It's all about understanding, right?

As we all know, the editors of American newspapers have now, very recently, decided that it is a good thing to AVOID, rather than STIR UP controversy. They have suddenly "got religion" and have decided that they have a solemn responsibility to respect the religious and cultural sensibilities of other people, even those that they do not share or even fully understand. No, this isn't about fear. Not at all. This is about dialogue and mutual respect and understanding. American newspapers aren't hiding from the issue, or from Muslims. Far from it. The editors' hearts are just heavy with the pain that they could potentially cause by the spreading of information in an insufficiently-sensitive manner. They won't publish an artist's sketch of the revered prophet Mohammed, just like they wouldn't, for example, publish a picture of a collage of the Virgin Mary constructed from pornographic pictures and elephant dung. Or... would they?

Despite the New York Times' refusal to publish the controversial Mohammed cartoons, they today published the picture to the left, which depicts just such a collage. Why did they do this? Anyone's guess. Was it newsworthy? No. It was newsworthy SEVEN YEARS ago. The only purpose of publishing it now is to make a statement, namely: anti-Christian art can be controversial, too. No shit, sherlock! They're making another statement, as well, something like: hey, we're not afraid of controversy! We have balls! We'll even print a picture of the Virgin Mary made from dirty pictures and elephant poop! So there! Yeah, you've got balls. You can weather a few hundred angry letters from little retired old ladies in Brooklyn like the best of 'em. You oughtta join the special forces. I'll bet they'd let you guys in without boot camp, since you're all so fucking brave. You can even stand being denounced by Jerry Falwell. Some balls. I wonder... would the Times' editors be as quick to re-print this old archive photo today if they thought printing it was likely to get the Times' offices firebombed by crazy religious fundamentalists?

Grow some real balls, chickenshits.