We need more of this, because secular rationality, like syntax and grammar are highly overrated.

The religiously deluded are up to their old tricks.  The corporate media will always take the easy story as it will sell ads, and ads are what they all about.  The disproportionate amount of attention this church and pastor have received shows how completely our news agencies are failing in their duty to provide citizens with information that is  relevant to their lives.

“A Florida minister who had been considering burning copies of the Qur’an to mark the anniversary of 9/11 will not go ahead with the plan on Saturday, his son said.

“There will be no Qur’an burning tomorrow,” Terry Jones’s 29-year old son, Luke Jones, told reporters outside his father’s Gainesville church Friday. But Luke Jones said he did not know if it might happen in the future.”

Kind of anti-climactic after all the hoopla.  It is almost like they realized they were acting like douche-nozzles and decided to retreat from the stupidity of their position.

“On a confusing Thursday, Jones initially said he had decided to call off the burning because of a deal negotiated with Musri that organizers of the effort to build an Islamic centre near Ground Zero had agreed to move its location.

Musri replied that he could only set up a meeting with Rauf.

Later that night, Jones claimed Musri “clearly, clearly lied to us” about the centre being moved.”

Typical christain mendacity as the meeting with the Imam seems to only have happened in Jones’s mind.  But, blaming the other party for your failure is pretty much standard operation procedure.

The next quote is from President Obama who waded into this story, giving it undeserved legitimacy.  He pontificates about how bad this whole situation could potentially be and how it will affect America’s image abroad.  All Obama needed to do was dismiss this menagerie of clowns and continue with matters that were actually relevant to the American people.  But he does not:

“Earlier Friday, U.S. President Barack Obama said that burning copies of the Qur’an is “contrary to what [America] was

Giving unwarranted attention to the deluded.

founded on” and “the best imaginable recruiting tool for al-Qaeda.

Speaking at a news conference in the East Room of the White House, Obama referred to but did not name Terry Jones.

“The idea that we would burn the sacred texts of someone else’s religion is contrary to what this country stands for,” Obama said. “It’s contrary to what this nation was founded on, and my hope is that this individual prays on it and refrains from doing it.”

Obama had already condemned Jones’s plan, joining other political leaders, top military officials and foreign dignitaries who have said burning the Qur’an would provoke militants in Afghanistan and put the lives of international soldiers in jeopardy.”

Newsflash:  American’s reputation abroad sucks.  This particular incident, given the general foreign policy direction of the US, is minor compared to what the US currently doing.

It enlightening to watch as one group of religious crazies can derail the entire media cycle, but hey, forgoing responsible reporting and instead prioritizing profits is all we can really expect of the news media these days.  If they had only covered the story like this: