Free Republic

The head of an Al Qaeda-led group in Iraq has offered a $100,000 bounty for someone to kill a Swedish cartoonist for his drawing of Islam's Prophet Mohammed, and has threatened to attack major Swedish companies. Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, leader of the self-styled Islamic State in Iraq, also offered $50,000 to anyone who kills Ulf Johansson, the editor of the newspaper that published the drawing by Lars Vilks. Sweden's Nerikes Allehanda daily newspaper published the drawing, part of a series that art galleries in Sweden had declined to display, last month. The cartoon showed the Prophet Mohammed with a dog's...

A poll done just before U.S. President George Bush's first official visit to Canada yesterday informs us that nearly three-quarters of Canadians view America as our "closest friend." But the same poll also indicates Canadians in equal number dislike Bush. There is something wrong when Canadians proclaim friendship for their most important trading partner and traditional ally, then distance themselves from the democratic choice of Americans, with whom their common continental destiny is joined. The answer lies somewhere in the reality of an America that challenges Canadian self-identity, is unnerving and, hence, many Canadians indulge in caricatures of an America...