451 On 9/11

Oh, for the love of Pete: is there nothing the lunatic Right isn't prepared to try in the interests of just being the biggest dicks humanly achievable? Florida pastor Terry Jones is planning to spend 9/11 burning Qu'rans.

Naturally, this isn't merely a bullshit move, it's deliberately inflammatory (no pun intended), and it's hardly likely to manage any of that "hearts and minds" outreach we could probably use more of at this point.

Obviously, such scurrilous activities as suggesting this is a bad idea is generating outrage:

It's revealing that the Left is absolutely bat bonkers about the Qu'ran barbecue but has always been totally supportive of burning the American flag as a matter of Constitutionally mandated free speech if nothing else.

(h/t to Mahablog for the link).

I still we still haven't managed to grasp the basics of free speech. I know of no-one on the left who isn't totally supportive of burning Qu'rans "as a matter of Constitutionally mandated free speech if nothing else". It's the "nothing else" part that's the rub, of course.

Actually this reminds me of a story my father likes to tell about my late grandfather. He was very keen on building communities, of helping out where he could in the Berwick Hills estate where he lived, and on one occasion he found himself at a meeting of the local councillors. He started giving stick to a man who had just been put in charge of some initiative or other, and was by all accounts stuffing his responsibilities up royally. Said man got very angry, puffed out his chest, and announced "I am in charge of this initiative, and it is my right to run it as I see fit."

"Oh, absolutely", my grandfather said, sweetly. "No-one in this room is questioning your right to take charge. It's your bloody idiotic way of doing it that's the problem."

If I had a penny for every conservative who confused who heard "You are not allowed to do this" when told "This is a goddamn imbecilic thing to do," I'd be rich enough to afford my own stack of Qu'rans (which I could burn if I wanted to, but, y'know, that would make me a turd). It's exactly this level of purposeful misunderstanding that leads to Sarah Palin arguing criticism of her viewpoints is an abuse of her First Amendment rights (the same Amendment, I swear to God, that she thinks gives a radio commentator the right to say the N-word on radio and not be fired for it).

So, yeah. Totally support Jones' right to do protest against Islam. It's just his bloody idiotic way of doing it that's the problem.

(As an aside, I note the very first commentator on Joshuapundit's post compounds the error by arguing that there is some hypocrisy in the left arguing burning Qu'rans is bad for the troops and thus should be critised, whilst holding that saying the press should be allowed to report on the war even if it puts troops in a negative light. The difference is obvious: the press were attempting to inform the public about what is being done with the troops they sent and the money they paid. Terry Jones is trying to be the biggest twat he possible can.)