Cartooning out of control

I originally thought that this cartoon thing would die out. It's not. I think the cartoon issue, and the reactions to it, on all sides, illustrates something that I can't quite put into words...yet. Michelle Malkin calls out what she calls the "War on Free Press." I'm going to take a quick shot at my view, this is off the cuff and largely stream of thought, so feel free to hammer away.

Malone and I go back and forth about risk. He views the risk from a protection from government side. "You can't take all the risk out of warrantless wire-taps" and I view the risk from outside attack, "You can't take all the risk out of another
terrorist attack." We're both trying to assess the risks, and how they interplay, but we also view these risks from very different perspectives. I don't view him as cowardly, and I assume he doesn't view me as alarmist.

However, I do view many in the press and politics as cowards. I have this gut feeling that too many American's are happy and supportive of our troops facing daily danger to fight for the "American Way," but when that risk of harm comes to them, they race to surrender whatever it takes to "feel" safe. Be it the Fourth Amendment, Freedom of speech, whatever. The press wants, rightfully, full freedom to publish photos of prisoner abuse in Iraq, but quickly sensor themselves over some really, really benign cartoons. The difference is risk. This can only be because they know the military will not riot and harm them, but they think some random Islamist will, so "shhhhh." That, to me, is cowardly. I'm willing to take physical risk at home largely because I'm asking our soldiers to die to protect my rights.

Globally, our fight for certain ideals is getting lonely. Canada's made itself useless. The EU is a joke. South Africa, Poland and Ukraine pre-emptively surrendered to the threat of attack from a few hundred muslims in Denmark. Very brave. I'm at a complete loss. I don't think the total number of deaths has reached 10, and the free-world is falling over itself to surrender its freedoms. We skirt that position, and that's what scares me. The reaction from the press and world governments is amazing given the relative size of the riots. What is causing all this fear? What would it be like if they had the ability to cause real harm? Would everyone just quit and become one large muslim state.

Gonzalez wondered if Binny was smiling during the congressional "hearings" (an amazing farce on every level, utterly disgraceful) into the illegal wire-taps. He can only be giddy with joy at his latest victory. I want very badly for Bush to lash out at the cowards. Then I would be giddy with joy.