End of European Civilization?

There was a choice between bareness and terminal discomfort.

They chose bareness.

They shall get terminal discomfort.

From a Brussels Journal article, The Closing of Civilization in Europe :

The Closing of Civilization in Europe [/] From the desk of Paul Belien on Wed, 2006-02-22 22:51

Europe’s current problems are entirely self-inflicted. This does not mean, however, that the result will be less catastrophic. By subverting the roots of its own Judeo-Christian culture – a process that started with the French Enlightenment – a religious and cultural vacuum was created at the heart of European civilization. The collapse of faith in its own values has, not surprisingly, led to a demographic collapse because a civilization that no longer believes in its own future also rejects procreation. Today, a new religion and culture is supplanting the old one. There is little one can do about it, but hope for a miracle.

America’s immigration problems pale in comparison with what confronts Europe. America’s major ethnic minorities – Blacks as well as Hispanics – are Christian, while the meanstream culture is also rooted in Christianity. In Europe a secularized post-Christian culture is facing a Muslim one. The secularized culture is hedonist and values only its present life, because it does not believe in an afterlife. This is why it will surrender when threatened with death because life is the only thing it has to lose. This is why it will accept submission without fighting for its freedom. Nobody fights for the flag of hedonism, not even the hedonists themselves.

One could also put it in a slightly different way: Europe lacks what America still has, namely the so-called “conservative reserves,” or as the German sociologist Arnold Gehlen explained over 30 years ago, “the reserves in national energy and self-confidence, primitiveness and generosity, wealth and potential of every kind.” Every so often I travel to the U.S. to recharge my batteries, and I am not the only European Conservative to do so. From time to time one needs to breathe the air of freedom before submerging again in the stifling atmosphere of Europe.

America’s “conservative reserves” are far stronger than Europe’s, because America, unlike secular Europe, has remained rooted to a larger extent in traditional Christian values. I do not doubt that if these values continue to decline in the U.S., American culture will collapse as European culture and civilisation have collapsed. However, America can learn from the impending European catastrophe, and avoid a similar fate.

The old European civilization – the pre-secular or the pre-post-Christian one – will live on in the U.S. If it perishes there too, mankind will relapse into the dark ages that are now taking hold of Europe, the cradle of Western civilization.

I suppose one could feel sad about all this, but sadness is not what I feel. One can feel compassion for those who die in accidents, fall in battle or get murdered (like the countless unborn children that perish every day) but can one pity those who have killed their own future for the pleasures of the present? Europe’s predicament, I repeat, is entirely self-inflicted. Not Islam is to blame. Secularism is.

The coming decade will witness the war between the values of Islam and the secular “values” of the decadent, hedonistic post-Marxist Left. We have seen the assassinations of Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh, last November’s prelude to the French civil war, the Danish cartoon case. This is just the beginning of the beginning. I do not consider myself a pessimist, merely a realist. It is quite clear who is going to lose – and whose fault that will be. [My ellipses and emphasis]

Coretta Scott King: Tribute to a Tribute

A serious and solemn and joyous and spirited account of a serious and solemn and joyous and spirited ceremony.

From a WSJ Opinion Journal article, Four Presidents and a Funeral :

PEGGY NOONAN \Four Presidents and a Funeral\A spirited tribute to Mrs. King--and to democracy.\Friday, February 10, 2006 12:01 a.m.

Listen, I watched the funeral of Coretta Scott King for six hours Tuesday, from the pre-service commentary to the very last speech, and it was wonderful--spirited and moving, rousing and respectful, pugnacious and loving. The old lions of the great American civil rights movement of the 20th century were there, and standing tall. The old lionesses, too. There was preaching and speechifying and at the end I thought: This is how democracy ought to be, ought to look every day--full of the joy of argument, and marked by the moral certainty that here you can say what you think.

There was nothing prissy, nothing sissy about it. A former president, a softly gray-haired and chronically dyspeptic gentleman who seems to have judged the world to be just barely deserving of his presence, pointedly insulted a sitting president who was, in fact, sitting right behind him. The Clintons unveiled their 2008 campaign. A rhyming preacher, one of the old lions, a man of warmth and stature, freely used the occasion to verbally bop the sitting president on the head.

