9/10/2010 4:31:48 PM

if anything happens to the guys in florida it would be from local folks (who i hope would have mellowed out after getting to the US). Overseas they already have plenty of anti-american propaganda and even some irl actual things worth bitching about, so its not like its going to change anything.

9/10/2010 4:32:42 PM

Quote :

"I'm pretty sure radical Islam already has a great reason to attack our troops - we're occupying their land."

Which land would that be? The majority of Afghans are opposed to the Taliban precisely because they're so goddamn primitive. In other words, it isn't "their" land at all.

9/10/2010 5:00:46 PM

support of israel is a pretty big one.

9/10/2010 5:03:02 PM

Also by that reasoning the Jews have the right to take over all the middle east.

9/10/2010 5:03:08 PM

I don't understand either of those posts.

9/10/2010 5:05:28 PM

US supports israel -> israel genocides palestine = us genocides palestines. Thats a legitimate complaint against the US.

9/10/2010 5:21:50 PM

k

9/10/2010 5:27:43 PM

Quote :

"Which land would that be? The majority of Afghans are opposed to the Taliban precisely because they're so goddamn primitive. In other words, it isn't "their" land at all."

When I say "their land," I'm not talking about land that is strictly owned by Islamic extremists. I'm referring to our occupation of various parts of the Middle East. We invaded and have occupied Iraq and Afghanistan, we have committed acts of war towards Iran, we've bombed Pakistan, and according to Wikipedia, we have military deployments in Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and United Arab Emirates. It's not just the occupation, though. It's the fact that we're constantly meddling (or threatening to meddle) in Middle East affairs. It's none of our business, and I think many Muslims are hostile towards the United States for that reason. Osama cited our involvement in foreign affairs as a reason for 9-11.

I'm saying there are real, verifiable reasons for why some Muslims want to attack us. To orchestrate an attack on the U.S. is a pretty big undertaking, and my point was that no one is going to jump from sitting on the fence to "alright, I'm going to shoot at some American troops" or "time to bomb a building in the United States" because some dumbass burned a book on American soil. Might it add fuel to fire? Sure. The fire is already raging beyond human comprehension, and the only way we'll ever put it out is to adopt a non-interventionist foreign policy.

9/10/2010 6:20:23 PM

Rush commented on this today. It was pretty funny.

Warning: Words

Quote :

"BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Yes, Snerdley, I'm gonna talk about the preacher, but I'll do it in my own time. (laughing) This guy is from my high school graduating class, Terry Jones, and the media, there's some media out there accusing me of hiding this fact from all of you. And I didn't even know it! I got an e-mail yesterday afternoon right before the program ends, "Do you know this guy was in your graduating class?" No. No. I'm trying to think of who it was. And then somebody sent me the picture from the yearbook. The media is saying, "Limbaugh had to know the guy. This guy's pictures on page 130 of the yearbook, Limbaugh's on 132." (interruption) Well, it's a small town, yeah, but Dawn do you remember everybody you went to high school with? Do you? My high school was like 2,000 people. Do you remember everybody in it? Look, if this guy's name happened to be Ennis Slobodnik, then I would remember it, but how many Terry Joneses are there out there? This guy is in Florida to boot. He's not in Missouri. He didn't have a mustache. I'll tell you who this guy was. This guy was a pitcher. He was a left-hand pitcher. I remember him not from school. I don't ever remember seeing him in school. Not denying it, had to happen, but I don't remember it. We were in the Babe Ruth League together, which is the next stage after the Little League. He tried out for the high school baseball team and made it. I didn't. I didn't make it. That ticked my dad off but that's another story. My dad knew the coach and couldn't understand what happened, but it was a good life lesson for me. Anyway, this guy was a left-handed pitcher and he threw the ball faster than most of the kids in the league at that time, and his father was practically at the pitching mound during the game guiding the kid as he pitched in the game, teaching to throw curveballs and sliders and stuff, and you got the impression he was a very involved (I'll be gracious about it) father who was obviously trying to shepherd the kid here to a Major League Baseball career. We've all seen these kinds of Little League fathers. But that's the extent. I had no idea the guy was devoted, a man of the cloth, religion. No clue. When I saw this news yesterday, I said, "This is just unbelievable." I said, "Wait 'til the media finds out about it." I sent Levin a note at 5:30 yesterday. I said, "You won't believe this. This guy in Florida is from my high school graduating class." He said, "This is too good, can I announce it?" I said, "Go ahead." He said, "Do you remember the guy?" I said, "I don't, other than from playing baseball." He wasn't even on my team! I don't remember seeing the guy in the class, certainly don't remember anything the guy ever did or said in class. I have no clue. Look at this town, Cape Girardeau, Missouri: Me and this preacher Terry Jones, a former Babe Ruth baseball star. Do you know my uncle and cousin are federal judges from Cape Girardeau, Missouri? You wouldn't believe. I mean there's stuff the media hasn't discovered about people who grew up and were born in Cape Girardeau. I sent another friend a note. I said, "You won't believe this. This guy is in my high school graduating class." He said, "You wait, World War III is gonna start in Cape Girardeau." (laughing) So anyway, it's funny. "What is Limbaugh hiding? Why didn't Limbaugh admit this? Why is Limbaugh not being forthcoming?" I'll tell you who informed me. It was the North Carolina mistress who's, what, a year or two behind me in high school. She sends me this note: "You won't believe this." I must have had four people tell me yesterday. My cousin Steve said, "You better go to the KFVS Channel 12 website 'cause they got this guy's picture up there saying he's in your high school class." It doesn't mean anything. It has nothing to do with anything, but the media is trying to make it out that it is a big deal. You know what they want to write. They're hoping that somewhere in Sarah Palin's genealogical tree that some of her relatives might be from Cape Girardeau. They are hoping that Glenn Beck's family might have drank the water in Cape Girardeau. Sean Hannity once went through Cape Girardeau. You know what they're hoping to do. (laughing) Well, no, Terry Jones' house is not a tourist stop. Mine is, my old house in Cape Girardeau. There's a whole map of places in Cape Girardeau where you can go that I was. I don't think... Well, there might be now. People are gonna start researching. "This is where Terry Jones grew up. This is the pitcher's mound where his dad oversaw throwing sliders." You know, Snerdley, what they're trying to do with this. I know it's high school. I know it's high school. I hated high school. In fact, I did not get one signature in my yearbook. I got out of there. I shouldn't admit this. Well, I can do it, my parents have died. I can't get in trouble here. I cut two months in high school my senior year. I hated it. I got an excuse. I was hanging around the radio station. (interruption) How did I get out of it? The teachers were so mad when I brought in the notes saying the absence was excused. I mean, it wasn't two straight months, but the last two months of my senior year I might have been there an aggregate of ten days. Everybody knew where I was. I was on the radio every day. I'd come in with the note saying "the absence is excused," and the teacher said, "This is not right" and so forth. But I mean I was slated for graduation. I just didn't like it. They were not going to hold me over for another year, of course not. I've told you people, this is nothing new. I despised it. School was prison to me. My parents made me go to college for one year. I had to go to ballroom dance as a PE course taught by a former drill sergeant in the WACS, and I said, "This is not for me." I never went to that class and my mom found out about it and took my car away -- the car that I bought! She took my car away. My mom was driving me to school in college! You think I had time to figure out where the preacher was? I was trying to get out of there. BREAK TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Who is Terry Jones' spiritual mentor? Well, I mean, we know who Barack Obama's spiritual mentor is (and they tried to keep that news from everybody). It's the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. We're gonna know everything about this Terry Jones guy before it's all said and done -- and, of course, that he graduated from my high school, Cape Central High, Class 1969. Go Tigers! That was the mascot. BREAK TRANSCRIPT RUSH: A little observation here as we go into our profit center time-out here at the top of the hour. President Obama is left-handed. (He's not wearing the wedding ring, today, by the way. I'm not saying anything. He's just not wearing the wedding ring.) President Obama is left-handed today just like Reverend Terry Jones. They must know each other. BREAK TRANSCRIPT RUSH: So yesterday afternoon, about this time, maybe 2:30 Eastern, bottom-of-the-hour break, I look at the computer, there's an e-mail: "Stand by. This might be the Terry Jones that was in your high school class at Central High in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Go Tigers." (laughing) Can't be. Cannot be. This guy did not have a mustache, can't be. After the program a couple more, yep, it looks like it. Then my cousin Steve in Cape Girardeau sends me a note saying, "Well, you better go to KFVS Channel 12 Eyeball News website, 'cause they got it all up there, pictures out of the yearbook, everything else." I said, "Well, how about that?" So I find out that the Koran-burning preacher in Gainesville, Florida, with a flock of 50 was in my graduating High School class in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, in 1969, go Tigers. I don't think I was ever in a class with the guy. My staff, when I mentioned this earlier in the program, started teasing me, "Oh, come on, it's a small town, how do you mean you don't remember?" Look, there were 2,200 people in the school. The man's name is Terry Jones. How many Terry Joneses are there? In the state of Florida alone how many Terry Joneses are there? So when it was brought to my attention and I saw the pictures, "Well, okay, I remember this kid from Babe Ruth League baseball." He was on another team, little summer baseball league, one notch up from Little League. I remember his dad was very involved. We all had the impression his dad thought this kid was going to be a Major League Baseball pitcher. He was teaching him to throw curveballs and sliders and stuff, and that's it, that's the extent, I don't even remember seeing the guy in the halls. Of course I wasn't in school much. I also dealt with that in the first hour. I hated it. I just hated school. I don't think there's anything in life more that I have despised that I had to do than that. Folks, it was pure torture. I'm sitting in the classroom looking out the window, and there's people walking by and driving by, and to me they were free and I was a prisoner. Anyway, that's off the beaten path. "

