THERE ARE MANY REASONS TO be annoyed, flabbergasted, enraged, amused, resigned or cynically justified by the actions of the idiot in Gainesville who wants to burn the Quran. Here is mine:
(First, though: I use the term “idiot” strictly as a measure of accuracy, not of my own admitted scorn and disbelief. Funk & Wagnall tell me “idiot” is derived from the Greek word “idios,” which means “one’s own.” Use in a technical philosophical sentence, a la Philip K. Dick: “Two worlds there are: the idios kosmos, or private world; and the koinos kosmos, or shared world.”)
One who believes that his actions affect no one else is living in his own little world. One who further believes that he is exempt from those actions’ consequences is living even littler. Most people grow out of that world around the time they quit wearing diapers. I don’t know what his excuse his — nor do I care, except as cautionary tale — but I am grateful that he provides a polar opposite to something most of the rest of us aspire to be. For providing a spectacular “bad example” — one that’s truly exemplary for its inbred viciousness, fear, and willful stupidity — I thank you.
Now please. Go away.
You Can't Stop The Signal:
I suddenly want to get a new T-shirt: “I’m not with stupid”.
Ignorant and desperate. Describes Osama, the Taliban, and him.
I wish that ignorant and desperate people like him would simply be ignored but he’s controversial and that seems to be the media’s lone criteria.
I didn’t even make that leap. Thanks for tearing my heart out. :)
That’s why I’m here! ;-)
That SOB is going to get so many people hurt overseas. Wish there were some way to prosecute religious intolerance. He said on Chris Matthews that not even Dubya (someone he says he respects) could dissuade him. “Dr.” Jones is pure evil, gawd he’s vile.
Plus he’s got the same name of one of my favorite Pythoneers, which is just weird.
It makes me wonder, how long before our Kristallnacht?
I think that’s what some of these idiots (again, it’s a technical term) are spoiling for. I don’t know in what America the idiots live (again, it’s a technical term), but mine doesn’t put up with such dis-ease.
And he’s loving the publicity. Apparently his group is very tiny (30 congregants at services last week) yet he has turned himself into a Mighty Mouth. He says he’s still listening for God’s ‘guidance’ and may yet change his mind. Who wants to bet that God’ll come through in the 11th hour — mission accomplished: he got all the publicity he wanted for his sick point of view, and he will never actually touch match to holy book. The inmates are no longer just running the asylum: they’ve become the Board of Directors and sole shareholders.
Unfortunately, he’s receiving far more publicity than he deserves.
Yah — I declined to use his name for that reason. But as someone who’s occasionally loudly religious, I feel the need for a little distance. Must be Rosh Hashana Fever!