A few choice Oklahoma blogs are buzzing over the way in which the No-Koran 24--the two dozen Oklahoma legislators who have declined gifts of personalized, state-seal-embossed Korans from a government Muslim group--appear to have been set up for their media fall into a vat of PC hogwash. For turning down the gift of a Koran (the book at the basis of Islamic law, which denies all Western notions of human rights), the Oklahoma 24 are being subjected to charges of bigotry and mean-spiritedness. Such charges are as absurd as witchcraft accusations in 17th-century-Salem, but that, of course, doesn't stop our high priests of PC.
    Anyhow, as they continue to track the story, BatesLine and Ztruth  have picked up on its origins, as revealed by Medblogged, the website of Tulsa radio host Chris Medlock. These origins are quite interesting, because they suggest that the whole Koran giveaway program may well have been an exercise in calculated news creation. As in: Give Korans to state lawmakers and someone is going to say no and inspire headlines such as the following-- "Quran rejection is criticized." Or: "Quran rejection seen as insult."
    Medblogged interviewed the lead legislator in the story, Rep. Rex Duncan, who, by the way, is also a lieutenant colonel in the Oklahoma National Guard. (His statehouse bio also tells us he volunteered for active duty following 9/11 and served 16 months as a Special Forces officer with the Special Operations Command-Central, including in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa. He currently serves as Battalion Commander of 2/189th Regiment, Regional Training Institute in Oklahoma City.)
    The day before the story broke in the media, Medford writes:
    "Rep. Duncan had placed a phone call to Ms. Seirafi-Pour on Monday to `opt out' of the gift, as requested by Ms. Seirafi-Pour, and to also inquire as to whether or not tax payer dollars were used to purchase the Korans. She assured Duncan that they were bought with private funds, but asked Duncan if he would send her an e-mail stating he didn't want the Koran `for their records.' "
    Hmm. For their records--or for a potential newspaper research file? Call me cynical, but an actual letter to quote from is always going to be more enticing to any reporter than a story based on a second-hand phone conversation.
    Medblogged continued: "This he did. Hours later, he was called by Hinton for the [Tulsa World] story that ran in the next days' newspaper."
    It's not that this incident isn't news. It is--and very good news, even if the MSM doesn't know it. It's not every day that lawmakers have the political courage to buck the multiculti mainstream that would have us believe the Koran is a book of Hallmarkian mush, not a basis for jihadist theocracy. But looking behind the curtain on what may be just another act of political theater playing to predictably PC acclaim is equally as revealing.