If the Spanish Inquisition and Nazi Germany's book burnings are

[Cleita]

considered protected under the First Amendment, because if this Koran burning is, then they are, I guess no one will have a problem if we burn all of Ayn Rand's work, Milton Friedman and the writings of all his mentors and sycophants, anything written by Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, etc., etc, and etc.. I think the book publishers will love it...more books to print to replace the books that are burned. Maybe it will stimulate the economy.

To put a little historical light on this. The book burnings that happened in previous eras also meant that no new versions of those books theoretically would be printed and no one should own any one of those books and keep it on their book shelves. We know that publishers will keep printing what sells, no matter how many copies are destroyed as long as they are free to and we are free to own them. We still are a free country in that way. I say we should hold our own book burnings to show the world we aren't slaves to the toxic ideology of those idiots. Yes, they can still print, buy and own. So can we.

We can all go out and buy a Koran in solidarity. Those crazies can't stop us and we can burn books we don't like because people can still own them. I probably am being really iconoclastic right now and will shock many, but if you think about what I am saying and have read this entire post, you may understand what I mean.

[msongs]

1. current item is not related to inquisition and nazi book burnings really.

florida is just one guy n a few friends, not state sponsored or government endorsed. and a publicity seeker who has found lots of people insecure about their religion to get all riled up

[Cleita]

2. True, but it has become an international incident

and from what our military and State Department is saying it's putting us in jeopardy and our military. We need to do something to show the world that the majority of Americans don't approve. I think burning toxic books would be a good performance. Hell, burn all the crap written by Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and that crowd. It doesn't mean that those books won't be printed again and sold in Christian bookstores, but it means there are Americans who don't approve of their racist, bigoted diatribe and we need to show the world that.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

4. The Spanish Inquisition is not protected under the First Amendment

It may be protected under the Patriot Act, but the Free Exercise clause does not include kidnapping former-Jews and torturing them to admit to being active Jews so that religious leaders could confiscate their property.