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Miscellaneous thoughts and ramblings
Saturday, February 18, 2006
 
Hooray for Denmark
What is it about Denmark that stirs the passions of Coffeehousers? I couldn't tell you for sure.

Perhaps it is the hilarious political satire. We've all heard about the cartoon showing the prophet Mohammed with a bomb on his head. That's a hot one. Not since reading Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels have I laughed so hard.

Perhaps it's something else. Denmark is a land of mystery. It's a kingdom with no king. Queen Margrethe is the current head royal. They say the Danish monarchy is the world's oldest, dating back to Gorm the Old in 899. They also say the Danish flag is the world's oldest national flag.

Denmark is where Vikings, Hans Christian Andersen, and Legos come from.

Greenland belongs to Denmark.

The capital of Denmark was named after a popular chewing tobacco.

Danes are people from Denmark. Great danes are big dogs.

The term Danish (big D) is used to describe stuff from Denmark. The term danish (little d) is used to describe certain sweet rolls.

The krone is Danish currency, but crone (with a c) means withered old woman. Did I mention Queen Margrethe?

Hooray for Denmark - symbol of all things Coffeehousers love!
Comments:
What would you have said if Denmark had published a cartoon of Moses blowing a child's head off with a shotgun? or Moses playing exhibitionist to a crowd of old women? would you have been offended by that? just curious. i wonder why it is that no one defends the right of someone to criticise jews (because, inevitably, you'll be called anti-semitic for even disagreeing with a jews choice of wardrobe), but will march in unison and yell "Heil Hitler" to defend the right of Danes or anyone else who will criticise Muslims?
 
And the cartoonifadah continues...
 
For a cartoon to be even half-way funny or make a point at all, it has to have some relationship to reality. Like, the cartoon of Mohammed with a bomb under his turban is funny (well not very funny actually, but meant to be) because so many people blow up bombs in the name of the religion of Mohammed. Get it? Duh.

But see, a cartoon of Moses playing exhibitionist to a crowd of old ladies would be pointless because which people expose themselves in the name of the religion of Moses? Or which people kill kids in the name of Moses? So people who would see it would scratch their heads and say, what's the joke?

So in short, a Mohammed cartoon = duh. And a Moses cartoon = huh!?
 
BTW I don't know if you guys can do anything about this but you are having a technical problem, or maybe it's just my computer? The whole top of the screen is blank and I have to scroll halfway down the page to get to your new posts.
 
Hi rodneyking. Are you the same Rodney King that was beaten up by a bunch of cops after a high-speed chase? Glad to know you're better and spending your days peacefully commenting on the blogosphere.

You know what? The cartoons that are published IN Denmark are not always published BY Denmark. Freedom of the press and all.

However, you raise a good point. If Denmark published an anti-Moses cartoon, it is unlikely that the Coffehousers would have declared their solidarity with the people, the media, and the government of Denmark.

Some Danish newspaper prints a dumb cartoon. An army of morons take to the streets and create an uproar. The Coffeehouse develops an overnight infatuation with Denmark. I write a dumb post in response. It is the Stupid Circle of Life. Please have your clever Moses/flasher cartoon published in an Estonian newspaper so we can keep it going.
 
I'm losing bladder control! Oven, you are the bomb.
 
A: Also, Denmark, like, saved some Jews and stuff during WWII. That's always a plus.

B: Speaking of exhibitionist Jews and cartoons - did anyone ever see that old National Lampoon cartoon of a bar mitzvah boy on the bima flashing the congregation while saying, "Today, I am a man"? Great stuff. Well, except for the rioting in Florida that caused the deaths of several shuffleboard players and a canasta team.
 
Well Ball and Chain, you've shown what you think by saying that Mohammed has spawned a religion of violence. The fact that a few people acting like idiots makes you condemn the religion as a whole is what irritates me. I think they're morons for rioting too, because people get killed in riots. It's no different than soccer hooligans the world over. Do most soccer fans riot and hurt people? No. Do we blame the sport of soccor (or futbol if you prefer) because of them? No. So why get down on Muslims as a whole? THAT is what irritates me about this whole thing. People start focusing on the rioting, instead of on the deliberately offensive cartoons. That man in Austria got sentenced to three years in prison for saying the Holocaust didn't happen. What happened to freedom of speech there? I don't hear any outcries.
 
And Oven, if Denmark had published an anti-semitic cartoon, i'd feel the same way about it: that it's WRONG. I'm not religious myself, so this isn't about religion for me in particular. I see inequalities here in the attitudes od people and government (read: racism) and it bothers me. A lot.
 
The really bizarre part is that Muslim press is rife with the most vile, racist antisemitic cartoons on a daily basis, and no one in the Muslim world thinks there's anything wrong with that. Actually, that's not the bizarre part. The bizarre part is that no one in the western world thinks there's anything unusual about that.

You want to talk double standards, start with that.
 
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