President Obama, who resolutely refused to take a position on the wisdom of building a Muslim center two blocks from Ground Zero, has unequivocally said that he thinks Jones burning Korans is a terrible idea. The obvious difference is that he thinks lives aren’t at stake in the building of a mosque, but firmly believes Americans will be at risk in this display of contempt.
Meanwhile Jones is claiming that if someone from the White House or the government contacted him, he would “seriously reconsider.” This is coming across more and more like a low-rent cult leader looking for publicity than anything else.
And just so everyone’s clear on my position on this: I regard it the exact same way that I do flag burning. It’s protected speech, yet it doesn’t seem particularly constructive because the image is so inflammatory (no pun intended) that people are too busy getting pìššëd øff to listen to what you have to say.
PAD
UPDATED 6:14 PM–So apparently Reverend Nutjob has decided to cool his jets, with the dubious claim that the builders of the proposed NY Muslim Center have agreed to find a new location. Whatever. Basically he got the publicity he sought, so mission accomplished.
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Jones is little more than Fred Phelps, hating Muslims instead of gays.
Is it the equivalent of yelling “Fire!” in a crowded movie theatre?
Falsely. Falsely shouting fire in a crowded theater, is the correct quote from Schenck Vs. US. A case that had nothing to do with theaters, crowds, or fires of any kind, it should be noted, and also the decision that first presented the concept of “clear and present danger.”
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It’s one thing when, say, “South Park” wants to show Mohammed on screen (as they did, with absolutely no trouble, in an earlier episode) in order to underscore that Islam should be no more exempt from satirical commentary than, say, Christianity. It’s another to burn books. Again: Any tactic which was embraced by the Third Reich, not to mention the KKK, is generally one that should be avoided, because that’s really not the company anyone should want to be keeping.
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PAD
Yeah, this is not shouting fire, but inciting riots. Further, inciting violence is still protected speech.
That being said, “Fighting Words” isn’t protected, such as baiting someone else to start a fight – you could still be found guilty of starting it, not being a matter of self defense.
Inciting violence is notprotected speech.
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I just wish the press would stop giving this guy so much air time. It’s goofy as hëll watching a news program discuss how the publicity and coverage of this thing may endanger the troops abroad… while giving it 15 minutes of publicity and coverage. I have no doubt the idiots will show footage of the actual event while discuss how images of the event will inflame anti-American sentiment.
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At this point I’m of the mind that I am with flag burners. It’s basically one lone nut trying to show what an ignorant ášš he can be by burning the flag. Let him have his moment of stupidity, but just ignore him. If he doesn’t get the reaction he wants he might go away for a while. Give him what he wants and he’s just going to pull a similar stunt again.
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Same here.
Almost makes one miss all the news reports on Paris Hilton’s latest idiocy. At least she just cost us some brain cells. Not whatever damages might ensue from the possible riots.
I think Obama made a mistake here but it is one that is entirely understandable and was done with the best intentions…and frankly, I might do the same thing, even while knowing it’s a mistake.
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There WILL be riots. There are those who are looking for any excuse to harm their enemies. Already, some Christian Churches in majority Muslim countries have been threatened. Whether those making the treats give a rat’s patootie about some kook in Florida is doubtful.
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Everything Obama said about it is correct…but I see no positive result from his making the effort. For one thing, it may give the impression to those in other countries that the president has some real power in all this, which he doesn’t. If the pastor goes ahead, as I expect he will, the president looks powerless, which is a bad message to send. If the nut gets his phone call we can expect to see this repeated every week and either the president will have to appoint an Annoying Nut Czar or we will just be putting off the inevitable moment when we run up against one that is not placated.
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I appreciate the effort. But it’s wasted and may do more harm than good in the long run, in my opinion. Better to stand above it, ignore it as much as possible and if it’s brought up, dismiss it as the rantings of an unimportant kook who is of no consequence.
I think the President should appoint an Annoying Nut Czar – with that title. The ANC’s job would be to deal with all the stupid nutcases who want to prove how big they are by insisting on holding their breath (or whatever their childish gig is) until they get official Presidential attention.
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I’m thinking this would be a great job for almost anyone from Jersey Shore – it takes one to know one, after all…
Very likely he hasn’t stated a public opinion (though even I desperately want him to) in that it could be taken as someone using the highest office to “legislate” morality through rhetoric. Basically, what Obama thinks about the matter is irrelevant to whether or not people have the right to protest. It becomes a problem he can speak on once it becomes a matter of national security.
