Dear Houellie,

I gotta love you!

Bless You, - best laugh I've had all day,
and I really needed it!

You clever thing you!

How's that?

Angry Oak writes

'Engaging in an exercise such as this you are aware that this will endanger lives, and achieve nothing is pathetic.'

Very similar to the secularist who produced cartoons depicting Mohamed.

You write
'I pray to whatever god there is that the nutty "Reverend"catches on fire himself and that one of his followers films it and uploads it onto Youtube!'

It seems your hatred outweighs this man's.

What worries me is that there is a lot of "we" mentioned in this thread.
There aint no "we" unless we're USA Christian residents- otherwise there is as much "we" as in the Israel-Palestine conflict.

It would be unwise to sum up the relations of the Islamic and Western WorldS (yes plurals for each) as down to shows of hostilities in one slightly isolated western country as a path to bloodshed vs the alternative of active bridge-building, reconciliation and an all-round love-in.

Hell, the cartoon crisis ended up- hordes of nutcases rioted in their own countries and beat each other up to vent their anger, then they simply stopped interacting with the offending countries (including boycotts) and the countries lost interest in the toons now the offending nutters pulled their heads in (or, likely, bailed and relocated) and ceased to be an issue like before.

Personally, if loony bible-belt nutters and shariah-nutters threw down the gauntlet and went at it, that would be perfectly fine- so long as "we" stayed clear of it.
I personally would enjoy more isolation from both- and I imagine there is a gigantic majority in almost all western countries that would feel the same.

There's something about this entire fiasco
that to me doesn't make sense.

Why is the media giving Pastor Jones all
this publicity?

He's gained world-wide notoriety sparking
demonstrations in Afghanistan and Indonesia,
as a result of his declared action.

What if
the media would have totally ignored what
he plans to do? His congregation consists of
only 50 members - let them have a bonfire
night, all by themselves. Nobody would be any
the wiser, if the media refused to give this
publicity-seeking fundie the notoriety he
set out to get.

Instead look at what's happened - he's achieved
what he wanted. He doesn't seem to care that the
top US Commander in Afghanistan has warned troops
lives will be in danger if the action in Florida
goes ahead.

The media must surely take some of the responsibility for
this stupidity. All this should have simply fizzled
out, instead thanks to the media - things have really
ignited worldwide.

I guess its what sells that matters!
Sad really.

Dear Foxy,

As in most cases, I agree with what you wrote. As a guest/foreigner living in Germany - actually Cologne, where the crazy pastor had his congregation between about 1980 and 2009 (http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,716409,00.html) - I should perhaps not criticize the German Chancellor.

Nevertheless, I have difficulties understanding the difference between what a crazy Westergaard did, and what a crazy Jones is going to do, as far as the predictable reaction of some (also crazy) Muslims is concerned (see http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,716503,00.html). Perhaps you have a better insight.

runner

Are you on some type of medication?