What isn't Offensive?

I let out a big chuckle in the break-room this morning. Why? This letter in this morning's Strib...

Being overly sensitive

Might Star Tribune readers be allowed a look at the cartoons that sparked protests around the Muslim world?

Not likely. According to editor Anders Gyllenhaal, the paper doesn't publish offensive and "purposely sacrilegious" cartoons "just to prove that we can."

Not reported were other elements of the paper's religious inoffensiveness initiative -- which now curtails coverage of evolution, intelligent design, stem-cell research, homosexuality, pork and beef production, predestination and transsubstantiation. Saturday and Sunday papers have been discontinued, respecting Judeo-Christian traditions.

Gyllenhaal's remarks were cut short when the lights went out. It was not immediately known whether the power cut honored Amish or Gaian sensibilities.

PAUL ZORN, NORTHFIELD, MINN.

I laughed not only because it's well done, but hits on two truths. The Strib's hypocracy in dealing with religiously offensive material, and the fact that if we refuse to print that which is offensive to someone, we are left with a blank page. Which, in the Strib's case would be an approvement.