Friday, September 10, 2010

conflagration

In an age where I can carry the complete works of William Shakespeare on a device small enough to fit in my pocket, book burning is primitive and irrelevant. I can download and delete the Qur'an over and over, all day long. It means nothing. And in the end, all books will succumb to the rot of time, crumbling to dust, without the help of a zealot's flame. There are no sacred objects.

That we are even having this debate shows how far we have fallen. We are now appeasing the barbarians who have always intended to slaughter us all, anyway.

Let it burn.

20 comments:

John B said...

I addressed this issue on my blog. If dude gets to burn one for his religion, I get to sacrifice virgins for mine. I think I'd start with Arianna Huffington. Or as I like to call her Zsa Zsa!

Mike W. said...

I'm waiting for someone to make a "burn the Qur'an" computer game....

Earl said...

What would you do if you realized that most of your culture had surrendered to the hordes of the enemy? Put it on the talk shows, the evening news and fool us into going and buying more stuff from Communist China, of course.

Pray for your enemies is the only proper answer, imagine being stuck with seventy empty-headed virgins for Eternity - only the Moslems would think that Heaven - real folks know it would be Hell.

jackalope said...

Download, delete, download, delete. Friggin' brilliant. I will begin immediately.

Bubblehead Les. said...

Wonder how many Neville Chamberlain Black Umbrellas the Anointed One's Gooberment has purchased for their staffers?

Ed Skinner said...

Yesterday, I downloaded the Qur'an -- four different translations, mind you -- and then moved every one of them to the trash ... and then emptied it, too.

Hah!

G and G said...

I respect the 1st amendment side of this guy's actions, but I've had just about enough of the way he and the worldwide MSM have played "I'll show you mine if you show me yours". All they've ended up doing is winding up all of the extremists (both sides). And what for? A profit.

BTW, Breda, you run a great blog.

-Guy

John B said...

And while we're at it!
Voodoo Dolls of Osama, Obama, that Imam.
Let's get our Freedom of Religion on.

Unknown said...

We live in a great country, in which we can burn any symbol we own. Be it a Qur'an, Bible, or even our own flag. The question isn't whether it is okay, the question is whether it is responsible.

Burning a people's sacred book makes them mad, it is an act intended to provoke. I don't think it is appropriate to provoke them, we are dominate in this relationship and provoking them is silly.

Joseph said...

I'll say it.

BREDA (not Brenda) FOR PRESIDENT!!!

Bryan Reavis said...

It's not quite the same. Deleting a copy of an E-document is like throwing a blanket over the shadow of your house and then claiming it burned to the ground.

If you're gonna make a statement, don't mumble. Speak loudly and clearly so the kids in the back of the classroom can hear you.

Chris said...

Found this...

http://recyclebinkoran.blogspot.com/

breda said...

RauĆ°bjorn, I have to disagree. Information is information - no matter where, or how, the words are written.

Audiobook, illustrated manuscript, ebook, or scrawled on a wall in crayon - the content is separate from the media.

alex. said...

From the keyboard of a babe! Amen, sister, Amen.

Timmeehh said...

The medium is the message.

Bryan Reavis said...

The difference is that the transformation of ordered energy into random energy is insubstantial. All copies of a given electronic file are exact duplicates. Their destruction means nothing unless you erase all of them. The destruction of a book, a solid, real object, is an actual act of protest. You are doing something meaningful. If you repeat this action long enough, there will be no more books. You can delete downloads from now until Ragnarok and accomplish nothing.

Don't get me wrong, I'm against book burning on general principal, but if you're gonna tick off the bad guys, do it right.

Kick 'em in the balls, don't piss on their shoes.

Papa Whiskey said...

I'm okay with a Gurkha soldier cutting off the head of his enemy with his kukri and bringing it home in a burlap sack. I'm cool with Black Jack Pershing burying his enemies in pig skins (whether or not it really happened.) burning a book is a gesture of cowardice and impotence.

Bryan Reavis said...

It's only impotence if you lack the capacity to meet your enemy's reprisal with the requisite force needed to defeat them. It's only cowardice if you lack the resolve to face your enemy's attack.

Just so were clear Patrick, you do not object to using an enemy's religion against him, as long as it's done with violence?

What a novel restriction.

HeroHog said...

It is all symbolic and means nothing in the end. If it makes ya feel better, delete away! If you are doing it to tick off mooslums (spelling INTENTIONAL), trust me, it will. Sounds like a soft win/win... no?

Papa Whiskey said...

To be clear, I don't have a problem using an enemy's religion against him. I just don't see what burning a book has to do with that. It makes Tokyo Rose look effective.