{"id":9162,"date":"2006-02-06T10:36:22","date_gmt":"2006-02-06T17:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2006\/02\/06\/an-open-letter.html"},"modified":"2006-02-06T10:36:22","modified_gmt":"2006-02-06T17:36:22","slug":"an_open_letter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/02\/06\/an_open_letter.html","title":{"rendered":"An open letter"},"content":{"rendered":"

To the yahoos rioting in Europe and the Middle East over some cartoons<\/a> being perceived as a blasphemous insult to yourselves and Islam:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Grow up.\n
  2. The media in the West insult everyone. Religion is not protected from same. Look up US editorial cartoons on the Catholic Church and Televangelists, for example, some time. Hell, look up cartoons about George W. Bush in the Danish press some time. You’re not being singled out, and pitching a hissy-fit because your own ox was gored makes you look like a little kid having a tantrum.<\/p>\n
  3. Speaking of little kids, in the US we have a saying for children:<\/em> “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names can never hurt me.” It’s a difficult lesson to learn, to be sure, but a valuable one.<\/p>\n
  4. Check out the editorial cartoons about Israel and Jews in Arab media some time. Do you really <\/em>want to have the UN pass a resolution<\/a> that would forbid giving offense to religion? Or are you just looking for special treatment for Islam?<\/p>\n
  5. There are certainly real social issues with the treatment of immigrants and\/or Moslems in Europe, and in the perceptions of Islam by Christians. On the other hand, issuing death threats and rioting in the face of provocative drawings <\/em>doesn’t improve your cause any in getting those issues addressed.<\/p>\n
  6. Adults settle their differences with words, preferably by persuasion, ultimately by social recourse — ostracizing those who who behave “badly.” If you choose to diplomatically, or even economically, isolate those responsible for this purported insult — boycotting Danish products, to take an overly-broad example — that is at least a civilized and mature response. Performing, threatening, and condoning threats and acts of violence is, even in the face of provocative insults (like having one’s flag burned or being called a Great Satan) is, well, childish.<\/p>\n
  7. We have a legal maxim in the West, too: cui bono?<\/a><\/em> Ever think that some of your leaders (social, political, religious) who are busy telling you that it’s a good idea to riot, burn cars, torch shops, and ransack embassies might have reasons of their own to do so? Either to direct your anger to their ends, or to direct it away from themselves? Just a thought.<\/p>\n
  8. Oh, and, by the way … grow the hell up.<\/em> Yeesh.<\/ul>\n

    Sincerely,<\/p>\n

    Me<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    To the yahoos rioting in Europe and the Middle East over some cartoons being perceived as a blasphemous insult to yourselves and Islam: Grow up. The media in the West…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitical-brouhaha","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3894,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/03\/17\/boom_4.html","url_meta":{"origin":9162,"position":0},"title":"Boom","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 17-Mar-03 10:28am","format":false,"excerpt":"I've long had respect for Paul Conrad as an editorial cartoonist and artist. 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Disaster Capitalism\u00a0- The key take-away from the discussion here is that this $700bn Bail-out to Nowhere was (it is claimed) not something slapped together as a panicky...","rel":"","context":"In "Animation \/ Cartoons"","block_context":{"text":"Animation \/ Cartoons","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-cartoons"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38994,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/02\/if-disney-cartoons-were-historically-accurate.html","url_meta":{"origin":9162,"position":5},"title":"If Disney cartoons were historically accurate","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 2-Oct-13 5:56pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Or more accurate, at least. \u00a0NSFW, but pretty funny.Reshared post from +Les JenkinsHahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! 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