So what? This was the authentic sound of a vibrant democracy doing its thing. It was the exact opposite of the frightened and prissy attitude that if you draw a picture I don't like, I'll have to kill you.

It was: We do free speech here.

That funeral honored us, and the world could learn a lot from watching it. The U.S. government should send all six hours of it throughout the World Wide Web and to every country on earth, because it said more about who we are than any number of decorous U.N. speeches and formal diplomatic declarations.

A moment for a distinction that must be made. Some have compared Mrs. King's funeral to the Paul Wellstone memorial. It was not like the Wellstone memorial, and you'd have to be as dim and false as Al Franken to say it was. The Wellstone memorial was marked not by joy but anger. It was at moments sour, even dark. There was famous booing.
The King funeral was nothing like this. It was gracious, full of applause and cheers and amens. It was loving even when it was political. It had spirit, not rage. That's part of why it was beautiful.

It was also beautiful because, as the first speaker, Bishop Eddie L. Long, senior pastor of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga., said in almost his first words, "This is a worship. This is a celebration. This is a moment that we give to honor God."

It was a religious service in which no one was afraid to talk about God. "Praise the Lord," and "Lord, we lift your name on high" and "How we love to sing your praises" rang through the room. Scripture was quoted, stories told. Blacks in America are not afraid to love Jesus the way they want to love him, to use the language and symbols they want to use. I want to kiss their hands for this. I also happen to honor the fact that, by and large, older blacks at least have not given way to 20th-century stoicism in their style of mourning. The Kennedys, who had too much experience with funerals, set the stoic style 40 years ago, and while it was elegant and moving in its own way, it left an entire nation thinking it was in rather poor taste to cry aloud and sob.

As for the speakers, no one has ever been or could be better than the Rev. Bernice King, who spoke of her mother's love, her mother's end, and the possible metaphorical meaning of the cancer that killed her.

The Rev. Joseph Lowery gave a beautiful poem about Martin being with Rosa in heaven and then finding out that Coretta was coming, and rushing to greet her at the pearly gates. Strike you as corny? Not me. It was beautiful because it was not only full of unselfconscious faith, it assumed unselfconscious faith on the part of the audience, and so was both an implicit compliment and a declaration of shared assumptions. The audience responded with amens and cheers. When he bopped the president over weapons of mass destruction, what seemed, on CNN, to be half the room stood and applauded.

When George Bush 41 followed him to the podium, he teased Mr. Lowery in a way that complimented his eloquence. People sometimes marvel at the grace of George H.W. Bush. He is a warm and gracious man, and he's old enough to appreciate the humor in everything. He's old enough to appreciate life. But it is also true that when you attack him or his son from the left he doesn't get mad because in his heart he kinda thinks you're right. Attack him from the right; you won't be overwhelmed by his bonhomie then.

President Bush was fine, his eloquence of the formal kind. He needs to find the place between High Rhetoric and off-the-cuff plainspeak. He always does one or the other. But there's a place in between, a place that's not fancy and not common, that would serve him well if he could find it.

Bill Clinton was, as always, the master. Say what you will, he is the only politician in America with the confidence to call Episcopalians "the frozen chosen" and know everyone will laugh and take no offense. Amid all the happy bombast he was the one who pointed at the casket and said, "There's a woman in there." He talked about Mrs. King in good strong plain terms. Yes, he caused a quarter-second of awkwardness when he said of the beautiful Coretta that even at age 75 she still had the goods, but in moments of exuberance we all forget our own history.

The real news was how the Clintons used the funeral to unveil how they will run in 2008: Together, side by side, with beautiful hairdos. I haven't seen them like this--both standing at the podium--since 1992, when they were new. In the years since, after the health-care failure and the Whitewater scandals, the West Wing attitude toward the president's wife was a quiet and respectful "Get that woman off the podium!" Not anymore. All is new again. Mrs. Clinton has clearly been working on her public speaking, and attempted to use her hands as her husband uses his, now in an emphasizing arc, now resting on her chest. But his are large, long and elegant, and hers are puffed and grasping.