Full transcript here: http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_091010/content/01125107.guest.html

9/10/2010 7:18:45 PM

The only thing that I found interesting in reading that was learning that Rush didn't go to college and that he was basically admitting that he was a high school drop out (though not technically). Yet people look to him for political insight... And I like how he's bringing up Obama. Hasn't Rush called Obama a muslim before? Would that make Obama a Muslim who's religious mentor is a Christian???

9/10/2010 7:34:48 PM

^^ i imagine that could have been more uninteresting.

9/10/2010 10:06:08 PM

Quote :

"I'm pretty sure radical Islam already has a great reason to attack our troops - we're occupying their land. If their willing to blow themselves up to kill a soldier, I don't think the tipping point will be some idiot lighting a Quran on fire."

This is not a logical thing to say. There isn't an unlimited supply of people who hate us, these people come from somewhere. It's just easy/convenient for our brains to model the situation as an inevitable "us vs. them" situation, but this is not the case. People don't wake up and decide to blow themselves up, just like people don't wake up and decide they want to commit suicide. Various events build up and lead to someone taking this step off a cliff, and rampant media misrepresentations of America's dominant religion can definitely be the tipping point.

Just like our politicians take sound bites of, let's say, Iranian politicians to make us hate them, their leaders do the same thing to them.

9/11/2010 12:28:21 AM

Quote :

""WBC burned the Koran once – and if you sissy brats of Doomed america bully Terry Jones and the Dove World Outreach Center until they change their plans to burn that blasphemous tripe called the Koran, then WBC will burn it (again), to clearly show you some things,""

Says the Westboro Baptist Church, after which everyone went...

