Ohio men planning attacks on troops in Iraq. If they’re American citizens, why wouldn’t this be treasonous?

The leader of Hamas says that negotiations with Israel are a waste of time. Glad to see that he admits it.

Frustrated Christians in Nigeria have struck back:

Residents and witnesses in the southern, predominantly Christian city of Onitsha said several Muslims with origins in the north were beaten to death by mobs which also burned two mosques there.

Expect the usual mindless platitudes from the usual suspects about the “cycle of violence.” But as in Israel, such language indicates a symmetry that doesn’t exist. The Islamists were rioting and killing people and burning chuches over cartoons. The Christians are rioting and killing people and burning mosques because they’re finally, at long last, tired of the Islamists rioting and killing them, and burning their churches, and aren’t going to take it any more.

If the Islamists really seek a war with the west, they should be careful what they wish for. Any time that they’ve had to seriously engage a motivated western military, they haven’t done well.

Here are some pictures that the MSM doesn’t want you to see.

From “Rusty,” a stalwart over at sci.space.history:

Muhammad
(((:~{>

Muhammad playing Little Orphan Annie
(((8~{>

Muhammad as a pirate
(((P~{>

Muhammad on a bad turban day
))):~{>

Muhammad with sand in his eye
(((;~{>

Muhammad wearing sunglasses
(((B~{>

Muhammad giving the raspberry.
(((:~{P>

Giving Muhammad the raspberry.

;-P

My great-great-grandfather came to America from Denmark in the 1840’s.

[Friday afternoon update]

OK, equal time:

Jehovah.

Jehovah! Jehovah! Jehovah!

(I know, I’m just making it worse for myself…)

Trent Telenko thinks that Iran may already have nukes. It would fit the current pattern of their behavior, unfortunately.

This is a pretty funny cartoon, and as Professor Volokh points out, it shows how the whole “can’t show pictures of Mohammed” thing has descended into self parody.

So now, the perennially offended muslims are offended by a cartoon of which there’s no way to tell from the image itself whether it’s Mohammed or not–one can only tell from the context of the joke.

It reminds me of the story a few years ago about the bar in Colorado that had to stop selling teeshirts that depicted two aliens having s3x because they were too lewd for the town elders. I (and no doubt others) pointed out that if they were aliens, there was no way to tell whether or not the activity in which they were engaged was s3xu@l (sorry–I don’t want to get top-listed on google for the search “aliens s3x”). They could, for example, simply have been feeding each other, or communicating somehow. One occasional commenter here, in fact, emailed me at the time that it reminded him of the old “Life in Hell” strip when Binky (or one of the other one-eared rabbits) is being chastised for smoking, and he says “I’m not smoking–I’m sucking p00p through a straw.”

That’s the point to which this idiocy has devolved. Eugene is right:

Well, I have to admit: The folks who are offended by this have a First Amendment right to be offended. They should feel entirely free to be offended.

The rest of us should feel entirely free, as a matter of civility as well as of law, to say: Your decision to be offended by this particular cartoon gives you no rights (again, as a matter of civility as well as of law) to tell us to stop printing it.

More on the underlying conceptual issue

Mark Steyn’s latest gem:

Quite how Britain’s Muslim Association found out about Mustafa Shag in order to be offended by him is not clear. It may be that there was some confusion: given that “blowup males” are one of Islam’s leading exports, perhaps some believers went along expecting to find Ahmed and Walid modeling the new line of Semtex belts. Instead, they were confronted by just another filthy infidel sex gag. The Muslim Association’s complaint, needless to say, is that the sex toy “insults the Prophet Muhammad — who also has the title al-Mustapha.”

In a world in which Danish cartoons insult the prophet and Disney Piglet mugs insult the prophet and Burger King chocolate ice-cream swirl designs insult the prophet, maybe it would just be easier to make a list of things that don’t insult him. Nonetheless, the Muslim Association wrote to the Ann Summers sex-shop chain, “We are asking you to have our Most Revered Prophet’s name ‘Mustafa’ and the afflicted word ‘shag’ removed.”

If I were a Muslim, I’d be “hurt” and “humiliated” that the revered prophet’s name is given not to latex blowup males but to so many real blowup males: The leader of the 9/11 plotters? Mohammed Atta. The British Muslim who self-detonated in a Tel Aviv bar? Asif Mohammed Hanif. The gunman who shot up the El Al counter at LAX? Heshamed Mohamed Hedayet. The former U.S. Army sergeant who masterminded the slaughter at the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania? Ali Mohamed. The murderer of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh? Mohammed Bouyeri. The notorious Sydney gang rapist? Mohammed Skaf. The Washington sniper? John Allen Muhammed. If I were a Muslim, I would be deeply offended that the prophet’s name is the preferred appellation of so many killers and suicide bombers on every corner of the earth.

Yes. Where are all the protests about that?

An Egyptian muslim describes her culture:

Is it any surprise that after decades of indoctrination in a culture of hate, that people actually do hate? Arab society has created a system of relying on fear of a common enemy. It’s a system that has brought them much-needed unity, cohesion and compliance in a region ravaged by tribal feuds, instability, violence, and selfish corruption. So Arab leaders blame Jews and Christians rather than provide good schools, roads, hospitals, housing, jobs, or hope to their people.

For 30 years I lived inside this war zone of oppressive dictatorships and police states. Citizens competed to appease and glorify their dictators, but they looked the other way when Muslims tortured and terrorised other Muslims. I witnessed honour killings of girls, oppression of women, female genital mutilation, polygamy and its devastating effect on family relations. All of this is destroying the Muslim faith from within.

There isn’t going to be a pretty end to this.

An Egyptian muslim describes her culture:

Is it any surprise that after decades of indoctrination in a culture of hate, that people actually do hate? Arab society has created a system of relying on fear of a common enemy. It’s a system that has brought them much-needed unity, cohesion and compliance in a region ravaged by tribal feuds, instability, violence, and selfish corruption. So Arab leaders blame Jews and Christians rather than provide good schools, roads, hospitals, housing, jobs, or hope to their people.

For 30 years I lived inside this war zone of oppressive dictatorships and police states. Citizens competed to appease and glorify their dictators, but they looked the other way when Muslims tortured and terrorised other Muslims. I witnessed honour killings of girls, oppression of women, female genital mutilation, polygamy and its devastating effect on family relations. All of this is destroying the Muslim faith from within.

There isn’t going to be a pretty end to this.