la ventanita at Wall Street Café: "Unbiased" MSM

"In a rare public appearance the Pope apologized for his comments," said Anne Curry during her news segment at 8am this morning.

"What? That's not what he said!" I screamed at the television. Pointless. Unless people watching the Today show have been following the news online, this morning they all believe the Pope apologized. Tell that to the Muslims, who are still waiting for an apology and acting accordingly with killings, bombings, church attacks and protests.

The rare public apperance? Planned and not induced by any Muslim outrage, from the Winnipeg Free Press (emph. mine).

His first public appearance since his return from Germany was set for Sunday, when Benedict planned to greet the faithful at Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer residence in the Alban Hills near Rome.

So much for that one. Next, the statement that the Pope apologized for his comments. Well not really. From the Boston Globe:

The Pontiff said on Sunday he was deeply sorry Muslims had been offended by his use of a medieval quotation on Islam and holy war. But he stopped short of retracting a speech seen as portraying Islam as a religion tainted by violence.

Saying you are sorry that someone was offended is not the same as saying you are sorry for offending someone. Semantics, yeah. But these semantics are very important since they decide where blame lies In the former, the blame lies with the offended - you took offense, it's your problem - whereas on the latter the blame lies with the offend - I offended you, it's my problem. There is a big difference, and Muslims know it. Also from the Boston Glob (emph. mine)e:

Al Qaeda militants in Iraq vowed war on "worshippers of the cross" and protesters burned a papal effigy on Monday over Pope Benedict's comments on Islam.

"We shall break the cross and spill the wine ... God will (help) Muslims to conquer Rome ... (May) God enable us to slit their throats, and make their money and descendants the bounty of the mujahideen,"

Slit their throats? Break the cross? Spill the wine? Conquer Rome?......What exactly was it that Muslims were protesting again (emph mine):

In a broader talk rejecting any religious motivation for violence, Benedict cited the words of a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as “evil and inhuman,” particularly “his command to spread by the sword the faith.”

Sounds like the command of the sword is alive and well, and not in an old text somewhere. They really showed the rest of the world. I've never seen a group protest a comment they believe to be stereotypical and offensive by behaving in the offensive and stereotypical way. So why are they protesting? Iis this was some truth that couldn't be found out? The best thing I've read so far is an article from the Jerusalem Post where they interview a priest in Beirut. I leave you with his closing remarks, which hit the nail in the head:

"It is high time that Islam deal with modernity; not to be swallowed up by it, but rather to take what good it has to offer and improve on it," he said.