9/11/2010 2:48:02 PM

Quote :

"When I say "their land," I'm not talking about land that is strictly owned by Islamic extremists. I'm referring to our occupation of various parts of the Middle East. We invaded and have occupied Iraq and Afghanistan, we have committed acts of war towards Iran, we've bombed Pakistan"

Our actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention Kuwait and the Balkans, have had the effect of liberating millions of Muslims in those countries from various murderous and totalitarian regimes. Our actions in Pakistan are sanctioned by that country's democratically elected government. Iran's fraudulent, theocratic dictatorship wages war on the United States in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and is hated by its own people, which it kills in the streets for the crime of protesting.

And you'll note that parties of God spend much more time killing their fellow Muslims than they do killing Americans (or Jews, for that matter).

In both Iraq and Afghanistan, the US military, while not particularly adored, is still preferred to the Islamist terrorist groups. So, really, on whose behalf are you arguing?

[Edited on September 11, 2010 at 5:20 PM. Reason : ]

9/11/2010 5:08:07 PM

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/8278191/
Interfaith Alliance organizes Quran reading in Raleigh

9/12/2010 1:17:58 AM

Quote :

"The Community Church of Chapel Hill Unitarian Universalist asks you to stand with us in support of our Muslim brothers and sisters at an inter-faith “Standing on the Side of Love” ? service on Saturday evening, September 11th from 6:00 to 7:00pm. The vigil will take place at the Peace & Justice Plaza (Old Post Office) on Franklin Street at Henderson Street, Chapel Hill. Local clergy and other people of faith and goodwill are being asked to participate in reading from the Quran, other sacred texts and prophetic writings. Bring a sign! Bring yourself to... Stand on the Side of Love... in support of religious freedom for all as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution."

Wonder how many interfaith religious freedom rallies this has sparked across the US?

9/12/2010 4:04:47 AM

who cares?
surely not you

9/12/2010 11:17:42 AM

its great that they're protesting and killing people about a book burning that didn't happen.


GOOD JOB!! Way to reinforce the stereotype of crazy ass worshipers of Muslims.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan-protest-20100913,0,4630198.story


[Edited on September 12, 2010 at 3:48 PM. Reason : ninja rap]

9/12/2010 3:43:27 PM

Quote :

"a book burning that didn't happen"

Based on the news coverage I heard, the burning was on again off again so much that it was hard to know whats going on (he will do it, he wont do it, he may do it later, he'll not do it only if the ground zero mosque is moved, he wont do it regardless, a general is trying to talk him out of it which makes it sound like he's still doing it, he's not and will never do it, etc), and that is speaking the same language as the event organizer and living in the same country rather than on the other side of the world. Its conceivable that the pastor didn't cancel the plans soon enough or in a definitive enough way for that information to travel in a timely and accurate manner to reach potential protesters before protest plans were made. (I'm not defending the violent actions in the slightest)

9/12/2010 5:25:15 PM

yes you are. you just puked a wall of text all over my screen doing exactly that

9/12/2010 10:22:48 PM

^I agreed at first, but I figured it out. He's defending their decision to protest, not the violence committed.

9/12/2010 10:48:20 PM

Towelheads got trolled.

9/12/2010 11:16:04 PM

Quote :

"Western sentiment in Afghanistan once popular fury has been whipped up by religious leaders and other organizers — a particular hazard in a country where many people are illiterate and word of the cancellation of the Koran-burning spread only slowly. ... Taliban fighters have vowed to try to disrupt the balloting for the lower house of parliament, the second such vote since the austere Islamist movement was toppled by a U.S.-led invasion nearly nine years ago. ... "

9/13/2010 12:16:55 AM

Quote :

"Based on the news coverage I heard, the burning was on again off again so much that it was hard to know whats going on (he will do it, he wont do it, he may do it later, he'll not do it only if the ground zero mosque is moved, he wont do it regardless, a general is trying to talk him out of it which makes it sound like he's still doing it, he's not and will never do it, etc), and that is speaking the same language as the event organizer and living in the same country rather than on the other side of the world. Its conceivable that the pastor didn't cancel the plans soon enough or in a definitive enough way for that information to travel in a timely and accurate manner to reach potential protesters before protest plans were made. (I'm not defending the violent actions in the slightest)"

This was Sunday, a full DAY AFTER he didn't do it.

