EVERY news outlet should re-publish them. Shame on those that don't.

The few Charlie Hebdo cartoons that I noticed before this attack seemed rather crude and unfunny; sort of like a dumber version of Mad Magazine. (most likely, that is because of my poor French that I didn't find them funny).

But, this cover is fantastic. They even got the green, color of Islam, background - brilliant!

I teased my Catholic boyfriend recently, asking where Jesus disappeared to between babyhood and his return to do all that loaves and fishes stuff. (What was he doing -- stealing cars, robbing liquor stores?) My boyfriend rolled his eyes in response; he didn't gun me down.

That reminds me of on old joke:

Joseph was doing some carpentry work in the shop when Jesus came in “Did you call me dad?” Joseph replied “No, sorry son, I just hit my thumb with the hammer.”

I knew that Charlie Hebdo had to work very hard, to get their cover right. I knew I was missing something important in it. It couldn't be as simple as a simple message of forgiveness and solidarity...

I finally got the answer, reading the comments here:
http://althouse.blogspot.com/2015/01/at-about-910-on-monday-evening-laughter.html

Blogger "unknown", wrote:
"...while Christianity espouses free will & repentance/forgiveness, Islam is your life is predetermined & nothing can change that (as Allah Wills)."

Call me ignorant, but isn't that the way Calvinism works too?

Another cover worth mentioning, the Berliner Kurier. NO! You cannot murder our freedom:

http://www.steynonline.com/6749/the-trouser-press

This. Thanks. We are all apostates today.

"Behead those who say Islam is a religion of violence."

How about printing the covers that appeared before the massacre - the ones that also got blurred by the American press last week?

Refuses to publish cover, to be sensitive to...those people who are so offended that they murder others? Chickenshits.

Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi chooses this moment to make a point of appointing a Muslim to a prominent position. I frankly wouldn't care, it would never occur to me to ask what his religion is. She's the one who made a point of it. Which shows just what role she has chosen: appeasement.

"I teased my Catholic boyfriend recently, asking where Jesus disappeared to between babyhood and his return to do all that loaves and fishes stuff."

Two words: boy band. Don't you remember JC and the Disciples, and their big doo-wop hit, "Sea of Gallilee?"

Semi-seriously: One thing we have to keep in mind in reviewing material like Charlie Hebdo is that modern French humor and commentary is pretty bawdy in general. What can seem vulgar to us Americans is just par for the course there. You might could use this to make a point about Frency culture in general, but from what I've seen Charlie Hebdo is well within the mainstream in terms of its general style.

Lenona,

As far as I understand, the Calvinists believed there was an elect that was predetermined to go to Heaven. Somewhat similar, but they also had a Protestant work ethic (maybe due to their watering down with Scots in Presbyterianism) of "God helps those who help themselves" That's the major difference.

Fine, but what's the point of all that good work if you still aren't among the chosen?

To everyone:

Check these letters out.

Saying “the terrorists have assaulted our values” is too facile in cases like the Charlie Hebdo murders or the murder of the filmmaker Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam in 2004. The phrase casts the murderous criminals (which they certainly are) as irrational lunatics (which they might not be).

Worse, it eliminates the need to understand what is essentially political violence, a boiling over of emotion. This leads to further violence, unfairness and racist politics.

Would a Muslim cartoonist who ridiculed Jesus Christ or the Christianity of the Dutch royal family get the same “free speech” protection? I doubt it; European rules against “insult” would be invoked, and the cartoonist would more likely be suppressed for promoting terrorism.

Crime should be punished. But let’s not misuse our precious freedoms.

BOB BRAGAR
Amsterdam, Jan. 8, 2015

Nicholas Kristof asks whether there is anything about Islam that leads inexorably to violence. A better question is whether Islam, or any religion for that matter, encourages critical questioning and doubt about its beliefs.

When religion is dogmatic, it lends itself to fanaticism and potential violence. Additionally, if religions focused primarily on love and the good of all sentient beings rather than the devotion to questionable metaphysical realities, such as God, there would be less violence and fanaticism in the name of religion.

LOU MATZ
Stockton, Calif., Jan. 8, 2015

"The writer is a professor of philosophy at University of the Pacific."

(I saw them in the Jan. 9 paper - the same one with David Brooks' column. See that here, if you like.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/09/opinion/david-brooks-i-am-not-charlie-hebdo.html

The responding letters appeared today and are online.

An interesting thing about it is that the image itself does not announce itself as depicting Mohammad.

It's just some guy in "traditional Arab" dress.

Only context tells us it's a depiction of Mohammad.

(It might make an interesting joke, in fact, to publish such a thing, wait for a furor, and then say "What? That wasn't Mohammad. Never was. We never said it was. Why did you assume it was?".

I mean, not in this case, since CH was always insistent it was such a representation.)

David Brooks mentions people who are a lot less tolerant toward those who offend their own views at home.

Not wanting to kill "blasphemers" =/= 'a lot less tolerant'

"Fine, but what's the point of all that good work if you still aren't among the chosen?"

That's exactly where the philosophy broke down. If your behavior on Earth doesn't have any effect on your final destination, then you may as well party hardy. If you're among the chosen, you're going to Heaven anyway. If you're not, then all the good works in the world won't improve your fate, so why bother?

P.S., as I understand it, only a faction of Calvinists believed in predestination, and ceratinly not everyone who believed in predestination was a Calvinist. There was long a segment of Southern Baptists who believed in predestination (hence "holy rollers" and Free Will Baptists), but it has gradually fallen out of favor since 1950 or so.

I teased my Catholic boyfriend recently, asking where Jesus disappeared to between babyhood and his return to do all that loaves and fishes stuff.

When I get in a debate I point out Jesus hung out with a bunch of guys, and they spent all their time at the docks, trolling for men, extolling them to leave their wives, join the group of men, and spend their time looking for even MORE men.

Jesus disappeared to between babyhood and his return to do all that loaves and fishes stuff. (What was he doing -- stealing cars, robbing liquor stores?) My boyfriend rolled his eyes in response...
If looks could kill...

The version I remember hearing was that people had free-will but that God knew what decisions would be made...he didn't force or pre-determine it....just knew what it would be. Hence any choices you make are not additional information to God.

"...where Jesus disappeared to between babyhood and his return to do all that loaves and fishes stuff."

He was like, you know, really doing the cannabis, dude!

The loaves and fishes trick was less a miracle than self preservation: A stoned crowd with the munchies can be a terrible thing to behold.

You're all wrong. He was a teenage boy for godsake.

He was drawing boobies in the sand and jerking off. He would try to turn water into wine but he wasn't 21 yet and God was still a little iffy about it.

Jesus as a boy.

The thing about that cover is…it's actually fairly kind to Mohammed, suggesting that he would be sad about what happened to Charlie Hebdo and indicating that "all is forgiven." This is like a sadder version of Father Guido Sarducci from SNL. The fact that you're seeing various Muslim groups complaining about it is, I think, indicative that they consider ALL humor about Islam to be off-limits, which doesn't work in the modern world and which is what Charlie Hebdo has been trying to push back against.

"Fine, but what's the point of all that good work if you still aren't among the chosen?"

Builds character

"The version I remember hearing was that people had free-will but that God knew what decisions would be made."

There's the one that states that everything that happens, and everything that everyone does, is pre-determined. (E.g., the Deist belief of God as the clockmaker who builds the clock and sets it in motion... everything that happens after that is inevitable.) This winds up being constructed as non-falsifiable in an amusing way:

Me: "I don't believe in fate."

You: "You were fated to say that."