Mustache Guy and his 15 minutes
It started with a politicization effect and dysfunctional media:
That’s literally all I’d ask them in an interview. I’d stand there pointing at a map of the city. Would it be offensive here? What about here? Or how about way over there? And when they finally picked a suitable spot, I’d ask them to draw it on the map, sketching out roughly how big it should be, and how many windows it’s allowed to have. Then I’d hand them a colour swatch and ask them to decide on a colour for the lobby carpet. And the conversation would continue in this vein until everyone in the room was in tears. Myself included.
Colin Powell put it less sarcastically.
In steps Mustache Man and why we pay attention to Mustache Man.
And in that climate, a pastor named Terry Jones saw an opportunity to make himself famous. Jones heads up a heretofore unknown and uncared-about gang of Florida morons known as the Dove Outreach Church — minor bit players in the field of antagonizing American Muslims. This idiot announced that he was going to burn some Qurans on September 11th, and was anyone interested in giving this nonsense a whole lot of media attention?
It is best if Mustache Guy would be quaranined to a page A17, and about six sentences. “Hey! Interesting Guy! He and his 36 followers, preparing kool-aid and accumulating a stash-pile of Nike shoes.
So, Mustache Man confused and confounded everyone by announcing an agreement with an agreement with the “Ground Zero Mosque” in place to move it a few blocks, he will not be burning the Korans. His claim of an agreeement was quickly denied. He said/ He Said — and really, how can you doubt the Credibility of “Mustache Man”?
Final denoument to the saga:
A Florida pastor says his church will never burn a Quran, even if a mosque is built near ground zero. […]
He flew to New York and appeared on NBC’s “Today” show. He says that his Gainesville, Fla., church’s goal was “to expose that there is an element of Islam that is very dangerous and very radical.”
He tells NBC that “we have definitely accomplished that mission.”
Or, accomplished hie Big Mission, anyway. He was the new “Balloon Boy”. Incidentally:
the independent Westboro Baptist Church founded by disbarred lawyer, Fred Waldron Phelps  is  monitored as a hate group by the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center. Phelps’s followers have been known to frequently picket various events, and gatherings including military funerals and high-profile political gatherings.Â
Interesting how American politics is parodied abroad.
Biden: I’m afraid there’s more trouble ahead, Mr President. The Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth were in congress and at the National Press Club telling everybody that the Twin Towers collapsed in near free-fall because of pre-set demolition explosives. It says here, Mr President, and I quote, “An international team of scientists found nanothermitic composite material in World Trade Center dust, providing the first hard evidence of the presence of advanced pyrotechnics or explosives in the disaster debris.” They want a Grand Jury investigation of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Mr President.
Obama: For Heaven’s sake Joe, can you imagine if I decided to reopen 9/11? Did you see that poll last week where a majority of Republicans said, let me see if I remember correctly, that I “definitely sympathize with the goals of Islamic fundamentalists who want to impose Islamic law around the world”? Who are these people? Whatever I do I’m a racist, a communist, a radical Islam-hugger … I didn’t expect a kind of American Inquisition.
[Jarring chord]
[The Oval Office door flies open and messianic Fox News host and self-appointed God’s spokesperson to the United States Glenn Beck enters, flanked by former vice presidential candidate and Tea Party icon Sarah Palin, former speaker of the house (and aspiring presidential candidate) Newt Gingrich, former US ambassador to the United Nations (and aspiring presidential candidate) John Bolton, the Texas energy conglomerate billionaires the Koch brothers, and Glenville, Florida fringe extremist Christian pastor Terry Jones, a mini-Koran burning in his hands in homage to his proposed, then aborted, International Burn-a-Koran Day on 9/11.]