Back in December, when a study found that Louisiana was the happiest state in America, it wasn’t much of a surprise to most of us who live here. Bear that study in mind when we now tell you that Businessweek.com says we’re also the laziest of the 50 states.

It’s apparently our humid climate and our love of food, among other things. We also watch more TV than most folks, sleep a little more, socialize a good bit more and spend more time “relaxing” than the national average by a long shot. Louisianians also spend less time working than any other state in the country – just two hours, 41 minutes per day, or just under 19 hours per week. The national average is three hours and 23 minutes on the job per day.

Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas are the three laziest states in the union, according to the survey.

The survey says our state’s obesity rate is 31.2 percent, which puts us in the top five on the country’s Fat-O-Meter. Our food is apparently to blame for that, though some 30 percent of our people get little or no exercise. (Get a dog, and walk him three or four times a day. Ain’t hard.) Among the 70 percent are some of the world’s best athletes, as Louisiana is a hotbed for talent in many of our most popular national sports.

Businessweek.com says our “torpid” lifestyle contributes to our spending $1.2 billion per year on obesity-related health problems. The article also goes into the fact that in small-town Louisiana there are apparently no places to exercise like in the big city (huh?) – outside of New Orleans and Baton Rouge, for example, there aren’t enough bike paths or public parks. No opportunities to be outdoors out in the country, you see.

The challenges to getting people up and moving are complex. Outside the big cities is a dearth of public transportation, bike paths, and sidewalks, says Berry Trascher, Louisiana advocacy director of the American Heart Assn., “and there are so many poor and underserved and undereducated people who don’t understand how to eat healthy.” On top of that, she says, “everything is centered around food in Louisiana.” Trascher, a lobbyist, and others hope to change this.

Adding physical activity positively affects physical health, as well as mental health, emotional well-being, and social functioning, according to a study of sedentary women by Pennington Biomedical Research Center.

One outlier is Mark Martin, a Baton Rouge resident, who has built a lifestyle around his bicycle. Despite the heat and people’s odd reactions, he says, he has not owned a car for about 20 years. “Originally it was economics: I had just gotten out of grad school and couldn’t afford [a car],” says the 56-year-old photo archivist at Louisiana State University. “I started riding more and realized how much fun it is, and the health benefits are certainly there.”

Martin is working to make the city more accessible to bikers and walkers through a nonprofit, Baton Rouge Advocates for Safe Streets, which he started in 2006. The group organizes rides and advocates policies that ensure the right of way for nonmotorists. “People can’t use things that aren’t there,” he says. “You can’t walk and bike if there is no built environment for that.”

Walking isn’t difficult to do when the government doesn’t provide areas for it, actually. Biking might be, but walking sure isn’t. Requires no equipment at all. When it’s 90 degrees outside, though, with 90 percent humidity, folks aren’t going to want to go walking regardless of how many public parks the politicians lay on us.

So we’re fat, and we’re lazy, and we like it that way. Sounds like folks ought to leave us alone, no?

In what seems like an endless string of stories lately which should be surprising but aren’t, the latest is this from Quin Hillyer, writing in the Washington Times – namely, that the same NAACP which is spending its time playing the race card from the bottom of the deck against the Tea Party movement is in bed with the New Black Panther Party.

Or at least it sure seems that way, given that while the U.S. Civil Rights Commission is investigating the Justice Department’s intentional dropping of the ball on the New Black Panthers case last year, it’s been uncovered that an attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund was pressuring DOJ to drop the New Black Panther case.

Per the testimony of DOJ whistleblower J. Christian Adams to the Commission, as reprinted by Hillyer:

MR. BLACKWOOD:  During the decision making process about the Panther case, did you hear that anyone at the Department was consulting with any outside groups such as the NAACP Legal Defense Fund?

MR. ADAMS:  Well, I did, but we were also consulting with outside groups.  We visited the Southern Poverty Law Center.  We visited the Anti-Defamation League and would have probably hired them as an expert in this case if it had gone forward.  Because of course the Black Panthers, they’re a militant, anti-Semitic group.  They’re not just black nationalists.  They hate Jews.  And the ADL has an extensive database on this organization.   

MR. BLACKWOOD:  But the — Your communications with the ADL and the Southern Poverty Law Center I assume were related to the substance of the case.

MR. ADAMS:  That’s correct.

MR. BLACKWOOD:  Do you know whether anybody was consulting as to whether to proceed or the merits of the case with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund?

