Freedom of Speech, Under Seige

Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali rallies to Denmark’s defense:

"Shame on those politicians who stated that publishing and re-publishing the drawings was ‘unnecessary’, ‘insensitive’, ‘disrespectful’ and ‘wrong’. I am of the opinion that Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen of Denmark acted correctly when he refused to meet with representatives of tyrannical regimes who demanded from him that he limit the powers of the press. Today we should stand by him morally and materially......
... I do not seek to offend religious sentiment, but I will not submit to tyranny. Demanding that people who do not accept Muhammad’s teachings should refrain from drawing him is not a request for respect but a demand for submission.”

For a lesson in abject cowardice, see how the quivering Dutch prime minister has said that he does “not have much use” for Hirsi Ali’s views. Now that's a man who'd rather live as a slave than fight to be free.
And from Mark Steyn's site, a reader comments:

The issue is cultural intimidation. Does a free society have the right to print its own cartoons in its own newspapers without getting death threats and boycotts from others? If not, what other rights have the Muslims taken away from us?
Failure to do so leaves the Danes and a few European newspapers to face the music alone. The fundamental insight which produced the First Amendment was that you can’t protect free speech on a case by case basis. Either Danish Newspapers have the right to publish stupid cartoons and Hugh Hewitt has the right bring enlightenment to the radio masses or neither has any right but what the most militant will permit... [here: http://www.steynonline.com/index2.cfm?edit_id=66 ]

The Brussels Journal shows us how the Swedes have, er, lost their fighting spirit:

Vikings. Once they were brave. Today some are brave and some are cowards. The brave ones are the Danish and the Icelanders, the cowards the Norwegians and the Swedish (at least where the governments are concerned).
Yesterday the Swedish government shut down a website because it had published Muhammad cartoons. Has Stockholm ever shut down a website because it posted Jesus cartoons? No, it hasn’t. During the past week a number of appeasing Western governments have said that they are not happy with papers and websites republishing the Danish Muhammad cartoons, but Sweden is the first Western country to exercise censorship.

"Censorship" these days is a nice way of saying, "We are handing over control of our press to Islamic fundamentalists".
Again, I wonder, with the freedom of the West under attack, if the British can find the "lion's heart" that helped them roar through WWII, and if the last decendants of the Viking warriors of old can find the spirit that made them masters of land and sea. Today we still tell tales of the strong and powerful Norsemen; does any of their blood still run in the veins of their children?
We must all find the inner strength within our people, ourselves, to grid ourselves for the dark days on the horizon...

Brussels Journal here: http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/807