Lefty PEN "Pals"

Phyllis Chessler i.d.'s a few of the PEN members who protested their organization's Charlie Hebdo-honouring event:

Some of these distinguished signatories include the biographer of a Jewish-American woman who converted to Islam and who became the leading propagandist in Pakistan for radical Islam; a writer who believes that Israel’s Gay Pride marches and other gay-friendly policies are only “pinkwashing;” a writer who believes that America’s policies abroad are wrong, all and always wrong; a writer who is obsessively pro-Palestinian. 

This shows how far left our leading literary lights have become; it also shows the extent to which so many leftists receive major literary prizes (The Man Booker Prize, etc.). 

Those who may be greatly talented are not spared the most vulgar prejudices of the day.  

Their foolish protest is a betrayal of the very civilization that has allowed them to flourish.

It's worse than foolish. It's suicidal.

Update: Most names on the petition are unfamiliar to me. The ones I recognized include: Eve Ensler (who wrote that play about loquacious lady parts); Wallace Shawn (height-challenged character action, son of a former editor of The New Yorker); Joyce Carol Oates (prolific author of unread novels); and Junot Diaz (angry dude; wrote a novel that won the Pulitzer a few years back).