They Did What !

My confusion continues to grow about Muslim beliefs and the nature of their God. I recognize that there are extremists in their religion as there are in most religions and that they do not represent the majority. What is hard to understand is the silence of that majority in the face of the actions of the extremists.

A case in point is the Danish cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammed that were published earlier this year. The cartoons were offensive and publishing them showed poor judgment and a lack of respect for the beliefs of others. The Muslim response was riots worldwide. This response caused problems for people in countries that had nothing to do with the offending cartoons. But even that was not enough. There seemed to be a need for more payback, again, not against those who published the cartoons, but against the Jewish people.

An Iranian museum this week opened a display of more than 200 cartoons mocking the Holocaust. The display consists of the top cartoons submitted in a contest that will award a $12,000 prize to the winning cartoonist. Even when the contest was announced last February, it was obviously an inappropriate response for two reasons: the contest was aimed at someone other than the perpetrator of the offense it was supposedly responding to; it made the contest sponsors guilty of the same offense they were condemning.

If this contest and the resulting museum display do not represent the beliefs of most Muslims, then there should be an outcry from Muslims worldwide against it. If there isn’t, it makes them look as if they have become what they are fighting.

It is also confusing to continually hear statements that the Democratic Party is weak on security because they (generally) oppose the war in Iraq. There is not one iota of proof that the war in Iraq has made us safer and there are a lot of indicators that the opposite may be true. So if people believe the Democrats are weak on security, then they should be able to state reasons that actually back up that belief and quit trying to make apples equal oranges.

One of the most confusing things going on right now is the dance and dodge within the Democratic Party regarding their candidate for the 2008 election. It would seem logical at this point that the party would be concentrating on finding a candidate that can get elected. Instead, they seem to be considering two candidates with questionable elect-ability.

John Kerry and his supporters must have the mistaken idea that, because he ran a close race against Bush in 2004, he can change his campaign strategy a little (including a gag order for his wife) and win next time. The thing they seem not to be taking into account is how many of the votes Kerry got that were not really for him but simply votes against Bush. That will be a moot point in 2008.

Hillary Clinton and her supporters seem to think it is time for a woman president and she is the one. That may be so at some point but right now the “Love her� and the “Hate her� groups are pretty equal and in this particular race the Democrats cannot afford a candidate who is that much of a risk.

If the Democrats want to do more than spend another four years ranting and raving about how badly the Republicans are running the country, they need to get their act together. The party cannot allow the old guard to continue running things the way they have been and expect a different result (that definition of insanity just keeps popping up in today’s political world!). If the Democrats want to win, it might be a smart move to put aside business as usual and work to find a candidate who can actually win.