Book burning is a symbol, and it is largely a symbol of intolerence. PZ Myers, for example, desecrated a holy symbol which brought criticism from the Catholic church. He had the right to do so, and they had the right to criticism. In much the same way, this group has the right to burn Holy books. The problem being that when other Muslims had perceived religions slights before, such as due to the infamous Muhammad cartoon, it has been a problem.
To further this issue, members of the Muslim faith is precisely the group that Obama is attempting to build bridges with, and this, more than protest against the Mosque, sends a broad message about this country, regardless of the few that will actually be doing this.
Personally, I wanted Obama to take a stand for or against the Mosque, but I see now why that would be against his own presidency. Obama is attempting to lead by example, to take the high road rather than moralize or lecture (even though he gets accused of this all of the time). He does not comment about the Mosque because he refuses to make it a wedge issue, but rather make it a debate that needs to happen.
Book burning could be going too far.
Regarding the comments about Myers, um, I’ve not read that the CHURCH criticized him, but only that the f***ing bûŧŧmûņçh Bill Donohue has done the only widespread criticizing. Donohue, as far as I’m aware, has NO official standing with the Catholic Church (in point of fact, he’s divorced which is, last time I checked, a big no-no with the Church). Donohue is just as big a nutcase as the lunatic who leads the “Dove World Outreach Center” and deserves just as little attention.
True enough. I should have said “several Catholics”, and yes, one very outspoken one.
I love it when people from the government speak out against the burning of this book. They must have forgotten:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/05/20/us.military.bibles.burned/
If this was remotely analogous, you’d have a relevant point there. As it stands, it’s just an interesting aside.
I see nothing in that article to suggest that the military burned the bibles for any reason other than to dispose of them.
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Jones is not burning the Korans to dispose of them. He is doing it to make a statement.
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Now, it could be argued that the military’s action also sent a statement. I think that statement is, “We aren’t allowed to try and convert people, that isn’t what we are here to do.”
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That is a much different statement, on every level, than Jones’s statement of, “I hate those guys.”
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Theno
The article says it all. Proselytizing is against US Military laws. That chaplain was out ot line in telling the soldiers to go forth and evangelize. They’re soldiers, not missionaries.
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And the chaplain also tried to weasel his way out of it, claiming that evangelizing was not the same as proselytizing, so it was not forbidden. Ridiculous.
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Well James, since the Administration speaking out against the burning is Obama’s and the one who did the burning you’re linking to was Bush’s then it’s a bit apples and potatoes.
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Besides that it’s not really relevant based on the actions and intents of the involved parties in the two cases.
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It’s also been brought up in an earlier thread as well.
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http://www.peterdavid.net/index.php/2010/09/08/i-wonder-if-this-counts-as-a-clear-and-present-danger/comment-page-1/#comment-182719
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http://www.factcheck.org/2009/05/burned-bibles/
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I understand the pastor has the right to express his opinion but with that right to quote Uncle Ben Parker “comes great responsibiltiy”. I hope he is ready for the backlash and I am sure there are some Muslim nut jobs that are ready to get even. I am watching CNN and it was just reported that some Federal agents came to see the pastor and left without saying a word to the media and also on Saturday students from the University of Florida are planning a protest. This could get ugly quick and I hope that reason will prevale. Maybe a quick prayer to the deity of your choice might not hurt either.
Ann Althouse makes a good point–as repulsive as the motives behind this are, it’s not really logical to compare it to the Nazi book burners, who, as I understand it, took books that did not belong to them and burned them. Plus, of course, the actions of a private citizen kook are a lot less ominous that evil perpetrated by official government sanction.
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If they try to stop it on the grounds of some bogus “no burning papers in city limits” clause, does anyone think that will end it? he could tear out the pages one by one and flush them, which sounds even worse. he could rub pig fat on them. he could take a pen and write “in bed” at the end of every sentence. Whatever, the point is we cannot legislate away offensive people. Nor do we want to. I am sorry for the offense needlessly inflicted on believers but I would also caution them to understand that if the fact that we allow such things to exist is intolerable to them, well, we have a problem. Because we are not going to change the constitution to make life more tolerable for people who demand it from behind the barrel of a gun.
Whether the books were taken/stolen or donated doesn’t really matter. Nor does it matter if it’s government sanctioned or not.