Both Clintons spoke in the cadence and with the imagery of the Bible. Mrs. Clinton's first words, in which she referred to Mrs. King's brave decision to continue her husband's work after his murder, were steeped in religiosity. "As we are called, each of us must decide whether to answer that call by saying, 'Send me.'" She ended with, "The work of peace never ends. So we bid her earthly presence farewell. We wish her Godspeed on her homecoming. And we ask ourselves, 'Will we say, when the call comes, "Send me"?'"
Oh I think we will, Ms. Meanieface!

If you don't understand that Mrs. Clinton was rehearsing her 2008 announcement speech, then you are a child and must go home and have a nice cup of cocoa.

This is what is coming: I have had a blessed life. And like so many people I could choose, after all these years, a life of comfort. Watch it from the sidelines, tend to my own concerns, watch the garden grow. But our nation calls out. And if we are to be Americans we must meet the call. "Send me."

With Bill nodding beside her, his hands clasped prayerfully in front of him, nodding and working that jaw muscle he works when he wants you to notice, for just a second, how hard it is sometimes for him to contain his admiration.

God I love them.

Apart from its beauty, dignity and fight, Mrs. King's funeral got me thinking about this: Did she know how much she was loved? It's hard for a person to know that. If only she could have gone to her own funeral, she would have known. I wonder if it wouldn't be good if somewhere along the way, just once in your life, you got to call your own funeral. Pick the church, the speakers, the music, sit in the pew, clap when they talk about how wonderful you were. Then afterwards have a long lunch and toast your memory. Then the next day you go to work as usual, but maybe in a different mood. I don't see why we don't do this. Is this a stupid thing to say? It's allowed. I've got free speech.

Ms. Noonan is a contributing editor of The Wall Street Journal and author of "John Paul the Great: Remembering a Spiritual Father," (Penguin, 2005), which you can order from the OpinionJournal bookstore. Her column appears Thursdays. [My ellipses and emphasis]

Cartoon Riots ABCs

From a New York Post article, RENT-A-RIOT ABCS :

RENT-A-RIOT ABCS [/] By AMIR TAHERI

'ABLESSING from God": So have Iran's leaders, starting with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, described the controversy over the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed. [/] A closer look at the row, however, shows that the whole rigmarole was launched by Sunni-Salafi groups in Europe and Asia, with Ahmadinejad and his Syrian vassal, President Bashar al-Assad, belatedly playing catch-up. God had nothing to do with it.

To see how the whole thing was manufactured to serve precise political ends, consider the chronology of events: [/] The cartoons were published last September and, for more than three months, caused no ripples outside small groups of Salafi militants in Denmark. [/] In December, a group of Danish Muslim militants filled their suitcases with photocopies of the cartoons and embarked on a tour of Muslim capitals. [/] They failed to get to Tehran: The Iranians, being Shi'ites, saw them as Sunni activists bent on mischief. But they managed to go to Cairo, Damascus and Beirut and, were allowed to send emissaries to Saudi Arabia.

The Danish Muslim group also did something dishonest — it added a number of far more derogatory cartoons of the Prophet to the 12 published by the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, and misled its interlocutors in Muslim capitals into believing that all had appeared in the Danish press.

In Cairo, the Muslim Brotherhood told the Danish group that this was not the time to kick a fuss over the cartoons. The brotherhood was busy plotting its election strategy and pretending to be a "moderate" political party. The last thing it wanted was to be branded as a rabid anti-West force. The brotherhood leaders suggested that the matter be put on ice until January.

The Danish militants also received a negative reply from Hamas, the Palestinian radical movement. Hamas was busy trying to win a general election and needed to reassure at least part of the Palestinian middle classes. The Hamas advice was: Wait until after we have won.

The emissaries found a more sympathetic audience in Qatar — where the satellite-TV channel Al Jazeera (owned by the emir) specializes in inciting Muslims against the West and democracy in general. The channel's chief Islamist televangelist, Yussuf al-Qaradawi (an Egyptian preacher who is also a friend of Ken Livingstone, the mayor of London), was all too keen to issue a "fatwa" to light the fuse. He then mobilized his network of Muslim Brotherhood militants in Europe to attack the cartoons and claim, falsely, that images were not allowed in Islam and that the Danish paper had violated "an absolute principle of The Only True Faith."

Thus the call for Jihad received its supposed "theological" green light. (Ironically, the section of the brotherhood headed by al-Qaradawi is financed by the European Union as a non-governmental organization.)

