Sunday, February 17, 2008

Let Freedom Reign!


It's been two years since the initial round of threats, phony outrage, and riots over publication of cartoons by the Jyllands-Posten Danish newspaper five months before. Some writers, like Michelle Malkin, wrote about the cartoons at the time. She and many others (including Laughing Wolf and me) wrote about it at the time. The Freedom for Egyptians blog noted that an Egyptian newspaper had also published the Danish cartoons, without incident, at the same time the Danes had.


Now the Jyllands-Posten has re-posted one of the cartoons (the upper one on the right) in connection with the arrests of five extremists plotting to murder the cartoonist who drew it. It was also published by other newspapers in Denmark, Sweden, Spain, and the Netherlands — but not the United States. One of the newspapers said "We are doing this to document what is at stake in this case, and to unambiguously back and support the freedom of speech that we as a newspaper always will defend." I join Laughing Wolf, Blackfive, Michelle Malkin, and thousands of others in solidarity with them. And with them, I say "Let freedom reign!"


Personal postscript: Yes, this is a little late, but I'm back from vacation now.