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Civility and the Constitution (The REAL Conservative Position on Book Burning)
The American Spectator ^ | 9.10.10 | Andrew Cline

Posted on 09/10/2010 2:10:45 PM PDT by nickcarraway

I remember growing up in a conservative movement that, reacting to the rampant permissiveness of the 1960s and '70s, stressed the virtue of civility. Sure, you have the right to flagrantly offend your neighbors and your community. But should you? Conservatism used to answer "no."

It was one of the cultural demarcations between the right and the left. If you were on the right, you generally thought it unacceptable to excuse boorish behavior with the utterance, "but it's my constitutional right!" Conservatives understood that self-restraint reduced the pressure for government-imposed restraint. We understood that with our civil rights came civic responsibilities. We understood that the United States of America was a land of tremendous religious, ethnic, and cultural diversity and that the peaceful coexistence of all of these people of such varying backgrounds and beliefs required tolerance, and tolerance meant treating others as you would have them treat you. In short, the republic itself relied upon civility.

Most conservatives still get this, I think. But sometimes I wonder how much the self-indulgence of the left has seduced our side. In the last few days, we've seen many on the right come out in defense of a proposal that once would have been almost universally considered indefensible, at least on the right -- the burning of hundreds of Korans in a deliberate attempt to anger and provoke Muslims around the world.

How can we condemn the constant and never-ending anti-Christian provocations of the radical, secular left and then rise to Terry Jones' defense on the lame excuse that he has the right to free expression? Or worse, that not going through with his planned incitement amounts to somehow giving in to the terrorists? No, it doesn't. It amounts to a belated display of common decency.

(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: conservatism; firstammendment; koran
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To: Mrs. Don-o

Don’t think of it as a provocation, think of it as a defense of the First Amendment, which the Muslims are trying to overturn with Sharia-fed special rights for Muslims’ feelings.


41 posted on 09/10/2010 3:17:37 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie (Stimulus. 0bamaCare. Cap and Tax. 9/11 Victory Mosque. TARP. Amnesty. Summer of Recovery.)
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To: Steve_Seattle; Cubs Fan; xzins
I’m not aware of any prominent conservative who supports this Koran-burning stunt

It's because they have families.

42 posted on 09/10/2010 3:17:48 PM PDT by P-Marlowe (LPFOKETT GAHCOEEP-w/o*)
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To: djf

It makes it clear we will abandon Western ways, and switch to their ways. They can declare victory.


43 posted on 09/10/2010 3:18:21 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway
How can we condemn the constant and never-ending anti-Christian provocations of the radical, secular left and then rise to Terry Jones' defense on the lame excuse that he has the right to free expression?

Because, to use a more appropriate analogy, sometimes you have to pop the schoolyard bully in the nose to make him stop, or he'll think you're weak and keep on bullying you. If you do that once, does that make you a bully too?

-PJ

44 posted on 09/10/2010 3:18:27 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too ("Comprehensive" reform bills only end up as incomprehensible messes.)
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To: Don Corleone

Christianity was a total life experience. It’s not their fault Christians don’t practice their religion.


45 posted on 09/10/2010 3:22:01 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

One of them who?

However, you are already one of them. A spineless, poop in your pants coward.

“A people unwilling to use EXTREME violent force to preserve or obtain their liberty deserves the tyrants that rule them.”


46 posted on 09/10/2010 3:24:05 PM PDT by stockpirate ("......When the government fears the people you have liberty." Thomas Jefferson)
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To: Uncle Miltie

Exactly, basically the Muslims are saying, we don’t give a sh!t about your Constitution, the burden must be on the US Government to stop anyone from saying anything bad about Islam , or we will attack you.

That’s why the Goon Squad of Gates, et. al, went after this pissant Florida preacher.


47 posted on 09/10/2010 3:24:58 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Uncle Miltie

2010.09.09 (Yala, Thailand) - Muslim separatists shoot a 52-year-old Buddhist in the head then kick his body under a bridge.
2010.09.09 (Vladikavkaz, Russia) - A Shahid drives an explosives-laden vehicle into a market, blasting seventeen shoppers to bits.
2010.09.09 (Mogadishu, Somalia) - Five Fedayeen suicide bombers storm an airport and kill nine others, including two women.
2010.09.09 (Kurram, Pakistan) - Militants murder ten bus passengers with an explosive device.
2010.09.09 (Diyala, Iraq) - A woman is beheaded in her own home by suspected al-Qaeda ‘insurgents’.
2010.09.09 (Muqdadiya, Iraq) - A cleric is beheaded and set on fire by Freedom Fighters.


