There Is No More Molly

Imagine, if you will, what the response from the latte-sipping, hardworking, good and decent liberals of the Seattle Weekly would be if, say, the local Catholic bishop had demanded that it apologize for running a cartoon lampooning the Church or mocking Jesus.

Why! This here is America! It's called "Freedom of Speech," church-boy! Maybe you've heard of it. We don't take orders from you and we'll continue to express ourselves, in freedom.

Imagine the righteous outrage. Imagine the Daily Show picking it up or Bill Maher or whoever is the Funny Leftist of the Week getting ahold of it. There would be no end to it.

But in America, in 2010, 9 full years after being savagely attacked by Muslims, we have already in our hearts capitulated. We can't fight them, we won't fight them, we now encourage their immigration here, we kow-tow to their nobility and, yes, even now there are loads of special refugee visas being issued to Iraqis who need to get out of town when we do.

And, already, without a fight, without even a protest--NOT ONE--we have lost our freedom of speech. The mainstream conservatives like to mock Europe, and especially France, but at least there this was resisted. Here, freedom and liberty dies not with a bang, but because of a bang, followed by the all-too-expected liberal whimper.

Because, on the advice of the U.S. Government, There Is No Molly.

On the Advice of the FBI, Cartoonist Molly Norris Disappears From View
Her work won't be in Seattle Weekly anymore, or anywhere else.

By Mark D. Fefer [What a hero! Write him and congratulate him on his bravery!]

Wednesday, Sep 15 2010

You may have noticed that Molly Norris' comic is not in the paper this week. That's because there is no more Molly.

The gifted artist is alive and well, thankfully. But on the insistence of top security specialists at the FBI, she is, as they put it, "going ghost": moving, changing her name, and essentially wiping away her identity. She will no longer be publishing cartoons in our paper or in City Arts magazine, where she has been a regular contributor. She is, in effect, being put into a witness-protection program—except, as she notes, without the government picking up the tab. It's all because of the appalling fatwa issued against her this summer, following her infamous "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" cartoon.

Norris views the situation with her customary sense of the world's complexity, and absurdity. When FBI agents, on a recent visit, instructed her to always keep watch for anyone following her, she joked, "Well, at least it'll keep me from being so self-involved!" It was, she says, the first time the agents managed a smile. She likens the situation to cancer—it might basically be nothing, it might be urgent and serious, it might go away and never return, or it might pop up again when she least expects it.

We're hoping the religious bigots go into full and immediate remission, and we wish her the best.