AND OF COURSE THE SHOW GOES ON

Editors are still resiging over the cartoon crisis - this time in New York, of all places. It seems that the management of the alternative newspaper The New York Press decided to bar the reprinting of the cartoons, and in return the editors just decided to quit...

Sad. In NYC, of all places.

Still in the New York Times, another article dealt with the death of three protesters in Afghanistan - again over these cartoons. This is an excerpt:

"Protesters, many of them Pakistani immigrant workers from a construction site on the edge of town, threw stones at vehicles, fired on an Afghan Army truck, burned a police car and several oil tankers and tried to storm the police station."

Much has been said and written about this crisis, in the sense that it is more than anything an extension of Muslims' refusal to assimilate when living in Western societies, i.e., immigrants in France, Denmark, Germany and the like.

I can see that side of the story, and it explains a lot of their behavior. But on the other hand, they are marching and burning and firing in other Muslim states too. Why? Is that now an extension of the problems between Pakistanis and Afghanis?

Can we just talk about the cartoons, please? They are only cartoons, nothing else.

And now, for a decisive "best for last", see below the position of the United States military in Afghanistan:

"The United States military in Afghanistan on Wednesday joined the Afghan government and the Council of Clerics in condemning the cartoons. Lt. Col. Jim Yonts, chief spokesman for the United States military in Afghanistan, called them 'definitely offensive' and said, 'we condemn that."

Nice...