It was a little more than a week ago that Pastor Terry Jones threatened to burn himself into all our hearts by burning the Koran on September 11. After the initial flurry of media hullabaloo, it quickly became apparent that the Florida Pastor was more than a little over his head, and he cancelled the event. Then he changed his mind. Then he re-cancelled it. Now, a week after he wasted everybody's time, the city of Gainesville, Fla. is giving the Pastor and his Dove World Outreach Center a $200,000 bill.
They're charging him and his Church for the more than 360 officers who were on duty last weekend as a direct result of the Pastor's threats. Gainesville City Manager Russ Blackburn told AP he doesn't know if the city has legal authority to compel the church to pay, but the message is certainly clear. And now, we can all forget about the Pastor and his hollow threats, and the name Terry Jones can go back to only being associated with its rightful owner, the great Monty Python actor.