MR. ADAMS:  Well, listen.  This is not firsthand.  But I was told by section management that NAACP members or staffers were talking with the Voting section attorney in March of 2009 and asking, “When is this case going to get dismissed” which, of course, is interesting to hear for the first time that someone’s even thinking about dismissing the case that you’re in the middle of building.  And that was — It seemed strange.  But it didn’t really give me much pause other than to think that’s a really strange request.

MR. BLACKWOOD:  Well, all press reports indicated a conversation between Kristen Clark of the Legal Defense Fund and a Laura Coates of the Department.  Who is Laura Coates?

MR. ADAMS:  She is a line attorney in the Voting section, no relation to Christopher Coates.

MR. BLACKWOOD:  And according to the press reports Laura Coates reported this contact, this conversation, with Kristen Clark of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund “to her superiors.”  Do you know whether that occurred?

MR. ADAMS:  I do.  And if Mr. Coates were able to comply with his subpoena and testify under oath I’m quite confident that he would be able to share the full details of those communications as conveyed to him.

MR. BLACKWOOD:  But you’re not in the position to do that.

MR. ADAMS:  Other than they existed and you accurately — and that I characterized them as a request as to when the case was going to be dismissed as conveyed to me by Mr. Coates.

Hillyer concludes:

Mr. Coates was the top attorney directly involved in building the case. After he was subpoenaed by the commission, the Justice Department summarily transferred him to South Carolina, which just so happens to be outside the commission’s statutory subpoena range. The department has repeatedly refused to compy with or enforce the commission’s subpoenas, even though federal law mandates that all federal agencies shall cooperate with the commission.

Anyway, if, as has been believably alleged, the NAACP attorney was lobbying or actively hinting to the new Obama appointees or their “friendlies” in the “career” ranks of DoJ that DoJ should drop the Black Panther case, it makes the NAACP’s charges of racism against Tea Partiers even more tendentious. These New Black Panthers, after all, are some of the most virulently racist people around. Witness, again, this video of one of them advocating “killing crakkas” and “kill[ing] they [sic] babies.”

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund sent a letter after the publication of Hillyer’s piece denying Adams’ allegations, which the lawyer in question, Kristen Clarke, had previously disputed. It also in the letter took pains to claim that it is an entirely separate organization from the NAACP and has been since 1957. Thus the reader is expected to deduce that after the legal defense fund bearing the same name as the “civil rights group” allegedly stood behind the New Black Panthers in the DOJ’s voter intimidation case against them, no relationship should be inferred upon the occurrence of the organization’s ridiculous smear of a diverse, massive and decentralized political movement as racist.

Because they’re two completely separate organizations, you see. And the NAACP-LDF never took up for the New Black Panther Party. And anyway, there’s no hypocrisy at work even if they did because both J. Christian Adams and the Tea Party people are conservatives and raaaaaaacist.

That the various tentacles of the NAACP should display such patently obvious intellectual bankruptcy is hardly a surprise given the recent spate of Hallmark card protests and attempted BP shakedowns emanating from its leadership. But that the Department of Justice is apparently taking direction from these people in discharging their duty (or, in fact, refusing to do so) is of special concern. If the members of the “civil rights movement” inside and outside DOJ believe race relations will be improved by elevating the New Black Panthers above the law while spreading false accusations and slurs on the Tea Party movement in a brazen attempt to mobilize African American turnout for a mid-term election in November, they stand to be disappointed with the results.

This stuff is always good.

Yesterday, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People – imagine what happens if anybody should call any of its dues-paying members “colored” – called on its chapters to “repudiate the racism of the Tea Party movement.”

“We take no issue with the Tea Party. We believe in freedom of assembly and people raising their voices in a democracy,” Ben Jealous, president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said in a statement.

“We take issue with the Tea Party’s continued tolerance for bigotry and bigoted statements. The time has come for them to accept the responsibility that comes with influence and make clear there is no space for racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in their movement,” Jealous said.

The NAACP has defended their position by claiming they have “evidence” to support it…

Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP’s Washington bureau and senior vice president for advocacy and policy, laid out what the group feels is the proof during an interview with CNN.”After observing Tea Party activities throughout the country — which culminated with the outrageous and racist behavior of Tea Party activists during the historic congressional vote to pass into law comprehensive health care legislation — the NAACP began more closely investigating the Tea Party. Specifically as it was reported to us that Tea Party activists spat on [Congressman] John Lewis, a veteran civil rights activist and associate to Dr. Martin Luther King, and called Congressman Emanuel Cleaver the ‘N-word’ and called [Congressman] Barney Frank … one of the first openly gay members of Congress, the ‘F-word,’ ” Shelton said.

