Mass Shooting At Newspaper In Paris

A good take:

Liberalism is a political philosophy that has as its two chief ideals liberty and equality. In a liberal democracy, all citizens have equal power, because all are possessed of reason, and have the liberty to employ it in expression. In France, which has a right to be considered one of the modern birthplaces of the liberal democratic revolution, satire has long had a special role. Satire is the ultimate method by which reason can address power. With the use of satire, even those without control of resources can, with merely the use of a pen, bring figures of authority down to earth.


The revered cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo had not only mocked the chief religious figure of the Islamic faith; but they had also subjected Pope Francis to equal ridicule. No authority figure was safe. To take Charlie Hebdo as singling Islam out for abuse is a misunderstanding, one might think. Their target was authority, whatever its source.

That gets tempered:

Yet, as the staff of Charlie Hebdo was aware, there surely is a difference, in France, between mocking the pope and mocking the Prophet Muhammad. The pope is the representative of the dominant traditional religion of the majority of French citizens. The Prophet Muhammad is the revered figure of an oppressed minority. To mock the pope is to thumb one’s nose at a genuine authority, an authority of the majority. To mock the Prophet Muhammad is to add insult to abuse. The power of the majority in a liberal democracy is not the power of monarchs, to be sure. But it is power nonetheless.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/08/a-postcard-from-paris/?smid=tw-nytimes&_r=0

 

This is the best thing you will see on the internet today; Dean Baquet, angry facebook commenter

https://www.facebook.com/marc.cooper1/posts/10102887350029225?fref=hovercard

A taste:

• 
  Dean BaquetDear Marc, appreciate the self righteous second guessing without even considering there might be another point of view. Hope your students are more open minded. Asshole

 

But I briistle at arguments like those of fauchier who think it was a question of courage. It was not. Thanks for the chance to exorcise my demons now. Dean

 

Wow. I bet he's punching walls as we speak...

http://www.politico.com/blogs/media...critic-ahole-200860.html#.VLBGDxKfDHI.twitter

 

This is like watching OOP on the weekly NFL threads.

 

Big fucking ups to the WaPo graphics team who put this timeline together.

http://graphics.wsj.com/how-paris-shooting-hostage-standoff-unfolded/?mod=e2tw

 

I've got about ten more posts lined up. Trying to hold back.

 

?? The link you posted is for the Wall St. Journal....

 

I'm giving up caffeine for the month of January. Perhaps you should join me?

 

Auto-correct.

 

You can’t put a limit on my caffe latte. It says so right here.