My student are forcing me to pontificate.

So many of my students offered commentary on the Florida minister Terry Jones' cancelled Quran burning after a call from our fearless leader, that I can be silent no longer.

I likened President Obama's actions in the First Amendement fiasco to his earlier Beer Summit with allegedly racially profiled Henry Gates and the allegedly racist Boston cop.  I think Jones got the shaft, as Obama should have at least tagged this the Bible Summit (or more PC the religious reading material summit), rather than a short talk on the telephone.  But anyway.....he's busy, more pressing things to apologize for, I am sure.

Jones is probably a nutcase, but we here in America, celebrate our crazies.  And Jones deserves no less.  Hell, it wouldn't be the South if we didn't have wacky preachers out on stumps or in college courtyards yelling about the end times.  Give the guy a break.  Haven't all religious zealots burned a few ____ insert sinful media here ___ in their day.  And to Christians everywhere, don't we deep down think the Muslims have it all wrong?  So what's the harm in burning a few?

Of course, I jest, but only because I think burning a book (record, magazine, even an 8-track tape, for that matter) is a crime that should be punishable by at least a few hours in a holding cell forced to READ or watch the news and become a more informed citizen.

My point--and I do have one-- is this: don't argue out of both sides of your mouth, liberal America.  Jones' purpose was to show how ridiculous the NYC Ground Zero mosque is.  And yes, regardless of what you believe, it's a mosque.  Stop splitting hairs over it.  He may have gone about it the "wrong" way to you, but he has a right to demonstrate and burn whatever the heck kind of books he wants to, providing he got the correct local permits to burn.  Whether or not he should is another matter---but not one the president of the free world should offer advice in.  That--along with the media's obsessive coverage of this whole thing are the real crime here!  This man, with a congregation of 50, would have not even been a blip on the radar of real world issues had the media not gone nuts.

The mosque, too, falls into the this same category.  Do the owners of the property have a constitutionally protected First Amendment right to build and to practice their religion?  Absolutely?  Should they do it there?  Well, I think you can tell where I stand.