Posted on 08/18/2010 6:30:21 AM PDT by detritus
It is hard to imagine that anything has gone unsaid about the so-called Ground Zero mosque, but an important point seems to be missing.
The mosque should be built precisely because we don't like the idea very much. We don't need constitutional protections to be agreeable, after all.
This point surpasses even all the obvious reasons for allowing the mosque, principally that there's no law against it. Precluding any such law, we let people worship when and where they please. That it hurts some people's feelings is, well, irrelevant in a nation of laws. And, really, don't we want to keep it that way?...
...[T]he more compelling point is that mosque opponents may lose by winning. Radical Muslims have set cities afire because their feelings were hurt. When a Muslim murdered filmmaker Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam, it was because his feelings were hurt. Ditto the Muslims who rioted about cartoons depicting the image of Muhammad and sent frightened doodlers into hiding...
This is why plans for the mosque near Ground Zero should be allowed to proceed, if that's what these Muslims want. We teach tolerance by being tolerant. We can't insist that our freedom of speech allows us to draw cartoons or produce plays that Muslims find offensive and then demand that they be more sensitive to our feelings....
Nobody ever said freedom would be easy. We are challenged every day to reconcile what is allowable and what is acceptable. Compromise, though sometimes maddening, is part of the bargain. We let the Ku Klux Klan march, not because we agree with them but because they have a right to display their hideous ignorance.
Ultimately, when sensitivity becomes a cudgel against lawful expressions of speech or religious belief--or disbelief--we all lose.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
It’s rained all day here. I took a couple of kids to the gym to lift weights in the afternoon. I don’t think my husband’s sailing class this evening went very well, though.
68F right now. A little cooler today though. Next week weather will be foul.
It's actually just a sampler. Not very comprehensive.
But it does give a flavor of what our Habitat assemblage is supposed to be like.
Nothing much has changed recently. We're in the process of developing our abilities to take on other challenges.
It is as Robert Heinlein has said, "Once you're in Earth orbit, you're halfway anywhere!"
With our supposed location in the Asteroid Belt, we're halfway to anywhere in the Solar System. So why stop halfway?
I could just hang in the asteroid belt forever, Bob. We get all these letters about the weather back on Earth, but I just reply, “The Imperial Weatherman truly cares about your issues. He’s working on them every spare minute. Feel free to write me again, if you must.”
The files are getting a bit full, though. Can we use them in the power-generation system?
Have you read "Polgara the Sorceress"? In one chapter the new king is overwhelmed by the speeches from people with petitions and his adviser suggested that he have them submit them in writing.
This is done and the king looks in dismay at the baskets full of documents.
Later the adviser dumps all the petitions in the fire while murmuring "Oops! How clumsy of me!"
There's no way to use them in power generation, as combustion would require even more energy to make up for the use of oxygen.
You could have the material compressed into bales and offer them as targets for the archery range.
It might also be practical to put these messages into a rotating file dump program, so that the oldest get weeded out periodically. I hope you're not using too much of our kenaf production for archival storage.
An appropriate treatment, giving due diligence to the earnestness of the entreaties, would be to engrave or print them onto sheets of the material we're developing to use as solar sails, solar mirrors, and to eventually work into position at LaGrange Points around the Solar System to modify weather according to our described purpose.
Just as an aside, in case the question has arisen; if you are asked why the Imperial Weatherman is tasked with controlling the weather on Earth and Mars, but not Venus, (since I have often stated an interest in the winds and weather of Venus), it's because Venus already has virtually perfect weather! I don't plan to change it in any way.
Maybe we can convert the best examples of penmanship into faux-antique wallpaper. You never know what the next fad in day-cor will be.
Unquestionably true. I never know what the current one is.
Good point.
I just put “Polgara the Sorceress” on my library list.
Sigh, now it’s off to owrk. Vacuuming and mopping and helping Tom prepare briefs for the debate tournament on Saturday.
"Vacuuming and mopping and helping Tom prepare briefs for the debate tournament on Saturday."
Having to engage in a debate tournament in your underwear.
Tell Tom he's probably getting off lucky.
He’ll wear a shirt, tie, and jacket on his top half.
A high of 98 today. Winter is on its way.... *sigh*
Let the goats eat the files when they run out of kudzu.
I’m sorry TC, but that visual was little too graphic for me. A real eye-opener, for sure!
Oops, sorry about that.
Right.
*snort*
My friend is out of CCU and “awake,” but I’m sure it will be a while before I hear from him. He is most probably still pretty doped up.
His mum said they replaced the valve after they removed the aneurysm, which is what I figured they would do.
Excellent news - he has my prayers for a quick and full recovery.
Bill has to type an essay now.
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