This Just In: Oliphant is a Jerk

Jim Geraghty wonders:

I guess the point is that Benedict once insulted Turks (by opposing their membership in the EU) or Muslims (by quoting that Byzantine emperor) and so he's callously concluding he can make up for it by blessing them. I don't think that's an accurate depiction of events, and the cartoon seems to be smacking Benedict around for reaching out to his foes and trying to have an honest dialogue with them. Apparently the pope is callous when he doesn't talk to Muslims, and callous when he does.

But what really nags at me is the banners in the angry crowd. One says, "Go home Pope," one says, "Pope out of Turkey", and the last one says, "Nice dress however."

Oh, I get it! The pope's vestments look like a dress! Ha ha! Hooboy, what hilarity! I'm sure Oliphant was awake all night thinking that one up.

I look forward to his cartoons that will mock hijabs, abayas, burqas, veils... I mean, Muslim men's robes and tunics are kinda similar to a dress. Come on, Oliphant, let's see how gutsy you are by calling a bunch of Muslim men cross-dressers!

Someone please tell me again that the Established Church of Fundamentalist Secular Orthodoxy doesn't daily wet its Armani slacks for fear that, through some terrible inadvertence, it has nonetheless offended our peaceful Muslim brothers (remember, you're not allowed to look at our peaceful Muslim sisters, so better not to mention them at all), while at the same time Christians and Jews constitute an editorial free-fire-zone.

Pay attention here, my brothers: Pat Oliphant, the legendary speaker of truth to power, has just giggled into his soft little hand, pointed at the religious leader of more than 1 Billion Roman Catholics, and said, "Ha, ha ha! The Pope wears a dress!"

I presume that editorials in the Washington Post and New York Times decrying such insensitivity will appear in tomorrow's editions.