Danish newspaper made a different decision on Jesus cartoon

The Guardian has a story today about Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that ran the cartoons heard around the world. It turns out that three years ago, the Sunday editor turned down an illustrator's cartoons about Jesus because, he said, they were not funny and "could cause an outcry."

The editor's explanation is "In the Muhammad drawings case, we asked the illustrators to do it. I did not ask for these cartoons. That's the difference."

This "explanation" only makes things worse, I'm afraid, though I know what he was trying to say--that he did not find the unsolicited cartoon funny, but he found the one he personally asked for appropriate.

It doesn't matter, anyway. There is nothing anyone can say that could introduce logic to a situation in which people are dying over a cartoon.