Freedom

A common refrain we hear here in the US is that our country is the most free EVER. Without going into a long historical discussion of the limitations of the US Constitution, the power of private capital, the formal system of Aparthied that existed until very recently, the limitations on the franchise, etc....I think we should ask ourselves, would ABC News or the LA Times print blasphemous material in solidarity with the Danish paper that printed a caricature of Muhammed as a terrorist? I will be surprised if they do.

The German paper Die Welt and the French France Soir have done this today. Now their motives nonwithstanding ($ or racism) in a free society we have the right to say whatever we want and if others don't like this too bad.

Should we go out of our way to antagonize minority groups by ridiculing their traditions and beliefs? No. But how else can we get through to the masses (sans m?) who believe that angels are looking out for them or that a few thousand years ago some all powerful spirit flooded this tiny planet amongst trillions and trillions of planets and had all the species of this planet put on a really big boat to save them all because he was going to kill all the rest of the humans except for one family. This type of flat earth thinking needs some ridicule otherwise people will continue to vote for simpletons like Reagan and Bush.