Provocations

Submitted by Kepha Hor (United States), Sep 21, 2012 at 22:04

I believe that the Obama administration profits from this. It can appear "statesmanlike" by giving undue prominence to the justly obscure Terry Jones and Nakoula Basseley Nakoula and bullying them to make a geopolitical point. However, in doing this, unless the American public stands up and demands respect for the First Amendment, the Obama administration will be able to get away with trashing the First Amendment in order to please constituents. Elena Kagan's support of "hate speech laws" is such a case to please the homosexual lobby; the HHS order that religious employers must pay for contraceptive and abortion coverage is another, designed to please the sexually irresponsible; now, bullying Terry Jones and Nakoula is designed to please the OIC.

Granted, Nakoula is an odious sort. He lied to the actors, and then he and his associates tried to make it appear that the Jews were behind his film. However, at the risk of further antagonizing the hair-trigger Muslim temper and setting it against more innocents, I also strongly suspect that, in the free air of America, Nakhoula recognized an opportunity to tell the Muslim world what he really thought of its founder.

Also, I still fault this administration for failing to take a "teaching moment" to tell the world something about the First Amendment. When Hillary Clinton finally got around to it, she sounded as if she were trying to speak Aramaic--something that ought to be disgraceful for an American lawyer who works for a president who is supposedly a "scholar of constitutional law".

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