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It’s the symbolism of the act that matters. And in that regard, this is exactly the same as the Nazis: it is all about attempting to destroy an ideology that differs from your own. It doesn’t really matter (to me at least) if it’s the Koran, or CD’s of “devil music”, and so on.
Ok, we will have to disagree. It is a huge deal if the government takes your stuff and burns it. It is a few magnitudes less of a deal when you take your stuff and burn it.
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Saying that it is just the symbolism that matters means that if anyone anywhere burns books we are in just as bad a position as the Jews in Germany were? Puh-leeze. The actions of Pastor Jáçkášš, stupid as they are, does not in any way presage the kind of horrors that the book burnings in Germany were signaled.
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Not too long ago Minnesota Professor P.Z. Myers announced, and as far as I know, carried out, a plan to take consecrated host from a Catholic church and flush it down the toilet. He laso announced his intention to destroy a Koran, just to show no favoritism in his desire for cheap publicity, I guess.
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My question to you is–was he “exactly the same as the Nazis”?
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On another note, it does not exactly help the cause of Muslims in the world when the entire planet seems convinced that innocents will die because the actions of one man will inflame members of that religion. If that is to be believed one must wonder if Islam has any place in the modern world, a place where anyone at any time can treat it as they wish and broadcast that opinion across the globe.
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Craig, I think you’re taking the idea a bit far. I’ll say to you the same thing I said to the people calling Bush a Nazi, Peter in his “The Rise of McCainism” thread and the people that call Obama a Maoist, Stalinist or whatever other militaristic/oppressive dictator fits their fancy.
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This guy is a full on nutjob. He’s not a Nazi. His actions are not like those of the Nazis. His are in no real way comparable in scope and scale to the actions of the Nazis any more than a guy who kills one person in a holdup is truly comparable to mass murderer or serial killer.
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If you have to jump to that extreme this soon in the discussion it’s making your side, which is in fact my side as well to some degree, look weak and foolish. It also makes you look like you have zero comprehension of the magnitude of the crimes and sins of the Nazi Party and I dámņëd sure know you know better in that department.
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Hyperbole can be your friend. I can also be counter productive. Yeah, I have to take my own advice about that from time to time and don’t, but it’s none the less true. Or, to quote the great bard –
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“Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.”
Douglas Adams
“Whether the books were taken/stolen or donated doesn’t really matter. Nor does it matter if it’s government sanctioned or not.”
Er, as Bill points out, there’s a huge difference between someone wasting a pile of cash to buy out every copy of a book at the shop just to then destroy them as an affront to literature, and breaking into someone’s home to steal their copy and burn it. The latter is theft, it’s illegal.
As for government sanction, that, too is very different. If an individual or a group of private citizens decide to buy out every copy of some author’s work and destroy them, that’s one thing. For the government to decree that every copy of that same book should be seized and burned, that’s something else altogether. I’m not crazy about the former, but agree they should have the right to do so, foolish though it may be. The latter, on the other hand scares the stuffings out of me.
Craig, I think you’re taking the idea a bit far.
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And I think you’re both taking my comments out into left field.
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Hyperbole: This guys is going to start World War III because he’s burning the Koran.
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Truth, which is apparently stranger than hyperbole: Nazis burned books because they did not like the ideas presented within. This guy is burning the Koran because he does not like the ideas presented within.
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THIS PARTICULAR COMPARISON is quite logical, even if there’s no Holocaust or world takeover plot on this nutjob’s part (although I wouldn’t put it past him).
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It is about destroying ideas. End of Story. Anything read into it beyond that is your own imagination running wild.
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But then, I have to wonder why Bill even brought up the Nazis in the first place.
In the spirit of accuracy, Craig, I’m pretty sure I brought it up first, saying that adapting the tactics of the Third Reich is something that people should be wary of.
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PAD
While I don’t think Pastor Jáçkášš’s (nice nickname) actions are as scary as what went down in Germany, I have no doubt that he would love to take your books too, if only he could.
The more I learn about this nutjob, the less I like him. Seems he was expelled from a church in Germany, because he was accused of stealing money from the church and mistreating and exploiting the church folk.
Thanks, PAD. I figured it was mentioned somewhere, but I just wasn’t locating it.
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Graig, this is less about the destroying of ideas and more about a delusional nutjob pulling a braindead stunt to get publicity. And he’s gotten it.