I just love how they can go apeshit and do this without this massive media blitz condemning it and when the tables are flipped, there's this massive media blitz condemning that.

[Edited on September 13, 2010 at 8:52 AM. Reason : /common sense]

9/13/2010 8:51:05 AM

Westboro Baptist Church burns Quran and US Flag

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=6b5_1284240430

How come this hasn't made international news?

Anyway, I don't really care about the burning... it is at around the 6 minute mark if you want to see it.

What I really liked is the cuckoo 6 minute sermon by the pastor in which he condemns and insults Christians, Muslims, Jews, Americans, soldiers, Obama, everybody. Do they really believe all that?

Do listen to it

9/14/2010 9:46:49 PM

Quote :

"How come this hasn't made international news?"

Because no one gives a shit, and the people who do give a shit, no one gives a shit about.

9/14/2010 9:56:54 PM

umm, people do give a shit.

need i remind you that the florida pastor got calls from obama, fbi, gates, and condemnation from nato, blair, and other important people?

so why is this church burning the quran and actually doing it different from the florida church only threatening to do it?

9/14/2010 10:01:15 PM

Because it's just a few rednecks that do this type of shit all the time. They protest gay funerals and other shit as well.

9/14/2010 10:04:23 PM

Quote :

"so why is this church burning the quran and actually doing it different from the florida church only threatening to do it?"

Kind of for the same reason that when nude pictures of an actress show up online it's a huge deal, but when nude pictures of a porn star do, not so much.

9/14/2010 10:13:56 PM

Quote :

"Because it's just a few rednecks that do this type of shit all the time. They protest gay funerals and other shit as well. "

Actually, they rally at military funerals saying that they are glad that the military guys are dead and that they are dead because God is punishing America because America is tolerant of homosexuals.

I think they're (the westboro baptist church) are all related right?

[Edited on September 15, 2010 at 12:34 PM. Reason : yeah, they're batshit crazy. ]

9/15/2010 12:33:53 PM

Quote :

"How come this hasn't made international news?"

I think the media and government are aware that if most people knew what that particular set of crazy assholes did, everyone would riot.

Aside from which, like you said, they loathe everybody who isn't in their cult (which is to say, their extended family), and they make that fact very clear. So nobody can take particular offense at anything they do. They just take general offense at everything they do.

9/15/2010 2:40:05 PM

Protester who burned pages of Koran at Ground Zero mosque site is sacked from his job

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1312310/Protester-burned-pages-Koran-Ground-Zero-mosque-site-sacked-job.html

Quote :

"A protester who burned pages of the Koran outside the site of the planned mosque near Ground Zero has been sacked from his job as a train conductor. Derek Fenton, 39, of Bloomingdale, New Jersey, was photographed ripping up pages from the Muslim holy book and setting them alight on September 11. He was removed from outside Park51, the site where the controversial mosque could be built, by police but was later released without charge."

9/15/2010 6:35:12 PM

^

Quote :

"A police source told the New York Daily News: 'He said "this is America" and he wanted to stand up for it, in a Tea Party kind of way.' "

9/15/2010 7:52:14 PM

The only crime he committed was having an open fire inside city limits without a barrel.

What are these guys thinking? It's so windy. They should have fire extinguishers handy! And they failed to adequately clear the area of combustible grass first. Shameful.


[Edited on September 15, 2010 at 8:00 PM. Reason : ]

9/15/2010 7:57:50 PM

^ unless he was creating a hostile work environment, i don't think he should have been fired for burning a koran during his off time.

