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http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/09/11/new.york.jones/index.html?hpt=T1&iref=BN1>>
>>As Gail Collins wrote in the NY Times the other day, I am not going to mention his name so as to avoid encouraging him further. For a pastor of a nothing congregation in Florida he sure has generated a whirlwind of public attention. Virtually every U.S. political and military leader has weighed in. Muslims have certainly take notice. I guess you can be a nobody, shout "I have a bomb!", and then you're somebody. He lit the fuse for sure.
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>>The ones I am really disappointed in are the news media. There are crazies and publicity seekers everywhere, all the time. That doesn't mean you have to put them in the news and stoke the fire. He didn't need to be paid any attention.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/opinion/09collins.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=gail%20collins%205%%20doctrine%20article&st=cse>>
>>I really am trying to stay out of the political threads but please allow me this one comment re the Quran burning debate. Imagine it the other way around. What if some imam said he was going to burn a bible or wipe his a** with it? Would you not be incensed at him and possibly his entire country?
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>I had been thinking exactly the same - what if it were the other way round?
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>The BBC had an interesting comment about differences between Europe and the United States - it seems that in the United States, the federal government is virtually powerless (against the fanatic priest), because of the laws related to freedom of speech. It is equally powerless against (for example) people who deny the Holocaust - which denial is illegal in about 15 European countries. At least, they are powerless as long as there is no physical violence, threat of it, or direct incitation.
True. And I am glad for the freedom of speech. IMO it is our most profound freedom. Whether what you say is right or wrong, you can say it and not be jailed or killed for saying it. Your fellow citizens are free to form opinions of you based on what you say but you can say it.
For the same reason I am not worried about the Islamic center in Manhattan. I believe it's innocuous, if possibly provocative. And if their intentions are more sinister, which I consider highly unlikely, that would be an incredibly dumb place to host a sleeper cell. Don't they wait in sleepy suburbs of San Diego or places like that?
We should not project the blame for 9/11 to all Muslims. It's stupid. Over and out....