As the first rent-a-mob crowds appeared on global TV screens, [Iran President] Ahmadinejad realized that here was a cow worth milking.

For Denmark is set to assume the rotating presidency of the U.N. Security Council — at the very time that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is expected to refer Iran to the Security Council and demand sanctions. What better, for Tehran's purposes, than to portray Denmark as "an enemy of Islam" and mobilize Muslim sympathy against the Security Council?

To regain the initiative from the Sunni-Salafi groups, Ahmadinejad quickly ordered a severing of commercial ties with Denmark, thus portraying the Islamic Republic as the Muslim world's leader in the anti-Danish campaign.

Syria was next to jump on the bandwagon, again for mercenary reasons. The United Nations wants Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and five of his relatives and aides, including his younger brother, for questioning in the murder of Lebanon's former premier, Rafiq al-Hariri. (Assad has tried to negotiate immunity for himself and his brother in exchange for handing over the others — but the U.N. wouldn't play.) As with Iran's nuclear program, the Syrian dossier will reach the Security Council under Danish presidency. To portray Denmark as "an enemy of the Prophet" would not be such a bad thing when the council, as expected, points the finger at Assad and his regime as responsible for a series of political murders, including that of Hariri.

The Danish-cartoons cow will also be milked in another way: Tehran and Damascus have launched a diplomatic campaign to put the issue of "protecting religions against blasphemy" on the Security Council agenda. If that were to happen, issues such as Iran's quest for the atomic bomb and Syria's murder machine in Lebanon might be pushed aside, at least as far as world public opinion is concerned.

People watching TV news may think that the whole Muslim world is ablaze with righteous rage translated into "spontaneous demonstrations." The truth is that the overwhelming majority of Muslims, even if offended by cartoons which they have not seen, have stayed away from the street shows put on by the radicals and the Iranian and Syrian security services.

The destruction of Danish and Norwegian embassies and consulates happened in only two places: Damascus and Beirut. Anyone who knows Syria would know that there are no spontaneous demonstrations in that dictatorship. (Even then, the Syrian secret police failed to attract more than 1,000 rent-a-mob militants.) And the Syrian government refused the Norwegian Embassy's request for additional police protection. It was clear that the Syrians wanted the embassies sacked.

The rent-a-mob attacks in Beirut were more cynical. The Syrian Ba'ath — which has been murdering, imprisoning or deporting Sunni-Salafi militants for years — was suddenly transformed from a radical secular and Socialist party into "the Vanguard of the Faith." The mob that committed the atrocities in Beirut was bused from Syria and consisted of Muslim Brotherhood militants who are never allowed to demonstate on their own account.

The Muslim crowds that have demonstrated over the cartoons seldom exceeded a few hundred; the Muslim segment of humanity is estimated at 1.2 billion. And only three of Denmark's embassies in 57 Muslim countries have been attacked.

The Danish Muslim gang who lied by adding cartoons that had never been published has done more damage to the Prophet and to Islam than the 12 controversial cartoonists of Jyllands-Posten.

The fight between Denmark and its detractors is not between the West and Islam. It is between democracy and a global fascist movement masquerading as religion.

Iranian author Amir Taheri is a member of Benador Associates. [My ellipses and emphasis]

Haiti's Man from Marmelade Ahead

Good news. Anyone connected with marmalade can't be all bad.

(N.B. "Marmelade" is the French spelling. French is the language of Haiti.)

From a Yahoo! AP article, Delays Slow Haiti Vote :

Delays Slow Haiti Vote Count By JOSEPH B. FRAZIER, Associated Press Writer [/] Thu Feb 9, 4:41 AM ET

MARMELADE, Haiti - A former president with strong support among Haiti's poor has taken an early lead two days after Haitians turned out in droves to elect a new leader, an aide to the candidate said, citing preliminary returns.

But delays in retrieving results from countryside slowed official vote counting, with ballot counts still being ferried to the capital on Wednesday by plane, truck and mule. Jacques Bernard, director general of Haiti's electoral council, said only a small percentage of balloting results had reached Port-au-Prince.

[…] But some polling stations posted unconfirmed local results outside. These showed strong early support for another former president, 63-year-old agronomist Rene Preval.

