Carol--

As you might imagine, I believe I may just be able to survive regardless of what motive you impute to me for my statements on this topic. It so happens that I actually believe what I say on this subject--and many others--and that it is not just "for sport". But if you don't believe that, as I said, I'll get by somehow.

Back to the topic:

Very few things are blazingly clear in life. But two aspects of this are:

1) Any country has a right to honor any person for whatever it may choose, without citizens of another country putting a price on the honoree's head.

2) Nobody deserves to be killed for what he or she has written--and nothing else.


Now, can we have a clear statement of agreement with both of these propositions from you, Kevin, Giok, et. al?

We can--and probably will--argue forever the wisdom of knighting Rushdie--but these two statements should be something we can all agree on.