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He’s getting press conferences covered by the national media and the pundits hanging on his every word. And now he’s gone the further step into la-la land and claimed that he’s stopping the burning because his actions have forced the brokering of a deal to move the “ground zero” mosque to a different location.
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He is a nutter looking for publicity and that’s about it.
Kudos to Fox News and the AP for refusing to give this jerk any more publicity than he’s gotten. Both have announced they will not cover the burning, should it occur.
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Apparently Pastor Douchewheel is now saying that he will not go ahead with the planned burning because he has been assured that the New York City mosque will be moved…whatever. of course the Fred Phelps crew is now promising to burn a Koran and hopefully everyone will pay as much attention to them as they did the last time they burned one–not at all.
Bill Mulligan wrote, ” It is a few magnitudes less of a deal when you take your stuff and burn it.”
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And has that made any sort of difference when flag-burning cases have reached the courts or even when flag-burners were arrested in the first place? I wasn’t aware that anyone who decided to burn an American flag had stolen one from a government building or from someone else’s private property (apparently that bit of information wasn’t considered relevant either to the media reporting the stories or the authorities who chose to arrest and prosecute the individuals).
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Not sure where you’re going there, Joseph. It’s not illegal to burn a flag in the US. As a matter of fact the case went to the Supreme Court in the form of Texas VS Johnson and the Supremes ruled that flag burning itself isn’t against the law.
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Shortly after that ruling the same court struck down the arrests made under the Flag Protection Act (interestingly passed under a Congress controlled by Democrats) in their U.S. v. Eichman ruling.
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There are laws still on the books in some states (including here in Virginia) but rarely used (just as we rarely see flag burning.) But the simple fact is that any arrests for it these days are for violations other than simply burning the flag itself or, if the charges are based on primarily flag desecration laws, the charges will be overturned.
Jerry, that is likely the case, but I don’t really try and pretend to know what goes in a brain like that.
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I don’t discount the possibility that he’s an attention whørë AND believes every ugly word he spews.
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Craig, I will very much concede that I may be completely wrong in my assessment of the situation. I don’t know the man or his followers and they could all very well be fanatics who 100% believe in “the cause” and could even do something way over the top that causes nine kinds of hëll to break loose. I think that he’s a slight nutter who is more savvy about playing the press than some may be giving him credit for.
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But, right or wrong, why give him the media exposure or the sense of aggrandizement? I he’s truly a believer and a dangerous nut; watch him but don’t promote him. If he’s a wannabe media whørë; why give him the coverage our discuss him in terms that elevates him and his merry little bunch of cranks beyond the insignificant gnats they should be seen as?
I think it’s pretty clear what Pastor Pusnozzle is: he at first claimed to be doing this because of a genuine sense of outrage against what he said was a false religion as symbolized by a book of lies…then, once he got the publicity he wanted and the heat was on, he backs down and claims it was all to get the mosque developers to back down…which they didn’t but he said they did so, there you go.
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This guy doesn’t even deserve the tiny credit due an actual nutter who believes the foolishness they spew.
I’ve gone back and forth with the mosque / community center. I hate the idea of someone telling another person where they can or cannot build something. In this regard I consider supporting the mosque a conservative viewpoint. Moreover, we weren’t attacked by Muslims; it was radical Muslims who, in another universe where everyone worshiped celestial gumdrops, they’d still find a reason to hate us.
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If a Catholic guy burned down a house, I’d understand if a bunch of well meaning Catholics wanted to go to the town and say “Hey, we’re not like that! Let us explain who we are!” …But then I’d also understand if they need their space. …Then again there’s already a mosque there so it’s not some objectionable concept. …Then again there’s also the suggestion that this is, in general, a stupid place to put a mosque / center and the guy is hoping this frenzy will get him funding (they have NO money for this thing).
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See? I can’t make up my mind on it. One other thing that keeps me flipping around is the fact that the people involved with the community center have been, in my mind, particularly bull headed about the whole ordeal. They have refused to speak on several occasions with various government officials, which doesn’t support their “We want to establish a dialogue” claim. Imam Rauf himself has some insensitive comments regarding 9/11 (though he clearly and strongly condemned it) and he made a remark about the USA having more innocent blood on its hands than Al-Qaeda.
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To be clear, it seems everyone agrees (myself included) that they have the right to build the mosque. This is all over the idea that it should or should not be supported in some fashion. That only matters if you’re going to be involved in the thing (and now we have workers saying they won’t build it). I ultimately wind up throwing up my hands and going “It’s not my business. Do what you want. Just realize you might in fact be a jerk.”
