[*] In other cartoon news ...

... it seems that the "religion of peace" has apparently decided that enough is enough. God is angry over the lampooning of Mohammed (you can see the pictures there) in the EU press, so Islam is staging an international day of prayer and fasting so that they can better understand the concerns of their brothers who worship the same monotheistic God.

Oh wait: that's not right. Islam has "called for an 'international day of anger' today over publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, and a Danish activist predicted that deadly violence could break out in Europe 'at any minute'."

From the religion of peace.

What you ought to compare that to is the cartoon contest I linked to yesterday. See: in an actual civilization, when someone does something offensive or disagreeable in the arena of ideas, you don't break out the suicide bombers and the scimitars -- you fight back with the same kinds of weapons employed, which are literary, ideological, and cultural. When Tom Toles offends and depricates the military which is keeping the scary Islamic international hate force away from his neighborhood, the military doesn't do a black op to shut him up with a mouth full of dirt.

The question is not "can we be outraged by editorial cartoons?" The question is "what do we do with our outrage over cartoons?" If the answer is, "we are justified in threatening physical violence and death when someone plants a shiner on us via lampoon," then Western Civilization is over. However, is the answer is, "We answer in-kind, and make it clear that offensive ideas will not win out over the common cause and frankly the Christian society we are strivig to build," we still have a chance to win the real fight.

ht: Malkin, instapundit, others

UPDATED: I'd like to personally thank the U.S. State Department for proving that the feelings of Muslims are a more valuable commodity than the right to free political speech in Europe. I'm sure next week we're going to take the Bible out of print for the sake of quelling global unrest.