Islam is Not a Religion of Peace. Sorry.

Here’s why column writing has remained so difficult: I see news, I react to news in a sentence or less, and then, taking confidence in my reaction, can think of nothing further to say about the news.

For example: Danish cartoons depict Mohammad in unflattering ways. (Well, unflattering to Muslims.) Riots ensue. My reaction? Catholics don’t riot. The end. Even when a crucifix is dropped into urine and called art. (I’ve always wondered if liberals would have called it art if a two-sided photo of John Kennedy and Bill Clinton had been placed in a jar of urine instead.) Even when a painting of the Virgin Mary has shit flung on it. Even though there hasn’t been a positive portrayal of a priest or nun in movies or on television since Boy’s Town.

Oh, Catholics protest, and they boycott, and they send Bill Donohue on television to get all loud and twitchy, which are all finer reactions than “setting fire to the Danish Consulate, attacking a Maronite Catholic church and smashing car and shop windows in protest” in Beirut, according to the Chicago Tribune online.

I’m more surprised by the fact Islamic protests are starting to look more and more like those protests surrounding World Trade Organization meetings than I am by the fact they exist at all.