oooh! tough decision--whose president is more preposterous?

[winterbadger]

Chirac warns media over cartoons

President Chirac said freedom of expression was one of the foundations of the French republic but should not be abused. He called for tolerance and for all beliefs to be respected.

"Anything that can hurt the convictions of another, particularly religious convictions, must be avoided," he said. "Freedom of expression must be exercised in a spirit of responsibility.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4693628.stm

Because we wouldn't want people to use freedom of speech to, say, challenge the beliefs of others. President Chirac is clearly channeling Philippe Pétain...

President Bush called Wednesday for an end to violence triggered by drawings of the Prophet Muhammad but also said press freedom should be exercised with sensitivity.

"We reject violence as a way to express discontent with what may be printed in a free press," Bush said.

"I call upon the governments around the world to stop the violence, to be respectful, to protect property, protect the lives of innocent diplomats who are serving their countries overseas," the president said.

Bush also said that Americans believe in a free press, and added, "With freedom comes the responsibility to be thoughtful about others."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/02/08/national/w064820S16.DTL

*boggle* That's actually relatively intelligent and sensible, at least for Bush. I'm astonished--an occasion when my president isn't the stupidest one with his mouth open. I will savour the moment.

On the other hand, there are so many ridiculous remarks in this piece that I hardly know where to start. Let's start with this passage:

In London on Tuesday, Abu Hamza al-Masri, an Egyptian who is wanted in the United States on terrorism charges, was sentenced to seven years for incitement to murder. Five days earlier, Nick Griffin, chairman of the anti-immigrant British National Party, was acquitted on race hate charges relating to assaults on Islam as a "vicious, wicked faith."

The different outcomes provoked fresh accusations that British justice — like British society, by this argument — discriminates against Muslims. "We seem to have different standards when we deal with these issues from different communities," said Massoud Shadjareh, a founder of the Islamic Human Rights Commission in London.

As Blue and I discussed, Griffin was hardly acquitted; the jury was unable to agree, so a mistrial was declared and the prosecutor is going to refile the charges.

But on a more fundamental level, there's a difference between saying cruel, hateful things about someone's religion or ethnicity and exhorting people to kill, helping people to kill, and stockpiling guns, gas, and bomb-training manuals. If the Islamic Human Rights Commission can't see that difference, then there really *is* a fundamental, perhaps unbridgeable gap between their approach to society and that of the Western nations in which they have chosen to live.

Comments

[motherwell.livejournal.com]

I think the gist of What Bush was saying was: "With freedom comes the responsibility to be thoughtful about our troops serving abroad, who already have enough insane violence to deal with for one lifetime."

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

In any event, you can always count on the French to be French.