The NAACP also claims that Tea Party activists have engaged in racist behavior, for example, by waving signs that degrade African Americans and President Obama, in particular. Also, the NAACP says, a number of Tea Party members think that issues of importance to African Americans get too much attention.

“Rather than talking about the real issues of these incidents that have happened … [activists] wind up blaming the messenger,” Shelton said. “It seems like its denial … that allows them to focus on themselves.”

Of course, the “N-word” allegations have never been documented by video evidence despite the presence of thousands of cameras – some, in fact, being held by members of the Congressional Black Caucus in an attempt to catch supposed racist Tea Partiers in boorish behavior. Video evidence also debunks allegations that Cleaver was spat upon, as the alleged perpetrator was merely yelling with hands cupped as Cleaver walked past him within inches of his face. That Shelton would offer such obviously false charges to support a sweeping generalization of the Tea Party movement as racist exposes the fraudulent nature of the NAACP’s resolution.

As you might imagine, the response has been swift, and extremely negative.

Sarah Palin, on Facebook yesterday, had this to say:

The only purpose of such an unfair accusation of racism is to dissuade good Americans from joining the Tea Party movement or listening to the common sense message of Tea Party Americans who simply want government to abide by our Constitution, live within its means, and not borrow and spend away our children’s futures. Red and yellow, black and white, this message is precious in all our sights. All decent Americans abhor racism. No one wants to be associated with any organization that is in any way racist in sentiment or origin. I certainly don’t want to be. Thankfully, the Tea Party movement is not racist or motivated by racism. It is motivated by love of country and all that is good and honest about our proud and diverse nation.

Like President Reagan, Tea Party Americans believe that “the glory of this land has been its capacity for transcending the moral evils of our past.” Isn’t it time we put aside the divisive politics of the past once and for all and celebrate the fact that neither race nor gender is any longer a barrier to achieving success in America – even in achieving the highest office in the land?

Tea Party Express national spokesman Mark Williams took a good shot at the organization:

“I am disinclined to take lectures on racial sensitivity from a group that insists on calling black people, ‘Colored,’ ” Mark Williams, national spokesman of the Tea Party Express, told CNN. “The Tea Party [movement] is about the constitution of this country…[and] ensuring equality for each and every individual human being.”

And then, of course, there was Andrew Breitbart and Mike Myers of the New York Civil Rights Coalition on Hannity last night:

But Michelle Malkin comes closest to the mark. After dutifully casting the NAACP for the irrelevant anachronism that it is, Malkin offers this:

Question the timing of the tea-party-demonizing resolution? You bet. The NAACP’s man at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. finds himself radically out of step with the American mainstream in the lead-up to the 2010 midterms. He sent his wife to the convention to reestablish White House racial authenticity at a time when increasing numbers of minorities are now as fed up with massive debt, usurpation of individual liberties, corruption in Washington, and chaos on the border as everyone else.

Even Malkin’s statement, while it hints at the real issue, doesn’t quite get there. This isn’t about discrediting the Tea Party, and it’s not about the NAACP trying to make headlines. It’s about something else entirely.

Yesterday, the White House sent First Lady Michelle Obama to give the keynote speech to the NAACP’s convention. Amid a message which mostly touted her federally-run initiative to fight obesity, there was this:

“I know that I stand here today, and I know that my husband stands where he is today, because of this organization – and because of the struggles and the sacrifices of all those who came before us.

“When African American communities are still hit harder than just about anywhere by this economic downturn, and so many families are just barely scraping by, I think the founders would tell us that now is not the time to rest on our laurels.

“When stubborn inequalities still persist – in education and health, in income and wealth – I think those founders would urge us to increase our intensity, and to increase our discipline and our focus and keep fighting for a better future for our children and our grandchildren.”

On the very day Ms. Obama asked the NAACP to “increase our intensity” came the Tea Party attack.

Nothing Michelle Obama said was off the cuff and none of it was off-message. In fact this current controversy is being ginned up for the precise reason the Obama administration is suing the state of Arizona over what is essentially an innocuous immigration law. And for the same reason the Obama Justice Department is stonewalling the U.S. Civil Rights Commission’s investigation into the New Black Panther affair. The Obamas are doing everything they can to stoke racial tensions in America so that they can (1) whip up the same frenzy and enthusiasm for the president and his agenda among blacks, Hispanics and Asians which helped put him in the White House in 2008, and (2) claw back as many disaffected white liberals or gullible centrist 2008 Obama voters as possible by using proven means to demonize conservatives and make them unpalatable partners in common cause.