Preval's political adviser, Bob Manuel, said preliminary calculations showed the candidate having won 67 percent of the nationwide vote, with 16 percent of votes counted.

Preval, who is widely supported by Haiti's poor masses, was the front-runner among 33 presidential candidates. Shy and soft-spoken, Preval is the only elected leader in Haitian history to finish his term. He's also a former ally of Aristide, who remains in exile in South Africa.

[…] If no candidate wins a majority, a runoff between the top two vote-getters will be held March 19.

Although the claim of Preval's lead by his team couldn't be verified, early results posted at polling stations showed the candidate leading his opponents. At a large polling center near the huge slum of Cite Soleil, unconfirmed results taped to large columns inside showed Preval winning about 90 percent of the votes cast there.

Across the city in Petionville, home to many of Haiti's wealthiest citizens as well the poor Haitians who serve them, Preval took slightly more than 70 percent of the vote at a polling station, according to posted results.

Preval, in his rural hometown of Marmelade, emerged from his family home once on Wednesday, briefly dancing along to a band playing outside and waving to supporters. He didn't speak to reporters.

[…] The elections have been deemed vital to avoiding a political and economic meltdown in the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation. In the aftermath of Aristide's ouster, gangs went on a kidnapping spree and many factories closed because of security problems and a shortage of foreign investment.

Associated Press writers Michael Norton, Andrew Selsky and Stevenson Jacobs in Port-au-Prince contributed to this report. [My ellipses and emphasis]

Top Take on Recent Riots

From Europe's preeminent pajama person.

From a Barce[lona, Spain]Pundit article, French magazine has just released its latest issue. And it's brave :

Wednesday, February 08, 2006 [/] CHARLIE HÉBDO, a French magazine, has just released its latest issue. And it's brave:

The picture [shown in linked post] which is due to grace the cover of the weekly satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, with the caption "Mohammed overwrought by the fundamentalists," shows Mohammed crying, saying "It's hard to be loved by such idiots." [My ellipses and emphasis]

In the next post down there is a video of Sinnead O'Connor singing (without accompaniment) a beautiful recitative of far Left idealism. Ending with Ms. O'Connor tearing up a photo of Pope John Paul II and saying: "Fight the real enemy."

From a Barce[lona, Spain]Pundit article, NOTHING IS SACRED (via Spanish leftist blogger Ignacio Escolar, to his credit):

Tuesday, February 07, 2006 [/] NOTHING IS SACRED (via Spanish leftist blogger Ignacio Escolar, to his credit)

[Above mentioned video ending with tearing up a photo of the pope and saying "Fight the real enemy."]

How many Irish embassies were burnt in Italy, or Spain? Did Sinnead O'Connor have to go in hiding, or with 24/7 protection by bodyguards? Was there any Catholic boycott of Jameson or Guinness?

That's what I thought.

[N.B. Jameson is a brand of Irish whiskey, world's best, actually. Guinness is a brand of malt beverage, made in Ireland by an English firm from a Welsh recipe, with the original intention of providing a lower alcohol content and higher nutritional content than distilled beverages. Also, of course, the world's best.] [My ellipses and emphasis]

"[Preserve] the Image of a Peaceful Islam"

Islamic Groups Call for End to Riots - Yahoo! News:

"Aggression against life and property can only damage the image of a peaceful Islam,' said the statement released by Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the EU chief Javier Solana.

Meanwhile, a U.S. military spokesman said the United States and other countries are examining whether extremist groups may be inciting protesters to riot around the world because of the cartoons that have been printed in numerous European papers.

'The United States and other countries are providing assistance in any manner that they can ... to see if this is something larger than just a small demonstration,' Col. James Yonts told reporters when asked whether al-Qaida and the Taliban may have been involved in days of violent demonstrations in Afghanistan.
The Afghan protests have involved armed men and have been directed at foreign and Afghan government targets � fueling the suspicions there's more behind the unrest than religious sensitivities. But Yonts stressed they had no evidence to support suggestions that al-Qaida or Taliban are linked to the riots in Afghanistan."

