First to the silly part: For days, there have been news reports that Iranian bakers have renamed Danish pastries; they're now "Roses of the Prophet." Never mind that the Danish don't call Danishes Danishes -- they're "Viennese bread." I guess the next thing Iranians will do is to rename French fries into "Jihad fries." And I will change the old "Buy Danish" campaign into the "Eat Danishes" campaign. You'll see.
On the serious side, the protests continue to escalate and their targets become more and more diffuse -- generally Christians in Nigeria, the US in Indonesia, homosexuals in Russia... I don't have much to add to the debate swirling around the internet and other media, except for one thing: Even though the cartoons were probably just a tool used by Islamic fascists to incite unrest, I hope that there will be a profound and well-reasoned debate about the ethical limits of free speech. Not the legal right to offend -- the government should stay out of that matter -- but the question when it is appropriate to offend somebody, and when it is appropriate for somebody to claim offense. Such a debate will not defuse the current conflict, but it may support the position of moderate Muslims, who are possibly more under attack than Western societies.
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