It’s the usual bash the US week at the UN, I see. America is the great satan, Bush is the devil, Bush is worse than Hitler — the dictators, terrorists, and leftists are all reading from the same script, apparently. The truth is, it is safe for the real “devils and hitlers” of the world to hurl abuse at Bush and the US, because we are civilized. If you insult us, we won’t kill you (Broken link, active September 21, 2006) or burn down the emblems of your culture. Some say we are over civilized, and that will be the death of us. But who dares to speak the truth about those who are truly evil? For example, everyone knows that to insult Mohammed, even poorly or mistakenly, is to invite a death sentence (I seem to remember that Danish cartoonists had to go into hiding last winter). And the Pope, who was not trying to insult Mohammed, but who was trying to promote an academic and theologic dialogue among Christians, Jews, and Muslims about violence and religion, has found out the hard way that it is not safe to insult the uncivilized.
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Update: Good for NY Rep. Charlie Rangel (D), speaking like a true American. And UN comic relief here and here.
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