Wouldn't it be funny, albeit not "ha-ha" funny, if a third world war erupted over some Danish political cartoons? First, this would be difficult to explain to most Americans, who would wonder why anyone would be so upset about people defaming a pastry. Then we would have to explain that "Danish" is also a word that refers to the people of a nation located in Amsterdam, somewhere between a donut and a cinnamon roll.

I don't know if anyone's been following the recently-erupted scandal over the cartoons satirizing the prophet Mohammed that were published, back in September, in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. Both Saudi Arabia and Libya have recalled their ambassodors to Denmark, and violent protests have erupted in front of the Danish embassies in Damascus and Beirut.

Just as an FYI to the protesters: the people who work in the Danish embassies are not cartoonists. Nor are they newspaper publishers. If they wanted to be involved in international incidents, they wouldn't have become diplomats. No, they would be drawing cartoons.

The newspaper cartoon world hasn't been this incesnsed since another Dane, Marmaduke - a Great Dane, at that - implied that Moses was gay.

Actually, he didn't. But if he did, I wouldn't expect the U.S. government to issue an apology to all Jewish people. Or to gay people (our government probably should issue an apology to gay people, but for entirely different reasons, such as the lack of frontal nudity in Brokeback Mountain). Or to gay Jews. Or Great Danes. Or to gay ... you get the picture.

It's one thing to ask the newspaper to apologize, but as far as I know, Denmark has freedom of the press. (I'm no expert on the Danish system of government, but I once very briefly dated a Dane, and I know they're into "free love," so I assume freedom of the press goes along with the package.) Freedom of the press means, pretty specifically, that newspapers can publish whatever they want. Newspapers all over the world are full of offensive content, even/especially here in the U.S. Case in point: Ann Coulter's column, and/or Ann Coulter's outfits. But I don't demand that the American government issue an apology for her (although, really, somebody should). Nor do I want to censor Ann Coulter, or burn her embassies in Beirut. Burning her outfits, however, is entirely called for.

Not having seen the cartoons in question (and even if I had, I don't speak Danish, although I do enjoy a danish with my morning newspaper), I can't comment on their content. Regardless, it doesn't seem fair to blame the entire nation of Denmark for something that may be the bad taste of one cartoonist and/or publisher. It's like if North Korea decided to declare war on the U.S. because Kim Jong-Il didn't like last week's "Doonesbury." In Le Monde, a journalist made the point that Denmark is suffering retribution for its Atlantist foreign policy, and that it's one of the most Islamaphobic countries in Europe, but still, the reaction seems extreme.

As a result of the cartoon scandal, several middle eastern countries have called for a boycott of all Danish imports -- cheese, and the Euro-pop band "Aqua" (also technically classifed as cheese). And you can bet that throughout the Arab world, angry readers will be cancelling their subscriptions to Jyllands-Posten. As well they should.