48 posted on 09/10/2010 3:27:26 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie (Stimulus. 0bamaCare. Cap and Tax. 9/11 Victory Mosque. TARP. Amnesty. Summer of Recovery.)
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To: nickcarraway

Ramadan 2010 Scorecard: Day 29
Terror Attacks In the name of The Religion of Peace: 217
Terror Attacks In the name of All Other Religions: 1
Dead Bodies in the name of Islam: 1,011
Dead Bodies in the name of All Other Religions: 1
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/


49 posted on 09/10/2010 3:28:02 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie (Stimulus. 0bamaCare. Cap and Tax. 9/11 Victory Mosque. TARP. Amnesty. Summer of Recovery.)
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To: nickcarraway

How many times do you turn the other cheek, only to be slapped again before you say “ENOUGH” and kick ‘em in the nards?


50 posted on 09/10/2010 3:28:39 PM PDT by Keith in Iowa (TV News is an oxymoron. MSNBC = Moonbats Spouting Nothing But Crap.)
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To: nickcarraway

Here’s my position on burning books - you buy a book, you can do whatever you want to it. It is your property. Burn it, read it, wipe yourself with it. It’s yours, you didn’t steal it, the author got his earnings, the publisher got paid. Everybody’s square.


51 posted on 09/10/2010 3:29:57 PM PDT by meyer (Our own government has become our enemy,...)
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To: Uncle Miltie
Muslim Rapes Christian Toddler for Refusal to Convert to Islam
52 posted on 09/10/2010 3:30:47 PM PDT by CajunConservative
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To: Darkwolf377

Thanks to you and the poster of this thread. We seem to be judging our own actions by the provocations of our enemies. Tit for tat is explosive and helps the Islamists. We are responsible for our own character. My Dad’s generation did not build extermination camps for Germans and Japanese because it was unAmerican not because they were intimidated.


53 posted on 09/10/2010 3:31:58 PM PDT by JimSEA
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To: Mrs. Don-o

Well, we wouldn’t want Islamofascists to be uncomfortable while they pursue their September quotas:

