It's been burning since the world was turning

I've already wrote a long ass post about the Danish cartoons last night, so I'll be brief here. A couple of people I've got to link...

First, we have the slactivist's take, which manages to condense the sensible response in 25 words:

Freedom of Speech: Good.

Bigotry/Deliberate Disrespect: Bad.

Wanton Rioting/Violence: Bad.

The first doesn't excuse the second, and the second doesn't excuse the third.

Secondly, we've got Ezra Klein demonstrating what a exercise in futility the whole "the silence from your side is deafening" game is. Note how it is usually the right-winger playing this game, along with its close cousin "googling 'x' comes up with 'y" number of posts, and therefore..." Don't miss the comment section where Tigerhawks responds and manages to make Ezra's point for him. Priceless.

Finally, Publius of Legal Fiction sees the outpouring of violence as the Muslim version of the 'outrage' industry. Inciting hatred against external actors, it seems, can function as a 'controlled burn' for regimes all over the world seeking to defuse popular tension and elicit blind loyalty. Note how the embassy burnings took place in Syria and Lebanon -- the question is not so much "why didn't the government there stop this" because nothing happens there without the sanction of the government, but "what's the Syrian government trying to accomplish by promoting this violence?"