When I first started this blog, I intended to write mainly about my personal cultural and social interests, with an emphasis on novels and novel-writing – in an effort to engage my audience and let them know me as the author of WHAT IT WAS LIKE. I also thought that I would observe the "Ground Rules" that the narrator of my book establishes at the beginning: "No Swearing, No Religion, No Politics, and as little as possible about the War."

But when something happens like what happened in Paris on Wednesday, the massacre at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, I have to say something.

That's because what happened in Paris is a direct threat to me and every living writer.

I really don't care what religion people practice – as long as it doesn't impinge on my freedom of expression.

And my right to make fun of that religion.

I don't understand this whole concept of "blasphemy." If the Anglican Church believed in the concept of blasphemy, there would have been no "Monty Python's Life of Brian." And, for that, the world would indeed be a poorer place.

"BLESSED ARE THE CHEESEMAKERS!"

Maybe what the Muslim world needs is a "Monty Python's Life of Muhammad." But somehow I think anyone who made that movie would not be alive very long. (I can imagine what fun it would be to see John Cleese as the Prophet and Terry Jones as his nine-year-old bride Aisha.)

Of course, I won't say anything here that could possibly offend a Muslim. I don't want to get my head cut off or get shot like the cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo.

Unfortunately, now the face of Islam is, to the world, the face of terror. The threat of radical Islamists is why we all have to stand on line for hours, going through security, every time we want to fly on a plane. No other reason.

Even satirists as sharp and on-the-edge as Matt Stone and Trey Parker knew enough not to have even one tiny, itty-bitty, little joke about Islam in "The Book Of Mormon."

Why? Because these radical Islamic jihadists are f**king crazy.

They will kill you over a cartoon or a joke. Didn't they ever hear "Stick and stones will break my bones / But names will never harm me?" If God is that great, He probably appreciates a good joke every so often. Didn't He give us a sense of humor in order to get through this hard, hard life?

With radical Islam, we are dealing with primitive, infantile, medieval, aggressive thinking.

And it must be fought. On several fronts.

Evil people are going have to be defeated. They won't be wished away.

(More on this soon.)