BACK TO THE OUTHOUSE: Jerry Falwell may have done quite a few things over the years to make a total ass of himself, but since at least the '80s we've been able to look at him and think, "oh well, at least no one takes him seriously anymore." Well, that may be true in the U.S., but not India- according to Reuters, nine people were killed in Muslim-Hindu clashes in Western India, which came about directly as a result of Falwell's comments last week on "60 Minutes" that the prophet Muhammad "was a terrorist."
Let me try to wrap my head around this one- no one in America does anything other than snicker at Falwell's incoherent ramblings, but now, in 2002, nine people, in India, are dead, just because of something Jerry Falwell said? Why was a battle fought halfway across the world over a stupid comment a marginal American figure made on a talk show? Makes you wish this had happened 25 years ago, just so Larry Flynt could've prematurely ended their libel litigation by saying "no one in India has ever killed anyone else 'cause of anything I've said!"