This is yet another example of politics trumping governance within this administration, and another example of rank cynicism over respect for one’s countrymen. The damage to race relations being done by these people will take years to repair, if it ever can be repaired. But that’s none of the president’s concern. If he can burn America down so that he and his fellow ideologues may rule the ashes, this president has demonstrated that is an acceptable result in his eyes.

How to address this outrage? There are three suggestions conservatives, and perhaps the Republican Party, should embrace.

First, it’s time to call for the removal of the NAACP’s tax-exempt status. The GOP has no power to effect that at present, but hinting that a new Republican majority will hold hearings into such questions next year would help make the NAACP a campaign issue. The NAACP is a winner for the GOP this year, as the organization has gone so far off the deep end that they’re protesting Hallmark cards which reference black holes. A group so bereft of intelligence and judgement simply can’t withstand the level of scrutiny which comes from a prominent position in a political campaign, and, like ACORN last year, the NAACP will make further mistakes.

If the Obamas want to fire up their base at the cost of civil order, beating them might require the same thing. And the NAACP, with its decades-long record of false charges of racism, is a perfect example of the left-wing victimization fraud at work.

Second, while it’s probably best to leave gaffemeister Michael Steele in the shadows it’s time for black conservatives, particularly those running for office, to take center stage. If anybody should be a poster boy for Republican hopes in 2010, it should be Lt. Col. Allen West and his candidacy for the congressional seat in Florida’s 22nd District. West is a fabulous orator, an energetic conservative and a born leader. He’s a perfect example of how Americans of non-European ethnicity are just as capable of success as anyone and how statist solutions do not help to bring talent and initiative to full flower like the liberty and freedom which comes from the structure our Founding Fathers bestowed upon us can.

West is wildly popular with the Tea Party movement. He’s a vocal critic of the black racial orthodoxy. And he’s in the lead against Democrat Ron Klein. He needs a prominent place in this election cycle.

And finally, the conservative message to the black community needs to be both aggressive and challenging this fall. With unemployment levels in the black community worse now than at any time since the Great Depression, with inner-city schools in a state of chaos, with cities like Detroit run not just by black politicians but by left-wing policy prescriptions which have brought about destruction reminiscent of Carthage, it is long past time that conservatives stop tip-toeing around race and attack the very structure of black politics in this country. The NAACP’s endorsees and their policies of giveaways, set-asides and excuse-making, covered in mindless charges of racism against anyone who disagrees, have persisted far too long not because there is merit to them but because no one challenges them on their face. It’s time for Republican candidates to call out the Obamas, the Sharptons, the Jacksons, the Maxine Waterses and the rest for the left-wing tyrants they are, and to laugh at the accusations of racism which follow.

The country is weary of the racism meme. Real racism as it is practiced elsewhere in the world simply doesn’t exist in the American mainstream, and it’s an insult to us all for those charges to continue – particularly when they are made by people who are so obviously racist in their own right. But until the courage to hold those accusers accountable is summoned, the public’s desire to move past the juicy “racist” trope will not be satisfied and the same unproductive, divisive politics which contributed to Obama’s election (which after all was a plea by large portions of the American people to finally move beyond the race issue) will continue to plague our politics and policy. Conservatives should embrace a strategy of taking the race-baiters on this fall and exposing them for the charlatans they are.

So Jamarcus Russell, who got himself Al Davis’ed after getting paid better than $4 million per win as a starting quarterback in the league, is now up on a drug beef?

Wow. Tough break.

What’d they get him for? Blow? Weed? Acid?

Purple Drank?

Heh.

Russell was always our favorite quarterback among us nutria down in Barataria Bay. We liked Jamarcus because, like my uncle T-Rick useta say, “He’s a cross between Denzel and the Jolly Green Giant.” Guy was so damn big he looked like the illegal kid on the 7 & 8′s team. And he was just cool out there. When he was at LSU he was never the best quarterback, but you knew he could be if he really wanted to. And every now and then he’d do something just to make sure you got that.

Some people hated that about him. They called him lazy. We just thought he had style. We nutria don’t like overachievers. Beavers are overachievers, and look what it gets them – the busy bastards. We like a more Continental lifestyle, and Jamarcus definitely had the nutria frame of mind. Un de nous autres, dontcha know.

