International Burn A Silly Whiskered Preacher Day!

Hello, devoted small throng. Sorry for the tardy postings. Its all been a bit manic. Great stories have come and gone, now washed from our five minute consciousness, never to be referred to. Shame really, as there have been some really good stories I would have liked to comment on - not least that mad bag who dropped the kitty in the wheelie bin. Ah well. It is certainly not the first story I have missed, and it certainly won't be the last either.

I have been vastly entertained and purturbed by the detached ramblings of a certain Preacher named Terry Jones*. Or maybe he was a pastor. Anyway, he is (or was) planning on burning as many copies of the Koran has he could lay his hands on (pardon the pun). He decided to do this after apparently deciding enough is enough. Needless to say this has caused international outrage. He operates out of a small church in Gainesville in Florida. So deranged does he seem to be, that he can't seem to rustle up more than 50 followers. This, is pretty pathetic in a country renowned for the fervent obedience of its religious nut jobs.  He must be really out there. Or perhaps they were just put off by his odd choice of facial whiskers. They are impressive in their awfulness. Of course almost every media source has been in utter outrage at such a thing. Me included. Although Fox is apparently offering to send him some gasoline and firelighters (not really). I suppose it just fuels the fire and we should not give this guy the publicity. I love what he has done with the trailer though, although am not totally sure about the typeface. It looks a bit 70's to me. I think he must have had some left over from his previous protest from around that time. I believe it may well have been directed at another minority group. In fact if you look closely at the trailer (and this image does not do it justice), you can just make out the "Burn a Paki" letters, hastily painted over. I should not laugh. He's clearly doing what God tells him. I guess that goes for those whiskers as well. For God spake unto him and said, "Listen, Terry. If you want to be taken seriously, grow some 70's biker whiskers".And so it came to pass.

I can't help but notice though, that he is not selling the event very well. It apparently goes on for three hours and, although the Koran is quite a big book, it aint gonna burn for a full three hours. Yet there is no mention of food or dancing, or even a raffle. It's not really grabbing me. Anyway, the stop press is that he has apparently decided to cancel this book burning in exchange for talks with the Iman who is planning on building a Mosque on the Ground Zero site (which he isn't, by the way - it's some distance away). I am sure the Iman will be more than pleased to meet this guy and will extend him every courtesy - in the same way you would be nice to a granny who was now a bit confused and dribbly, but had once given you ice creams and has probably left you something in her will. Residual pity is a wonderful thing. A friend of mine has said that freedom of speech is a right. I mainly agree with this, provided that it is also accepted that with freedom comes responsibility. I don't see much responsibility attached to this action, especially in light of the additional risk it could put our troops at. Its a shame that so many people who think he has a perfect right to do this (and I am not including my friend here) are the same people who would also like to see a law enacted which makes American Flag burning illegal. You can't have it both ways. If you could then Larry King would be on CNN forever and open each show with the words "Welcome once more, you crazy motherfuckers", before flashing a saggy tit at camera three. Anyway, enough said about this guy - apart from I have noticed (with the help of wordsearch) that Burn A Koran Day is an anagram of Run Abroad Yank. Nuff said!

* For legal reasons I should point out that Pastor Jones is no relation to that surrrealist nutter Terry Jones of Monty Python fame who used to like playing the piano in the nude and wearing womens clothing. I have no evidence that Pastor Jones has ever played the piano.