Sorry, but I think this is a total non-issue.
It’s a corporate decision and it’s totally their right to make it – without a bunch of wild-eyed screaming about first amendment rights being infringed upon or threatened.
Who the hell appointed them the guardians of free speech, anyway? They’re a business. That’s it. An entity designed to make money for a group of people. They have made a business decision to not carry a product. Whoopdie-freakin-doo.
And free speech laws were designed so the government could not limit what the common man chooses to say and has no bearing whatsoever on a private entity like Borders and Waldenbooks. If they don’t want to carry that magazine or any product – who gives a sh!t. I don’t have stock in them.
So, excuse me if I don’t get riled up because these bookstores are not helping Free Inquiry make more money pushing controversial pics people want to see.
If the government told them they couldn’t sell it, then Ok – I’d be as outraged as the next guy. But that’s not the case so, like I said, so freakin’ what.
If anybody wants to see these cartoons, there must be at least a million places on the web you can see them – for free. I have absolutely no interest in viewing them at all and couldn’t care less. As far as I’m concerned anyone who wants to see them now is only entertaining their voyeuristic tendencies – akin to watching the smouldering bodies in the carwreck by the side of the road.
So when people shout about how our right to free speech is being threatened because a chain of bookstores decide not to pander makes me laugh.
And who in the hell is capitulating to threats? You? Me? Our government? Our institutions? Sounds to me like it’s just a private entity – and that is their right to do so. Just as it’s your right or mine to put ourselves and our families/employess in jeopardy or not.
The thought that Muslims in the Mideast are cheering in victory over whether Borders sells this magazine makes me laugh. They want western influence out of their countries – period. They want Israel destroyed and American influence removed.
To me this borders on hysterics and hyperbole.
No we haven’t become a nation of pussies – we’ve become a nation of whiners.
This country is overflowing with people who sit safely behind their desks and *****, moan and argue endlessly about trivial bullsh!t;
- who lounge around and get high and drunk and screw and b!tch about the state of the world and debate the semantics of the oh-so-important fine print in the meaning of life contract;
- who sit on their couches and complain about what our politicians are doing but don’t get involved in the process;
- who watch soundbites and rant and rave about things going on overseas and how our government is spending our money – yet want that same government to protect them.
Anybody who’s upset because the Muslim world gets riled up when their religious icon is shown in a disrespectful light should either
a) find a way to wrest control of the masses from the elements in Muslim society that use these things against the west for their own agenda; or
b) find someone who does have a plan to deal with them and work to get them elected, or
c) spend their energy coming up with a plan to deal with Radical Islam, or
d) refrain from portraying Mohammed in a way that seriously upsets them or be prepared to deal with the consequences.
To get mad at the people of Borders and Waldenbooks is a complete waste of energy, to me.
onders::