Vanguard of the Robot Invasion

From a Yahoo! AP article, Robotic Toys Take Stage at DEMO Conference :

Robotic Toys Take Stage at DEMO Conference By MATTHEW FORDAHL, AP Technology Writer [/] Tue Feb 7, 8:35 PM ET

PHOENIX - Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news). may have put its Aibo robotic dogs to sleep, but the inventor of the popular Furby toy said on Tuesday the market for toy animatrons is anything but extinct.

Caleb Chung unveiled a lifelike toy dinosaur named Pleo that senses its surroundings, reacts to touch, walks about on its four legs and shows emotion.

The robot, about the size of a toy poodle, expresses sadness and disappointment by gently lowering its head and tail when it's ignored. Rub its rubbery back or poke its feet, and the 3.5-pound dinosaur springs back to life just like something made of flesh and blood.

Pleo made its debut on the first day of the 16th annual DEMO conference, which is taking place in Phoenix this week. The show gives about 70 startups and established companies about six minutes each to showcase what they hope will be the next big thing in technology.

Ugobe Inc., which Chung co-founded, hopes Pleo will be the must-have present for Christmas 2006. The diminutive dino is expected to be available later this year for about $200 each.

"By using breakthrough materials, an array of sensors and programmed intelligence, Ugobe has created a unique animated form that challenges the relationship between human beings and nonliving creatures," noted Chris Shipley, DEMO's executive producer.

Unlike Furby's single motor and microprocessor, Pleo has eight processors that control 14 motors and receive signals from 38 sensors. It also can learn from its experiences — in effect writing its own code as it goes.

"What we're trying to do is recreate life in order to get to an emotional bonding," Chung said.

At DEMO, the robot initially made a cautious debut as it sensed its environment, a small table on a large stage. After a few seconds, its movements began to resemble a living object waking up.

"In a technical sense he's calibrating his servos, but we like to call it stretching," Chung said.

The Pleo eventually took a few cautious steps. When it reached the edge of the table, it stopped and peeked over. When Chung stopped playing with it, it appeared to get depressed.

Still, it's not likely to get as depressed as owners of Sony's Aibo robotic dogs. The company discontinued them last month to cut costs, calling the toys a niche product.

Other companies also showcased products that also mix fun and high tech:

• Blurb Inc.'s BookSmart lets anyone create professional-looking books from a PC or Macintosh. Unlike current do-it-yourself publishing tools, BookSmart offers layout flexibility. It also can "slurp" Web log content into a book and allows multiple people to contribute to a book over the Internet.

Each book, which costs about $30 for up to 40 pages, can be created within 30 minutes, said Eileen Gittins, the company's founder and chief executive. It is expected to be commercially available next month.

• Bones in Motion Inc.'s BiM Active turns nearly any cell phone into an automatic journal of outdoor activities. Walkers, runners and cyclists can record their routes in real time, using their phones' built-in satellite tracking capabilities. It also tracks speed, distance, calories burned and elevation.

All the information also can be accessed and shared via the Web. It also allows routes to be searched, ranked and displayed using Google Inc.'s mapping system. Bones in Motion also announced Sprint will start offering the service this week for $9.99 a month.

• MooBella LLC's Ice Cream System uses a combination of fresh ingredients and the Linux operating system to automatically scoop up tasty desserts. The vending machine, designed for cafeterias, convenience stores and other public places, lets customers choose from more than 90 combinations of flavors and mix-ins using a friendly touch screen display.

Within a minute, the ingredients are aerated, flavored, mixed and flash frozen. The machines also keep track of inventories and sales over a wireless Internet connection.

"Every MooBella consumer can become a Ben or Jerry," said Bruce Ginsberg, the company's president. "Our unique technology is as rich as our all-natural ice cream is smooth and creamy."

MooBella machines are expected to start appearing first in the Boston area in 2006. The price of each machine was not announced.

On the Net:

Ugobe Inc.: http://www.ugobe.com/

MooBella LLC: http://www.moobella.com

Blurb Inc.: http://www.blurb.com

Bones in Motion: http://bonesinmotion.com/corp/

Radical Islamicism vs. Radical Left

Question: What is the difference between radical Islamicism and the radical Left?

Answer: Radical Islamicism believes that Danish cartoonists are more evil than George Bush.

These guys are making the great icons of the radical American Left look sane.

