Cartoon Riots?

Cartoon Riots! If ever there was a bubbling brouhaha I was born to opine about, this business about ‘toons touching off riots in a number of countries has got my attention.

Meanwhile, in the USA somebody is burning Baptist churches down in Alabama, again, and anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan got roughed up and busted in DeeCee for wearing a T-shirt that questioned President Bush's war policy in Iraq. So much for thinking all the mean-spirited lunacy is elsewhere.

Back to ink-on-paper concerns, obviously, there are some on Planet Earth who think it’s OK to burn an embassy, even take human lives if they get offended by a drawing published in a newspaper a couple of thousand miles away. What if THAT catches on?

And, what’s a wiseacre cartoonist to do now? Do you draw The Prophet, you-know-who, or not? And, if you do, what does he look like?

For that I go to the best in the business today, Pat Oliphant.