Negotiating Free Speech

Mohammed on his prayer rug; Persia, late medieval (date unknown). From Depictions of Mohammed Throughtout History

We're talking about the exothermic reaction that results from mixing Danish cartoons and the Prophet. Kurt Anderson, in New York Magazine, puts forth the New York position in They Can't Take a Joke:

Freedom of speech is absolute: Isn’t it pretty to think so. In fact, everything is a little negotiable. It’s why we haven’t invaded nuclear North Korea, and why we play so nice with the rich Chinese. The cartoon affair has been a negotiation. The drawings were the West’s opening salvo. The violence was the other side’s display of leverage. When the Bush administration responded by coming down on the side of aggrieved Muslims, and the Times decided that it wouldn’t reprint the cartoons, they were, for better or worse, the negotiators on our side of the table, making tactical concessions instead of shouting back or walking away.

Of course, here where business is the prevailing religion, and negotiation its eucharist, New York, the City of the Deal, is Mecca.