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Wayne Gretzky's high rolling wife, Janet Jones, and his assistant coach with the Phoenix Coyotes, Rick Tocchet,  are in hot water off the ice.  Tocchet is under investigation for running a sports gambling ring and Jones is suspected of laying down big bets with him.

Hockey play opens tonight in Torino and The Great One is executive director of Team Canada.  This was a no brainer for me.  It's unlikely I will have to run a gauntlet of offended Canadians and their bookies. 

Is it the fate of a quiet and well mannered people to be picked on? A quick googling of my soul says the answer is yes. This is my third cartoon about our frozen friends in a month.

If the Mounties come after me I must answer yes to their questions. I have been to Canada. I do have Canadian friends. I know they have hockey sticks.  I apologize for taking the path of least resistance

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To avoid further offense I did not draw Dick Cheney's image.

I met with Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) leaders on Friday afternoon. I didn't catch the protest before the meeting where I'm told speakers demanded that I be fired and a curse was called down on The Beacon Journal.

Though I was outnumbered about 15 to 1 in the meeting, my hosts were an agreeable lot. They disavowed violence and the curse. They patiently explained to me that Islam is a religion of peace. Many of them were from other countries and appreciated the American commitment to freedom of religion. They also supported freedom of the press. Except for one thing. They don't like pictures of Muhammad.  My explanation that the Muhammad on acid cartoon was about CNN's digital distortion of the prophet's face did not impress them. They seemed genuinely hurt by the cartoon.

I said the cartoon made a point and offensiveness was a byproduct. They felt that offensiveness was the point. 

Maybe they had a point.  When I drew it I wasn't thinking about the mostly friendly faces that were now questioning me. I was thinking of Theo Van Gogh, the Dutch film maker murdered by an Islamic lunatic, burning embassies, and threats to cut off cartoonist's heads.  All those things were done in the name of Islam.  Those things are a greater blasphemy than a cartoon. Right?

My hosts condemned the terrorists and dismissed them as a small percentage of a huge religion of 1.3 billion people.

They were thinking of their religion as they know it.  I was thinking of their religion as I see it.

I will be on WCPN 90.3 in Cleveland Monday Feb 13 at 9:00 to talk about you know who.

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Isn't it a wonderful world now that we fight with cartoons instead of bombs?  Oh, wait, we do both.

I met with the leaders of Council on American Islamic Relations, Ohio yesterday.  Discussions were constructive, as they say.  More on that later.

When posting comments please try to resist more common vulgaraties such as the "f" word. That sort of thing will be edited and replaced with the cartoon version of a pixilated face - *#@!.  I encourage you to be creative in this area.  Comments alluding to the irony of this censorship are welcome.

Curses in exotic languages will be judged on a case by case basis. Special attention will be given to unusualness, passion, and general humor value.

Thank you. - Cartoon Management

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15,000 people attended a 6 hour funeral service for Coretta Scott King.  The throng included presidents Bush I, Bush II, Clinton (mr. and mrs.), and Carter.  Jimmy Carter used the moment (actually many moments) to administer another Kick in the Leg to President Bush.

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I got this idea from an editorial in a Jordanian newspaper, Shihane, which also reprinted the Dreaded Danish cartoons.  The editorial said, "Muslims of the world, be reasonable… what brings more prejudice against Islam, these caricatures or pictures of a hostage-taker slashing the throat of his victim in front of the cameras or a suicide bomber who blows himself up during a wedding ceremony in Amman?"

The editor, Jihad Momani, was fired and arrested.

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Mick Jagger was the leading ground gainer at the Super Bowl. He suffered a loss of two words for sexual suggestiveness. Maybe the censors didn't notice the giant tongue with 2000 people dancing under it. Those 2000, by the way, were originally supposed to be between the ages of 18 - 45 due to the rigors of the act. When aging baby boomers pointed out that the youngest member of the band was 58 the requirement was lifted.

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CNN pixilated the cartoons that set off a world wide Muslim temper tantrum. If the cartoons are a distortion of Muhammad then CNN has distorted a distortion.  Guess we'll never know what all the fuss was about.

Most of the mainstream media in the U.S., other than Fox News, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the New York Sun, took a pass on showing the cartoons. Editor and Publisher has a story on the media refusal to publish the cartoons. 

It seems a little arrogant for a religion to demand that the whole world play by its rules. And a little wimpy for most of the American media to go along with it.

Christopher Hitchens considers the incident proof of "an aggressive intent".