Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea. —Henry Fielding

08 February 2006

Being Sensitive to Cultural Sensitivities

Whole groups of religious people are protesting a bunch of cartoons published in Denmark. And people like Kofi Annan are saying things like, “But of course freedom of speech is never absolute.” And The Vatican issued a statement saying, "The right to freedom of thought and expression cannot entail the right to offend the religious sentiment of believers."

This is almost laughable. Actually, it would be funny if it weren't so damned frustrating. Religious sentiment is not a very good reason to get worked up. And, yet, religious people rule the world, so why is everybody so touchy?

Freedom of speech is freedom of speech is freedom of speech. You can't decide that it's not free when it starts to offend religious people. The very next step down that path is religious control of popular media.

Check out this really pissed off article by Choire Sicha in The Morning News.

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