A link to the following was left in the comments section of this blog. While you shouldn't see this posting as an endorsation of its contents by myself, here's the URL: GlobalCivility.com

This NYT piece looks at the surprising popularity of a book about a misbehaving yellow Labrador retriever -- and talks about how the real problem might be with the excessively high expectations of today's dog owners.

More and more Western media outlets are concluding the protests over the cartoons about the Prophet Muhammad were more about power plays by radical Islamists. The latest is the NYT editorial board.

The call for more rallies against the Prophet Muhammad cartoons by the Islamic party alliance known as the MMA on drew crowds in the hundreds on Friday.

He's coming a bit late to this party, but the Toronto Star's Richard Gwynn thinks the recent Prophet Muhammad cartoons controversy is really about a clash between the moderate and fundamentalist schools of Islam.

The Salon blurb: "By caving in to fanatics over the Danish cartoons, the West has shown that it is not only gutless but brainless," argues U.S. editorial cartoonist Doug Marlette.

While today's Chinese government is just as censorious and authoritarian as its predecessors, some of today's Chinese media figures aren't rolling over and playing dead.

The Organization of Islamic Countries has spoken out against death threats against anyone involved in the Prophet Muhammad cartoons controversy and says violent protests are hurting the image of Islam.

The protests are to continue until the arrival of Dubya next month, and include a call for a nation-wide strike on Friday. However, Qazi Hussain, leader of the six-party alliance known as MMA, also said his campaign was also aimed at Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf for his "pro-western policies."

See the BBC story for details, but it doesn't strike me that cartoons are really the issue there anymore.

British historian David Irving now says he made a mistake in arguing there was no one killed in gas chambers at Auschwitz. He has pleaded guilty in Austria to criminal charges of denying the Holocaust and will be sentenced later today. The maximum penalty is 10 years.

You can see more at this CTV.ca story.

Addendum:

According to this BBC story, Irving will appeal his three-year sentence.

Flemming Rose -- the cultural editor of Jyllands-Posten, but currently on indefinite leave -- explains why he commissioned the cartoons on the Prophet Muhammad.