I haven't seen anyone make this distinction, so I'll try. I have a personal "I wish they hadn't said that" reaction when someone says something that demeans/disrespects a group that is powerless/marginalized within a given society. That is the problem I had with the Mohammed cartoons: the intent of them was to mock/disrespect a marginal, powerless group (within Europe). Such speech obviously shouldn't be illegal or censored, but I hold it against someone when they do it. Ditto in the US for speech that demeans women, immigrants, Jews, Asians, etc. What Griffin did was mock the beliefs of a nearly all-powerful majority (99% of our political leaders are devout Christians), and that to me is fine. Critiquing the powerful isn't just a right, it's nearly a responsibility. It's interesting that Donahue's stance is the opposite: it is BECAUSE most Americans are Christian that Christianity shouldn't be mocked (classic authoritarian stance). So presumably, then, he would support the converse: only minority groups should be demeaned/mocked.

... there was a discussion about the look of panic in Sattar's eyes. I suggested you give him a though-balloon saying, "I'm so screwed right now." So yes, 'out team' was again correct about what's going on in Iraq. As Tiberius would say, when will our terrible reign of correctness end?

Kelly: Big shoes to fill.

Perino: Yes.

Clown shoes always are.

I think you'd like The Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff. Sacreligious, profane, dirty, funny, but makes Jesus out to be a pretty cool guy. (Christopher Moore)

Just about everyone in the 'reality based community' is out to get you and Bush. Coincidence?

called 'civil disobedience.' You may have heard of it. People sit somewhere, protest, chant, and refuse to move along when asked. They may go limp when cuffed and lifted to a paddy-wagon. Being 'tasered' is not the normal police response (or water cannons, or dogs, any more). To say that anyone not obeying a police officer 'deserves to be tasered' takes us back to 60's Alabama. Police use of force has to be responsive to the threat level, not simply disobedience.

My primary complaint about our current healthcare industry is its complexity: the layers of accounting bureaucracy as you enter a clinic/hospital, the tons of THIS IS NOT A BILL/THIS IS A BILL that flood my mailbox every time I go to a doctor. Nothing she proposes will touch this, and could in fact make it much worse by expecting people to keep track of this paper-flow to use when jumping in a larger river of tax-deduction paper. While hospital corporations and insurance companies continue to make their insane profits.

Bill Clinton perfected this 'strategy': stake out a right-of center policy (eg. welfare reform, gays in miltary, DOMA, etc. etc.) and get rewarded by having the right label it "left-wing," therefore pulling the center dramatically to the right. With this move by Hillary Clinton, 'single-payer' has now moved from the center (polls show a majority of Americans supporting it when it is carefully explained to them) to being a far-left pipe-dream. What used to be a right-wing idea is now already being called 'socialized medicine' simply because it's coming from Hillary. The Clinton touch is poison to any true progressive policy debate.

I side with those who want to see him a broke and homeless street bum, hated by his wife and children (accompanied only his dog, who doesn't like him much either, but enjoys the food scraps people throw at his master). Then I see ex-presidents Carter and Obama working together to build him a house somewhere. On Mars.

I got myself an A in assholery.

Of course, because having to use box-cutters to hi-jack a plane is so stupid. They're almost useless! Terrorists would much rather be able to use guns, like in the good-old days.

That is the core question. The notion that Israel is a European colony within the middle east has been the founding principle of those opposed to the existence of Israel since 1948. The notion that Israel as not a colony but an experiment in hope - that a multi-ethnic country of Jews and Arabs could exist in the middle east - will be dead if Israel joins NATO because the issue goes back to colonialism: is it right or wrong for there to be a European colony in the middle east? Middle Easterners (and anti-colonialists everywhere) will always answer that question in the negative.

But you should probably just let Anonymous Fascist be. You're gonna give youself an ulcer. Those who are eager to lock up/taser/shoot eccentrics who make them feel uncomfortable aren't worth the time.

Good thing we don't do that sort of thing.

They're also sending in adviors!

Good thing we... oh, you get the idea. The difference between what the Iranians are doing in Iraq and what the US is doing, is that the Iraqis generally seem to want the Iranians there. Either there will be never-ending war in that part of the world, or Iraq will become a full and friendly ally of Iran. Guess which option our right-wing seems to prefer?

Oh, and the 'anonymous' who's repeatedly posting reminds me of an old and predictable Salon troll, RealName, who seems to have gone underground.

Yes, all these people are making Ahmadinejad look reasonable, which isn't easy to do. Protesters claim they don't want Ahmadinejad spewing his 'hate,' when Bollinger boils over with it. Bollinger has the nerve to call him an intellectual coward? Who's speaking to 'the enemy' on their home turf? Every criticism I've ever seen leveled at Iran, valid though it may be, pales in comparison to what can be said about Saudi Arabia. A dictatorship? Treatment of women and homosexuals? Yet, when was the last time there were mass protests when the Saudi crown prince was visiting? Oh yeah, they're 'our brave friends.'

Is Bush taking it for granted that Clinton is going to be the next president?

Well that's interesting in and of itself.