Anti-Muslim Mania - Come on Babe, Don't Light that Fire

So some dumb ass Preacher wants to light up copies of the Koran in Florida, right around the same time Ramadan is ending, on the anniversary of 9/11. Sounds like an all-American way to remember our nation's loss: praise Jesus and pass the matches.

I wonder what brain trust talked this preacher man into that one. Probably the same one that told Newt Gingrich it'd be a good idea to get involved in the so-called Ground Zero mosque thing and use the N-word.

Or maybe the preacher man's under alien orders? Maybe some weird alien insect machine-thing is whispering into his ear at night, giving him all kinds of bad ideas that a nice tin foil hat would normally take care of.

Maybe next week the preacher man will announce a "poop in your pants" month so we'll all be grateful for zippers, clean undies, and indoor plumbing. I'm sure Jesus would want that, too.

And ultimately, that's what this preacher-man is doing: crapping all over an already-bad situation. Doesn't he know the adage about what not to throw gasoline on?

I also guess he doesn't know what a dumb ass he's being, based on his poor show on CNN the other day. Sometimes it pays to let someone else do the talking if all you're going to do shoot yourself in the foot while it's down your mouth and out your butt.

Of course, he's got the right to do this. The First Amendment means you have speech you like and speech you don't, and they both get equal protection, and equal opportunity to make more speech of your own if you don't like what the other person's saying.

Some have said that there's no real difference between Park 51 being put two blocks from Ground Zero and the Koran cook-off. After all, they're both highly unpopular, yet protected!

I beg to differ, of course. For one thing, at least something positive might come out of Park 51 being built and used to as its creators have intended.

I have yet to see something positive ever come from taking something that someone reveres and torching it to get a rise. Except maybe the sight of the torchers running for their lives as the reverent decide it's okay to take the low road in this case.

Just kidding on that one - no advocating of violence or censorship from me! I'm totally allergic to such things, just ask Tipper Gore.

I just thought it would be funny to see how quickly the books would wind up on the barbecue if enough Floridians showed up to counter-protest. But maybe these folks are as fearless as they are dumb when they've got Jesus on their side.

But in all seriousness, I don't know whether it's a good thing that "an American majority" both don't want Park 51 going in the old Burlington Coat Factory, two blocks from Ground Zero, and don't want the church to burn the Koran. Is it only okay to hate, hurt, fear, and be ignorant if you don't burn someone's revered objects on top of it, too?

Maybe if we all took a deep breath and tried to walk a few miles in each others' shoes, we'd all be a lot better off. We'd probably also have more blisters and jammed toes, too, though - sometimes understanding makes us bleed.

At any rate, it's tuesday, so in the hopes of people not taking the Lizard King's advice, here's a classic by The Doors. Remember they tried to censor him, too, and failed.