Dear Log,
«Both sides are spoiling for a fight on this one and there is a fair amount of unattractive posturing. When push comes to shove, I have to say that I would take a lot more notice of the outrage in the Middle East if I had not come across dozens of anti-semitic cartoons published in the Arab press.Change it, Beavis.
The striking part of Arabic Jew-baiting is that it is as prevalent, nasty and dehumanising as it ever was in Nazi Germany. Newspapers published in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Oman and UAE all use demonic images of stereotypical Jews (big nose, black coat and hat and laden with money bags) pulling the strings behind the scenes in US politics, buying political influence and spreading death, terror and disease. Josef Goebbels would have felt quite at home reading these newspapers.»--"A few bad cartoons are no reason to fall out"
«Most intriguing was the reaction of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most senior Shia cleric, who, while condemning the 'horrific' images, took time, in a posting on his website, to criticise those who had 'darkened' Islam's image.
'The problem with this issue,' said a Palestinian former European Union employee who asked not to be identified, 'is that... we should be demonstrating that we are strong and that this cannot damage Islam. Instead what we are showing is a sign of our extreme vulnerability.' »--"How cartoons fanned flames of Muslim rage"
Somewhat in the tradition of Janeane Garofalo, here is my little exercise for surviving this new Century of Cuntery:
Whenever anyone says "I am offended!!!", translate that into your internal mental language as "I JUST FARTED!!".
The aptness of it is overpowering and empowering.
