RIIIIGHT.

Tales of doom and gloom of the year 3000 from a scientific community who can't get the weather three days from now right.

What's funnier still is that they reside on the side of aisle which loves to talk about "alarmism" concerning the threat of terrorism.

THE GUN BANNING CROWD ALWAYS CALLED THIS PARANOIA

But the Brits have outlawed knives.

RE: PLANET OF THE APES WATCH

That's pretty pathetic on Sweeden's part. However, I consider the whole cartoon fiasco to be a positive step for several reasons: (1) it showed that at least some Europeans who have not barbered themselves clean on top have some backbone - no movements in Western societies get any traction until someone considered "mainstream embraces them; (2) it is making the media think about the limits of self-censorship when it comes to attacking Muslims - if there's one entity the Western media loves more than liberal causes, it's itself and it's fredom from censorship from outside sources; and (3) it ironically exposed many of the Muslims to be excactly the way the cartoon portrays them. I belive John Podhoretz at NRO had a great post last week, which essentially said that the most disturbing part of the Muslim uproar over the cartoons - think about it, worldwide protests over cartoons - was that violence and death arose from just cartoons. Imagine if, say, an EU leader took an official position that Islam was dangerous to Western society due to the ease with which its hard-eged elements can be co-opted by extremists to promote death and violence. What then, would there be mass public transit bombings throughout Europe? That's a scary thought.

Anyway, it appears that the PC powers in the media have finally put down the "cartoon rebellion" for now - by that I mean that those who favor printing the cartoons for their actual commentary on the state of Islam, going beyond printing them just for their news value (which the NYT even refused to do) have been silenced. But maybe it's more like the Boston Massacre of the simmering movement to end the Islam-coddling on both sides of the pond, that is, the first shot in a long upward struggle toward a return to reason.

PLANET OF THE APES WATCH

It appears Sweden has accepted dhimmitude rather obediently:

According to Dagens Nyheter, the Swedish security services (Säpo), in collusion with Foreign Minister Leila Freivalds, have forced the website SD-Kuriren offline for publishing the Jyllands-Posten cartoons (SD-Kuriren is the house organ of the hard-right Swedish Democrats).

“We think that this was the best decision after we were contacted by the Foreign Ministry and Säpo,” Anna Larsson, vice president of hosting compant Levonline, told DN. Freivalds told DN that “it is terrible that a small group of extremists are exposing Swedes to danger [by reprinting the cartoons].”

Note: Freedom House’s 2005 survey ranks Sweden 9th in press freedom.

CHE CHIC, CONT'D

Here's an excellent article separating some of the myth from fact. From The New Criterion.

LIFE IMITATING ART

What's that old saying about life imitating art? This is pretty literal stuff here:

On Thursday, a dozen Palestinian gunmen surrounded European Union offices
in the Gaza Strip demanding an apology for the Danish cartoons, one of which
showed Islam's founder wearing a bomb-shaped turban.

DISGUSTED OR PLEASED

I can't decide how to react to Cindy Sheehan. Let's get the facts straight. She's an idiot. I mean plain dumb. She probably could never graduate law school unless passed along for political reasons. She's being used and exploited by the left and she's deluded into thinking she's a celebrity. Part of me despises her reveling in her own headlines. Part of me relishes the fact that she's a complete and utter tool yet is a flag bearer for the Daily Kos left. Tough call. Most of me just wants to go to bed now.