As you all know, there's a huge controversy going on over Nintendo's plans to open up a new Nintendo Store near ground zero. People are upset because Nintendo's use of motion controls in video games is insensitive to the fact that the planes that brought down the towers on 9/11 were also in motion. Many have pointed out that the other consoles are just as bad, and that Sony and Microsoft have also stepped into the world of motion controlled gaming, but critics still argue that the most extreme examples of motion controls across the world still come from Nintendo.
Jerry Tones, president of a small Microsoft fan club, is planning a burning of hundreds of copies of Kirby's Epic Yarn on November 19th, the anniversary of the Wii's American release, unless the store is moved. This is obviously a situation that we should all take seriously, as well as one deserving of lots of media attention and commentary from the president. And it goes without saying that anyone who would even suggest that all parties involved are equally ridiculous, including Nintendo fans who would be offended by something so stupid, is clearly just bigoted against Nintendo fans.
Incidentally, a similar controversy that you may not have heard about is that some nut in Gainesville, Florida was planning on burning a bunch of Korans on the anniversary of 9/11. Greg Miller, who writes for IGN.com, commented on my Facebook status basically calling me a bigot because I dared point out that some of the things written in the Koran are infinitely more offensive than anything that could ever be done to one. I'm sorry, but if your holy book says that I deserve to burn in Hell, I have a hard time sympathizing with you being offended by someone burning it.(I'm aware that not all Muslims/Christians believe that everyone who disagrees with them deserves to go to Hell, but I'm guessing that they don't lose a lot of sleep over the fact that many people do believe that. So hopefully you can understand why I'm not losing any sleep over someone burning your stupid book.)
I explained to Greg Miller that I feel exactly the same way about the Bible, and that I would be equally unsympathetic of Christians who were offended by someone burning it. That didn't seem to matter though, since he apparently already concluded that I was a bigot and deleted me from his friends list. Of course, he has every right to do so, just as I have every right to say that Greg Miller, from IGN.com, is a douchebag. Also, I hope that Taylor Swift gets interrupted during every award show for the rest of her career.
Also, I have no problem with any religious person, regardless of what their religion is. My problem is with the religions themselves. I'm aware that many(probably even the majority) of religious people don't even believe in the most objectionable parts of their religion. To paraphrase Christopher Hitchens, the best thing you can say about religious people is that most of them are hardly religious at all.
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Also this is a video game site, go take your religious hate somewhere else.
I'm not really calling Greg Miller out. I'm aware that it's very unlikely that he'll ever read this or that he would even care about what I have to say. The whole thing was kind of tongue in cheek. I just think it's douchey of him to label me a bigot, when I never said anything about Muslim people. I simply criticized what was written in the Koran itself.
And how is this not video game related? Didn't you read the first part about the Nintendo store?
Talking about understanding where some snakehandling fringer is coming from when he wants to burn someone's holy book is pretty off the mark. (considering a great deal of the Qu'ran directly parallels the teachings and stories of the Bible and Torah...hence the Caliphates ordering the protection and fair treatment of Christians and Jews within their empire calling them "people of the [good] book.") I really am stretching to see where any rationale of burning anyone's sacred book in order to prevent them from building a facility of worship has any form of valid justification unless you are a Maoist or a Nazi.
That's the thing too, I don't think I have ever heard of even a jihadist talking about the discrepancies of the Bible or threatening to destroy one.
And I agree that burning something is a pretty stupid way to protest, since I can't imagine it ever converting anyone to your point of view. I just don't see why it's a big deal. Burning a book that you disagree with is a lot better than burning a person that you disagree with.
I doubt Pastor Jones likes atheists any more than he likes Muslims, but as long as he's not advocating violence, I don't really see how anyone is a victim. We don't have a right to not be offended. If we did, no one would ever be able to say, do, or believe in anything. That's pretty much the point I was trying to make by pointing out that there are things within religions that can be seen as offensive too.
The irony is that the extremist response to one man (and a completely worthless and insignificant man at that) threatening to burn their holy book, is to burn American flags. Somehow its okay for them to do it when we attack them, but not the other way around. This whole bit is a huge double standard.
While I do understand general anti-Muslim sentiment, I don't think we need to take it to the entire Muslim community. Sure, they aren't all terrorists, but when our country is attacked it's natural to be suspicious of that particular people. If a _____ robbed you at gunpoint, wouldn't you be a little uneasy around that group of people?
The Mosque bullshit is just stupid on the Imam's part, just move the thing to a better location. It's not intolerance to ask the site be moved to a location away from a sentimental location, if anything it's intolerant of them to just build a Mosque near a site of suffering without asking. They're trying to 'build bridges' but all this Mosque has done is built the wall even higher. If they just moved it, we'd all be able to get along a hell of a lot better.
No pun intended.