So I went on vacation for a couple of weeks, just as the big cartoon scandal was breaking. Back then, it was, like, two magazines and a boycott. Now, there's burning and death and for pity's sake, I don't understand what's gotten into those Muslims. Joshua London thinks it goes back to the Barbary pirates, but I think he's missed the mark by comparing radical Muslims to the American military instead of radical Christians.

I digress. The screwy thing is that those cartoons were published back in September 2005, and it's only recently that Muslims are Wang-Chunging all over the Eastern Hemisphere. The estimable Wikipedia has enough information for anyone looking to bone up on the controversy. You'll learn that, among other things, some of the cartoons actually mock the writer of the Mohammed (PBUH, since my motto is trust everyone but always cut the cards) children's book.

Meanwhile, Pope Ratzinger spoke out against the violent protests, saying, "Intolerance and violence are never to be justified as answers to offence, such responses are not compatible with the sacred principles of religion." Meaning, of course, that he found religion only after his heady days in the Hitler Youth. Surprise! Patriotism is only the penultimate refuge of scoundrels.

Speaking of the Holocaust, an Iranian newspaper is soliciting Holocaust cartoons, creating a new front in the flap. Considering that a prominent "Holocaust denier" was sentenced today to three years in an Austrian jail, and considering that I'm about to fly out to California for a week (where I'll get to close down coffee shops with fellow Check Please! Editor E.F. Watley), I'll bet that Austria will declare war on Iran by the time I return to New Hampshire. Oy.