Lindsey Graham Thinks We Should Appease Barbarians

I expect this sort of thing from Democrats, ever eager to pander to Muslims. But here's Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

the first member of Congress to say the legislature needs to explore the possibility, however unlikely, of limiting some kinds of free speech - like Terry Jones' Quran burning - that help America's enemies.

"I wish we could find a way to hold people accountable. Free speech is a great idea, but we're in a war,"

What a great idea. We should limit our free speech rights because of the actions of murderous, fanatical barbarians. We aren't bending over backward enough to avoid giving offense to Afghans, all while pouring money we don't have into a corrupt country that has done very little to deserve our assistance. Now we need to think about restricting a classic form of free speech by U.S. citizens: the harmless destruction of a symbol. We have to do that because savages poisoned by religion can't control themselves.

The people that should be held accountable are those who advocate and justify murdering innocent victims because someone burned a book and hurt their feelings.

Following Friday prayers, Muslim clerics instructed religious worshippers to avenge the slander of the Holy Quran by western infidels.

Back in 2009 I wrote the following:

Deploying assassins to kill terrorist enemies is something we should already be doing, and should have put into place right after 9/11. It is also worth considering directly targeting radical Islamic clerics who preach jihad against Americans and openly support terrorism. Such clerics believe they can inspire terrorism and send suicide bombers to their deaths with impunity, remaining secure themselves while others blow up civilians or install roadside bombs. It's time they started dying also.

If we want to hold someone accountable, that would be the way to go about it.

As for Lindsey Graham, he should be voted out of office. Unfortunately he'd probably be replaced by an even worse Democrat.

Man Fired for Making a Political Statement

Derek Fenton, who burned a few pages from the Koran in a 9/11 protest was abruptly fired by New Jersey Transit after working there 11 years. NJ Transit claims he somehow violated their code of ethics. It sounds more like a combination of political correctness and fear of Muslim reaction. What does taking part in a political protest, and harmlessly burning a few pages of paper have to do with the ethics of working for a transit company?

There's no right to hold a job, and companies have all sorts of reasons for firing people, but firing people for making political statements, or for harmless acts religious people find offensive should disturb everyone. I'm not sure, but Fenton may have a first amendment case, since NJ Transit is a state agency. This appears to be a case of a government employer firing someone for taking part in a political protest and exercising his right to free expression.

New Ad for Burn a Koran Day

h/t In My Copious Free Time

Laughing at Colin Powell

Colin Powell spoke out in favor of the proposed mosque near Ground Zero. I know, what a surprise. But here's what he said,

"The terrorists win if we become terrified and . . . change who we are and what we are," Powell said, as he argued that it is crucial for Americans to remain true to the values that set the country apart from the rest of the world.

Two posts ago I mentioned how liberals like to lecture Americans with exactly this sort of argument, and here's former Republican Colin Powell to provide a handy example. And without appearing to have the slightest clue that he's contradicting himself, he then said this.

Powell also addressed Florida pastor Terry Jones' plans to burn copies of the Koran on Saturday and warned that Jones' plans could put American troops in harm's way. "If we let Islamophobia go across this country, we put General Petraeus in a very, very bad situation,"

Colin Powell is apparently "terrified" of one man burning a Koran. Now it's ok to be afraid and to put aside our values. Leaving aside that "Islamophobia" is a made-up term used primarily to silence any criticism of Islam, one radical, religious nutcase does not indicate anything going "across this country." Powell's comments deserve nothing but derisive laughter.

