I wouldn't feel bad if his church got burned in the process while he's doing the Quran burning. What a fucking idiot, and how dumb for the rest of the people to follow him.
The guy's a top grade asshole, but if Jane Fonda can consort with the enemy (North Vietnamese) then this guy has every right to do a very wrong thing as well. I agree with Julius, however, that the R's should liken this to flag burning and show some consistency. If not using the bully pulpit, at least.
agreed. Just because it's crazy, doesn't mean he can't do it. imho, they won't because it won't feed the base that they want. If they come out against it, it'll collect the fringe voter who would probably either not vote at all, or maybe vote for them. but that # is insignificant. But I believe it would probably drive away some of those who they expect to help them have a big R turnout. In this case, the R's are no dummy. But they aren't doing what's right for the country here.
Yeah, and it'll unknowingly help people think that the right is full of lunatics and bigoted xenophobes (which is unfair to state, because this jizz colander shouldn't be a representative of the right).
Keith Olbermann contacted George W Bush, John Boehner, Sarah Palin, Mitch McConnell, Sharron Angle, John McCain and 5 other leading Republicans, sorry, can't remember all the names. Unfortunately, they either did not reply or said no comment. Bush, who said repeatedly that the US is not at war against Islam and who frequented mosques, really has nothing to lose, he's not running for office again. Although not a hell of a lot of top Democrats have said much. Eric Holder is opening an investigation into recent hate crimes against Muslims. Book burning is not a crime. It still would be nice if people across the political spectrum dissociated themselves. I mean, when moveon.org called Petraeus "Betray Us", just a word, the Congress passed a near unanimous resolution against them.
Sure, reverend, go ahead and burn them books. It's your legal right. But also get a will drawn up and don't stand so close to anybody who you wouldn't want to have your brains splattered on. Reminds me when R2D2 was kicking Chewbaka's ass at chess. Some fights you just don't want to win. When extremist religious nutjobs go after each other, all I really care about is the collateral damage.
Nightline did a story on this church last night. 30 members strong and they all wear sidearms to church services.
The worst part about this: A Muslim will kill Rev. Terry Jones and then some Americans will make him out to be a martyr. It will ignite more flames of religious hatred against Muslims.
I'm a bit confused...it's constitutional to burn a flag, but not a book? Someone can protest at a military funeral, but not protest acts made in the name of a religion and its teachings? Policy should be made by whether or not someone's going to get shot? And it's cool to accept if this guy gets killed, because he's taking a stand against something? Don't get me wrong, I think this is absolutely the wrong move, and not one that should be made by any type of religious group. But many of the views expressed on this thread are neither American nor constitutional, and seem hypocritical based on other conversations. Count me as one who won't be happy if anyone kills a man on US soil for expressing his Freedom of Speech. So you're also not going to feel bad if the next time a flag is burned anywhere around the world, we bomb a mosque where a radical cleric "teaches"?
Indeed, you are confused. Nobody is saying it's unconstitutional. Lots of dumb, suicidal things happen all the time that are perfectly constitutional. This is one of them. I won't be really happy or sad if this nutjob gets killed by some other nutjob. I'll mostly shrug and view it as more evidence that Darwin was right. As for caring that he died because he was expressing his first amendment right, well...Just because you have a right to something and do something stupid with that right doesn't make you noble. If a KKK member walked through Harlem expressing his first amendment right to shout racist epithets, I don't see why I should praise him or regret that he gets capped within the first three blocks. It's called personal responsibility. If you make a dumb decision and get killed for it, why should I honor you? The guy is fucking stupid and is going to get himself killed for no reason but blind hatred. I just hope that whoever does kill him doesn't take any innocents with him.
This, btw, is quite a bit different from, say, the "Draw Muhammed Day" from some months back. That was focused on bucking religious zealots who were trying to limit free speech. I had no problem with that (even though I know it also happened to offend a lot of other Muslims). If somebody had been killed over it, I would've been upset. The goal was to protect free speech itself, a worthy cause. I can't see that this priest is doing anything but being an antagonizing dick.
so you're saying that if, say, a Arab man walks through downtown Seattle with a sign saying "Death to America", I can "cap" him? And you won't regret it, b/c of "personal responsibility"? Is it my responsibility as a citizen to remove that "fucking stupid guy expressing his first amendment rights"? Or do I have to wait for a bigoted criminal to do so? And I wouldn't say it's "blind hatred". He has a viewpoint, and believed that the best way to have that viewpoint spread was to perform a demonstration. Seems like he's at least a decent marketer, since people around the world are talking about it. Noble sentiment, I guess, but 180 degrees out from the values the American society is built to maintain.
Um, I don't quite see it. This guy is saying Maybe he's right, maybe he's wrong. I would submit the following as evidence to the latter (from the same article): Let's play the "turn around" game. If the next time a Muslim burns a flag, someone like Franklin Graham or Jeremiah Wright or Jesse Jackson (heck, why limit it to our "clerics"? George W. Bush, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, any Tea Partier) says "when the flag is burned in public, there is nothing left. If this happens, I think the first and most important reaction will be that wherever a Muslim is seem, they will be killed. No matter where they will be in the world they will be killed"...you still on board with that, mook? Death's a bit different than "free speech".