9/15/2010 7:59:32 PM

He certainly has grounds for an improper termination suit. Since he worked for the government, this is certainly a 1st amendment issue.

9/15/2010 8:01:39 PM

he might have grounds for a wrongful termination suit. But there is no 1st amendment concern here. His gov't employer wasn't telling him he couldn't protest. Rather, it was saying he couldn't be a douchebag and expect to keep his job.

9/15/2010 8:55:27 PM

He could argue that it was actually a protest against the government(for them refusing to block the construction of a mosque "on" ground zero.)

[Edited on September 15, 2010 at 10:28 PM. Reason : It's a "fuck the draft" slam dunk. He's going to be rich!]

Now, a question of principle. Do die-hard libertarians refuse huge monetary settlements from the government?

[Edited on September 15, 2010 at 10:30 PM. Reason : .]

9/15/2010 10:27:21 PM

1) The federal gov't can't control the building of religious structures on private property.
2) Why he was protesting is irrelevant. His employer exercised its right to fire him for being a douchebag.

9/16/2010 4:05:37 PM

haaaaaay guysssssssssss
someone was called a "limp wristed liberal" for refusing to burn a Qu'ran
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtH6xwLbyCY
but something in his voice makessss me suspect the haters had a point

9/18/2010 12:19:18 AM

Quote :

"he might have grounds for a wrongful termination suit. But there is no 1st amendment concern here. His gov't employer wasn't telling him he couldn't protest. Rather, it was saying he couldn't be a douchebag and expect to keep his job."

Eh, I think you should have a reasonable expectation that you can be a douchebag on off-hours without getting fired. Unless he was attempting or claiming to represent his employer, that is.

9/18/2010 11:11:10 AM

well, you can in some states. If he was in a "right-to-work" state, though, he can be fired at any time for whatever reason.

9/18/2010 4:51:16 PM

^Nope. Even in right-to-work states, you cannot break federal law and fire somebody for a prohibited reason (race, sex, religion, etc).

They fired him for his off-the-clock religious speech. That is plain and clear. And that's also illegal.

9/18/2010 5:03:21 PM

Quote :

"They fired him for his off-the-clock religious speech."

In what religion do you burn Korans publicly in front of Mosques?

9/18/2010 5:17:37 PM

Burning a Qu'ran is making a religious statement, and that makes it religious speech. Part of the beauty of the first amendment is that he does not have to justify his religious views, nor show there are any other followers of his religion, nor break a barrier of reasonableness.

If he were to be prosecuted for making threats or assault or whatever, then his employer would have some grounds, possibly.

But if the law ignores it, so must his employer.

You can march with the Klan on a Sunday, and go to work for the Feds on Monday, and there's not a thing they can do about it (outside of 'national security' issues that may arise from your religious speech). And rightly so.

9/18/2010 5:27:07 PM

oops

[Edited on September 18, 2010 at 5:28 PM. Reason : d]

9/18/2010 5:28:16 PM

Quote :

"outside of 'national security' issues that may arise from your religious speech"

Hmm no national security issues here.

9/18/2010 5:33:18 PM

Quote :

"They fired him for his off-the-clock religious speech. That is plain and clear. And that's also illegal."

So then why was the GEICO voice-over guy fired for leaving those nasty messages on the Tea Party's answering machine? There's been no lawsuit over that, as far as I know...

the fact is, the employer can fire his employee for just about any reason, except for protected status (race, religion, etc). And being a douchebag is not a protected status.

9/18/2010 8:09:02 PM

Employment of actors is, by nature, given a lot more leeway. Things like media attention, public image, etc. are an inherent part of their employment. Courts do not accept similar arguments for employees who do not have that element to their jobs.

That guy was hired as a spokesman for Geico, and so anything he does or says is more likely to be taken as representative of the company......much moreso than some DOT employee marching with the Klan or burning a Qu'ran or whatever.

9/18/2010 8:21:10 PM