypocrite is to embrace death.
Contrast that with Objectivism, which is based on a completely non-contradictory position and demands that you use your brain, use your reason to question everything, including Objectivism itself, and denounce anything that is a contradiction and you see the point. The United States and the nations of Europe that followed the lead of the US and Scotland are based upon the values of Objectivism, even if they did not fully understand what they were doing. (much like a child walking, can walk, but doesn't understand why they can walk or the physics involved) That is what makes them great, and that has been what has enabled them to survive throughout the evil incursions of Socialism and now again, religion. Embrace truth, and logical values based on a non-contradictory view of the world and yes, you (and your entire culture that does the same) are superior to those that read a book and do not question it and live their lives by it even though it is riddled with illogical positions. Do what Europe is doing, ignoring reality and living in a subjectivist haze of delusion and you are no better than anyone else, and you will surely be defeated by barbarians that at least believe in something, even if it is a wrong something.
For that reason, I not only tolerate the author of the cartoons, I salute them! It is men and women that understand reality that will be the saviour of Europe and these men/women have started something that cannot be ignored any longer. Perhaps they might have even kicked the sleeping bear hard enough to wake it up, and cause it to fight back. Who knows? Who knows if the bear will fight back like a sleepy bear that doesn't know who's attacking it but knows it's being attacked and swings out randomly trying to stop the pain (i.e. another Hitler), or if they will wake up, embrace reality, gather themselves and strike back with logic and reason (i.e. Churchill), which is the only defence that will succeed. Here's hoping that the sleeping bear can wake up and focus itself before it's too late.