I haven't paid for them yet (still waiting for the english translation of the latest issue), but I've read some of the past translations, and they're *hilarious* :)

Of course, I liked Borat and Team America, so YMMV.

Fair enough.

I suppose it's a good thing that at least a few brave souls have done, and continue to do, the incomprehensible, so that the cowards like you can reap the rewards :)

Wasn't trying to push a button at all - I've got no problem with your cowardice, and obviously neither do you.

The only problem I have is your seeming insistence that others should share your cowardice. I get your point - I understand your argument about being cautious when dealing with over-sensitive and violent and/or powerful people.

Do you understand that others might value their principles over the caution you recommend? Or is that simply incomprehensible to you?

So, you're a coward who frankly doesn't care about what other people think about their cowardice - a perfectly rational point of view, and I congratulate you for it :)

That being said...

1) it's not just about depicting mohammad, it's about mocking him, and other core beliefs of islam;

2) german anti-free speech laws are part of their culture;

3) fair enough - there are arguments for liberalization, as well as criminalization.

Can you understand why other people might not share your cowardice? It seems that your underlying assertion is "I'm a coward, and anyone else who isn't is completely irrational and stupid"...which, of course, is your free speech right to say, in my book :)

Because expressing free speech is the moral equivalent of buying crack, right? :)

Your point of view is clear - you don't believe that either islamic culture, german culture, or drug laws should be changed.

Sounds like you're ready to say, "sure, go ahead, sit in the front of the segregated bus, while you're at it".

But hey, that's okay - if you want to be a coward, and just let the threats of the status quo determine the ability for people to exercise their freedoms, that's a perfectly reasonable position to take to minimize risk. Just don't expect people to be all that impressed with your point of view :)

Yes, I deny the apocalypse is going to be "soon", and that we must pray to your gods for forgiveness before the "end times" :)

In the meantime, cheap energy means a better quality of life for billions of people so poor you can't even recognize them.

Ah, the "externalities" trope.

Your imagined, unrealized externalities of the future may indeed be dire, but that has nothing to do with whether cheap energy is a good thing.

Let's, for a moment, imagine a dire, future externality of solar power - say the ivanpah generator, reflecting into space, attracts a violent alien civilization that comes and eats 90% of our population. Are you happy to pad the pockets of solar executives at the expense of the future?

Now, maybe if you had concrete, actual, real "externalities" that were paid by "all of us", like say, solar subsidies for bird zapping solar plants in nevada, or regulations that raised the cost of energy paid by "all of us", you'd have a case to make...but imaginary harms in some hypothetical future with tenuous attribution hardly make for good economics.

Got it, the "don't do risky stuff because people are crazy" line of thinking...

like don't wear a short skirt in a bad neighborhood if you don't want to be raped...

or don't be a black person whistling at a white woman if you don't want to be lynched...

or don't let people know you're gay if you don't want to be subject to chemical castration even if you happened to have saved millions of people during WWII with your code breaking work.

If I'm being to subtle, let me state it plainly - the problem isn't people who make fun of the holocaust or muhammad, it's the people who react against such speech in violent or oppressive ways. While we can raise our hands and just say, "well, that's just the way it is", if one truly believes in free speech, one must take up the fight against such backwards cultures, and not be intimidated by their threats that it will "not turn out well and stuff".

Well, what you said was:

"Do you think drawing cartoons of Muhammad and making fun of him is "something that almost certainly needs to be said?"

"Shouldn't you go, right now, and draw funny cartoons that deny the Holocaust?"

My answer to both, is yes.

Whether or not you actually were trying to make a point with your questions, I suppose is an open question :)

Did you have a point?

...damn, we all better stop using computers!

Seriously, though, cheap energy (in absolute terms, not massaged by the heavy hand of regulation), is a good thing. Great, so we don't invest in more oil drilling...until consumption goes up, prices go up, and it becomes profitable. This is a *feature* not a bug.

Prices are momentary signals, not eternal mandates.

And your point is that Germany sucks for being oppressive of free speech, or that Germany rocks for being oppressive of free speech?

Or, are you saying that Germany sucks for being oppressive of free speech, and then suddenly being all pro-free speech when it comes to Charlie Hebdo? If that's the case, then I agree - the world is filled with leftist hypocrites who imagine "freedom of speech" as only for the ideas they hold dear.

I believe significantly differently.

Yes.

http://irancartoon.com/120/hol...

Fuck the Germans and their stupid free speech restrictions imposed to assuage their guilt of Hitler.

The whole "fighting words" thing seems like an excuse to infantilize adults. If someone literally says something like, "I'm going to take my gun out and shoot you in the head right now", maybe you've got a right to respond to that threat...but just insulting something sacred to them?

Fuck that.

Oh, no, young sir. You are too simple. Why, you might have said a great many things. Why waste your opportunity? For example, thus:

AGGRESSIVE: Fuck the pope's mother with a chainsaw!
PRACTICAL: Drop your trousers and stick your erect penis in the anus of the pope's mother.
DESCRIPTIVE: Slowly, gently, stroke the pope's mother's cunt with your dick.
INQUISITIVE: What's your favorite position while fucking the pope's mother?
KINDLY: Don't forget to give the pope's mother a reach around when fucking her.
CAUTIOUS: Careful, wear a condom when fucking the pope's mother - she's got AIDS.
ELOQUENT: While being fellated by the pope's mother may encourage you to cunnilingus, let her finish first.
DRAMATIC: The stormy cries of the pope's mother when being fucked rise in fantastic crescendo!
SIMPLE: Chinga tu madre.
MILITARY: Attention! The fucking of the pope's mother will commence! One! Two! Three! Four! One! Two! Three! Four!
ENTERPRISING: So how much do you think they'll pay for a picture of someone fucking the pope's mother?
RESPECTFUL: At your convenience, dear Francis, please take advantage your mother's sexual services - I hear she's incredible.
LITERARY: Hell, if you were Cyrano De Begerac, you could fuck the pope's mother with your nose!

These, my dear sir, are things you might have said, had you some tinge of letters or of wit to color your discourse. /inspired by the frog Edmund Rostand

...is the same way we fight spam - filter it.

Seriously, just have a plugin in your browser that censors the words you don't want to see, and *BAM*, we're done. No need to control the troll, just don't look at them.