Since I’m already down as endorsing the idea that it’s okay to make fun of Mohammed à la Charlie Hebdo, I guess I can’t object too strenuously to the “Make Fun of Mohammed” exhibit staged by the “American Freedom Defense Initiative” in Garland, Texas that ultimately involved the wounding of a security guard and the deaths of two would-be terrorists. No, freedom of expression should not bow to terrorism, although making fun of Muslims in a suburb of Dallas does not strike me as pushing the envelope.
What would push the envelope? Well, H.G. “Buzz” Bissinger found out when he wrote Friday Night Lights, an account of high school football in Texas circa the year 2000 that, among other things, remarked lightly on the fact that one high school spent more money on “rush” charges to develop game films (in the bad old pre-digital days) than it spent on supplies for the English Department. Buzz had to cancel a planned book-promotion tour in Texas, thanks to all the death threats. Contrary to the claims of Pamela Geller, who helped organize the Garland event, I don’t think that Texas has to worry very much about Sharia law crossing the Atlantic or the Rio Grande.
Afterwords
Bissinger made a pot of money off the book, movie, and TV versions of Friday Night Lights, causing him to more or less lose his mind, because he wrote a long article for GQ extolling his fabulous, and fabulously expensive, collection of leather jackets, 71 in all. I reviewed the film version of Friday Night Lights here (not as good as the book) and snickered at Buzz’s jacket jones here
