smile_man wrote:Then why not burn every religious text you can get your hands on?
Best idea I've heard in years <------see, smiley. I don't get it though -- if someone buys something and wants to burn it, why shouldn't they? Book, flag, underpants, Beatles records, crackers...what's the difference? I agree it's stupid, but is there a list of your own property you're not allowed to do what you like with somewhere? Seems a little illogical to me. Can I burn an L Ron Hubbard book? Deliah Smith's cookbook? The God Delusion? Bus ticket? Copy of GQ? Although I agree this guy is an asshat, I'm conflicted; it's not illegal to be an asshat, and it's not illegal to burn a book that you own (last time I looked). I chucked a copy of the Watchtower some inconsiderate asshat jammed in my door (despite being told twice before neither he nor his sky faerie wasn't welcome, and yes I know who it was) in the woodstove - I needed some kindling and it was probably the better option given that the alternative was to hunt down the guy that decided to invade my space with it and shove it up his ass where it came from.
Good deals done with all these guys Canada, we put the "u" in satire
smile_man wrote:Then why not burn every religious text you can get your hands on?
Best idea I've heard in years <------see, smiley. I don't get it though -- if someone buys something and wants to burn it, why shouldn't they? Book, flag, underpants, Beatles records, crackers...what's the difference? I agree it's stupid, but is there a list of your own property you're not allowed to do what you like with somewhere? Seems a little illogical to me...
I agree it does seem a little illogical. If I burned a religious text in protest, I would feel uncomfortable if the government came in and said you can't do that. But it's different in this case. They're censoring the asshat's way of portraying his message, because it would make it look like the asshat was speaking for the US; not the asshat speaking for himself.
It seems to be hard for Americans to tell the difference between a group within another society speaking for that group, while not speaking for their society as a whole. Where this message is extremely inflamatory and directed towards another culture, and it's difficult to distinguish between whether or not an individual is speaking for their culture or themselves, it only makes sense that the government would want to distance themselves from that message.
Which, in this case, means telling an asshat not to burn a Quran.
As I mentioned in my OP I'm not saying they don't have the right to burn the Quran,...but what sense does it make to piss off a bunch of fundamentalists (not that there aren't christian fundamentalists) with an agenda of violence towards the US. This isn't a self preservation thing,...I'm not too worried about my own safety but doing something like this just invites another 9/11 incident and more ammunition for fundamentalist anti-west propaganda. I won't deny people the right to burn a flag as a form of protest but in my opinion this desire to burn the Quran isn't about protest,...this is about hatred and bigotry and hate begets hate. Nazis didn't burn books in the name of protest,...they burnt them in the name of censorship and oppression.
Again I'm completely against the fallacy that is organized religion and this is just all the more reason.
FWIW I do plan on buying a Quran and reading it. I've read portions of the bible too, but it's mainly a show of support and to show that not all Americans are FUCKING RETARDED.
As much as I think it's unfortunate that we have given this wack job in Florida a platform through which to vomit up his personal mix of racist, bigoted, xenophobic bullshit... I do believe that important conversations are happening as a result. Not just "it's wrong to burn (holy) books" but *why* it's wrong to burn them.
devnulljp wrote:I don't get it though -- if someone buys something and wants to burn it, why shouldn't they? Book, flag, underpants, Beatles records, crackers...what's the difference? I agree it's stupid, but is there a list of your own property you're not allowed to do what you like with somewhere? Seems a little illogical to me. Can I burn an L Ron Hubbard book? Deliah Smith's cookbook? The God Delusion? Bus ticket? Copy of GQ? Although I agree this guy is an asshat, I'm conflicted; it's not illegal to be an asshat, and it's not illegal to burn a book that you own (last time I looked). I chucked a copy of the Watchtower some inconsiderate asshat jammed in my door (despite being told twice before neither he nor his sky faerie wasn't welcome, and yes I know who it was) in the woodstove - I needed some kindling and it was probably the better option given that the alternative was to hunt down the guy that decided to invade my space with it and shove it up his ass where it came from.
You should be able to burn any of your personal possessions whenever you want to, but this guy is doing it on a very public scale. I can understand people not wanting him to do it (I don't necessarily agree with them), as they are scared of the repercussions of his actions, everybody (exaggeration of course) is afraid of Muslims since 9/11 and this guy isn't helping.
warwick.hoy wrote:FWIW I do plan on buying a Quran and reading it. I've read portions of the bible too, but it's mainly a show of support and to show that not all Americans are FUCKING RETARDED.
I heard the dude is going into talks with the Mosque boss about them moving it away from the ground zero site? I think that is probably what he wanted all along, but it seems like such an extreme thing to do, it reminds me of that scene in Indiana Jones... you know the one where he meets Hitler?
jdavyd wrote:He has stated publicly that they promised to move the Park 51 center in exchange for him suspending the book burning, which was never the case.
I encourage anyone that's interested to look into this guy's past. He started at least one church before this one, and they kicked him out. Yes, he was kicked out of the church that he founded. Why? He used church funds to pay off some of his own debt. What a guy!
If I may add my $0.02...It seems that this event is causing two central problems. 1.) it's making the U.S. look really horrible in front of the Muslim world, as if they needed any more ammo against us. 2.) It's making Christians (like myself) look like bigotted idiots in front of everybody else..in our own country, I might add.
Just my opinion..but I felt this point should be brought up.. And, yes, I realize my points are rather obvious..just felt I shouldn't keep silent.
Last edited by StudioShutIn on Fri Sep 10, 2010 3:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
<------see, smiley.
