When I was a kid...

[PCIntern]

there was a National Enquirer cover which read, in huge type,

I ATE MY BABY BECAUSE GOD TOLD ME TO.

So this pastor decided that God has told him to do this Koran burning...in my day, people like this were 302'd. Today, they become the focus of national media attention. and thus, legitimacy.

[lunatica]

1. Actually it's international media attention

Our country shows its ass and the world watches.

[LaurenG]

2. I think that was also one of the reasons GW Bush gave for the war in Iraq

These people have a psychopathic god. The god of love is dead, long live the hateful one? :shrug:

[mudplanet]

3. When you were a kid

people that went around saying, "The invisible man in the sky told me that the end is coming," were depicted with derision in New Yorker cartoons as crazy and extreme.

Today those same (arguably insane) people are given entire television networks, private audiences with the President, and regular columns in national newspapers as purveyors of legitimate intelligence. Their opinions are weighed heavily in domestic and foreign policy decisions. And their views are considered "mainstream."

They're still batshit crazy, but now they're not just lunatics, they're dangerous lunatics.