Except we ain’t crazy about a loser. You gotta at least do your part. And once Jamarcus went pro, he wasn’t so cool anymore. As a pro quarterback, the guy sucked. No, lemme rephrase that. He SUCKED. The suckiest suck who ever sucked. Jamarcus sucked so bad he made Lane Kiffin look like he knew what he was talking about, which is all but impossible. We’re talking Michael Steele level of suckage here. Rick Astley suckage. I’d even go so far as to say Jamarcus was the Showgirls of NFL quarterbacks.

Sure, he had help in his suckage. They gave him Kiffin as a coach; I think the guy was coaching Little League, or in Japan, or something. Or in the Pac-10. Anyway, his dad was an alky who had coached for the Saints once. And when Davis’ Sometimers let up a little, and he realized that not only was his head coach 12 years old with an attitude better suited to the White House than the NFL, Jamarcus got some fat guy with Rosie O’Donnell’s haircut who likes to beat up women (and assistant coaches). Not to mention that the receivers they gave him weren’t much; I think they acquired his top pass-catcher from the Iowa Crush for a 6th-round pick and a box of Malamars.

But when they’re paying you $30 million and the word is you won’t even show up to play Madden in the film room, you’re no longer cool. You’re on welfare. It’s kinda like a character flaw. LSU fans got our noses royally bent out of joint when he showed up on TV with an “I’m a F-ing Retard” medallion around his neck at the 2007 national championship game, and promptly acted the part on TV as a former Ohio State Heisman winner not named Archie Griffin dogged him out in front of God and everybody. And that, for Uncle T-Rick and a lot of other folks, was the end of claiming Jamarcus as one of our’n.

But after all the big news this week, it all makes sense. The guy’s not a total dunce or a slacker, at least not necessarily. What he is is a connoisseur of cold medicine. Y’know, the good stuff. Hey, some people make some money and they get into wines, others collect celebrity dishware from the Home Shopping Channel – and Jamarcus likes mixing Robitussin, vodka, The Uncola and Jolly Ranchers for a refreshing treat. Guess he never heard of Jagermeister.

Either way, it would explain his dopey play on the field and his bizarre apparel off it. It would also explain how he turned into a walrus instead of a quarterback. Koo-koo-ca-choo.

But don’t be so hard on Bama Boy. After all, what we’re really talking about here is a cultural statement. He just somehow got into the Houston urban music scene, and he’s livin’ da life. Who are you to judge? Lil’ Wayne got all up in da surrrp and he did fine. Of course, Lil’ Wayne wasn’t being chased by Elvis Dumervil every week; the closest he ever got was the Phoenix po-lice and he didn’t exactly get away.

So now Jamarcus has hit bottom, but at least he’s mellow about it. Or maybe he hasn’t. After all, now that his hosepipe into Davis’ checking account has been disconnected, he’s going to have to go cheap on his posse, and that often results in an incident at a gentleman’s club or perhaps a totaled Escalade. The next step, of course, being a pull-over on I-10 in Jefferson Davis Parish with God-knows-what in the trunk. Either that, or something awful involving dogs. And then the true rock bottom – a Bryant Gumbel interview.

It’s a bad prognosis. No doubt about it. But since he’s been Bama Boy since January of 2008, he ain’t our problem anymore. Besides, Matt Flynn’s got a ring. All Jamarcus has is some goofy-ass bling.

And a styrofoam cup full of something Lindsey Lohan wouldn’t put down her throat.

…it’s a highlight reel of Dennis Prager’s remarks from a panel (with Sarah Palin and Hugh Hewitt) put together May 24 at the University of Denver. He talks about the most fundamental threat to America in existence – and no, it’s not what you think it is…

While outside visiting with a neighbor and realtor, I inquired about a house he’d recently listed in the neighborhood, as the seller had only purchased it about six weeks ago.

It turns out that the owner recently completed a tour in Afghanistan and returned home with his German wife, who is 7 ½ months into a pregnancy.

As he was being discharged and preparing to return to the States, they completed over 150 forms in order for her to gain a visa and be allowed to return with him, and to give birth in the United States.  Shortly after buying and occupying the home, they received notification that they had failed to properly complete two forms – apparently failed to sign them – thus her visa was being denied.  They were given one week to get her out of the country!

She is back in Germany now with her family, and he has decided to re-enlist and go defend his country again, despite what that country has done to his family.

This is but another outrageous example of bureaucracy in our government.  A soldier returns from battle with a pregnant wife who is not a citizen, and she is denied a visa because of a technicality. 

