The offensiveness of the cartoon is exceeded only by its truthfulness.

Sorry to inject some long extraneous thought into this, but I've been thinking about the incident.

Essentially, one protester ("international") stated that Ms. Corrie had been standing on the shovel, "in the face" of the operator, and slipped off, then was run over.

Another protester stated that she had been kneeling before the approaching bulldozer, which had been ploughing a mound of dirt before it, and she went under the shovel as it moved over her.

Another report has stated that Israeli 'dozer operators have successfully picked up and moved demonstrators using the shovel.

Apparently, in both the protestor versions, above, the shovel was raised when it passed over Ms. Corrie. Most of the other facts asserted are completely contradictory; but, the shovel was up. It must have been up; the tractor chassis passed completely over her, then passed over her in reverse (this seems uncontroverted--reminds me of a story about a Mexico City bus driver).

There are no Israeli accounts; after all, they say they did not know she was there.

I wonder if the operator thought that he had "captured" Ms. Corrie in the shovel, and he raised the shovel anticipating that he would deposit her elsewhere. If so, he should have immediately reversed, I suppose. Doing so may have (given his assumption) dumped her out of the shovel.

I don't know, but that's my current working theory.

"That is a dangerously low standard, which is precisely what led to the publication of this offensive, insensitive and hurtful cartoon," Destler said in a written statement. "Are editors not also responsible for ensuring a degree of fairness, good taste and sensitivity?"

Fairness? By what standard?

Mr. Destler's of course.

Good tase? Who decides?

Why Mr. Destler, naturally.

Sensitivity?

A lack of sensitivity may be precisely the esteemed Mr. Destler's boggle. Else how might he have managed to insert his head so far up his bloody ass, and be unaware of the fact?

This is a bad cartoon not only because it's offensive to the dead woman and her family but because it's offensive to Palestinians by referring to them as terrorists. Hell if anybody dares say one word against Israel they are labeled an anti-semite. But calling a Palestinian a terrorist is shrugged off.
Of course, I have no problem with the cartonnist's free expression but what say we threaten to bulldoze his family's house just for living in a place designated for a preferred ethnic group?

Hard day standing in the middle of the street keeping people from getting to work on time, Matt?

By the way, thanks for linking your blog. I've just ordered one of these bumperstickers and going to encourage my like-minded friends to do the same.

As for the article...a university gives lip service to the First Amendment, then pressures the student newspaper to apologize for running an un-P.C. cartoon? A left-wing student complains that the paper runs things that don't reflect majority views on campus? Some sociology student states that making fun of the greatly overrated "Vagina Monologues" is de facto offensive to women? No surprise to any of us who've followed campus politics for the last decade and a half.

A word of advice for Matt. Get some historical perspective before you make up your mind about what happened in this case.

This foolish young woman thought everybody in the world shared her conviction that desperate people would stop what they were doing rather than harm her.

I'm sorry she's dead, but it's not the fault of the bulldozer driver, it's the fault of the politically correct education she bought hook, line and sinker.

Perhaps her death will drive home the point that Israel plans to stick around and Israelis aren't like their scared little university administrators who bow to their lunatic leftist nonsense.

In the real world, you can get hurt and even killed if you stick your nose where it doesn't belong.

Reminds me of something Camille Paglia wrote. To paraphrase:

A young woman who decides to get drunk out of her mind at a fraternity party ends up getting sexually abused/raped after passing out.

Are the guys who raped her morally repugnant and guilty of a crime? Yes.

Does that change the fact that she's a fucking moron? No.

Interesting how their demand is not just that there be an apology, but that the paper run a slanted news article in favor of Corrie.