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Now the burning Qur’ans? Stupid, destructive and hurtful. He should turn around and ask himself, cliché aside, if this is what Jesus would do. As a kid I once saw a documentary about the KKK. They had footage of everyone in those terrifying hoods, standing in the night, gathered around a burning cross. I asked myself, “Don’t they realize they look evil?” If you’re standing around a fire fueled by the destruction of religious texts, who do you think you resemble more? God or that other guy?
Of course not. Bad comic book cliches aside, truly evil people never think of themselves that way. If nothing else, they’d need the sort of compassion or conscience to see their acts that way which they lack, otherwise they wouldn’t be performing those evil deeds in the first place.
Well, this gets more interesting, as now Interpol has weighed in:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39079573/ns/world_news/
Here’s what I don’t get about the whole situation. The pastor has obviously never read the Koran…if he did he would know that it references Jesus as a prophet of Muhammed.
See Islam, Christianity and Judism are very much like three guys seeing the same situation from a couple feet a part. Jews are waiting for the messiah, Christians think the messiah is Jesus and Muslims think the messiah is Muhammed. Jesus is a respected figure in the Koran (and a prophet) and I wonder if the pastor would be so hard pressed to burn the book if he knew that.
But then again I think the entire thing is one big stunt.
I dunno… I think there’s more than a couple of feet between “Jesus is a respected figure” and “Jesus is the incarnate Son of God”. Maybe that’s just me.
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On the other hand, this sort of nonsense suggests a lack of familiarity with the Bible too. He might want to start brushing up on that one first.
Um, Jesus is NOT a “prophet of Muhammad.” To Muslims, Jesus (Isa) is a prophet of Allah, just as is Muhammad.
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Also, Muslims do not regard Muhammad as a “messiah.” The Qur’an describes Jesus as “the Messiah.” The idea of messianism is a bit convoluted in Islam since the Qur’an only uses the term “masih” in relation to Jesus (and the word can carry the meaning of “anointed” as “mashiach” does in Hebrew). Most messianic references in Islam come from various hadith which aren’t accepted by all Muslims but virtually all those that do appear refer to Jesus. Shi’a Muslims believe in a Mahdi who will accompany the Messiah (or possibly precede the Messiah) while many Sunni Muslims reject the concept of the Mahdi since there’s no direct mention of such a figure in the Qur’an. (Even though some hadith accredited to Muhammad mention a Messiah, some Muslims don’t fully accept the concept since it requires believing that the Hour of Judgment would then be known, while the Qur’an explicitly states that such foreknowledge is impossible.)
The interesting thing is that the Nutjob is the leader of a conservative cult that believes unmarried males and females should not mingle in most social situations. He would be right at home in theocratic Iran.
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Fanatical creeps really are all the same, no matter what are the particular holy books they’ve chosen. It’s less a matter of religion, and more a matter of too many control freaks being made into leaders.
I have to wonder, what’s the point? What does Jones hope to gain out of this?
Apart from what he’s getting now, attention? He’s getting bad press but it’s still press, and there are always people of a comparably nasty bend out there. His tactics aren’t all that unusual; you find people who are willing to listen to your stupidity, and there are always a few, and tell them what they want to hear, which is usually what’s wrong with the world and who to blame for it. And after awhile, they’ll drag in more people… What Jones is getting now is exactly what he wants. Publicity. And this will end badly no matter what happens next, whether it’s his burning a thousand copies of the Quran or somebody sending an AMRAAM through his church while he’s at the pulpit.
Just to add –
There’s a Mosque IN the Pentagon, and I doubt many people care about that.
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No, there’s a non-denominational chapel in the Pentagon that holds services for employees of all religions. It was built in 2002 where the where the plane struck the building and was dedicated in honor of the passengers of that flight and the employees of the Pentagon who died in the attack.
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It is a place that can be used by Muslims. It is not Mosque.
And if you draw one continuous line through every other point of the Pentagon, you’ll get a pentacle. Yet how many “Christians” complain that the design of America’s military headquarters celebrates Paganism?
Perhaps the part of the story we’re not hearing is that there’s a horrible new Ice Age coming and this guy just wants to hole up in a library and wait for Dennis Quaid to rescue him.
Imagine the protests when Ray Romano and John Leguizamo are the ones to show up.