Date Country City Killed Injured Description
2010.09.09 Russia Vladikavkaz 17 123 A Shahid drives an explosives-laden vehicle into a market, blasting seventeen shoppers to bits.
2010.09.09 Somalia Mogadishu 9 3 Five Fedayeen suicide bombers storm an airport and kill nine others, including two women.
2010.09.09 Pakistan Kurram 10 4 Militants murder ten bus passengers with an explosive device.
2010.09.09 Iraq Diyala 1 0 A woman is beheaded in her own home by suspected al-Qaeda ‘insurgents’.
2010.09.09 Iraq Muqdadiya 1 1 A cleric is beheaded and set on fire by Freedom Fighters.
2010.09.09 Pakistan Quetta 5 4 A suicide bomber detonates inside an official’s home, taking five lives.
2010.09.09 Thailand Yala 1 0 Muslim separatists shoot a 52-year-old Buddhist in the head then kick his body under a bridge.
2010.09.08 Nigeria Bauchi 4 8 Boko Haram Islamists assault a prison, killing two employees and two civilians.
2010.09.07 Iraq Samarra 3 0 A married couple are among three family members slain in their home by Sunni gunmen.
2010.09.07 Thailand Narathiwat 1 0 A young Buddhist is gunned down in an Muslim drive-by attack.
2010.09.07 Thailand Narathiwat 2 0 Two middle aged Buddhist teachers, husband and wife, are murdered by Islamic radicals.
2010.09.07 Iraq Mosul 1 0 A woman is shot to death by Muslim terrorists.
2010.09.07 Iraq Baghdad 2 6 Mujahid manage to take down two Iraqis with a roadside bomb.
2010.09.07 Pakistan Punjab 2 0 Terrorists murder a man and his nephew.
2010.09.07 Russia Baksanenok 1 0 Suspected Islamists assassinate a judge.
2010.09.07 Iraq Baghdad 1 0 A TV anchor who tried to end sectarian violence is shot outside his home by a sectarian faction.
2010.09.07 Pakistan Hangu 1 2 A police officer succumbs to injury after clinging to life for a few days following an Islamist bombing.
2010.09.06 Thailand Pattani 2 0 A janitor is among two civilians assassinated by Muslim gunmen in separate attacks.
2010.09.06 Pakistan Kohat 21 40 Women and children are most of the two dozen victims in a powerful suicide blast on their residential compound.
2010.09.06 Afghanistan Kabul 1 0 A 45-year-old news anchor is the target of a ‘brutal beheading’ near his home.
2010.09.06 Pakistan Quetta 1 0 The body of a lawyer is found riddled with bullets six weeks after his abduction.
2010.09.06 Iraq Samarra 5 0 Five construction workers building a youth center are stabbed and shot to death in a barbaric Mujahideen attack.
2010.09.06 Pakistan Lakki Marwat 19 46 Nine schoolchildren are among nineteen innocent lives snuffed out by Holy Warrior suicide bombers.
2010.09.06 Tajikistan Dushanbe 0 7 Fundamentalists toss a bomb into a disco.
2010.09.06 Afghanistan Baghlan 2 0 The Taliban kill a district governor and his bodyguard in an ambush.
2010.09.06 Afghanistan Paktika 3 5 Freedom fighters shoot three children to death.
2010.09.06 Algeria Tebessa 2 0 Fundamentalists kill two local security personnel with a bomb.
2010.09.06 Algeria Skikda 3 2 al-Qaeda murder three local cops with a roadside bomb.
2010.09.06 Thailand Yala 1 0 A middle-aged woman is shot to death by Mujahid while walking home.
2010.09.05 Iraq Baghdad 12 36 Six Fedayeen attack a government building, killing a dozen Iraqis.
2010.09.05 Dagestan Buinaksk 5 36 A Shahid suicide car bomber sends five other souls to Allah.
2010.09.05 Yemen Abyan 3 0 Three people are shot to death in an al-Qaeda ambush.
2010.09.05 Nigeria Borno 2 4 A trader is among two men shot to death by Boko Haram Islamists.
2010.09.05 Pakistan Punjab 1 0 An oil rig driver is killed by Islamic snipers.
2010.09.04 Afghanistan Kandahar 3 11 Three civilians including a child are blown to bits by a Fedayeen martyr.
2010.09.04 Pakistan Sindh 2 0 The wife and nephew of a police officer are murdered by suspected radicals.
2010.09.04 Afghanistan Ghazni 1 0 Sunni extremists behead a Shia businessman.
2010.09.04 Dagestan Makhachkala 1 3 Terrorists manage to kill one person with a car bomb.
2010.09.04 Aghanistan Faryab 3 5 Three local cops are exterminated in a brutal ambush.
2010.09.04 Afghanistan Kunduz 7 17 A child is among seven murdered by a Shahid suicide bomber outside a butcher shop.
2010.09.04 Thailand Pattani 1 1 Islamist open fire on two civilians riding a motorcycle, killing one.
2010.09.03 Tajikistan Khujand 2 25 A suicide bomber injures twenty-five and kills 2.
2010.09.03 Iraq Baghdad 4 4 Four Iraqis are shot or blown up around the country by Mujahideen.
2010.09.03 Azerbaijan Gumbashly 1 1 One dead as a ‘religious dispute’ between mosque members results in gunfire.
2010.09.03 Pakistan Mardan 1 2 A Sunni suicide bomber detonates at an Ahmadiyya (minority sect) mosque, killing one.
2010.09.03 Pakistan Quetta 73 149 Over sixty innocents are slaughtered when a suicide bomber targets a Shia procession.
2010.09.03 Iraq Mosul 1 0 An imam is gunned down outside his mosque by Religion of Peace rivals.
2010.09.03 Pakistan Peshawar 1 3 Muslim militants slay a local cop with a roadside bomber.
2010.09.03 Somalia Galgala 5 0 At least five Puntland soliders are killed in an ambush by Islamic militants.
2010.09.02 Pakistan Turbat 2 8 Sunni gunmen open fire on a bus full of Shia pilgrims, killing at least two.
2010.09.02 Thailand Pattani 1 1 A 35-year-old man is murdered in an Islamist drive-by.
2010.09.02 Sudan Tabra 74 79 Janjiweed militia on camels sweep through a market and slaughter over seventy people, including eighteen children.
2010.09.02 Pakistan Bajaur 1 2 A female teacher is shot to death by Holy Warriors.
2010.09.02 Pakistan Kyber 1 0 Mujahideen kidnap and brutally murder a taxi driver returning from a friend’s funeral.
2010.09.02 Iraq Baghdad 2 0 A taxi driver and senior education ministry official are gunned down in separate attacks.
2010.09.02 Iraq Baiji 2 5 Suspected al-Qaeda shoot two opponents to death.
2010.09.01 Afghanistan Kandahar 2 2 Two Afghans are blown to bits by a Taliban bomb hidden on a motorcycle.
2010.09.01 Afghanistan Helmand 0 15 Fifteen people at a market are badly injured, many with limbs torn from their bodies, by a Taliban blast.
2010.09.01 Pakistan Lahore 43 270 Over thirty Shia pilgrims in a procession are dismantled by a car bomb blast and two Sunni suicide bombers.
2010.09.01 Thailand Yala 1 0 A 49-year-old security worker is shot to death as he is riding home from work.
2010.09.01 Thailand Pattani 2 0 A Buddhist couple in their 50’s are brutally murdered by Jihadi gunmen.
2010.09.01 Iraq Mosul 3 6 A woman is among three Iraqis taken down by a Jihadi bombing and shooting attack.
2010.09.01 Algeria Boumerdes 2 26 A Fedayeen suicide bomber kills two local soldiers and injures dozens more.
2010.09.01 Pakistan Karachi 1 0 A young mother is burned to death by her in-laws in a suspected honor killing.
2010.09.01 Israel Samaria 0 2 A rabbi and his wife are shot by Palestinian terrorists while riding in their car.