From a [London] Times Online article, Danish cartoonists fear for their lives :

The Times February 04, 2006 [/] Danish cartoonists fear for their lives [/] From Anthony Browne in Brussels

TWELVE Danish cartoonists whose pictures sparked such outcry have gone into hiding under round-the-clock protection, fearing for their lives. [/] The cartoonists, many of whom had reservations about the pictures, have been shocked by how the affair has escalated into a global “clash of civilisations”. They have since tried, unsuccessfully, to stop them being reprinted.

A spokesman for the cartoonists said: “They are in hiding around Denmark. Some of them are really, really scared. They don’t want to see the pictures reprinted all over the world. We couldn’t stop it. We tried, but we couldn’t.”

[…] The cartoonists’ names were originally printed in the Danish paper Jyllands-Posten. Flemming Rose, the paper’s cultural editor, invited 25 newspaper cartoonists to draw a picture of Muhammad “how they saw him”, after a children’s author complained that cartoonists would only dare illustrate a book he was writing on the life of Muhammad if they could be anonymous. Twelve cartoonists responded, had their pictures printed in September, and were paid 800 Danish krone (£73) each.

[…] The cartoonists come from a variety of different political backgrounds, which is reflected in their work. While some of the pictures satirise Muhammad, others attack populist right-wing politicians and even Jyllands-Posten itself, which is rightwing. […] [My ellipses and emphasis]

From a JihadWatch.org article, Concern about Jordanian parliament’s call for Danish cartoonists to be punished :

January 25, 2006 [/] Concern about Jordanian parliament’s call for Danish cartoonists to be punished

Reporters Without Borders (thanks to Filtrat) lines up on the right side of the ever-expanding cartoon rage, in contradistinction to the fulminating "moderate" Jordanian Parliament:

Reporters Without Borders voiced concern today about the Jordanian parliament’s call yesterday for the punishment of the cartoonist who drew 12 caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed that appeared in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten on 30 September and were reprinted in the Norwegian publication Magazinet on 10 January.
“Islam forbids any representation of the Prophet and we realize that these cartoons may upset some people, but it is not acceptable for the parliament of a supposedly democratic country to call for the cartoonists to be punished,” the press freedom organisation said.

“Those who so desire may bring a complaint against the newspaper, but politicians should under no circumstances should call for direct reprisals against journalists,” Reporters Without Borders continued. “The cartoonists have already received death threats and these new statements put them in further danger.”

In a statement yesterday, the Jordanian parliament said the cartoons “constitute a cowardly and reprehensible crime” and urged the Norwegian and Danish authorities “to express their condemnation and disapproval of this hateful crime and to punish the perpetrators and instigators.”

It also called on “parliaments, governments and civil society organisations in the Muslim world to take a firm position on this evil, which strikes at the sentiments of the Arabo-Muslim nation.” [My ellipses and emphasis]

Local Lady Eating Champion

From a Yahoo! AP article, Woman Eats 26 Grilled Cheese Sandwiches :

Woman Eats 26 Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

A 100-pound woman ate 26 grilled cheese sandwiches in 10 minutes Wednesday at a New York restaurant, winning the World Grilled Cheese Eating Championship.

Sonya Thomas won $8,000 for the contest at the Planet Hollywood restaurant in Times Square but said she was disappointed in her performance.

"I could have done better," she said, adding that she was aiming for 30 sandwiches.

Thomas, of Alexandria, Va., said she had to catch a train shortly after the contest to make her shift at a Burger King on Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, where she is a manager.

She said she has a naturally big stomach capacity and heavily soaked her sandwiches in water to make them easier to swallow. She said to train she drinks large amounts of water to expand her stomach capacity and practices relaxing her throat.

Thomas, whose normal weight is about 100 pounds, estimated she gained 10 pounds during Wednesday's contest.

It was a close win. Her nearest competitor, Joey Chestnut, ate 25 1/2 sandwiches.

On the eating contest circuit, Thomas is known as the "Black Widow," apparently because she has defeated so many larger men.

She holds numerous world eating records, including 46 dozen oysters in 10 minutes, 11 pounds of cheesecake in 9 minutes, 48 chicken tacos in 11 minutes, 37 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes and 56 hamburgers in 8 minutes.

The event was organized by GoldenPalace.com, an Internet casino and poker room. [My ellipses and emphasis]