The tame cartoons causing all the fuss

I may be one of the last people on the planet to see the Danish drawings that are causing all the fuss. They are surprisingly tame. The whole Islamic world seems to be about 100 years behind the West in many ways, especially in civil liberties/freedom of the press and, even worse, the way it treats women and gays. Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke!

For a more reasoned response, see Christopher Hitchens on Slate.

I, too, have strong convictions and beliefs and value the Enlightenment above any priesthood or any sacred fetish-object. It is revolting to me to breathe the same air as wafts from the exhalations of the madrasahs, or the reeking fumes of the suicide-murderers or the sermons of Billy Graham and Joseph Ratzinger. But these same principles of mine also prevent me from wreaking random violence on the nearest church, or kidnapping a Muslim at random and holding him hostage, or violating diplomatic immunity by attacking the embassy or the envoys of even the most despotic Islamic state, or making a moronic spectacle of myself threatening blood and fire to faraway individuals who may have hurt my feelings. The babyish rumor-fueled tantrums that erupt all the time, especially in the Islamic world, show yet again that faith belongs to the spoiled and selfish childhood of our species.