Shoot the messenger

The outrage isn’t that the nutjob in Florida intends to burn copies of the Koran. The outrage is that the press is busily churning out the publicity he wants.

So now that the whole Muslim world knows about his proposed stunt they’re all in a snit, just like we get when foreigners burn American flags. (Are we used to that by now? Or do we only get pissy when our own citizens do it?) It never ceases to amaze me how people can get bent out of shape when their symbols are attacked. Flags, books, effigies, and let’s not forget crucifixes in urine ... they’re only things, for cryin’ out loud. And if you protest “but it’s what the thing represents,” you’re still hung up on the thing. Are we all so stupid? And the answer, of course, is “yes.”

Let’s face it, the guy has the right to do this just like the Nazis did to march through Skokie or the Muslims do to build an Islamic center near Ground Zero or Hollywood producers do to release slasher movies. We can wish that people would behave more responsibly, but in this country that would amount to a helluva lot of horses.

Think how fitting it would be if this asshole got what he really deserved: for everybody to just ignore him. But of course the media are totally incapable of that. If it bleeds, it leads, and if it burns, it churns.

So don’t blame this idiot. He can burn all of the Islamic paraphernalia he wants in the privacy of his own church. Blame the messenger, because we don’t have to pay him any attention.