THE TRIBUNE'S VIEW
Muslim cartoons
By HENRY J. WATERS III, Publisher, Columbia Daily Tribune 
Here at the Tribune, our newsroom held a meeting. "Do you think we should reprint the Danish cartoons?" the manager said. Nearly everyone said, "No. They are too offensive to some people, and the benefit is not worth it."

JOHN DARKOW CARTOON

OPEN COLUMN
Absent basketball fans give MU a bad TV image
Editor, the Tribune: For those University of Missouri-Columbia Tigers fans who spend all that hard-earned money on Section A tickets: Shame on you. I don’t care if Missouri is 0-24; I don’t care if you question Quin Snyder’s coaching ability; I don’t care if the game is televised on ESPN at 8 p.m. - you have a responsibility to show up.

OPEN COLUMN
Denying the president a weapon aids the enemy
Editor, the Tribune: As a veteran of World War II and the Korean "police action," I can have only contempt for those politicians and media reporters who made public the administration’s use of wiretaps. A commander must use every possible means to defeat the enemy. No doubt President George W. Bush knew that to seek permission from a congressional committee would cause information about the project to be distributed to the media almost immediately.

OPEN COLUMN
Sometimes a mistake warrants a second chance
Editor, the Tribune: After I read the article in the Jan. 29 Tribune about "no second chance" Spike Angle, a Kansas City police officer, I laughed.

Democracy is neither quick nor easy
By MONA CHAREN
President George W. Bush is assailed from the left as a rights-violating, murderous warmonger. Cindy Sheehan: "George Bush still continues his evil rhetoric that he is waging a war on terrorism, and he is really waging a war of terrorism against the world." And from the right, the president stands accused of pathetic naivete for promoting democracy. Why would anyone want that job?

Senators must exercise authority on spying
By DAVID S. BRODER
No member of the Senate is more conservative than Sam Brownback of Kansas - a loyal Republican, an ardent opponent of abortion and, not coincidentally, a presidential hopeful for 2008.

President’s 12-step program off to a shaky start
President George W. Bush said in his State of the Union address that America is addicted to oil. We take you now to a meeting at an undisclosed location, where participants are struggling with a 12-step program:

Responsibility tempers press freedom
Press freedom is a sacred bedrock principle in the United States. But it’s not likely that American newspapers will follow their European counterparts and reprint the dozen cartoons and caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that have outraged the Islamic world.

Idaho host goes out on a limb
By DAVE BARRY
There is a simple explanation for why I wound up dangling from a rope 75 feet in the air over a beaver dam somewhere in Idaho: I was a house guest.

Riots confirm newspaper’s point
By TRUDY RUBIN
Here is the most important thing you need to know about the Danish cartoon controversy: The story revolves less around a few provocative drawings than it does around political manipulation of the drawings.

STAY IN TOUCH
The Tribune welcomes your comments on issues, and we offer several ways to contact us.