But seriously, where are the cat pictures? (just kidding). Very nice looking blog.

Jeffery Hodges

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Scottage, I’ll try to write more on this at some point, but in the meantime, your stuff really is good.

Daniel, Thanks for visting. I found my way to your blog by way of Jessica’s.

Lauren, Thanks also for visting. I’ll try to address your comment in order.

1) Yes about Muhammed (but Nation of Islam (proper noun) is a separate entity based in the US that many Muslims regard as heretical.) and despite six years of focused denial, I must agree that, yes Bush is the leader, well, the president of the US.

2) Agreed.

3) Yes, many people are offended by any questioning or ridicule of the president as I so callously did in #1.

4) This is very broad. Some cartoons are going to be more offensive than others regardless of who is being depicted. Satirical cartoons will affect different people in different ways and have different contexts, so one shouldn’t say that cartoons about Muhammed and about Bush are equally offensive. A cartoon with either man as the subject could easily be far more or less offensive than the other, and thin-skinned people will be more offended than thick-skinned people whether they be Muslims or Bush supporters.

Good question here about crossing the line; it’s one I’ve thought about a lot, and the answer (for me and me alone) is that it crosses the line when the purpose is solely to offend. Unless there is a larger point being made it isn’t really satire anymore. It’s just a cheap attempt to get a reaction, rather than contributing to any kind of discussion.

Having said that, I am one who is going to value free speech far above someone’s right not to be offended. People will always be offended in a free society and most of us just get used to it and learn to laugh at ourselves a little. The bottom line for those who are offended easily is that they don’t have to look at or read cartoons (or anything else) that they find offensive.

On the last point, I’m not sure that because a satirical image faithfully adheres to a stereotype we should somehow say that people shouldn’t be upset.

I do wish, though, we were seeing demonstrations in which offended moderates were protesting the actions of the radical Islamists who seem bent on perpetuating these stereotypes through their actions.

Thanks for your comment and for dropping by.

1) Muhammed is the spiritual leader of the Nation of Islam. President Bush is the leader of America.

2) Political cartoonists poke fun at President Bush every day.

3) Therefore, is it fair to argue that political cartoons depicting President Bush as “King George” or a greedy American totalitarian can also be determined as offensive to American citizens?

4) And therefore, is it then fair to argue that politcal cartoons about Muhammed, and political cartoons about Prez. Bush, are equally offensive and inappropriate?

At what point does a political cartoon whose aim is to be provocative and that pokes fun at something cross the line from being something we can laugh off, and something that is hurtful and demeaning?

Because lets face it: Yes, depicting Mohammed as a bomb-toting terrorist was insensitive – but accurate in terms of the stereotype that has been propagated by the actions of a few extremists. Just as not every Muslim favors violence, not every American favors war and taking over the world.

–Scottage