Slipping one past the PC police

Several weeks ago, a number of newspapers (including my hometown Austin-American Statesman) decided not to publish a "Non Sequitur" panel by Wiley Miller, apparently thinking that even using the name of Muhammed in a caption was... well... gee, it might offend some people. Take a look here and decide for yourself how offensive it was.

Today, to my great delight, he got one printed that satirizes the pusillanimous editors. It's online here.

GO WILEY!!!

(For those who haven't been following this sort of thing, the original cartoon was probably a reference to the case of Molly Norris - which is much more serious, in fact outrageous, and I'll probably expound on it in a later post because it has been effectively buried or not even reported in most news media.)

Actually, though - if you're finished chuckling over the cartoons - this episode is serious too. This kind of self-censorship is a step towards giving away our freedom of speech.

Don't know about you, but I'm rather fond of free speech. In fact, I am generally in favor of the whole Bill of Rights.

Comments bug

Robbie of Robbie's Paw Prints just pointed out that comments are bouncing back. Oops. I closed my old email account this summer and am now using mb(at)flameweaver.com. After some bemused poking around the Blogger site I found the old email still hidden under the Comments tab and changed it. Everything should work now - inshallah.

Has it really been a year?

Okay, this is embarrassing. I spent a good part (well, actually a really bad part) of the last year slogging through the worst depression of my life. Along with most other things more complicated than breathing, this blog was abandoned. I couldn't bead. I couldn't sew. I definitely couldn't do something so audacious as posting my work out in public, acting as if anybody would be interested in it.

Well, that phase seems to be over. I started Making Stuff again a couple of months ago; today I photographed a small wall quilt and I'm going to put up a couple of the pictures. Right now. Before I start to hyperventilate. Before I talk myself out of it. After all, it's not like anybody would still be looking at this blog when it hasn't been updated for a year, right? So I'm basically talking to myself here.