cartoon carnage

I'm a torn little fella; it takes me ages to make decisions and to decide on how i stand on, you know, stuff.

The whole Danish Muhammad cartoon is terribly upsetting. Firstly, I'm rally not one who believes antagonizing people or causing people pain is every really necessary - i don't see the point of upsetting people just for the sake of it. For the most part, anyway, i think people who make decisions on behalf of others should be held up for scrutiny, satire and abuse.
However, politeness and respect for others, in no way can ever take precedence over freedom of speech. That's a given. People should have the right to say whatever they want, as long as they accept the consequences.
I'm not really sure what the point of the original cartoons were and it would probably allow for a better understanding of the rationale if some reasoning was given. But in the end the reaction was a bit disproportionate - but kind of understandable. Fuck with a group long enough and they will fight back.