It is true that Salman Rushdie as an author is more well known than he is read. But I don't think this is unusual. In general, celebrities and people who receive these types of honors can only be appreciated by a select audience. For instance, how many people have read A. S. Byatt? She is one of my favorite authors and a dame. I think she deserved the honor. I'm sure most Rushdie readers think the same about him. (As of yet, I am not a reader.) For the rest of us, he's just another guy who got knighted for something. We shouldn't support him for his work if it is meaningless to us. We should support him for what he represents: free speech. Salman Rushdie may not have chosen to be a symbol of free speech, but he has accepted that it is now his role. He doesn't deserve our pity or our resentment, and if anything his example should inspire us to fight extremism, even if he does not personally inspire us. The response of the Islamic world is a travesty and only highlights how dangerous tyranny is, whether it's islamofascism or Russian "democracy" or Chavez in Chile. Just as the Chinese have the right to see friends' photos on flickr, Great Britain has the right to honor a distinguished citizen, and we have the right to read (or not) his books.

You are right.I remember getting out of a tube station in London many years ago and being faced by a young Muslim who wanted me to sign a petition against Rushdie and for the Fatwa. Despite thinking that Rushdie is an untalented, prententious prat, I would defend his right to write what he wants and enraged by the guy, I took the petition from him and made to tear it up (I wish I had) and told him "You are lucky you live in our country (UK) where you can do what you are doing. Get out of my face before I stuff this petition down yours. We have spent centuries working for freedom of speech, even for those we disagree with, to have it subverted by idiots like you." He was shocked. What a surprise! I should have realised that his attitude and militancy presaged the nonsense we are beset by today. Nevertheless, it is our right to award Rushdie the knighthood and not theirs to tell us what we should do. Mind you, being locked into 7th Century does make it hard to live in 21st Century.

Call me crazy, but since when has Chavez been from Chile?

Maybe he meant Pinochet, the brutal dictator who was installed by the US gov. President Nixon provided $10 million for the CIA to carry out the "coup". It was not the first time that the US ousted a democratically elected president just to be replaced with a dictator of her liking.Yep. Thats the US, the champion of freedom and democracy.

Chavez is the president of Venezuela.