In the name of the Lord, innocent people are dying.

But Pastor Terry Jones knew that would happen when he burned a Quran, the Muslim holy book, and publicized his crass behavior. Shamefully, he just did not care.

Jones is the publicity-seeking crackpot in Gainesville, Fla., who first threatened to burn the Quran on the anniversary of 9/11 last year. His plan raised concerns around the globe, prompting high-level U.S. military leaders and even President Obama to plead with him not to act.

That worked until about two weeks ago, when Jones organized a mock trial of the Quran and proceeded to burn it. At least 24 lives have been lost to related violence in Afghanistan since. Jones remains unrepentant. But he should not turn to his Bible or beliefs to escape responsibility.

He had been warned that images of a torched Quran would only feed anti-American sentiments, putting U.S. troops at risk and undermining hard-fought efforts to break down barriers with Muslims worldwide.

Any genuine religious leader would take those admonitions to heart. Not this man of God, though, who preaches mindless claptrap labeling Islam and the Quran as instruments of violence, death and terrorism. Jones forged ahead with the trial and had it streamed live on satellite TV — in Arabic, no less.

Consider who paid first for his intransigence: Seven brokers of peace, staffers of the United Nations killed by a raging mob in Mazar-i-Sharif on Friday. Then came two days of disturbances in Kandahar, killing at least 17 more.

The murderers deserve condemnation, along with Jones.

Though he is entitled to his beliefs, his fomenting of discord goes against the universal rule shared by all religions: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

— The Miami Herald- - -Paul Ryan isn’t always right, and he might not be right about everything now.What he is, though, is serious. The House Budget Committee chairman’s comprehensive proposal would cut more than $6 trillion in spending from President Barack Obama’s plan and, Ryan says, reduce the nation’s public debt by nearly $5 trillion over 10 years.If you quibble with his methods, don’t dismiss them as madness.Ryan, with this proposal, steps into a leadership vacuum. Obama effectively stiffed his own bipartisan debt commission, ignoring its recommendations on reforming the tax code and, most urgently, the big three entitlements — Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security — that are splashing red ink over federal budgets far longer than any of us can imagine.What Ryan’s proposal does is reframe the debate in a way that puts into context the firefights over continuing resolutions, a pending government shutdown and nondiscretionary spending. Ryan, instead, dares to propose significant changes to Medicare and Medicaid funding, two of the so-called third rails of American politics. (Touch them, and you die.) He expects commensurate blowback, and he hasn’t been disappointed. Start with “extremist,” and work your way left.Interestingly — and perhaps encouragingly — that criticism hasn’t yet come from inside the White House. Wouldn’t it be refreshing for the Democrat Obama and the Republican Ryan, two bright policy wonks, to sit face to face in a room and find some common ground — and progress — on the issue most weighing on Americans’ futures?If we may be just a little optimistic while staring at trillion-dollar deficits year after year adding to a $14 trillion debt, Ryan has put into words what many Americans want, at the least, to discuss.It’s not enough to speak in somber, concerned tones about the need for fiscal responsibility, to mouth the words “unsustainable debt” while arguing against the necessary sacrifices to bring it back to reality. It’s not enough to say that we must control spending and reform entitlements while, with the other hand, slapping “untouchable” stickers on the very items driving our debt.And it’s most certainly not enough to criticize a serious proposal without offering a serious alternative.This newspaper is not ready to sign up for every element of the Ryan proposal. In fact, it’s a near-certainty that we’ll find parts of it due heightened scrutiny and possibly direct criticism.Today, that’s not the big-picture point. What is? That we’re encouraged, as you should be, that someone in a position of power in Washington is finally offering a serious way out of this mess.And that, at last, is a conversation worth having.

— The Dallas Morning News