The Politicker reports that the cartoon controversy has reached these shores. To be specific, following a refusal by the publishers of the New York Press to run the cartoons, the huddled masses of the paper's editorial staff, yearning to breathe free, have walked out en masse.

Bravo, gentlemen.

To be sure, the cartoons in question – see them here - are in part crass and offensive, as we discuss in depth here and here - but at this stage of the story, the overriding concern is not the original offending images. It is the senseless and barbaric violence unleashed in their name. It is the fact that Scandinavians are fleeing the Near East under military guard. It is that embassies have been burned. It is that enraged hordes are burning the Danish flag – a white cross on red – with especial relish, seemingly because they see it as a Christian symbol as well as a Danish one.

It's enough.

This is no longer about racism or Islamophobia. It is about whether or not our free press will allow itself to be muzzled by hate-mongers who knowingly incite and use violence to suppress ideas they deign that others have no right to entertain. Nobody in a free society has the right not to be offended. If you don't like what you see, turn the page, flip the channel, cancel your subscription, surf to another web site.

Will our press rise to the challenge? Stay tuned.

Update

The Pentagon Post reports that the Bush administration's insipid, spineless cowering hasn't paid off. Several people in Afghanistan got killed trying to ransack a U.S. base.

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