Down with the flu – the world rages on

Sorry. I know it’s a big news cycle, with the cartoons and all. Hate to miss it but I’m down with a bad bug. Learning to love green tea, etc.

Buster says my being sick is not surprising – he blames it on the week of waking and mourning, etc…he’s probably right. I’m certainly not made of the strong stuff, anymore…kiss a few people and I’m sure to catch something.

Hopefully I’ll be back to blogging later tomorrow. Meanwhile, let’s pray that all this madness does not spill over, somehow, terribly, into the coming gatherings at Super Bowl, Coretta Scott King’s funeral, etc.

One of the sickest things I’ve read: A Democrat plants the seed that if something happens at the SuperBowl, Rove planned it. You have to really, really be swallowing the kool-aid to think this way.

Michelle Malkin has a a picture that really spells out how sick the left has become. While the world is in the throes of something awful, starting from cartoons, these people are so sick in their hatred that the looming violence is not even on their radar – all they can do…ALL they can do…is hate George W. Bush. They’re completely useless.

There is much to pray about. Meanwhile, thanks to ForNow for sending this eye-opener about prospects of war with Iran.

And while I’ve been up, I’ve managed to read a few things – not much, because it’s tiring.

AJ Strata looks at a WaPo article and concludes the NSA flap is yet another fake scandal. He’s pretty persuasive.

I find myself agreeing with Rick at Brutally Honest, and Rich Moran at Right Wing Nut House in that I am – for maybe the first time – in agreement with the State Department. Cooler heads must prevail – it would be a damn shame to lose the advances we have made with moderate Muslims because we have pushed too far. While I’m all for free speech, and was glad to see French editors stand up for it, I don’t know that I can support the few suggestions I have seen, here and there, for bloggers to create “more and better” Anti-Islam cartoons. For what purpose, to fan the flames? I’d like to see the Muslims learn to lighten up. That’s not going to happen if they’re being egged on. We’re in the middle of a very long “process” of trying to bring the Middle East and the Islamists into the twenty first century. They’re currently highly pissed off about fake cartoons. If we can’t get them to slow down and acknowledge that some of their own have had a hand in creating this unrest, is it the wisest thing to say, “hey, those were FAKE cartoons, but here’s some REAL ones for your to freak out over!”

By all means, report on what’s going on, even show the original cartoons – they are part of the story, after all…but let’s not encourage people to CREATE cartoons expressly designed to cause offense. That’s reckless, immature, and frankly it’s something no person of any faith should condone. If I saw a site encouraging people to do “more and better” anti-Christian images, I’d say the same. To what purpose?

I’m sick, and maybe not thinking clearly, but I cannot see how going out of our way to add fuel to a fire can make a good ending. Some diplomacy is needed, right now, I think. On the other hand, I am reading about the torching of embassies in Syria, etc, and I can’t help but ask more moderate Muslims…does this make you proud? Is this what you want the world to see of your faith? It’s time to speak up, please, and tell your co-religionists that maybe this is not the best way to get on with the rest of the world?

Interestingly, the Muslims are threatening to attack Europeaon Churches. Since Europe is basically post-Christian, it will be interesting to watch the EU response. Do you suppose that some Europeans will suddenly rediscover their faith? Doubtful, but worth watching.

Mark Steyn has a serious must read which breaks it all down and discovers that the root cause for all of this is PC 0ver-sensitivity. Dr. Sanity concurs. Jeff Jacoby says, “like it or not, we are all Danes now. Christopher Hitchens, sounding like he’s so annoyed he’s been put right off his gin and tonic, writes:

Very well then, let a good Muslim abstain rigorously from all these. But if he claims the right to make me abstain as well, he offers the clearest possible warning and proof of an aggressive intent. This current uneasy coexistence is only an interlude, he seems to say. For the moment, all I can do is claim to possess absolute truth and demand absolute immunity from criticism. But in the future, you will do what I say and you will do it on pain of death.

He’s very teed off – at all religions, of course – but particularly that these Islamic Extremists have gone wild.

Oh, Maggie’s Farm, which just celebrated a blogoversary, has further thoughts.

Lastly, a great bit from Rich Lowry on how all the rules seem to change when it comes to President Bush; everything that was okay for Clinton is “scandalous” when Bush does it. More here.