'free speech will be able to stand side by side with those who believe with equal fervor in the dignity of religious expression to oppose the forces of darkness and evil in the Islamic world.'
Not if they don't PRACTICE the free speech they speak so fondly of.
As they say, they are AFRAID to practice that very free speech - which in my book completely negates reason #3.
The entire handling of the cartoons is thoroughly ticking me off.
If every paper in every free country in the world published the cartoons, then no one of them could be singled out by the fascists. This weakness and lack of solidarity on the part of many in the U.S. media is exactly what the Muslims expect and want.
This is indeed a dark period for freedom in the world.
> Out of respect for the millions of faithful and peace-abiding believers throughout the world who are deeply disturbed by the violation of their religion’s proscription against the pictorial representation of their prophet.
I don't buy this for a minute.
4th reason - it would be stupid, and accomplish nothing.
These people may be honest, but the things that they admit in their honesty is appaling. Apparently free speech isn't worth defending against an implacable foe. Individual dignity is less important than hunkering down and placing it safe. This expression of honesty exposes cowardice and a lack of core values that guide their actions.
On the other hand, I know "The Pheonix," having grown up in southern New England, and the paper is an alternative left-wing gem. It doesn't surprise me to see that they are gutless defending the convictions that they've screamed from the headlines for 40 years.
Sadly, this inability to defend the core values of your civilization is known as "decadence." It's not surprising that Islamic fascists have seized the day and seen an opportunity to reverse the losses at Tours and Vienna. The only way the war stops is when the Islamists decide that they're going to be hurt or killed when they attack us. "The Pheonix" therefore wins the Neville Chamberlain Award for February 2006.
"Simply stated, we are being terrorized, and as deeply as we believe in the principles of free speech and a free press, we could not in good conscience place the men and women who work at the Phoenix and its related companies in physical jeopardy."
- Just wait until you are backed into a corner when none of your excuses or appeasement makes any difference and the men and women who work at the Phoenix are already in real physical jeopardy from Islamists on a daily basis for nothing more than not being Muslim. What will your excuses be then? Will you remember the wisdom and backbone of people like Voltaire? "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." or will you become Churchill’s "appeaser" as the "one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."
Here's my new theory:
You remember the talk, oh about 20 years ago, of the "G-Spot?" It was the pleasure center that when touched drove women crazy with ectasy. They say men have one too, though I'm still looking for mine.
My theory is that we have a corresponding "Anti-G-Spot.(Anti as in "anti-gravity", not "antipasto.") Now if this is true then it's reasonable to assume that some people have bigger Anti-G-Spots than others, as we've all heard that some people have a greater proportion of G-Spot area on their bodies. (Yes I envy them too. )
Okay, I suspect that Muslims have a very large anti-G spots and microscopic G-Spots. In fact they're mostly anti-G. This is what makes them the way they are.
You see, there's a scientific explanation to everything.
Deeply disturbed? Depictions of Mohammed have appeared in muslim lands throughout its history. Deeply in search of an issue that will allow a claim of victimhood more like it.
There is ONE reason to not only publish them, but to inundate the planet with millions of copies of them-
ISLAM does not rule the world. Their rules are not OUR rules. They are NOT the center of everything, an entire planet does NOT have to obey their cult or tiptoe around their hyper-sensitive personalities. We are not them. They are not us and will never be.
You reprint them because we are FREE TO DO SO, and they cannot impose their Sharia laws on our freedom.
Every copier on the planet should be smoking, reproducing these images. They should be, literally, everywhere; just to prove that the free world is NOT under Islamic laws and also to remind the death-cultists that free people outnumber them.
Offense is not the point. Where did this 'you can never be offended' BS come from anyway? You're offended,noted, life goes on. FREEDOM is the point. Freedom to DISobey laws that Islam is trying to impose on us.
If we obey, so as not to 'offend', we become subjects by increments. If we do not dare disobey in small things like cartoons, how will we dare disobey the greater pressures of Sharia?