That a member of the United States Senate would say this:
Sen. Lindsey Graham said Congress might need to explore the need to limit some forms of freedom of speech, in light of Tennessee pastor Terry Jones’ Quran burning, and how such actions result in enabling U.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,” Graham told CBS’ Bob Schieffer on “Face the Nation” Sunday.
“A great idea’ eh? Actually its the law of the land, moron.
I find what Graham said disturbing for a whole host of reasons. The problem is not that America has wacko preachers, who are so f*cked in the head they think burning Korans and holding mock trials of Mohammed to be the answer to what ails us-the problem is that a great number of Afghan people are so f*cked in the head that they have to riot and kill people ostensibly for the purpose of showing how upset they are about it. That’s who needs to be looked at-and more importantly why we still feel some sort of an obligation to lift a finger to defend such people, in an ongoing war that is never going to end.
At a time we think we are spending too much money-and we could save a great deal of money by leaving them to their Godforsaken country and their apostate religion.
Koran burning is obviously a disgusting act of disrespect and stupidity. But that very kind of act is what the First Amendment is designed to protect. I know because it has to be that way or the first amendment has no real meaning. The Supreme Court just reaffirmed that interpretation in the Phelps case-and as reprehensible as Fred Phelps is, the court had no choice but to rule as they did.
And finally, don’t forget that history is replete with authoritarian moves that started as “wartime security measures.” Since this war is never going to end- liberties taken away by wartime are permanently taken away.
(Shakes head in disbelief.)
So the First Amendment is also okay with burning a church as long as no one is inside?
The first amendment has nothing to do with deliberate destruction of property-there are laws that prevent that. Burning a Koran however is different than burning a church.
80% of Afghans cannot read or write and so depend on mullahs to read/interpret the Koran FOR them.
But it is worrisome that they and other Muslims are so susceptible to religious violence.
Hmm… but aren’t those the same as burning the symbolic representation of a religion? Access to education and law & order plays a part in the violence. I believe that similar acts of violence related to religious issues have occurred in America, Singapore and any other country in the world before. With education people will not resort to mindless violence without thinking.
If you dig a little deeper, you will find that this was not news at all until Karzai decided to make it an issue, and thus inflamed the mullahs in rural Afghanistan to rouse folks up about it.
And yes, Lindsey Graham needs to STFU.
The Afghans have had almost ten years to change their society and wean themselves off of Islam. They haven’t tried. Screw them.
OT – but have you seen this: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2011/04/navy-singapore-xo-fired-040111/
How to screw up a sweet deal………….
There is a coda to this- the guy who fired him is an expert on a hostile work environment. So it must have BEEN REALLY hostile.
I weep when I read things like this.
Skippy,
I think we have been seeing this slow creep towards limiting free speech for a while. The hard part is trying to decided what is allowed speech and what is verbotten. My personal feelings are that you should be able to say anything short of calling for the outright murder of someone. Just like the other side should have the total right to make fun of you. I don’t like them, but those nut jobs from Westbro have just as much right to spread thier hate filled message as the crew from Sesame Street have to teach kids about counting; while the nuts who think shave thier heads talking about color power have a right to thier speech just as much those who believe that giving the world a big ol’hug will bring peace/love/understand/age of aquaris out.
Yet, there are people who are trying all over this nation to stifle debate and discussion. Yes, some of the folks who are being stifiled idiots or nut jobs; that doesn’t mean it can’t be a learning experience for all invovled. An honest debate on the issue de juer, instead things get heated like a Yankee fan talking baseball with a any other baseball fan. Things get said and then stupid happens.
Term Limits! and a rule that if you serve in one house you cannot run for the other.
The Euros (as usual) didn’t have adequate security in place (because they were in the “safest city in back of beyond -a- stan”). Nothing like a catch phrase and arrogance in lieu of a threat assessment to get one killed.
The world as it is is full of fools and simple minded killers. Keep your walls mended and your powder dry if you live in the middle of killer-stan. Or roll the dice.
Just remember the mob seeks the easy kill.