So Rush Limbaugh and The Bad Terry Jones graduated from Cape Girardeau Central High School together, class of ’69. Cape Girardeau has a lot to answer for.
It’s been at least forty years, if I’m remembering right, since I’ve been in Cape Girardeau, but I remember it as a pretty town on high bluffs overlooking the Mississippi. It’s a college town, believe it or not, home of Southeast Missouri State University. It was the state teachers college way back when. And it’s not all that small, as towns go. The 2008 population was 37,370, Wikipedia says.
Full disclosure, I graduated high school in ’69, also. Depressing. At least I didn’t live in Cape Girardeau.
As I understand it, the book burning stunt is suspended but not canceled. So we don’t know if it will happen or not.
The interesting thing about the Bad Terry Jones story is the role of media, which is explored today in the New York Times by Brian Stelter. The Bad Terry Jones has been pulling Islam-bashing stunts for at least a year, apparently, and everyone ignored him until Islamophobia became hot news. And then Jones and his stunts became fodder for the News Beast That Must Be Fed.
Quick, somebody, find a pretty blonde having an affair with a married congressman and kidnap her to distract the Beast. Just kidding.
According to Justin Elliott at Salon, the Bad Terry Jones saga has been a big story in the Middle East since July. The Middle East press picked up the story before major U.S. media did, says Elliott. Thanks to the magic of the Intertubes, a tiny local story can be a fart heard round the world.
Ya gotta love our MSM.
First, any tweet from that tw*t Palin is broadcast over the airwaves like a missive from Moses.
Then, Cruella de Geller starts on the Downtown Mosque, creating a furor where there wasn’t one before, and gets the ton of coverage for her upcoming rancid, racist book that she craved.
And finally, this ‘Dysopian “Yosemite Sam”‘ jerkwater Florida preacher with a strip-mall church congregation of 50 lunatic losers, sees his opportunity for his ‘Warholian’ 15 minutes (or is it Whore-holian?), the MSM rush to cover his ravings. They put him on the radio and TV, like he’s an honest broker whose voice needed to be heard.
Then, the MSM sits around, gazes at its own navel, and wonders if they, the MSM, were at all complicit in making this douchebag asshole a world-wide celebrity.
Some people deserve to be kept in the attic. His Jones clown is one of them. Leave him, and all of them, alone. Or let them do what every nut has been doing for years – stand on a soapbox with a megaphone at the park and scream his absurdities to anyone unfortunate enough to have sought some peace at the park.
Hey, MSM, here’s a clue: Don’t give a megaphone to every imbecile with an opinion, because they all have them. Let them howl to their tiny congregations, or into the wind, whichever draws less of an audience.
How difficult is that? It’ll leave you more time to cover the real news. Oh, sorry, that’s too much work, isn’t it? It’s easier to bring on some assholes and let them blow their festering farts into your precious broadband that we taxpayers pay for.
Not only the MSM, but blogs and political sites generally have been spending way too much time on this fool. We should understand that giving them attention is precisely what they want.
Sure, what’s wrong is wrong. Sometimes you can’t help but make a statement about it. However, how much of this coverage has really been clear, blunt statements declaring how utterly moronic Terry Jones is, and how it is pointless and counterproductive to burn books? Publicity can backfire, but only if the people spreading it actually try.
This is what the MSM should be showing. http://www.fireonquran.com/
This shows Iranians burning the Quran in protest to show defiance to their gov’t that is run by mullahs instead of there being any personal choice or freedom for the individual. MSM could inspire not only America, but the rest of the world that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and that Muslim born people still want the opportunities to succeed and learn in directions that their talents take them, not where their mullahs force them.
MSM has too much to gain by keeping tension between right vs. left, for them to be trusted to show truth where it is and where we all need it to come from. I consider myself a free thinker, and am insulted by their short sighted drive for ratings/sensationalism in the now.
I’ve stumbled across this site and enjoy reading the comments. I’m strongly conservative (not looking for a fight), and open minded, which is another side of the truth that the MSM doesn’t want to show.
Hide Terry Jones from the media because he deserves it, bring light to the Iranians because they also deserve it and have the harder row to hoe.
This guy is exhibit A of how useless our media has become.hard to post using my blkbrryn I had a hip replcmnt wedn ooh this is fun stuff
uncledad,
‘Hip-hip, hurray?’
If you have and good painkillers, remember, ‘sharing is caring!’
Just kidding. Get better ASAP!
http://www.cgsot.edu/PRTJones.htm
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/09/10/1680125/man-charged-in-abortion-clinic.html
Why isn’t this story getting covered anywhere outside of North Carolina?
Because the perp’s name is Justin Moose and not Abdul Mohammad.
uncledad..Wishing you a speedy recovery!
Uncledad, good luck in your recovery. I’m looking at a knee replacement sometime in the near future. I never thought I’d wear a joint out until I was in my 70’s.Remember to take your fish oil!
Dave-t, I got into a discussion with a local group yesterday re: Terry Jones, the WTC Islamic center, and Islam in general.Most of the guys are conservatives, stuck on mom, apple pie, and NASCAR.They have virtually no of what goes on in the world outside of what they see on FOX. When I pointed out that The U.S. has been at war since Iraq for over 20 years, and actually was an ally of Saddam’s regime during the Iran / Iraq war, they were flabbergasted.
When I said the majority of Muslims in our community are not from the ME, they didn’t believe me, we have a large population of people from Guyana and Trinidad who are Muslim. At any rate, most of the guys thought the Qu’ran burning is a bad idea, but they are against the WTC Islamic Center. One of them was upset that we have more Mosques than Catholic Churches in Kissimmee.
My opinion on the whole deal mirrors Fred Reed’s article I linked to in yesterday’s comment section.
I think it’s great that you visit this site and read the comments.
Thanks for the well wishes I go home today so far so good 8 more weeks they do tother side! I can’t wait.
It looks like paster wacko up in NYC today, closer to network cameran WTF!
I just heard that Rev. Jones is in NYC, getting police protection.
Mayor Bloomberg should extend that police protection, then send this asshole and his church the f**king bill!
That’ll learn the (Not-so) Good Rev!!!
Rev. Jones is one of these charismatic preachers that has a relatively small following, like Fred Phelps. Unlike Phelps, there is no evidence that his congregation consists mostly of his relatives. Jones is no stranger to controversy, having left a church he started in Germany after the German government started investigating allegations of brainwashing his congregants and getting to them to support Rev. Jones and his first wife’s high standard of living.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2010/09/08/quran_burning_pastor_german_church_open2010/index.html
Aw, what the heck, I might as well register myself as a fellow class of ’69 member. Rush and Terry nothwithstanding (there are a few bad apples in every barrel) I still think it was a great year for HS grads. Summer of Love and flower power while we were in HS followed by one giant step for mankind and then the nationwide student strike protesting the war. We were at the center of some pretty remarkable times. And not long after that, Watergate and the impeachment proceedings (our system actually worked on that one).
Wary Tale:
I was thinking about the late sixties last night specifically the student movements and how pop culture and music provided the “atmosphere”, you know Dylan, Hendrix, The Band, Lenny Bruce, etc. I pondered the power of the late sixties, early seventies while watching the MTV VMA’s. Now we have lady gaga, Justin Bieber, Snookie, is it any wonder our country seems so disengaged? We got no atmoshere here, hell I would have givin artist of the year to AutoTune nobody even bothers to learn how to sing anymore. It also occured to me that the VMA’s are produced much like Your typical FAUX news program, All show no go, All hat no Cattle….. OK enough old man rant for now, hey kid get off my grass!