"America - the most contradictory, the most depressing, the most stirring, of any land in the world today."
Sinclair Lewis's Nobel Lecture, December 12, 1930
Sinclair Lewis should rise from his grave, have a stiff drink and write up the following story:
A small US church says it will defy international condemnation and go ahead with plans to burn copies of the Koran on the 9/11 anniversary. The top US commander in Afghanistan warned troops' lives would be in danger if the Dove World Outreach Center in Florida went ahead. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the church's plan was "disrespectful and disgraceful". Muslim countries and Nato have also hit out at the move. And the US Attorney General, Eric Holder, called the idea "idiotic and dangerous". But organiser, Pastor Terry Jones said: "We must send a clear message to the radical element of Islam." News Item - BBC News
(...) Terry Jones, the pastor of a tiny Florida church with just three or four dozen members, whose every stray thought on the subject of Koran burning is now reported each day by thousands of news organizations worldwide, has proved himself to be a master of public relations. On Wednesday, Mr. Jones — currently the subject of 4,102 news stories linked to by Google News — told the world that he would press ahead with the publicity stunt he announced in July - New York Times
The White House says an American church's threat to burn copies of the Muslim holy book could endanger U.S. troops serving overseas, and the State Department denounced the plan as "un-American." Associated Press
(New York) Mayor Bloomberg said Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who plans on a Koran-burning rally on Saturday's 9/11 anniversary, has every right to burn the sacred books – even though he finds it distasteful. New York Daily News
David Seaton's News Links
The story of the Koran burning, Florida pastor, Terry Jones, is having a massive, worldwide, media repercussion. There are riots in diverse places in Muslim countries and American public figures from the White House to Hillary Clinton, to the American commander in Afghanistan, General Petraeus, even Angelina Jolie, all have had their say in the matter.
However, when you come right down to it, the name of the church in question, "The Dove World Outreach Center" is almost longer than a list of its members... There are little more than fifty parishioners involved in this! For me, that is the story: how the media has taken up this malignant goofiness and given this pitiful rustic the worldwide "fifteen minutes of fame" that the late Andy Warhol said finally awaits us all.
Sociologically speaking, I find it passing strange that a church made up of poor, white, southerners, America's traditional military caste, would do anything that the American army says could put the lives of American soldiers in jeopardy. I could just as easily imagine President Obama's former pastor, the Right Reverend Jeremiah Wright, burning a cross in front of Chicago's, Trinity United Church of Christ. None of this makes any sense.
In short: the story is the story is the story is the story... that all over the world we are talking about this clown and his tiny band of imbeciles is the real story. DS
However, when you come right down to it, the name of the church in question, "The Dove World Outreach Center" is almost longer than a list of its members... There are little more than fifty parishioners involved in this! For me, that is the story: how the media has taken up this malignant goofiness and given this pitiful rustic the worldwide "fifteen minutes of fame" that the late Andy Warhol said finally awaits us all.
Sociologically speaking, I find it passing strange that a church made up of poor, white, southerners, America's traditional military caste, would do anything that the American army says could put the lives of American soldiers in jeopardy. I could just as easily imagine President Obama's former pastor, the Right Reverend Jeremiah Wright, burning a cross in front of Chicago's, Trinity United Church of Christ. None of this makes any sense.
In short: the story is the story is the story is the story... that all over the world we are talking about this clown and his tiny band of imbeciles is the real story. DS
3 comments:
You are absolutely right and this is precisely what I was saying today. I find the fact that the so-called news media has given this clown a platform more offensive than his stunt.
Philip
We have fallen soooo far down the rabbit hole...
Probably they don't believe they are putting our soldiers in danger, or they think their lives well lost in the new Crusade.
They may be imbeciles, but their pastor certainly is not.
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