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I'm sorry, but the Star Tribune is wrong: at this point, the cartoons are the story, and not publishing them is essentially ignoring a news story.

I'm going to echo a lot of people's comments. First, the cartoons are crude and insulting, no doubt about it. However, in the free societies that exist in the U.S. and Europe, people have the right to express their crude and insulting ideas. But keep in mind the impact. Just like with flag burning or something like Piss Christ, you aren't impressing anybody, certainly not me.

On the other hand, burning down embassies and killing people? Reactions are completely out of line. I am equally disdainful of all fundamentalist religious types, regardless of creed: this is why. Just as the makers of these cartoons aren't impressing me, those who are reacting with violence aren't either. What is happening is completely out of proportion given the fact that when you get down to it, these are some cartoons. That's it.

As an anti-Iraq war reality-based liberal, I'm disrespected pretty much on a daily basis by this administration and many members of the media. However, I haven't decided to burn down Fox News or kill anybody because of it. That's not how the world works, and the Muslim community is allowing its most extreme members to tarnish everybody, just like when Pat Robertson opens his mouth.

This incident should also give pause to all those neocons who envision democracy spreading far and wide in the Middle East: liberal secular democracies are not likely to spring up in places where the vast majority of people think that it is the government's job to censor blasphemous things. This certainly isn't a religious or cultural issue; the same reason applies to former Soviet states, few of which can be considered democratic. I guess Fareed Zakaria has it right when he says that liberalization needs to come first, democracy later.