Silly Little Country

A Stupidity Contest

I've come to regard pastor Terry Jones and his flock, planning to burn the Koran next week, as fairly stupid. It's too late now for burning the Koran to help; the right time would have been when it was written, when you had a chance to get all the available copies and stop its transmission into the future. Sadly, the harm has been done and we cannot stop it.
But it's a race for stupidity that has been entered by the various media covering this as some sort of event, and all the usual idiots marching and chanting and threatening violence.
There are some clear winners on the stupidity front hanging around this event. There are actually people worrying that the Koran burning will foment violence, and suggesting that somehow Jones' sect will have responsibility. The only responsibility for any violence will belong to those who commit it. This will be as true here as it was for the murder of Theo van Gogh, the riots over the Danish cartoons, and of course the Palestinian murderers who lob rockets into Israel, or devote their lives to finding new ways to slaughter innocent people going about their daily lives.
Jones' sect has as much right to burn Korans as the Park51 guys have to build their community center. That's what I like about this part of the West.
UPDATE: Some excellent observations here specifically on David Petraus' stupidity on this issue.

posted by Alan Adamson @ 11:43 AM