In Washington, the State Department criticized the drawings, calling them "offensive to the beliefs of Muslims."

To borrow a phrase from our host, "Boo freakin' hoo."

Okay, now apparently "Preview" strips ALL formatting tags from our comments.

I've asked before, what good is "Preview" if what it shows us is different from what gets published?

Editor's note: I edited the comment above to insert the blockquote; McGehee is not imagining things! We're looking into the issue.

I thought it was just me....

I don't know who this hiroignormas guy is from the Stete Dept, but he had best "Get a Life" I have always questioned the motives and worth of the State Dept. and now they have provided the answer. They are worthless.

My tax dollars fund the National Endowment for the Arts where dung flung Madonna portraits and urine saturated crosses are considered by the elite as acceptable ART.

YO, baby, as far as the girl's concerned, the ARAB STREET OUT ON THE STREET protesting is just that many more arabs that aren't in a spider hole building bombs.

SO SUCK IT UP, MOHAMMED!

Testing the Preview feature and code buttons.

Blockquoting this

Italicizing this

Bolding this

Linking this

Now let's see if I can do it.

Okay, it works for me now in preview, but will it publish? It's almost always worked for me in the past, but maybe it's a sometimes-misfire thing.

Nope. The first paragraph in the above was supposed to blockquote, with "Now" in bold and "I" in italics.

Ok, so it is offensive. So what?

We are already in a holy war with Islam, so what is the point of being nice. Muslims believe in world domination by the sword, read their Koran so you can see what I say is true. Their justifications for murder and mayhem are pointless, it is what the law of their so called prophet teaches them. It is one of the faults I have with my friend W, when he comes out and says Islam is a noble faith. Ok, it may be that he has to, seeing that he's our Prez. and all that, you know freedom of religion is nice, it keeps my from getting my head cut off by one of those misguided bastards, or geting burned at the stake by some cathlic sect for reading my bible. But I'll tell you one thing, thank God for this country becuse without it we would all be praying to stain glass windows, or praying to the devil five times a day, or not praying at all.

Whack State for needless rhetoric if you must, but they haven't sinned here.

The cartoons certainly are offensive--to those offended by them. That can include Americans who are no Muslim as well as Muslims who are not American. I'm not offended by the cartoons, but only found a couple of them actually amusing. The rest were, you know, just obvious.

Stating that the cartoons are offensive isn't taking sides about whether or not they should have been published. In fact, State says that freedom of speech trumps, even offensive speech. But it also points out that just because you have the right doesn't mean you have the requirement to exercise it.

BTW, Happy Third Anniversary of the blog!

I support these cartoons and am tired of Muslims attempting to control my own freedoms of religion or speech. I am especially concerned about how Muslims (mainly those that follow strict Islamic laws) treat woman. Personally, this last points makes me feel that a great majority of Muslims are bigots and ignorant to the rights of others. When most Muslim women are given the “choice” to do X or Z, then I will be more open to listing to Muslims concerns about cartoons.

wow you guys are so unbelievably ignorant its not even funny. No wonder theres such a great rift in society, disrespect and intolerance. Do yourselves a favour and read the Quran before you say anything so next time when someone reads what you have to say atleast they'll have the consolation of knowing that maybe just maybe you know what the hell your on about.