Read the cartoon the American media is afraid to publish
During the 1980s, Berkeley Breathed’s Bloom County was one of my favorite comic strips. Breathed sometimes crossed the line by running strips that were too silly or gross to be funny, but for the most part he displayed a rare wit and insight into current shibboleths. One of the my favorite Breathed cartoons had Steve Dallas talking to his mom about race matters. I haven’t seen the cartoon in decades, but this is what I remember:
Mom: Look at that cute little colored boy.
Steve: Mom, you can’t say that!
Mom: Negro boy?
Steve: No, not that either.
Mom: Black boy?
Steve: No, Mom. He’s a “person of color.”
Mom: That’s what I said: look at the cute little colored boy.
Right on, Breathed, for poking holes into a sacred cow!
Since I don’t get print media, I haven’t been following the latest Breathed incarnation, which is a Sunday strip called Opus. Apparently Breathed still likes to poke at things, with his last published strip being an attack on the deceased Jerry Falwell and his followers. Did you notice that I said “his last published strip”?
Turns out that this week’s Sunday cartoon and next week’s are being censored. I hear you asking, “Why?” Is it because Christians demanded that he be censored for attacking Christianity? Nope. Is it because he’s had a contract dispute with his publishing company, the Washington Post Writers Group? Nope. It’s because he’s taken on, not a sacred cow, but a scary cow. You’re not the readers I think you are if you can’t guess which scary cow I mean. I’ll give you a hint. Think “Denmark.”
Yup, Breathed is taking on Islam. I should point out here that he’s not touching Mohammed. He’s looking at Islamic behaviors in a very funny way. Here, see for yourself at Salon.com, one of a few sites the only site with the courage to print the cartoon. The fact that only a few papers are one site is publishing a cartoon normally run nationwide is utterly shameful and un-American. Even worse, as the Captain points out, the MSM has been completely silent about the self-censorship going on here.
Yesterday, I ran a post about conspiracy theorists on the left. One of their favorite conspiracy theories, one that they love to bleat out on every TV station, in every newspaper and in every magazine, is that the current administration frightens them so much that it amounts to censorship. That blatant, self-serving lie is exposed right here. CAIR doesn’t even have to squeak, and some in the MSM are so cowed in advance that they instantly beat a preemptive and groveling retreat. Shame, shame, shame.
UPDATE: As are readers here (see the comments to this post), Michelle Malkin’s readers are tracking which papers published and which did not publish the cartoon.
