Too Clever By Half

God bless Tim Blair - warning this site contains cartoons

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This bullshit about the cartoons is ridiculous. Apart from why Britney Spears is still the most searched term on internet search engines, the great quandary of our time is how we balance the Western secular obligation to spear the sacred with the Muslim responsibility to be dour, humourless and put upon.

i dont deny people their religion. hell, whatever, gets you through the night. And if people are discriminated against because of their religion, forced to stand in the proverbial corner of society because of their religion, hell, that would be no good. But this is nothing like that ...

So what if they are offended. I'm fucking offended everytime i see Howard on TV or hear about some dumb ass Auburn kids beating a Somali refugee to death. These people over-value offence.

Offence is not vilification. Offence is not even discrimination. offence is just playschool stuff. It's the adult equivalent of being told by the schoolyard bully, "You've got freckles, you docile cunt." Unpleasant but addressed by simply knodding knowingly, turning away and playing handball with the cool kids.

I'm fucking offended when people are discussing whether to publish cartoons or not because they fear they could cause riots. That's offensive. I'm offended that Howard or Piers Akerman or Janet Albrechtsen arent on the news saying "it's Australia. we have freedom of speech. if you don't like it you can leave." It's a familiar soundbite but you wont hear it this week cos, um, they can't massage this one ...

I'm offended when Muslims come out and tell me i cant guarantee we wont riot cos you published a cartoon. I'm offended that we invited the Muslims into our tent and now they want us to take a piss outside.

And I am not easily offended. Now let me contribute a little joke i made up in the spirit of the times ...

" How many Mohammed's does it take to change a light globe ? Only one - but for christ sake don't take a picture of him changing it"

The word "the" in this article is not intended to represent all Muslims. How many Muslims ? I dont know.