Must-read from PZ Myers on Koran Burning

PZ Myers is probably one of the best-known atheist bloggers. I appreciate his knowledge of biology and debunking of creationist nonsense, but he's well on the left politically. Other than evolution and atheism, I rarely agree with him. Myers gained some notoriety for publicly desecrating communion wafers, an act similar to Koran burning. I looked through his site earlier, and was surprised that he hadn't found the time to post about the ridiculous overreaction to the planned Koran burning. In fact, I was just about to write a post called, "Where are the Atheists"? Most atheists, who have no problem offending Christians, seem to take a much softer approach -- some might even call it spineless -- with regard to Muslims. But before I wrote my post, I went back to Pharyngula to see if I might have missed a post, and found a new one titled, "Setting the Koran on fire, vs. setting personal liberties on fire." Some excerpts:

I'm something of an expert in the public desecration of sacred objects, and I'm seeing the same madness going on right now with Terry Jones and his plan to burn copies of the Koran that I saw in the response to throwing a cracker in the trash — only amplified to a ludicrous degree. People just aren't getting it; they're so blinded by an inappropriate attachment to magic relics that they're missing the real issues.

AND

The problem isn't the desecrators. The problem is the people who have an unwarranted sense of privilege, that their beliefs wil not be questioned or criticized, ever, by anyone.

AND

I'm looking at this recent episode with Terry Jones — a fellow I don't like at all, and I think he's a fanatical goofball — and I see that the serious problem here isn't Jones at all…it's all the lunatics who are insisting that burning the Koran is a major international catastrophe. 

It's just a frackin' book, people.

The whole thing is an outstanding take down of the hysteria over this issue.

Burning the Koran

By now everyone probably knows about a small church in Florida that plans to burn the Koran on 9/11. I've looked through various posts and comments on this story, and something is missing. Where are the sanctimonious, self-appointed defenders of the Constitution and religious freedom? Why aren't they vigorously defending the obvious first amendment right of free expression involved in this case, and demonizing critics as anti-Christian bigots? Could it be that they care very little about the Constitution or religious freedom, and much more about silencing people they disagree with? Few of the same people so eager to aggressively defend religious freedom have had much to say in supporting the rights of a small group of Christians who merely want to destroy some paper & ink as a symbolic gesture. Now all of the sudden they seem to understand that having the right to do something that is tasteless and offensive to some, and the wisdom of actually doing it are two different things.

Having a public Koran burning is obviously in poor taste, and clearly offensive to Muslims. But what's more offensive are people who respond to symbolic attacks on their religion with threats of death and violence. What's also more offensive is the best-known U.S. general, General Petraeus, actually trying to silence a small American religious group for fear of offending the tender sensibilities of Afghan Muslims.

I'm not a big fan of book burnings of any sort. Religious books should be read in order to point out the absurdities of religion. One of the main reasons I'm an atheist today is because I did so much reading & studying of the Bible. But there's no right not to be offended in the Constitution. It doesn't matter if the offense is to your religion on anything else. Get over it. That goes for Christians whining about offensive art and hostile depictions in popular culture, Muslims whining about pretty much any offense real or imagined, or any other religious type that can't deal with the fact that others just don't respect their beliefs. The very last thing we need is to give credence to the idea that certain topics are off-limits to free expression. That's a far more dangerous thing than burning a couple of books.

As for foreigners who are supposedly going to hate America because a single radical church burns some Korans, I personally welcome their hate. If that's all it takes to inspire hatred of America, if it wasn't this, it would be something else. There's no reason to pander to ignorant, fanatical religious barbarians at the expense of our own free expression. Americans are free to burn the Koran, the Bible, any other so-called holy book, or even our own flag. It's too bad our gutless hypocritical defenders of the Constitution aren't interested when it doesn't involve a politically correct position.

UPDATE

Giving credit where it is due... NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg has publicly defended the Florida pastor's right to burn the Koran.

"In a strange way, I'm here to defend his right to do that. I happen to think that it is distasteful. I don't think he would like it if somebody burned a book that in his religion he thinks is holy," the mayor said following a news conference about the progress of the reconstruction at the World Trade Center site.

He emphasized that Jones' planned act is protected by free speech rights. "We can't say that we're going to apply the First Amendment to only those cases where we are in agreement."

Bloomberg = not a hypocrite.