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 ...
Thanks! I’ll let him know.
Well, at least it was the ol’ “put-the-cat-in-the-toilet-and-flush” trick.
Still funny, though!
“AH! The soap is burning the cuts on my hands!!”
I remember those days very well.
I can find a lot of occasions to use, “Hunker down, Harriet!” It’s even funnier because I have a cousin Harriet.
*oops*
Now I know I’m gonna be in trouble.
I enjoy reading your posts.
I like the way you are raising and educating your children.
They arrived this morning.
*heh*
We’ve got overcast, but I don’t think we will see any rain. The humidity is in the double digits, though, so folks aren’t happy.
Funny! Cute!
Sunny and 58F outside. Don’t know about humidity.
I can smell the rain but haven’t seen any.
Yet.
Thanks! Tom is my first “academic” debater. Anoreth was (and still is) a guerrilla debater ;-).
We’re having fun preparing for his “Student Congress” debut on Saturday. I got back on the computer, in fact, to look up details on employment discrimination law so he can support an argument.
I have catz attack the tv screen when the saw a cat in a show. And Shannon, our current girl-kitteh, used to sit next to the tv while we watched “Walker, Texas Ranger,” occasionally reaching over to pat Chuck Norris with a paw.
How is Bellingham? What did you do with your truck? Have you checked the rec-center bulletin board for people looking for a roommate?
Cub Scouts tonight. Sister Veronica is coming to talk to the Tigers about being a child 80 years ago. I think they’ll be interested. My first-graders on Monday were amazed that people had *money* in the time of Christ, and food, houses, wheeled transport, and even flush toilets. Life in 1930s Philadelphia should be equally fascinating. They’ll also get the “talk to a leader in your church” elective.
After she speaks, we’ll play tag to keep the boys from exploding ;-).
I have a neighbor whose doggie has to watch Animal Planet each day. I never would have believed it until I saw it!
What shows does it like?
Any Animal Planet show. I was just talking to my other neighbor yesterday afternoon, with the power out her doggie was upset without the TV. I had been to their place for a get together and went in the house to use the bathroom. The TV was on and everyone was outside. It was for the doggie!
http://nextbigfuture.com/2010/09/metamaterial-based-model-of-alcubierre.html
What do you think Bob. Should we take a walk around the park?
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