I think I have to take the media to task for this one. If people had just ignored Pastor Nutjob and his 50-nut congregation, the only people that would have been disturbed might have been somebody from the local firehouse who had to go out and make sure the church lawn wasn’t smoking anymore. But no, we had to give this pinhead a ton of free publicity, which is exactly what he got in the first place. And six months from now, he will have his own reality show and more viewers than he could ever have hoped for in his wildest dreams. Nice work, 24-hour news channels!
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Sadly you’ve largely hit the nail on the head here. He got more coverage for this garbage than anything else he’s ever done and he played it and the media for everything he could get out of it. He’s also pretty much guaranteed coverage for his future endeavors since our news media can’t seem to let go of the largely irrelevant people they’ve made into news celebrities.
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I mean, for crying out loud they were still updating us from time to time on people like Buttafuoco and Fisher up to about three years ago when their 15 minutes should have died out at around minute 5. This nutter is guaranteed to do something else provocative and the press will be there to cover the “9/11 Quran Pastor” and his latest escapades for decades to come.
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In the meantime we’re barely seeing real news stories about what’s going on in the country and in the world. We’re also ignoring stories that are the exact opposite of these this thing. I was watching MSNBC last night and Olbermann had two guys on from down in Memphis. The local church not only rolled out the welcome wagon for the Muslims but they actually started letting them use the church for their services while their center/Mosque is still under construction.
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Why aren’t we covering stories like that just as loudly in our media if the media nitwits themselves are talking about how the negative stories about the Cordoba House and Paster Asshat are damaging our image abroad or endangering our troops by creating the appearance that America is a largely anti-Muslim country?
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Well, other than the fact that their ratings would drop and no one would be talking about it around the water cooler the next day…
Pastor Jones threatened to do something crazy and disgusting, and as a reward, he became a “important person.”
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Another instance where the terrorist has won.
I actually kind of suspect he’ll really regret all the publicity he’s gotten, given that it looks like he’s abusing his religion’s tax-exempt status to avoid paying taxes on his for-profit business. It’d certainly give me a healthy charge of schadenfreude to see him arrested on a RICO charge. 🙂
Avoiding paying taxes? he’ll probably end up working for the federal government. Zing!
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God almighty, I hate even contemplating a defense of this enormous asshat but a lot of what has happened here disturbs me from a first amendment standpoint. One account stated that the real reason that he canceled it was that the locals told him he would be charged for the extra cops and firetrucks and ambulances that would be there just in case there was trouble.
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Now think on that. How easy it would be to essentially ban any speech or political activity you dislike simply by threatening to bankrupt the speaker with proactive measures. Imagine someone is giving a talk in favor of gay marriage at the Kiwanis club and the sheriff and mayor don’t cotton to no queers so they claim that there is a possibility that a group of raging homophobes might show up with lead pipes so they will have to send 500 cops to form an unbreakable perimeter around the building…and they are going to charge the speaker for the cost of this “protection”.
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Now obviously the right to assemble does not give one the right to gather thousands of people and block traffic on a whim, though I’d rather put up with that than live in a place where people can’t assemble, even if I disagree with them. Hëll, I kind of miss the anti-war protesters we used to get around Chapel Hill, with their misspelled anti-Israel posters and “Dissent = Patriotism” shirts (dissent ceased being patriotic around Nov 2008, in case you missed the memo).
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If the only thing preventing abuse by government officials in this manner is their inhernet common sense and decency…God help us all.
Sorry, I meant to say ‘exactly what he WANTED in the first place.’ I don’t want Pastor Jones posting here and correcting my grammar.
And now Reverend Mustachio is re-re-considering according to latest reports.
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Yeah, and wait until he hears that a lower court just ruled “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” unconstitutional. Not only will he be burning Korans, but now he’ll be demanding his happy band of mouth breathers also burn every copy of Queer Eye For the Straight Guy they can find on the discount DVD racks as well.
God, talk about global warming!
Riots, like domestic riots? I thought that the Americans Obama and the Pentagon were interested in protecting were our soldiers.
In fact, if Pastor Jim Jones down there in Florida wants to really set an example, let him and his idiot congregation fly to the far eastern portions of Afghanistan and he can burn all the Korans there in the name of his god, but not in the name of or with protection from the United States. The military, for whom he obviously has no respect, should be as far away as possible. That is, assuming he had any faith and is not the coward I take him as.