Those cartoons

[robinturner]

Wise words from tmcm:

Put the situation into another context.

A newspaper requests cartoonists to send in drawings of black people for black history month. They receive 12 caricatures, which they publish. Leaders from the black community complain and say that the watermelon-eating thick-lipped caricatures drawn by the KKK members are offensive and they'd like an apology.

Remember that an apology is all that most of the protesting Muslims are asking for (I'm not talking about the nutcases handing out death threats here). I'm not saying that the newspapers are obliged to apologise, but I wish they would either apologise or come out straight and say, "Yes, we think Islam is a stupid religion and we wanted to offend as many Muslims as possible."

On a personal note, I tend to apologise even when I'm sure I'm in the right. I find usually saying "sorry" is enough to placate people to the extent that they don't pause to consider whether I meant "I'm sorry because what I did was wrong" or "I'm sorry that you were offended by my perfectly reasonable behaviour."