Islamofascist Mad Libs
Unreal. Just unreal. I know this stuff shouldn’t surprise me anymore, but I’ve gone back to Michelle Malkin’s site and looked at those pictures several times over the last few days, and I find it hard even to get angry, exactly. (I’m sure that would be different if this were the aftermath of a suicide bombing or other sort of attack.) It’s just so depressing: “[thesaurus word for kill] those who [thesaurus word for assail] Islam.” These people can’t even come up with stimulating, idiosyncratic thoughts on their protest posters.
This is probably going to sound ridiculously petty, but I wish our civilization were clashing with a force that at least gave us a run for our money when it came to imagination and…flair. Not that that would make the bloodthirstiness or illiberalism any better at all; but it would at least give the feeling of fighting a worthy, equal evil, as opposed to one that just happens to breed in such large numbers that its presence can’t be ignored. As Steven Malcolm Anderson would have said, they have no style.
I hadn’t really planned on doing the Buy Danish! thing, but if the enemy insists on being so incandescently lame, I figure I’ll go the whole way and take the in-your-face gay approach: I will stop by Seibu on my way home and drop some money on Royal Copenhagen. Yeah, fine, I spend too much on housewares even when there’s no moral message to be conveyed, but see, I hadn’t planned on buying anything there TODAY, so I still get to feel all upright and socially responsible. So say I.
Agreed, Sean. This is going to sound trite, so my apologies for the lack of creativity, but I suppose I just have a hard time respecting any religion (or for that matter, any sect of religion) that condones violence as a response to *anything*. I can understand feeling offended by someone’s characterization of something dear to you (I’m sure Tom Cruise fans hated watching the “Brokeback Squandron” parody I linked to in a previous thread), but I hardly see how an offensive cartoon depiction of your God, whoever that might be, justifies taking a torch to a number of embassies. Eye for an eye? I suppose that’s the behavioral standard the demonstrating Muslims were working from. I just have a very hard time understanding how they are making an effective case for improved global acceptance of them and their religion through irrational violence. I suppose I’m just too dim, or too religiously uninspired, to see their point.
Doggone outrageous
Amidst the huge collection of pictures taken during yesterday’s “INTERNATIONAL DAY OF OUTRAGE” was this one: “Denmark dogs”? Hey, that’s what the sign says. And in light of her previously announced support for Denmark, Coco’s now thinking along the lines…
Yeah, I know there are different places you can reasonably draw the line (from our point of view, I mean), but I cannot for the life of me think of a way to get across that we’re willing to demonstrate respect for Islam as much as any other religion but that that does not constitute an assumption of its religious obligations. It would be great if there were a way to make the point forcefully to the Islamofascists without doing anything that might offend the sensibilities of reasonable, moderate Muslims, but that doesn’t seem to work. Being nice looks like capitulation and a display of weakness. That potential mix-up doesn’t exist with Jews, which is why I don’t mind not spelling out or pronouncing the name of the deity when I’m corresponding with one–even the most conservative Hassids I’ve met know the difference between respect for others’ beliefs and assent to them.