54 posted on 09/10/2010 3:32:38 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie (Stimulus. 0bamaCare. Cap and Tax. 9/11 Victory Mosque. TARP. Amnesty. Summer of Recovery.)
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To: JimSEA

More people are killed by Islamists each year than in all 350 years of the Spanish Inquisition combined. (source)

Islamic terrorists murder more people every day than the Ku Klux Klan has in the last 50 years. (source)

More civilians were killed by Muslim extremists in two hours on September 11th than in the 36 years of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland. (source)

19 Muslim hijackers killed more innocents in two hours on September 11th than the number of American criminals executed in the last 65 years. (source)

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/index.html#Attacks


55 posted on 09/10/2010 3:35:49 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie (Stimulus. 0bamaCare. Cap and Tax. 9/11 Victory Mosque. TARP. Amnesty. Summer of Recovery.)
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To: ronnyquest
On the other hand, it can easily be argued that the time for civility has long since passed. Civility, which I love greatly, is only of real value if both parties to an issue behave with civility. Since muslims and the left, et al do not, it is reasonable that conservatives do not.

in addition, Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, et. al., would not be considered "civil" this days... they were not civil about demanding their freedom... these founders indeed burned things...

56 posted on 09/10/2010 3:35:55 PM PDT by latina4dubya ( self-proclaimed tequila snob)
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To: JimSEA
"My Dad’s generation did not build extermination camps for Germans and Japanese because it was unAmerican not because they were intimidated."

Seriously? you are compairing burning a book to extermination camps? I don't know why I even bother
57 posted on 09/10/2010 3:37:08 PM PDT by JoSixChip (You think your having a bad day?.....Just remember, somewhere out there is a Mr. Pelosi!)
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To: latina4dubya

Monthly Jihad Report
August, 2010 Jihad Attacks: 196

Countries: 23

Religions: 5

Dead Bodies: 811

Critically Injured: 1602


58 posted on 09/10/2010 3:37:09 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie (Stimulus. 0bamaCare. Cap and Tax. 9/11 Victory Mosque. TARP. Amnesty. Summer of Recovery.)
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To: Uncle Miltie

59 posted on 09/10/2010 3:38:37 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie (Stimulus. 0bamaCare. Cap and Tax. 9/11 Victory Mosque. TARP. Amnesty. Summer of Recovery.)
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To: Uncle Miltie
It is a provocation, and obviously intended to be so.

The provocation is a legal right, just as any verbal or symbolic jack-assery is a legal right, inasmuch as the government cannot legally suppress it, assuming one is destroying one's own property. and not somebody else's.

Thus I would oppose any kind of pre-emptive government restraint, or any subsequent legal penalty. I would oppose the passage of blasphemy laws, just as I oppose hate-speech laws.

However, one can defend the First Amendment and still say this pastor is snake-mean and turkey-stupid. Some give him credit for being publicity-smart, but I don't: he's not playing the media, the media's playing him.

And why? For what reason? Ponder that awhile.

60 posted on 09/10/2010 3:38:44 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o ("Justice and judgment are the foundation of His throne." Psalm 89:14)
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