Great Video, Quran burning, &c.

In the history of political oratory, we've had some fascinating moments. The Gettysburg Address, JFK's Inaugural Address, and now this:

Republican Phil Davison, a councilman from Minerva, Ohio, wants to be Stark County’s next treasurer. Badly. He has a Bachelor's Degree in Sociology and History and a Master's Degree in Public Administration and Communication. He also has his Doctorate Degree in Insanity.



Those Slicers who are skeptical about watching a 6 minute video are encouraged to watch only the first 2 minutes. This thing is glorious.

An excerpt? From the fifth minute of the video (It helps if while reading this, you imagine that a raging lunatic is screaming it at you.):
"If nominated tonight I will win this election! Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell Randy Gonzalez!"

Tell Randy Gonzalez? I don't mind telling my friends and neighbors, but I don't have time to tell Randy. Sorry.

I pray to God that someone makes an Autotune Rap Video out of this.

***
In a effort to prove that America can be just as intolerant as Saudi Arabia, we got some people planning a good ole fashion book burning this weekend. I've burned a ton of books and can confirm that it's not as fun as it sounds. Just last winter I burned about 25 "Readers Digest Condensed Books". It kinda sucked. They don't burn very well and they put off tons of ash and soot.

I'm reminded of the record (Vinyl Lp's) burnings we used to have in the US. It was common practice for the "Devil's Music" to be piled up and bonfired off the face of the Earth. These burnings were so effective that today it has become virtually impossible to hear any of that evil music. Unless of course you have an IPod, cellphone, or other such device... These mass burnings forced the Devil to adapt his music to a digital (and more flame resistant) format. Oh well...

As you can see, the goal of these roasters is not to rid the world of the Quran, but to make a statement. But why choose September 11th for this nonsense? That date should be reserved for remembrance of the victims of the attacks and how the nation came together to support their families. Not soiled by some fringe group.

Wouldn't it be nice if they'd have chose December 25th for this event. What better way to honor the birth of Christ than to have families all over the nation gather around the fireplace and burn Qurans while they open their presents. Not cool.

There are some dates that are important and should be held above the fray.

Luckily we live in a (mostly) free country and if someone wants to torch some Qurans, that's fine with me. But if you want my respect, don't do it on 9/11 (or 7/4, 12/7, 12/25, Easter, &c.).

Here in the US we can burn almost anything we want. If a group wants to get together and burn a bunch of Bibles, we'd be enraged, but they are allowed to. Try burning some Qurans in Saudi Arabia or Iran. You be lucky if you got stoned to death. More likely you'd be burned alive. Another great thing about the US? We can have these national debates on just about any topic. Build a mosque at Ground Zero? Let's discuss it as a nation. Burn some Qurans? Discussion. Nationalize healthcare? Discussion. We might not be thrilled with the outcome, but we should take pride that these debates can exist because they are not the default.

Before I go, a comparison of free and unfree countries. Remember when US soldiers abused and humiliated prisoners of war at Abu Ghraib? As a nation we were outraged. The responsible people were given a trial and appropriately punished. What has gone mostly unsaid is that before we controlled Abu Ghraib it was a prison run by Saddam Hussein. The torture and humiliation that occurred there was 10 times worse that what occurred under US supervision. And what happened to the offenders? If anything, promotion. The people had no venue for outrage.

I'm not drawing a moral equivalency between our crimes and theirs. It's the aftermath of the crimes that shows a distinction. We gave the victims justice. They didn't. And that's important.