God, I Hate Bigots With Rights

Pastor Terry Jones, the pastor and shepherd of the small flock of The Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, FL, has been caught, yet again, making an effort to burn the Quran.  Exactly 2,998 Qurans, to be exact.  I am not sure if he thinks this number is somehow Divine or if the good reverend just can't count for beans.  In either case, he is a complete moron.  As I graduated from the University of Florida in Gainesville, fortunately a long time before Jones arrived in town, I feel a certain embarrassment at what he says, thinks and does.  It is personal to me in a way.

Let there be no doubt, I strenuously object and otherwise abhor what this nutball thinks and says of another religious group.  Unfortunately, I defend his Right to say what he wants, think what he wants and engage in acts that express that thinking.  I have to go back to the school-age rhyme that starts "sticks and stones..."  Contrary to what we see in the movies, we don't get to smack a guy in the mouth for saying something objectionable.  I will make one personal exception to that, insult my sainted mother and I'll break your jaw.  Call it a claim of personal privilege.

Jack asses like Pastor Jones are one of the many prices we pay to live in a free society.  He is the exception that gives the normal people the Right to be normal.   The expression of his obvious hatred of Muslims, by burning their Holy Book, does have limitations, however. 

At the time he was arrested in Polk County, FL, with 2,998, kerosene-soaked, Qurans, Pastor Jones was on his way to burn them at a location where he had previously been denied a permit to do so.  I am not absolutely sure what the rationale for the denial was, but I can think of one, public safety.  I cannot burn waste paper in my back yard without a permit and the county will not issue me one.  My relatively modest amount of flammable trash would not compare with the fire created by almost 3,000 kerosene-soaked Holy Books.  I would object to the pollution caused by such a burning, and this is based on their paper content, not their designation as Holy.

The above scenario represents a subterfuge to prevent this man from making a statement.  I shall leave it to the lawyers to argue over which value prevails; that is why we have Courts and lawyers.  My preferred way to deal with it is to just brand him the nut job he is and ignore him.  If he held a massive Quran burning and nobody came, nobody wrote about it and the Muslim World embraced his Right to do this stupid and pointless thing, he would eventually just go away.  This man wants to shout at the top of his lungs a position I would spend a lifetime opposing, but I will defend his Right to do it, within limits.  I just wish the Muslim World could see the point.

I do not see Muslims doing nothing and my fellow Liberals will, no doubt, engage in their Right to protest.  In this case and others, I like what my parents taught me, "If you just ignore him, he'll go away."