When it comes to exploiting a national tragedy, no one does it better than us. From ThinkProgress, the attacks of September 11, 2001 gave ground to some to make a buck.
Unfortunately, it is likely also the eleventh anniversary of the first ads trying to exploit this tragic anniversary to drive up sales. Past examples of this genre include 9/11 Memorial Commemorative Chardonnay, a mattress company touting itself as the cure to sleeplessness caused by terrorist attacks, and a craft store advertising its 9/11 sale: “Avoid Crafting Emergencies & Stock Up Now!”
Commemorations included a round of golf for $9.11, a sports mascot in army fatigues waving a flag, and a hotel chain offering free muffins at the hour of the attack. I’m sure there’s a car dealer out there somewhere who advertised big savings during their 9/11 sale.
And, of course, there’s the religious fanatics who like provoking other religious fanatics to outrage so when they react they can point and say how outraged they are.
MULBERRY, Fla. — A Florida pastor was arrested Wednesday as he drove a pickup truck towing a large barbecue-style grill filled with kerosene-soaked Qurans to a park, where the pastor had said he was planning to burn 2,998 of the Muslim holy books— one for every victim of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Sheriff’s deputies in Polk County, Fla., arrested Pastor Terry Jones, 61, and his associate pastor, Marvin Sapp Jr., 44, each on a felony charge of unlawful conveyance of fuel. Jones had said he was heading to a nearby park in Mulberry to burn the Qurans on Wednesday, the 12th anniversary of the attacks. Sheriff’s officials said that Jones was also charged with unlawful open-carry of a firearm, a misdemeanor, and that Sapp faces a charge of having no valid registration for the trailer.
Both were being booked Wednesday night into the Polk County jail, according to Sheriff Grady Judd.
The expired license plate is your metaphor du jour.
H.L. Mencken famously noted that no one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public. We keep proving him right.
We finally got rid of this idiot from Gainesville. Now if we could just figure out how to ship him to Texas. Jones and Perry would make a great couple.
The Mencken quote is actually the “intelligence of the American Public,” but I’ll grant your point about taste!
I was just about to make this correction. It’s still apt – either way.
Here in Maine, one of our newly-legal fireworks stores is offering, “In Memory of 9-11, a 10% Discount to Police, Fire and EMS”
Yes, they’re giving us a break on explosives to celebrate an explosion.
My brain hurts.
You know it is amazing how tacky Americans can be. Terry Jones (I will not call him a minister) is not Christian as I understand it to be. Would Jesus burn other holy books? I think not.