I think we have our "assassination of the archduke" moment, the classic "yup, it all snowballed from there" instigation.

Sure, knocking down a couple of buildings and slaughtering thousands got us riled up, but it takes two to tangle, and a lot of the billion-plus muslims are now seething as the head of the christian religion seemingly called their religion's head-dude evil and inhumane.

Cartoons? Smartoons. This is the POPE after all. Now it's really party time.

So now it's the islamist cult leaders who are really taking the ball and running with it. Nope, it doesn't matter anymore what the pope said, or how many times he apologizes. What matters is that this played right into their hands, perfectly, giving them the final reason to open their pandora's box.

I submit this from the real leader of Iran:

In Iran, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei used the comments to call for protests against the United States. He argued that while the pope may have been deceived into making his remarks, the words give the West an "excuse for suppressing Muslims" by depicting them as terrorists.

"Those who benefit from the pope's comments and drive their own arrogant policies should be targeted with attacks and protests," he said, referring to the United States.

And I submit this from a whacko-islamist group:

Another Iraqi extremist group, Ansar al-Sunna, challenged "sleeping Muslims" to prove their manhood by doing something other than "issuing statements or holding demonstrations."

"If the stupid pig is prancing with his blasphemies in his house," the group said in a Web statement, referring to the pope, "then let him wait for the day coming soon when the armies of the religion of right knock on the walls of Rome."

And from our friends in al-qaida:

Al-Qaida in Iraq said Muslims would be victorious and addressed the pope as "the worshipper of the cross" saying "you and the West are doomed as you can see from the defeat in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and elsewhere. ... We will break up the cross, spill the liquor and impose the 'jizya' tax, then the only thing acceptable is a conversion (to Islam) or (being killed by) the sword."

Dammit - another tax! Right when my property tax was going up and my ARM adjusting!

So stay tuned HP'ers. And yes, it all goes together.