Contrast this with all the uproar about sending illegal Mexicans back across the border in Arizona.

Via Hot Air, Rep. Mike Pence blasted away at the Obama administration for its move to give $400 million in aid to the Palestinians which will undoubtedly be used in furtherance of the conflict with Israel (America’s ally):

Pence’s fiery speech is the latest in a growing din of conservatives who are questioning Obama’s allegiances; it follows a highly provocative piece in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal by Dorothy Rabinowicz speaking to the cultural alienation between this president and the bulk of the country.

It’s not good for the president to have people questioning who’s side he’s on and whether he’s one of us. While some of these questions might be over the top, the fact that anyone would ask them of a president without being laughed out of school is more than a little unnerving.

Did you know the national anthem has a second verse? Do you know the words?

This guy does.

Consider this an open thread. Submissions are welcome.

For more information on this event, click here.

As for the reason we’re participating, Matt Welch from Reason.com says it best:

Terrorism and self-censorship are both self-fulfilling prophecies. If you allow yourself to be terrorized, then everything looks scary, the ground is softened for restricting freedom, and the bad guys win. When nearly every respectable news outlet decides at the same time that a certain piece of content is just too offensive, too irresponsible, too dangerous to publish, then the next time around you can go ahead and take out the “nearly.” The always-booming anti-defamation industry is nothing if not hyper-attuned to tactical retreats by the target media. When squeaky wheels get grease, they squeak louder next time, ennobled by the self-censorious ways of what Reason contributor Jonathan Rauch famously described as the “kindly inquisitors.”

If, on the other hand, those of us committed to speech-expansion and the broader project of liberalism do not reward bullies, do not give in to the fear that crude cartooning is a dog whistle for suicide bombers, and instead spread the risk far beyond a handful of moderately spineful European newspapers and a couple of children’s-show animators, the prophecy loses traction in an instant, and maybe starts heading in the other direction. If people who threaten violence on cartoonists are treated not with fear but with outright mockery, and produce as a direct result of their actions not a cowed and silent respect for their fervor but an epidemic of giggling and a global WTF, maybe they’ll be less incentivized to repeat the threat next time around.

UPDATE: An addition from our buddy Tee Mohammed Smith, who makes his crib at Elmer’s Island and says he’s now a Saudi nutria since they struck oil down there:

UPDATE #2: Tee Cliff, our rich and fancy couzan who hails from up north in Baton Rouge, brings a historical perspective and some high culture to his submission:

UPDATE #3: Tee Chris, a friend of the family in Mandeville who says marsh grass a la Pennzoil tastes a lot better than Caesar Salad, offers this one – but he admits he stole it…

UPDATE #4: Mark Steyn nails it:

I initially had mixed feelings about Everybody Draws Mohammed Day. Provocation for its own sake is one of the dreariest features of contemporary culture, but that’s not what this is about. Nick Gillespie’s post reminds us that the three most offensive of the “Danish cartoons” — including the one showing Mohammed as a pig —were not by any Jyllands-Posten cartoonists but were actually faked by Scandinavian imams for the purposes of stirring up outrage among Muslims. As Mr Gillespie says:

It is nothing less than amazing that holy men decrying the desecration of their religion would create such foul images, but there you have it. It is as if the pope created “Piss Christ” and then passed it off as the work of critics of Catholicism.

So, if it really is a sin to depict Mohammed, then these imams will be roasting in hell. (Unless, of course, taqqiya permits Muslims to break their own house rules for the purpose of sticking it to the infidels.)

But, that aside, the clerics’ action underlines what’s going on: the real provocateurs are the perpetually aggrieved and ever more aggressive Islamic bullies — emboldened by the silence of “moderate Muslims” and the preemptive capitulation of western media. I was among a small group of columnists in the Oval Office when President Bush, after running through selected highlights from a long list of Islamic discontents, concluded with an exasperated: “If it’s not the Crusades, it’s the cartoons.” That’d make a great bumper sticker: It encapsulsates both Islam’s inability to move on millennium-in millennium-out, plus the grievance-mongers’ utter lack of proportion.

I’m bored with death threats. And, as far as I’m concerned, if that’s your opening conversational gambit, then any obligation on my part to “cultural sensitivity” and “mutual respect” is over. The only way to stop this madness destroying our liberties is (as Ayaan Hirsi Ali puts it) to spread the risk. Everybody Draws Mohammed Day does just that. Various websites are offering prizes. I only wish we could track down those sicko Danish imams who drew their prophet as a pig, and send them the trophy.