Who knew?

The CEO of Borders is proud to say he hates Muslims as much as anyone, even if he did dump a magazine for carrying the infamous cartoons. Suddenly the boycott Red Blogistan has been calling for seems like a fine idea.

As several readers quicker on the uptake than I figured out, the item referenced below is a parody, not a real letter from the CEO of Borders. Sorry.

The CEO of Borders turns out to be a deep-dyed reactionary bigot and an admirer of Little Green Footballs, who worries about “Islamics freaking out everywhere. (Very excitable and childish culture and religion that)” and decides to throw in a random insult directed at the Prophet Muhammed. He’s also busily flogging Glenn Reynolds’s new book. He was willing to dump Free Inquiry, the secular humanist magazine carrying the Muhammed cartoons, partly because he despises secular humanism.

So I’m delighted to learn that the right wing, too, is capable of fratricide. And I’m delighted to join with all my friends in Red Blogistan in calling for a boycott of Borders.

Hat tip: Tom Maguire, who seems to think that insulting a billion people for having the wrong religion is “happy and upbeat.”

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com