Arms and influence

Taking cartoons too seriously, continued

IN THE NEWS
The Danish cartoon controversy just keeps rolling along...

• Its efforts at cheap publicity not exhausted, the government of Iran sponsors a retaliatory cartoon contest, inviting entries lampooning the Holocaust.
• Daily Kos posted this excellent profile of a Jordanian newspaper editor who has urged, "Muslims of the world, be reasonable."
• Norwegian troops in Afghanistan fire on a crowd protesting the cartoons.
• The Boston Globe published a compelling editorial on the subject, "We Are All Danes Now."

Outrage = opportunity! L@@K!

IN THE NEWS
Whenever something or someone is at the center of a controversy, the opportunists circle. Such was the case with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, whose invitation Cindy Sheehan should have had the good sense to turn down.

And such is also the case with the Danish cartoon controversy. Iran, always interested in scoring a few cheap rhetorical points against the West, has cut trade with Denmark. (Look for the resumption of normal trade as soon as the cartoon brouhaha disappears from the world's headlines.) In case you've wondered how so many outraged Muslims got their hands on Danish flags to burn, the hidden hand of the market was the culprit.

Today, cartoons. Tomorrow, fine art.

IN THE NEWS
While Danish cartoon controversy continues to roil, a similar explosion of outrage is happening in India. Paintings of the Hindu gods as nude human beings has many Hindus angry at the artist, Maqbool Fida Hussain. For those who have doubts about laws separating church and state, there's no better counterargument than the criminal charges against Hussain for "hurting sentiments of the majority community." There's nothing pornographic about Hussain's paintings, so you have to suspect that some people who weren't big fans already of the outspoken artist had something to do with these charges.

As Bob Dylan once said, "But even the president of the United States/Sometimes must have/To stand naked." That's probably true of anthropomorphized gods as well, but it will offend someone, somewhere, to depict them in the altogether, no matter how respectful that depiction may be.