The Buffalo News ran a story today on the local Borders Books and Music outlets and their refusal to carry a community newspaper. See: Borders bans local magazine. The flap is over that newspaper’s reprinting of the famous Danish cartoons. Here’s the key reason:

A Borders spokeswoman said the company declined to sell the Amherst-based publication this month out of concern for the safety of employees and customers.

I’m just wondering if Borders peruses all the publications it carries to assure that they do not offend anyone’s sensibilities. I imagine that Borders carries the Satanic Verses. As a matter of fact they do —“ in hardcover and paperback. I’m also pretty sure that the Western New York Border’s outlets carry a lot of stuff Christians, Jews, and others might find offensive.

If they decide to be sensitive to all I think their business model will collapse.

Then again, when you’re working from a perspective of fear, anything is allowable. Just remember, unless you’re a dhimmi anything you say and do is offensive.