I wrote on Saturday about my favorite foreign minister, Julie Bishop, and compared her fashion choices for meeting President Rouhani with her fashion choices for meeting with me. So it's only fair to note her visit on Tuesday to the offices of Charlie Hebdo:
Ms Bishop said it was a "love your work" gesture.
"We see satire as an integral part of French society," Ms Bishop told the staff as she presented the cartoon. "Satire is controversial, it's provocative, it offends all religions, all political parties, nothing and no-one is spared. (It) is a counter-balance against power."
Ms Bishop said she admired the stoicism and courage of those who worked at the magazine, and those who had come to work there since the tragedy.
The cartoon was a "expression of sympathy and admiration from the people of Australia", she said.
So up yours, Garry Trudeau.
I was very touched by what the minister said about me on stage in Perth, but I was even more touched by what she said to the surviving editorial staff at Charlie Hebdo. I mentioned in that Trudeau post an upcoming engagement I'm doing on the Continent later this year and how I couldn't understand why they'd asked me - until I remembered that everyone ahead of me on the invitation list is either dead or in hiding. So the symbolism of what Julie Bishop chose to do is valuable and important - and stands in splendid contrast to the hollow pomposity of John Kerry and his stooge James Taylor.
And "Love your work" is a better expression of solidarity than "#JeSuisCharlie".
~Laura Rosen Cohen writes:
HRC was a prize speaker for Jews till she kissed Suha Arafat. OMG, can you imagine kissing someone who had kissed Arafat?!? GAH.
In fairness, I don't think Suha kissed Yasser that often. If you know what I mean.
~A reader drew my attention to this:
Here's the transcript:
Milan: It made me think of this as a Canadian conservative–
[call dump]
Savage: I'm not a fan of Mark Steyn, and I don't appreciate him using PR agents like you to push him...mention the name twice and spells it out for me, ya hear!?
Oh, my. I've never said a word about Michael Savage except to object to Jacqui Smith banning him from entering the United Kingdom:
The British Home Secretary thinks that by making public the ban on Michael Savage she's "naming and shaming" him. But she's shaming only herself and her country.
Most American conservative pundits never spoke up in defense of Savage, but I did - again and again. 'Cause I'm a free-speech guy, whether it's for Charlie Hebdo or Michael Savage. And I'd do it again, next time he's banned - from Canada, Sweden or wherever. But what a strange, insecure fellow...
~My actual "PR agent", as Savage would say, is in fact too busy "pushing" me on other shows. I'll be spending much of today - Earth Day - plugging Climate Change: The Facts on the airwaves, starting with Brian Sussman on KSFO San Francisco just after 7am Pacific. I see that's Michael Savage's home station, so I do hope he hasn't had me blackballed.